Well duh?

Is there anybody in the IDF upper echelons with any knowledge of marketing or PR?   The IDF would do itself and the country a BIG favor if they had somebody in the general staff with an MBA and several years of serious marketing experience.

“Cast Lead”? Yea right. Went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Operation “Free Sderot” or anything that would have let the world know what the operation was about would have done the trick.

But no, some brilliant tactician picked a boner of a handle for the military op, and made Israel look like a heavy fisted military conquerer instead of the liberator of the skies of southern Israel.

“There is something that can be done…” the IDF said?
Sure, the IDF should use it’s own brains to start the PR from their own side, instead of giving the image of being military experts but PR morons.

JPS, Efrat (10.21.09)

Operation Cast Lead

Looks like the rest of the world is finally waking up to the realities of what Israel had to do.  That, or they realized the implications that sending the Goldstone report to the UNSC for debate may later have against their own ability to fight terror.  China announced today that they will not allow the Goldstone report to serve as a basis of lawsuits against Israel in the International Criminal Court at the Hague, nor will it be discussed at the UNSC.

This comes on the heels of Russia’s decision to oppose the Goldstone report as well.  Both likely realize that in order to manage their conflicts in Chechnya and Uighur, they can’t have a pesky precedent of sending anyone involved in defending their country to stand trial at the Hague hanging over them.

I can imagine this is done more out of self-preservation than agreeing with what Israel did to defend themselves, but who cares?  They realize the wisdom in what Netanyahu has been saying.  No country would be able to defend itself from asymmetrical warfare by terrorist who use populated areas as human shields. The rules of war might need changing.

The rest of the world should follow suit.  This likely wont stop Israel from being condemned in the General Assembly, but when has Israel NOT been condemned in the General Assembly?   Positive news, regardless.

Raed Salah at the Temple Mount

Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch was arrested in Wadi Joz for incitement and sedition.  This guy has 7 impending police investigations against him and the best the courts can do is send him home and tell him not to go to Jerusalem for 30 days.

Why the Israeli court system thinks this is a smart idea I’ll never know.  But, sadly, this goes along with the current ‘kid gloves’ approach the Israeli government takes with any Arab of any note who has a beef with Israel.  You can read more crap like this from Ahmed Tibi, an MK who for some reason, Israel chooses to allow to stay in the Knesset when he should be turned out of the country or at least in jail.  The sad part is, he is representing the point of view of his constituency.  He must be, as he keeps getting re-elected.  Oh well, at least we know what the people who keep putting him in office are thinking.

Now you even have Fatah members saying, “Yup, if Israel doesn’t back off, there will be a third Intifada’.  Great….the whole chorus is singing.  Why no one internationally is trying to help Israel get the Arabs to back off is beyond me, but as mentioned previously, if they want to start another Intifada, Israel should defend itself and it’s citizens accordingly with all due force.

1) I understand the terrorist’s family might be in shockfrom what their scum-in-law perpetrated, but do they actually expect anyone to believe it was just an ‘accident‘? Did he accidentally drive the tractor down the street, overturn 2 buses, crush 2 cars including one with a mother who had to throw her baby out the window to save it, screaming ‘Allah Akbahr’ all the way, only stopping after he’d had 4 bullets put into his head. Yeah….whoops!

2) Is there actually a screening process for who these firms hire? This guy had a criminal record (not a small one) and I can’t imagine why they’d be giving him unfettered access to huge equipment. I couldn’t say if anyone is criminally liable, but I would certainly open an investigation into how someone like this was hired.

3) While there is talk that this murderer might have been part of some shadowy terrorist organization from up North, there has been no confirmation of this yet. Of course this should be investigated, but at present, not one should assume he was anything but a ‘lone gunman’. This, unfortunately, is the worst kind of attack. In contrast to people trying to beat checkpoints with bomb belts or trying to get into guarded shopping malls, this was a worker who has access to an area and basically improvised. If he’s supposed to be there and simply used equipment he used daily, how do you prevent against that? Who can know? It’s very scary to consider that this may wind up being a new tactic in terror groups arsenals. Single cells who sit at their jobs to be activated later, killing and injuring many with no apparent warning. Here is a good article asking the same questions.

4) Yesterday my first reaction was to knock down this guy’s house. After some thinking, and since it hasn’t been proven he is part of any organization that sent him to do this, it would make more sense for the families involved to sue his ‘estate’ for wrongful deaths and injury. Basically bankrupt the family, liquidate the assets and send them to the streets. No messy videos and it’s all legal. What could possibly be the defense for what he has done? Plus the Arabs seem to sue in court for everything. Time to sue back.

If you have any additional thought, please share.

Whose up in arms about this? You got it. All the Arab MK’s. ‘This is racist’. ‘This is unconstitutional’. Of course its not racist because it applies to ANYONE who is a member of the Knesset, Arab/Muslim and not. And, while I’m sure it will go to the Supreme Court for a final ruling, for now, it makes total sense. Azmi Bishara, in his capacity as MK, regularly visited Lebanon and Syria and who knows who he met and spoke to there. There was suspicion that he fed information to Hezbollah during the 2nd Lebanon War. When he was to be questioned by the police he ran. Generally, guilty people don’t run, so you can see where this is going.

The Arab MK’s argue that they should be allowed to visit Arab countries, but really, aren’t they citizens of Israel too? Subject to all the laws therein? They ever hear of a phone? Would Israel be condemned if an MK went to Iran and had a meeting with the military or with Ahmadinejad and they suspended or interrogated him/her? Of course not. I’m a US citizen and I’m forbidden to go to Cuba. I deal with it. They should deal too. Congrats to the Knesset for passing a law that makes sense.