Author Archives: Soccerdad

About Soccerdad

I'm a government bureaucrat with delusions of literacy.

Inviting a crisis

Michael Kinsley said that a gaffe is when a politician speaks the truth. If that’s so, I suppose Sen. Biden’s recent statement about there being an international crisis withing six months of Sen. Obama’s election as president would qualify as … Continue reading

Posted in Iran | Tagged | 3 Comments

Building the terrorists’ confidence

A possible smuggling tunnel was just discovered under the city of Hebron. Explosives from that tunnel were removed by the PA police who then alerted Israeli officials. That makes it the perfect time to give the PA even more control … Continue reading

Posted in Iran, Israel, palestinian politics, Terrorism | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tunnel watch

Interesting story from the Jerusalem Post, but how should I feel about it? Should I be encouraged by this? The 150-meter-long tunnel was discovered by Palestinian Authority security forces on Monday and was immediately reported to the IDF, which sent … Continue reading

Posted in Hamas, Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Abbas the messenger boy?

Both the Hashmonean and Shira Bat Sarah noted this story in comments. The first mention was in Ha’aretz: U.S. President George W. Bush has apparently offered his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to press Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights … Continue reading

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Never the “o” word

Earlier this week, the AP reported, Syria and Lebanon Set Up Formal Ties: The initiative by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria ends six decades of nonrecognition and meets a demand by the United States that Syria act to help achieve … Continue reading

Posted in AP Media Bias, Lebanon, Syria | Tagged | 2 Comments

Dead letter

Daled Amos has an example of an American failure to stand up to the Palestinian Authority. This isn’t a matter of failing to defend Israel, but of failing to defend American citizens; or even to call those responsible for their … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What part of Zionist don’t you understand?

According to Amir Taheri, Jesse Jackson said: The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where “decades of putting Israel’s interests first” would end. Jackson believes that, although “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades” remain strong, … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Call it POSHA

One of my biggest complaints about Palestinian demands for a state, is that they’ve never set up the institutions of government. Well now, in Gaza, Hamas has taken the first step. Call it P-OSHA. (h/t Daily Alert) Gaza’s smugglers are … Continue reading

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Terror and elections

Getting Shmuel Rosner on board at Contentions was a great move. He’s a little too much of a leftist for my taste, but he does have an eye for an interesting story, or an interesting angle. But his effort today, … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Terrorism | Tagged | Comments Off on Terror and elections

Pushing Jewish buttons

What politicians will do for the Jewish vote. They push our buttons. In my experience, the most obvious way politicians try to woo Jews today is to demonstrate their support of Israel and to appeal to long-held social values. The … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

A bazaar protest

Don Surber observes: … dictators are lousy economists Case in point: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an interview a few weeks ago with the New York Times, he assured the interviwer, Neil MacFarqhar that Iran’s economy was in fine shape. NYT: I’ve … Continue reading

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Olive libel again

It’s a little early but Elder of Ziyon noted a “news” story: Settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank attacked a Palestinian family collecting olives on Saturday morning, a government official told Ma’an. Mayor … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias | Tagged | 1 Comment

Fooling with tools

Sen. Obama from the debate Tuesday night. I don’t understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to … Continue reading

Posted in Iran, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Another crisis not of Israel’s making

Yes we’ve heard of the terrible siege that Israel has laid against Gaza. Mere Rhetoric catalogues all of the charges against Israel and shows them to be bogus. The latest to fall is how Israel’s blockade harmed the sick and … Continue reading

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time | Tagged | 1 Comment

Abbas at the abyss

Secretary Rice is apparently planning to celebrate the first anniversary of the Annapolis summit with – another summit. Shmuel Rosner describes this proposed summit as maintenance as opposed to a desperate, ill fated and misguided attempt (like Taba in 2001) … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged | 1 Comment