"The anti-Zionist game displays Iran's missile power and the Zelzal,
Zolfaqar and Sejjil missiles (all built in Iran) are used by the players
in the game's first stage," game production project manager Mehdi Atash
Jaam told FNA on Saturday.
"In this game, users break into the Zionist regime's air defense and target Israel," he added.
Elaborating on the reason for developing a game in which the Iranian
missiles destroy targets in Israel, Atash Jaam said that it was a move
in retaliation for the console game, 'Battlefield', that includes scenes
simulating attacks on Tehran and its Milad Tower.
'Missile Strike' was unveiled on Friday on the occasion of the International Quds Day.
No, the game was not privately produced. It was released by the Iranian army. Read the whole thing.
But it's okay. Once they sign this 'agreement' in Vienna, they will agree not to attack Israel for at least ten years. What could go wrong? Consider this:
On its editorial page this morning, the New York Times permits Ahmed Yousef, "a senior adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya," to use its soapbox to call for a hudna between Israel and Hamas.
A
truce is referred to in Arabic as a “hudna.” Typically covering 10
years, a hudna is recognized in Islamic jurisprudence as a legitimate
and binding contract. A hudna extends beyond the Western concept of a
cease-fire and obliges the parties to use the period to seek a
permanent, nonviolent resolution to their differences. The Koran finds
great merit in such efforts at promoting understanding among different
people. Whereas war dehumanizes the enemy and makes it easier to kill, a
hudna affords the opportunity to humanize one’s opponents and
understand their position with the goal of resolving the intertribal or
international dispute.
Such a concept — a period of nonwar but
only partial resolution of a conflict — is foreign to the West and has
been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak to wonder how
one can stop the violence without ending the conflict.
Actually what Yousef is describing is what's called a 'cease fire' or a
'truce' in western parlance. The problem is that he has mischaracterized
the true nature of hudna. In a
blog post in August, I cited an article by Tashbih Sayyed, the Editor
in Chief of Pakistan Today and The Muslim World Today, President of
Council for Democracy and Tolerance, an adjunct fellow of Hudson
Institute, and a regular columnist for newspapers across the world (in
other words - the elusive 'moderate Muslim') (which I can no longer find
at the original site) which described how Islam uses a hudna:
Political
Islam finds a number of examples in the life of Prophet Muhammad that
sanction the use of treaties as a tactical necessity. In explaining why
he signed the Oslo Accord, Yasser Arafat cited a truce signed by Prophet
Muhammad with the Meccan tribe Quraish at Hudaybiyah in 628 C.E.
According to the PLO leader, Prophet
Muhammad had signed the truce when he was not strong enough to win a war
and it was to last for ten years. But when, within two years of the
signing, the Muslims felt that they have gained enough strength to
defeat the Quraish, they broke the truce, attacked the Quraish and
captured Mecca.
A prominent Saudi sheikh, 'Abd Al-Muhsin
Al-'Obikan, also referred to the same treaty while condemning
Hezbollah's actions in Lebanon. He issued the edict against Hezbollah's
actions not because he considered them wrong but because in his view
Muslims, at the moment, are not strong enough to defeat Israel. He said
that since the Muslims have no chance of winning this campaign against
the Jews, a temporary solution is necessary - a truce similar to the
temporary truce of Hudaybiyya.
According to the Saudi Sheikh, Islamic
laws (Shari'a) also "place preconditions and constraints on the
declaring of jihad, which must be considered in order to ensure the
greatest gain for the nation and spare it loss - [that is,] in order to ensure the minimum possible damage and avoid greater damage.
One
of the preconditions regarding jihad [states] that the [the jihad
fighters] must have [sufficient] capability to inflict harm on the enemy
and to repulse its evil, so as to ensure the lives, the property, and
the honor of the Muslims and to safeguard them from aggression or harm,
that is, [from] destruction of property, from violation of honor, and
from bloodshed."
Those who understand the Islamist ethos know that for political Islam, disengagement, a cease-fire, or a pull back on the part of the "enemy" is a sign of its weakness. No one has more experience with this treacherous mindset than the Israelis.
So that's why the nuclear deal is ten years. Hmmm.
Reports out of Egypt indicate that the Hamas leadership is torn between agreeing to a hudna to plan the next battle and continuing to fight.
Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement presenting its position on the ongoing talks in Egypt.
"The warriors in Gaza are waiting with Allah's help to renew the
fighting, or to return to planning the next campaign. There's no escape.
Either jihad or planning (for the next jihad)," declared the statement.
The remarks leave no doubts that even in the case of a truce, from
Hamas's perspective the lull in fighting would only be an opportunity to
rearm for the next terror war on the Jewish state. This facet is
particularly concerning in light of reports of Israel agreeing to
finance Hamas's officials in Gaza as part of an agreement.
Slamming this proposal, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) stated Monday "this is political protection money: you pay us, then we'll shoot you later; you don't pay us, then we'll shoot you right now. ...It is impossible to fight our enemy with one hand and to fund it with the other."
...
Another senior official from the PA delegation told Walla! that there are estimations that the current ceasefire may be extended by an additional 72-hour period.
Revealing Hamas's position on the talks, the official commented
"I'm still not sure that there's a decision by Hamas to end this war."
"There's a great disagreement now between the Hamas leadership
in Qatar headed by Khaled Mashaal, and between the senior members of the
organization in Gaza. Doha (Qatar's capital - ed.) is urging Mashaal
all the time not to agree to Egypt as an intermediary," disclosed the
official.
Political Islam finds a number of examples in the life of Prophet
Muhammad that sanction the use of treaties as a tactical necessity. In
explaining why he signed the Oslo Accord, Yasser Arafat cited a truce
signed by Prophet Muhammad with the Meccan tribe Quraish at Hudaybiyah
in 628 C.E. According to the PLO leader, Prophet
Muhammad had signed the truce when he was not strong enough to win a
war and it was to last for ten years. But when, within two years of the
signing, the Muslims felt that they have gained enough strength to
defeat the Quraish, they broke the truce, attacked the Quraish and
captured Mecca.
A prominent Saudi sheikh, 'Abd Al-Muhsin
Al-'Obikan, also referred to the same treaty while condemning
Hezbollah's actions in Lebanon. He issued the edict against Hezbollah's
actions not because he considered them wrong but because in his view
Muslims, at the moment, are not strong enough to defeat Israel. He said
that since the Muslims have no chance of winning this campaign against
the Jews, a temporary solution is necessary - a truce similar to the
temporary truce of Hudaybiyya.
According to the Saudi Sheikh, Islamic
laws (Shari'a) also "place preconditions and constraints on the
declaring of jihad, which must be considered in order to ensure the
greatest gain for the nation and spare it loss - [that is,] in order to ensure the minimum possible damage and avoid greater damage.
One
of the preconditions regarding jihad [states] that the [the jihad
fighters] must have [sufficient] capability to inflict harm on the enemy
and to repulse its evil, so as to ensure the lives, the property, and
the honor of the Muslims and to safeguard them from aggression or harm,
that is, [from] destruction of property, from violation of honor, and
from bloodshed."
Those who understand the Islamist ethos know that for political Islam, disengagement, a cease-fire, or a pull back on the part of the "enemy" is a sign of its weakness. No one has more experience with this treacherous mindset than the Israelis.
And we keep agreeing to 'cease fires'.... What could go wrong?
Hamas 'foreign minister' Mahmoud Zahar has openly urged the Fatah terror organization to stop wasting time with the 'peace process' and join them to fight Israel together.
Speaking at a rally
for Hamas supporters in Gaza City, Zahar said, “Our hands are extended to Fatah
to join the program of [armed] resistance and the liberation of
Palestine.”
Addressing Fatah, he added, “Come and join the program of
resistance and stop wasting your time and effort. Let’s join hands and carry the
rifle together.”
Zahar said that Fatah members who wish to join the
“bandwagon of the triumphant, celebrate with us and become our partners are
welcome.”
He claimed that the West was now displaying an understanding of
Hamas’s armed resistance strategy.
“They no longer see our people as
terrorists and murderers who have no respect for women and children and who only
love blood,” Zahar said. “Westerners came to the Gaza Strip and saw that we are
among the most civilized people.”
...
Nabil Sha’ath, a member of the Fatah Central
Committee, expressed optimism regarding the prospects of achieving unity with
Hamas. He said that the Palestinian Authority had released a number of Hamas
members from its prisons in the West Bank.
The PA has also decided to
reopen Hamas institutions in the West Bank that had been closed for security
reasons, Sha’ath said.
He said that the PA leadership was prepared for
“full partnership” with Hamas in any political move in the future, and added
that the two sides would meet in Cairo soon to discuss ending their
dispute.
Sha’ath said that Fatah and Hamas leaders have voiced
satisfaction over the participation of their followers in joint celebrations and
rallies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past two weeks.
PLO
Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusef said that Fatah and Hamas were now
waiting for an invitation from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to hold
reconciliation talks in Cairo.
Anyone who thought that the very real assets Israel gave up in exchange for the Oslo Accords were in exchange for anything other than a very temporary peace was fooling himself. Here's Yasser Arafat himself speaking at a Johannesburg, South Africa mosque in May 1994 calling the Oslo Accords a hudna, a temporary truce.
Let's go to the videotape.
But peace is at hand, and the 'Palestinians' will abide by the next agreement they make much more than they abide by this one.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
