Dear Hamas

Shut up. You’ve been asking for it.

In the heaviest military strike against the Gaza Strip since the 1967 Six Day War, the Israel Air Force bombed over 170 targets on Saturday, killing more than 230 Palestinians, as Israel launched "Operation Cast Lead," aimed at putting a stop to Hamas rocket attacks against the South.

In two waves, over 100 fighter jets and attack helicopters dropped dozens of smart bombs and hundreds of tons of explosives on Hamas training camps, headquarters, weapons storehouses, underground missile silos and command-and-control centers scattered throughout the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has been violating the so-called ceasefire daily since it was first announced, just as they have violated every ceasefire they’ve ever agreed to. The Israelis have had to put up with thousands of rocket attacks against their people, even after withdrawing from Gaza. Contrary to the kneejerk anti-Semitic reaction of the international community, the Israelis until now have shown tremendous restraint in the face of years of attacks. Ask yourself, would you expect the US government to hold back if rockets were fired daily from Mexico against San Diego or Brownsville?

The time for restraint is over, if there ever was such a time. Hamas is dedicated to one thing only: the destruction of Israel, the ethnic cleansing of the Jews from the region, and the imposition of Islamic rule over its ruins.

Israel shouldn’t stop until Hamas itself is destroyed.

LINKS: More at Hot Air, Power Line, LGF, Ace.

UPDATE: I don’t think the Israelis intend to repeat the mistakes of their war with Hizbullah in 2006:

The policy of restraint, officials add, is over.

 

Technorati tags: Hamas, Gaza, Israel, air strikes, operation cast lead

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Raspberries for a dynasty

The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr has had it up to here with Caroline Kennedy and her carriage ride to a Senate seat:

Forget the Profiles in Courage award. For this interview yesterday Caroline Kennedy deserves the Profiles in Chutzpah Award.

See, JFK’s only surviving child wants Hillary Clinton’s seat in the U.S. Senate, although she has absolutely no qualifications for the position other than her last name, which by the way used to be Schlossberg until last summer.

Now all these dreadful, sweaty Albany and D.C. parvenus who actually had to run for political office are complaining about Ms. Kennedy’s ever-so-Kennedy-esque attempt to cut in line ahead of them. So Caroline grants – or should I say, grahhhhnts – an interview to the Associated Press, and she has the audacity to play the victim card. To get the Senate seat, she says, “I have to work twice as hard as anybody else.”

Huh? You’ve never worked a day in your life, honey. Your pampered-poodle existence makes Uncle Teddy look like a working-class hero. Poor Uncle Teddy is worth a mere $103.6 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Caroline’s gotta be good for at least three times that.

“I am an unconventional choice.”

No, Caroline, you are about as conventional as it gets. You’re operating under the oldest rule in the book, the golden rule. He (or she) who has the gold, rules.

It gets better, so read the whole thing.

A lot of people Right and Left have been grousing about dynasties lately: "Not another Bush/Clinton/Kennedy," we hear. But there’s a fundamental difference, here. The Bushes and Clintons, though they represent political families, still submit themselves to the judgment of the people on election day. They have to get out and campaign. If Jeb Bush, for example, runs for the Senate from Florida, he at least has already run races for state office before that. He would in no way be benefiting from being the son of one president and the brother of another. (Far from it, given Dubya’s standing in the polls.) And he would still have to win an election to go to Washington.

Even Hillary, who carpetbagged her way to her Senate seat in 2000, got out on the trail to run for president. While she could be accused with some justice of trying to get into the White House based on her husband’s record, she still campaigned hard in 2008 and submitted to the will of the voter.

And earlier "dynasties," such as the Adams, Harrisons, or Roosevelts, still had to earn their way into office.

Not so with Princess Caroline. Here’s a case of someone with no qualifications to speak of (certainly far fewer than Sarah Palin) essentially trading on her name and parentage and expecting to be given the office out of gratitude for her sense of noblesse oblige. That is "dynastic" and "aristocratic." It is also antithetical to the very ideas on which this Republic was founded.

That Caroline Kennedy doesn’t understand this or doesn’t care is reason enough for Governor Paterson not to appoint her.

(hat tip: Ace)

 

Technorati tags: Caroline Kennedy, Sarah Palin, dynasties, political families, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, aristocracy, entitlement, republicanism, senate, New York, Howie Carr

The Grinch speaks

The Spirit of Christmas Grouchy breaks his silence to ask a snarky, yet fitting, question:

…can anyone tell me why is it okay for Barack Obama to spend Christmas during the worst economic downturn in decades in the course of which thousands of Americans face losing their homes in Hawaii in a 9 million dollar house body surfing and playing golf when it is not okay for the leader of the free world who has been presiding over two wars for several years to clear brush at the rather modest ranch he owns in Texas during hurricane season?

That's simple: find out what letter comes after their name, "D" or "R," and you have your answer. The media covered for Barack Obama throughout the election, and now they're busy mantling him with the aura of a new Camelot. Thus, whatever he does should bring a smile to our faces and give us Hope for a better tomorrow, while anything that wretch from Texas does is stupid/out of touch/evil/take your pick. And, speaking of Camelot, and if you want another example, compare the media's treatment of Sarah Palin and Caroline Kennedy. (And more here.)

But there's no media bias. Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.

(hat tip: Tigerhawk)

Technorati tags: media bias, Sarah Palin, Caroline Kennedy, George W. Bush, Barack Obama