Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad

No doubt they've already bought the rope

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 04:14 AM PDT

In UN Out to Lynch Israel? Hey, They're Not Even Subtle About It!, Barry Rubin focuses on a couple of UN officials who are being picked to judge Israel's behavior.

One is Ahmed Motala, who is coordinating the committee to follow up on the hopelessly corrupt Goldstone report. Motala wrote that Israel launched Cast Lead with an eye towards the upcoming elections in early 2009. Prof Rubin writes:

Now this is the kind of nonsense written about Israel that should permanently bar anyone dumb enough to say such things barred permanently from dealing with the issue. The war had nothing to do with the elections but with the fact that--despite Israel's government pleas--Hamas publicly tore up the existing ceasefire and began firing dozens of rockets at Israeli civilians.

If someone can't even understand this, they are hopeless. For one thing, they have turned Israel from a democratic country to a land ruled by comic-book villains. Mu-ha-ha! chortled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Let's kill some Palestinian children in order to get more votes!

The other official he mentions is Christian Tomuschat who will be chairing that committee. Tomuschat has an interesting history:

On one or two occasions he did work for then PA Cahriman Yasir Arafat, advising him on how he could more effectively get his way over Israel. In a 2002 study he did, Tomuschat hs already said that countries cannot investigate their own militaries, precisely the issue he is supposed to decide on as a fair and neutral judge in this situation. Oh, and in 2007 he stated that Israel's targeted killings of terrorists who had murdered Israelis was an act of state terrorism.

Of course if the members of the Goldstone followup committee are biased against Israel and have clearly already made up their minds about Israel's guilt, it's hardly surprsing. Daled Amos asked about the original report, Seriously! Isn't There Anyone Associated With The Goldstone Report Who Didn't Condemn Israel In Advance?

By the way, over the weekend, two rockets were shot from Gaza at Israel. The UN was silent. No surprise there.

Barak on withdrawals and peace

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 03:56 AM PDT

Yesterday's Washington Post featured an interview with Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak.

Meryl noted a too typical assumption made by the reporter.

Israel Matzav played up a threat made by Barak, but has little confidence that the Defense Minister will act as tough as he talks.

I found this response to be interesting.

WP: Will you be looking for something specific in terms of funding or technology regarding Israel's Iron Dome system that is meant to defend Israeli towns against rocket attacks?

Barak:...

Now we bear in mind that after we pulled out of Lebanon 10 years ago under my premiership it ended up that the area is now full with tens of thousands of rockets or missiles covering the whole state of Israel. In some five or 10 years they will become accurate enough not just to terrorize urban populations but also to be operational against concrete targets. You know, chosen targets. That could easily make Israel with probably four or five power plants, one international airport, 1.5 golf courses, that's all of the country. We are a very tiny country so we need to have this protection.

We did it once in Lebanon. We pulled out and ended up with an area full of rockets and missiles. We did it next in Gaza and ended up with an area full of rockets covering Tel Aviv as well as other parts of the south and half of Israel. And within the framework of considering an agreement with the Palestinians that will establish a Palestinian state side by side with Israel we should make sure that the three underlying principles of our security are fully assured, namely the West Bank will not become like Gaza and southern Lebanon, another launching pad for rockets against the coastal plane of Israel, the kind of terror wave that flooded Israel with blood spilling in the streets in 2001-2003, all of them practically from the West Bank, will not repeat itself and that in the future if the whole overall situation, geopolitical situation changes and we face once again an eastern front, which is not existing now, we will be able to respond. All these elements should be answered within a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Clearly, with the Syrians and Lebanese, it should be answered. So we need this main pillar which is multi-layered interception system as well as the offensive capabilities and technologies for border inspection and early warning.

Barak here acknowledges that the Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza led to more not less terror. And he seems to be saying that a major part of any peace deal will be the deployment of a defensive system like Iron Dome. Unless I'm reading this wrong, even a dove like Barak, feels that an essential element to peace is for Israel to be able to defend itself from attacks orignating from the PA. That's either an admission that he doesn't much trust the PA's peaceful intentions, or if he does, that he doesn't believe that the PA will be able to prevent an eventual takeover by Hamas.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Will the federal government sue itself?

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:07 AM PDT

A recent Reuters report shows that many illegal immigrants are fleeing Arizona.

This leads Hot Air to observe:

Next, it reveals the disingenuous response from Washington DC. The federal government keeps saying that it lacks the resources to enforce the laws it has, but quite obviously, Arizona has much fewer resources than the Obama administration, and all they had to do was pass a law and make it stick. If the federal government took its job seriously rather than look to pander to Hispanic voters with its deliberate incompetence on immigration enforcement, the issue would mostly resolve itself with little effort -- and the resources remaining would be more than sufficient to deal with those left.

Interestingly, the Washington Post just reported (via memeorandum):

In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.

How does the administration find the aliens to deport?

On the ground, a program known as Secure Communities uses the fingerprints of people in custody for other reasons to identify deportable immigrants. Morton predicts it will "overhaul the face of immigration." The administration has expanded the system to 437 jails and prisons from 14 and aims to extend it to "every law enforcement jurisdiction" by 2013.

The Secure Communities project has identified 240,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, according to DHS figures. Of those, about 30,000 have been deported, including 8,600 convicted of what the agency calls "the most egregious offenses."

So the federal government is looking into the immigration status of law breakers. How is this different from the new Arizona law that the administration is fighting?

Last week the Post had an article profiling some residents of Arizona near the border. It fairly described the fear of those who are scared of the illegal border crossers. It also described the fear of a woman who thinks she will be profiled. I could have done without the sympathetic portrayal of an undocumented alien at the end though.

Down a gravel driveway, behind a locked gate, a man who preferred that only his first name, Marco, be used, considered that question.

He arrived in Tucson seven years ago on a tourist visa, found work framing the new houses. He got a paycheck then and paid taxes. He brought his wife and two kids to join him, and they moved to Benson, where he works for a rancher.

"We're not just here to benefit," said Marco, 37. "We're also giving."


Question of the day

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 11:36 PM PDT

From Legal Insurrection.

If you're happy and you know it ...

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 11:21 PM PDT

... you're Israeli.

How the results were determined..

As summarized at the Daily Alert Blog:

Israel tied for 8th place with Australia, Switzerland, and Canada in a Gallup World Poll survey of 155 countries that measures well-being.

Denmark, Finland and Norway led the list, the U.S. tied with Austria for 14th place, while the highest ranking Arab country, the United Arab Emirates, was 20th.

Israel's neighbors ranked as follows: Egypt (115 tied), Syria (115 tied), Jordan (52), and Lebanon (73).

Crossposted on Yourish.

Boxer my ayes

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 10:26 PM PDT

Remember this?

At the time Blackfive commented:

BG Walsh was showing Barbara Boxer respect by calling her "Ma'am" instead of "Senator." Believe me, the title "Senator" does not really hold a whole lot of credibility in the US military. It's a job, and a Corporal leading a team in Baqubah has more honor than most of those holding that title.

Sir or Ma'am is showing Barbara Boxer respect that doesn't have to be shown to her. BG Walsh can call her Senator all day and night. Instead, the general called her "Ma'am" - a term in deference to her and to show respect for what she earned.

But if she wants to be associated with that den of corruption and incompetence, be my guest.

Now Senator Boxer is again showing her disrespect for those in uniform (via memeorandum).

"We know that if you have veterans in one place where they can befriend each other and talk to each other. You know when you've gone through similar things you need to share it. I don't care whether you are a policeman or a fireman or a veteran or by chance a member of Congress," the California senator said. "[Democratic Rep.] Maxine [Waters] and I could look at each other and roll our eyes. We know what we are up against. And it is hard for people who are not there to understand the pressure and the great things that go along with it and the tough things that go along with it."

(Emphases mine)
Yep, serving in the military is just like serving in Congress. Or maybe not, Hot Air clarifies:

As for the clip, her comparison isn't merely between serving in Congress and in the military; she mentions cops and firefighters too, which I think is her clumsy way of saying that public servants in high-pressure jobs of whatever stripe forge a certain camaraderie to cope with the stress. Fair enough, I guess, although it takes a singularly tone-deaf politician to lump her own profession in with those that risk death daily in the interest of saving lives, especially given the mood among voters at this particular moment.

Or maybe she's just "stuck hear in ..." the Senate.

I see that Cassy Fiano beat me to the punch.
Posted by Soccer Dad at 10:18 PM

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