Down with Turkey, up with Cyprus: Cyprus is quickly becoming Israel’s new BFF, with Bulgaria ready to make it a threesome. Israeli tourists will be spending their dollars elsewhere, something that Erdogan probably really doesn’t like, but that he can’t discuss publicly. Yeah, I’m not feeling sorry for him at all.
Brits against Israel—how unsurprising: British largest trade union says that Israel is lying about the Mavi Marmara incident, and voted to boycott Israel. (And of course, people who spoke up for Israel were shouted down.) Apparently, video evidence of the commandos being attacked as they rappel down is just not good enough for the vicious anti-Semites in the U.K. And yet, I am still not surprised. What will happen? Probably the same thing as happened when the teacher’s union voted for the Israel boycott: It’s against the law to single out people by race, ethnicity, or national origin. I predict a lawsuit. But the delegitimization of Israel continues apace.
Mortars and rockets out of Gaza, no response from all those concerned humanitarians: Funny, isn’t it, that the humanitarians only care about Palestinians and don’t care when deadly rockets fly at Israeli children? (Of course it isn’t. You can never, ever, ever blame the victim. It’s a liberal law.)
What anti-Israel bias? On the anniversary of Gilad Shalit’s capture, Human Rights Watch releases a statement calling for Hamas to observe the rules of war and allow him visits from the ICRC. (Yeah, stop laughing.) Of course, there’s no way HRW could call for Hamas to release Shalit without also slamming Israel. The last four paragraphs of the release are all about Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Shyeah. (NOTE: I searched the HRW site for the latest release. This one actually refers to the 2009 release. I’ll update this post when I find the 2010 release.) ((No wonder they kept saying “three years” instead of four.))
Israel should treat Palestinian Arab prisoners (not ordinary decent criminals, as the euphemism went in Britain about the IRA terrorists vs criminals) the same way the Palis treat Shalit. Then HRW would actually have something to complain about. Since they shriek bloody murder about Israel no matter what Israel does, no matter how humanely Israel treats prisoners, there is no downside.
Michael Oren had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today about Shalit. After reading it, and it is heart-rending, I concluded that the only way Israel might get him released, short of going into Gaza again with a significant fraction of Zahal’s ground forces, is to intensify the blockade. Reports of plentiful stuff on the store shelves in Gaza, falling prices for building materials, and the like show that there really is no hardship there from Israel’s actions, only from Hamas’ actions (like when the Hamas goons kill Pali Arabs or oppress Christians). Only if the Palis feel more pain than they can bear will they be willing to return Shalit and, perhaps, make peace. Therefore the recent easing by Israel is counterproductive.
“If the Palis want war we will give them what they want. Nothing gets in, nothing goes out. Ships attempting to run the blockade will be towed into Ashdod or, if they refuse to stop, sunk. If Hamas wants war. we will give them war. When the Palis want it to stop they can present Shalit, alive, at the Eretz Crossing and deliver a note accepting peace negotiations. Then we will lift the blockade, except for weapons, concrete, and rebar (used to build bunckers). Anybody in the “World Community” who is upset about this, get off your asses and get the Palis to release Shalit and make peace on the basis of a two-state treaty. States like Egypt that make peace with Israel subsequently have nothing to fear from Israel. Otherwise, if you don’t want to help make actual peace, shut your falafel-hole.”