Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week blurb...


 Hamas claims victory in war with Israel, the clearly stronger and more sane adversary:

Israel's prime minister declared victory Wednesday in the recent war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the military campaign had dealt a heavy blow and a cease-fire deal gave no concessions to the Islamic militant group.

Benjamin Netanyahu's comments, delivered in a prime-time address on national television, appeared aimed at countering critics of the seven-week war that killed more than 2,200 people.

Both hard-liners in his governing coalition, as well as residents of rocket-scarred southern Israel, have said the war was a failure because it did not halt Hamas' rocket attacks or oust the group from power.

"Hamas was hit hard," Netanyahu said, adding that Israel "didn't agree to accept any of Hamas' demands" under the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire deal.

The ambiguous cease-fire delivered an immediate halt in the fighting and has promised an easing of Israel's blockade of Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and construction goods to enter for the rebuilding of the territory. All goods are to go in under international supervision.

But Hamas' key demands are only to be addressed in a future round of talks expected next month in Cairo. Hamas is seeking an end to the Israeli blockade, including the reopening of Gaza's sea and airport. It also wants Egypt to reopen its Rafah border crossing, the territory's main gateway to the outside world. Israel, meanwhile, wants Hamas to be disarmed.

Netanyahu said Israel "will not tolerate" any more rocket fire, and if the attacks resume, "we will respond even harder." ...

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas military wing, stood over an Israeli flag as he addressed the crowd.

"Gaza achieved victory because it has done what major armies failed to do. It forced the enemy to retreat," he said. "We must know that no voice is louder than the voice of the resistance."

(Sidebar: you got your @$$ kicked- again- by your successful, tolerant Jewish state neighbour. You must be as humiliated as you are mad.)



ISIL demands a random for an American aid worker:

The Islamic State militant group is holding hostage a young American woman who was doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, a family representative said. The 26-year-old woman is the third American known to have been kidnapped by the radical group.

The Islamic State group recently threatened to kill American hostages to avenge the crushing airstrikes in Iraq against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

The 26-year-old woman was captured last year while working with three humanitarian groups in Syria. A representative for the family and U.S. officials asked that the woman not be identified out of fear for her safety. All spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Having raided banks and weapons throughout Iraq, one wonders how much more ISIL/ISIS need to fund their terrorism (Qatar has strenuously denied funding ISIS). This is posturing. It is frightening people into sharpening the knives that will cut their throats.


Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall points out Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's favouritism:

On Tuesday, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called out Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne over her province's protectionism with regard to inter-provincial trade.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail — conducted prior to the start of the annual premiers' conference this week in Prince Edward Island — Wall decried Ontario's infrastructure contract bidding rules that favour local firms over those in other provinces.

Wall says that if Canada's most populous province doesn't change its stance -- which he says gives Ontario firms a 10-per-cent advantage -- he'll be forced to retaliate.

"If we can’t get improvement on that front we are not going to be Boy Scouts about that in Saskatchewan," he said.

(Sidebar: I'd listen to him if I were you.)

Wynne has to re-pay her supporters somehow.


Give it up, Mulcair. You're not going to be the official opposition:

Tom Mulcair says an NDP government would establish a full public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women within 100 days of taking office.

He says the NDP would begin consulting women and First Nations about parameters for an inquiry on its first day in power.

Yes, about that:

According to an RCMP report released in May, the vast majority of murdered aboriginal women were not killed by strangers, they were killed by spouses, boyfriends, family members or acquaintances of the victims.

"Female homicide victims generally know the person who kills them -- more than 90% had a previous relationship with them," said the report. "This is true for aboriginal and non-aboriginal female victims."

We know who's killing aboriginal women. Most of them are men -- 89%. Close to 40% of the killers were either the spouses or boyfriends of the victims, 23% of them were family members, and 30% were acquaintances. Only a small minority of the killers were strangers -- 8%.

So the picture that the aboriginal lobby is trying to paint, that aboriginal women and girls are being plucked off the street randomly by strangers and are being killed, is false, according to the facts.

The war is months-old, is backed by Putin and has nothing to do with Bandera and everything to do with shale gas in Crimea:

Ukraine and Western officials on Wednesday warned that Russian forces are opening up another, major front in the war, according to The New York Times .

“This is what happened: they crossed the border, took up positions, and started shooting," Sgt. Aleksei Panko said after telling The Times that about 60 armored vehicles crossed the border near the town of Novoazovsk. “This is now a war with Russia."

And now, how much do you know about Kirk Van Houten?