FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Here is an instructive juxtaposition. First, one aspect of the new US ‘timetable’ for Israeli-Palestinian quiet:

The document demands, among other things, that Israel approve and support in an “immediate and ongoing” manner the requests of U.S. security coordinator Dayton for the provision of required armaments, ammunition and equipment for security forces under the control of and reporting to the PA chairman [Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah faction] in the West Bank and Gaza. — Ha’aretz

Next, a statement from the selfsame Fatah mentioned above:

Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, threatened on Thursday to carry out resistance attacks outside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, unless the internationally-imposed economic embargo is lifted.

In a statement sent to reporters, the brigades held the Israeli occupation and the United States responsible for the financial and political boycott of the Hamas-led coalition government.

“We will not simply keep idle toward those who are imposing the siege”, the statement reads…

Fatah, of President Mahmoud Abbas, jointly with Hamas and other Palestinian parties, make up the current coalition on basis of respect of signed peace agreements and commitment to resisting the Israeli occupation. — IMEMC

Why does the US consider it wise to provide “armaments, ammunition, and equipment” to these terrorists, who appear to be directly threatening both Israel and US interests?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Fatah, Abbas

Gaza anarchy and chaos:

For several weeks now the Gaza Strip has been burning. This is not a matter of fighting between Hamas and Fatah activists or actions by the Israel Defense Forces, but battles between armed groups that for the most part are identified with large clans. Nearly every day for the past two weeks, men, women and children have been killed in Gaza. Every day civilians are being wounded by deliberate or stray gunfire, the result of the unrestrained use of weapons. The number of armed men in the Gaza Strip, according to various estimates, is greater than 100,000. These men belong to security mechanisms, political organizations and above all to clans… — Avi Isacharoff, Ha’aretz

We can learn something from this, and we should, because similar situations abound throughout the world and are growing more common.

One problem is the sheer firepower of modern weapons. One man with an assault rifle and large-capacity magazines can stand off a whole platoon of rivals, unless of course all of them have similar weapons…so they get them. When a firefight breaks out, it can turn into general carnage.

Another problem is the so-called “youth bulge“. Consider the combination of bravado, bad judgment, and energy that characterizes the average teenager. About half of the population of Gaza is now under the age of 15; there is a huge number of males in the 15-29 range. Now give each of them enormous firepower. Any questions?

There is very little productive economic activity in Gaza itself. How many Gazans can find employment making Qassam missiles? Terrorists systematically attacked the crossing points into Israel and initiatives like the Erez industrial zone which were supposed to provide work for Gaza residents. Many young men have literally nothing to do all day except shoot. One source of income is connection to one of the militias, which skim money from the international and UN aid that pours into Gaza.

There’s no functioning government. The ‘political’ militias, Fatah and Hamas, are no stronger than the clans. They are no match, for example, for whoever is holding kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston.

What would it take to turn such chaos into a functioning society? Possibly a brutal totalitarian dictatorship like Saddam Hussein’s was could damp down the violence and disarm most of the young men, but the process would be bloody and might not succeed. I can’t imagine moving from today’s chaos directly to any kind of democracy, or even mildly enlightened dictatorship. The prospects for Gaza are bleak indeed.

Technorati Tags: Gaza, Palestinians

David Horovitz has written an absolutely chilling discussion of the Winograd report.

The total failure of the army is documented:

Since its soldiers [on the Lebanese border] weren’t being allowed to fire back, and their deterrent capability was necessarily disappearing, the IDF protected them by pulling away physically from the commanding position it had been expected to maintain at the border after May 2000’s unilateral withdrawal. It tried to protect its silenced soldiers, relocating their bases and lookout points to less exposed positions even as Hizbullah dug in at the fence.

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By Vic Rosenthal 

Israel is not the US. Everything in Israel happens faster, time is compressed, everything is more intense. In the early 1980’s when the VCR came to Israel, everybody bought one in the first two weeks. There’s a story (possibly apocryphal) that somebody inspecting a ship bound for Israel could not believe its manifest, which stated that the cargo was made up entirely of VCR’s. How could such a small nation need that many VCR’s?

An Israeli acquaintance emailed on Tuesday that everyone in the country was consumed by the Winograd ‘earthquake’. Politics, like everything else in the country is speeded up and amplified, so this isn’t surprising, despite the fact that the contents of the report weren’t unexpected. But I’m not sure that the objective failures described in the report were the most serious problems that the war uncovered.

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