From ICJS (Issues of Concern for Justice & Society), Australia, an article by Farid Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria: 

During this Israeli campaign to silence the terror of Hamas, one can discern two voices coming out of the Middle East against or in support of the Gaza operations.

The boisterous voices are those of Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah leader, who a few days ago, verbally attacked Egypt’s leadership for not standing by Gazans by opening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The attack was unprecedented in scope and intensity because it just fell short of asking Egyptians to overthrow the rule of Mubarak. It did, however, heighten anger amongst the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt enough to incite them to rise against their own government.

Other noises come from Damascus and Iran, where the "resistance" has its center of gravity. Both Assad and Ahmadinejad know that a Hamas defeat is their defeat. Those two have incited the Arab street in a show of force and complicity with extremism. And while many believe the fate of Hamas parallels the fate of Hizbullah, reality is that short of a total defeat of Hamas, not to exclude regime change, Palestinians and Israelis will continue to suffer the consequences of an election that brought them more misery than they imagined on that fateful day: January 23, 2006.

On the other side, the majority of voices approving of the Israeli campaign are those who have remained quiet or convoluted in their objections. Many Arab leaders, intellectuals, businesspeople, and even commoners from Iraq to Lebanon, from Egypt to Morocco, from Bahrain to Yemen, believe that Hamas represents deformity of an Arab civilization, one that is in dire need of an overhaul by existing homegrown leadership in Palestine, Syria and Iran capable of that solemn responsibility.

Many ask why fellow Arabs would support the destruction of Hamas and Hizbullah. The answer is simple. Both organizations, in addition to the rule in Damascus and Iran, represent everything that is wrong in the Middle East today: Morally weak organizations or states seeking revenge, extolling resistance, and abetting violence against those who have surpassed us in knowledge and technology.

Hamas, Hizbullah must be destroyed … and the regimes in Damascus and Tehran must be changed for all Arabs and Farsi people to survive and prosper …

We Arabs must be the ones to stop Hamas and Hizbullah, rather than support their demonic and twisted logic of resisting development, enlightenment, and progress of the region. Even when development and enlightenment stare them in the face, their instinct is to destroy them pretending to safeguard their honor, the mechanics of which supersede all else including a happy life of fulfillment and accomplishments.

So while we abhor violence of all kind, Israel’s campaign against Hamas must continue to the bitter end not only for the sake of peace but also to help Arabs realize they have a choice: Destroy like Gaza or develop like Dubai. Will this happen soon? Maybe not, but if a wake-up call and a nudge, once in a while, to pierce through the fog of deceit perpetrated by Syria and Iran is what it takes to see the light, then we stand by the West and Israel in the only hope that an Arab Renaissance in the Levant may actually have a chance of resurrection.

This is part of a report from Israel by Ari Bussel (read the whole Canada Free Press article here):

Israel is at war simultaneously in several fronts:  Hamas in Gaza; the Home Front in the ever-expanding radius around Gaza (currently 26 miles); the Fifth Column of Israeli Arabs, now acting like the Islamists in Europe; and the world public opinion in the Public Diplomacy Front.  In all fronts, the enemies are aided and abetted by Jews and Israelis.  In all fronts – we lose.

Hamas needs to do nothing more than continue what it does now with little or no effort:

· leisurely launching up to 100 rockets a day from a well protected cache; 
· produce cartoons and other programs for children in which hatred is preached; 
· showcase pictures of body parts, people alive and seemingly dead soaking in what looks like blood, at times bodies exhumed from graves; 
· and keep bombarding the world with fallacies, accusations and allegations that are more reminiscent of a thousand and one Arabian nights.

The world is fighting unabashedly on behalf of Hamas, with fierce determination.  Israeli Arabs are holding violent demonstrations, trying to excuse the ever increasing violence as the youthful indiscretions.  Israelis – a fringe of the political left – are doing all they can to destroy Israel from within.

Early this morning I took the bus to Sderot where I spent the day.  The feeling was of a deserted city of its regular inhabitants.  Young volunteers wearing white shirts distributing presents to the residents, female soldiers from the Home Front Command distributing Israeli flags, Fire and Rescue Service personnel, police, military, numerous others – none from Sderot.

Foreign journalists came in hoards as well, one even asking with some disgust:  Are we in any imminent danger?  “No,” I replied, we came shopping for Chala-bread for Shabbat.

The picture is surreal.  On the bus to Beer Sheva, I was the one passenger who went off in Sderot.  Other than one soldier and two others, the bus was empty.  The bus station made of cement, also acts as a shelter.  You start looking at these things, the next COLOR RED siren can be announced any second.  You have exactly 15 seconds to take cover.  In the city of Ashkelon 30 seconds, in the port city of Ashdod 45 seconds, in Beer Sheva 60 seconds.  Mal functions are possible, so never take a chance – it is a life and death situation.

Interestingly, I realize in retrospect that I have seen no children in Sderot today, only adults.  The locals have lived through this hell for eight years.  We come, take a glimpse into their lives, say how horrible it must be, take some pictures and we rush to leave as soon as the purpose for which we came had been accomplished.  Many come for photo-ops, others to interview a family whose house was hit, yet others to see what is Israel doing, not so much interested in the ongoing plight of the residents but how can they twist anything they see to Hamas’s advantage.

Earlier today Hamas came out in a statement to the foreign press that Israel is preventing the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza.  Over the last few days, Israel has transferred all aid sent by international organizations.  On Monday, 23 trucks with food, medicines and medical supplies were transferred via Kerem Shalom Crossing into Gaza.  On Tueday 63 trucks and five ambulances, on Wednesday 93 trucks and the same on Thursday. There is so much aid that the receiving organizations have declined any further aid at the moment – the warehouses are over flowing.

While we had to take cover, running to the nearest shelter, Gazans are given advance warning by the IDF.  Surrealism at its best.  The IDF gives ample opportunity to vacate buildings that are about to be hit.  A telephone call from the IDF is received telling one that the building will be hit in a few minutes since there is an explosive lab or an ammunition cache or a terrorist in hiding.  Sure enough, the building is bombarded and hit.  Where else does an army warn its enemy of an incoming strike to avoid any unnecessary innocent casualties?  Where else would human beings use hospitals and mosques as operation centers, hiding places, and warehouses for explosives, ammunition and advanced weaponry?

Many Gazans are indeed involuntary participants:  They do not agree with Hamas, yet if they object they will be shot as traitors and if they cooperate they become human shields.  Hamas wins either way – human life has no consequence to it – neither the lives of its enemy nor the lives of its own people.

The situation is reminiscent of a chess player playing solitarily.  All moves must be considered.  First one needs to take care of one’s own, then one needs to take care of the enemy, since the enemy does not care about its own (unless in their death, sorrow and misery they can be made to reflect badly on Israel).

Minister Avi Dichter stated: “All countries should open their eyes and see very carefully what is really happening.  If Israel will not block Hamas and Hizbollah who serve the interests of Iran, they will face a very tough problem in the years ahead.” He added, “Israel knows very well how to go forward with both air strikes and ground operations.”

Minister Dichter’s statement is not much different than Senator McCain’s:  Israel is the canary in the coal mine.

We went on a “hill” overlooking the area.  We saw the power plant in Ashkelon supplying some of the electricity to Gaza, a constant target of the racketeers (rocket-eers); the area that used to be green houses employing Arabs and exporting fruits, vegetables and flowers from the desert, now terrorist training camps and launching areas to rockets; a black and white kitten eating oblivious to anything happening around it; protection structures built around public schools now empty; houses which were once occupied and are now a mere shadow of yesteryears; and an inner strength of those of suffered for eight years but stayed and the urge to run away by those of us who only came to spend a few hours.

When one says “no sane country would have allowed it unto its citizens,” one must wonder how to make the world understand that Israel’s Operation Cast Lead is justified, is the only resort it was given, and must be continued to its conclusion. 

 Tawfik Hamid, an Egyptian Muslim living in America, writes:

The Muslim world and the Europeans who support the demonstrations against Israel must stop the biased reaction that blindly and reflexively supports the Palestinians and villifies Israel. Those who demonstrate against the military campaign on Gaza must realize that if Hamas had stopped pounding Israel with its rockets, Israel would not have launched its attack. If the Palestinians focused on building their society rather than destroying those of others, the whole region would enjoy peace and flourish. Should Palestinians recognize the right of Israel to exist, end terrorism against Jews and nurture a sincere desire to live in peace, they would end their suffering. The solution now is simply in the hands of the Palestinians – not the Israelis.

 Ralph Peters writes in the New York Post:

Israel’s airstrikes against confirmed Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip were overdue, discriminating and skillful. So far, this retaliatory campaign has been a superb example of how to employ postmodern airpower.

Instead of bombing empty buildings in the dead of night in the hope of convincing bloodthirsty monsters to become peace-loving floral arrangers – the US Air Force version of "Shock and Awe" – the Israeli Defense Force aimed to kill terrorists.

Israel’s attack aircraft appear to have accomplished that part of the mission. As I write, some 300 terrorist dead have been reported in Gaza, while the propaganda-savvy information office of Hamas has strug- gled to prove that 20 civilians died.

Given the fact that Hamas adheres to the terrorist practice of locating command sites, arsenals and training facilities in heavily populated areas, the results suggest that the IDF – supported by first-rate intelligence work – may have executed the most accurate wave of airstrikes in history, with a 15-to-1 terrorist-to-civilian kill ratio.

The bad news is that it still won’t be enough. While Israel has delivered a painful blow against Hamas, it’s still not a paralyzing hit. The only way to neuter such a terror threat – even temporarily – is to go in on the ground and scour every room, basement and underground tunnel in a region.

That would mean high Israeli casualties and, of course, condemnation of Israel’s self-defense efforts by every self-righteous, corrupt and bigoted organization and government on earth, from Turtle Bay to Tehran.

What have been Israel’s "crimes?" Not "stealing Palestinian land," but making that land productive, while exposing the incompetence and sloth of Arab culture.

Israel’s crime isn’t striking back at terror, but demonstrating, year after year, that a country in the Middle East can be governed without resort to terror. Israel’s crime hasn’t been denying Arab rights, but insisting on human rights for women and minorities.

Israel’s crime has been making democracy work where tyranny prevailed for 5,000 years. Israel’s crime has been survival against overwhelming odds, while legions of Arab nationalists, Islamist extremists and Western leftists want every Jew dead.

But Israel’s greatest crime was to expose the global cult of victimhood, to prove that hard work, fortitude and courage could overcome even history’s grimmest disaster.

 From Debkafile:

Israeli bombers hit Hamas’ film center in southern Gaza Saturday night, Dec. 27, after massive air raids destroyed Hamas compounds across the enclave leaving 205 killed, 330 injured and thousands of shock victims. The operation followed a week in which Hamas fired 200 missiles at Israeli civilian targets.

The Israeli Air Force planes struck Hamas security headquarters in Gaza City and compounds, police stations and ports. Several Hamas commanders were killed in the bombardment of a Hamas military passing-out ceremony. Among them was Hamas police chief Tawfiq Jabber.

The Israeli military spokesman said the Gaza operation is "just beginning" and would be expanded and intensified as necessary.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions ordered its "fighters to avenge Israeli attacks." An Israeli was killed in Netivot in its first reprisal.

Egypt has condemned Israel for its military attack, but held Hamas responsible for refusing to heed warnings and failing to protect the Palestinian people. It has mobilized its rescue and medical services in Sinai, including hospitals for aid to casualties for the Israeli air bombardment of Gaza. Egyptian ambulances stood by at the Rafah crossing to transport wounded Hamas operatives.

The Israeli air attack launching some 40 missiles began 11.30 a.m. local time Saturday, eight days after Hamas terminated the informal Gaza ceasefire by showering missiles and mortar rounds on 250,000 Israeli civilians day after day.

Last week, the Israeli cabinet gave the Israeli military the green light for reprisals as Palestinian missile attacks escalated, 13 mortar rounds fired Friday, when Israel allowed 90 trucks of food and medicines to cross into the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Palestinians have fired 5,000 missiles.

 The 44 Grad rockets, Qassam missiles and mortar rounds which blasted Israel from Gaza Wednesday, Nov. 5, were fired from houses close to the border fence which Hamas had turned into fortified firing positions. Borrowing Hizballah’s tricks from the 2006 Lebanon war, the Hamas firing squads remove the roofs and cover the top floors with camouflage netting easily removed for attacks.

To spot these heavily-disguised launching pads, round-the-clock aerial observation is necessary.

DEBKAfile’s military analysts report: Two years after the 34-day Hizballah rocket blitz of northern Israel – and five months into an informal truce with Hamas – the IDF is not coping with this tactic.

Furthermore, Wednesday, the civilian front was again abandoned to a heavy missile bombardment. The Israeli Air Force went into action three times to halt the mortar fire on Israeli troops, wiping out two Hamas mortar squads and killing five of its members. But when the missiles began falling on Ashkelon, Sderot and the Eshkol farm region, the air force stayed on the ground.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources further disclose that an anti-tank missile strike against an IDF patrol south of the Kissufim Gaza crossing last Friday, Oct. 31, was not carried out by Hamas, but an al Qaeda cell located in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younes. This cell calls itself Al Qaeda-Palestine.

Senior officers of the Southern Command are sharply critical of defense minister Ehud Barak’s soft, ceasefire-at-any-price policy, our sources report. They say he is only encouraging Hamas to initiate more violations, certain they can get away with it, and is weakening Israel’s hand for recovering its abducted soldier Gilead Shalit.

Barak hit the wrong note when he stressed that Israel wanted to preserve the truce after Hamas dug a 250-meter long tunnel from central Gaza under the Israeli border fence in order to kidnap more Israeli soldiers or civilians. That is no deterrence.

 From the National Review:  (It would be nice to know who the emailer to ‘the corner’ was who apparently carried out such an important military mission.)

Joe Biden threw out a lot of bunk on foreign policy tonight, too bad Gov Palin didn’t have the foreign policy wonkishness to call him on it.  Most ridiculous and downright strange was his contention that the Bush administration let Hezbollah into Lebanon, and then when “we threw them out” – whatever that means, he and Obama said NATO should go in but nobody took them up on it and now Hezbollah was all over Lebanon and that’s a problem.  What?

Well, Hezbollah’s been there since the early 1980’s of course, blossoming throughout the 1990’s to become now over a third of the population of Lebanon with 2 cabinet members, a host of parliamentarians, and schools, clinics, and basically an entirely separate governance infrastructure in all of southern Lebanon and elsewhere.  I suppose the throwing out of Hezbollah was the dismal and failed Israeli campaign of 2006 which dislodged nothing?  Or was it Israeli’s occupation of Southern Lebanon from 1982 – 1999?  Don’t remember an Obama position on NATO replacing Israeli occupation then.  As for NATO going in after the 2006 debacle, well, I’m the one who rounded up 8,000 French and Italians and a few thousand other Euros to go into Southern Lebanon along with an assortment of others in August 2006 and while working that issue for about 40 straight days I don’t remember a peep from Biden or Obama about NATO – which wouldn’t be budged despite our intense pressure in Mons.  So, we went straight to Rome and Paris.  Que sera, sera.

 From Little Green Footballs:

Another absurdly wrong statement from Joe “Foreign Policy Expert” Biden, who very obviously does not know the difference between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank:

Here’s what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, “Big mistake. Hamas will win. You’ll legitimize them.” What happened? Hamas won.

 Rafael D Frankel, correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, wrote in the August 12, 2008 edition:

"I want [the Israelis] to come back," says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight who worked in the area’s Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years. "All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren."

Located in the middle of Gush Katif, the former block of Jewish settlements here, Mawassi fell within the security cordon the Israeli army threw around its citizens from 2002 to 2005, when attacks from the neighboring Palestinian town of Khan Yunis came almost daily.

During those years, the people of Mawassi continued to work in Gush Katif, mainly as farmhands in hundreds of greenhouses the Jewish settlers operated.

Mr. Laham and many others in Mawassi say they preferred the relative economic security of those days to the current destitution, even if they are now free from Israeli occupation.

"Freedom to go where?" Laham asks. "I have no fuel now for my car. Where can I go? Freedom is a slogan. Even for a donkey you need money – which I don’t have."

Three years ago, before Israel withdrew, Mawassi was a town of fertile corn crops and greenhouses, which – like the ones in the Jewish settlements – grew cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and strawberries.

Now, in the ethnic Palestinian section of town, nearly half the land lies barren.

Only shells remain of many of the greenhouses that were stripped of valuable materials.

A city that fed itself with its produce and the money its men made from working with the settlers, Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the United Nations.

Like the rest of Gaza, its people lack cooking gas and petrol, even if they feel more secure without Israeli soldiers all around them.

In the Bedouin section of town, Salem al-Bahabsa sits with five of his 24 grandchildren in front of his chicken coop. Goats and sheep wander around the other parts of the Bedouin quarter, where people live mostly in tents with tin roofs.

"We are all now unemployed and depend on charity for food," Mr. Bahabsa says. "My sons were farmers in the greenhouses. We worked in the settlements and had resources. Now, I don’t think I could survive without [the UN]…. Before was better."

The moment Samir Kuntar walked into Lebanon as a free man spelt the end of a hard earned 60 years cultivating the image of Israel as a capable, tough and proud state. Samir Kuntar is one of the most despised villains of Israeli society: a vicious murderer, his crimes included the inhuman beating to death of a three year old Israeli girl in front of horrified witnesses. In the eyes of the Arab countries and even among Western Arab communities, Samir Kuntar is the darling of the defenders of Islam – a brave resistance fighter.

My horror at the release of this epitome of evil is not the support for his crimes that is propagated among the Arabs; it is not even shock at the (frankly expected) Western indifference for this monster – instead I am appalled by the virus that goes by the name of appeasement that has risen again to infect the integrity or lack thereof, manifested by the weak politicians and the morally bankrupt Left of the “liberal” West.

One particular historical parallel that can now be applied to the Arab-Israeli conflict by supporters of Israel is the disastrous policy of appeasement practised noticeably by one of its true founders: Neville Chamberlain. Once the understanding of the West and even the byline of slightly cringe-worthy Hollywood films was ‘Never negotiate with terrorism’. Now appeasement and negotiation appears to govern international politics: from the hundreds of incentives made to the Iran by the EU, hoping to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons research, each new offer giving more and more away to the Iranians; to the ‘quiet diplomacy’ pursued by Thabo Mbeki with Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

The release of Samir Kuntar, four other terrorists and the hundreds of remains of dead Lebanese murderers marks the beginning of the end. Israel, more than any country, should realise that appeasement is a policy that will never work to their advantage. It betrays the teachings of Machiavelli: “…one should never permit a disorder to persist in order to avoid a war, for war is not avoided thereby but merely deferred to one’s own disadvantage.” And it sends chilling reminders of Chamberlain’s efforts to secure peace; or the IRA murderers given their ill-gotten freedom by Blair’s government; the US government’s protection of Arafat in 1982; the attempted appeasement of Saddam Hussein before the 1990 Gulf War; the encouraged promotion of Islamic culture above all others in Western countries by Western governments; the suggestions of British judges for allowing some form of sharia law in Britain – the last hundred years have shown a frightening propensity for the West to fail to learn from its mistakes and to allow the forces of evil a chance to exist and prosper.

So why is Olmert’s government meeting Hezbollah’s demands? Why is it appeasing its enemies? Israel has owed 60 years of remarkable existence to ‘disproportionate’ response and a tough and no-nonsense attitude towards its enemies. Many would argue this is a key reason for her survival. The release of the five terrorists by Israel met one of Hezbollah’s few demands, another being the return of the Sheba farms to Lebanon. Is it that these unforgettable years of terrorism, torture, murder, cruelty unimaginable to civilized society have all just been for the return of a few hundred yards of farm and a child murderer? – the truth of course, is that Hezbollah, like the rest of the Arab world, seeks the destruction of Israel and its people. Olmert seems to have forgotten this. They have reversed the direction of sixty years of policies based on reality and common sense, and are taking an ill-fated chance with the future of their country.

For the despairing results of this cruel act of appeasement we have not even had to wait a few days. Immediately Hamas decided it was no longer going to agree to Israeli terms for the return of Gilad Shalit and was to demand greater returns for the terrorist group. Furthermore, a group of British MPs called for a dialogue with Palestinian terror groups, Hamas included; breaking the policy of no recognition that most Western countries have pursued.

But this author is not completely a pessimist and his writings shall not just be a harbinger of Israel’s complete failure – there is still a chance: Olmert and his coalition must be removed, a strong leader (preferably Netanyahu) must be elected, Kuntar must be assassinated, Hamas must be destroyed, Hezbollah must be removed, Iran’s nuke and missile sites must be obliterated and the supply of armaments to the Gaza Strip and West Bank must be stopped. Tough orders? These are problems all created by appeasement; it is war deferred to Israel’s disadvantage, and now Israel is forced to deal with it.