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Monday, January 30, 2006

Bad Prediction

He's not going to make this mistake again. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Hamas was acting "responsibly" in the aftermath of their victory in the Palestinian elections. Almost immediately thereafter, Hamas issued the following statement:
Shortly after making his comments about the Hamas, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said from Gaza that Israel must change its flag. "Israel must remove the two blue stripes from its national flag", said Zahar. "The stripes on the flag are symbols of occupation....

"Oh no," I groaned. Now Zahar is going to argue that the "blue stripes" represent the Mediterranean Sea, and the Jordan River, implying that both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are part of Israel.
....They signify Israel's borders stretching from the River Euphrates to the River Nile."

Umm...What? Is he freaking stoned? I mean, at least Mediterranean to Jordan has some backing in the current status of the historical conflict. Nile to the Euphrates can only be explained by a sudden and severe bout of paranoid schizophrenia. And just goes to show how crazy Hamas really is.

Oh, and in case you were wondering:
Israel's national flag, a blue Star of David set between two blue stripes, was designed to resemble a Jewish prayer shawl which traditionally has stripes.

Other commentary: Mark in Mexico, American Thinker.

Meanwhile, I've been looking for an excuse to link to Elie Wiesel's statement that Hamas should be forgiven if it "repents." I suppose that yes, I technically agree with that, but in what world is Hamas going to "repent"? None that I know. But while we're waiting, I'm perfectly content to slash their funding until they come to their senses. "Caution" is fine, as far as it goes--but in this case Hamas does seem to be a Devil we know. Make them earn their funding. Saying that Israel has a right to exist, cracking down on terrorism (both from their own ranks and from external groups like Fatah and Islamic Jihad), and generally not being insane don't strike me as unreasonable threshold requests.

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