Monday briefs

Think Hillary or Kerry can just call up Assad and stop all this? Yeah, they were all about how Assad is a “reformer”. I think he’s reforming the Assad reputation for killing large amounts of its own citizens–upward. Syria is mixing the agents needed to create sarin gas, and apparently getting ready to slaughter its own people. Read the article in full; Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman have a huge store of links about what’s going on. But don’t expect to see the UN get too out of sorts about it until after Syrians are killed. After all, it isn’t Israel that is getting ready to murder thousands of Syrians. It’s just the Syrians about to do it.

Reality sets in: Gazans discovered again that all Hamas is good for is screwing them over. And I like these comments. If only she were representative of the majority, instead of the minority.

“What kind of victory?” asked Um Ram Abu Rokba, covered in traditional Islamic attire as she walked home from afternoon prayer. “They are lying to the people. It is a kind of blackmail.”

As groups of children gathered around her, Abu Rokba, who would give only her nickname, said, “The Jews are hurt, we are hurt. If they lose a child, they cry. If we lose a child, we cry. It is the same. My own wish is only peace and security.”

The AP whitewash, cont’d: A Palestinian terrorist rammed a military Jeep with his car, overturning the Jeep. He then attacked the people in the car with an axe, wounding two, before being shot dead. The AP reports the news, but insists on explaining the attack this way:

Palestinian truck driver Rafik Salem says the Palestinian car hit the jeep at high speed Monday before veering into an olive grove. He says an ax-wielding man emerged from the grove and attacked the Israelis.

It was not clear if the assailant acted on his own or on behalf of a group.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank have dropped off sharply since an uprising a decade ago, but tensions remain high.

Note that they cast doubt on whether or not the driver of the car was the axe-wielder, and then they have to reach back ten years to minimize the violence. In reality, there are hundreds of terrorist attacks like this every year. Here are the ones from January to May.

The no preconditions preconditions: I swear, Israel lives in a constant Alice-in-Wonderland world. Witness:

“I’ve said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it,” Abbas told the Palestinian reporters.

“We are not setting any conditions but there are at least 15 UN resolutions which consider settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace which must be removed,” he said. “Why don’t (the Israelis) stop settlement?”

He stipulated that if Israel withdraws to the 1967 lines, allows the Palestinians to establish a state with Jerusalem as its capital and offers a fair solution to the refugee problem, the PA will guarantee that 57 Arab states will recognize Israel and solve its “isolation problem.”

Now compare that to this:

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master— that’s all.”

Off with his head.