Israel Invades Gaza: What You Need to Know

WHAT'S GOING ON?

Hamas (which does not equal "the men, women and children of Gaza")... piss off Israelis with their evil terrorist tactics and they tell the people who are walled into the ghetto and getting the crap blown out of them by Israelis that it's the Zionists who are killing and starving their kids. When your kids all die while they are sitting in geography class because an Israel shell blew the flesh off their bones, that's a fairly plausible take on things. So Palestinians rally round Hamas. What conceivable reason have they to trust Israelis?

Mark Shea
Catholic and Enjoying It!, 6th January 2009

WHAT DOES ISRAEL REALLY WANT?

Does it really believe it can stop the rocket fire from Gaza when previous Israeli governments have tried and failed, using every military means?

[...]

Israel's politicians are pursuing a parallel campaign, too - an electoral one... The Israeli public has a generally low opinion about how their government has handled what they call "Hamastan" - Hamas-controlled Gaza. Until it started talking tough, the hawkish opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, was leading in the polls. Now the gap has narrowed.

Katya Adler
BBC News, 27th December 2008

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

What we’re talking about here, what the IDF has in mind, is more what the Romans called “decimation”: killing enough of the right people to make Hamas weak for five or ten years, which may, just may, be long enough to give Israel’s allies the PLO/Fatah the edge in the Palestinian Civil War. That’s what this is about, getting your guys to win that war.

Will it work? Depends on the time frame. For a few years, yes; in the long run, Hell no. But if you’re the IDF, there are no good options in the long term. Demographics, dude; no way out of that spiral. The short term is all you’ve got, and in the short term Hamas is going to find out why it’s not a good idea to pretend you’re Hezbollah when you can’t back it up.

The War Nerd
Hamas Ain't No Hezbollah, 6th January 2006

WHAT ABOUT AMERICA?

Americans shouldn't be in the position of endlessly debating Israel's security situation and its endless religious and territorial conflicts with its neighbors. That should be for Israeli citizens to do, not for Americans.

Glenn Greenwald
George Washington's warnings and U.S. policy towards Israel

I TAKE IT YOU DON'T SUPPORT THE GAZA OFFENSIVE?

The Israelis don't want to exterminate the Palestinians; they just want to occupy the land they stole from them, fair and square, by killing 2550 Palestinians for the 17 Israelis killed in the past eight years.

It's eye-opening to see what a Qassam Rocket really looks like. (Not that I'd want one aimed at me, but let's have some proportionality for G-d's sake.) I was imagining V-2s, not what I used to make as a kid when model rocketry was my hobby.

Joshua Snyder
The Western Confucian, 6th January 2006

Qassam Rocket

US-Made Weaponry

WHEN WILL IT END?

The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children.

This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel.

Chris Hedges
Party to Murder, 30th December 2008

"You don’t win a Nobel Peace Prize without having blood on your hands"

Russia was outraged at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martti Ahtisaari last week. The former Finnish president was the UN envoy to Kosovo until 2007, when he quit amid vehement Russian opposition to Kosovan independence from Russian ally Serbia. Deputy leader of the Russian parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, likened Ahtisaari's peace plan for Kosovo to the opening of a “Pandora's box”. Kosova declared independence on February this year.

- The Budapest Times, Monday, 13 October 2008

As if the committee wasn't discredited enough - Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize. First Kissinger, then Gore, now Ahtisaari?

This man's "supervised independence" plan for Kosovo and Metohija was a complete failure, a plan which solution was tacitly predetermined from the start. Ignoring Serbian interests, imposing one side's interests over another, and providing Kosovo's criminal overlords with all the prerogatives of a state (constitution, border/air traffic control, army, secret service, etc), has resulted in Kosovo's declaration of secession early this year. In addition, Ahtisaari's plan legitimizes the post-war discrimination of minorities, and fails to guarantee restitution of state, social or church property, resulting in widespread acts of violence against the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, as well as the continued destruction of churches and monasteries.

Johan Galtung, Norwegian founder of peace studies, hit the spot when describing Ahtisaari as a man who does not hesitate to favour solutions that bypass the United Nations and international law. "Ahtisaari does not solve conflicts but drives through short-term solutions that please western countries", Galtung adds - and his words will prove to be prophetic.

Kosovar secession is not "the last step in the disintegration of Yugoslavia", as so many have happily mentioned, but rather, the first step in further destabilization in the Balkans.

May 29, 1453

God rings the bells, earth rings the bells, the sky itself is ringing,
The Holy Wisdom, the great church, is ringing out the message,
Four hundred sounding boards sound out, and two and sixty bells,
For every bell there is a priest, for every priest a deacon.
To the left the emperor is singing, to the right the patriarch,
And all the columns tremble with the thunder of the chant.
And as the emperor began the hymns to the Cherubim,
A voice came down to them from the sky, from the archangel’s mouth:

Cease the Cherubic hymn, and let the sacred objects bow;
Priests, take the holy things away, extinguish all the candles:
God’s Will has made our city now into a Turkish city.

But send a message to the West, and let them send three ships:
The first to take the cross, the second to remove the Gospel,
The third, the finest shall rescue for us our holy altar.
Lest it all to those dogs, and they defile it and dishonour it.
The Holy Virgin was distressed, the very icons wept.
Be calm, beloved lady, be calm and do not weep for them.
Though years, though centuries shall pass, they shall be yours again.

Anonymous Song of Lamentation
for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453
Translated by Richard Stoneman

Exposing the War on Terror™

ARUSHA, Tanzania - President Bush on Monday hailed Kosovo's bold and historic bid for statehood, saying "The Kosovars are now independent."

[...]

"It's something that I've advocated along with my government," Bush said in an interview on NBC's "Today."

- Yahoo! News, Mon Feb 18, 11:06 AM ET

We've long known US President George W. Bush's War on Terror™ to be nothing more than a sham, serving only to justify unilateral preemptive war, perpetual war, human rights abuses, and other violations of international law, but this takes the cake.

In an interview two years ago, Gore Vidal rightly pointed out, "It’s like a war against dandruff. There’s no such thing as a war against terrorism. It’s idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed."

American recognition of Kosovar "statehood" is proof yet again that America is not the least concerned with curbing violent extremism, but with furthering its quest for global hegemony.

As with American foreign policy since the Second World War, Washington continues to arm and support known terrorists today for no explicable reason other than to "contain" Russia, now but a shadow of its former self. As it trained and armed Osama bin Laden in the 80s, so it recognises Kosovar statehood today.

The politicians of America have learned nothing from the past. They have funded terror in the past, and they continue to do so today.

It is a state governed by the political arm of the terrorist UÇK (the deceptively named Kosovo Liberation Army), and ruled by Hashim Thaçi, a convicted criminal and known organiser of the Drenica Group, which has been involved in the smuggling arms, stealing cars, oil and cigarettes as well as with prostitution, the establishment and maintenance of connections with the Albanian, Czech and Macedonian mafia.

This very UÇK, which NATO supported against the legitimate Serb authorities in Kosovo during the 90s with four months of continuous bombing, is, according to Human Rights Watch, "responsible for post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, as well as ethnic Albanian political rivals... widespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries... combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities... elements of the UÇK are clearly responsible for many of these crimes."

These are the people the West hands Kosovo and Metohija to on a platter today.

So much for being the guardians of freedom and democracy.

Seven years ago, President Bush said in an address to Congress, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

So much for "every terrorist group".

So much for the "War on Terror".

But we have hope.

Edward writes:
Remember, my friends - Kosovo remained Serbian during those five long centuries of Ottoman darkness, to be liberated in 1912. It is no less Serbian now, the ugly farce in Priština notwithstanding. It will be tangibly Serbian again when the current experiment collapses and when the very names of Bush, McCain and Clinton are rightfully consigned to the rubbish bin of history. Serbia has suffered worse, and she will emerge from this triumphant again - I have faith in the Serbian people, and in God, who sees and judges justly.

The Serbian Orthodox Church Speaks

During its extraordinary session held at the Patriarchy on the 17th of February 2008, the following statement on the latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija was issued by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, aimed at the national and international public:

Just like uncountable times before, the Church is announcing once more today, that Kosovo and Metohija was and must remain an integral part of Serbia, in accordance to the Charter of the United Nations, Security Council Resolution 1244, as well as according to all relevant international conventions on human rights, the rights of peoples and on the inviolability of internationally recognized borders.

[...]

In this particular case, this means granting new legitimacy to centuries of Ottoman violence with its impact on the entire region, as well as re-applying the fascist solution (that of Mussolini and Hitler) to the Kosovo issue dating back to the times of WWII, when Kosovo and Metohija were annexed to so-called Great Albania, when thousands of Orthodox Christian Serbs were expelled from their secular homes, just like in 1999, with the objective of not having them return, ever.

We are deeply appalled by the fact that, according to the words of an American Ambassador, it was because of the presently announced illegitimate and illegal recognition on behalf of the governments of the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and others, of the self-declared Kosovo independence - Serbia and Montenegro were bombarded in the first place. Thus, the presumed protection of human and minority rights by using bomb attacks with the code name "Merciful Angel", represented only a preparation for this final trampling on justice and tearing the heart out of Serbia's breast.

More HERE.

The Noose Tightens

Kosovo's parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia in an historic session.

The declaration, read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kosovo would be a democratic country that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognise Kosovo on Monday.

- BBC News, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 14:50 GMT

Now a great cloud hangs over all the land; and it is deepening.

Kosovo and Metohija is the historical heartland of Orthodox Serbia. The mediæval Serbian state was centered around Kosovo, and today remains the heart of Serbian Orthodoxy; home to more than 1,300 churches and monasteries.

Yes, that is the full name of that province: Kosovo AND Metohija. The latter was used to denote a territory of the Church in the Middle Ages; Albanians and the Western media tend to simply use "Kosovo", ignoring the word that would imply that Kosovo belongs to the Orthodox Church.

During the last decade, the Christian Serbian population have been driven from their homeland by Albanian terrorism, openly supported by bombers of the defunct Cold War relic, NATO. Today, the criminal overlords of Kosovo declare independence. Today, yet another piece of Christendom is lost to Islam.

For the last five years, Albanian terrorists, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), who have strong ties to al-Qaeda and are now the de facto rulers of Kosovo, have systemically been destroying ancient churches, libraries and monasteries, with the open consent of the occupying NATO forces.

When Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait, the Western powers insisted that sovereignty, borders determined by international law and the United Nations and must be protected. Now, those same guardians of international law seem to have forgotten their own arguments and are doing everything to ensure that Kosovo becomes independent from Serbia.

The Americans and British are hypocritically supporting this farcical independence because they still believe in "containing" Russia, and this move would supposedly balance Russian influence in the region. Serbia, demonised by the media since the Yugoslav wars of the 90s, is powerless to do anything.

We're going to have yet another Muslim terrorist state.



Say a prayer for Kosovo.

One takes comfort in the words of Elder Barnabas of Gethsemane Skete from more than a century ago:

"Persecutions against the faith will constantly increase. There will be unheard-of grief and darkness, and almost all the churches will be closed; but when it will seem to people that it is impossible to endure any longer, then deliverance will come. There will be a flowering. Churches will even begin to be built. But this will be a flowering before the end."

"Secular" Turkey Strikes Again

A 17th century chapel dedicated to Our Lord’s Transfiguration, which lies in front of the Haliki School of Theology, was almost completely destroyed yesterday by Forest Guards. The church had been recently restored with the permission of local authorities. Demolishers had begun tearing down the building without any prior warning, which is called for in such cases.

[...]

The Prior of Halki immediately brought to the attention of the Turkish authorities that these kinds of episodes will provoke international disapproval, including that of the European Union. The authorities' response was stark: "Don’t dare to threaten us!".

- AsiaNews.it, 17th November, 12:57

Another terrific demonstration of tolerance from secular Turkey, a country committed to upholding freedom and democracy for all (unless, of course, one is Greek, Armenian, Christian or any combination of the above).

The Holy Virgin was distressed, the very icons wept.
Be calm, beloved Lady, be calm and do not weep for them.
Though years, though centuries shall pass, they shall be yours again.

O, when will the City be ours again?

"O you afflicted one,
Tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.

In righteousness you shall be established;
You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
And from terror, for it shall not come near you.

No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their righteousness is from Me,"
Says the LORD.
Isaiah 54:11, 14, 17

UN Chief "Reassures" Kosovo Serbs

Serbs should not be afraid to live in Kosovo after the United Nations hands over power, the head of the UN mission (Unmik), Joachim Ruecker, has said.

- BBC News, Thursday, 1 March 2007, 14:18 GMT

Who is Mr Ruecker trying to bluff? It wasn't safe for Serbs to live in Kosovo even when the K-For (the 16,000-strong international military force deployed in Kosovo) were around. Serbs have been murdered, churches systematically destroyed and God knows what other atrocities have been committed by the Albanians under the watch of international troops.

What has NATO/K-For done to allow for the return of the 240,000 Serbian refugees expelled by the UÇK (the local Albanian terrorists) in 1999? Absolutely nothing.

Serbs live in heavily guarded areas, under constant protection by K-For troops. Living conditions are almost ghetto-like. There are no protections from violations of civil and human rights. There is no rule of law.

This is what NATO has achieved: the slow genocide of the Serbian Orthodox population of Kosovo. The UÇK has expelled over 240,000 Serbs, Roma and Jews. The UÇK has destroyed over 112 Serbian Orthodox churches supposedly under NATO/K-For/UNMIK protection. The UÇK has desecrated over 10 Serbian Orthodox cemetaries. This is what NATO has achieved. Imagine what the UÇK will do when Kosovo finally falls into their hands.

Lord have mercy.

Kosovo

A church in a Kosovo village of Gornja Brnjica near Pristina was robbed and looted by unidentified men who broke into the church on the eve of Christian Orthodox Christmas and stole church money, icons and then damaged the church.

[...]

This is the second time the church has been broken into in the past two months. Last time the looters stole a part of the church bell.

"Since the end of the war this is the fourth time the church was been desecrated," said Djordjevic.

The church of the St Peter and Paul is built on an ancient foundation near the tombstones of legendary Serbian defenders of Christendom, brothers Jugovic, who were murdered by the Muslim army set to invade Europe in the 14th century through Kosovo.

Serbs in Gornja Brnjica, who are Christian, are surrounded by hostile Muslim Albanians that are openly harassing and threatening Kosovo Christians with violence and organized pogroms.

[...]

Since 1999, over 200,000 Christians have been expelled by the dominant Albanian Muslims who seek to create an ethnically and religiously pure state out of the Kosovo province currently administered by the UN.

- Serbianna.com, Monday, January 15, 2007

In their rabid push to force a takeover of Kosovo, Moslem Albanians have once again resorted to violence and intimidation. Yet, the native Serbs have again weathered one more display of Mohammedan megalomania. I wonder for how much longer.

It is difficult to imagine that in a continent as civilised as Europe, such acts of barbarism are common, happening almost daily, and with even less media coverage than the plight of Darfur refugees. For in the eyes of the liberal media and most of the world, the Serbs are villains, and their suffering is justified.

It is difficult to imagine that the UN, currently administering the province, would stand by and watch as one Moslem atrocity after another happen. They have done nothing. The plundering, looting and vandalism go unpunished. Even if they care nothing of Orthodox Christianity and her people, the numerous monasteries and churches that have been targeted by Mohammedan rabbles are outstanding works of art and architecture, masterpieces of human creative genius. Yet, despite meeting the criterion for a World Heritage Site many times over, UNESCO has yet to deem any one of them as such. The UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) has done nothing whatsoever to prevent these priceless buildings from being lost forever.

It is difficult to imagine that, for all his rhetoric on terror, President Bush forgot about Kosovo - a land which, under his predecessor, has suffered greatly. The Americans, in all their misguided zeal, have instead chosen to tackle Islamic terrorism in all the wrong places of the world.

There has been much talk on Kosovo seceding from Serbia - and I cannot help but wonder if the UN has made some secret pact with Moslem insurgents to turn Kosovo into a modern-day Turkey: an ethnically and religious pure "secular" state dominated by Moslems.

Lord have mercy.