Israel to World: "Suck It."

I GOT THIS

I suspect it may have something to do with Obama's widening lead in the polls.

Might be related, but I think Bibi gave up on Romney a long time ago. And I don't think he'd back down on nuclear Iran unless he had some assurances from Obama. (After all, the only reason he'd favor a Republican over Obama is because he thinks they'd be tougher on Iran. That's clearly his end game. I don't think he otherwise gives a fuck about the Republican Party.)

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/07/benjamin-netanyahu-on-israel-mitt-romney

Netanyahu is once reported to have said—he now denies it—that he “speaks English with a heavy Republican accent.” “Israel’s current prime minister is not just a friend, he’s an old friend,” Mitt Romney, with whom Netanyahu worked at the Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s, told aipac in March. (Romney, Netanyahu suggests, may have overstated the tie. “I remember him for sure, but I don’t think we had any particular connections,” he tells me. “I knew him and he knew me, I suppose.”)

I think there was a window when Romney and Obama were still close enough in the polls that Netanyahu thought he could apply some pressure on Obama politically by voicing his unhappiness, or maybe even boost Romney's chances. But then the polls widened more, and he thought it wiser to backpedal rather than risk pissing off Obama too much. There may be more to it that we don't know about.

Heard Israel, with US funding, is actually building a 300 foot tall wall - a giant red line - that it will drop around Iran's nuclear site, thus containing the threat.

The Mossad already tried it out on this guy, and it totally worked.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCzePPVhMgBdFkP4OxySm9Cgjpuq2ewixHpIhwJd3MbOR5XxKHbQ

he thought it wiser to backpedal rather than risk pissing off Obama too much

For all the pro-Israel evangelicals out there, there are still lots of anti-semites, anti-Zionists, and assorted whackjob nationalists who might look askance at an ally meddling in our politics and Bibi's astute enough not to give them too much ammo, esp if his candidate is losing.

A new twist?

"Mitt Romney is set to speak by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
The Republican presidential nominee's campaign confirms the scheduled conversation. It would come the same day that President Barack Obama also is expected to speak with Netanyahu phone."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/mitt-romney-to-speak-with-israeli-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-1.4051460

http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/09/28/israeli-embassy-pokes-fun-at-iranians-on-twitter-for-publishing-fake-anti-obama-onion-article-photos/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/us-un-assembly-ahmadinejad-idUSBRE88N0HF20120924

"Iran has been around for the last seven, 10 thousand years. They (the Israelis) have been occupying those territories for the last 60 to 70 years, with the support and force of the Westerners. They have no roots there in history," he said, referring to the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

"We do believe that they have found themselves at a dead end and they are seeking new adventures in order to escape this dead end. Iran will not be damaged with foreign bombs," Ahmadinejad said, speaking through an interpreter at his Manhattan hotel.

"We don't even count them as any part of any equation for Iran. During a historical phase, they (the Israelis) represent minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated."

I can't understand why anyone thinks Iran would attack Israel!

the guy with no power over Iran's military sure says some crazy stuff

as if he says anything khomeini doesn't cosign

As if it's anything other than talk

how could you possibly know whether it was just talk or not?

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ahmadinejads-adviser-sentenced-rift-deepens.aspx?pageID=238&nID=31118&NewsCatID=352

as if

There is no upside in actually attacking Israel.

So the New Yorker had themselves a caption contest:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonists/BibiBomb.jpg

I made two of those three jokes, combined, ha!

("Our Christmas Tree ornament fundraiser has almost met its goal")

ACME

anyone who thinks iran would actually attack israel has presumably given up on the idea that nations' actions bear some relation to their discernable interests.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/170264/palestinian-soccer-player-mahmoud-sarsak-wont-play-fc-barcelonas-game

He was making clear that peace and harmony with Sgt. Maj. Gilad Shalit in the current circumstances would do more harm than good, selling the idea that peace under the current circumstances of quarantine and occupation was a peace worth having.

Israel released hundreds of prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, many of whom even Hamas admitted were responsible for killing Israeli civilians. I can't really support Sarsak on this one.

yay bibi thx for not ending the world this month! :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/middleeast/israels-iran-policy-appears-to-shift-further-toward-more-sanctions.html

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/theskinny/blog/gilad-thumb.jpg

hundreds of prisoners are worth it to free this man

With all the carrier groups/naval forces in the Persian Gulf right now, I'm actually somewhat worried that a USS Vincennes vs. Iran Air #655 situation could happen again

i appreciate what a ballache it is for ppl working at organizations trying to handle this sort of thing but after the protest was too late to invite sarsak & it was never likely that he was going to come

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19861023 good piece on the sarsak/shalit fiasco

It's worth noting that this row has also highlighted the ability of Hamas and their secular rivals Fatah, who are in power in parts of the West Bank, to disagree on just about anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igO3q9e9ng8&feature=plcp

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-lauds-obama-victory-israel-u-s-ties-are-stronger-than-ever.premium-1.475832

paywalled

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Tuesday congratulated President Barack Obama on his victory in the U.S. elections, in a special message released just moments after the results were announced.

"The strategic alliance between Israel the U.S. is stronger than ever," he declared. "I will continue to work with President Obama to protect the security interests of Israeli citizens."

Netanyahu will meet U.S. ambassador Dan Shapiro on Wednesday afternoon at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, and will apparently try to arrange a telephone call with the American president.

Netanyahu's government quickly embraced President Obama's victory in the U.S. elections late Tuesday, expressing certainty that his administration would continue to show support for Israel.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was first to congratulate the president. In the last few weeks, Barak had warned the prime minister not to compromise ties with the American administration over the two governments' discord regarding the Iranian issue.

Barak has been kissing up to Obama for the last month - they saw the handwriting on the wall.

Incedentally, Barack and Barak do not have the same etymology

Even incidentally

really?

Nope. Barack is Arabic for blessing and Barak is Hebreew for lightning. Baruch is the Hebrew cognate with Barack.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/the-rockets-of-gaza/265091/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/middleeast/israeli-strike-in-gaza-kills-the-military-leader-of-hamas.html

An Israeli airstrike blew up the car carrying the commander of the Hamas military wing in Gaza on Wednesday, making him the most senior official of the group to be killed by the Israelis since their invasion of Gaza four years ago.

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The death of the commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, who was on Israel’s most-wanted list of Palestinian militants, was confirmed by both Hamas and Israeli officials after the airstrike, which the Israeli military ordered in response to days of rocket fire launched from Gaza into Israeli territory.

Mr. Jabari’s death raised the prospect of further escalation in the renewed hostility between Israel and Hamas, the militant organization regarded by Israel as a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction. Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007, a year after the Israelis withdrew from the territory captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. But Israeli forces went back into Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 in response to what they called a terrorist campaign by Palestinian militants there to launch rockets into Israel. The three-week military campaign left hundreds of Palestinians dead.

I guess Hamas' plan was to fire rockets into Israel until Israel responded with disproportionate (Operation Cast Lead style) force and then score a PR coup. It's not much of a plan though bc a) PR coups are not worth terribly much and b) sometimes your commander of the military gets killed in an airstrike instead.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/live-blog-israel-launches-military-operation-in-gaza.premium-1.477850

Acclaimed documentary about West Bank jurisprudence opens in NY today.

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-raanan-alexandrowiczs-the-law-in-these-parts

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/gaza-strike-us-condemns-h_n_2132280.html

Plus they got the token thumbs-up "got your back!" statement from the US, reinforcing another narrative

Is there a reason why Israel things it is a) a good idea to put this shit on youtube b) an even better idea to leave comments enabled?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P6U2ZQ0EhN4&bpctr=1352944985

*thinks

Indeed, one must kill publicly or confess that one does not feel authorized to kill. If society justifies the death penalty by the necessity of the example, it must justify itself by making the publicity necessary. It must show the executioner's hands each time and force everyone to look at them -- the over-delicate citizens and all those who had any responsibility in bringing the executioner into being. Otherwise, society admits that it kills without knowing what it is saying or doing. Or else it admits that such revolting ceremonies can only excite crime or completely upset opinion.

-Camus, Reflections on the Guillotine

Camus seems like a deep dude, is he the prime minister of Israel or something?

he's the idf's social media guy