Is the United States creating another Middle East conflict?

An ongoing story with the Iranian ship suspected of carrying weapons for Hamas has taken an interesting twist. Last week US released the ship after determining that the cargo was not intended for Hamas, despite the fact that Iran is in clear violation of a UN resolution preventing Iran from selling weaponry.

The ship is now in the custody of Cyprus and according to the latest story from DEBKAfile and surprisingly from AsiaNews, Cyprus finds itself in a pickle. US who just let go of the ship is pressuring Cyprus to search the ship and take action. One might wonder why the United States is pressuring Cyprus to do a task, that could have been just as easily done last week. Consequently, Iran is threatening Cyprus with economic and possibly military retribution if the ship is not released immediately. Cyprus fears that if the ship is released, then Israel will be forced to intervene and handle this mess in ways Israel sees fit. This could have the potential of escalating already very tense relations between Iran and Israel.

There are several questions that Americans should be asking here though.

1. The ship was siezed while Bush was still in power, why was it not properly searched? After all, they already determined that the cargo load contained 60 tons of weapons which were undeclared.
2. Why did Obama release the ship?
3. Why is this story blacked out in US media? There appears to be orders from the top to make no mention of this in any major news media.
4. In light of Obama’s al-Arabiya interview, is he possibly pawning off the difficult task of searching the ship on Cyprus in an effort to preserve relations?
5. What could be the consequences of US backing down and Israel taking the brunt of Iran’s retribution if the situations escalates.

I for one find the story to be of paramount importance for one sole reason. If the world is truly interested in pursuing a peaceful resolution between Israel and the Palestinian people then Iran’s continuing arming of Hamas is a direct affront to this desire. The first order of business should be the complete and total termination of all weapons flowing into Gaza. Obama can claim that he wishes to pursue a two state solution yet at the same time chooses to disregard the primary source of the problem. Lastly, the order to block this story from American eyes is frustrating and disappointing.

Iran caught with hand in the weapons jar.

This is a story that the good folks over at the PatriotRoom are covering.

Tthe gist of the story is as such; Iran’s ship was stopped (by US/Egyptians) and it turns out that they are secretly smuggling about 60 tons of weaponry to Hamas. We are talking long ranged missiles, anti-tank weaponry, mines, machine guns, the whole lot. I bet they would find some explosive rigged camels if they search the ship thoroughly enough.

Iran can send food, medicine, aid and clothing to the Palestinians, instead they choose to send war materiel. Where is the international pressure? Where? Where are the protesters who go and march in the streets bashing Israel at any opportunity? Why does Gaza need even 1 ton of weapons, let alone 60? Humanity is flipped on its head and it is frustrating.

Lastly, Obama has to act on this. Currently the ship is in US/Egyptian control, but in order for them to act in any meaningful way there must be an order from the top. I await extremely strict and damaging rules/regulations enforced upon Iran. The story is particularly interesting, because nobody wants an armed incidents – especially the Egyptians. The country needs to be sealed, like you would seal a nasty rotting stinkin‘ sewer hole. We are fighting a proxy war in the middle-east against Iran and Syria, this much is evident. America must punish it’s enemies or things will escalate even further. I am not holding my breath, Obama will screw this one up and I know it. I firmly expect a Carteresque response to this and then have the story slip under the radar.

Israel calls cease-fire, Hamas vows to keep fighting

As you have may have heard this Saturday, Israel politicians approved a cease-fire stating that accomplishments have been made.

I wrote previously in what was the point of the fighting if eventually Israel would simply bow to international pressures and bow they did. You see, it is estimated that there are roughly 20,000 Hamas militants in Gaza and the latest death tolls suggest that roughly 500-600 have been killed. I am not a math whiz, but that still leaves a lot of Islamic fundamentalist Jihadists roaming around.

What did Israel do in the past three weeks?

• Took out leadership and high command
• Bombed some tunnels and halted shipments
• Destroyed rocket launchers and crippled infrastructure.

That would to be expected of course, its not reasonable to expect the IDF to kill thousands of Hamas militants – but it begs the question as to what is next!?

As of now, Israel makes no plan to withdraw, which of course is the ultimate irony because Hamas justified rocket fire due to occupation/control of the Gaza borders. So not only is the Gaza still blockaded, but there is now a military presence immediately within Gaza.

Why can’t Israel just pull out?

Pretty simple answer; the war would be a waste. How long do you suppose it will take Hamas to restore leadership? How about to dig and rebuild tunnels? Let me give you a hint; not very long!

So Israel decided to hang around to stifle at least the shipment. While Hamas may have learned how to manufacture their own Qassam rockets, they heavily rely on ammunition and guns supplied by their Arab friends in Iran and Syria. In fact, war should be waged on the governments of all countries aiding Hamas; namely Syria an Lebanon by extension and Iran.

Still, the ultimate point of this is very questionable at best. Palestinians will still be outraged that illegal Zionist occupiers are taking control of their “country”. At least our loony liberal friends will take a chill pill now that the civilian deaths will stop.

Ron Paul, the father of modern day conspiracy theorists?

Ron Paul got up in front of Congress and very simply in about two sentences, stated that Israel created Hamas. (Video below)

The problem of course is that as a politician he created himself some wiggle room in case he is ever confronted, after all he could spin this in a multitude of ways. He could easily say “Israel never stopped Hamas from forming, therefore they helped create them”.

Whatever, not the point. What Ron Paul did however is set off a virtual firestorm among his constituency and much more importantly, among the anti-Israeli crowd as if they need any additional encouragement. Just perusing the YouTube videos alone, will give you an indication of how passionate and emboldened his supporters are upon hearing this. They praise him for being a lone voice of reason, a hero, etc.

The truth is that Ron Paul is either purposely spreading vague misinformation or somehow – I have a hard time believing this – truly believes this garbage. For now we have the effect of people truly believing that Israel not only created Hamas, but are now enjoying the fruits of their labor as this guarantees perpetual war.

Here is the actual truth about Israel creating Hamas. (First my synopsis and then an interview from a Hamas founder)

Hamas formed out of the Muslim Brotherhood something Israel would not touch with a 20 foot pole. Due to their size, Hamas originally concentrated on charitable work to win over the minds and hearts of the Palestinian people.

The PLO was convinced that Israel was helping Hamas in the hope of triggering a civil war. Since Hamas did not engage in terror at first, Israel did not see it as a serious short-term threat, and some Israelis believed that extremists like Hamas would indeed harm and undermine the PLO. They were right.

Israel’s assistance was more passive than active, that is, it did not interfere with Hamas activities or prevent funds from flowing into the organization from abroad. Yet, Jordan and probably Syria and later Iran were very much in the business of funding and helping Hamas grow. Remember, Jordan had it’s own problem with the PLO and it would very much behoove them at the time to create an organization that would cripple and render Arafat useless.

Finally, I have an excerpt from an interview with a founder of Hamas – Khaled Meshaal.

Interviewed by Rainer Rupp
Global Research, December 18, 2006
Global Research, Originally published in German by Junge Welt, Berlin

“R.R. For many years there has been the suggestion in the Western media that Israeli intelligence was instrumental in the creation of Hamas. I suppose you know about this story?

K.M. Unfortunately this tale is told by some Arabs, Palestinian Arabs. It is an attempt to distort the image of our movement. We consider this charge as something so ridiculous, that we don’t even bother to deny it. It is so illogical. How come, that Israel should establish an organisation that will combat Israel, how is that possible?

R.R. The argument is, the Israelis helped to create Hamas in order to divide the Palestinian resistance and weaken the Fatah movement.

K.M. Indeed, during the seventies the main Palestinian force that was combating Israel was the Fatah-movement. Consequently Israel concentrated its fighting against Fatah and the other, smaller groups of Palestinian resistance, which existed in this period. At that time, however, Hamas was not yet properly established. We were only starting to build our social base in Palestinian society, by focusing entirely on social affairs, organizing help, building hospitals and schools, looking after the sick and deprived. In that era we were only involved in peaceful actions. This is why Israel did not do anything against us.Because they did not know at the time, what was going on in our minds. But, while we were focusing outwardly only on social and educational work, at the same time we were secretly already training and preparing for our future resistance projects. Because the Israelis did not see this danger they concentrated their actions against other brigades, not against us. And it is this Israeli inaction against us, which some Palestinian Arab elements unfriendly towards Hamas present as “proof”, that Israel was supporting the creation of Hamas.”

What the Hamas leader does not know, is that not only Arab leaders believe this. (Scroll to about 1:30)

Ron Paul supporters take the good doctor’s words as gospel and immediately begin distributing the information – without actually verifying or confirming any of the facts. This has the horrific impact of infiltrating the minds of Americans with nothing more than vague sniplets of pseudo-facts and intricate theories explaining the unexplainable.

Further still, Ron Paul’s vehement dislike of the Fed has brought out of the woodwork all the NWO/Illuminati/Jews run the World theorists into the spotlight. While I still believe RP dislikes the Fed for the same reason I do – that is, the Fed actually causes more economic harm than the good he was intended for – others, believe there is a darker more sinister reasoning to RP’s repeated Fed bashing. A simple google search on “Who owns the fed” opens a floodgate of “proof” and “evidence” suggesting that a group of powerful international bankers are holding the world hostage. Most of these people, I assure you – are Ron Paul supporters. Of course, as luck would have it – the 9/11 seek the truth crows is generally close behind. This of course should be no surprise, once a conspiracy theorist, always a conspiracy theorist.

Ron Paul is damaging the psyche and the moral fibre of many people. Even though his libertarian views are something I am willing to fight for, the deliberate dissemination of conspiracy evoking rhetoric is making it very difficult for me to support this man. He is supplying the void of the unknown to those seeking answers at whatever cost. Thus, creating a religion for themselves founded on a pile of conspiracies, errors, omissions and distortions. So while on one hand RP has reinvigorated the libertarian movement and united people of all walks and life. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Ron Paul is causing more harm than good to the people behind the libertarian movement. A fight against the oppression of centralized government, individual liberties and freedoms have morphed into something inane and truly perplexing.

Finally, even though Ron Paul has not created any of these theories – many of which have been around for decades – he has inspired a new generation of dangerous zealots hell bent on pushing their truth on anyone willing to listen.

Further reading: Myth about Israel creating Hamas

CNN continues to disrespect journalism.

CNN’s lead story:

Doctor: Gaza patients dying before treatment
Gaza’s main hospital, already full of Palestinians wounded in the week-long Israeli air assault, reached critical mass on Sunday, according to a Norwegian doctor volunteering at Shifa Hospital. full story

And showing the following picture (Notice that the people in the background are actually Israelis!?):

Secondary story:
Aid stuck at Egyptian border

Third Story:
Israeli troops push forward, splitting Gaza

I probably should not be at all amused at this point, but it is just rather dissapointing to know that a good number of Americans are being fed a constant diet of civilian death stories. After a while any sensible individual would conclude that the only thing Israel can do is cause death among innocent civilians. Bravo CNN, bravo.

Media spin of the Israeli Gaza conflict

This is the picture on the main page of CNN.com and the caption reads

“A Palestinian brings his wounded daughters to a hospital in Gaza City today. (AFP/Getty Images)”

Meanwhile FoxNews.com is showing a story about the son of one of Hamas’s founders and how he turned against not only his family and Hamas, but also Islam.

Which story do you think is more important? What is more relevant to the education and overall information of Americans? Everyone knows that there are dead civilians, war is such an ugly thing – especially considering that Hamas is using civilians as human shields (won’t hear that from CNN). CNN is just flooding us with emotional images to turn the minds and opinions of Americans against Israel. I find this to be rather off-putting.

War on Hamas, a waste of time?

As I watch the war versus Hamas develop and the ground invasion roll out I am thinking to myself, what is the purpose of all this? Some of the effects are quite clear, others are a bit muddied.

Clear effects are the easily tangible and observable ones. A most striking and obvious phenomenon is that everyone has an opinion. The blogosphere is rife with opinions; some angry and passionate, some muted and somber. Coverage is non-stop and the pundits offer a bouquet of insight and opinions. What is clear to me at least, is that this particular war that started in the hay days of 2008 is a very polarizing war. People have for the most part scurried into two major camps; First camp is of the opinion that Hamas must be wiped out at all costs, the second camp believes without equivocation that Israel is in the midst of genocide and performing atrocities every day. Naturally there are some (minority) that find themselves in the middle, sympathetic to the plight of Israel’s security and the dying Palestinian civilians. Unfortunately as all things political, the truth is hard to uncover and both sides have launched campaigns to win the hearts and minds of onlookers.

While I can certainly share my sentiment on which camp I prefer to align myself with, the purpose of this post is to illustrate that both sides are wasting their time. I have already realized that weeks spent researching the historical development of Israel and understanding the legalities of the country’s existence are not relevant to modern day discussion. Either people are not interested in such trivialities or the issue of the day has become something else – life.

Life to most people is precious and the idea that life is being destroyed at such alarming rates should rattle anyone, regardless of political affiliation. So, assuming you agree, the question that I pose is this.

What will the current invasion of Gaza, accomplish?

We can probably conclude that it will do some of the following:

• Severely cripple Hamas infrastructure
• Take out or destroy a good percentage of rocket launchers
• Shut down smuggling tunnels used for weapons, rockets, food, medicine, etc.
• Take out important high-ranking Hamas leadership
• Stem the flow of rocket fire
• Agitate and anger the civilian population
• Agitate and anger the Arab community
• Raise anti-semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment around the world.

We can also probably conclude that in a certain amount of time the following will occur:

• Hamas infrastructure will rebuild
• Rocket launchers will be built or shipped back into Gaza
• New tunnels will be built
• Hamas leadership will be replaced with young zealous anti-Israelis
• Rocket fire will continue AND/OR suicide bombers will enter Israel again.
• Civilian population will still be angry and resentful
• Arab community will still be angry and resentful
• Anti-semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment will remain unchanged

Consequently another war or conflict will develop and the events of today will repeat themselves ad nauseaum. Israel has a right to exist and is a sovereign nation, that much most civilized and intelligent people can agree on. Therefore this country has every right to protect itself, however is applying a band-aid on a festering and rotting wound truly the best approach? It strikes me as not, considering we have witnessed years of suicide bombers, rocket fire, air strikes and invasions with no avail. In fact Hamas taking over Gaza and displacing Mahmoud Abbas’s control has been a regression, not a positive development for the region.

So while the Left and the Right spend infinite amount of time arguing about which group is committing more atrocities, I am wondering what exactly will the future hold? Observing the escalation of violence, I can conclude that it is only a matter of time until Hamas or Hezbollah acquire weapons that will fly further, hit harder and cause more damage. Israel will respond like it always does and the cycle will repeat itself. Death tolls will rise and it will make the current conflict look like a walk in the park. There will be no scapegoats and no one to blame, because everyone will lose.

What can be done?

The solution as I see it, can only be achieved in one way. Israel must completely and fully seal it’s borders. No entrance of civilians can be allowed from Gaza to Israel or vice versa, one point of entry should be established for diplomatic reasons. If Egyptians can shoot Palestinians for fleeing Gaza, Israel should have every right to refuse entry.

Next, Gaza should be treated like a country. Taliban controlled Afghanistan and that was a way of life for years, Hamas can control Gaza if it wishes. If the international community wants to provide aid or assistance to Gaza, it should be allowed with no intervention from Israel.

Once sovereignty is established and borders are defined, any violations can be and should be considered acts of war. If Israel is attacked by the sovereignty of Gaza, it can respond like any modern day country would respond – with an invasion. It would have every right to attack, invade or assault Gaza just like America responded to Afghanistan’s Taliban, or the Allies versus the Axis in WW2. Israel can and should have every right to remove the leadership, install it’s own government, install a puppet government or do whatever it pleases. It goes without saying that the rules can be applied vice versa as well, although there have been no precedent – Israel will respect Gaza and it’s sovereignty.

All UN resolutions pertaining to the matter of Israel and the Palestinians shall be ignored, for they have been completely and utterly ineffective.

This is the only way in which a long lasting peace can be achieved.

Israel opens new front against Hamas

No, not what you think folks. This is not a traditional physical offensive, but rather a psychological front. The Israeli army has started to upload certain exclusive videos to their channel on You Tube showing certain actions they find important. Not to be outdone, Hamas and their supporters have started uploading counter videos and images. In fact, there were so many Hamas supporters that certain videos from IDF were flagged as objectionable.

YouTube pulled the video, but restored it a few hours later due to clamoring from Israeli supporters.

Here is the YouTube channel from Israel: IDF on YouTube
I am unable to locate the Hamas website, if anyone knows of one please let me know.

It would be interesting to see the point of views from the two difference forces.

Happy New Years!

Why is Obama silent on the Israel-Hamas conflict?

How can this be? We have a conflict that is so decisively clear to our current administration, Canada and even the leader of the West Bank (M. Abbas). Yet, our president-elect cannot formulate an opinion?

There is video footage showing Hamas hiding rocket launchers smack in the middle of residential neighborhoods and specifically force Israeli air strikes to potentially kill civilians. Yet, this is not enough information to persuade the president-elect to voice his thoughts on something that can be described as a war crime? People should be demanding leadership, yet everyone is comfortably numb with the deafening silence.

You know why he cannot? Because his true opinion, is that he does not have one.

He sympathizes with the dead Palestinian civilians as does everyone else and he sympathizes with the Israeli civilians, as do some people. His bleeding heart is rendering him useless, for he cannot see the distinction between right and wrong.

To Obama:
Firing rockets for the purpose of killing civilians is not wrong.
Hiding rocket launchers near schools is not wrong.
Israel’s attempt to remove rocket launchers is not right.

This naturally reminds me of another famous American leader, ironically a Harvard graduate and known best for his great oratory abilities. Much is attributed to this great man, (most not deserving) and similarly much is NOT known. What is NOT known about this man, was his inability to make a decision. Faced with two choices he would insist on finding a third option and much of his policies stemmed from a philosophy of the Third Way. This paralyzing approach to decision making usually resulted in policies that hurt and damaged the very people they were intended to help. Many were found to be unconstitutional and many prolonged the awful economic condition prevalent at that time. Sadly, history has been very kind to this man and truth about the crippling approach of his administration are scattered in literature deemed un American.

Hopefully you know who this man is and realize that he governed in the worst economic time this country has ever experienced.

Let’s hope history does not repeat itself.

Carnage in Palestine and anti-semitism.

According to this story a violent series of air strikes has left the Gaza strip in utter destruction, with 200 people dead and another 200+ injured.

It is unclear as to what prompted such a backlash, but apparently Hamas fired longer ranging rockets this time.

UPDATE: I recognize that Hamas has been firing rockets for years and has launched thousands in that time. I was unclear as to why this last firing served as the catalyst for this war.

What is disturbing about this development is the timing. Anti-semitism appears to be on the rise and with US continuing to defend Israel the anti-Jew crowd will have more to scream and shout about. My observations, and they may be purely coincidental is that a growing number of people are holding the Jews responsible for our financial crisis. I am seeing this on YouTube, specific websites and forums. There are circles that are known for hate – like the white nationalists or Nation of Islam Muslims, but now a group of disenfranchised Ron Paul supporters have joined the coalition of the hating. Ironically they are pursuing a more intellectual angle, based on Ron Paul’s vehement dislike of the Federal Reserve.

This one is particularly damaging, because it’s rooted from the days of the Third Reich. The idea that Jews control the finances of the world and use their enormous wealth to create wars has been a fueling idea for Hitler ever since he learned about the possibility, now this concept has entrenched itself in minds of Americans. They urge you to discover “Who owns the Fed” and point you to what appears to be hundreds of websites explaining that the Fed is run by powerful international jewish bankers. Unfortunately their intellectual facade crumbles when they continue to insist that the Holocaust was a sham and that everyone in the world except them of course is being brainwashed by vast Zionist networks. Straight out of Goebbels, really.

Now, I dislike the Fed as much as any Austrian economist, but my anger stems from government expansion. I am convinced after examining Friedman’s work that if it were not for the Federal Reserve, we would never have had the Great Depression. Any time we give humans the ability to control monetary supply, we open up opportunities for error. Greenspan unfortunately fell victim to this too – setting the stage for the housing crisis. Now Bernanke has fallen into the trap and this unprecedented spending will drive us into yet another crisis.

But, to submit to some conspiracy theories only because times are hard is a sign of weak intelligence and weak moral fibre. It is beyond upsetting to see accusations of Jewish conspiracy in the most subtle of places. I was watching a trailer of the movie Defiance (about Polish partisans fighting German occupations) and there were comments suggesting that this is mere Zionist propaganda to stem the flow of anti-semitism! Wow.

Every major problem has been blamed on the Jews – and unlike what the haters would have you to believe, this is not evidence to support their claims. A propagation of the same recycled material is not proof of anything other than close minded hate filled insecurities. Of course bringing up the notion that they may be anti-semitic will usually result in another hate filled avalanche of how the term ‘anti-semitism‘ has been used to silence the ‘truth’.

I just hope this country does not spiral out of control, as this is usually a foreboding sign.