Tag Archives: Israel

Israel v Hamas – The Provocation

Member of Israel’s Communications Ministry praying in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 3, 2023.

February 10, 2024 was four months since Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza, killing 1200 people, raping and brutalizing women, beheading babies, kidnapping 240 people. We know that Hamas tortured some, probably all of the hostages they freed. We know that they killed some of the hostages; we don’t know how many.

HAMAS IS ATTEMPTING GENOCIDE.

This picture, an Israeli Jew praying, holding a Torah scroll in his hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is believed to have been the trigger, the provocation, but not the cause.

“For Hamas, Israel’s mere existence is a provocation,” – Avi Shavit.

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Roller Coasters, Solar Power, Wind Power or Terrorist Tunnels

Qatari Emir w Ismail Haniya, Oct. 2012

Qatari Emir Hamad al-Thani with Ismail Haniya, Oct. 2012, Photo NY Times.

In October, 2012, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, as reported in the NY Times, here, “pledged $400 million to build two housing complexes, rehabilitate three main roads and create a prosthetic center, among other projects” in Gaza.

The $400 Million could have built 133 MW of offshore wind or 100 MW of PV Solar electricity generation capacity.

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Barbara Buono will Win, Apple will Grow, Assad will Die and other forecasts for 2013


LF_w_Barbara_Buono

In “The World Will Not End and Other Predictions for 2012,” I developed a set of predictions for 2012, the accuracy of which were described by me in 2012 Revisited. Here are my predictions for 2013. As noted last year, I am extrapolating from patterns that I see – also known as reading tea leaves.

  1. New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie will lose his re-election campaign to NJ Senator Barbara Buono, pictured with me, above. The Tea Party Republicans will not compromise with President Obama, Democrats in the House and Senate, or the Republican Leadership in the House and Senate.  They will, again, threaten to shut-down the U. S. government.
  2. A major hurricane will batter the Gulf Coast or the Eastern Seaboard, causing $25 to $80 Billion worth of damage. FEMA will be there to help.
  3. Apple will continue to report record sales and record profits. It will close out the year with a market capitalization around $650 Billion, up from today’s level of $470 Billion. If HP‘s Board doesn’t fire CEO Meg Whitman, HP may return to profitability. Dell‘s market share and market capitalization will fall.
  4. The wind and solar industries will increase in the US and globally, particularly Japan, which is now planning to have 100% renewable energy by 2040, and India, which is learning from the mistakes being made in China, Japan, and the West.
  5. Large industrial conglomerates will continue to design and sell wind turbines, LED lighting, PV solar modules and more energy efficient medical devices, etc.
  6. Assad will fall – and will die – by the end of 2014.
  7. Mohammed Morsi and the Moslem Brotherhood will consolidate power in Egypt, but will not abandon the Egypt – Israel peace treaty.
  8. Iran will provide weapons and support to Islamists in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.
  9. Israel, feeling threatened, and very concerned regarding Iran, Syria and Egypt, will ignore pressure to negotiate with the Palestinians.
  10. Roger Saillant and RP Siegel will not win any awards for their novel, Vapor Trails.

For an overview of the details see below.

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Israel, Palestine, and the Arab Spring

Map of Palestine under the British Mandate, showing Palestine of 1922 including what is now Israel, West Bank, Gaza, in the west and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the east.

The America that inspires people all over the world is the America of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Ben Afleck’s “Argo.” It is a place where people can rise from humble origins to run companies or become President. It is the country of Carnegie, Ford, and Edison, of Warren Buffet, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Steve Jobs, and Meg Whitman and the country of Lincoln, the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, Reagan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. These men and women inspired and continue to inspire people here in the United States and also in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs and Persians. They inspire people who want freedom and opportunity, a better life for themselves and their children.

This is “American Exceptionalism.” It is not that Americans are better, but that America is better.

And Israel, Palestine, and the Arab Spring …

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Cyberwar: USA & Israel v Iran, China v USA, Russia v The World

Iranian Pres. Achmadinejad at Natanz

Iranian Pres. Achmadinejad at Natanz.

Focusing on “Operation Olympic Games,” the US efforts behind the Flame and Stuxnet cyber attacks, Mischa Glenny, in “A Weapon We Can’t Control,” an op-ed in the NY Times, 6/24/12, says the U.S. has “fired the starting gun in a new arms race … cyberweaponry.” However, Mr. Glenny ignores efforts by hackers in China and from the former Soviet Union.

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Sustainability and Israel

Images from IHH showing "Peace Activists" with daggers and sliced Israelis

Images from IHH showing "Peace Activists" with daggers and sliced Israelis, cropped for "effect" by Reuters

Question: What do you call a “Peace Activist” with a dagger?

Answer: A supporter of the Palestinians.

Popular Logistics joins CameraYNet, Fox News, and the NY Post in documenting  Reuter’s “Fauxtography”, or propaganda by doctoring photos.

To look at the Israeli blockade of Gaza and not ask:

  • Why exactly is Israel blockading Gaza?
  • What would the US do to a flotilla of would-be blockade runners from Venezuela to Cuba?
  • What would happen if the Palestinians would say to the Israelis ‘Ok, we hate you, we really hate you, but we’re going to stop trying to kill you and your children. Will you please lift the blockade?’

To look at the Israeli blockade of Gaza and not ask these questions is to look with the mind’s eye closed.

A Joke:

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Reuters Full of Crop

Popular Logistics joins Camera (click),  YNet (click), Fox (click), and the New York Post (click) accused Reuters of “Fauxtography”, or propaganda by doctoring photos .

Photo of action on Mavi Marmara.

Photo of action on Mavi Marmara. Dashed lines shows cropping by Reuters to hide knifes wielded by "Peace" Activist and pools of Israeli blood.

These are photos of the clash between released by IHH documenting it’s clash with Israeli commandos.

In the words of the Post Editorial,

“One photo shows an Israeli surrounded by IHH “peace” activists, one of whom is holding a knife. The second shows another Israeli lying under a bloodstained railing as a second IHH activist also holds a knife.  In the photos distributed by Reuters, there were no knives. And no blood.

“The impact being to make it look more like an Israeli massacre of innocent civilians and less like an act of self-defense against armed thugs masquerading as humanitarian workers.

“This isn’t the first time Reuters has been caught in some blatantly anti-Israel photo retouching.

“Back in 2006, during the Israel-Lebanon war, at least two images sent by Reuters over its wire from Beirut were deliberately doctored so as to suggest great damage inflicted by Israel.

“Indeed, it was the very same blogger, Charles Johnson, who uncovered the outrageous exercise in what he called ‘fauxtography.’

“At first, the agency also claimed an innocent mistake, saying the photographer had been trying to remove ‘dust marks.’

“It admitted the photos had been deliberately faked, severed its ties to the photographer, Lebanese freelancer Adnan Hajj, and removed all 920 pictures he’d taken from its server. A senior photo editor also was fired.

“Reuters insists that it’s ‘committed to accurate and impartial reporting.'”

Emergency Preparedness, Israel, & Gaza

At Popular Logistics, while we believe in preparing for emergencies; we prefer to avoid emergencies, especially war.

Kassam in Sderot, Israel

Kassam in Sderot, Israel

As we see it, Peace is up to the Palestinians. The proof is Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas’ subsequent kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and launch of approximately 4,000 to 7,000 rockets like the one pictured above into Israel. We feel that the factories in Gaza would better serve the people of Gaza by building solar panels or wind turbines rather than guns, bullets, and Kassam rockets.

We would like to see Israel withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank and an end of Palestinian terrorism; a bilateral cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians. We see de facto states in the West Bank and Gaza; we would like to see de jure states that recognize the rights of all; male, female, gay, straight, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Moslem, and athiest. And that Palestinian state or those Palestinian states, along with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria must recognize Israel.