Opration Cast Lead Update for New Year's Eve

Operation cast Lead continues, and before I dive into coverage, I'd like to introduce a video made by the Elder of Ziyon. He wondered what an Israeli propaganda video would look like if they copied the style of the pro-Hamas propaganda videos...

I will cherish that video as long as I draw breath. I know that tune will be stuck in my head for quite a while!

For more up-to-date coverage of the events in Israel, I suggest you visit these tireless bloggers:

Israelly Cool, and today's thread
The Muqata and today's thread
Israel Matzav
The Elder of Ziyon

So, here is some of what I have found, and I have included a post about a pro-George W Bush Rally held in (of all places) Dearbornistan, Michigan!

Now that Hamas’s long war against Israel is matched with a short war in Gaza, protests are erupting everywhere from the blogosphere and Arab capitals to the United Nations, and they began on the very first day. Salon.com "blogger Glenn Greenwald calls the Israeli retaliation to more than a year of rocket attacks a “massively disproportionate response.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay “strongly condemned Israel’s disproportionate use of force.” The Israeli counterattack is, indeed, disproportionate, but it could hardly be otherwise. “At last count,” J.G. Thayer wrote, “one Israeli and two Palestinians (sisters, ages 13 and 5) died from rocket attacks. So a proportionate response, one presumes, would have required Israel to kill a single Palestinian and two of its own citizens.”

There were, I suppose, other “proportionate” responses available aside from killing one Palestinian and two Israelis. The Israel Defense Forces might have launched thousands of air strikes against targets in Gaza to match the thousands of Qassam rockets fired at the cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. It’s unlikely, however, that this is what Israel’s critics have in mind.

So what do they have in mind? What would a legitimate and “proportionate” response actually look like? Surely they don’t believe Israel should scrap its sophisticated weapons systems, build Qassam rockets, and launch those at Gaza instead.

Source: Michael J. Totten, in What Would a Proportionate Response Look Like?

I received a call from my friend Ali in Dearborn, MI the other day. After Desert Storm I brought Ali to America as a refugee. Ali had been an Iraqi Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who surrendered to my unit and then led me to a huge intelligence find. Some of what we discovered would eventually be used in Saddam Hussein trial. I was awarded a medal for the find and Ali spent 3 years in a POW camp until I was able to get him to the USA.

After living in Saint Paul for a number of years he moved to Dearborn, MI where there is a large Iraqi population and became a US citizen. I'll tell you more about Ali's story at a later date.

Ali told us of massive demonstrations in the streets of Dearborn following the shoe throwing incident in Baghdad. Unfortunately, we never saw reports in the main stream media about these demonstrations. Why? Because these demonstrators were showing support for President Bush. They were angry that after giving freedom to 25 million Iraqi's that a member of the press in Iraq would insult the Iraqi people with his shoe throwing escapades. They were also angry that the American media gave the incident so much air time.

Source: The Eagle's Nest Blog, in Why Is This Not Fit For The Evening News?
Hat Tip:

Security chiefs in London are concerned that the escalation of violence in Gaza with the prospects of a ground offensive by the IDF could provoke a violent response by Arab and Muslim Londoners with minority elements influenced by Al-Qaeda plotting reprisal attacks in London.

MI5 have outlined the possible security threats posed by Al Qaeda:

Explosive devices

These can be delivered to their targets in vehicles, by post or by a person. Currently an explosive device within a vehicle is the most prevalent means of attack. Unlike the Provisional IRA, who also used this method, Al Qaida networks often seek to ensure that their target is hit by employing a suicide operative within the vehicle to detonate the device at the required moment.

Suicide bombers are also deployed to carry an explosive device into the vicinity of a target individual or location. On some occasions the terrorists decide, as they did in the Madrid commuter train attacks in March 2004, to detonate their devices remotely, so that they can go on to perpetrate further attacks.”

Source: National terror Alerts, in Terror Threat In London Severe - Highest Level Since 9/11


NEWS FROM OPERATION CAST LEAD

Hamas has been dealt a serious blow by the repeated IAF strikes in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin said on Wednesday.

"Hamas has been attacked as it has never been attacked before; it has suffered serious damage and its governability in Gaza has been severely impaired," Diskin told ministers at a meeting of the security cabinet.

The Shin Bet head added that many of Hamas's senior activists were hiding out in mosques and hospitals in Gaza, some of them in the guise of doctors and male nurses.

Source: Jerusalem Post, in Diskin: Hamas dealt a 'serious blow'

A Hamas representative in the PA legislative council this year expressed pride in the fact that women and children are used as human shields in fighting Israel. He described it as part of a "death industry" at which Palestinians excel, and explained that the Palestinians "desire death" with the same intensity that Israelis "desire life."

The following is the full text of the comments by Hamas representative Fathi Hamad: "For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life."

Source: Israel matzav, in Video: Hamas explains its use of human shields

A 21-year-old woman from Warsaw, Poland is volunteering at Magen David Adom's first aid and ambulance station in Ashkelon, which has already been hit by several rockets and missiles. Dominique Borovska said her parents were worried "but know I am a responsible girl and that the place where I am working is concerned about my safety."

A graduate of a first-aid course in the Polish Red Cross, Borovska took a refresher course at MDA before joining the ambulance staff. She is also a flute player and music student at Warsaw's conservatory and has a twin sister who is a ballet dancer.

Source: Jerusalem Post, in Polish volunteer dodges rockets for MDA in Ashkelon
[**Note** I volunteered with the MDA during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and this is a very worthy program to consider participating in. I hope to do it again someday, especially now that I am into taking video and photos and could share the experience with others.]







PRO-PALESTINIAN ISRAEL HATERS GATHER

Source: Blackfive, in Palestinian Protest at State Department

The most important thing is to listen to the rhetoric and lies in the videos. Notice there are very few Palestinians, very few Arabs speaking. The Arab Community, like IVAW, like every other group of “victims” are being used by the anti-war community to work us all up into a lather. But you can see that for yourself.

Source: This Ain't Hell, in Pallywood comes to DC

Surely Khomeini would be proud. Even though "Britain has called for an urgent ceasefire," that's not good enough. Nothing will ever be good enough -- not allowing sharia courts to operate in Britain, nor financially supporting Hamas. The more you concede, the more will be demanded of you -- till you live in complete submission in accordance to Koran 9:29: "Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection."

"Iranian students raid British Embassy residence in Gaza protest," from the Telegraph, December 30:

A group of Iranian students stormed the British diplomatic compound in Tehran on Tuesday evening, accusing London of supporting the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Iran's official news agency reported.

"A large group of people and students entered the Gholhak gardens, which are occupied by the British embassy, to protest at Britain's policies in supporting the Zionist regime and put up the Palestinian flag there," state news agency IRNA reported.

Source: Jihad Watch, in Iran: Students (i.e., "Muslim youth") raid British Embassy



See more of this protest here.


Pamela Geller has an excellent roundup of the major anti-Israel protests and counter-protests on Atlas Shrugs.


That is it for now, and likely the last update until next year.