Jihad Press

Hamas, the democratically elected governing party in the Gaza Strip, has proven to be a very effective concentrator of power. Despite the privations and hardship of life in the Gaza Strip, the group (labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department and the European Union) has flourished in the eyes of public opinion. Also known as the Islamic Resistance group, Hamas has taken living conditions in Gaza from bad to absolutely squalid. The organization gains power in a systematic fashion by which power begets power, and understanding this progression is key to stopping it.

Voting Hamas was a protest vote against Fatah for many in the Gaza Strip. Of course, the wisdom of voting for an anti-Semitic, genocidal, and generally insane organization whose charter explicitly demands the destruction of Israel among other similar gems is questionable at best, but the skill of basic factual analysis sometimes runs out during extended conflicts. In any case, Hamas is currently the majority government and has deigned it proper to use their authority in the most Machiavellian possible manner. The Islamic Resistance Group (Hamas) reigns over a devastated economy and a tired citizenry. Average daily income is pegged at two dollars, unemployment is at 45%, and 99.3% of the population practices Islam. Hamas uses all three of these factors to manufacture future suicide bombers and fighters to continue its endless war of conquest against Israel. But hey, fighting the big bad Zionists and its fictional international banking conglomerate is a global pastime, particularly in Europe where anti-Semitism is on the march. Again.

Hamas has succeeded in creating dependence due to the bargain-basement per capita income in Gaza. Average citizens are forced to depend on the government for daily necessities such as fuel oil, which is affected by the crippling Israeli inhumane blockade. Yeah, that same blockade that doesn’t exist. Citizens of Gaza are essentially victims of Stockholm syndrome- despite a plunging economy, terrifying conditions, and a government that cares more about killing Israelis than aiding Gazans, public support for Hamas is doing anything but slipping. That’s a bit like the city of Boston waging war against the rest of the US, getting leveled, and then reelecting the mayor; on the other hand, with all the decriminalized marijuana floating around, that’s not so farfetched.

The unemployment rate in the States has recently risen to 7.6%. Fortunately, we’re not shooting each other yet, though a few sad cases have resorted to shooting themselves. In the Gaza Strip, the situation is even grimmer. Unemployment has risen to a mind-blowing 45%. There’s an old English proverb suggesting that an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop. One need only examine the situation in Gaza to realize the wisdom of such a statement. Desperate poverty added to restless unemployed youth is a recipe for extremism, even excluding religious influences for the sake of argument.

Religious influences, however, are enormously important to the conflict in the Middle East. The Gaza Strip is 99.3% Islamic, and the Hamas Charter is 100% Islamist. Niceties like the separation of church and state are glossed over in favor of incitement to religious hatred. The words “Jew” and “Israel” are mentioned no less than 12 and 6 times respectively. “Jihad” is mentioned 36 times. Words of seemingly little import, like “economy”, are only mentioned once. At this point in time, Gaza is brimming with poverty-stricken, unemployed, and Muslim youth. These youth are naturally desirous of a central organizing body. You guessed it; instead of using their human capital clout to create products and improve living standards in the Strip, Hamas is happy to direct their attentions outward to a common cause- the destruction of Israel and Judaism in general.

Hamas is a dangerous organization hellbent on the destruction of the basic precepts upon which Western civilization rests. However, they are powerless without human and ideological capital. The key to limiting the scope of its actions is not to behead it by killing its leadership- to do so still leaves the teeming masses of poor unemployed Muslim youth looking for a cause. Instead, Israel must work to create economic improvement within the Gaza Strip. This cannot be done without removing Hamas, which has mismanaged the economy into the ground. Decisive action must be taken (and is destined to be taken at some point) to absolutely and completely debase Hamas’ power structure. Support for Hamas will remain viable until economic improvements are made, but Hamas is the main impediment to economic improvement. The fact that the group is more interested in killing Israeli citizens than ameliorating the situation in the Strip makes this much clear. Therefore, Israel must decisively crush Hamas and immediately follow up by pumping investment capital into the Gaza Strip lest the group regenerate. To create, Israel must first devastate. The question is whether or not the international community can stomach further military action in Gaza.

Sourced from Age of Pericles (opens in new window)

Popularity: 27% [?]

Almost a decade and a half passed since the time I heard about Salman Rushdie and Iran’s “unforgivable love ” for him. I picked up his “Satanic verses” a few weeks ago to find out where this “affection” is coming from. I did not finish first chapter yet and already like the book. Just take a look at the following few sentences:

But that was what women did, he thought in those days, they were the vessels into which he could pour himself, and when he moved on, they would understand that it was his nature, and forgive. And it was true that nobody blamed him for leaving, for his thousand and one pieces of thoughtlessness, how many abortions, Rekha demanded in the cloud-hole, how many broken hearts. In all those years he was the beneficiary of the infinite generosity of women, but he was its victim, too, because their forgiveness made possible the deepest and sweetest corruption of all, namely the idea that he was doing nothing wrong.

does it sound familiar to any of you ? That is what so called-Palestinian “defenders”, Hamas, Fatah, Qassam brigades, Mahmmud Abbas and most of all arafat were doing all along. Abusing and raping the world minds over and over and then would ask for forgiveness , or not. But they would always get one. It does not matter what they do, it will always be forgiven to them. Now they are corrupted, they don’t just want a forgiveness, no, they want it to be reality since in their minds nothing wrong is done on their side.
Let us hope that this one won’t be forgiven to them as usually and Israel will teach them how good boys must behave.

Technorati Tags: hamas, israel, palestine, middle east

Popularity: 2% [?]

There are many dozens of “Must know facts about Israel” out there, and most of them of course show you “facts” of how Israel “drinks blood” of  1 billion plus arabs.

I would move fact # 22 to first place.

22. Israel has been hated, rightfully or wrongfully for a long long time and it’s not about to change any time soon. Call it a family problem, if you will.

In any case this list has pretty interesting facts that would not hurt to know.

1. Israel is just 20,700 square kilometers. This is about two times the size of Hawaii or Massachusetts or the size of New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia, Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. It’s also comparable in size to Slovenia or Ecuador.

2. Though twice the land mass of Massachusetts, Israel has about the same number of people – 7,000,000ish

3. About two in three Israeli Jews were born in Israel. Three/fourths of the country are Jews. One in five immigrated there from Europe or the Americas. The rest came from other parts of Asia and Africa.

4. One in six Israelis are Muslim.

5. Israel has two official languages – Hebrew and Arabic. Most Israelis can communicate in English, too.

6. Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is at the heart of three world-wide religions – Jews, Christians and Muslims. Three out of four Israelis are Jews, one in six are Muslim and less than 2% are Christian.

7. Israel has won just seven Olympic gold medals, but representatives from the country have won 100 Paraolympic gold medals.

8. Israel’s neighbors (boundaries) are: Egypt (266 km), Gaza Strip (51 km), Jordan (238 km), Lebanon (79 km), Syria (76 km), West Bank (307 km). There is 273km of coast line. (1.62km – 1 mile)

9. Israel naturally fears sandstorms during spring and summer, droughts and from time to time – earthquakes. They don’t seem to fear much else.

You can find the whole list by following this link.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Israeli Matzav have very interesting read on Israeli ex-IDF officers involvement in Georgia. The problem is they took IDF secret materials with themselves to establish private security company called “Defensive Shield”.

Brigadier General (Res.) Gal Hirsch was the commander of Division 91 in the IDF. He resigned after the Almog Committee (which preceded Winograd) named him as responsible for the kidnapping of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev at the outset of the Second Lebanon War in July 2006.
When Hirsch left the IDF, he set up a company called Defensive Shield, which was providing training to Georgian soldiers - the same Georgian soldiers who were overrun by the Russians this past week. This YNet story is based on an interview with a reservist whose name is given as "Tomer" who was working for Hirsch in Georgia.

It won’t take long until Russians share those documents and CDs with their “brothers” in Gaza and Iran.

Technorati Tags: Israel, georgia, idf, russian,

Linky: http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2008/08/russians-found-confidential-idf.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

Very interesting post by Shira bat Sarah. I suggest you to read the whole post.

This is the cost of terrorism. This is the cost of calling terrorists like Arafat “men of peace”. This is the cost of blindingly condemning Israel at every turn while ignoring the corruption in the Palestinian Authority and its unwillingness to stop the terrorists in its midst. This is the cost of various church groups, academic associations, the UN, and various NGOs who constantly condemn Israel. This is the cost of those who seek the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel instead of looking to build a peaceful society. This is the cost of choosing a society of death instead of one of life. And the ones who pay the dearest price are those Palestinians everyone says they are so concerned about. It seems to me that the Jewish State of Israel shows more concern for Palestinians than the Palestinian Authority, the UN, the Arab League, church groups, NGOs, and academic associations.

Link: shira bat sarah

Popularity: unranked [?]

There is a new truce agreement between Israel and hamas. http://www.dw-world.de. That is not the news. The question is, how long do you think  will it last ?

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Technorati Tags: israel, hamas, middle east, peace

Popularity: unranked [?]

While many New-Yorker’s are preparing for celebration of Salute to Israel Parade (it’s getting 60 in case if you did not know) some pro-palestinian and leftist groups getting ready to counter protest it.

Parade Route and Time Span

The Parade route begins at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue and continues north on Fifth Avenue to 79th Street. The Parade will take place from 11 AM to 4:30 PM rain or shine.

See you all at the parade. Congratulations to Israel!!!

Popularity: 6% [?]