Palestinians are in no position to make demands

The militant wing of the ruling Palestinian party, Hamas, is now issuing demands for the release of 1,000 prisoners, along with the withdrawl of the IDF from Palestinian territory.

Really, is this some kind of joke? With the peace process well underway, progress being made that hadn’t been seen since 2000, these vengeful nuts—affiliated with the Palestinian governing party—decide to dig a tunnel and ATTACK an Israeli military outpost on Israeli soil, taking an Israeli soldier prisoner. Now Israel is invading and they’re still making demands! Their Prime Minister, instead of immediately burning his bridges with them, decries the Israeli response as “totally unacceptable.”

What does he expect? You’d think after years of intifada the Palestinian regime would wake up to the futility of picking fights with Israel. But no, the ruling regime is up to its neck in this one:

The demands were laid out in a joint statement by the militant wing of the ruling Hamas party, and two smaller militant groups with close ties to Hamas â€??? the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam. The three groups have claimed responsibility for Sunday’s abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid.

Maybe the Palestinians should consider releasing the Israeli soldier, clean and cared for, and asking for Israel to be nice to them again. Maybe Hamas should cut its ties with terror for once and for all; it accomplishing nothing but more hardship for the Palestinian people.

UPDATE:

It seems as though Israel concurs, now threatening to kill the Palestinian PM if the soldier is not returned unharmed.Â? And pending how this turns out, the Palestinians will likely lose credibility in the Arab world as well.

Palestinians Have Chemical Weapons?

According to unconfirmed reports, as reported by Reuters.
One can imagine how the Israelis would respond if attacked.

But beyond this, it would be incredibly stupid for the Palestinians (or the Israelis for that matter) to launch chemical or biological weapons because there are so few square miles of space in Israel and the occupied territories. Where would they aim them? Not Jerusalem. Tel Aviv then? Take a look at the map at the link. Tel Aviv’s about 20km from the West Bank and the winds coming off the Mediterranean would simply send the chemicals right back there. An unlucky hit might get some wind currents to carry the fallout over to Jerusalem.

H/t: NLT

David Warren on Caledonia

My esteemed colleague, Peter Rempel, and others, have been posting here for some time on Caledonia, the cowardice and dangerous precedents being set. David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen concurs, and most eloquently.

I can add nothing to what is already widely reported in the media on Caledonia. There are no mysteries, no facts to dispute. Whatever validity the Six Nations’ land claims may prove to have in some later retrospect, they had no validity when the thugs occupied the Douglas Creek Estates property. And the thugs remain, in direct defiance of the law.

The nadir was perhaps reached last weekend, when the Ontario Provincial Police revealed they were no longer offering police protection to homeowners trapped behind Six Nations’ lines. These people had been paying taxes for police protection for many years, but their property and safety no longer counts. Instead, the luckless captives are now under the protection of an occupying force, one which has pledged to remove, in the fullness of time, everyone else, of non-aboriginal race, for 10 miles either side of the length of the Grand River. …

Dalton McGuinty would be an embarrassment in any political jurisdiction, but especially so in Ontario, where the rule of law had previously been enforced for more than two centuries. I do not think it will even be effective to give him and his party the pasting they deserve in next year’s provincial election. It is too late for that, for in the face of escalating Indian land claims and radicalization right across the country, he has set a catastrophic precedent.

And yet, Mr. McGuinty and the other sorry creatures who warm the seats in his cabinet are not acting alone. They are not even making such decisions as they appear to make. They are instead passively accepting the wisdom of their social and ideological class, which holds that any expression of masculine assertion must necessarily be wrong.

He must be reading some Mansfield these days.

And the self-righteous cynics have nothing to say

Yesterday Bush went jogging at the White House with a double-amputee Iraq war vet, fulfilling a personal wish for the vet. Bush praised him as a “good man,” thanking him for his service. The 23 year old vet,Christian Bagge, resting his arm on Bush’s shoulder, replied, “It’s a privilege.”

I wonder what Mr. Bagge has to say to all the cynical critics of the Iraq war; you know, the ones that say it was only about oil?

Be a good citizen: Attend your local gay pride parade

It’s that time of the year again: Gay Pride Parades are filling the streets of our big cities and those of us with liberal orientations are having our commitment to free speech stretched out of shape.

The time of year when we are reminded that floats featuring men dressed as nuns with bananas strapped to their crotches simulating anal sex with a another man dressed as Jesus is a sacred and virtuous form of expression that all sensible and fair-minded citizens should not only tolerate, but approve of.

This year, be a good citizen: Attend your local gay pride parade and cheer heartily as your most deeply-held beliefs are mocked and degraded by nihilistic exhibitionists.

Do it, or I’ll report you to your provincial human rights commission.

Alberta Missing Out on Oil Boom

According to the Edmonton Journal, the Alberta gov’t's revenues from the oil industry is about 19% of total revenue (in 2004, the last available date). The gov’t prefers to keep the percentage around 22%.

I can’t be bothered to assess the study’s methodology. However, the finding should underline how outrageous is the assumption (favored by the NDP, Marxist economics profs at second-rate Quebec colleges, the CBC, etc), that Albertans as a whole are awash in cash because of the oil boom. That is certainly not the case for the average Albertan, and this study indicates things aren’t so simple as far as govt revenue is concerned.

Pride in Our Performance

Seanblog on gay pride parades:

These parades are designed to show that they’re proud of who they are, and to get mainstream society to accept them too. Awesome.

Proud? People derive satisfaction from their accomplishments. If homosexuality is innate, what then is there to be proud of? Should I be proud of the fact that I have blue eyes? If so, where the fuck is my parade (not to mention my protected status under section 15)?

This is so cool … for Albertans!

Alberta is attracting a lot of attention these days in Washington, DC.

A major push by Alberta at the Smithsonian festival will soon be upon the capital of the Great Republic. As the curator describes:

“This is an ethnographic festival, not a trade show,” says Groce, who visited the province seven or eight times and helped arrange the participation of more than 160 Albertans – everyone from ranchers, oil workers and saddle makers to paleontologists, architects, cops and musicians like Ian Tyson.

“They’ll each tell part of the story of what it means to be Albertan,” she says, including two women who drive the monster dump trucks.

“The decision on what we feature is entirely up to the Smithsonian so we aren’t pressured by companies or governments. I like the truck as a prop, it will draw people in. We were looking for something that was showy.”

And perhaps my favourite part:

… For Murray Smith, Alberta’s representative in Washington, it doesn’t get any better than this, even though some are dismayed by what they view as a “one-sided focus” on a project as contentious as the oil sands.

“There’s a love affair breaking out between Alberta and the United States,” says Smith, a former energy minister tabbed last year by Premier Ralph Klein to promote the province’s interests among key U.S. politicians and administration officials.

“We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Alberta’s always been an aggressive free trade entrepreneur. It’s what we do.”

Indeed, Alberta’s reign in Washington is a carefully crafted agenda packed with receptions and forums on energy, agriculture and technology before the Smithsonian festival starts next Friday (June 30).

Alberta snagged the coveted event while the former Liberal government dithered over an invitation last year.

And:

It was a small but significant sign of Alberta’s reach when Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson appeared at a congressional committee recently and the only question from California Democrat Grace Napolitano was about how Smith was doing.

Taking Bets

Who wants to bet that the residents of the zone that the OPP has now abandoned will, in the coming days, be subjected to acts of vandalism and (potentially violent) home invasions? And that the new “protectors of the peace” will be, umm, slow to respond? All the better to drive the settlers off disputed land, after all.

Too harsh on the native police? Perhaps you should ask yourself why those “police” have been unable to apprehend seven natives with outstanding warrants, one for attempted murder. Oh right, because the elders and “clan mothers” decided to remove the alleged criminals from the situation.

At least we know who the native police answer to. And the violence of the last three months has made it painfully clear what the agenda of the elders and “clan mothers” is.

It makes one wonder why the OPP have decided to abandon the residents of Caledonia. It is almost certainly as a result of the intervention of the relevant union. As everyone knows, Dalton McGuinty’s spine turns to jelly when dealing with a) natives and b) unions. Bad combination in this case, at least for the abandoned and hopeless residents of Caledonia.

The Caledonia Pitchfork Squad

We at ThePolitic admire men who are willing to shoulder a high-powered rifle in order to protect their property and families. Such bravery manifested itself in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

There has been, however, one bright spot that has emenated from the lawlessness of New Orleans. That is shop-keepers and business-owners that have remainded to protect their livelihoods by brandishing their personal firearms. Most rioters are unarmed, looking for an easy target. These shop-keepers have refused to give it to them, protecting themselves and their property by resorting to their right to bear arms. In an atmosphere of lawlessness, these brave men have stepped up to the plate and used their guns to uphold the law.

It now seems as though the residents of Caledonia will have to begin arming themselves:

Amid concerns over lack of police action in Caledonia, the Ontario Provincial Police have turned over part of their policing responsibility on the outskirts of the town to Six Nations officers, the force confirmed yesterday.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Well, it depends. If you lived on land claimed by a violent native band and had just been informed that your police were abandoning you and were leaving you at the mercy of a “police force” that had contributed to an illegal and violent blockade that had lasted for three months, would you be scared?

As Matthew points out, there’s nothing left now for the abandoned residents of Caledonia other than their own defiance:

Once the local citizens realize that the government isn’t bothered with actually helping them get their lives back to normal as much as it’s trying to run away from a bad situation that makes good Premiers into great heroes and bad Premiers into shameful disgraces, things will get ugly fast. What good is obeying the law when the enforcers won’t defend you against transgressors in the first place?

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