News – Musing Gaza (1/2)
Israel/Palestine
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi is the new head of Hamas has said the military wing of Hamas has been give free reign to strike when and where it wants. It was also stressed that Hamas would not take the fight beyond Israel and Palestine. A wise move, though this doesn’t mean other groups won’t try.
Israel says they’re going to wipe out the entire leadership of Hamas. So much for hoping the situation wouldnt escalate further. Could this plan to destroy the leadership of Hamas be meant as the last big act before Israel slips out of Gaza, to avoid it looking like a retreat?
Regardless, the militants don’t seem to be worried about the proverbial swords that dangle above their heads. One wouldn’t expect some to be. Odd how someone can be so unafraid of death. Understandable in who and why, but still odd.
Well, there is one obvious reason Bush will have to support Israel in the next few months. It’s election time and you don’t want to upset the conservative base. I hate politics.
Arafat says he opposes attacks on civilians, while also urging militants to take revenge for Yassin’s death. He’s not very good at sounding sincere, is he?
The US warns Americans in the area as Israeli tanks roll. Homes overlooking a Jewish settlement are bulldozed. An Israeli source said, “The army uprooted shrubbery and destroyed abandoned buildings used as cover by gunmen for shooting mortar bombs and anti-tank rockets,”
100 people march outside of the Israel consulate in New York. Another effect of the recent doings in the region.
The security of Israeli personnel abroad has also been stepped up, for fear of assassination attempts by other militant groups.
Iraq
Nine Iraqi police officers and trainees died yesterday when their minivan was sprayed with bullets. Attacks on the Iraqi police seem to be getting far too frequent and far too successful.
The US and UK are bargaining with Zapatero to keep Spanish troops in Iraq.
British engineering firm Amec has gotten a $1bn dollar contract to rebuild Iraq’s water supply.
In an odd way, the terror attacks in Iraq benefit the occupation. An interesting way of thinking, but one best pursued with all due care and consideration.
France
France using terrorism as an excuse for less than perfect economic policies? It could happen.
US
Rummy tells the 9/11 commission that capturing or killing Bin Laden months before the 9/11 attacks wouldn’t have stopped them. Well, duh. But a greater enforcement action that might have led to such an event could have also detected the hijackers in time to stop some or all of them.
Medicare will be insolvent by 2019 at the current rate its going, seven years ahead of schedule. Kerry blames Bush, Bush blames high health care costs.
Senators are pushing for a rail security bill and are promising legislation to make trans and subways safe. I think some well thought out screening at the stations and sensors along the tracks to detect unauthorized access would be more than enough.
Bush has made it a point to show Kerry’s plans to tax the rich will hit small business owners. But IRS and census data has suggested that few small business owners make more than $200k a year.
Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and openly gay male, has said this in challenge of Bush’s proposed amendment to ban gay marriage: “How does the fact that I or someone else wants to express love for another human being in the same way as the overwhelming majority of my heterosexual friends and relatives … hurt you?” That would be the main question, which has no factual backing thus far.
In a new twist in the gay marriage saga, Beton County in Oregon has banned all marriage. That’s right, no one can get married there until the state decides on who can and cannot wed legally.
US fruit growers are pushing for the use of Methyl bromide, a fumigant known to destroy the ozone layer. They’re cranky because a protocol in the Montreal Protocol allows developing nations an extra ten years to cut back their use of the poison.
A new report by a US high tech trade group says that companies are outsourcing because our schools don’t teach enough of the fundamentals. While I don’t disagree, I doubt that’s the primary reason why. It may well be an additional cause. Our school system is comparatively abysmal for our perceived wealth and power.
NASA scientists believe that a vast salt ocean sat where the Opportunity rover touched down. Their next question? Did it contain life and is there evidence of this?
Looking at Bush’s insane aversion to Clinton. Clinton wasn’t the best president to be certain, but even the worse have good ideas from time to time.
Why Dick Clarke is telling the truth. Three reasons to consider what the man says carefully.