Bloodthirsty Liberal

Reader Zee notes in a comment on the previous post that the Palestinians have contributed nothing to the betterment of society except the “work accident”—which is a good line.

As if on cue:

On Wednesday morning, an explosion occurred in an apartment building in Gaza City, killing a member of the Palestinian resistance and injuring 5 persons, including a couple and their two children.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 09:30 on Wednesday, a explosion from an unknown source occurred in a rented flat in a 3-storey apartment building in al-Sahaba Street in the east of Gaza City. As a result, a man was killed and 5 persons, including a couple and their two children, were moderately to seriously injured. The Palestinian police arrived at the scene and opened an investigation.

The official web site of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) identified the man who was killed as one of their members - Abu Dajana ‘Abdul Rahman, 23, from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City - and stated that he was killed in the course of a Jihad mission.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reiterates its call for Palestinian resistance groups not to store explosives in residential areas to avoid hurting civilians, and states that the storage of weapons in civilian-populated areas constitutes a violation of international legal rules related to the protection of civilians.

Good luck with that.

In other accident news:

Today afternoon, unknown persons detonated a bomb near a convoy of vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) near Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. A vehicle was damaged, but no casualties were reported. This latest attack is part of the state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 14:15 on Thursday, 04 February 2010, a bomb planted by unknown persons exploded near a convoy of 4 vehicles belonging to the ICRC while traveling on Saladin Road opposite to al-Shawa fuel station near Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. The explosion of the bomb, which had been planted two meters to the east of the road, resulted in smashing the front and side windows and damaging the front of the last vehicle in the convoy….

What, did you think we were done?

This morning, unknown persons detonated a bomb in a car belonging to Yousef Sarsour, a Hamas leader in Khan Yunis, and fire was set in the entrance of al-Basha resort in Gaza City. These two attacks are part of the state of security chaos and misuse of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

…

In a separate incident, at approximately 05:30 on Tuesday, 02 February 2010, unknown persons set fire in the entrance of al-Basha resort in al-Daraj neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The resort belongs to Mohammed Zakareya al-Sawafiri. The entrance and the banner of the resort were damaged.

Oops!

More accidents!

An Eritrean national was shot dead by Egyptian police 1 kilometre south of the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border with Israel and Gaza at dawn on Thursday, according to Egyptian security sources.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, two African migrants were killed and one was injured when Egyptian border police opened fire at a group of ten migrants attempting to cross the border into Israel, the sources added.

…

One Eritrean national was injured after being shot in the chest and one migrant of unknown nationality was killed by a bullet wound to the back, the sources said.

Five Eritrean and three Ethiopian nationals turned themselves in to Egyptian police following the incident, according to sources.

The migrants admitted to illegally trying to enter Israel to seek work, the sources concluded.

Do you suppose the mother of the “migrant of unknown nationality [who] was killed by a bullet wound to the back” had that in mind for him when she brought him into the world?

The anonymity is the saddest part.

Ralph Peters with some words of encouragement for sub-Saharan Africa:

Whatever planet Earth may find in short supply in 2010, violence and misrule will remain abundant, from the most-recent round of Muslim-vs.-Christian massacres in Nigeria to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez’s delight in unleashing his thugs on students marching for freedom.

But no region — not even sub-Saharan Africa — competes with the greater Middle East when it comes to wanton savagery, thwarted opportunities and the danger posed to innocent populations around the world. With fanatical terrorists of unprecedented brutality, Islamist extremists pursuing nuclear weapons, rogue regimes, disintegrating states and threats of genocide against Israel, the lands of heat and dust between the Nile and the Indus form a realm of deadly failure that will haunt the civilized world throughout our lifetimes.

A survey of the region’s key countries — and problems — doesn’t offer much good news for the Obama Administration’s naive foreign policy efforts:

Said survey follows.

Oh, okay, you want a few highlights?

LEBANON: This isn’t a country — it’s a temporary stand-off.

…

Hezbollah has been rearming mightily in the wake of its 2006 war with Israel. A new war would devastate much of Lebanon — if internal strife doesn’t do it first.

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EGYPT: … Egypt faces a potential succession crisis as octogenarian president Hosni Mubarak, who’s ruled the country for almost three decades, grooms his singularly unimpressive son, Gamal, to take over upon his death.

…

SYRIA: The neighborhood’s in such awful shape that this police state’s beginning to look like a success story…. When Damascus looks like a beacon, it’s getting awfully dark in the Middle East.

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IRAQ: Can’t say we didn’t try. After years of serious progress toward a national compromise… [r]econciliation has come to a screeching halt. The Shia are smug, the Sunnis feel betrayed, and the Kurds are still denied title to the traditionally Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Every faction’s fighting for a greater share of oil revenues. And the Obama administration’s AWOL (this was Bush’s war — we wouldn’t want a positive outcome).

…

SAUDI ARABIA: Its two main exports are oil and fanaticism…. They care only for their repressive version of Islam. The birthplace of Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia’s differences with his terror organization are over strategy and tactics, not over their mutual goal of forcing extremist Islam on all of humanity.

IRAN: Racing to acquire nuclear weapons, delighting in the prospect of a cataclysmic war that would lead to the “return of the hidden imam,” beating the hell out of its own people in the streets, murdering members of the intelligentsia, and explicit in its vows to destroy Israel, the government of Iran continues to be protected by China and Russia.

If you want to know more about that benighted, poxy patch of scrub and swampland… I pity you. You need a date.

Hoo boy, this one’s got the works: bells, whistles, ribbons, bows, buckles, and even comes with optional spinning hubs.

Resist this brilliant, far-reaching proposal, I dare you!

The London daily Al-Hayat reports, citing an Egyptian diplomatic source, that during their trip to Washington on January 8, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman presented to U.S. President Barack Obama a plan for renewing negotiations, called “End Game.”

The plan includes the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, including eastern Jerusalem, with an option for territorial exchange, as well as international guarantees for the establishment of the Palestinian state, and a proposal for sources of authority for a permanent arrangement by the international community.

The source added if these principles are agreed on, an international peace conference will be held in Egypt in March or April, and to this end efforts will be made for the completion of the Palestinian reconciliation.

…’67 borders… east Jerusalem… Palestinian state… what no right of return for everyone one-eighth Palestinian and his goldfish?! This is an outrage! This is an insult! This is a Zionist plot to seize the internal organs of Palestinian children and make frilly little umbrella drinks out of their blood (my favorite being Mohammed Al-Durr-ade: one part lime juice, one part Campari, one part selzer, and one part O-negative Palestinian blood—preferably from a boy under the age of twelve).

They called it “End Game” because it was dead before the ink was dry. Not that George Mitchell didn’t drop his spoon into his lobster bisque and hop a 747 to Cairo for “consultations” the moment he heard about it.

How about we propose a peace plan for a change? Before we talk details of territory and “sources of authority for a permanent arrangement by the international community” (whatever the [bleep] that’s supposed to mean), let’s start with one teensy-weensy premise: stop hating.

Let PM Netanyahu explain:

[B]ased on recent experience, we’ve seen that in Lebanon we had an international guarantee – the United States [sic] Resolution – 1701 – an insurance policy signed by the entire international community and you know that that unfortunately has failed, in fact it’s failed miserably and Hizbollah is just pouring in weapons, more and more weapons to fire into Israel. And you know that we had also an understanding with other countries when we left Gaza about the Philadelphi corridor and I appreciate the efforts made by President Mubarak and the Egyptian government to stop it, but you can see that there is massive infiltration continuing all the time. We can’t afford to have that replicated a third time in the center part of the country that dominates our cities, dominates our population, and dominates our airfield.

…

It is a peculiar notion that the Hamas that committed a double war crime of firing on civilians, our civilians, while hiding behind civilians, their civilians, is basically exonerated and the international community or parts of it is directing the fire against Israel which did what any country would do and that is try to pinpoint the rocketeers and try to stop them from firing on us. I think the battle against terror has been sorely hurt by the Goldstone Report and it’s also meant to, of course tie our hands so that we cannot take actions to defend ourselves.

…

But we have another challenge, and that’s the challenge of peace. We want to move forward and in order to move forward we need immediately to negotiate peace. We said that on day one in the formation of the government. We have not been met by a similar position from the Palestinian side. What we’ve done in the nine months that we’ve been in office was one: to call immediately for peace talks, second: to remove hundreds of roadblocks, checkpoints, and other obstacles to move and as a result the Palestinian economy has soared to about 8% growth. We think that together we could get it to reach an even higher level. Third: I gave a speech at Bar-Ilan that formed a national consensus about the idea of peace, of a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state and fourth: we took an unprecedented step in the Cabinet to restrain the construction in the settlements for a ten month period. This is what we did.

During that time, what we’ve seen the Palestinian do is one: raise preconditions that didn’t exist for the sixteen years from the onset of the Oslo process. Two: incite their public and their people in their national media and by their official leadership in ways that are fully contrary to peace. Third: to promote the Goldstone agenda and these are all contrary to peace. These all lead to the other direction.

Israel has been trying to get the Palestinians to enter the negotiating tent; the Palestinians have climbed up a tree. They’re not in the tent, they’re not in the entrance to the tent, they’re climbing higher and higher in the tree and they like it up there. People bring ladders to them. We bring ladders to them. The higher the ladder, the higher they climb.

I’m tempted to say give them a rope and let them hang themselves, but that just reinforces my uncharitable misperception. Instead, I’ll just calmly and peacefully observe that all plans and proposals are a waste of garlicky breath if they don’t guarantee Israel’s security.

I’m quite sure that’s their point—peace is merely a Trojan horse meant to breach Israel’s perimeter—and, if so, they will never get anywhere. Which is also their point.

We interrupt the Scott Brown Show to bring you this important announcement.

When a right and proper leftist is abused by Egypt, what is she supposed to do?

Say it with me, now: blame Israel

Oh the shame of it all. Last month, 1,300 pro-Palestinian activists from the US and Europe came to the region in the name of peace and social justice to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Led by the self-declared feminist, antiwar group Code Pink, the demonstrators’ plan was to enter Gaza from the Egyptian border at Rafah and deliver “humanitarian aid” to the Hamas terrorist organization.

But it was not to be. Led by Code Pink founder and California Democratic fund-raiser Jodie Evans, the demonstrators were not welcomed by Egyptian authorities. Many were surrounded by riot police and barbed wire as they demonstrated outside the US and French embassies and the UN Development Program’s headquarters. Others were barred from leaving their hotels.

Those who managed to escape their hotels and the bullpens outside the embassies were barred from staging night protests in solidarity with Hamas on the Nile. In the end, as the militant Israeli pro-Palestinian activist Amira Hass chronicled in Haaretz last week, all but 100 of them were barred from travelling to Gaza.

The lucky few allowed into the Strip included neither Evans nor her friends, former Weather Underground terror leaders Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres. But they bore no grudge against Egypt. The Egyptians were mere puppets of the real culprit: Israel. As Evans said, “It’s obvious that the only reason for [Egypt’s treatment of the demonstrators] is to make Israel happy. Israel is behind the refusal [to allow the demonstrators into Gaza] - what other excuse could there be?”

I was tempted to make a joke here about blaming Florida for being denied admittance to Wyoming—but we’re past education here. Past logic, discourse, debate.

What we are left with is rank, unadulterated Jew-hatred. Even “anti-Semitism” seems too clean and clinical—we need the Germanic (appropriately), not the Latin, to describe the bitterness from the Left.

Which is when they are at their happiest:

Unfortunately for the lucky 100 who were permitted to enter Hamastan, the diversions didn’t end at the Egyptians border. Hamas immediately placed them under siege. The Palestinian champions had planned to enjoy home hospitality from friends in Gaza. But once there they were prohibited from leaving the Hamas-owned Commodore Hotel and from having any contact with local Gazans without a Hamas escort.

Rather than being permitted to judge the situation in Gaza for themselves, they were carted onto Hamas buses and taken on “devastation tours” of what their Hamas tour guides claimed was damage caused by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. And then these international protesters were forced to participate in a Hamas-organized march to the Erez crossing.

As Hass tells it, in “a slap to many feminist organizers and participants,” no Palestinian women were allowed to participate in the march, which “turned into nothing more than a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators.”

…

Hass’s participation in the pro-Hamas propaganda trip is a bit surprising. In November 2008, she was forced to flee from Gaza to Israel after Hamas threatened to kill her. At the time, Hass appealed to the Israeli military - which she has spent the better part of her career bashing - and asked to be allowed to enter Israel from Gaza, after sailing illegally to Gaza from Cyprus on a ferry chartered by the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit.

But I’m getting tired of this. These skanks and skunks are such loathsome and detestable company (Latin has its uses, too), I can’t stand to be around them, even to expose their execrable language and behavior.

I like to be more positive (you know me!):

COGAT Announcement: Summary of 2009 Shows 28% Rise in Humanitarian Aid To Gaza

…

During 2009, international organizations were more active in the Gaza Strip despite the complex security situation in Gaza. There was an increase of 125% in the number of internationals crossing into the Gaza Strip and some 400 delegations of foreign officials, including activists and diplomats, who have entered Gaza Strip in coordination with the Gaza CLA.

Furthermore, there was a 28% increase in the transfer of humanitarian goods from Israel to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings.

…

During the operation there were approximately 1,600 cases where the Gaza CLA coordinated the evacuation of populations from combat areas, and of casualties via international organizations, including the Red Cross. In addition, 1,400 truckloads of humanitarian goods were transferred from Israel into Gaza Strip through the crossing points, during the fighting, coordinated by the Gaza CLA and supplied by international organizations.

During the conference, Gaza CLA commander Col. Moshe Levy, said: “the fruitful cooperation between the Coordination and Liaison Administration and the international organizations allows us to respond to the needs of the Palestinian population in Gaza, which currently lives under a regime of terror.”

“Because of the cooperation and the support given by international organizations, there is a wide and varied supply of food and medicine in the Gaza Strip, a fact well established by in official reports of UN personnel,” added Col. Levy.

There I go getting all logical again. Israel not only allows aid to the Palestinians (unlike Egypt), it allowed aid and medical treatment during its war on Hamass, Operation Eat Lead. And the hoors in Code Pink would have known that if they had asked to be among the 400 delegations of diplomats and “activists” Israel allowed to cross its border.

Logic, BTL, stop it!

You’re right, you’re right… I’ll just call them the names they deserve. But as a gentleman with too much respect for the fairer sex, I’ll have to log off to carry on as I must.

It’s a pity reader Chris has crawled back under that rock, because he would have been filled with righteous indignation over this story:

[Israeli] authorities will set a new mechanism for shipping international aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, following anger over recent aid convoys for Gaza, [Israeli] Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit told [Israeli] news sources Friday.

The new mechanism requires all aid for delivery to the Gaza Strip to be handed over to the [Israeli] Red Crescent at the Al-Arish terminal. The aid will be processed by the Red Crescent and handed over to the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza following an inventory, Abu Al-Gheit explained in the [Israeli] paper Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The decision came after riots broke out at the Rafah border when a convoy of international activists staged a demonstration calling on [Israeli] officials to open the Gaza border and allow 500 Gaza supporters and 220 vans of aid into the besieged Strip. The demonstration, joined by Hamas supporters on the Gaza side of the border, broke out into violence and lead to the shooting death of an [Israeli] soldier.

[Israeli] security forces in Cairo struggled earlier in the week with a second delegation of internationals who arrived in Cairo hoping to carry out a Freedom March in Gaza on New Years Eve. The more than 1,300 supporters were denied entry into Gaza, and a series of protests organized in [Israel] were quashed. [Israeli] law prohibits public gatherings of more than six people.

Oh, dang it, what happened to my spell-checker? For every Israel and Israeli, read EGYPT and EGYPTIAN.

EGYPT is restricting aid to the Palestinians, EGYPT is building a wall, EGYPT is demolishing and gassing tunnels—and EGYPT restricts freedom of assembly.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations could not be reached for comment. (Neither could Chris.)

PS: Tiresome, I know, but let me reiterate:

Since the end of the IDF operation in Gaza (18 Jan 2009), 703,224 tons of aid and 105,600,128 liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip.

At the Cabinet meeting of 22 March 2009, the Government of Israel instructed the bodies dealing with the matter, to enable the entry - without restriction - of foodstuffs to the residents of Gaza from all relevant sources, after it has been verified that they are indeed foodstuffs, and this in the framework of the humanitarian efforts. The Government directed that the foregoing be scrupulously implemented.

Note: Gas for domestic use (cooking and heating) is supplied according to Palestinian demand and is not subject to any limitation by Israel. However, the fuel depot at Nahal Oz has been forced to limit its operations due to constant security threats. Work is being done to adapt Kerem Shalom crossing to the transfer of fuel. In addition, a new gas line is being built that will double the capacity to transfer gas for domestic use.

Compare with above.

This often happens to Copts in Egypt when they celebrate the Christian holidays

I’ve actually heard first hand reports of this sort of thing from Egyptian Christians I have known. Usually when we think of terrorism in the region, we think of Palestinians killing Jews, but the Christians have also been victimized.

CAIRO – Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the attack Wednesday just before midnight was suspected as retaliation for the November rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man in the same town. The statement said witnesses have identified the lead attacker.

The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded.

Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hamadi Diocese told The Associated Press six male churchgoers and one security guard were killed. He said he had left St. John’s church just minutes before the attack.

“A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door. By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine gun shots,” he said in a telephone interview. He said he saw five bodies lying on the ground when he first looked at the site of the shooting, about 600 yards from where he was.

The bishop said he was concerned about violence on the eve of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Thursday, because of previous threats following the rape of the 12-year-old girl in November.

He got a message on his mobile phone saying: “It is your turn.”

“I did nothing with it. My faithful were also receiving threats in the streets, some shouting at them: ‘We will not let you have festivities,’” he said.

Because of the threats, he said he ended his Christmas Mass one hour early.

He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighboring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape.

“For days, I had expected something to happen on Christmas day,” he said. The bishop said police have now asked him to stay at home for fear of further violence.

Qena is one of Egypt’s poorest and most conservative areas.

Christians, mostly Coptic, account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s predominantly Muslim population. As Islamic conservatism gains ground, Christians have increasingly complained about discrimination by the Muslim majority.

Clashes between Muslims and Christians are not uncommon in southern Egypt and in recent years have begun seeping into the capital. An Amnesty International report said sectarian attacks on the Coptic Christian community, comprising between 6 million and 8 million people in Egypt, increased in the year 2008. Sporadic clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims left eight people dead.

Vendetta killing is also common among southern Egyptians, and is usually over land or family disputes.

The bishop said he had an idea of who the attackers were, calling them “Muslim radicals.”

“It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt,” he said.

- Aggie

Brave Palestinian Freedom Fighters kill Egyptian guard

RAFAH, Egypt – Egyptian security forces and Palestinians clashed at the Gaza border on Wednesday over the delay of an international aid convoy, killing one Egyptian border guard and wounding 15 Palestinians.

The incident further raises the tension between Egypt and the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip who see Cairo’s attempts to seal the border as a direct threat to their survival, particularly a new effort to build a steel wall blocking cross-border tunnels.

Those poor, helpless, desperate Palestinians. Maybe they will have to go to Egyptian cafes and explode?

- Aggie

Which do you want first?

The good?

Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have stopped torturing Hamas prisoners, ending two years of systematic abuse, Hamas inmates told The Associated Press in jailhouse interviews.

Oh dear, I think I just gave away the bad news, didn’t I?

Human rights groups say their public pressure campaign helped bring about change, and US President Barack Obama’s no-torture policy might have helped set a new tone. However, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the decision to halt any abuse was an independent one, part of an effort to make sure a future state is built on the right foundations.

…

However, they said the worst behavior - prisoners beaten with clubs and cables, suspended from the ceiling while tied up in painful positions and forced to stand for days - has ended.

Sounds like thet were just making their Hamass guests feel at home.

No, seriously:

A religious ruling in support of the construction of a massive steel wall on the Egypt-Gaza border is drawing fire from fellow clerics.

The steel wall intended to stop smuggling across the Egypt-Gaza border was declared permissible in a religious ruling, or fatwa, by the Islamic Studies College of the renowned Al-Azhar institution, drawing angry responses from other Muslim figures in Egypt, including from within Al-Azhar itself.

“This fatwa is not legitimate,” critical clerics of Al-Azhar said. “It contradicts previous decisions made by the Islamic Studies College in 1965 and in 1970, which prompted the defense of Palestine and the provision of assistance to Palestinians.”

…

The Islamic Studies College ruled last Thursday that the steel wall did not go against Shari’a, or Islamic law, and upheld Egypt’s right to build barriers on its territory in order to maintain its security, borders and rights.

“It is part of Egypt’s legitimate rights to set up barriers, which will prevent harm caused by tunnels built underneath the Egyptian town of Rafah,” the ruling said. “These tunnels are used to smuggle drugs and other things that undermine the country’s security and pose harm to its interests in a way that leaves us no choice but to fight it.”

Several clerics in Al-Azhar, including those in the college itself, condemned the decision to build a steel wall.

“This wall is haram (not permissible by Islamic Law),” the clerics said. “It aims to besiege the brothers in the Gaza Strip and block off all the options the Gaza Strip has to break through the Israeli siege, imposed three years ago when the crossings were closed. They prevented vital products from entering such as food, medicine and fuel, and this is a way of pressuring them to eradicate the resistance and Hamas.”

I think it’s fair to say that the Palestinians are the despised among the Arabs. And Hamass are the despised among the Palestinians.

We already reported on Egypt’s construction of an Apartheid Fence—sorry, security barrier—on its border with Gaza. I can’t find a picture, but here’s a diagram:

We might wonder why there isn’t one scintilla of the outrage there was (and still is) over the Israeli life-saving barrier—sorry, Apartheid Fence—but even when one news organization has the effrontery to cover the story, they are slandered in the most curious way:

Egypt’s minister of legal affairs and parliamentary councils, Mofid Shehab, criticized Al-Jazeera Saturday for instigating “a Qatari civil war” with its reports on a steel barrier being built on the border with Gaza.

…

He said television networks were working against the Egyptian government “in order to engender a civil war and inflame the Egyptian and Arab streets, and cause a clash of official authorities”.

…

Shehab’s criticism followed reports on the separation barrier currently being erected by Egypt on its border with Gaza in order to eradicate smuggling tunnels being dug there.

“This civil war network is first and foremost an Israeli tool,” he said. “It transferred reports on the Egyptian construction on the border from the news agencies in Israel and has begun to weave its usual plot.”

Al-Jazeera is an Israeli tool??? Who is this guy, Shecky Shehab?

But he eventually gets around to something a bit more believable:

The minister confirmed that armed forces were guarding construction work on the barrier, which was aimed at “securing Egypt’s border and its people”.

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“I ask all Egyptians, and all those who support their homeland, are you willing to accept the violation of your country’s sovereignty?”

Nicely put, Shecky. I think I’ll save them for the next time somebody calls Israel an Apartheid state (tomorrow, if I know my leftists).

PS: I probably should (but probably won’t) list all the other separation barriers around the world. I recall writing about one in Saudi Arabia.

Let me edify my pharaonic friends: it’s called Christmas. C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s. Season of giving, peace on earth, goodwill toward all, that sort of thing. Never hear of it? Google it.

What’s that? Google. G-o-o-g-l-e.

Egypt refused permission on Thursday for a Gaza-bound aid convoy in led by British MP George Galloway to enter the country through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba.

There will be “no entry from Nuweiba. Entry can only be through Al-Arish,” on the Mediterranean coast, Hossam Zaki told the French news agency AFP.

The Viva Palestina convoy of 250 trucks and ambulances laden with European, Turkish and Arab donations of food and medical supplies arrived in Jordan from Syria on Wednesday and was headed to the Red Sea port of Aqaba for the ferry journey across to the Egyptian Sinai port of Nuweiba.

Entering through the port of Al-Arish would mean going around the Sinai Peninsula and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean.

…

Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza is the only access point into the Palestinian territory that bypasses Israel.

British MP George Galloway, said the convoy would not be deterred by the Egyptian decision.

“We feel very sad that Egypt has turned us away on Christmas Day, but we hope they will reconsider. This is a very determined convoy and we’re not going anywhere except to Gaza.”

Then I’d suggest you sail that scow back out into open water, George, and make a series of right turns until you get to the Mediterranean. Here’s a map to help you find your way:

Or maybe you could just go through Israel.

They’re pretty understanding about helping the Palestinians—if the help is humanitarian and not homicidal:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lauded Thursday Israel’s decision to comply with his request and allow glass to be transferred into the Gaza Strip.

The UN chief’s request was made in his meeting with President Shimon Peres at the margins of the recent climate control conference in Copenhagen.

Ban asked that glass be allowed into the Strip in order to facilitate Gaza’s reconstruction in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.

During the conversation, Peres promised to look into the possibility of easing the tough restrictions on bringing construction materials into the area.

Upon his return to Israel, the president delivered on his pledge, and on Thursday Israel’s UN officials forwarded a letter from Peres to the UN chief informing him of the decision.

The UN chief was said to have also expressed his hope for other vital materials to be allowed into the Strip so they can be used in its reconstruction.

Don’t push your luck, Ban. Let’s see how they do with glass. Last time they were given a great supply—in the form of greenhouses—they smashed and trashed the stuff until it wasn’t good for anything. Maybe they’ll do better this time.