Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘shudna’

Reports out of Egypt that Hamas is going to agree to a long-term truce with Israel for Gaza.

Read between the lines. We have:

• The truce being contingent on the re-opening of border crossings. Translation: Hamas is low on weapons supplies, and wants a time-out with easy access to re-arm.
• An expiry date on the truce of 18 months, after which all bets are off and the whole song-and-dance will start all over from scratch.
• Hamas doesn’t refer to this as a “truce”, but as the Arabic word “hudna”, which has a completely different meaning. It’s got nothing to do with a desire for reconciliation; instead, it’s viewed as a tactical move.
• And of course, no deal for the release of Gilad Shalit.

But we all know what will happen. Hamas will announce the truce with great fanfare. It will then blatantly proceed to ignore and violate the truce daily. Israel will close its eyes as long as possible before finally having no choice but to respond. And then the world will universally condemn Israel for “violating the terms” of the truce.

I wonder if Meryl Yourish will launch another Shudna Watch in her blog?

A suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, near the central bus station, has so far injured at least 10 people.

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said thousands of times already?

Update: The latest figures say 22 people were wounded. Ha’aretz is reporting that the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, but suggests that it’s a bit murky and that the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade (in other words, Fatah) may be behind the attack.

What really irks me is that media reports call this the “first bombing in a year”. Not true. It’s the first suicide bombing (though not the first attack) of the 2006 calendar year. But it’s been barely five weeks since a terrorist bomber struck in Netanya on December 5th, murdering five Israelis.

Say it with me now: What truce?

3 more rockets were fired by Palestinian terrorists at Israel from the Gaza Strip, in a “what else is new”? kind of story:

Overall, 13 Qassams were fired at Israel since Friday.

On Tuesday, an IDF system to detect Qassam fire and alert Sderot residents detected two rockets fired at Israel. The “Red Dawn” system also detected a rocket Monday evening. All Qassams landed in the western Negev causing no injuries or damage.

On Sunday two Qassams were fired at Israel, with one landing in southern Ashkelon and the other in open fields near Sderot. The IDF responded by unleashing a barrage of artillery rounds at fields in northern Gaza used by Palestinians to launch Qassams.

On Friday evening, four Qassam rockets landed near the Zikim and Yad Mordechai kibbutzim. No one was injured in the attack.

The latest wave of Qassam attacks started Friday morning with Palestinians firing two rockets at Israel. A bystander was treated for shock after one of the rockets landed within a distance of him. The second rocket was not found.

But, of course, the international media absolutely insists that there’s a truce.

What was that quote again? “None are so blind as those who will not see”?

Lisa recently moved to her new blog home. She’s got photos of her daily life after Ariel Sharon’s stroke. Sometimes pictures really do say a thousand words.

Meryl has numbers proving conclusively that the so-called “truce” was a myth all along. She’s been saying that since it started. Nobody’s been listening. I’m betting not too many people will now. Read her post anyway.

Closer to home, there’s no shortage of election coverage and commentary. But here’s something you don’t see every day: David Janes apparently wants to be Prime Minister. And he’s laying out his platform, piece by piece. I can’t say I agree with everything he says, but at least he’s refreshingly honest. Bloggers for PM!

Pauline cast her ballot in advance polling, for the eminently logical reason that Montreal weather is unpredictable at this time of year. If I find myself unable to vote on Monday because of an ice storm, Pauline, I give you permission to say “I told you so”.

A Palestinian suicide bomber struck today at a bus station in Beersheva:

An Israeli police spokesman said nearly 50 people wounded in the bombing in the city of Beersheba were treated at hospital, most of them for shock. The two guards, who chased the bomber, were critically hurt, the spokesman said.

[ . . . ]

Palestinian militant factions say a “period of calm” they announced in March at Abbas’s urging will expire at year’s end.

What period of calm?

To echo Lynn, is it peace yet?

The Jerusalem Post reports the findings of a Shin Bet report on how the Palestinians have been using the so-called “truce” to escalate terror attacks against Israel:

The first seven months of the year have witnessed a marked, gradual increase in attempts by all the terror organizations, especially the Islamic Jihad, to launch attacks, despite the Palestinian declared tahdiya (truce) on January 22, a seven-page report published by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday.

[ . . . ]

Since the beginning of 2005, 33 Israelis have been killed – 21 of them after the so-called January 22 truce. The deterioration of the continued while terror threats increased, totaling 436 attacks in July alone.

There was also a 50 percent increase in Gaza-based mortar attacks during the same period, with a total of 142 mortar shells fired at settlements, compared to 65 in May, the report stated.

As Meryl Yourish would say: What truce?

Some news breaks:

An Iraqi bomb attack killed 98 people. We barely even blink anymore with the news of terrorist attacks in Iraq – maybe because they’re so commonplace, maybe because people assume it’s a country at war so for some reason these things are expected, maybe because some people even tacitly support them in their intense hatred for Bush and the Americans. I don’t know about any of that, but I do know that the 98 lives that were lost are just as tragic as 98 lives lost anyplace else, and that we need to stop taking terror for granted in Iraq.

In “what truce?”, part one zillion, five Israelis were wounded – 2 seriously – in mortar attacks on Neveh Dekalim, and the weekend saw over 10 Qassam rockets fired on Sderot. It is unclear which of the Palestinian factions is behind the attacks, though Hamas appears to be involved in the former. You know, the same Hamas that the Guardian thinks ain’t so bad despite its mandate to seek Israel’s destruction.

And the new Harry Potter book was released yesterday, to the delight of fans everywhere. I’ll wait to borrow someone’s copy, and hopefully nobody will spoil it for me before then.

The Palestinian Authority is so serious about stopping terrorism, that they free terrorists soon after arresting them:

Palestinian police, enforcing a ceasefire with Israel, arrested two men from a suspected Hamas rocket squad after a gun battle in the Gaza Strip but freed the militants soon after, officials said on Tuesday.

[ . . . ]

In return for their freedom, the two militants, promised to abide by an agreement that militant factions reached with Abbas in Cairo in March to respect the ceasefire the Palestinian leader declared along with Sharon in February, Abu Khoussa said.

Yeah, right. Because that agreement has been respected oh-so-well:

Describing the clash, Abu Khoussa said, a third militant had escaped arrest: “The three were in a car, en route to fire rockets, when police waved for them to stop. Gunmen opened fire at the police, forcing policemen to fire back.

“Policemen controlled the situation, took away the car, arrested the gunmen and took away their arms,” he said, adding that the third man ran away and avoided the police.

A Palestinian security official said police found rockets in the vehicle.

The Hamas gunmen accused the police of opening fire first and said there was no plan to launch rockets. Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it carried out a rocket attack on Israel from nearby shortly before the Hamas men were arrested.

Oh yeah, that cease-fire. The nonexistent one. Why didn’t you just say so?

But the media continues to pretend that a cease-fire exists, just as they continue to pretend that Abbas is actually interested in fighting terrorism. Why tell the truth when the lies sound so much prettier?

A car bomb exploded at Joseph’s Tomb today. The Palestinian terrorists were trying to kill the IDF soldiers guarding the worshippers there, but luckily nobody seems to have been hurt.

It’s the same old story, on a different day. There is no truce. Anyone who thinks there still is one, after this attack, the Tel Aviv nightclub bombing, and a host of other attacks and attempts, is either delusional or blind.

I notice one thing missing from this story though: a claim of responsibility. Could it be that the Palestinian terrorists are no longer eager to claim their handiwork because they fear the consequences of Abbas’s “crackdown”? If Abbas were truly cracking down, perhaps. But more likely, the terrorists were just embarrassed this time around at their utter failure to kill Jews.

Nothing much changes.

So much for the cease-fire:

Israel cancelled a meeting with Palestinian negotiators on Thursday following a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said.

Ha’aretz reports that Abbas fired his security commanders in response to the mortar attacks:

Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Hassan Abu Libdeh said Abbas took “punitive measures against officers who did not undertake their responsibilities, which led to the latest developments in Gaza,” dismissing several commanders and accepting the resignations of others.

“These are very dangerous developments, and they violate the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority,” Abu Libdeh said. “No one can continue with these violations.

Excuse me but, what does Abbas expect? Most of his so-called “security forces” are terrorists or terrorist wannabes, and he’s already made it clear that he has no intention of cracking down on terrorism. Either Abbas is incredibly naive or – more likely – expected this all along and is welcoming the excuse to avoid the bargaining table.

Opportunity for peace? Yeah, sure. As Allison says, it’s more like Groundhog Day:

Over the past four years, we’ve been burned and we’ve been hurt. We’ve tried to believe in ceasefires and been disappointed. And while it did us good to see what happened in Sharm el-Sheikh, it’s going to take more than fancy speeches to make us believe we are finally headed towards a real peace.

When it comes to the Mideast, unfortunately the lesson is that if you never expect anything, you’ll never be disappointed.