Monday, January 05, 2009
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The Most Important Story By Far
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
9:38 AM
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I'll be very sorry to see Al Franken be declared a winner today, though of course there's at least one more round to go in the courts.
And I'm intrigued by the talk of a massive tax cut in the stimulus package. The president-elect surprised us with his national security selections, and perhaps he will with his economic program as well. When he meets with GOP Leaders McConnell and Boehner today, they should push the tax cuts and a strong spending surge for nuclear power. A package they could support would be good for the country.
The departure of Bill Richardson makes you wonder how long it will be to a Patrick Fitzgerald in the Enchantment State calls a press conference.
But as interesting and important as all these stories are, the pale in comparison to the battle in Gaza to topple Hamas.
Hamas is an al Qeada-like terrorist organization, and though manned by Sunnis, it operates as the proxy of the radical mullahs of Iran. As long as it controls Gaza i poses a threat not just to Israel but to Egypt and the wider region, as well as the future of all Palestinians. Bill Kristol is correct today to note in his New York Times' column:
An Israeli success in Gaza would be a victory in the war on terror — and in the broader struggle for the future of the Middle East. Hamas is only one manifestation of the rise, over the past few decades, of a terror-friendly and almost death-cult-like form of Islamic extremism. The combination of such terror movements with a terror-sponsoring and nuclear-weapons-seeking Iranian state (aided by its sidekick Syria) has produced a new kind of threat to Israel.
But not just to Israel. To everyone in the Middle East — very much including Muslims — who aren’t interested in living under the sway of extremist regimes. And to any nation, like the United States, that is a target of Islamic terror. So there are sound reasons why the United States — whether led by George W. Bush or Barack Obama — will stand with Israel as it fights. Every civilian casualty in Gaza is a terrible thing, but terrorists work to maximize civilian casualties, and Israel cannot allow Hamas to create a zone within which it is invulnerable to attack. Now that it is launched, Israel must stay as long as necessary to uproot Hamas and provide at least an opportunity for the people of Gaza to join with the people of the West Bank in some sort of near-normal state not constantly thirsting for war with Israel.
The stakes are thus huge, though apparently only little understood by most of the networks. The coverage of the battle against Hamas is startlingly void of any characterization of Hamas, as though Hamas was a state actor and not a terrorist group. Israel's battle against Hamas is exactly the battle America wages against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, except that Hamas' outrages against Israel are more recent in time, and continue to this day.
The left --see Simon Tisdall's column in The Guardian-- is angry that the president-elect hasn't come out forcefully criticizing Israel. This is astonishing, as the president-elect, if he does anything before taking office, must confirm that the United States stands with its closest ally in the region. Surely the incoming Secretaryof State will make that clear in her first week in office, and if the left screams, so be it.
The longtime enemies of Israel in the West confuse their old grievances against the Jewish state with today's challenges. Hamas is not Fatah, and Iran is not Egypt of 1973. Whatever one thinks of the fence, of the Lebanon invasion of 1983, of the refusal to divide Jerusalem etc, the nature of Hezbollah to the north, Hamas to the south, and especially Iran over the horizon oblige Israel's critics to give up their canards and deal with the fact that you cannot negotiate with entities that want your total destruction. Any commentary that doesn't acknowledge the nature of Hamas is as dishonest as it is ignorant of the reality facing Israel today, one which the new president should acknowledge as soon as he enters office -if not sooner.
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I voted for McCain.
Funny what happens when idiots start thinking they know "evwerything"-look at the current plight of the GOP.
You my friend are exhibiting clear symptoms of Obama derangement syndrome which luckily as of yet hugh has managed to avoid.
I suggest you go be angry in a corner for the enxt four years. that will be extremely constructive and helpful to the country.
Now sit and shut your face you ignoramus. |
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your messiah deserves all the mis-trust he gets, because he is a LIAR and is totally wrapped up in his "Chicago-ho, gangsta mob brethren", and will plummet America to the "gates of hell" in the next 4 years!
I'm STILL amazed that you mindless morons elected the POS as POTUS! |
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Blow the animals back into the stoneage, where they belong. |
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I detect a change in the tone of your writing towards Obama and liberals in general. In the heat of the election last year you said some pretty stupid things-remember Obama goes blanco-his so called katrina moment? Sure you do.
But now you seem to realize that if you want an incoming POTUS to actually consider effective ideas regardless of partiship perhaps aimless venom is hardly the way to proceed.
Perhaps you should make sure Carol Platt Liebou gets this message as well. |
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I see on newsmax that John Bolton is suggesting that gaza and the west bank be incorporated back into Egypt Jordan. Of course, neither is that stupid as to want them. But it would be a great solution - let them completely crack down and slaughter as many as needed to get the area quiet. The libs and europeans don't care at all when arabs commit atrocities against other arabs. |
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Every circus needs a clown, that's why we elected you.
Al Franken. Al Franken.
It's becoming a bad joke, so it makes sense to have you.
Al Franken. Al Franken.
Caligula at least sent the whole horse, Minnesota just the back.
Al Franken. Al Franken.
Now excuse me while I vomit, I can taste it in my mouth.
Al Franken. Al Franken. |
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