CNNI can’t resist:

It might seem counterintuitive that a state that wants to get away from its image of being in constant conflict would choose “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” as a promotional gimmick. With the army so pervasive in Israeli culture — only North Korea has a higher % of its people under arms — Israelis can’t seem to think outside the box. The slang often used for women in the IDF is “sleeping bags.” Israel’s largest paper used to feature an “IDF babe of the day” in its pages. Young army women are treated as the personal perks of office for men like former Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who was convicted of sticking his tongue down the throat of a 20-year-old soldier. An Israeli court recently decided this wasn’t a “crime of moral turpitude,” and there is talk of Ramon rejoining the cabinet. The former Israeli president — and his brother — are both suspected of rape.

This campaign is part of Israel’s “rebranding” campaign; it currently ranks last in the “National Brands Index”. See also Bill Berkowitz on Israeli rebranding.

CNNI notes helpfully that Israel’s war with Lebanon last summer was “inept” and “ineffective.” One might think of other terms, like “insane and monstrous” — used by an Israeli commander to describe the indiscriminate firing of 1.3 million cluster bomblets at Southern Lebanon.

The Jewess blog concludes:

We all know sex sells, but shamelessly selling its women is hardly the best way for Israel - a country considered among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking and prostitution, by the way - to boost its public image.

Maxim wonders, “They’re drop dead gorgeous and can take apart an Uzi in seconds. Are the women of the Israeli Defense Forces the world’s sexiest soldiers?” Uzis aren’t all these hotties can handle — some look positively fetching wielding old-fashioned billy-clubs. Take this quote from an Israeli babe in blue in 2004:

Whoever [Arab stopped at a checkpoint] does not act nicely gets beaten. … We have clubs for that. … Sometimes I might just not like his face. … And then he gets one too. Just a way of passing the time.

(Kol Ha’ir, Jan. 16 ‘04)

From acclaimed actor to pariah, Mohammad Bakri, producer of Jenin Jenin, is facing a trial and jail time in Israel. Even if he doesn’t go to jail, a civil suit from Israeli soldiers claiming libel has been filed.

Democracy Now

He Describes Americans as:

Brainwashed. They don’t know anything about what’s going on. They don’t know anything. And I don’t blame the Americans. I blame the government.

I believe the US media plays as big, if not a bigger, role in making sure that Americans remain uninformed or misinformed, which then shields politicians from pressure to end the blind and endless support for Israel and the occupation.

Chris Matthews had a great suggestion for the treatment of Scooter Libby. Instead of pardoning him, the president should give him the option of going to jail to serve his sentence or put on a uniform and go to the Iraq.

Hardball

Why not send them all: Libby, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, and of course the Bush twins and Mary Cheney?

CNN

It was all so predictable, actually it was predicted.

from The Nation:

In February, 2006, former President Jimmy Carter, who expertise with regard to the Middle East is respected almost everywhere but the United States, warned that, “My concern is that in order to try, on behalf of the United States and Israel, to punish Hamas, we’ll actually going to be punishing the Palestinian people who are already living in deprivation. And it’s going to turn the Palestinian people even more against the West and against Israel, against us and make Hamas seem to be, you know, their only friend. So this will strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian people. I think it’s a counterproductive ploy to try to punish Hamas.”

Don’t Punish the Palestinians
By Jimmy Carter
Monday, February 20, 2006; Page A21
The Washington Post

CNN’s Cristianne Amanpour

Gaza: Another Mess Made in U.S.
Tony Karon a journalist from Capetown, South Africa

Everyone following the conflict in Gaza knows full well that the reason for the violence is not that Palestinians have not “sorted out their politics” — they’ve made their political preferences abundantly clear in democratic elections, and later in a power-sharing agreement brokered by the Saudis. The problem is that the U.S. and the corrupt and self-serving warlords of Fatah did not accept either the election result or the unity government, and have conspired actively ever since to reverse both by all available means, including starving the Palestinian economy of funds, refusing to hand over power over the Palestinian Authority to the elected government, and arming and training Fatah loyalists to militarily restore their party’s power. Unfortunately, after three days of some of the most savage fighting ever seen in Gaza, that strategy now lies in tatters. Fatah is, quite simply, no longer a credible fighting force in Gaza, where it has long been in decline as a credible political force.

Another case of blowback

In it’s comparison CNN leaves out the some basic similarities and some very important differences. For example, te fact that both live under a brutal Israeli occupation is never mentioned. Neither is the fact that Israel supported the creation and funding of Hamas. It’s another case of blowback.

CNN’s comparison

By Richard Sale
UPI Terrorism Correspondent
06/18/02 “UPI”

Active in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine and establish a radical Islamic state in place of Israel. It is has gained notoriety with its assassinations, car bombs and other acts of terrorism.

But Sharon left something out.
Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.

Israel “aided Hamas directly — the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),” said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.

Israel’s support for Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,” said a former senior CIA official.

According to documents United Press International obtained from the Israel-based Institute for Counter Terrorism, Hamas evolved from cells of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928. Islamic movements in Israel and Palestine were “weak and dormant” until after the 1967 Six Day War in which Israel scored a stunning victory over its Arab enemies.

After 1967, a great part of the success of the Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood was due to their activities among the refugees of the Gaza Strip. The cornerstone of the Islamic movements success was an impressive social, religious, educational and cultural infrastructure, called Da’wah, that worked to ease the hardship of large numbers of Palestinian refugees, confined to camps, and many who were living on the edge.

“Social influence grew into political influence,” first in the Gaza Strip, then on the West Bank, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to ICT papers, Hamas was legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement’s spiritual leader, as an Islamic Association by the name Al-Mujamma al Islami, which widened its base of supporters and sympathizers by religious propaganda and social work.

According to U.S. administration officials, funds for the movement came from the oil-producing states and directly and indirectly from Israel. The PLO was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas wanted to set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like Khomeini’s Iran.

CNN’s Zain Verjee examines the role of the US in the battle between Fatah and Hamas. Clearly the US has supported Fatah with arms and military training. At the same time the US has supported an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian Authority which has resulted in wide scale poverty among Palestinian people. The US then blackmailed EU and Arab countries to honor the blockade. All but Norway have obeyed.

CNN International

Aaron David Miller points out the very low credibility of the US in the region. He has never seen the situation more grim than it is today. “Everything in every corner of this region is heading south which will damage US interests”.

When the state department was asked about whether the 60 million dollars in military aid to Fatah contributed to the current violence they responded “we are not going to pay the rent for terrorism or for the rejection of Israel”

John Stewart should have a field day with that.

CNNI notes Palestinians fleeing Gaza will harm a future “Palestinian state.” Have they been drinking formaldahyde?:

CNNI fails to mention in its analysis that it’s Israel that closes the Rafah crossing.

Amira Hass notes in Ha’aretz:

Now [Hamas] will have full `military` control of the Gaza Strip. Will this bring relief to Gaza`s 1.4 million residents? Will it improve the health system and ensure employment for university graduates? Will it remove Israel`s land and sea blockade?

It may be assumed that the military takeover of Abbas` symbols of `sovereignty` will serve as an excuse for Israel to sever once and for all the remaining civilian and economic ties between the Gaza Strip and West Bank - a political process Israel started in 1991. Because Hamas, like its mirror image Fatah, has no coherent liberation or independence plan for Palestinians in this lifetime.

Israeli military historian Martin Van Creveld writes in the Forward, “Let Palestine Split into Two:”

Neither Fatah nor Hamas would be able to speak - or even claim to speak - for the Palestinian people as a whole. Unable to speak for the Palestinian people as a whole, each of the two will find it easier, if not to stop insisting on the right of return, at least to put it aside for the time being.

The fighting in Gaza is not pretty; divorces rarely are. In the long run, however, it is at least conceivable that the war of Palestinian against Palestinian will lead to the removal of the single most important obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace. If so, then perhaps the blood currently flowing is not being shed altogether in vain.

Lebanon, car bomb, assassination, civil war,

players: USA, Israel, Syria, Hezbollah, Palestinian refugees

Lebanese anti-Syrian Lawmaker Walid Eido, his son, Khalid, and two of his bodyguards were killed on Wednesday.

So Not much has changed. Neither has the media coverage. We hear from Walid Jumblat who is supported by the US. Everyting is oversimplified and fingers always point to Syria. But Israel reaps the benefits of civil war and a weakened Lebanon . hmmm

Please see the Angry Arab for details and analysis.

CNN International

PCHR: Gaza Drowns in Blood Because of the Conflict between Fatah and Hamas Movements

…According to information available to PCHR so far, 21 Palestinians have been killed and at least 150 others have been wounded in the past 72 hours….

CNN International:

Only towards the end of the clip does CNN try to address why the fighting is happening, and a mention is made of the US and Israeli-led economic boycott that’s been imposed on the Palestinian government since Hamas won elections a year ago. The Unity government is mentioned, but not the fact that the US was unhappy with the agreement, and insisted Abbas impose Fatah strongman Mahmoud Dahlan as his National Security Advisor, which was never in the unity government agreement. As Time Magazine’s Tony Karon explains, Condi Rice and Elliot Abrams are relying on Dahlan to take out the democratically elected Hamas.

CBS News:

A graphic at the beginning of the video identifies Hamas as being connected to Iran. What the clip doesn’t mention is Hamas turned to Iran reluctantly, because the West greeted their democratic victory by cutting off Palestinian aid.

A statement from Hamas in the West Bank urged an end to the fighting, calling it a “free gift to the occupation.” (Ma’an News Agency, June 12)

See also Kabobfest’s take on these events.