Middle East
November 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, in commenting on President Obama’s apparent conclusion that the Muslim Brotherhood represents the wave of the future in the Middle East, I noted the unimpressive nature of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s electoral victory. But it is not popularity that makes Morsi and the Brotherhood look like the wave of the future. Rather, it is their will to power — the same sort of will that made Hitler and Stalin
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November 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I haven’t seen a better analysis of the cease-fire agreement that ended, for now, the conflict between Israel and Hamas than this one by David Goldman in FrontPage Magazine. Here are excerpts: Hamas fires 275 rockets at Israel and is rewarded with de facto acceptance as a legitimate negotiating partner in the Middle East peace process, as well as with a relaxation of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza coast.
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November 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Fareed Zakaria claims that Israel dominates the New Middle East. He concludes, therefore, that Israel’s existence is not in danger. But in his analysis, Zakaria never once mentions Iran. I think it’s widely understood that Zakaria is overrated as a pundit. With this column, he shows himself to be unserious.
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November 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s take a preliminary look at the advantages and disadvantages of the cease fire agreement, from an Israeli and traditional pro-Western perspective. There are two big advantages. First, the agreement puts an end, at least for now, to the bombardment of Israel. I suspect that Hamas was approaching the end of its ability effectively to bombard and, for this reason, was willing to agree to the cease fire. Even so,
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November 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Bret Stephens, one of my favorite commentators, acknowledges that he was wrong to support Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Max Boot stops just short of such an admission. Thus prompted, I decided to check out what I wrote about disengagement from Gaza at the time. Here is what I said: Natanyahu [who had just resigned from the government in protest of leaving Gaza] is correct on the merits of
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November 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The bombing of the bus in Tel Aviv confirms the folly of attempting to negotiate a cease fire with Hamas at this time. If Israel wants to end attacks by Hamas for an extended period, it needs to defeat Hamas militarily. If Israel wants to show that the “Arab Spring” has not altered the Middle East to Israel’s detriment, it needs to defeat Hamas militarily. If Israel wants to maximize
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November 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
We gave Obama credit for his initial reaction to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, namely that Israel “has the right to defend itself” against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their “military tactics and operations.” We recognized, however, that Obama would likely back away from this line if the conflict dragged on for an extended period of time. As it turned out, Obama reversed
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November 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
If you took the world’s liberal media seriously, you might think that Hamas is a group of human rights activists whose worst sin is protesting against Israel’s “occupation.” Occupation of what? Not Gaza, obviously. But the truth is that Hamas is a brutal, inhuman terrorist organization–worse, a brutal, inhuman terrorist organization that is supported by many, perhaps most, inhabitants of Gaza. To see how subhuman Hamas is, watch this video.
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November 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The Israeli public overwhelmingly backs its government’s decision to launch operation Pillar of Defense in response to Hamas’ rocket attacks against southern Israel. A poll taken for the Israeli Center for Political Training found that 85 percent of Israelis believe embarking on the operation was the correct decision. Israelis divide, however, on the question of what should happen next. According to the same poll, 45 percent favor continuing the air
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November 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Israel apparently has succeeded in significantly degrading Hamas’ rocket capacity. Hamas continues to launch rockets into southern Israel, but for the first time in several days it launched none of the longer range missiles that can reach Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Israel’s priority has been to take out these missiles and it seems to be succeeding. Unfortunately, Hamas is thought to retain thousands of missiles capable of reaching southern Israel.
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November 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
In many ways, the current battle between Israel and Hamas is a familiar one. Hamas persists in launching rockets into Israel; Israel responds by targeting Hamas’ leaders and its rockets, and amasses troops for a possible invasion; Hamas launches potentially deadly but largely ineffective missile attacks at Israeli population centers; the world fixates on inadvertent Palestinian civilian casualties; and the U.S. publicly supports Israel while privately trying to defuse the
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November 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The big news over the weekend was that Israel did not launch a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel says it held off on the invasion to allow time for efforts at reaching a long-term cease-fire to continue. But Israel has also said that, although it prefers a diplomatic solution, any agreement must erase the threat of rocket attacks against Israel’s southern residents. This would seem to be an obvious point.
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November 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Paul Danahar is the BBC Middle East Bureau Chief and Chairman of the Middle East’s Foreign Press Association. He is camped out in Gaza City and its Shifa Hospital, reporting the sights and sounds of the war in which Israel is seeking to suppress Hamas’s rocket/missile capability. It is a capability that Hamas has freely used over the past 10 years to target Israeli civilians and generate terror among the
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November 17, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s give President Obama credit for his public line on Israel’s conflict with Hamas. The White House has declared that Israel “has the right to defend itself” against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their “military tactics and operations.” If the conflict becomes particularly bloody and/or drags on for an extended period, Obama will likely go wobbly, as even George W. Bush did during Israel’s
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November 17, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Israel’s decision to leave Gaza some years ago meant that it could no longer police that cesspool of a Strip, and thus that it would suffer from the rocket attacks that have plagued it ever since. Now, Isreal’s only recourse is periodically to intervene in Gaza. That’s what is happening now, and the intervention might entail another invasion. Given that the Israelis must tackle Gaza every few years anyway to
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November 16, 2012 — John Hinderaker
If you know who Kim Kardashian is, you probably don’t have a very high opinion of her. I know more than most about the Kardashians because my daughters are fans of their reality TV show, and over the years I have sometimes walked into a room when they had the Kardashian sisters on. So if you lined up Kim, Khloe and Kourtney, I could tell which was which. And my
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November 14, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City has killed the commander of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, according to officials of both Israel and Hamas. The dead commander is Ahmed Jabari, said to be the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago. The Wall Street Journal says that Jabari had long topped Israel’s most-wanted list and was blamed by Israel
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