#1
Wretchard posted this in Belmont Club; it seems appropriate here:
"Islamic societies everywhere are being corroded, perhaps fatally, by the Jihad against the infidel. Their own choice of symbol -- the suicide bomber -- perhaps best illustrates the ultimate effect of their mode of warfare. The headless, explosive-shattered corpse may represent not simply the fate of the individual attacker but the society which spawned him. The Jihad expels a terrible toxicity as a waste product, which like carbon monoxide in a submarine, poisons the entire atmosphere till unchecked it is nothing but a cylindrical metal tomb."
As the Palestinian internecine violence in Gaza becomes increasingly severe, alarm in Israel and the US about what is going to happen there grows apace. The prevailing wisdom, promoted for some time now, is that the most constructive approach involves fortifying Fatah so that it might defeat Hamas, which currently has the upper hand.
This thinking recently fostered a US allocation of $56 million to strengthen forces loyal to [PA president and head of Fatah] Mahmoud Abbas. Now this very same thinking has led to a request by the US that Israel permit the transfer of arms, ammunition and military equipment from Jordan or Egypt, once again to forces loyal to Abbas.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been saying recently in closed-door meetings that with all their corruption and other problems, Fatah at least says it is interested in dialogue and wants a two-state solution. Hamas, he has pointed out, is less corrupt, but does not hide its desire to annihilate Israel. (emphasis added)
One would be hard put to advance a more tentative argument for supporting Abbas. Olmert along with President Bush and several other heads of state is following the Abbas is the best weve got, so we have no choice but to go with him school of thought. It is blatantly obvious that Olmert has no confidence that Fatah means what it says; what is more, implicit in his position is the uneasy knowledge that Fatah is not without a desire to annihilate Israel, but that, unlike Hamas, it is hiding it.
Those who promote the expectation that Abbas and his Fatah will turn out to be a force for moderation are living in a bubble of their own construction. The Posts Khaled Abu Toameh recently punched a large hole in that bubble. To that end, Abu Toameh shared some basic information: Fatah has between 20,000 and 30,000 militiamen in the Gaza Strip; additionally, there are some 40,000 police and security officers belonging to various security forces that are almost all loyal to Abbas and Fatah. Hamas, in total, has some 15,000 militiamen in Gaza, belonging either to Hamass military wing, Izaddin Kassam, or to its paramilitary Executive Force. Not only are Hamass militia outnumbered by the Fatah militia, but they are not as well trained.
In spite of the apparent disparity in numbers, however, Fatah forces have not roundly defeated Hamas because not all of Fatah is committed to the battle. In fact, some of its groups are very clearly opposed, expressing considerable reluctance to taking on their fellow Palestinians. An infusion of arms, ammunition and military equipment will not change this situation. Yet the Bush administration proceeds on the ignorant presumption that it will.
That is not the only problem. As it turns out, Fatahs reluctance to do battle with Hamas is not even the greatest stumbling block to a victory for forces of moderation within the Palestinian Authority. There is also the small matter of a Fatah connection with Iran.
Irans direct connection to Hamas is openly discussed and widely acknowledged. Where Fatah is concerned, the issues are more complex; but the link has been established. In March, Brig. Gen. (res.) Shalom Harari, a Senior Research Scholar with the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, wrote an Issue Brief for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in which he noted: There is a growing strategic alliance between Iran and the radical Palestinian forces in the territories. Iran is involved in supporting both the Islamic factions and Fatah, as well. Today, at least 40 percent of Fatahs different fighting groups are also paid by Hezbollah and Iran.
Corroborating Hararis analysis, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, head of the IDF Southern Command, wrote an Issue Brief for the JCPA one month later in which he observed: A few years ago, Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigade in Judea and Samaria was bought out by Iran. Checks with various security and intelligence sources have provided additional confirmation of this information. Iranian funding of Fatah is not direct, but comes through the conduit of Hezbollah and goes in the main to Al Aqsa Brigades.
The government of Israel, living in that aforementioned bubble, maintains that Al Aqsa, although originally a spin-off from Fatah, is no longer part of Fatah and no longer answers to Abbas. This spin makes it possible to continue to promote Fatah as potentially moderate, in spite of Al Aqsas very radical connections. Experts refute this scenario, however. Said one security source who provided background information: Abbas is formally the commander of Al Aqsa he has little to do with them to ensure deniability but privately supports Al Aqsa. US money to PA security agencies go to Al Aqsa people as well. Indeed, Abbas has ensured that most of the Al Aqsa people are on the payroll.
Col.(Ret) Jonathan Fighel, who was previously with IDF Intelligence and now serves as a Senior Research Scholar for the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, expressed regret that the Israeli government was maintaining its current position: In order to justify the on-going dialogue with [Mahmoud Abbas] this misleading information is presented, he said. As far as I know Al Aqsa Brigades are part of Fatah. The claim that they are an undisciplined faction is true. But still they belong to Fatah and are loyal to its agenda. Their violence can be used also by [Abbas] himself for political reason. The bottom line: One should be very careful with the Palestinian claim that Al Aqsa Brigades are completely separate, which is not true.
It would be naïve in the extreme to assume that Abbas is unaware of the Iranian support provided to a militia loyal to him, or that he would fail to utilize that support for his purposes. The implications are enormous and counter all notions of his being a moderate. In the face of the evidence, the decision to uncritically bolster Fatah looks like a very bad idea, indeed.
HT No Pasaran! for the english media covering of this. For those who don't know the character, here is the wikipedia entry.
This is for anyone who thinks that political correctness is an English-speaking phenomenon.
The cartoon exploits of Astérix may be enjoyed by millions of children around the world, but the ancient Gaulish hero has just been declared unfit to be official ambassador for children's rights. He is too French, too violent, he perpetuates stereotypes and his outlook conflicts with the spirit of the European Union.
That, at least, is the view of the French branch of Defence for Children International (DCI). Astérix and his fat friend Obélix ran into trouble after Dominique Versini, the state Children's Defender adopted them to promote the United Nations convention on the Rights of Children. Albert Uderzo, the 80-year-old co-creator of Astérix produced an online album and devoted the proceeds of his birthday tribute album this year to the children's cause.
The DCI organisation says that Astérix conveys an "archaic...hierarchical" world at odds with the "revolutionary" values of the 1989 convention. This stresses the child's existence as a being with rights while children in Astérix are fragile objects that need to be protected, said Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig, a senior juvenile judge who heads the French DCI. Btw, IIUC, this guy is the chief judge at the Bobigny juvenile court, at the heart of the "diverse" Seine-Saint-Denis; not only is the Bobigny court famous for its laxism and left-leaning, and for the various scandals that have emerged recently, but a french mag published a long article about the daily life there, and it was like a scene out of Mad Max 1, with civilized society crumbling down, and judges and court workers terrified by the accused and their families/posse, people urinating in the stairs, omnipresent fears of being assaulted or having his car torched,...
Astérix also projects "a Gaulish vision which ignores the intercultural reality of French society," they say. His constant resistance against the Romans and other foreign invaders sends altogether the wrong message in the peace-loving European Union. "You shall be assimilated!"
In a 19-point list, the organisation lists the other negative ideas that Astérix projects. "The universe of Astérix and Obélix, two characters devoid of parents, spouses or children, makes few references to family relationships and these are most often reduced to conjugal relations and stereotype representations," it says. There was no room for "gangs of trouble-making and challenging children," it said.
It congratulated Obélix for tackling the problem of obesity but faulted the cartoon for failing to deal with unsanitary housing. The child defenders are also upset that Astérix delivers "a eulogy to tribal, hierarchical, society with frequent references to a chief." The right to education is sadly depicted by a woman school-teacher telling pupils: "Get into rows in silence please," adds the DCI.
Versini, a former junior minister who was appointed by President Chirac last year, called the fuss "a storm in a teacup". "We thought that the adventures of Astérix would enable us to speak to children about their rights with humour and tenderness," she told Le Monde. Her campaign continues over the objections of the rights organisation.
They used to split French cartoon fans into two camps: Astérix and Tintin. If you loved one, you didn't go for the other. I have always been a Tintinophile. The world of the late Hergé's boy reporter is far richer and deeper than the antics of Astérix (more on that later). After the death in 1977 of René Goscinny, the brilliant story writer, the Uderzo-only Astérix lost its satirical side and has since played to sentiment. Behind their jargon, his detractors at the Défense des Enfants International just seem to be annoyed by the wholesome childish flavour of this Astérix world.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
