Hamas reloading--If Gaza blockade ends, terror attacks will intensify

Lost amid the hand-wringing over Israel's botched flotilla raid last month and speculation about the diplomatic fallout for the Jewish state has been perhaps the most significant development, namely the resurgence of Hamas.

On political and financial life support not even a month ago, Hamas has become the face of the Muslim world's newest cause celebre: ending the "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. This newfound determination cannot end a "humanitarian crisis" that didn't exist in the first place, but it just might end the political and economic crises that had been besetting Hamas over the past year.

While understandable on the surface, President Obama's call last week to curtail the blockade of Gaza so as to stop only weapons is exactly what Hamas needs to emerge even stronger than when it won the 2006 election.

Although it was never well-explained to the international community, the joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade had a crucial secondary aim beyond thwarting weapons smuggling: crippling the Islamist regime.

What few Western leaders seem to realize is that the blockade was working. Hamas was in freefall, with its cash flow drying up and most Gazans turning on the party they had backed just a few years earlier.

Rosie O’Donnell Defends Helen Thomas Rosie O’Donnell is getting ready to return to daytime television with a new talk show in the fall of 2011. She is being hailed as the “New Oprah.” Not so coincidentally, her producers are timing the show to start when “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends. Unlike the relatively harmless Ellen DeGeneres, the simplistic Dr. Phil, or the moralistic Judge Judy, Rosie may have trouble with something that Middle America generally finds offensive — her unrestrained mouth. Helen Thomas recently ended her long career for a similar reason. The longtime correspondent had some shocking recommendations for bringing peace to the Middle East. Thomas suggested that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland. Although the mainstream media soft-pedaled the coverage of Thomas’s hate speech, the disgraced reporter now has a defender in the form of O’Donnell. Folks at Sirius Satellite Radio were foolish enough to give Rosie a talk-radio show, and she spent a significant part of her broadcast talking up Thomas. After reading Thomas’ full quote, a guest asked Rosie, “How can that be construed as hate speech?” to which the host replied, “I don’t know.” O'Donnell then voiced agreement with Thomas that Jews should leave Israel and move to Germany and Poland, and her reason was that the ovens are no longer there. Rosie followed this egregious rhetoric with an all-out effort to distinguish Thomas’ comments from those of white supremacists who tell “black people to go back to Africa” because, as Rosie explained, “Black people are not occupying a country, right?” The “New Oprah” also recently gushed about the merits of a would-be government grab of a private company’s assets and a possible communist America. Again on her satellite radio show, Rosie accused BP of “willful homicide, willful mass murder.” “I say seize their [BP’s] assets. Right now. Seize their assets today. Take over the [company]. I don't care [how]. Issue an executive order. Call it socialism, call it communism, call it anything you want. Seize the assets. Take over BP.” One of O'Donnell's producers then came up with a recommendation for U.S. energy policy, saying that we ought to “pay $20 a gallon rather than kill thousands of innocent people.” Rosie as the “New Oprah?” Really? Not from where I stand.

Something to remember the jihad is global.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/globaljihad/index

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/hamas/index

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ihh/index

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As Pro-Palestinian Flotilla Activists Gather in NYC, Jewish Group Urges State Dept. to Probe...
CNS NEWS.com ^ | June 17, 2010 | Patrick Goodenough
Posted on June 17, 2010 3:42:10 AM PDT by Cindy

“As Pro-Palestinian Flotilla Activists Gather in NYC, Jewish Group Urges State Dept. to Probe Links to Terrorism” Thursday, June 17, 2010 By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – Tensions in the Middle East over the recent Gaza flotilla incident could surface in New York City on Thursday evening, when a pro-Palestinian group hosts flotilla activists at a public meeting Jewish activists have tried to thwart.

An organization called Al-Awda (The Palestine Right to Return Coalition) is holding a meeting in a Brooklyn church featuring a leading official in IHH, the controversial Turkish organization behind the attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Pro-Palestinian, left-wing and anti-war organizations are co-sponsoring the event.

Also scheduled to speak are two people who were onboard the Mavi Marmara, the ship on which deadly clashes between Israeli commandos and pro-Palestinian activists left nine activists dead. The two are U.S.-based filmmaker Iara Lee and left-wing British activist Kevin Ovenden.”

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...

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IHH’s Deep, Longstanding Terror Ties
INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT.org - IPT News ^ | June 8, 2010 | n/a
Posted on June 10, 2010 3:22:46 AM PDT by Cindy

IPT News June 9, 2010

SNIPPET: “The Turkish-based charity that helped drive last week’s deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos has deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The Hamas ties are not in question. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and IHH officials simply do not acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group.”

SNIPPET: “U.S. officials have expressed concern over the fact that “IHH representatives have met with senior Hamas officials in Turkey, Syria, and Gaza over the past three years,” but IHH is not a designated terrorist organization in the United States.

It’s fair to ask, why not?”

SNIPPET: “Hamas is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S....”

SNIPPET: “The U.S. Treasury has designated an umbrella organization of which IHH is part due to its fund-raising activities on behalf of Hamas and Hamas-controlled organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. The Union of Good is a collection of charities run by Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

And IHH has had operations in the United States. According to a Turkish news article, IHH spent up to 10 weeks delivering relief supplies in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. In doing so, Yildirim was harshly critical of the U.S. In a news release by IHH,...”

SNIPPET: “Fox News’ Ben Evansky reported last week that IHH has been a United Nations-accredited non-governmental organization since 2004.”

SNIPPET: “Meanwhile, a French judge is sticking to his assessment that IHH played an “important role” in the Al-Qaeda planned Millennium bomb plot.” SNIPPET: “Yet the “Freedom Flotilla” will not be the last of IHH’s efforts to enter Gaza. Galloway, after engaging in an “extensive discussion in Istanbul,” announced to thousands of protestors in London on Saturday his plans for a land and sea convoy to Gaza in September.”

(Excerpt) Read more at investigativeproject.org ...

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