Holodomor

I wanted to draw attention to the Great Ukranian Famine of 1932-3 when, due to Stalin’s forced collectivisation, approximately seven million Ukrainians were starved to death. Despite the death toll, which was known to Stalin and the Kremlin, Russia continued to export grain abroad during 1932 and 1933 and also confiscated seed-grain, which is used to plant the crop for the following year.

This immeasurable catastrophe is almost unknown and, to that end, the Ukrainian President, Victor Yushchenko, issued a Presidential decree in 2006 mandating a four-minute silence on the Memorial Day for the victims of the famine. The fourth Saturday of November, which was last week, is the official Memorial Day.

For more information visit Holodomor.org and see this pamphlet from the Ukrainian Museum

Solana's Biggest Fan

Meet Xavier Solana. The biggest wasteful surplus in the EU today. I'd hazard a guess there's no one more unstomachable anywhere from Belfast to Berlin. I wish he'd stop visiting the Middle East and talking like he's got the faintest idea what's really going on here. This man has got his head so far up the Palestinian people's proverbial backside, he wouldn't know an effective policy suggestion if it jumped inside a kassam rocket and slammed into his own tuchus. His solution to everything is to shake everyone's hands, promise more money to the Palestinians and scold Israel for not doing more. Solana represents the very worst of Europe, a continent that spent five hundred years creating the world's problems and then expects to fix them all in ten minutes from the luxury of five star hotel in Brussels.

Xavier, if you ever need a reference, I'll happily oblige - personally I feel a career change would suit you very well, maybe apply for a job performing colonic irrigation in Gaza, I see you've made significant inroads already.

GENTLE DIPLOMACY

Abbas: 'Ok I'll call off the Kassams, just let go of my hand.'

Gemayel Assassination Update

As referenced by the Sandmonkey, Beirut Spring has brought to attention an article in the Kuwait Times from Saturday 18 November where another anti-Syrian Christian leader in Lebanon, Samir Geagea warned that assassination attempts were likely in light of Hizballah's declared intention to topple the Lebanese government after it did not accede to Hizballah's demand that it be given veto power in the coalition.

Geagea said in an interview with reuters "I think there might be operations targeting ministers and I take this opportunity to say it publicly and especially to tell the ministers to take all precautions,"

Should the government loose three more ministers it would automatically fall thereby achieving Syria's goal of thwarting the formation of a UN-backed tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri in February 2005 and achieving Hizballah's goal of bringing down the government.

BEIRUT -- Anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea said yesterday efforts to topple Lebanon's Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora could lead to assassination attempts against cabinet ministers.

Geagea, a former militia chief whose Lebanese Forces party has one minister in the cabinet, said Syria was determined to stop the formation of a UN-backed tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. He did not say who might try to kill ministers.

Lebanon plunged deeper into crisis this month when six ministers, including all five Shia Muslims, quit the cabinet after the collapse of all-party talks over giving the pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies a decisive say in government.

All the remaining ministers are members of, or close to, the anti-Syrian majority coalition.

If the government lost three more ministers, it would automatically fall.

"There are no three ministers who will resign of course, but someone might think of 'sacking them', in quotes, by pushing them to a final resignation. Thus the government falls. Therefore we have big fears over the ministers," he said.

"I think there might be operations targeting ministers and I take this opportunity to say it publicly and especially to tell the ministers to take all precautions," Geagea said in a telephone interview from his north Lebanon home.

Iran-Syria-Hizballah Axis Continues Attempts to Subvert Lebanese Government

The Axis of Warmongers, Despots and Oppressors continue to advance their nefarious aims of subverting Lebanon and bringing it firmly back into the Syrian- Iranian-Shi‘a sphere of control and have assassinated a top anti-Syrian Christian politician. They are emboldened by the Invertebrates of Europe, the mess in Iraq (and the consequent bind the Americans find themselves in as well as the Democratic victory in the Congressional elections) as well as the pathetic leadership in Israel. This Axis of Scum march inexorably forward towards their goals of regional domination. Will the West stand up to this threat or will it allow the entire Middle East to be totally de-stabilised and over-run by these criminal regimes and their proxies?

Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel assassinated in Beirut

"BEIRUT - Lebanese anti-Syrian cabinet minister and Christian leader Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.

The shooting - at a time when Lebanese political and sectarian tensions already are at fever pitch - seemed certain to intensify the tensions, regardless of who was responsible.

Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies are preparing to take to the streets to topple Siniora's government, which they accuse of being allied with the United States, arguing that it has lost its legitimacy since Shi'ite Muslims are no longer represented.

Gemayel is the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated in the past two years in Lebanon. Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005. The journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings in June last year. And lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December.

Pierre was a rising star in the party and expected to carry the mantle of the political family to the next generation".

UNimpressed

UNimpressed

Israel has made its discontent for the United Nations once again clear after being condemned, vilified and berated for the tragic but accidental deaths of civilians at Beit Hanoun a fortnight ago.

Since when should anyone be condemned for a mistake? Where is the logic in that? Had Israel championed the wayward missiles that killed 18 and wouned many more, that would be one thing, but an inquiry was launched, apologies were made, by Olmert, Peretz and every Knesset big shot (probably not Mr Lieberman). Every effort was made to set things right, Olmert extended another over generous hand to Abbas. All this while the kassams continued to fall on Sderot.

What sort of arrogant dimwitted collaboration of largely biased, pigheaded, slime sucking, Arab-loving, Israel hating scumbags would scold a country in such a way for a self proclaimed mistake?

Need you ask?

..Once again, most U.N impressed.

'This is your 9 o'clock missile attack alarm'

Can I just ask ‘what the expletive!?!#!#!!!’ Has the whole world gone mad? Why are we warning terrorist scum we’re going to shoot at them? I don’t get it. How does the telephone conversation go, I’d like to know?
‘Good morning is that Mohammed?’
‘Yes, may I ask who’s calling?’
‘Yes, it’s Avital from the IDF here, we just wanted to inform you that, in light of your terrorist activities we’re going fire a couple of missiles at you, erm...hope that’s alright and all?’
‘Well, missiles you say, hmmm..., I don’t know, those are the things that travel very fast, end in a large explosion and hurt quite a bit if you’re on the end of one’.
‘Oh, you’re familiar with our work, yes you’re spot on, yes’
‘Well, erm, see I’m...hmmm, you know, I think I might give those a miss if it’s all the same to you’.
‘Oh certainly, I mean the operation’s more for the look of the thing than anything else, but if you do decide to absent yourself we’ll completely understand’.
‘Well, thanks for the call and the warning, I haven’t decided if I’ll just leave or get loads of civilians to act as a shield for my bomb-making, rocket making terrorist-attack-planning activities but hopefully, we’ll be killing more Zionists in the near future’.
‘Ok Sir, well have a nice day and take care, bye now’.
‘Byeee’.

‘BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Palestinians serving as human shields guarded the homes of two top militants Sunday, a new tactic that forced Israel to call off missile strikes on the buildings and re-evaluate a mainstay of its aerial campaign in Gaza.

The standoff over the homes of the militants began late Saturday when Mohammed Baroud, local leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, was informed by the army that his house would be hit. The three-story building is home to 17 people from Baroud's family. Another militant from Hamas also received a warning’.

Peace Plans Do Enormous Harm to Environment By Expending Hot Air Causing Global Warming and Wasting Lots of Paper

There's so much poo going on in the world it's hard to know what to start with. One of the most annoying things is the way the entire world twitters on about "re-starting the peace-process" or "negotiations" are such twaddle. This week, Spain, France and Italy trotted out another irrelevant "peace plan" in some lame, blind effort to find an easy solution to the problems here. Let's be clear, there is no peace-process and there can be no peace-process until the Palestinians put down there guns and say lets talk. I mean, how hard is that and how difficult is it for the "international community" to understand that as long as Israel faces violence she will respond. Israel withdraws from Gaza and says here it is, make it work and what happens? Weapons smuggling, Qassam launching, bombing of goods crossings and so on.

This is the plan, the peace-process, the road-map which Israel should adopt. Do absolutely nothing. There is no need for Israel to do anything, there is no pressure. We can sit and control the shtachim from now until forever. If the Palestinians decide at some point that they'd like a state along side Israel and are willing to stop all violence then there's something to talk about. Until then, all Israel has to do is sit tight, there is nothing which is forcing us to make any compromise, any disengagement, any "hitkansut" or whatever other ludicrous and capitulatory nonsense the surrender-monkeys, both foreign and domestic, might come up with.

Carrying On Regardless

AhmadiDinnerjacket knows exactly who he's dealing with and has sussed the West out for the bunch of spineless, craven, feeble, appeaserers they are. I think the excrement is going to hit the circulatory cooling device pretty soon, one way or the other.

Ahmadinejad: Int'l community caved in

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday expressed hope that Iran would celebrate the completion of its controversial nuclear fuel program within Iran's current calendar year, which ends on March 20.

"With the wisdom and resistance of the nation, today our position has stabilized. I'm very hopeful that we will be able to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year," the hard-line president told reporters during a press conference.

"Initially, they (the US and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations," Ahmadinejad said.

"Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing a nuclear fuel cycle," he said, without elaborating."

Stay the Course!

Now that the Democrat Party in America has secured control of Congress, it has quickly begun to indicate that it wants to quickly start withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

Having originally supported the war, I now see it as a total disaster. I don’t think the general fall-back argument for the war, that the oppressive and brutal nature of Saddam’s regime justified the invasion, holds water since so many people have been killed and injured since he was toppled, that one could easily argue that there would have been less death and upheaval if Saddam had been left in power. Yes, the main culprits for the horrendous level of killings in Iraq are the Iraqis themselves, terrorists, insurgents and Shi‘a militias, but that doesn’t alter the fact that tens of thousands of people have been killed since the U.S. led invasion who wouldn’t have died otherwise. Someone once asked Mao what he thought the consequences of the French Revolution were and he said “it’s too early to tell”. Well, I hope that’s the deal with Iraq and maybe some day soon the carnage will stop and a stable democracy will emerge but that’s not the way it’s looking at the moment.

Having said all that, and perhaps in light of it, I think that the suggestion that America now desert Iraq is repugnant. Having got Iraq into this mess it would be the height of cowardliness and irresponsibility to leave now. If the U.S. pulls out now then tens of thousands of people will die in a terrible civil war and the international Jihadists, their supporters and sympathisers will gain the biggest PR coup since Judah the Maccabee got a half price deal on 10,000 inflatable toy hammers with the words Greeks Go Home printed on them.

Furthermore, the Iraqi government has repeatedly stressed that they want the U.S. troops to stay and until that changes the U.S. has a responsibility to stay and do as much as it can to stop the country going up in smoke any more than it already is. For the U.S. to run away now with its tail in between its legs is the least sensible thing to do at this stage.

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress, said on Sunday they will push to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq in the next few months but the White House cautioned against fixing timetables."

France: Will shoot at Israelis, not Hizballah

I know this news came out a couple of days ago but isn't it crazy that France will seriously consider and threaten to shoot down Israeli warplanes but yet will not contemplate disarming the illegal war-mongering guerrilla organisation Hizballah.

"Israeli fighter jets were reported to have penetrated deep into Lebanon on Thursday, a day after France said its troops were "two seconds" away from firing on a squadron of F-15s that buzzed their positions in the south of the country at the end of October".

Hizballah-Syria-Iran Nexus Gearing Up

Really concerning news coming out of Lebanon. Hizballah has now completely re-armed and is probably better equipped than before the July/August war of this year according to this Sunday Times report. Nasrallah is trying hard to gain control of Lebanese politics as this report shows and Israeli Generals are warning that there will be renewed conflict with Hizballah by early next year.

Coupled with this is the failure of the U.S., UN, the U.K., France and Germany or anyone else to seriously tackle the Iranian nuclear threat. Simply put, if Israel sometime soon decides to act against the existential threat of Iranian Nukes we will have a war on three fronts with Lebanon, Syria and Iran which will mean rockets and missiles from three different directions as well.

The storm clouds are gathering in the Middle East.

Case in Point

Talking about Russia, this JPost report exemplifies what I'm talking about.

"Russia has rejected passages in a UN Security Council draft proposing broad sanctions on Iran's nuclear and missile programs, reflecting its differences with the West on how harshly to punish Teheran for defying demands that it stop uranium enrichment, according to a document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The document - Moscow's proposed amendments to a Security Council draft resolution drawn up by Britain and France and broadly endorsed by the United States - also waters down Western demands that Teheran stop working on a reactor that can produce plutonium and allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear program. And it deletes any reference to Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant, being built with Russia's help".

The Resurgent Bear

I’ve ranted before about Putin and his brutal, authoritarian, murderous, corrupt, gangster-like regime. As previously mentioned here, and here on the Cantankerous Camel, Russia sells advanced weapons all over the middle East to the most nefarious regimes, represses democracy at home, bullies its former imperial vassals and sides with genocidal states such as Sudan and the genocide-wannabes in Iran in the U.N., blocking international action on these and other crucial issues, all to show to the U.S. and Europe that Russia is still a world power. And builds nuclear reactors for Iran.

As detailed in this recent article in FrontPage magazine, one of its primary tools for spreading its influence and foreign policy agenda is through its arms sales which continue to have a negative impact for Israel’s security. Russia has sold Iran one of the most advanced anti-aircraft air defence systems in the world and also sold Iran advanced anti-tank weapons which were passed through Syria and used by Hizballah in their guerrilla war against Israel this summer. It has also provided Syria with medium range ballistic missiles capable of hitting any target inside Israel, and sold warplanes to the genocidal regime in Khartoum.

Sadly, this trend seems to set to continue as Russia continues to seek export revenues and more importantly assert its influence around the globe. Even when Putin is gone after his second Presidential term finishes in 2008 his influence will be huge due to his overwhelming public popularity. He will effectively appoint a successor and said recently in a “live TV phone-in” that “even after I no longer have presidential powers I think that ... I will be able to preserve the most important thing that is dear to any politician: your trust...Using this, we can together influence life in our country and guarantee that it develops in a continuous manner”.

Jews Control World Finance and Start Wars According to Official Palestinian Authority Newspaper

As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, the official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published an article on October 23 replete with classical anti-Semitic accusations against Jews.

Below are some excerpts, see the whole expose at Palestinian Media Watch here.

“There is one global stock market situated in New York, and it is controlled by Jews. This stock market guides the currency markets in all of the world, sets the price of gold, and ultimately the value of various currencies around the world…

“In order for this idea to be realized, it was necessary to initiate [lit: to spark] wars, because wars, according to the custom of the Jews, are the only means that can bring about the desired change. The [wars] uproot the opponents, as they did in the first and second World Wars, so that had they [the wars] not happened, the United States would have not taken over the world, and the Jews would have not reached the center of this dominance.”

Hamas Broadcasts Radio Appeal for Human Shields

Once again displaying their contempt and disregard for the laws of war, Palestinian terrorists employed human shields to aid their escape from Israeli forces. The terrorists had sought refuge in a mosque in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, another breach of the laws of war, and when the IDF refused to allow such cynical tactics to prevent them from achieving their mission the terrorist Hamas government broadcast a radio appeal for women to form a human shield and allow the gunmen to escape and hundreds took up the challenge. Under the cover of the human shield most of the terrorists escaped although two were shot dead in the crowd. Some of the other terrorists were dressed up as women to facilitate their escape.

Capital Punishment is Wrong

Well, I haven’t posted for ages so I’ll weigh in with a hot topic and say that I think the death penalty is simply wrong for whomever, for whatever. Capital punsihment seems to me to be cold blooded, calculated murder by society as a collective. Is it not hypocritical to say that if someone murders, contravening the laws of the state and humanity, society will then murder the murderer?

If murder is wrong for the individual it must also be wrong for the state.

Saddam Hussein is a pretty evil human being with the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on his hands. But are we not reduced to his level if we adopt the same attitude to the sanctity of human life which he did?

Any thoughts?