Watched the first 2 Rocky movies over the weekend, so forgive the title of this post. In fact, count yourselves lucky I didn’t lift any other quotes like “piss lightening and crap thunder”. Maybe tomorrow I get you that post. Maybe tomorrow.

As for today, I’ve got a little AP/Ahmadinejad story that’ll warm your hearts. In advance of the Iranian President’s visit to to NY, tomorrow, the AP thought it wise to give its readers a little background:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday he was proud his denial of the Holocaust had enraged the West, as the controversial leader geared up for a United Nations trip to stress what he said would be a message of “peace and friendship.”

Ahmadinejad’s latest comment about the killing of millions of Jews during World War II comes as Iran is locked in a bitter dispute with the U.S. and other Western nations over its nuclear program. Even as that fight continues, his remarks were sure to earn the Iranian president an even more frigid reception when he heads to New York on Tuesday to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

“The anger of the world’s professional killers is (a source of) pride for us,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

He was responding to a question about criticism from the European Union following a speech on Friday in which he questioned whether the Holocaust was a “real event.” The manslayers reference appeared to be directed primarily at Israel and the U.S.

“It’s a sad day for the Iranian people,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in an online briefing Monday in reference to Ahmadinejad’s latest Holocaust statements. She said “they unfortunately add to the long list of hateful statements” by Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly raised questions about the Holocaust. He has said it has been used as a pretext for Israel’s formation, and that Israel and Jewish groups are actively muzzling any attempt to link shame over the Nazi atrocities with the what many in the Muslim Middle East believe is the West’s bias for the Jewish state at their expense.

via Ahmadinejad proud of Holocaust denial.

Go back and re-read that first paragraph. Does the AP really believe that a person who’s in one breath proud that his lunatic holocaust- denials are enraging the west could ever really be on a mission of “peace and friendship”? Is such a leader truly only ‘controversial’? Why does the AP tie itself up in knots trying to make it appear that Ahmadinejad is just another foreign leader on his way to NY to talk politics? Ahmadinejad is an anti-semitic madman on a mission to spark a global nuclear conflict. That this is not a mission of peace and friendship should be obvious.

The second paragraph’s a pisser too. Because Ahmadinejad referenced something called “the Holocaust” in paragraph 1, being good journalists, they felt the need to explain to their idiot readers just what that was. As if it was some term of art or foreign dialectic that might otherwise get lost in translation if not translated by the ever-on-the-ball AP. Is the Holocaust really just about “the killing of millions of Jews during World War II”? These jews weren’t passively “killed” The Nazis murdered them. Why? Because they were Jewish. The Holocaust was the systemic murder of millions of Jewish men, women and children by an anti-semitic madman….the SAME type of anti-semitic madman who’s the subject of this balanced news article. The reason why Ahmadinejad’s comments are outrageous and why he is such a dangerous and festering threat to the West (who’s obviously NOT on a mission of peace and friendship) is that  he’s saying the same things that Adolf Hitler said right before he went ahead and set up a government tasked with the object of murdering Jewish people.

Third and fourth paragraphs now. Thank you AP. Without your brilliant analysis, I’d still be wondering who Ahmadinejad was referencing with his “professional killers” comment.  The US and Israel? Brilliant work. I was thinking Sri Lanka and Poland. One question though. “Manslayer”? What’s that supposed to be? The context of Ahmadinejad’s comments indicate that the REAL professional killers (the US and Israel) concocted the story of FAKE professional killers (Germany) to shame the world into ceding Israel to the Jews after WWII. That’s his twisted deal. For the AP to describe the “professional killer” reference as one of “manslayers” is the height of ridiculousness. First, because it almost looks like a madeup word. Second, and most importantly, because it conjures the familiar word “manslaughter” in the minds of its readers. What’s manslaughter? It certainly isn’t murder, right? Manslaughter is what happens when you kill someone that you shouldn’t have, but because you didn’t INTEND to do it, the punishment isn’t that bad. Does the AP really wish to liken the “professional killers” of Nazi Germany with “manslayers”? Did the Nazis really not INTEND to kill all those Jewish people? You’ve really got to wonder if that’s what the AP thinks.

Finally, that last paragraph really caps it, doesn’t it. If I tell you right now that Santa Claus appeared to me last night in a dream and told me that Christ was a sham and that Merv Griffin was the Son of God, could my comments legitimately be described by a self-respecting journalist as “raising questions about Christmas”? To say that the Holocaust never happened is not to “raise questions” about the Holocaust. “Raising questions” implies that you’ve actually highlighted a real inconsistency that is backed by evidence, does it not? The mere fact that you’ve asked a question (however ridiculous, unfounded, unsupported or insane) does not imply that you’ve “raised questions”.

So I can’t tell who I hate more—the AP or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Part of me actually hates the AP more because at least with Ahmadinejad, you understand right up front that he’s a lunatic and that he’s dangerous and that he’s motivated by pure evil. With the AP, you don’t get that understanding until it’s WAY too late. Their “analysis” is disguised as legitimate discourse, and you don’t realize they’re defecating on your front porch until it’s too late.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been tied to the whipping post, and oh Lord I feel like I’m dying.

Here’s another daft NY Times reporter who thinks that the entire history of the world began on the day she graduated J-school.

Countering criticism of another Jewish building project planned for Sheik Jarrah, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said recently that Jerusalem residents had the right to live anywhere in the city and that Israel’s sovereignty over the capital “cannot be challenged.”

Separately, in Tel Aviv, the police continued hunting for a gunman who fled a gay community center after killing 2 Israelis and wounding at least 10 others on Saturday night. The shock over the attack was felt far beyond the gay community, jolting a society that largely values tolerance and has hardly been exposed to the specter of hate crimes.

via Israel Evicts Palestinians From Homes – NYTimes.com.

Israel as having hardly been exposed to hate crimes? Does she honestly expect us to swallow that whopper without choking on our tongues? Are we honestly supposed to come away from this stink nugget of an article believing that Jews in Tel Aviv are unfamiliar with the notion of a hate crime?

Either Isabel Kershner doesn’t know the first thing about Israel or she doesn’t know what a hate crime is. Likely a heavy dollop of both. Here’s a hate crime for you, Isabel–the Holocaust. Got your attention yet? No? Well here’s a list of the most deadliest hate crimes perpetrated against the Jewish citizens of Israel since 2000 alone:

Oct. 4, 2003

29-year-old female suicide bomber from Jenin explodes in a Haifa restaurant, co-owned by Israeli Arabs, two days before Yom Kippur. 19 murdered, including several children. A newborn and 4 Israeli-Arabs were among those killed. 60 injured.

Sept. 9, 2003
Twin homocide bomb attacks take place near the Zerifin Military Base and at a Jerusalem cafe. 15 murdered. Among the dead in the cafe attack were Dr. David Applebaum, head of the emergency room of a Jerusalem hospital, and his daughter Nava, a bride to be married the next day.

Aug. 19, 2003 – The attack takes place in the midst of a “cease-fire” declared by Palestinian terror groups and on the eve of a planned transfer of several West Bank cities to Palestinian Authority control. A Palestinian suicide bomber, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, strikes on a Jerusalem bus. 23 murdered, including several children. More than 100 are injured.

June 11, 2003 – The attack comes a week after the “road map” peace process is launched at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United States.
A Palestinian suicide bomber, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, blows himself up on a bus. 17 murdered.

March 5, 2003
A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes on a bus en route to Haifa University. 17 murdered, most of them teenagers. 53 injured.

Jan. 5, 2003
Two Palestinian suicide bombers strike in crowded Tel Aviv shopping district. 23 murdered, including 8 foreign nationals. More than 120 injured.

Nov. 21, 2002
A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates on a commuter bus during morning rush hour in Jerusalem. 11 murdered, many of them schoolchildren. More than 50 injured.

Oct. 22, 2002
An explosives-laden sport utility vehicle driven by a Palestinian suicide bomber rammed into a bus near Hadera in northern Israel. 14 murdered. More than 45 injured.

July 31, 2002
A Palestinian terrorist plants and detonates a bomb in a backpack in a Hebrew University cafeteria. 9 murdered, including 5 Americans. More than 80 injured.

June 18-19, 2002
A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes on a rush-hour bus in Jerusalem, carrying many children on their way to school.
19 murdered. 74 injured – 6 seriously. A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes at a hitchhiking post in Jerusalem’s French Hill.
7 murdered. 50 injured – 3 critically.

June 5, 2002
A car packed with a large quantity of explosives struck a bus traveling from Tel-Aviv to Tiberias. 17 murdered. 38 injured.

May 8, 2002
A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes at a crowded billiard hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon le-Zion. 15 murdered. 55 injured.

March 31, 2002
A Palestinian suicide bomber strikes a restaurant in Haifa frequented by both Arabs and Jews. The bombing follows suicide attacks on each of the previous two days, one at a Jerusalem supermarket and one at a café in Tel Aviv. 15 murdered. Over 40 injured.

March 27, 2002
A Palestinian suicide bomber (Hamas) strikes at Netanya’s Park hotel during a Passover seder. 29 murdered, mostly senior citizens. 140 injured – 20 seriously.

March 9, 2002
Palestinian terrorists bomb Jerusalem’s popular Moment Café, around the corner from the prime minister’s residence. 11 murdered.

March 2-3, 2002
Attacks occur during talk of a Saudi Arabian peace initiative.
A suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowd of mothers and children walking home from synagogue after the Sabbath in an ultra-orthodox Jerusalem neighbourhood. 9 murdered, including 6 children, and an entire family is wiped out. A Palestinian sniper shoots an Israeli policeman riding on a motorcycle. 1 murdered. A Palestinian sniper attacks at a West Bank checkpoint. 10 murdered, including 7 soldiers. Palestinian attack in Gaza. 1 murdered. 4 injured.

Dec. 2, 2001
Palestinian terrorists attack three times in 24 hours – at a pedestrian mall in downtown Jerusalem, in a car in downtown Jerusalem and on a Haifa bus. 25 murdered. Over 200 injured.

Oct. 17, 2001
Palestinian gunmen assassinate Israel’s tourism minister, Rehavam Ze’evi, in a Jerusalem hotel.

Aug. 9, 2001
A Palestinian suicide bomber attacks the Sbarro pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem at lunchtime. 15 murdered – including several children and nearly an entire family. 130 injured.

June 1, 2001
The attack comes days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a unilateral Israeli cease-fire. A Palestinian suicide bomber attacks a Tel Aviv beachside disco filled with teenaged immigrants from the former Soviet Union. 21 murdered. More than 100 injured.

May 9, 2001
Ya’acov (Kobi) Mandell (14) and Yossi Ish-Ran (14) were stoned to death by Palestinians while hiking near their home of Tekoa, south of Jerusalem.

Feb. 14, 2001
A Palestinian bus driver mows down a group of Israelis at a bus stop near Tel Aviv. 8 murdered.

October 12, 2000
Two Israeli reservists, Yesef Avrahami and Vadim Novesche, took a wrong turn on the highway and were stopped by Arafat’s Palestinian Authority policemen. A Palestinian policeman and other Palestinians later lynched and murdered the two Israelis.

Murdered for being Jewish. How do you spell “hate crime” again, Isabel?

Someone PLEASE wire Ms. Kershner with the news–Jews have been the victims of hate crimes for THOUSANDS of years, and for the past 60, as Israelis. If any other non-Jewish group had to endure what the Jews have been forced to endure, the world would have tilted on its axis and spun helplessly into space. For the “crime” of being Jewish in the middle east and having the the audacity to sustain a democracy in the hell of Islamic radicalism, Israelis have been made to suffer ridiculous and inhuman torments for decades.

The craziest thing is that the AP is attempting to appear even handed and open minded…which is great….except when the topic is the Holocaust….in which case anyone who “argues” that it didn’t happen isn’t really “arguing”…but “ranting”…and should be treated with the “respect” any sane person would ordinarily accord a slug…or an empty beer can…or a hang nail.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) – From the western edge of the Muslim world, the King of Morocco has dared to tackle one of the most inflammatory issues in the Middle East conflict—the Holocaust.

At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dismissal of the Holocaust has made the biggest headlines, King Mohammed VI has called the Nazi destruction of the Jews “one of the most tragic chapters of modern history,” and has endorsed a Paris-based program aimed at spreading the word among fellow Muslims.

Many in the Islamic world still ignore or know little about the Nazi attempt to annihilate the Jews during World War II. Some disbelieve it outright. Others argue that it was a European crime and imagine it to be the reason Israel exists and the Palestinians are stateless.

The sentiment was starkly illustrated in March after a Palestinian youth orchestra performed for Israeli Holocaust survivors, only to be shut down by angry leaders of the West Bank refugee camp where they live.

“The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves,” a community leader named Adnan Hindi said at the time. “We lost our land and we were forced to flee.”

via Morocco challenges Mideast Holocaust mind-set.

Lest anyone forget, there’s nothing “similar” to the Holocaust. That’s why they call it the “Holocaust”. It pretty much is the be-all and end-all of human tragedies. That “Palestinians” can no longer squat on land that was never theirs to begin with is not akin to mass murder. Not even a close call here, people.

But thank you AP for making it appear to be so.

Dipshits.

The AP once again shilling for “Palestine”:

Laying out his Mideast policy in a speech Sunday, Netanyahu bent to U.S. pressure and backed down on decades of opposition to Palestinian statehood. He invited the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to resume peace talks.

However, he removed from the negotiating agenda the fate of Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel’s 1948 creation and said Israel would retain sovereignty over all of Jerusalem—two issues previous Israeli governments had agreed to negotiate.

Netanyahu also said he would keep building in Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians, despite a U.S. demand for a complete freeze. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not resume talks unless Israel honored previous pledges to halt construction.

via Palestinians angered by Netanyahu peace terms.

Sort of leaves you with the impression that after the UN created Israel in 1948, the newly minted Israelis tossed the poor, indigenous Arabs  out in the cold, does it not? And if things happened like that, it would be odd to sympathize with Israel today, given the fact that these ‘refugees’ continue to be ‘excluded’ from Israel today. The trouble with this narrative though, is that it just isn’t true.

Here’s what really happened:

The land currently within the borders of Israel was not a “country” before the UN partition plan of 1947. It was a mix of Arabs, Jews and Christians occupying land that was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire right up until they lost WWI and the territory was given to the UK to administer. Which they did. Until they surrendered it to the UN in 1947, which promptly came up with a pretty decent plan called the UN Partition Plan, which called for a {gasp!} “2 state solution”.  Based on population densities, the Jews would be granted some land to call their own and the Arabs would be granted some to call theirs. This of course in the middle of a region already containing several Arab countries already.

Guess what the Arabs did?

Rather than suffer the indignity of permitting a Jewish state to co-exist alongside their own borders, Egypt, Jordan and Syria all invaded Israel with the express purpose of wiping them off the map. As for the Arabs guaranteed their own state alongside Israel’s by the UN? Tough noogies. The rest of the Arab thugocracies made their decision for them. By invading Israel, they took the 2 state solution off the table. Had they been left alone, it’s possible that the Palestinian Arabs would have formed a perfectly fine country right alongside Israel. Instead, the thugocracies told the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes, join the fight to murder the Jews, and reap the rewards later in the form of grants of formerly Jewish property. Those who listened, left of their own accord without being forced to do so ever by any Jewish person.

Is that what being “displaced” means? Leaving of your own accord?

Yet the myth persists that the evil Jews kicked the Arabs out of Israel, where they wander to this day, suffering persecution and the horrors of Jewish state. Nothing could be further from the truth. At different points in history, Egypt and Jordan occupied land within current day Israel (Gaza and West Bank) that they could have delegated a “Palestinian Arab State”. They of course did not so elect.

Why not?

Because the “Arab world” does not want to see a resolution to the “Palestinian problem”. The Arab world NEEDS for there to CONSTANTLY be so-called “Palestinian refugees” that it can move around the checkerboard to manipulate Israel. So forget for a minute that these “refugees” are only “refugees” at all because they sided with the thugocracies against the Jews from 1948 on; and forget too that there are Arabs living quite happily within Israel today under the terrifically democratic Israeli government. The real issue to keep your focus on as you try to decipher world events through the pro-Arab lens of the AP is that the Arabs who shared modern day Israel with the Jews prior to 1947 were offered their own state alongside the Jews and they rejected it. They’ll continue to reject any solution that results in the survival of the Jewish state. In the meantime, they’ll pretend that there are hundreds of thousands of suffering “refugees” being kept in constant anguish by the Israelis who “displaced” them.

While these people may be suffering, it has nothing to do with Israel or the Jewish people who live there. Arab suffering has since the beginning been created, fostered, and continued by nobody except Arabs.

No, not Obama’s will (of which there is none)….I’m talking about George Will, speaking Monday at the Claremont Review of Books on President Obama’s recent genuflection to “the Arab world”:

We’ve seen this in his treatment of Israel in that remarkable speech, the atmospherics of which were fine, the specifics appalling.

I mean, in the 61 years since Israel was founded on one-sixth of one percent of land in that area described as land of the Arab world, there has not been a moment of peace for Israel, not as peace is properly understood.

How many Americans understand that when Israel was founded in 1948, no Palestinian state was invaded, no Palestinian state was destroyed?  There had not been a Palestinian geographic entity since between the departure of the Romans and the arrival of British rule.

How many know that the West Bank, referred to by the President as “occupied territory,” inferentially as occupied Palestinian territory, is under international law [an] unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate rightfully occupied by Israel, because it occupied it in repelling aggression that came from that territory in 1967.  [Applause].

How the President believes that if we return to the 1967 borders, the antipathy to Israel, which predated the 1967 borders, will disappear, I do not know.

It would help if he . . .  spent some time [there].  George W. Bush, for all his defects, went to Israel shortly before he was elected and was squired around by another rancher named Arik Sharon.  He took him up in a helicopter, to where Israel was at one point nine miles wide, and George W. Bush came home and said “My God, in Texas we have driveways longer than that.”  [Laughter].  He sort of got the picture.

I remember — if I could go back to an autobiographical moment — in 1979 I was invited to talk to the B’nai Brith of Beverly Hills – not a nest of conservatives – and they said “Who should be the Republican nominee?”  And I said, pick Howard Baker, George Bush, Ronald Reagan.  And they said “Well, who would be best for Israel?”  And I responded “Of course it would be Ronald Reagan.”  They said “Why?”

I said — “Two reasons:  he believes in aircraft carriers.  He believes in the projection of American power.  Second, he is a romantic.  He’s got the story of Israel, plucky little Israel.”

You need both.  You need aircraft carriers and you need to appreciate the fact that Israel is an embattled salient of our values in a bad neighborhood.  [Applause].  It is unworthy of the United States to aspire to be even-handed between those who would destroy and those who would preserve the only democracy in that region.  [Applause].

This video released by the IDF illuminates the ugly nature of the enemy it faces daily and against which it finally struck back last year in Operation Cast Lead. It is the enemy that is otherwise painted as martyrs and innocents by the world press, likely in the paper you read every day. If, that is, you are among the diminishing few who still read newspapers.

Without further interruption, I present to you (via the IDF), Hamas.

A 16 year old boy was murdered in Israel today by Muslim terrorist.

With an axe.

Sixteen-year-old Shlomo Nativ was killed and a seven-year-old boy was moderately injured in an attack carried out by a terrorist carrying an axe in the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin Thursday noon.

According to the police, the terrorist managed to flee the scene. The IDF launched a hunt for the terrorist, set up roadblocks and boosted security throughout the communities in the area.

Palestinian sources reported that IDF forces were surrounding a house in the nearby village of Khirbet Safa where they suspected the attacker may be hiding.

A Magen David Adom rescue team tried to resuscitate the teen, who they said ran into a house after being attacked, but he died of his injuries. Ozer Zilbershlad, a ZAKA rescue service volunteer at the scene told Ynet, “You could see a trail of blood where the deceased ran.”

When asked for comment, a spokesman for the terror group Hamas said:

“This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance,” Ayman Taha said. “This is a reaction to the continuing occupation and the continued building of settlements.”

“This is a natural reaction,” he said, “especially against the backdrop of Israel attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves and to act in every way and with every means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves.”

May God have mercy on us all.

Hamas is a pretty disgusting organization. Backed by Iran, their sole purpose is to leverage innocent Palestinians (such as they may be) into concessions by the Israeli government by any means necessary. This is pretty obvious stuff to anyone paying even the most disinterested attention to matters there. Except of course to the AP:

International and Palestinian human rights organizations say there was a rash of shootings and beatings across Gaza during Israel’s offensive, voicing suspicions the Islamic militants of Hamas used wartime chaos to target enemies, including activists from the rival Fatah.

Among examples reported by the rights groups, gunmen dragged a man from a hospital bed and another from his grandfather’s house, then shot them dead. A third died in a hospital from beating and gunshot wounds after men who said they were from Gaza security forces pulled him from his home.

Two Gaza-based groups, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the Independent Commission on Human Rights, interviewed survivors and witnesses who said some attacks were carried out by members of Hamas’ internal security service.

Amnesty International went further, saying Hamas militiamen engaged in a “campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of ‘collaborating’ with Israel, as well as opponents and critics.”

All three rights groups are urging Hamas leaders to investigate the allegations and prosecute those responsible.

[ . . . ]

Hamas has denied any involvement by members of its security services but acknowledges that Hamas fighters targeted suspected informers for Israel.

“The government distinguishes between any violation of the law and actions taken by the resistance to protect itself from the danger of spies during wartime,” said Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas administration. “The government confirms that it will show no mercy for collaborators who stab our people in the back, and they will be judged under the law.”

So basically, Hamas has said….”Listen, as long as we’re killing spies in wartime, it’s OK. How do we know they’re spies? Trust us.”

Apparently, the AP would like us to believe that there is some distinction that Hamas recognizes between their  “Security forces” (for whom it would be illegal to commit extra judicial killings) and Hamas “fighters” (for whom it would be OK to do so). Also, we should take comfort in the fact that Hamas is investigating whether anything untoward went on regarding the murder of Fatah members during the Israel war. As if they were a responsible government organization and not a terrorist gang. As if they’d blanche at “illegal” killing when they’ve shown such a propensity and zest for hurling rockets into Israeli civilian centers.

These are not humans. These are animals, and we should expect  nothing more from them than the basest of behavior.

Did you know that Hamas is negotiating a ceasefire with Israel?

There has been speculation that a cease-fire deal is close.

However, Hamas official said Saturday that new problems have come up. Hamas wants an 18-month cease-fire. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum says Israel created new obstacles by seeking an open-ended cease-fire.

Yes, you read that right. Hamas is upset because Israel wants to permanently end the fighting between the 2 foes. Hamas wants to end the fighting, but only for a period of time necessary for them to rearm and dig more tunnels…say….18 months or so. Then all bets are off.

I say it constantly….what kind of people are these? And how can we have anything except for the deepest sympathy for the Israeli people?

This from Reuters today:

[Former Senator George] Mitchell, who helped to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict, was named by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week to lead U.S. efforts to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mitchell’s tour will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain. He said he would later report his findings directly to Obama and Clinton.

“I look forward to returning to the region in the very near future to continue this effort,” Mitchell said. Western and regional diplomats said that while Mitchell was expected to meet Palestinian officials, he would not have direct contacts with Hamas.

Obama has made clear the Middle East conflict will be a high priority as he tries to repair a U.S. image battered by the war in Iraq.

First—What’s this nonsense about the U.S. image being battered since the Iraq war? I’ll bet that al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein and every government of consequence in the Greater Middle East (including Israel, Iran and Syria) all think much more highly of the United States now than they did on 9/10/01. They had little to no respect for our capacity to effectively retaliate to aggression on that date. Since then? Let’s dig up Saddam’s bones and ask him how he feels now.

So again, who thinks that our image has been battered since Iraq? Europe? Maybe. If so, so what? How does repairing our image to Europe benefit the US at all? Will it make us safer? Will it make us more secure? Will it do anything to conquer the jihad that’s been unleashed against the West? Not bloody likely.

The only people who think a) that our image has been battered since Iraq; and b) that it makes a shred of difference to anything are the American Left. These are image fetishists, for whom it is more important to appear friendly and respectful to Europeans than it is to be safe.

Second—how is Mitchell’s experience in Northern Ireland relevant to solving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Fundamentally, the Irish “Troubles” were an isolated and local conflict between 2 factions of Christian Europeans battling for the political status of Northern Ireland. The predominately Catholic “nationalists” (the minority, guerrilla group) believed that Northern Ireland was part of the Republic of Ireland and the predominately Protestant “unionists” believed that it was part of the United Kingdom. Watch “In the Name of the Father’.

The Palestinian “trouble” if you will, is a veritable global conflict between Israel and the United states and the governments of Syria, Iran and the rest of the Muslim Middle East. Seeking to destroy the nation of Israel and push the Jews that live there into the sea, Iran and Syria have infiltrated Palestine, installed Hamas and Hezbollah as their military proxies, and ordered them to terrorize Israel on their behalf—lobbing rockets into playgrounds, kidnapping soldiers and drawing Israel into retaliation which is chastised by Europeans.

Whether the IRA convinced England to surrender Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland was relevant to a whole bunch of Irish, but not a lick to the rest of the world. England would still be England. Ireland would still be Ireland, and we’d all go on our merry way. If Israel surrenders ITSELF to IRAN and SYRIA…it ceases to exist. It’s population would likely be crucified. Literally. Before being set on fire and dumped into the sea.

Not only that, but what nobody seems to understand is that Hamas and Hezbollah do not represent PALESTINIAN interests. They represent Iranian and Syrian interests and are agents in the continuing war (since 1948) to overthrow Israel and claim the land for Islam. This isn’t about whether the PALESTINIANS can have a homeland. They HAD a homeland after the UN Partition Plan of 1948. They LOST that homeland when the Muslim world invaded Israel and LOST.

The fact that Mitchell is meeting with “Palestinian officials” not including Hamas is troubling. Not that he should meet with Hamas, but that he pretends that the Palestinian people have anything relevant to add to the conversation or any authority to do anything anyway.

We settle the Palestinian conflict by engaging Iran and Syria militarily. Israel is doing that by slapping Hamas and Hezbollah down every year or so, but they won’t “win” that way. They’ll only succeed in bringing Israelis and Palestinians peace when Iran and Syria assume room temperature. Until then, it’s all image fetishists preening for Europe.