Terrorism Has Become The English Disease

The conviction of three home-grown bombers plotting to blow up thousands in mid air, blows out of the water any pretence of an 'international' threat of terrorism. Radical Islamic terrorism has become a peculiar English disease.

The Orange Party is heartily sick of the government blaming Pakistan and Afghanistan for terrorism. The root causes should be tackled here at home, not by fighting an invisible enemy in far off lands to prop up a corrupt government.

Misguided New Labour appeasement of extreme right Islamic groups and radical politicised religions just made things worse. But to admit that would be to admit a decade of failed policies.

Pakistan is being treated as the whipping boy. The Guardian quotes a senior Pakistan diplomat pointing out the terrorists, including the airlines plotters, were "born and brought up" in Britain, not Pakistan, which is being blamed for harbouring extremists plotting to attack the UK.

They may have popped over to Pakistan to learn a few tricks of the trade. But these were UK terrorists, with bombs made in the UK, to target UK air passengers with martyrdom videos spoken with UK accents.

Many of the recent terrorist outrages against the West have a UK connection. But the government is turning a blind eye to what is going on, unwilling or unable to recognise the scale and cause of the danger facing the country.

Excuses for the Afghan war are as fraudulent as the rigged elections and just as corrupt, with lame excuses for Brown's unwinnable war spun as a mythical fight against international terrorism.

Why send troops to their deaths against an invisible enemy in the killing fields and bomb the hell out of Afghan civilians when the problem lies here at home?

Millions of Muslims live in the US. Yet they are not producing 'home-grown' bombers, despite the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so often cited by extremists as the root cause of their grievance.

The reason lies in the strong sense of national pride and identity which has been lost here in a mishmash of pseudo liberal claptrap and political correctness. A pride and sense of belonging to a culture is just as important as the American dream.

It takes a brave soul to speak out and to say what many people know in their hearts and from their experience, for fear of facing accusations of being racist, anti-immigrant or a fascist.

Ed Husain, author of The Islamist and founder of counter-extremist think tank, Quilliam, is one voice to which those labels cannot stick. Writing in the Mail, he says what many know but are too scared or weak to say publicly.

A radicalised and self-confessed former Islamic extremist, Husain warns we have given in to the fanatics. A toxic combination of politically correct policy, denial and fear have opened the way for hate to grow in our midst.

The so-called liberal left has a long history of losing its way lurching from one cause to another, tying itself up in knots when the goodies become the baddies and vice versa. Many on the 'decent left' free of the shackles of New Labour would agree, vividly exemplified with raw examples in Nick Cohen's polemic: What's Left? How the Left has lost its way.

The Orange Party cannot understand why anyone would want to support or pay lip service to a barbaric medieval practice which subjugates women, is openly hostile to gays and wants to wipe Jews off the face of the earth.

But that probably has its origins is a misguided misunderstanding of peace-loving Muslims worshipping one of the world's greatest religions and those preaching the hate of a fascist political movement with a god attached.

Husain believes it's time to speak out about what he sees is happening, "before a terrible act of terrorism claims yet more lives".

Many Muslims may live in the UK but their hearts are in Muslim-dominated countries. Large parts of our cities have become Muslim ghettos funded by taxpayers, without a non-Muslim face in sight. "They might as well be in Pakistan or Afghanistan for all the contact they have with ordinary Britain," says Husain.

"They can send their children to Muslim state schools, go to Muslim NHS doctors, and do business at an Islamic bank. New immigrants arrive in this country to claim free local government housing, they are given a choice of Muslim areas to settle in."

Why this is allowed beggars belief. It makes the whole problem ten times worse. What is so wrong about offering new arrivals housing where they can integrate with people from our well-established rich mix of cultures?

Fresh from the ghettos, prisons and mosques have become recruiting centres for radical imams, or Islamic priests, highlighted in the excellent Channel 4 Dispatches documentaries.

Instead of protecting gullible young minds from brainwashing and radicalisation, the system encourages and directs them towards extremism.

"Time and time again," Husain points out, "I have seen Muslims go into prison as young Asian men, and return to their communities as something very different."

Satellite TV and the internet freely transmit the radical Islamic message straight into homes with thousands of UK Muslims preferring to get their news from foreign sponsored and owned Islam channels.

Pitched battles on the streets are becoming common place with the usual suspects whipping up a fanatical frenzy for their own political ends.

Damaging policies that have made the UK a seedbed for terrorists can be reversed. But unless that happens, warns Husain, "we will see further carnage on the streets."

But that means looking at the issues in the context of a 'sociological imagination", not through the eyes of a flawed politically-correct, wishy-washy pseudo-liberal nor through the eyes of a blinkered, racist bigot.

Top picture: Tanvir Hussain, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar found guilty of the airline bomb plot

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New Terror Plans Are A Muddled Mess

New terror plans unveiled by the government have nothing to with fighting terrorism and everything to do with political posturing and striking fear and panic, as the old spectre of WMDs and the 'war on terror' is resurrected to prop up a beleaguered government and hapless home secretary, while the real causes are brushed under the carpet. 

At a stroke, decent muslims are again branded as a bunch of baddies as home secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a new UK strategy to tackle an apparent terrorist threat, ignoring the root causes of the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and half-baked measures to get to grips with the preachers of hate. 

Harking back to the bad old days of WMDs and 45 minutes, the home office used fear and panic with the audacity to trot out a warning of an increased risk terrorists could get hold of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to attack the UK with dirty bombs. So how come Brown is coming over all cosy with Iran?

The government paper, Contest Two, updates the 2003 strategy updated in 2006. The next update no doubt won't be far behind. 

By 2011, the government wants  to spend £3.5 billion a year on counter-terrorism, while the number of police working on counter-terrorism had risen to 3,000, from 1,700 in 2003.

There's more chance of being run over by a bus than there is  being blown up by a terrorist. More police just make the odds of shooting the wrong person that much higher. 

The Orange Party is late coming to this, after listening to Smith waffle on the Today programme, mainly because it's taken so long to read the damn thing. It's full of muddled unjoined-up NewLabourSpeak thinking. 

Without an historical, political, social, cultural and international context, it is quite meaningless. Moreover, without dovetailing into other over-arching UK domestic and foreign policies, it's not worth the paper it's written on. 

Putting the frighteners up nobody, homes secretary Smith says "challenges should be made to those who undermine our belief in democracy". Beat them over the head with a copy of a wet challenge, that'll sort them out. 

What's lacking is the context - a sociological imagination - and a framework which would put the current terrorism 'threat' into perspective and point a way forward to a solution. 

Instead the government plans to train 60,000 selected snoopers to spy on potential terrorists and at a stroke stigmatise anyone who looks a bit Middle-Eastern.

With the government  trailing in the polls, Brown and Smith are raising the hairy old chestnut of terror panic for political reasons. 

Of course there is a threat but this government doesn't seem to have a clue what it is. Hiding behind a muddled smokescreen, they can't see that years of misguided domestic and foreign policies are a large part of the problem and that means they cannot provide an answer.

Fears and warnings over dirty bombs abound. Yet with the UK 'reaching out' to Iran that's where the problem lies. Gone are the days when Blair could pull the wool over our eyes with a fruitless search for enriched uranium for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. 

Iran backs the fundamental Islamic terrorist and through a circumspect route that is where the bomb-making comes from. Even if Iran is genuine about just wanting nuclear power, it's so easy for a sympathiser to turn a blind eye.

Suicide bombers are now more sophisticated, practising in the killing fields of Afghanistan with live troops as target practice. Pull out the troops and you take away the  target practice for an attack on this country. 

Time and again suicide bombers justify their actions on video, with a tirade against the current UK and US occupation of muslim Iraq and Afghanistan. UK troops will be stationed in Iraq for at least a year in some number. In Afghanistan, with a new troop surge on the cards, the bloody, hopeless and unwinnable war is set to drag on for years. Pull out the troops and you remove a reason and justification for terror attacks. 

At home, border security has been tightened but the preachers of hate and their brain-washed slaves thrive. Playing a cat and mouse game with the authorities up and down the legal ladder, hiding behind the shield of half-baked human rights legislation. 

Authorities turn a blind eye to recruitment in the undercover mosques for fear of upsetting 'the muslim community', when in fact the vast majority of muslims would welcome a root and branch clear out.

Trailing in the polls and still smarting from the 42 day detention debacle, the measures announced to 'combat terrorism' are a slippery slope to holding suspects without charge.

All the Orange Party's muslim pals want what everyone wants and that's just to live their lives, make a living and look after their families. 

They have no truck with the preachers of hate and no truck with anyone who is bent on radicalising the youth for their own power and glory.

At the end of the day there'll always be terrorists lurking around somewhere or other. One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter and that's the same in a draconian dictatorship and it is in a free democracy. 

The key is to take an overview and co-ordinate all government policy, both domestic and international. That's what isn't happening and that why report Mark 3 will have to be rewritten as report Mark 4 after the next outrage. 

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A Kosher Reason For Backing Jews

Struggling with the vexed question of why an old liberal Leftie should feel so Jewish all of a sudden, the Orange Party is not alone in trying to unravel the mystery. The answer comes from another liberal Leftie, author Nick Cohen, who's delivered scorching polemics on the mixed-up values of the old Left. Cohen puts his finger on it: "The more the British Left indulges antisemitism, the more kosher I feel."

Cohen's article for the Jewish Chronicle begins in a jocular vein: 

My name is Nick Cohen, and I think I’m turning into a Jew. Despite being called “Cohen”, I’ve never been Jewish before.

But where he's coming from chimes with some on the so-called liberal left: 

My sole interest in Jewish concerns came from being a left-wing opponent of the far Right, and the blood-soaked antisemitic superstitions which turned Europe into a graveyard. When I was young, such attitudes seemed unproblematic. You did not have to be a Jew to oppose fascism; everyone I knew did that regardless of colour or creed.

And that leads into a powerful and forceful argument: 

Today the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern Left succours and indulges. I am not only talking about Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and their gruesome accomplices in the intelligentsia. Wider liberal society is almost as complicit. It does not applaud the Islamist far Right, but it will not condemn it either. From the broadcasters, through the liberal press, the Civil Service, the Metropolitan Police, the bench of bishops and the judiciary, antisemitism is no longer an unthinkable mental deformation. As long as the conspiracy theories of the counter-enlightenment come from ideologues with dark rather than white skins, nominally liberal men and women will not speak out.

For Cohen, the experiences of left-wing antisemitism and in particular the BBC's Gaza bias has changed the way he thinks and there is no retreat: 

As the struggle between theocracy and liberalism intensifies, I can see some being pushed into taking the same journey I have taken and finding their views towards Judaism and Israel softening as they realise that antisemitism helps drive the fascistic ideologies of the 21st century just as it drove the Nazism of the 20th.

Politicians keen on pseudo-liberal posturing should take note of that breath of fresh air. Give the boy a kosher sandwich.

Nick Cohen is the author of What's Left: How The Left Lost Its Way.

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Wilders Ban Reeks Of Double Standards

Government double speak and double standards have been laid bare as the home office caved in to pseudo liberal pressure and banned a Dutch MP who has voiced his opposition to an “Islamic invasion”. His far right views are distasteful to some but the ban reveals a sinister trend to suppress a once cherished freedom of speech.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch right-wing Freedom Party had been invited to show a film called 'Fitna' at the House of Lords. That was until home secretary, Jacqui Smith, stepped in and banned him from entering the country. 

But the film - easily viewed on YouTube - does not incite violence and does not break any laws, nor does the home office suggested that it does.

The Orange Party condemns religious zealots who preach hateful racial bigotry, particularly when they hide behind the mask of religion to ram political ideologies down our throats. Wilders' views are loony right but he should be free to express an opinion. 

As the Times thunders in an eloquent leader today: "There is almost nothing on which Mr Wilders cannot be relied upon to be inflammatory, ill advised and illiberal, and this is precisely why the Home Secretary is wrong to deny him entry. Mr Wilders is an elected politician in a member state of the European Union. Freedom of speech, association and travel is part of the political culture of Europe." 

Wilders opposes what he terms “Islamic invasion” and demands the US and EU “stop appeasing Islam and start fighting together against the rapidly increasing Islamisation of Europe”.

Smith is doing no-one not least decent Muslims any favours. The half-baked decision reeks of double standards, when the UK denies a politician access to the country, just because someone doesn't like what he says. 

Let the man in. It is better to blow apart his arguments rather than just forcing him to shut up.

Holding up to ridicule the vices and virtues of society is essential in a tolerant liberal democracy and that has always included the right to oppose, mock and insult people's beliefs, as long as that doesn't overstep a clearly defined legal and moral mark set by the prevailing cultural mood of the day. 

But it seems the last thing the home office wanted was a confrontation between Wilders and some British Muslims. 

Wilders has never broken the law or threatened anyone with violence, yet the government has stood by while a number of extreme imams have been allowed to preach hatred. 

And it doesn't stop at turning a blind eye to extreme Islamists who openly incite murder and the destruction of Jews. Lesbian and gay people have been targets, as people have been allowed in to say whatever they want. On that criteria alone the decision doesn't make sense. 

All kinds of undesirables seem to be welcome, while this Dutch MP, who does not preach violence, is told that he can’t come here and that reeks of double standards. 

The actions of the home secretary only fuels the belief the government is quite happy to tolerate fanatics but not a misguided Wilders. 

And that decision highlights a fundamental and disturbing trend, when pseudo liberal views are allowed to corrupt a democracy's cherished values. 

UPDATE: Wilders, defied the ban and flew into Heathrow this afternoon where he's been held by home office immigration officials.

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BBC Must Stand Firm On Gaza Appeal

Pressure is mounting on the BBC to overturn its decision not to broadcast a Gaza 'charity' appeal with more than 90 MPs piling in with political posturing. But the BBC must stand firm if it is to salvage any scrap of impartiality left in the corporation. 

The BBC decision has opened a can of worms revealing the split between BBC bosses, wary of its world-wide audience and international criticism and its own news organisation, bent on presenting the conflict with blatant anti-Israel bias and pro-Hamas atrocity propaganda. 

Today BBC director general, Mark Thompson, repeated that airing a 'charity' appeal would put the corporation's impartiality at risk and the BBC could not give the impression it was "backing one side" over the other. Sky too said today it will not broadcast the 'charity' appeal for similar reasons. 

Thompson's comments come as more than 90 cross-party MPs back a parliamentary motion urging the BBC to screen the appeal, raising the ugly spectre of an authoritarian parliament bullying the corporation and trying to directly control and influence the output of the state broadcaster. 

Criticism over the decision has come from a host of usual suspects, as the appeal was swiftly whipped up as a 'cause' in a well-organised, stage-managed protest.

The so-called 'charity' appeal is a political appeal and the on-going row is sadly more about pseudo-liberal posturing politics and the fundamental Islam 'cause' than people.  

Humanitarian aid is already there in Gaza. Millions of dollars have poured in from the UN, EU and governments including our own. Now Hamas thugs are crawling out of the rubble to mount their own insidious PR offensive. 

How can anyone be sure any aid will go to all the people of Gaza and not just into the pockets of Hamas and handed out to its supporters or those poor souls brow-beaten by the authoritarian regime, while Gazans from rival Fatah are left to starve and scrabble around in the ruins. 

DEC's motives for the appeal are at best part of a do-good mentality, at worst politically motivated and highly suspect. 

Unlike Channel 4 and ITV, the BBC and Sky broadcast directly to the Middle East.

The appeal would rub Israeli noses in the dirt of the Gaza conflict, without mention of the destruction caused by Iran-backed rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. 

But the BBC also broadcasts into Palestine and moderate Arab states, as well as fundamental Islamic regimes in Syria and Iran.

It's difficult to see how such a 'charity' appeal could avoid using stock pro-Hamas propaganda TV footage and the testimony of women and children made under threat by the thugs standing behind them. 

The bias of the appeal would be too obvious if presenters didn't mention that Hamas was committing crimes against humanity by using Gazan civilians as human shields. 

Indeed, the appeal could be seen as highlighting the victims of fundamental Islamic aggression which wouldn't go down well in Tehran. 

More moderate Arab states would be outraged at an appeal for the victims in Gaza, without mention of Palestinian rivals Fatah, who are being routinely murdered and tortured by Iran-backed Hamas thugs in the wake of the conflict. 

Channel 4's decision to broadcast the 'charity' appeal on the other hand comes as no surprise. The channel's 'news' coverage of the conflict has verged on the fanatical and its biased output a bad joke. Channel 4 is desperately trying to use the appeal to get themselves off the hook and justify their shameful coverage of the conflict and blatant anti-Jewish bigotry.

No one would deny that humanitarian aid should override politics when innocent people are suffering. This conflict, like so many before, has been all about politics and power. But wading in waving around so-called liberal credentials is not the way to bring peace to the Middle East. 

Culture secretary, Andy Burnham, has said the BBC is right to make its own judgement over the appeal and there the matter should rest. 

The Orange Party is at the front of the queue when it comes to bashing first Blair's now Brown's biased BBC - but that applies in the main to its news output, not overarching decisions of the corporation. The BBC is making the right call on this one. 

Picture: A worker readies a shipment of relief aid to Gaza at the warehouses of the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman (Thursday Jan 22, 2009), from UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). AP Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh.

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Gaza Appeal Opens Can Of Biased Worms

The BBC decision not to broadcast a 'charity' appeal to raise funds for Gaza has opened a can of worms among UK broadcasters now desperately trying to use the appeal to get themselves off the hook and justify their shameful biased coverage of the conflict.

At the BBC in particular, it reveals the split between BBC bosses, wary of a world-wide audience in the face of international media criticism and its own news organisation bent on presenting the conflict with blatant anti-Israel bias and pro-Hamas atrocity propaganda. 

At the time of writing, the BBC is refusing to back down amid criticism of its decision, despite three rival terrestrial channels, ITV, Channel 4 and Five deciding to run the appeal.

Mark Thompson, the BBC's director-general, said: "The decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation."

Unlike Channel 4 and ITV, the BBC and Sky,which is considering the request, broadcast directly to the Middle East including Palestine, Israel and moderate Arab states, as well as fundamental Islamic regimes in Syria and Iran.

The appeal would rub Israeli noses in the dirt of the Gaza conflict, without mention of the destruction caused by Iran-backed rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. 

The bias of the appeal would be too obvious if presenters didn't mention that Hamas was committing crimes against humanity by using Gazan civilians as human shields. 

Moreover, the appeal could be seen as highlighting the victims of fundamental Islamic aggression and the BBC would not want to criticise Hamas by broadcasting such an appeal. 

More moderate Arab states too would be outraged at an appeal for the victims in Gaza, which includes members of Palestinian rivals Fatah, who are being routinely murdered and tortured by Hamas thugs in the wake of the conflict. 

Earlier, ITV and Sky had agreed with the BBC that they would not air the 'charity' appeal but ITV later reversed its decision.

Channel 4's decision to broadcast the appeal should come as no surprise. The broadcaster is already in hot water after an insulting and offensive alternative "Christmas message" by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, at the height of the conflict. News anchor, Jon Snow, too for his offensive, comments over former President Bush. The channel's biased 'news' coverage of the conflict has verged on the fanatical and its output a bad joke. 

The issue of the appeal was swiftly whipped up as a 'cause' by the usual well-organised suspects protesting outside the BBC's Broadcast House, all carefully crafted to create pictures for the waiting media. 

A couple of lowly government ministers have waded into the row urging the BBC to reconsider, while the Archbishop of York speaks from the heart and soul of humanity. 

The appeal is by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organization of 13 aid charities but there is no shortage of cash and aid for Gaza. 

Millions of dollars have poured in. The UN, EU and governments including our own have donated very generously. Aid is available locally and Israel has already lifted its ban on foreign aid workers entering Gaza. Many outside the cloistered world of the UK media have questioned DEC's motives for a 'political' appeal. 

It's difficult to see how such an appeal would not use stock pro-Hamas propaganda TV footage and the testimony of women and children made under threat by the thugs standing behind them. And can a presenter give a balanced and unbiased account of the events leading up to the suffering, without giving away their anti-Israel credentials. 

How can anyone be sure any of the aid will go to all the people of Gaza and not just into the pockets of Hamas and handed out to its supporters or those poor souls brow-beaten by the authoritarian regime, while Gazans from rival Fatah are left to starve and scrabble around in the ruins. 

No one would deny that humanitarian aid should override politics when innocent people are suffering. This conflict, like so many before, has been all about politics and power. 

Unlike the humanitarian aid already there in Gaza, the so-called 'charity' appeal is a political appeal and the on-going row is more about pseudo-liberal posturing politics than people.  

Picture: Foreign aid distributed in Gaza from the BBC website

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West Duped by Iran's Proxy War In Gaza

Misguided 'peace' envoys from Europe's sucker liberalism, egged on by the BBC, are bent on duping world opinion as Iran's powerful fascist religious extremists wage their war by proxy in Gaza. 

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is racing against time to isolate and destroy cowardly Hamas thugs hiding in densely populated northern Gaza, before pro-Arab and pseudo liberal international pressure imposes a half-cocked cease fire and hands victory to Iran-backed wannabe Hitlers.

The IDF knows too well the carefully planned operation to halt missile attacks on Israeli citizens will be short-lived. 

Already French president Sarkozy is strutting around the Middle East stage with nothing better to do than stick his nose into the conflict. UK prime minister Brown is happy to jump on any bandwaggon of whipped up and misplaced international condemnation in his desperate bid to win votes, capture the media and cling onto power. 

In a meticulously planed operation to limit civilian casualties, the IDF has succeeded in its first goal to slice though the Gaza strip and isolate Islamist fanatics, effectively cutting off Gaza City, from the rest of the south.

After a year of training in urban fighting, the IDF is now poised is enter the urban and densely-populated built-up areas and root out Hamas thugs hiding behind the human shields in schools, hospital and mosques. 

While US Middle East envoy Blair and US president-elect Obama remain conspicuous by their silence, the US is firmly supporting Israel and putting the blame squarely on Damascus based-Hamas. But Israel will not take a chance on any change in US policy.

Any  cease-fire is pointless without a halt to Hamas rocket fire. Israel will  sign up to an absolute cease-fire but not a half-cocked peace deal which would still allow Hamas to launch  rockets into Israel and to smuggle weapons into Gaza through its tunnel network. 

The Orange Party believes any cease-fire must recognise Israel's right to respond to any aggression over its international border and monitor the closure of Hamas' weapons-smuggling tunnels. 

The Orange Party is on record standing shoulder to shoulder with those who oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but is not naive enough to believe that all wars are immoral. 

Few of the voices slamming Israel are those of true pacifists. Already we are being forced to witnesses the sickening sight of celebrity glitterati joining tens of thousands of mostly Muslim protesters in rallies held worldwide against  Israeli so-called "genocide." 

Rich celebrity rebels with a cause should heed the truism of philosopher Edmund Burke that: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." 

Iran is waging a war by proxy using Damascus-based Hamas to do its dirty work and, as was pointed out here earlier, it is Hamas which has betrayed Palestine and the Palestinian cause. 

Israel is being confronted  by a political movement that brings together fascism with religious extremism and genocide, and that demands Jewish self-defence and international condemnation. The only message to the Palestinians should be: stop the violence.

Harrowing images from the fighting in Gaza are ultimately deceptive and displayed daily on 'al Beeb' TV. Using the misleading description of "militants", the reports show up a fundamental misunderstanding of Middle East politics. 

News feeds too come thick and fast from Arab Al Zareera TV, used with relish by the now discredited Channel 4 News, tarred forever with blatant anti-Jewish bias after allowing the disgusting spectacle of Iran's Jew-hating Iranian despot Ahmadinejad airtime during a Christmas Christian celebration. 

The BBC's bias and  thorough lack of understanding of the nature of the conflict is already causing complaints to the BBC Trust over its pro-Arab anti-Jewish coverage. 

The spin supersedes the truth and such post-modern skewed liberal moral outrage is alarmingly widespread. Such a carefree smugness and self-congratulatory superficial enlightenment is manna from heaven for the religious fanatics and their declared intent to wipe out the state of Israel.

Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy in Iran. Israel's current operation against Hamas is a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism fuelled by previous confusing and mixed messages from president-elect Obama. 

The Orange Party is in no doubt that what is being played out is another shot of the Iranian revolution to install fundamental Islam across the Arab world and wipe out the state of Israel. It is that apparent unstoppable expansionism which now must be curbed. 

Iranian influence has already spread to Saudi Arabia's heavily Shiite and oil-rich eastern province and to Lebanon through Hezbollah. Even the Sunni sheikdoms of the Gulf now defer to Iran.

Iran has co-opted Hamas, a Sunni organisation closely linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a jihad against the Jewish state. Once fortified with nuclear weapons, Iranian power in the Middle East would be complete. 

Moderate Arab leaders have been circumspect in their condemnation knowing full well that the blame for the end of the tenuous Israel-Hamas cease-fire rests with Hamas. 

Those leaders understand what many western leaders fail to grasp. The Middle East conflict is no longer just about creating a Palestinian state but about preventing the region's takeover by radical Islam. 

Above all, the goal is to ensure that Hamas is unable to proclaim victory and thereby enhance Iranian prestige in the Arab world. 

Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah was squandered through Israeli incompetence and international pressure. Hezbollah manipulated the western media by inflating the number of civilian casualties. The winner was Iran. Israel will not make that same mistake twice. 

Yet the question remains whether the international community has learned its Lebanon lesson, or will once again allow the jihadists to win. 

The international community must not be duped again. If Hamas is successful in manipulating world opinion with a premature cease-fire, its leaders will proclaim victory and continue to stockpile long-range missiles for the next round of attacks against Israeli civilians. And the next time may be too late to halt another Iran backed triumph. 

Picture: An Israeli woman walks under the damaged roof of a temporarily closed food market minutes after a rocket fired from Gaza hit Sderot.

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Hamas Thugs Betray Palestine

As Israel defends itself against Islamic Hamas thugs pounding its population with relentless rocket attacks, an increasingly anti-Jewish western media continues misguided and naive support for Iran-backed fanatics. 

It's difficult to use the age old excuse - blame it all on the Jews - when the town of Beersheba was hit again today as Hamas Grad-type rockets continue to be fired deep into Israel, the latest through the roof of an empty school (pictured).

The western media sat back for years with hardly a report, while a bunch of fanatics took Gaza's population hostage and lobbed Iran-supplied missiles into Israeli schools and hospitals as part of its vowed jihad to annihilate the state of Israel.

The repeated and escalating cross-border attacks from a deranged group of Islamic extremists, egged on by Iran in its war by proxy, showed no mercy, no morals and no decency.

On Christmas Day, with Hamas rocket attacks reigning down on Israel, Channel 4 with all the political nouce of a dead slug tried a cheap ratings stunt with an outrageous and deeply insulting, broadcast from the Jew-hating tyrannical Iran president, dressed up as an 'alternative Christmas message', immediately condemned by the UK foreign office.

Firing missiles from Gaza into Israel is a stupid act of folly which betrays the Palestinian cause. Underestimating the Israeli response is foolhardy. For months Israel was planning a swift, precision response. Identifying the tunnels on the Egyptian border, identifying Hamas military strongholds, biding its time until it was time to swiftly strike back: Maher-shalal-hash-baz

Now Damascus-based Hamas has the audacity to blame Israel for the Palestinian casualties in this week's air-strikes, finding some support in the West's pseudo-liberal media. But there's one big difference between the two air-strikes. Hamas is deliberately targeting kindergartens, schools and civilians because in its warped value system, any Jew is a legitimate target. Israel is trying to target cowardly Hamas, as it launches rockets hidden among the civilian population.

No UK western media has raised the central issues of funding and training for the Hamas attacks. Hamas receives $20 million annually from Iran, along with a $50 million bonus after staging the coup against the opposition Fatah organization, turning it into a full-fledged terrorist state. 

More than 900 Hamas operatives have received training in tactical warfare, sniper tactics and bomb-making from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Since Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorists, in particular Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have fired more than 6,000 mortars and rockets into Israel, killing 10 civilians, wounding 780 and traumatising thousands including children in Israeli towns like Sderot, close to the border with Gaza.

Israel's intelligence services have been reporting for months that Hamas has used the ceasefire agreement to strengthen its military arsenal against Israel as it tries to whip up fanatical support in more moderate Arab states. 

Back in July, then-presidential candidate Obama, after visiting Sderot, stated that if someone "was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing." 

How times change. Hamas and Iran are exploiting that US presidential transition. Despite Obama's pre-election hype to stand by Israel, the future relationship with Israel and indeed the future of Gaza is uncertain. Israel is not prepared to take a chance. No Drama Obama will only say he's "monitoring the situation". 

That's not good enough. Obama will be president officially in a few weeks time and what he says now would influence events. Hamas stepped up its violence, knowing full well that the presidential election would test Obama's pro-Israeli credentials. 

Here the UK's state broadcaster, the BBC, continues its torrent of anti-Israeli propaganda,  refusing to give an unbiased picture of events in both Gaza and Israel. Only today has the BBC reported the devastating effects of Hamas rocket attacks. Few accounts contained any detailed reports of Jewish casualties, just deaths by a few numbers. 

Meanwhile Channel 4 News is becoming increasingly anti-Jewish in its reporting (as shown here in recent unnecessary Jewish references in a report on the $50b Madoff Wall Street scam) and glued to the Arabic news service, Al Jazeera.

Israel has stated publicly that it would strike Hamas with an "iron fist" but would treat Gaza civilians with "kid gloves" in its humanitarian effort. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of that statement. 

The UK government, with a Jewish foreign secretary in a sensible David Miliband, is ideally placed to act as a voice of reason and sanity. While urging Israel to do everything possible to minimise civilian casualties, it should stand firm by placing the blame squarely on Hamas. But the pressure is growing to move away from that current US stand, towards the more pro-Arab EU view.

The acronym 'Hamas' so beloved by the western media bellies the true meaning - the Islamic Resistance Movement, the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel's critics in the West wilfully refuse to acknowledge that Israel's current military operation constitutes an internationally recognised legitimate act of self-defence against Iranian-backed terrorism. 

The reality is that the vast majority of Palestinians want a peaceful settlement as the only way out of poverty and desolation. A two-state solution is still there if they could only take it. But now there are two Palestines: the West Bank governed by the more moderate Palestinian Authority (PLO-Fatah) and the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas.

As Hamas is determined to win a one-state solution bought at the price of a second Holocaust, with tacit approval of the EU, expect Jews to be made the villains of the piece once again.  

Israel's UK ambassador today rightly condemned Hamas for betraying the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. The Orange Party is proud to support the state of Israel and all who struggle for a genuine peace in the Middle East.

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