Hamas helps overcome legal obstacle for Jerusalem fence
Israel decided to build a security fence around Jerusalem as protection against suicide bombers. The completion of the fence was halted by legal challenges with 25% still to be done. According to the New York Times:
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in 2004 that building the fence inside the West Bank, where most of it is being erected, is a violation of international law. Israel rejected the decision, saying the barrier is necessary to prevent suicide bombings and other attacks.As an aside, this is a reminder why the US should never cede it's sovereignty to the UN or world court. They make rulings such as "Sorry, you can't defend yourself. You have to just sit there and get blown up. Anything else would be downright Zionist."
So in response to legal action Israel set aside their own interests by calling a halt to the completion of the fence. While the 3/4 fence that is done has been very effective in limiting the bombers, the remaining 1/4 is not in one place. The Times says:
Israel's separation barrier still has numerous openings around Jerusalem, and Israeli security officials consider the city one of the places most vulnerable to attack.Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters Blog comments on Hamas' recent endorsement of suicide bombers and how this has helped Israel break the logjam:
Very shrewd. A self-defense strike in response to their women and children being mercilessly blown to pieces somehow seems to raise the ire of many around the world. So the response is to complete the fence and deny them future access with their bombs. I'm sure some will get through, but they will be much fewer and the bombers will need to work much harder. In the meantime, the increased poverty under Hamas should send a message to the people next time they go to the voting booth.The Israelis have wanted to close off the barrier through Jerusalem for some time, but the West has opposed it, considering it too provocative and a potential negotiation-killer for peace talks. Israeli courts have also held up progress on the security wall, although they have given the green light to everything but its route by now. Ariel Sharon probably figured the proposed wall had more effect as a threat than as an actuality in getting the Palestinians to take peace talks seriously.
All of that flew out the window when Islamic Jihad conducted its last bombing, but especially when Hamas praised the operation as "self defense". Rather than conduct a military strike on Hamas and bolster their popularity among the Palestinians, Olmert has shrewdly selected a tactic that will stab at the heart of their enemy and create a backlash against the incompetent terrorists who govern them. Not only will Hamas and its intransigence on adhering to previous treaties and recognition of Israel left the Palestinian Authority completely bankrupt, but now their diplomatic fecklessness has lost them Jerusalem. The barrier will complete their humiliation.
As Captain Ed says:
The Palestinians might finally wake up once they realize that their government has left them even more poor and even more isolated than Fatah could have dreamt.No they will find a way to blame the Zionists and never learn.
posted by All_I_Can_Stands @ 8:29 AM
10 Comments:
At 9:39 AM,
Anonymous said…
As a supposed advocate of free speech and debate, perhaps you might want to dedicate some posting time to the current net neutrality issue. I'm assuming you think Americans should be responsible for themselves, don't need babysitters and therefore don't approve of regulating internet traffic and content.
Background information piece on it.
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have joined forces to support net neutrality. This is their site.
Here is another site dedicated to the cause.
At 12:33 PM,
Anonymous said…
Logic
1. philosophy theory of reasoning: the branch of philosophy that deals with the theory of deductive and inductive arguments and aims to distinguish good from bad reasoning
2. system of reasoning: any system of or an instance of reasoning and inference
3. sensible argument and thought: sensible rational thought and argument rather than ideas that are influenced by emotion or whim
4. reasoning of particular field: the principles of reasoning relevant to a particular field
5. inescapable relationship and pattern of events: the relationship between certain events, situations, or objects, and the inevitable consequences of their interaction
At 12:42 PM,
All_I_Can_Stands said…
I am for a free internet where the domains continue to be housed in the US. While there is a lot of things on web I find discusting, I am not for censorship.
I don't want to pay for others to view this through prison web access and library web access but if they want to pay on their own internet connection that is their own business.
The only caveats I have are child endangerment, fraud, breach of national security and other such.
I will look further into this. On the surface we probably agree for the most part.
At 6:31 PM,
Merete said…
So what are you saying here, that the US should build a wall, just like the one Israel is building at the moment?!
It is hard to belive that they actually are bilding a huge wall around their country. Think it works? Ask the Germans what they think about the German wall that was thorn down some years ago.
They are just happy the damn wall is gone!
At 8:36 PM,
All_I_Can_Stands said…
It is hard to belive that they actually are bilding a huge wall around their country. Think it works? Ask the Germans what they think about the German wall that was thorn down some years ago.
You liberals sure like to mix apples and oranges. The Berlin Wall was built to keep people IN. I want a wall or some kind of barrier to help keep illegal linejumpers OUT so that those waiting in line can enter sooner legally.
No I do not believe a wall on its own can do the job. I do not believe just a border patrol can do the job. With a barrier, it is easier for the patrol to monitor instead of an open border.
Merete, I find it hard to believe that a European such as yourself is concerned about our border control methods. Also, do you have any border patrol in the Netherlands or in Norway? Or do you just let every body come and go as they please?
At 7:59 AM,
Merete said…
>You liberals sure like to mix apples and oranges. The Berlin Wall was built to keep people IN.
Well, that really depends on which side of the wall you were looking at! The wall was buildt more to keep people from the East OUT!
It's such a crazy idea to begin with. Families separated, your freedom of travel as you want being taken away. It only cause heart acke. But people who build walls like these do not have any hearts.
Oh and I am VERY VERY concered about the way the americans are going. Just aping Israel with their crazy politics. Not getting any friends around the world, you are slowly isolating yourselves and only getting enemies.
It's different here in Europe. Nobody is talking about buliding any barrier around their countries to keep illegal immigrants ouside. We have manpower to do that.
Besides, I live in one of the most multi cultural cities in the world, Amsterdam. Here I have Muslim friends, Christians, Jews, ateists and Hindus as friends. Blacks, white and yellow.
I wonder if you have any Muslim or Mexican friends?
And if you ever got to Norway, you'd see how easy it is to enter the country from Sweden or Finland. Where te border to Russia is, we have a military camp. You don't get treated like a criminal, or you sure as hell don't get to meet a damn ugly wall!
At 10:40 AM,
All_I_Can_Stands said…
It's such a crazy idea to begin with. Families separated, your freedom of travel as you want being taken away. It only cause heart acke. But people who build walls like these do not have any hearts.
What in the world are you talking about? What families separated? What freedom of travel taken away. It is very simple. There are entry points and if you can prove you have the right to go through you do.
t's different here in Europe. Nobody is talking about buliding any barrier around their countries to keep illegal immigrants ouside. We have manpower to do that.
You are making no sense at all. If the goal is to keep people out that have no right to come in what difference does it make to you if it is manpower or a wall or a combination of both that does the job. How is a wall evil and manpower ok? Or is it that the wall helps make things very effective and just manpower alone lets illegals slip through. So illegals being kept out is evil but them getting in is morally superior? Wow, that is a head scratcher.
And if you ever got to Norway, you'd see how easy it is to enter the country from Sweden or Finland.
Of course it is easy. I have traveled around in the world. With my US passport I just walk right through. But if I did not have my passport with me and I tried to walk through between checkpoints would I be asked to stop? Would they ask for identification? Or would they just shrug their shoulders and let me go through? I am certain they would want to check if I had the right to go through. So how is that less "evil" than what the US should do?
I wonder if you have any Muslim or Mexican friends?
I have dozens of Mexican friends. I have many black, Asian and Indian friends. The fewest ethnic group I have friends among are Muslim and Jewish, but I have some in both. The reason is the number of them are fewer around me than the other groups.
At 7:56 AM,
Merete said…
I don't make any sense to you. Well, imagine if all countries around the world started building walls around their borders.
Would that be a good thing? We would save a lot of manpower, yes, but would it help in the long run?
What I am trying to tell you is that we need to look at things from a macro perspective. Hell, we are ALL children of mother earth! We have all the right to be here!
Now when the world is becoming smaller and smaller, it should be in everybodys right to travel everywhere.
Just because the majority of the world population is unfortunate and were born into poverty, doesn't mean that we have the right of taking all chanses away from them.
I can understand that if you have been born poor and have no future wherever you come from, that you grab an opportunity and try to sneak into another country to try to build a life.
Easy for you to say "stand in line and wait for empteen years before we have given you an approval". Maybe they know that they wont even get into the country in the first place.
What choices do these people have? Probably not your problem anyway?
And what if America would manage to find and throw out all illegal immigrants. Who do you think would take all the jobs the Americans themselves don't want to do?
Who will clean your houses, who will take care of your children, who will drive your cars and so on? We actually need them as much in Europe as in America.
I hope I made myself clearer now. (English is not my native language).
At 9:40 AM,
All_I_Can_Stands said…
Merete, your english is just fine. Much better than my Dutch and Norwegian.
I understand the sentiment of what you are saying, but in the practical it will not work.
I have stated many times I do not blame them for trying to come, even illegally. It breaks my heart every time I see news footage of the coast guard intercepting Cuban refugees before they are able to touch land. The law is if they touch land with both feet they stay, otherwise they are sent back.
But you must have some understanding of what the American Dream is about and cannot wish for it to go away. We cannot absorb all of the world's poverty and still keep the American Dream. It is like drink with too much water: take tea for instance. Keep adding water and it will soon be watery tea. Add more still and you soon have tea flavored water. Add more still and you cannot taste the tea. I wish we could help all the world, but we cannot. Only some.
It would be far better to export the American Dream to other countries than to bring all the people here. Yet the world has been so hostile to the US calling us greedy and causing so much bias against the capitalism that makes the American Dream possible. If the American Dream were encouraged around the world, we could then absorb the world's poverty together. (add both tea and water).
And what if America would manage to find and throw out all illegal immigrants. Who do you think would take all the jobs the Americans themselves don't want to do?
Who will clean your houses, who will take care of your children, who will drive your cars and so on? We actually need them as much in Europe as in America.
I do not have such hired help, so I would be fine. The fact is the illegals are suppressing wages in this country. If immigration were controlled, we would have higher wages for those that come legally and have a stronger base to absorb more.
At 10:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
merete, It is unfortunate that you have swallowed the lie that so many Americans have swallowed that illegal aliens will do the jobs that Americans won't do. This is absolutely false. Americans will do any job if it pays enough. I'll give you one example. The job of a sanitation worker (garbage man) is a very unappealing job. It's dirty, smelly, and rather humble. However, there are plenty of American citizens who are willing to do the job. Why? It is a good-paying job. Now if there are plenty of Americans willing to befoul themselves with other peoples' garbage, you can't convince me there are no Americans willing to do landscaping work or hotel work or housecleaning work. The reason illegal aliens have such a monopoly on these jobs is that employers have discovered they can pay illegals a lot less. You see, Capitalism works great if people obey the law. Unfortonately, too many people have been breaking laws for far too long.
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