PISS OFF DAY.

Everbody seems to be mad at Israel, so I decided it would be cool to sport an Israeli flag on DowneastBlog. Unable to find a decent example of a flag, I finally stumbled on a roundel. There was, however, an F-15 attached to it, see pic below from StrategyPage.



Photo shows a pair of F-15s over Nevada during the Red Flag 2004 exercise. The F-15, of which the latest model to enter Israeli service is the F-15I (january 1998) is the main combat aircraft of the Israeli Air Force. The F-15I (or Ra'am, as it is called in Hebrew) is basically an enhanced F-15E Strike Eagle with an enormous payload capacity, designed specifically for Israel, whence the "I".

To be exact, one should not speak of the Israeli Air Force, but rather of the Air Corps (Hel Avir). Indeed, unlike the USAF it is not an autonomous entity but "merely" a part of the IDF, albeit with a large autonomy. This Air Corps operates 900 aircraft from 9 main bases, and an estimated 524 are combat types. This sheer number (keep in mind that Israel is but a very small country with some 6 million plus inhabitants!) coupled with the fact that the planes are equipped with state of the art technology and manned by extremely well trained pilots, makes the Hel Avir without doubt the strongest air force of the Middle East. Its current CINC is Major-General Elyezer Shkedy.

Here's a couple of good links to have a peek at: a list of the Israeli Air Force's squadrons, the current combat order, and an unofficial IAF site. Great gallery at the latter.


MFBB.

ARE THEY REALLY ISRAELIS, AMERICANS, CANADIANS, BELGIANS?

With the exception of Iraq, in the whole of the Middle East there is but one place where Arabs are granted democratic rights. That place is Israel. OK, there are some restrictions concerning IDF service and job opportunities in the public sector, but on the whole, the 1.4 million strong Israeli Arab community (some 20% of the population) reaps the benefits of living in a country where there is Rule of Law. Not only can they elect their representatives in a truly democratic way, their living standard is on average much, much higher than that of Arabs in the rest of the Middle East. One can reasonably assume that in a country with a free press, Israeli Arabs are well aware of this priviliged status vis-à-vis their brethren in the surrounding countries, and that this knowledge would translate in some kind of gratitude towards the State of Israel. But here there is serious ground for scepticism. Take e.g. the National Democratic Assembly (Tajammua' in Arabic, Balad in Hebrew), an Arab Party in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Obviously the NDA is the most popular Arab party in Israel since several others such as the United Arab List did not make it to the country's legislative body. The National Democratic Assembly calls for ridding Israel from its Jewish character by turning it into what it calls a "truly democratic state". One of Tajammua's members, Azmi Bishara, is sympathetic to Hizballah. Believe it or not, but this guy is an MK (Member of Knesset, we'd call that an MP).

Now, after the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit near the Gaza Strip, but before the Hizballah attack in the north, Another MK of Tajammua', Wasil Taha, defended the abduction by Hamas as a "legitimate act of resistance". Taha as well as former MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe, also an Arab, said that Shalit should be considered a POW rather than a kidnapping victim. While these statements did cause quite some verbal uproar among the other MK's, the Law for the Prevention of Terror, which would allow, a.o., the trial of MK's (Arab of otherwise) who support terrorist organizations, was not invoked. This prompted Avigdor Lieberman, MK and Chairman of the far-right Israel Our Home party, to the following reaction:

"Our law enforcement system has gone bankrupt given the fact that Arab MKs who openly support Nasrallah are not put on trial," he said. He chose not to address questions regarding Qana .

Lieberman was asked by one ynet reader "if he thinks that Knesset members who support Nasrallah deserve to be in the Knesset." Lieberman responded that "This is a rhetorical question, hence the answer is clear. In no sane country can you see this phenomenon of members of parliament who support the enemy during wartime. In the United States, there could be no Senate member who supported Bin Laden and, in Russia, no parliament member who supported Chechnyan rebels."

"The law for the prevention of terror is clear and it allows us to try most of the Arab MKs who spoke in support of Nasrallah and justified the kidnap of Israeli soldiers and so it. This means that the law is not dealing with these cases and putting these men on trial; our law enforcement system has gone bankrupt," he continued.

If a topic like that would be an isolated fait divers, I would not pay much attention to it. However, over the past years I have here and there come across more stories like these, which all seem to point towards a rather questionable loyalty of the Arab/Muslim citizens of Israel towards their legitimate country. The latest one my eye fell upon was this July 19 piece from the LA Times:

In Nazareth, a mainly Arab city of 60,000, residents will tell you, mostly in private, that despite the rocket fire they sympathize with Hezbollah's decision to kidnap Israeli soldiers as a way to win the release of Lebanese and Palestinians jailed in Israel.

But one can go further. I have argued before on these pages that Europe does indeed have a problem with racism. If you want proof of that, just check out photos of European governments. Overwhelmingly white. And yes, I have also already admitted that part of the problem we face with Muslims here may find its roots in racism (I do not consider it the main cause however). Now, while I am aware of the racist dimension in America, I'd wager that in se, the States are a lot less racist than Europe. A logical conclusion would be that the Muslim community in the States is less alienated from the US government, indeed from America itself, to a degree in compliance with the absence of the racial element. Or, if not the absence, the fact that American racism is much less than European racism. To put it simply, one could expect that because of less racism in the US, Muslims there are more loyal to America than European Muslims are to their respective European countries.

It is therefore worrisome to find out that the more I read about it, the more I find out that muslim loyalty towards their adopting state does not seem to differ that much on both sides of the Atlantic. I just read one of Debbie Schlussels' latest posts, Hezbos in America Who Hate America:

DEARBORNISTAN, USA--To all those who had any doubt where the loyalty of Shia Muslims in America is, take the comments of Hayat Taleb--at yesterday's latest pro-Hezbollah rally to heart. Taleb, aged 24, who grew up here, lives in Dearbornistan, and is a mother of two U.S. citizens she is raising to share her beliefs said this to The Detroit Spews: "I'd rather die there [Lebanon] than live here [America]."

Photo from Debbies blog. Wow, Mrs. Taleb would rather die in Lebanon than live in America. One wonders what the heck she is still doing in Dearborn then??? Makes me think of another Lebanese, closer to home and by the name of Dyab Abu Jahjah, who in his own words Lived His Life For His Lebanese Nation - be it from a comfy Belgian sofa.

Let's now trod northwards to Toronto, Canada, where lately a 17-strong terror cell was broken up, whose members were intent on blowing up several Canadian landmarks and one even aspired to behead the Canadian PM, Stephen Harper. Like the US and Israel, Canada is a western country which has given its Muslim immigrants everything they lacked so sorely in the shitholes they fled: non-erratic power supply, clean water, quality education, socialized healthcare, decent housing, civil rights etc etc etc. Again, one would assume the newcomers would reward all this with a sturdy loyalty towards the new fatherland, right?

Wrong, apparently.

I'm not saying every Canadian Muslim woman is like Nada Farooq, wife of Zakaria Amara, the Toronto cell leader. But nor do I believe she's an isolated case. There is serious cause for concern. From Captain's Quarters:

The wives spent a lot of time on the Internet, wheedling and cajoling their readers to support and to wage jihad on Western society. Farooq wanted a baby badly, and she wanted to name it after a Chechen Islamist commander killed by the Russians. Her dream was to have her children follow in his footsteps, apparently all the way to the grave. She called openly for death by crushing for gays in Muslim societies, and she posted a prayer to Allah for the Jews to be crushed as well. Crushing, apparently, gets big play in the Amara/Farooq household. Canada doesn't fare any better in Farooq's tightly wound world. She repeatedly refers to our northern neighbor as "this filthy country". and explicitly declared in one message that "we hate Canada".

Hmmmm. This filthy country. We hate Canada. The wife of Belgian terrorist Khaled Bouloudo, now in jail for being involved in the Madrid bombings, wears a burqa in Maaseik, eastern Belgium. She hates my country too.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING THEN IN OUR COUNTRIES???

On July 30, there was a pro-Hizballah demo in Brussels. The photo below and the excerpt are from Czech blogger Alva:

Anti-Israel and anti-USA groups organized a demonstration in Brussels today. It was advertised as a "Rassemblement contre l'agression sioniste au Liban et à Gaza", "gathering against the Zionist aggression in Lebanon and in Gaza". (No word about Hezbollah violating the internationally recognized border between Lebanon and Israel.) About 3,000 to 5,000 Arabs, muslims and leftist Europeans walked from Boulevard du Roi Albert II to Place de l'Albertine chanting (and carrying) anti-Israel and anti-US slogans. The crowd waved not only Lebanese flags but also Hezbollah and Iranian ones (along with a sign "Iran fait vite"), among others. Actually, you would think it was a pro-Hezbollah party, as the crowd chanted "Vive Hezbollah, vive Hamas!" together with "Allahu akbar".

See? Nasrallah posters and Hizballah flags in Brussels, the capital of the EU. A frikkin 60-year old conflict is finally overflowing to good ole Belgium. And in the back of my mind I have the mathematical certainty that if I, as a REAL Belgian, would dare to stand silently along the street with an Israeli banner or a Stars & Stripes as these guys pass along, I'd get into trouble. Yup, I'd get in trouble for exercising my goddam Constitution-granted RIGHT to stand with a banner of my choice on a street in MY country. Jesus Christ. These guys ain't no more Belgian than Kim Jong-Il is. Their loyalty lies elsewhere. I do not want to stigmatize. I waved out three Germans of Turkish origin today. Refurbished the showroom. Decent fellas. Hard and efficient workers. Polite. Speaking Krautese like Herr Schaefer and Frau Mueller. Seemingly perfectly assimilated. Nevertheless, I have my doubts whether the crew leader's wife, pregnant with their fifth child, is allowed to work outside the house. And I hope I am mistaken, but somehow, I fear she wears a headscarf. Even if I am troubled to say so, we cannot permit to be weak of heart. We must start to seriously question the loyalty of the muslim population in our midst.


MFBB.

QANA 2006/HAMA 1982 - ARABS ARE F*CKING HYPOCRITES

Disclaimer: naturally, I deeply deplore the Qana disaster. I am a father myself, and despite the fact that it appears there's far less victims than initially claimed, it's clear that there are a lot of innocent children among them, which is horrible. The guilt lies not with Israel, but squarely with Hizballah and yes, I saw yet another photo of "the man with the green helmet" in my commie newspaper rag. Bottom line: there is no negotiating with Hizballah. It has to be destroyed, plain and simple, and it's good the airstrikes have resumed.

----------------------------------
a.) Qana 2006.

From Ynet, July 30, 2006:

Israel's attack on a building in the Lebanese village of Qana that killed at least 54 civilians constitutes "state terrorism", Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Sunday. "The massacre committed by Israel in Qana this morning shows the barbarity of this aggressive entity. It constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world," Assad said in remarks carried by state news agency SANA.

b.) Hama 1982.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is the son of the late Hafez al-Assad, who became Syrian President in 1971 and remained in function until 2000, when he died of a heart attack. The first decade of al-Assad's rule was marred by continuing troubles with the powerful Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. It should be noted that the Assads are themselves Alawites, a minority sect not immediately known as fervent islamists. Indeed, in 1976 Syria intervened in Lebanons civil war on the side of the Lebanese... Maronites, who are Christians, and actually it was this fact, more than anything else, which acted as a catalyst for MB armed opposition to Assad's Baath regime. The MB started to assassinate key members of the Syrian government and in June 1979 even conducted an attack at an artillery school in Aleppo, northern Syria. 83 cadets were killed, most if not all of them Alawites. One year later, the MB even tried to kill Assad himself. And in summer and early fall of 1981, it carried out three major car bombings at Syrian government officials in Damascus. It is said that hundreds of bystanders died in the attacks.

By early 1982, Hafez al-Assad had had enough and intended to crush the MB for good. Hama, Syria's fourth city (pop. at the time some 250,000) was a Brotherhood stronghold, and it would serve as an example.

Before dawn on February 2, 1982, the Syrian Air Force began to bomb the city. This was only an introduction, since around the city the Syrian Army had assembled Defence Brigades, Special Forces and specially selected elite army units such as the 21st and 47th Brigades. They had brought with them tanks, heavy artillery and rocket launchers, and these would shell Hama for four weeks. In between shelling, troops would move in and shoot eveything that moved.

The following excerpt is from a Syrian Human Rights Committee report:

"It is rather impossible for a writer to paint a picture of the massacres committed against women and newborn children or to describe the methods used to murder members of the same family, one after another right before the eyes of the ones to follow the same fate. They would cut the guts of a baby while his mother held him, and then fire a stream of bullets onto her to prevent her from giving birth to another future opposition member. They would fire right on the head of an elder, while he murmured a prayer after what he had just witnessed. Children would scream asking for their mom, or grandfather just to be answered with a stream of bullets killing them all. A family would fall in a pool of their blood, but not for long, because soldiers would set everything ablaze after ransacking the house for any valuables and cutting the hands and ears off in their crazed rush to loot the jewelry worn. Not one store escaped theft, ransacking or bulldozing, no mosques escaped destruction, nor any minarets remained erect in Hama during that tragic month, even churches were not spared and suffered a similar fate."

More SHRC excerpts:

* The massacre in the new Hama district:

On the 3rd day of invading the city of Hama, the Syrian regime defence brigades gathered the citizens of the ‘new Hama district’, in the football field and shot them. Then they raided the houses and killed everyone there. They robbed the people of their belongings. Some sources estimate the victims of the district to be around 1500.

* The massacre in the Sooq Alshajarah district:

On the fifth day of the massacre, Sooq Alshajarah district was heavily bombed and the Syrian regime forces invaded the district and shot the young and the old in the streets and followed those who sought refuge into the mosque and killed them all. The victims were estimated to be around 160. The members of the security intelligence and the army forces killed the families of Al-Alwan, Hamood, Kojan and Al Abu Sin including their men, women and children. Some of them were shot, some were stabbed and some of them died under the remains of their bombed houses. On the same day, the regime forces also killed over 70 people, including women and children, after being gathered in AlHabashi shop that sold grain. Then the forces set fire to the shop to kill those who hadn’t died.

* The massacre in Al-Bayadh district:

In front of the Muhammad AlHamid mosque in Al-Bayadh district, due to the lack of space on the vehicles which carried the detainees, the regime forces killed some detainees and threw their bodies into a waste ditch belonging to a tile factory owned by Abd Alkarim Alsaghir.

* The massacre in Sooq Altaweel:

The massacre of Sooq Altaweel took place on the 7th day of the invasion, where 30 young people were killed on the roof of the market. The authorities also killed Sheikh Abdullah Al-Halaq, who was 72 years old, in front of his house and robbed him of his possessions. The security forces also shot 35 citizens after robbing their money and watches. Those citizens had been gathered in Abd-Alrazaq Alrees’s shop where they had all been killed, except for two children, age 13, who managed to escape through the shop’s loft.

Estimates for the Hama 1982 carnage vary roughly between 15,000 and 40,000 killed. Even if you take into account a number of "only" two wounded for everyone killed, that means between 45,000 and 120,000 casualties. Over the years I have read so many references to the massacre that I'd cautiously say the number most cited is 35,000. If you are still sceptic and think the SHRC reports above are onesided, convince yourself and do a Google for "Hama 1982" + massacre. What happened there reduces Qana 2006 to a picnic. Yet here we have President Bashar al-Assad with the nerve to call a tragic Israeli mistake involving citizens of a neighboring country, "state terrorism" (a mistake, btw, provoked by Hizballah rats who know full well their actions will cause toddlers to die)....

....while his own father butchered close to 35,000 of his own citizens.

Arab hypocrisy, the Grandmother of all Pleonasms. The Middle East: what an insane, crazy, disgusting, FUCKED UP corner of the world.


MFBB.

RUDI, A MESSAGE TO YOU RUDI...

Stop your foolin' around
Time you straightened right out
Quit being an asshole
And playing the terrorist supporting role

(Lyrics by Dandy Livingstone/The Specials 1979, covered by UB40 in the eighties)

We're talking here about Rudi Vranckx, one of the "star" reporters of the VRT, the Flemish part of the Belgian state-run TV. Mr. Vranckx is one of those typical multiculti commies making up the bulk of the VRT's reporter corps. Since he is also an accomplished Americahater and there have been a lot of Americans in the Middle East for some time now, he's the perfect man for the post of Middle East envoy for Belgian TV. I once watched him taking an interview of a Dr. Saad in Nasiriyah General Hospital, South Iraq. Dr. Saad, just liberated, apprently had nothing good to say about those trigger-happy US grunts. However, a short while later I saw CNN interview that same Dr. Saad, because he was actually a doctor in the hospital where Private Jessica Lynch had been held. In that interview, even if it was from CNN, the good doctor was a lot more positive about US troops. I guess it's that badass personality of mine, but I suspect Rudi did a li'l cutting and pasting when he prepeared his interview for the beloved Belgian audience. But I digress. Why was I talking about Rudi Vranckx? Because of Dyab Abu Jahjah. Who's Dyab Abu Jahjah? In the case of Dyab, a thousand words is worth more than a picture:

a.) Dyab on the HAMAS-abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit:

When a Palestinian heroic commando penetrates out of the great concentration camp called the Gaza strip and attacks a military base of the fascist Israeli Army of occupation taking down two criminals and capturing a third, every freedom loving soul on this planet should be joyful...

b.) Dyab on the HAMAS-abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit (v2.0):

After the massacres that the Zionist enemy committed against our people in Palestine, killing babies, children and peaceful families, the Palestinian resistance retaliated with a heroic attack killing two soldiers of the Israeli criminal army and capturing a third, after entering the Palestinian occupied territories (1948) by digging a tunnel under the racist wall.

Cut Dyab some slack here people. He was apparently having some trouble finding heroic actions by Hizballah or Hamas zeroes. OK, let's cut the crap, his photo is to the left. Like we've said earlier on these pages, Dyab Abu Jahjah is a Lebanese extremist and self-confessed former (?) Hizballah member who was able to enter Belgium in the nineties through a phoney marriage with a Belgian girl. He's the founder and leader of the Antwerp-based Arab-European League, a radical muslim youth movement which in the meantime has spread to Holland and France. He's in favour of importing Sharia Law in the Low Countries, wants arabic to become the fourth official language of Belgium and is, aha, an ardent opponent of multiculturalism! Indeed, according to Abu Jahjah multiculturalism and assimilation constitute "cultural rape", and he favors muslim segregation instead. I may have a message to Rudi Vranckx that he's an asshole, but Dyab has another message for our star reporter, namely that he can shove his multiculti ideals up his, well, I just said it. But let that be no problem for Rudi! Dyab, like I said a Lebanese, could not bear any longer seeing the IDF bombing Lebanon to rubble from Tyre to Tripoli and decided to travel to his homeland to help defend it against the despicable Zionist fascists. But what a koinsidens!!! Rudi and Dyab met on the smoking remnants of a Hizballah Katyusha launch site babyfood factory in Sidon, and the following interview was broadcast on Belgian TV. I kid you not. Keep in mind that Abu Jahjah in 2002 in Belgium publicly confessed he had been a Hizballah member, and that before his departure for Lebanon in mid-July he publicly stated in Belgian newspapers and on Belgian TV, that he was siding with that terrorist organization. Just imagine that: in Belgium, a man like Paul Belien is silenced, but a fella who leaves for a war zone and openly boasts he's going to fight with the terrorists is halal. Here's the interview, via LVB:


VRT- reporter interviews on first-name basis with Abu Jahjah in Sidon

Rudi Vranckx: "Dyab, you come from deep in the south, was it difficult to get here?"

Dyab Abu Jahjah: "Rather difficult, most roads are bombed [...]"

[...]

Rudi Vranckx: "They say that the resistance is hiding the rockets amidst the civilian targets".

Dyab Abu Jahjah: "That is not at all true. If you see the south of Lebanon, that's a big region eh! There's a lot of valleys, woods, grottos there... anything you want!"

[...]

Rudi Vranckx: "How do you support Hizballah?"

Dyab Abu Jahjah: "That is for me to know. I try to do that as best as I can."

Rudi Vranckx: "fight?".

Dyab Abu Jahjah: "I will not give an answer to that, fightin is not the only means to support the resistance. Every deed you do to keep this people on its feet is an act of resistance. It doesn't have to be fighting. It can be fighting, but it does not have to be that".

(broadcast on the VRT-news, 23 July 2006, 1 and 7pm)


I draw two conclusions from this interview. The first is that it's a crying shame that I have to pay sour-earned tax euros to fund a fucking commie TV network which sees fit a.) to send a reporter to interview a Belgian Hizballah member as if he were talking to a drinking buddy, and b.) have the nerve to portray that terrorist supporter at home as if he were a political expert.

The second conclusion is that Mr. Jahjah apparently has lost a lot of his gung ho attitude after a few weeks in the company of the IDF. "Every deed you do to keep this people on its feet is an act of resistance. It doesn't have to be fighting. It can be fighting, but it does not have to be that". Blah. Blah. Blah-de-blah-da-blah. Blah Blah. Blèh. What's the matter Dyab? Just before you swapped hot Belgium for an even hotter Lebanon, you were talking like this on you fancy AEL site:

This might be the last text I will write before going home on a trip that might be my last, I want to thank all the comrades who shared the struggle with me here for equal rights and for justice, as these are the same values we struggle for everywhere. I would like to tell them that you can not postpone the moment of truth for ever; one moment in which one makes a stand in the face of oppression is more precious than a life time of triviality.

I lived my life for this Nation, and not a hair in me will hesitate in laying it down for this Nation too. The fight for Arab Unity, Liberation, Freedom and Socialism is the essence of Justice in the Homeland and beyond. Some people call it a fight for god, some people call it a fight for mankind, in essence it is one and the same fight for freedom and justice.

...

When oppression rises above the sun to cover it, and injustice defies the wind and the Wicked and the Evil feast on the Flesh of innocent men, women and children. From within the darkness and the orgy of blood, a sword will shine, and the brave will murmur: “What a beautiful day to die” .

Methinks that when the heroic leader of the AEL first spotted a Merkava tank or heard the bird to the right buzz overhead, he thought that as a thirtysomething there would, after all, still come a lot of other "beautiful days to die." What a frikkin loser. Stay where you are eejit. I find it hard to understand why you, who "lived your life for your Nation", chose to do so from faraway Belgium.


MFBB.