Hamas Sweeties

While the battle on the ground rages on in Gaza, the battle for hearts and minds continues apace. In a Chicken or the Egg war (Does the fact that Hamas have been daily launching missiles for year after year, constitute good cause for Israel to finally act, or is it legitimate for Hamas to 'resist' in this manner because of the blockade?), black-ops and psych-ops continue to be waged.

So according to Hamas, Israel has been handing out hundreds of lollipops, bearing anti-Hamas messages on two cities in the West Bank .... Nablus and Ramallah. The Israeli troops threw the sweets to children after deploying heavily in the region as part of their search for three teenagers who went missing while hitch-hiking in the West Bank.

Anti-Hamas Lollipops: Black ops or double bluff?

.... Or as Fatah who control the West Bank reported nothing, Hamas are making this up, in a cunning attempt at a reverse propaganda coup, to expose Zionist perfidy, to a waiting Arab world.

Of course there is the vexing question of what Israel might get from this plan, especially as the soldiers were conducting house to house searches? Hardly an opportune moment to win the kiddies over. Of course this sort of story plays well with Arab minds .... where every action is a 'Zionist plot' .... so maybe its a secret Fatah black-ops, to discredit both Israel and Hamas? 

Zionist Plots

The Iranians are, or rather were a clever peoples, but once you are told that every failure is the result of foreign devils (usually the USA and UK), or Zionists, for decade after decade, then it kinda dumbs down your society .... this applies to the Arabs, but they have had centuries of blaming someone else for their own failures.

Last week, the Iranians took their one particular brand of Islamic stupidity beyond its normal high level, to a setting that borders on lunacy ....  they have attempted to block Iranians getting access to the official website for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Apparently Iranians are instead redirected to peyvandha.ir - a site offering stories from Iran's official news agencies.

And the reason for this breaching of both the spririt and the rules of the "Olympic Family"?

Well in the Shia heartlands, ideologues have deemed that the official London games logo of 2012 actually spells the word "Zion"  (the Hebrew for Israel or Jerusalem). In Iran internet blocks can be ordered by individual judges, or by various security organisations or religious bodies ... so pointing the finger is difficult.

London Olympic Logo - Zionist Plot?

They even demanded that the logo be withdrawn and the designers "confronted" (what emotive and aggressive language they always use). Sadly they didn't promise not to attend the games, and in a follow-up letter later made clear that their athletes would still "participate and play gloriously".

Its just a pity that the Olympic committee is so spineless, because constant attack on the Olympic ideals should be punished by expulsion from the organisation.