Blatant Reality

Today, the New York Times ran an article with this headline: “Carter says Hamas and Syria are Open to Peace“. When I saw this, I thought to myself, “Wow, maybe Carter isn’t completely oblivious and worthless after all.” However, I should have known not to get my hopes up to much.

As it seems to happen quite often in the MSM, the author of this piece focussed on the completely wrong aspect of the story. After you wade through all the junk about how Carter actually did something useful you get to this very important section:

Mr. Carter had tried to get Hamas to agree to several other requests and all were turned down. Those included a prisoner exchange and declaring a 30-day unilateral cease-fire with Israel — Hamas fires rockets on Israeli towns and communities in an effort to hurt and kill civilians. On Monday a 4-year-old child was injured from shrapnel after a rocket hit a home on a kibbutz and caused damage, the Israeli army announced.

 

Mr. Meshal said at his news conference that, through Egypt, he and Israel were working on a possible mutual cease-fire or period of calm so there was no reason to accept Mr. Carter’s suggestion of a unilateral cease-fire.

 

Mr. Carter said he found the Hamas leadership, including Mr. Meshal, to be clear-thinking, educated people who gave no sign of fanaticism, although he did condemn in harsh terms their use of violence. He said they did not break for prayer, talk of holy land or God. “It was secular talk,” he said.

 

“They are just as rational as you are,” he said, adding, “The thing that Meshal and I have is that we are both physicists.”

At this point in the article, I just begin to shake my head in despair. Honestly, what kind of peace talks can happen when the enemy (yes, Hamas is the enemy) won’t even agree to stop murdering innocent civilians including children? Carter didn’t accomplish anything other than finding out that he had more in common with a terrorist than the majority of the American people.

It truly shocks me that the NYT would try to spin this story into some kind of win for Carter. The real title for this article should be “Carter Fails: Hamas Will Continue Rocket Barrages” or “Hamas Won’t Agree to Ceasefire” or my favorite “Hamas Will Continue Mercilessly Killing Innocents.” Take your pick. Any of those would be ten times better than the current headline. Even a Russian news source got a better headline with “Hamas rejects Carter’s call to halt rocket fire on Israel for 1 month”

Well, I guess I can’t complain too much about this. It’s things like this that get me all riled up and give me something to write about.

Check out Gateway Pundit for some more on this.

And he obviously bordering on being worthless. He met with again today with Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader in Syria, to discuss a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Palestinians. However, Hamas launched another attack today, the eave of Passover.

Palestinian suicide bombers from Gaza drove three explosives-laden vehicles into the Kerem Shalom goods crossing on the border with Israel early on Saturday, detonating two of them, the Israeli military said.

 

Three bombers were killed in the blasts and 13 Israeli soldiers were wounded, three moderately and the rest lightly, the military said.

 

Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for the attack. It came on the eve of the weeklong Passover holiday in Israel and hours before former President Jimmy Carter held a second meeting in Damascus with exiled leaders of Hamas, reportedly to explore the possibility of a cease-fire and a prisoner exchange between the group and Israel.

An obvious sign that they want to talk peace, right? Thank goodness that they only succeeded in killing themselves. Now you might be thinking that it is because of these suicide bombings that we need Carter there. Well guess what, he’s obviously not succeeding and both the the Israeli and United governments do not want him negotiating with known terrorists.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal again Saturday in Syria, despite objections from both Israel and the United States.

 

Mr. Carter did not comment after his talks with Meshaal on Friday night and Saturday morning in Damascus.

 

A Hamas official, Mohammad Nazzal, told reporters Mr. Carter proposed a cease-fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, a prisoner exchange, and the lifting of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

 

The official said Hamas would respond soon.

Yea and we now know what that response would be: a suicide attack against Israeli soldiers on one of Israel’s most important holidays.

Jimmy Carter, go back home, grow some peanuts, and relax. We all know you did the whole thing between Israel and Egypt but it is quickly becoming evident that you are a “one hit wonder.” Give it up. You are only succeeding in distracting the media from the real issue at hand and that is the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization and should be dealt with as such.

Today, the head of Iran’s nuclear program canceled a meeting with the chief of the IAEA. This meeting was a test to see whether Iran was serious about their nuclear program being open for the world to see.

The head of Iran’s nuclear programme has cancelled a meeting scheduled for today with the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

 

Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the Iranian vice-president, gave no reason for calling off talks with Mohamed ElBaradei, who was expected to use the meeting to investigate claims that Tehran had attempted to develop nuclear weapons.

 

Diplomats said the meeting was likely to have dealt with last week’s announcement by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of a major expansion of the country’s capacity for uranium enrichment, in defiance of UN security council demands.

 

The talks were seen as a test of Iran’s willingness to cooperate with the IAEA’s demands for greater openness surrounding what Tehran maintains is a civilian nuclear programme. Iran is under three sets of security council sanctions for its refusal to comply.

No meeting = not open.

Well it seems that there might have been some sectarian violence in Iran today. A Baha’i church in Iran was bombed, killing at least 9 people.

A bomb exploded in a mosque in the southern Iranian city Shiraz on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 100, Iranian media reported.

 

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast in a crowded district of the city, state television said.

 

“At least nine people were killed and 105 injured in the blast,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoting a local hospital official as saying.

 

The death toll was expected to rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition, the official said.

No one has come forward to claim the bombing yet the article does seem to think that the United States or Britain might of had a hand it in.

As I stated back in October, Egypt is looking to make a deal with Russia to get nuclear reactors. Now it seems that they are just a couple days from signing a deal that would allow Russia to build reactors in Egypt.

The document will be signed during a forthcoming visit by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Moscow on March 24-25, Gheit said.

 

“This agreement will enable Egypt to use Russia’s extensive experience in the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Gheit said.

 

A source in Egypt’s electricity and energy ministry earlier said the document will lay the foundation for nuclear energy cooperation between Egypt and Russia and will strengthen relations between Russian companies and Egypt.

You know why they picked Russia over the US to build these reactors? Its because the United States imposes “tough restrictions, including regular inspections and control.” And you know why we do all those “tough restrictions” and “inspections?” It’s because we want to be sure that this nuclear technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands that could use it against our strategic ally, Israel.

You would think that something as big as this would be getting a lot more media attention.

In some resent polls, Iraqis are viewing things happening in their country in a much more positive light. Here is what Ed Morrissey had to say about it at Hot Air:

Problems still remain. The Shi’ites and the Kurds have the most optimism, as the BBC points out in its reporting on the survey. By 62% and 73%, respectively, they are happy with their lives. In contrast, only 33% of Sunnis say that. They have still not been engaged enough by the Baghdad government, although improvements have been made. While that remains the case, the potential for violence and dissension will be significant.

 

However, as ABC notes, Baghdad and Anbar have driven most of the improvement in polling since August. That shows some significant movement among the Sunnis, even if the numbers remain troubling low. For instance, 71% of the Anbar respondents rated security as good, an amazing number considering the common wisdom in 2006 of Anbar as “lost”. In Baghdad, where violence remains a problem, the number has risen to 43% — still an improvement, but a reflection of more work needing to be done in the capital.

 

Economics have also improved rapidly. In Baghdad and Anbar especially, Iraqis feel much more confident. A twenty-point jump since last August has a majority rating their household finances positively. Interestingly, the greatest jump came from one of the poorest sectors in Iraq, Sadr City in Baghdad. As personal economics continue to improve, one can expect less support for destabilizing violence. Vast majorities still complain — legitimately — about the delivery of utility services, but with violence declining, the US and Iraq can now focus on these larger-scale projects.

I’d call that some good news.

UPDATE (4:00pm ET):

Michael J. Totten has some graphs that illustrate this poll. Check ‘em out.

Once again, Hamas only offers a truce and no real solution for peace between Israel and them.

Hamas is once again offering Israel a cease-fire, but the language that the Islamic movement has chosen reveals a deep reluctance to talk about any real peace with the Jewish state.

 

Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza’s Hamas prime minister, on Wednesday proposed a “tahdia” — which in Arabic means a loosely defined period of calm that falls short of a formal cease-fire.

 

Still, this semantic nuance could well determine the success of Mideast peacemaking. As long as Israelis and the Islamic militants are killing each other in Gaza and southern Israel, a U.S.-sponsored drive to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year’s end stands little chance.

 

Israel is formally rejecting the truce talk, and on Wednesday its army killed four militants in the West Bank town of Bethlehem after opening fire on their car. Israel sees a broad Iranian-driven effort to besiege it from the north through Hezbollah in Lebanon and from the south through Hamas, and fears a truce will simply give Hamas time to regroup and strengthen its fighting forces.

I agree with Israel, any truce will just give Hamas more time to rearm. Something needs to be done that will last, and it can’t be in the form of a peace treaty either. Something else has to change (aka Israel has to be recognized as a sovereign country and the terrorist group Hamas has to be disbanded either peacefully or forcefully if neccessary).

Here is something that you will not see happening.

Another murderer, this time “Chemical Ali,” is schedule to be executed within 30 days for his genocidal crimes against the Kurds.

Iraq’s Presidential Council endorsed the death sentence for Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in the gassing of thousands of Iraqi Kurds during a 1988 campaign of genocide.

 

Al-Majid, a cousin of former President Saddam Hussein, will be executed within 30 days, President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said today on the party’s Web site. Talabani, a Kurd, is joined on the council by vice presidents Adel Abdul al-Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, and Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim.

 

In June, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Court convicted al-Majid of genocide and crimes against humanity. The death penalty also was handed down for his co-defendants, former Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed and the former associate army chief, Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, who were found guilty of the same charges.

In order to try to stop troops from tracking them through their cell phones, the Taliban operating in Afghanistan have started to blow up telecommunication towers. Here is a perfect example of why terrorist aren’t the brightest crayons in the box. Rather than just disposing of their cell phones, they destroy these towers, thus gaining the populace’s animosity towards them. This really is a lose-lose situation for them. They lose ways to coordinate their attacks and lose potential allies in the villages.

Oh well, if this plan is an example of what the “best minds” of the Taliban came up with, I don’t think they will be around much longer. Plus, the Taliban seems to have forgotten this little fact:

Communications experts say the U.S. military has the ability, using satellites and other means, to pick up cell phone signals without the phone company’s help. Cell phones periodically send signals to the network even when they are not making calls.

Darn, I think those satellites might just a be a little out of reach for the Taliban. Well, as long as the Chinese don’t give them any help.