It was fun laughing at Sarah Palin for a few weeks.   She essentially writes her own jokes.  Just ask Saturday Night Live.

But when it comes to answering questions about the Middle East, you’d think every politician with interest in holding a high ranking Federal position could AT THE VERY LEAST be able to answer questions fluidly about three things; The Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Iran, and Iraq.   Those are the big three.  You should know your shit.  Especially if you’re running for Vice President.

Then WHY is it so hard for Palin to communicate clearly about Hamas?  We all know she doesn’t support the Palestinian government labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.  Then why does she give shit-ass answers like this?

Couric asked, “What happens if the goal of democracy doesn’t produce the desired outcome? In Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections and Hamas won.”

“Yeah, well especially in that region, though, we have to protect those who do seek democracy and support those who seek protections for the people who live there. What we’re seeing in the last couple of days here in New York is a President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, who would come on our soil and express such disdain for one of our closest allies and friends, Israel … and we’re hearing the evil that he speaks and if hearing him doesn’t allow Americans to commit more solidly to protecting the friends and allies that we need, especially there in the Mideast, then nothing will.”

WHAT?  The question asked to Palin was her opinion of Hamas as a democratically elected government and she answered with a shpeal about protecting those who seek democracy?  (And then jabbers on about the Iranian President visiting New York to boot.)

It’s quite easy to interpret her answer as encouraging the terrorist organization Hamas.  I know that’s not what she meant by the answer, but that’s exactly what it sounds like.

The confusion results in articles like this:  Sarah Palin Endorses Hamas.

You won’t find either a Republican or a Democratic candidate come out right and say that they support Hamas.  This is a no brainer.

What you do get (as with Sarah Palin), are misinformed or simply ignorant politicians with little experience in foreign policy spouting random answers to questions they simply don’t understand.  These ill formulated answers then evolve into politicians like Palin sounding, well, completely stupid.

Popularity: 2% [?]

On September 25th, Paul McCartney will play a historic concert in Tel Aviv after the Beatles were banned there 43 years ago.

Of course, life would be far too easy for Sir Paul if he could simply waltz into Tel Aviv, play his songs of love, peace, and musings of a run-away band without the occasional death threat from Muslim leaders.

Paul McCartney, let me introduce you to Ahmed the terrorist:

An Islamic militant leader warned that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney could be the target of suicide bombers unless he cancels his first concert in Israel, reported the British Sunday Express.

The celebrated rock star plans to arrive in Israel as part of a world tour, and give a single concert at Tel Aviv’s Park Hayarkon on September 25.

Omar Bakri, an Islamic preacher, said McCartney’s decision to perform as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations made him the enemy of Muslims worldwide.

“If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel,” Bakri was quoted as saying. “He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

Bakri added, “Instead of supporting the people of Palestine in their suffering, McCartney is celebrating the atrocities of the occupiers,” Bakri was quoted as saying. “The one who is under occupation is supposed to be getting the help.”

And in related news, Paul McCartney announces that he’ll open his Tel Aviv concert with “Come and Get It”.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Not even Jordon or Lebanon want the Palestinians. So much for Arab brotherhood:

With reports about the Israeli proposals to the Palestinians replete with hints about progress on the issues of the refugees and border demarcation, Jordan and Lebanon have cause for concern - particularly with regard to the refugee question.

“The Jordanian option does not exist,” King Abdullah made a point of declaring last week in an interview to the French weekly L’Express. Abdullah is worried about what Abbas told Arab newspapers last month after visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Back then the Palestinian president said he could not demand that Israel accept all the refugees, but that this need not mean that none of them would return. “It is untenable for me to propose that five million refugees return to Israel, because they [the Israelis] will immediately tell me that I am out to liquidate the state. But it is also untenable for me to say that none of them will return. Compensation must be paid to those who return and to those who do not return, and also to the countries that hosted the refugees.”

For Jordan, whose population is more than 60 percent Palestinian, the problem concerns the country’s character and identity. Even before the second intifada, and more so in its course, when concern arose that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would cross the border into Jordan, the prime minister at the time, Ali Abu al-Ragheb, announced that his government would not grant citizenship to even one additional Palestinian. That approach is even more deeply ingrained today.

With nearly two million Palestinians and another 700,000 refugees from Iraq living in Jordan, the country is barely able to create its own national identity. The slogan “We are one family,” intended to show Jordan’s solidarity with the Palestinian problem, was changed to “Jordan first.” Publicists in Jordan have written that the slogan should really be “Jordanians first,” implying that the Palestinians who hold Jordanian citizenship are not truly brothers.

Read the complete article here.

Popularity: 2% [?]

An Israeli court ruled in favor of the Palestinian Authority paying retribution for the death of an American couple.  The couple were shot in 1996 by Hamas gunmen in Israel inside of their car.

Of course, the Palestinian Authority is arguing the ruling and provides the following reason to the court:

The Palestinian Authority’s pleading in the case was not made public, but an attorney for the plaintiffs summarized it for CNN. The attorney said the Palestinian Authority asked the court to throw out the case because an unfavorable judgment would make the organization liable for such large sums from this and other cases that it would go bankrupt.

Sooooo….  the PA is arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay retribution to this family because THEN they’d have to pay for ALL the families who’ve been subjected to their terrorist attacks.  That’s an air-tight argument if I ever heard one.

Popularity: 3% [?]

….and apparently it isn’t because they think he’s Muslim.

I guess that phone call I got the other night from Gaza wasn’t a death threat after all.  Instead it was the ever delusional organizer of the “All This for Peace” organization (and I use the word organization very loosely), Abu Jayyeb, a 23-year old student from Gaza.

Give us more details, Abu-baboo:

[He] relies on his colleagues and friends to make the actual phone calls because he feels his own command of English is not up to the task. His knowledge of technology, however, very much is. Utilizing Voip and Skype, Ibrahim has crafted a system of politicking that runs on almost no cost in dollars (or shekels), but requires a great deal of patience and persistence. According to Ibrahim, 19 out every 20 calls his group makes ends with an unceremonious “hang-up.”

What amazing technological prowess this guy has. I can’t believe he knows how to click the “Download” button for a fucking free P2P communications program like Skype. He’s a genius!

Right, so, the guy knows how to download a program and dial an American phone number. How much damage is he doing?

Ibrahim told The Media Line that during the past seven months his group has reached between 5,000 and 6,000 Americans. If his assertion of 1-out-of-20 completed calls is accurate, 120,000 calls have been placed. Asked how he could weather such mass rejection, he replied, “It’s worth it.”

Seven months multiplied by 30 days divided by 6,000 calls =  14.3 phones calls per day.

Wow.  Look out America.  Another drop of unwanted solicitation is just a ring away.

Popularity: 4% [?]

During a visit with Lebanese officials, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas officially affirms the right of Palestinians to return to their traditional homeland in Israel.

On a related note, I’m officially affirming my right to drink amaretto stone sours while driving 100 MPH on the Kennedy Expressway while doing lines of coke off my dashboard.

What’s that you say? Nothing I say actually means shit? Maybe Abbas and I have more in common than I thought.

Abbas said all Palestinians should have the right to return home.

When it comes to armed Palestinian factions, however, Abbas said he supports any decisions the Lebanese government makes on how to deal with militants outside refugee camps.

Abbas spoke to reporters Thursday in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

About 400,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in a dozen refugee camps in Lebanon, which were set up when Israel was created in 1948.

Many Lebanese also oppose the permanent resettlement of Palestinian refugees, fearing they would tip the country’s delicate sectarian balance.

Glad that problem’s taken care of.  Now where’s my refill?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Remember that Austrian guy who locked his daughter in a basement for 24 years?  This story is sorta like that only the children were locked in an underground cave…. in the Holy Land….  and with less vacationing in Thailand:

Nablus – Ma’an – Police in the West Bank city of Hebron arrested a man for allegedly imprisoning his son and daughter, who are now in their thirties, in two caves for over 20 years.

Police said they found the siblings in the adjoining caves during a security sweep for drugs and weapons dealers.

Only one passage leads to the two caves, which lack light and ventilation.

The siblings were taken for medical and psychological treatment.

Preliminary investigations show that the suspect was a widower who remarried. He and his wife told the police that the children were mentally disabled, and they locked them away to “avoid embarrassment.”

On Monday police announced that arrests had been made in a similar case, where a man chained and tortured his maid and young daughter in Bethlehem.

Plato would be so proud.

Popularity: 4% [?]

….absolutely nothing besides ungratefulness:

Muhammas Hussein was waiting for his nephew Fayez, who has been jailed for five years. “It’s hard to say we are happy,” he said. “It’s true we are satisfied with Fayez’s release, but it’s hard to say that this move is even a drop in the sea, because it’s much less.

“What are 200 prisoners out of more than 10,000? I don’t know how they can talk about a gesture? What gesture? Where is the gesture?”

This is exactly why peace negotiations are describe as far from possible.

Did I mention that two of the Palestinian men released today were serving life sentences for murder?

Said al-Atba was convicted for his part in a 1977 explosion in Petah Tikva’s market that killed Russian immigrant Tzila Galili, 54, who had made aliya four years earlier. The longest-held Palestinian prisoner, Atba had been convicted of bomb-making, planting explosives, illegal military training and membership in a illegal organization.

Muhammad Abu Ali had been jailed for life for the fatal shooting of 20-year-old yeshiva student Joshua Saloma, a newly arrived Danish immigrant, in Hebron in 1980. He was later convicted of killing a Palestinian in jail whom he had accused of collaborating with Israel.

I can’t see how any of the prisioner releases will be worthwhile in the end.  As long as Hamas is in control of Palestine, peace negotians will never conclude and Olmert will continue to go down in history as the most damning Israeli Prime Minister ever.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It’s like trying to resuscitate an already vegetative corps:

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority will receive a financial boost from Saudi Arabia to help Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pay public sector salaries, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

“The Saudi finance minister told the Palestinian Authority that the decision was made to transfer $100 million,” said Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki.

Malki said the money was part of pledges made to the Palestinian Authority at a donors conference in Paris in December and expected the transfer to arrive in the coming days.

Fayyad has struggled in recent months to pay government workers because many Arab donors have not met their financial commitments.

Maybe because the Arab donors are smart enough not to actually donate money to the palsyated Hamas government.  Pledging money is one thing (It’s great for public relations.  Arab brotherhood and all), but actually GIVING them the money??

Speaking of Arab support of Palestine, the ever dubious DEBKA file “military source” suggests a mainly Egyptian military force of 3,000 will be pledged to “assist” the impoverished Palestine:

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a new 11-point scheme, just developed by Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, provides for the bulk of the 3,000-strong force to be Egyptian. The plan would effectively restore Egypt’s pre-1967 domination of the Gaza Strip.

It will be presented to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak when he visits Mubarak’s summer palace in Alexandria, Tuesday, Aug. 26.

In 1967, (The Six Day War as dubbed by Israel) Egypt had complete control over the Gaza strip during it’s war with Israel.  Are they suggesting a “softer” occupation in conjunction with Israeli and Saudi support?

Popularity: 4% [?]

It sends a message to capture even more Israeli soldiers.

When Olmert decided to exchange several high profile Lebanese prisoners for two deceased Israeli soldiers, I was shocked.  His heart was in the right place but we’re not dealing with the usual suspects here.  It reveals the Israeli Achilles’ heal.  At the end of August, Olmert will do it again but this time releasing 150 Palestinian prisoners.

This news item from Palestine is EXACTLY why I think Olmert’s decision is fatally wrong:

PRC rehearses kidnapping of IDF soldier

The Salah al-Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), conducted an exercise in Beit Hanoun on Saturday in which it rehearsed a raid of an IDF base and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

PRC spokesman Abu Abir told Ynet that the drill was aimed at sending a message that “if the Israelis don’t resolve the Palestinian prisoners issue soon and contemplate attacking Gaza, the Palestinian resistance is prepared to not only defend the Strip but also take the initiative and kidnap more soldiers who will never see the light of day unless a prisoner exchange deal is signed.”

It’s a veritable gold mine for the Palestinians.  Capture Israeli soldiers and be rewarded.

To ad insult to injury, the PRC spokesman added:

According to Abu Abir, some 50 PRC members took part in the drill, adding that the gunmen who portrayed the kidnapped IDF soldier “looked very much like Gilad Shalit”.

You’re poking the lion with that one, Mr. Abir.

Popularity: 4% [?]