May You Live In Interesting Times

Jesucristo! So much is happening so fast that it's hard to keep up. We have, of course, the ongoing crisis involving undocumented illegal residents immigrants aliens flooding across our southern border.

With thousands of undocumented immigrant minors crossing the nation's southern border in recent months, the percentage of Americans citing immigration as the top problem has surged to 17% this month, up from 5% in June, and the highest seen since 2006. As a result, immigration now virtually ties "dissatisfaction with government," at 16%, as the primary issue Americans think of when asked to name the country's top problem.

Then there's the unfolding crisis involving the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.

A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in a rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, spurring swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that "terrorists" shot down the aircraft.

The United States has concluded a missile shot down the plane...

And while all that is happening, Israel has sent ground forces into Gaza.

Israel launched an open-ended ground invasion of Gaza aimed at crushing Hamas militants after 10 days of aerial bombardment, sending thousands of troops with tanks and armored vehicles into the Palestinian territory.

The operation began at about 10 p.m. local time Thursday after Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets into Israel at the end of a five-hour cease-fire meant to allow Gazans to restock on food and other supplies.

The ground incursion was accompanied by heavy airstrikes and the most widespread warnings yet to Palestinian residents, urging them to clear out of the way of impending attacks. The operation spanned the entire border between Israel and Gaza, about 36 miles, the military said.

The liberals would have us believe that this is an unwarranted incursion by the evil Israelis against the peace-loving Palestinians terrorists. They are, of course, wrong.

Many people may think that the death toll in Israel is low compared to the 180 or so Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza in the last few weeks. Leftists will no doubt quote the UN's ratio of civilian-to-military casualties, which is said to be 70% civilian.

There is reason to question the accuracy of that statistic, as explained at the link. We'll skip that for the sake of brevity and move on.

There's a simple reason for that “lack of proportionality” (Manuel Hassassian, a Palestinian Authority envoy in the UK) said:

“There are no shelters, no bunkers, no place to go, except their homes.”

Israel has built many air-raid shelters and other means of protection for its citizens. It also employs air-raid warnings in response to Hamas rocket attacks. Hamas, on the other hand, doesn't provide its people with either of these things.

The other thing is that Hamas deliberately places its fighters amongst the Gaza civilian population -- as is now both well-known and well-documented...

We'll come back to this point a little later.

What is the reason for Hamas's suicidal policies?

It's primarily because this Muslim Brotherhood political party wants some -- or even many -- of its people to be killed.

So why does Hamas want that?

There are various reasons; though the main one is the Western response to such deaths ... In other words, Palestinian deaths do the Hamas cause a lot of good in the West.

The other important point to bear in mind is that, according to Hamas theology/ideology, every Palestinian who is killed by Israelis is deemed to be an automatic martyr for Islam. In addition, one well-known Hamas motto just happens to be: "We love death more than life."

Palestinians also say that they have “nowhere to go” when the Israeli air attacks come. Yet that's not entirely true either, because Israel gives advance warnings before such attacks. For example, Israeli forces -- just the other day -- dropped leaflets on the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya which warned of future air strikes.

Can you imagine a muslim suicide bomber giving his potential victims a heads-up before blowing himself and his innocent victims to kingdom-come?

Me neither.

As for the cowardly assholes hiding behind women and children:

Some 20 rockets were found Wednesday in a school in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization confirmed Thursday.

The discovery would seem to confirm Israel’s oft-repeated claim that Hamas and other Gazan terror groups use civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.

All of which makes videos like this one warm the cockles of my heart.