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Just a little odd thing to point out when reading current Libya media stories.   You’ll note the media in the Middle East, Libya itself, and the entire region uses the words “civil war”.  But mainstream Western media never describe the fighting with those words.
It’s almost as if Western Media are covering for something, or someone’s failure…..

PIRAEUS – Libya is descending into a civil war spiral that is “much worse” than the unrest that toppled its dictator Moamer Gathafi in 2011, residents fleeing the country said Saturday.
“We have gone through (war) before, with Gathafi, but now it’s much worse,” Paraskevi Athineou, a Greek woman living in Libya, said.
“Chaos reigns. There is no government, we have no food, no fuel, no water, no electricity for hours on end,” she said.
Athineou was part of a group of 186 people evacuated from Tripoli by a Greek navy frigate which reached the port of Piraeus early on Saturday.
In addition to 77 Greek nationals, there were 78 Chinese, 10 Britons, 12 Cypriots, seven Belgians, one Albanian and a Russian.
Among them were several diplomats, including the Chinese ambassador to Libya.
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Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Egypt’s Khalil el-Sisi just need to be left alone and they will ultimately deal with Hamas and The Muslim Brotherhood.   The U.S. and EU just need to butt out.  [And we are genuinely serious when we say that.]   Just let those two guys handle the radical islamists…. 

ISRAEL – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t mince words in a phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Friday.
Netanyahu reportedly warned Shapiro that President Barack Obama and his administration was “not to ever second-guess me again,” according to sources that spoke on condition of anonymity with The Associated Press.
The phone call came hours after a proposed cease-fire in Gaza quickly crumbled, with one Israeli soldier taken hostage and two more killed during an attack. While the Obama administration did not blame the abduction on Hamas, officials did say they hold the group responsible for events occurring in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu told Shapiro he “expected” the U.S., along with the U.N. and other international groups, to help him moving forward with a “strong and swift response,” because he knows best how to handle Hamas.  (read more)
Netanyahu speaks to Israel –  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Saturday to use as much military power as need and fight “as long as it will take” against terror group Hamas to restore peace in his country.
In a TV speech in Jerusalem that appeared in part directed at Israelis beleaguered by the fighting’s destruction and death toll, Netanyahu gave no indication of moving toward a cease-fire with Hamas, the Islamic militant group. (more…)

For those who do not follow the ebb and flow of radical Islam in the region of Mid-East and North Africa the discussion of the current conflict in Gaza can be a little confusing.
The confusion is made worse because old paradigms of previous conflict are no longer present.   The political rise of the extremist elements represented by the various affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood -like Hamas- has totally changed the landscape.
Those hippie Brangelina, Bono leftists who historically, and insufferably, jump to defend the Palestinian cause because it’s the hipster thing to do, are oblivious to the new challenges of the Palestinian Authority – who themselves are no longer comfortable with the extremists of the Brotherhood/Hamas.
But that doesn’t stop the college idiots from donning the customary Palestinian Keffieh, sunglasses and hipster swag en route to the next Victoria Secret runway show.   Yeah, the irony totally lost on them.
Wait, what… huh?   I digress.
Perhaps, it’s the same reason why President Obama (and crew), and Secretary Kerry and his hipster #Hashtag Team, are totally disconnected from the current paradigm around Israel and the alliances who support them. (more…)

Gaza City (CNN)at least temporarily.  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire will begin at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (1 a.m. ET).
It will last 72 hours — or three days — “unless extended,” the United Nations and United States said in a joint statement.

“During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement said.   Hamas accepted the cease-fire, a spokesman for the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization texted Thursday.

Speaking to CNN moments after the announcement, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said it came “after careful deliberations with all the parties.”  (read more)

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Previously three different United Nations run schools in Gaza were found housing Hamas missiles and rockets for use against Israel.   The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)  claimed they had no idea the rockets were there, and no idea how they got there.  Now it is revealed a UN Clinic was built upon an entrance to numerous tunnels used to move weapons around Gaza, and the clinic was booby-trapped with explosives built into the walls of the clinic.   UNRWA is actively collaborating with Hamas.
ISRAEL – New details have emerged about the booby-trapped clinic explosion that killed three IDF Maglan unit soldiers in Gaza earlier this week – Sergeant First Class Matan Gottlieb, 21, from Rishon LeZion; Sergeant First Class Omar Chai, 21, from Savion; and Sergeant First Class Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv, hy”d.
Over eighty kilograms of explosives were built into the UN-funded hospital’s walls themselves, it was cleared for publication Thursday – revealing that the clinic itself was built to mask, and perform, potential acts of terror on the IDF.
Moreover, the clinic was built over tens of terror tunnels, according to the report. (more…)

Reporters in Gaza know exactly where the main Hamas compound is located but they refuse to discuss it because:  a.) they fear retaliation from Hamas, and, b.) the media don’t want to report anything that supports Israel’s contentions.
GAZA – The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war.

So why aren’t reporters in Gaza ferreting it out? The precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital would seem to qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk. (more…)

The real war on women continues through the mouth of islamists.  And it’s worthwhile to remember Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan is BFF’s with President Obama on the world stage.

TURKEY – Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister has said women should not laugh out loud in public and urged them to stop talking about ‘unnecessary’ things on the phone.
Bülent Arınç also complained about ‘moral corruption’ by television programmes which he claims are transforming teenagers from ‘symbols of chastity’ into ‘sex addicts’.
Speaking at an Eid el-Fitr – breaking of the fast – event in the northwestern city of Bursa, he claimed Turks had ‘abandoned their values’ and pleaded people to rediscover the Koran.
Describing his ideal chaste man or woman, Arnic said they should both have a sense of shame and honour. (more…)

A really odd dynamic surfaces yet again in the realm of the Obama administration’s remarkable list of “firsts”.   President Obama has become the first U.S. administration ever to factually side with radical islamists – like al-Qaeda, ISIS, The Muslim Brotherhood and HAMAS – over the more moderate Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Even the Palestinian Authority, yes the Palestinian Authority, was shocked by the Obama/Kerry proposal for Gaza.

For years some people have claimed the Muslim Brotherhood actually has serious influence inside the White House.   Given jaw dropping recent events it seems almost impossible now to refute such a proposition.
(Via Newsweek) American diplomacy in the Middle East in recent days may have failed to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, but it has managed to reposition the United States on an unfamiliar side of the region’s complex web of alliances.
Israelis believe US Secretary of State John Kerry’s week-long ceasefire negotiations has firmly placed the US in the camp of Qatar and Turkey, both of which back the militant government of Hamas, while it has sidelined its traditional allies. (more…)

There was, and for many still is, a considerable amount of Stockholm Syndrome type anxiety amid the general population of Israel when it comes to decisions to mount defensive strategies using offensive engagements.
However, even the most dovish of the Israeli population recognized the inherent risk when the IDF began publically exposing the size, scope and intents of the Gaza Tunnels:

With thirty tunnels found and almost seventy entrances it is now apparent that there was a “second Gaza” under the ground – complete with weapons stocks and everything needed for a combined attack on Israel.

Some of the tunnels had storage facilities with IDF-issued uniforms, helmets and shoes, as well as syringes with tranquilizers and handcuffs, ready for kidnapping Israeli citizens and taking them into Gaza.

Some people have asked me how come Israel never saw these tunnels which have exits inside Israeli territory. The answer is that the tunnels are not fully dug. They leave the last 3-6 feet of dirt intact so that there would be no outward sign of a tunnel being there.

The Hamas plan, it now turns out, was to simultaneously dig out of those tunnels the last 3-6 feet and then attack Israel from 30 or 40 tunnels simultaneously, using hundred if not thousands of Hamas terrorists, some dressed as IDF personnel. Such a massive wave of attack, combined with a barrage of rocket fire, could have had a devastating effect on Israel – had it not been for Operation Protective Edge.

Even the doves within Israel recognized they could not simply attempt defense any longer.  Consequently the internal support for the Netanyahu and IDF response has been overwhelming.   Hamas must be left without the potential to create such a network again.  Against this reality Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to his nation:  (more…)