Mio Moov 310 – Chapter 2

June 24th, 2009 nk

Like I promised in the previous Mio Moov post here is an update on the update.

I got an email from Mio telling me that updated maps and possibly (it wasn’t clear) firmware were available. The email included detailed instructions on how to get the update and how to install it. It also included a license key for the update.

I followed the instructions and the update failed – it couldn’t verify the license. After many repeat attempts within 3 days I finally wrote an email to Mio support. Two days later I received a response. The advise was to wait a couple of days and try again as their “servers are busy”. I did that and tried again in a couple of days. Same error message.

Finally, after having tried for 5 days to get the update, I called Mio support. You have to be REALLY patient to get through to them. It took me four attempts and more than two hours to finally get to talk to a live person. The woman that spoke to me was nice and very patient. She promised to get back to me in, at most, four working days with responses to two questions:

1. How to get the update

2. How to get the Text To Speech to actually pronounce street names and not just exit numbers on the freeway.

It has been close to two weeks now and I had no response (she took down both my email address and phone number). So much for the quality of Mio’s technical support.

Just before starting on this entry I decided to try the update again. This time it seems to be working. There is one strangeness though: the old maps are removed from the Mio and you can install the new ones. Except that the space freed in the Mio’s internal memory is not enough for all the new maps. My solution was to start the install minus the Central Time region. This reduces the space necessary. I canceled the install after a few seconds. The program (Mio Desktop) then goes ahead and deletes all the files it already installed. This left me with enough space to install all the new maps. Obviously a bug.

I will report on the results after I test it for a while.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

Destinator 8

June 18th, 2009 nk

Recently I tested a copy of Destinator 8. I was impressed by some aspects of the program and disappointed by others.

First the good:

Destinator installed easily on both my dedicated GPS (a Mio) and on my Win 6.1 phone. The map display is nice and clear and it navigates fairly well. I was very impressed by the programs ability to use TTS (pronounce the names of streets) when run on my phone. The phone has limited memory and iGO TTS fails because of lack of memory. Destinator works fine and pronounces everything, though with a somewhat strange accent – at least in English.

Now to the bad:

The Points Of Interest (POI) database is on the small side, but maybe acceptable taking into account the very small (relatively) size of the map files.

There are some other inconveniences: the program can’t find the GPS port automatically. It has to be entered manually in one of the .ini files. It also doesn’t automatically switch to a nigh or day display – this has to be done manually.

The menus are also somewhat awkward. To change the rout calculation method from Fast to Short (only these two options are available) you have to go through several menu layers.

Another thing that bothered me was Destinator’s limited ability to accommodate setting a destination by pointing on the map.

A VERY big weakness of the program is its inability to add via points to a route. It maybe only me, but I couldn’t find a way. If someone does, please comment on this issue.

In summary: Destinator 8 is a fairly good navigation program (except for the via point issue) and I will use it on my phone, though I am not going to uninstall iGO just yet. The TTS on my phone is, to me, worth the other inconveniences.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

iGO Amigo

June 10th, 2009 nk

I got my hands on version 8.4.2.85182 of iGO Amigo. Like the version number implies it is supposed to be version 8.4… of iGO. The program is different from version 8.3 of iGO. It uses the same maps, points of interest and the other data, but everything else is different.

The first thing I learned was that Amigo needs to be installed in a new empty directory. Any residual files from an iGO 8.3 installation may disrupt it. The same goes for the Sys.ini file. Amigo will read the iGO file and get confused.

After installing everything and copying the maps and other stuff I decided to test the TTS – I had it installed for iGO and used a modified Susan voice. I also modified the lexicon files to correct some funny stuff like “St Rose” being pronounced “Street Rose”. At this point I discovered that Amigo didn’t like my modified lexicon file. It was running very very slowly – like it was processing something and too busy to find the satellites or respond to commands. Reverting to the original lexicon file resolved that problem. Eventually I added my name modifications to the original file and that worked.

Looks:

The interface (skin) is very nice. I liked both the day and night default colors. The default skin is OK, though I am using one of the several available replacements. The general looks remind me of the MioMap 2008 and Mio Mireo. I like it.

Functionality:

Amigo has a couple of features that most current iGO skins lack. The most important one is the ability to change a rout’s preferences (Fast, Short, etc..) and see the result immediately on the map. There are a couple of iGO skins that do this but none as easy and aesthetically pleasing as the Amigo.

Amigo also lacks a number of features that iGO has. The most annoying is the lack of ability to define excluded roads. The setup menus are much simplified in comparison to iGO and thus have less features.

I also discovered a curious thing: Amigo is sensitive to what city is defined when you search for a street. For example: if I look for a street in the city of North Las Vegas while I am in the city of Las Vegas Amigo may not find the street while iGO has no such problem.

On the MIO Moov 310 I also get only an ABC keyboard – the QWERTY version is absent. This may be a case of using a different data.gro (the equivalent of data.zip used by iGO). I modified the data.gro to display a QWERTY keyboard but a simple substitution of ABC for QWE is not ideal. I got a QWERTY keyboard but with less letters per line and more lines than a standard one – which is kind of confusing, but I find it easier to use than the ABC keyboard.

I will keep using this program for a while to see what else I can learn.

In summary: it seems to be a dumbed down version of iGO with a very nice interface. I would prefer using iGO if somebody made a skin that looks like Amigo.

Posted in GPS | No Comments »

A Business Idea for Casinos

May 29th, 2009 nk

The other day we went to the new M Resort and Casino in Henderson, NV. It is a nice place with a couple of innovations and is reviewed in more detail here.

Since their buffet was so nice it gave me an idea:

Most people overeat at a buffet. You pay to enter and you can eat all you want as long as you don’t leave. No doubt, reasonably priced buffets attract customers to casinos but I doubt that they keep them there. As soon as you exit the buffet you decide what to do and it may be gambling or just sightseeing (if it’s your first visit to the place) or just leave.

How about a different model: sell the customer a timed pass for the buffet. Say a 4 hour pass that allows them to come and go as they please eating whatever they please. If the buffet is good and has a good selection and variety the result may be that customers will come, sample some dishes and go back to the casino knowing that they can give the food a rest for a while. They will come later and sample some more. This way they are likely to stay in the casino longer and since there is not much to do there but play (gamble) that’s what they are likely to do.

Net result: a win-win situation: the customer doesn’t have to sample the whole selection at once and get sick (like I sometimes do) and the casino has them there for a while, probably spending some money. I don’t believe that people will eat substantially more than in a single session – 4 hours is not long enough to get really hungry

If any of the casinos decide to adopt this business idea, I fully expect to profit from it and hereby claim copyright and authorship.

An update from June 3, 2009: the other day there was an ad in our local newspaper. It was for a 24 hour buffet at the Excalibur. I am glad that the general idea is catching on, but the execution, in this case, leaves something to be desired. The Excalibur buffet is nothing special and their advertised 24 hour price was $25.00. If you take into account that competitors with similar or better buffets charge between $13 to about $18 (the M charges $13.00) you can see that the deal is a bit questionable. If you like a lot of plain food this is definitely a reasonable deal. I hope that other casinos will follow. Be careful though: some airlines are charging obese people for two seats and if you take too many buffet deals you will have to pay the additional fee.

Posted in Economy | No Comments »

Mio Moov 310

April 27th, 2009 nk

Those that read this blog will notice that this post is a departure from my usual political rantings. I decided to rant on a different issue. I may or may not continue this in the future – depends on popular response.

Anyway, here goes.

A while ago I bought a Mio Moov 310. I decided to replace my old Garmin StreetPilot 2610 and the Mio looked like a very good alternative:

• It was advertised as having Text To Speech – which means that it is supposed to pronounce the name of the next street you need to turn on, not just say “Turn Left” or “Turn Right”.
• The traffic radio and ability to steer around traffic jams seemed like a good thing.
• The maps were new. The Garmin had old maps and buying a new set would cost almost as much as the Mio.
• The display is nice: 4.3″ TFT display.
• The GPS chip is SIRf III – much more advanced than my old Garmin.

My first drive with the Mio 310 was a mixed bag: The display is indeed nice and the software’s color scheme is beautiful, but it was washed out by the bright Las Vegas sun. The unit needs a recessed display (like the Garmin 2610) to be seen in the sun. Alternatively you can mount it where the sun is blocked. I mounted mine in the instrument panel nacelle. On my car it sits in front of and obscures part of the tachometer. Not overly bothersome and it is clearly visible under most circumstances.

I was disappointed by the Text To Speech. The TTS ability of the Moov 310 is limited to saying the exit number on a freeway. Not really very useful, especially in a city where development is rapid and exit numbers tend to change frequently.

I was also somewhat disappointed by the meager Points Of Interest database. It had our local Best Buy (though on the wrong side of the street) but didn’t have some of the more famous restaurants and such.

The big disappointment came a couple of days later when I tried to navigate to an address inside a gated community (which are very common in Las Vegas). The Mio told me that it cannot navigate to this address. I assumed that it had a setting to exclude roads that need permits and looked for a way to change the setting. It’s impossible. I can navigate to the gate of that community and then navigate from the gate to the address I need, but not create one contiguous route. I emailed Mio and asked for help. The response: “This is a known bug and we have no solution at this time.” So this GPS is useless in Las Vegas or any other place where there are a lot of gated communities. This behavior is not consistent: most communities I tried are accessible but some are not.

My other disappointment was traffic-related route recalculation. I tested it on a freeway. The result was ridiculous. The road was clear with hardly any traffic at all – this was before rush hour. The Mio told me that I am approaching a traffic jam and re-routed. I kept going on the freeway and it kept telling me to get off it for the next 20 miles. I don’t necessarily blame the Mio – it is entirely possible that the traffic broadcasts are useless. Whatever the reason, I found the feature useless most of the time.

The solution to all this nonsense: I installed MioPocket which provides an interface allowing the Mio to run any Windows CE program. I then used iGO 8, which is is available for purchase on a SD card that can be inserted into the Mio. iGO works like a charm, has no problems with gated communities (you can select to route on roads that require permits) and has excellent TTS that clearly pronounces the name of the next street you need to turn on (at least most of the time). It does benefit from some tweaking; that information is available online to anybody that will bother to look.

Conclusion: The Mio Moov is not a bad GPS, especially for the price: it acquires the satellites quickly, has a large display and could be a good navigator if it wasn’t for some bugs. Hopefully these will be corrected in the next update, supposedly coming in May 2009. I will report on this update after I get and test it.

A word of wisdom: don’t waste your money on the traffic radio feature. This is truly useless.

One last remark: the Moov is the first Mio that doesn’t use the iGO navigation program. Mio acquired Navman and the Moov is the first product after this acquisition, though the navigation program came, supposedly, from Mireo.

Posted in GPS | 1 Comment »

Should we or shouldn’t we – breathe that is

March 30th, 2009 nk

The EPA recommended to the White House to classify CO2 as a poison. If the recommendation is accepted, it will make CO2, automatically, a controlled substance. The release of the “harmful substance” will be regulated, taxed, limited and, in some cases, prohibited.
I was always wondering how far a government’s power grab can go. Apparently there are no limits – even in the U.S.

Classifying CO2 “a harmful substance” is a classical example of how a government lays the foundations of dictatorship. The CO2 ban looks extremely stupid. At least at first glance. How can you ban or control emissions of a gas that most living things on this planet exhale and most plants use to generate energy? It makes no sense. But it actually does if the purpose of the ban is not solving a “greenhouse gas” problem but exerting control.

Imagine a situation a number of years down this road where the government decides that it wants to limit the growth of certain populations. I can imagine a situation where a future Administration will analyze the National Health Care system’s expenses and decide that the poor are consuming an inordinate amount of resources. Well, the solution is simple: impose a CO2 license on everyone that wants a child. After all this makes sense: new children generate CO2, which is a poison. To allow the GOVERNMENT the necessary funds to solve the problem it makes sense to make future parents pay for those expense by way of a license. Voila! The birth rates among those who can’t afford the fee will go down. And if they still get pregnant without a license the Government can sterilize them – for the common good, to prevent the uncontrolled release of a poison.

This is just one possible scenario. There are others. But let’s look at the next logical step: water vapor is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. You see where I am going and where this legislation is going?
Through control of CO2 and water licensing our benevolent Government will be able to control every aspect of our lives: the use of fossil fuel, consumption of food (animals breathe right?), birth rates and everything else.

I am not sure that the current Administration consciously plans for a dictatorship in the future. Its actions are based on the Socialist (and/or Fascist – pick your choice) governing approach of “we know what is best for you”. The current President also believes that Government is the solution to all problems – like in the Soviet Union. The EPA’s actions are part of this approach and are a way to increase the Government’s ability to act arbitrarily with no clear rules restraining it. After all if CO2 is a poison and there are no rules or clear law what to do about it, the Government will do what it deems necessary at any given time. My opinion is reinforced by the Treasury Secretary’s request for unlimited power to interfere and take control of any business that he deems to be unstable and endangering the general economy with no clear guidelines for such action. It is another step in the same direction: the Government will decide what is good for you – you are too stupid to know that anyway.

Such a regime can exist for a very long time before it collapses on its own. Even the Soviet Union existed for about 70 years before it collapsed under U.S. pressure. The misery it will bring will be unmeasurable.

So open your eyes and look ahead to the road we are taking.

Posted in Freedom, politics | 1 Comment »

Radical Islam. Really?

February 12th, 2009 nk

Quite often we hear the phrase “radical Islam” used in connection with terrorists. It seems that the media, politicians, and pundits think that a small, fringe group of Muslims is responsible for the violence.

What is this “radical” Islam they are talking about?

Mainstream Islam calls for the imposition of Sharia law over the whole world, by violence if necessary. The struggle to achieve dominance is called Jihad. This is NOT radical Islam. This is the mainstream – the directives are very clearly spelled out in the Koran.

How is “radical” Islam different from the mainstream? A devout Muslim supports and observes the mainstream Islamic principles. That is, they accept violence by and for Islam.

My conclusion is that there is no difference between the “radical” and mainstream Muslims except, maybe, in details and the willingness to implement the Koran directives personally NOW.

It is true that not all Muslims are violent Jihadists striving to convert the world to Islam. As with every religion, some members are less observant and some are more. Not all Christians go to church every Sunday and not all Jews observe the dietary laws. The difference is that neither Judaism or Christianity (or Buddhism or Shinto) call on the devout to kill for the religion or spread it by force.

There have been aberrations in our history: Christians tried to convert people by force and killed those who refused. But this was not an act integral to their religion. There is nothing in the Bible that calls on believers to go out and convert the world by force.

The only major religion that does require its followers to kill on its behalf is Islam.

This explains why “mainstream” Muslim leaders don’t loudly condemn acts of terror.

In the fist centuries of it existence Islam failed to achieve its goal of conquering the world. It is now trying again. Calling this “radical” only clouds the issue and makes the fight that much more slanted towards a Muslim victory.

Posted in Foreign Affairs, Freedom, politics | No Comments »

Educating Hamas

January 21st, 2009 nk

On January 18, 2009, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza.

During the last several days of the ground operation the local Hamas leadership (hidden in a bunker under the Shita hospital in Gaza) figured that they were doomed. All their preparations to meet the Israeli ground forces and “bleed them to death” were in vain. Israeli casualties were low, while Hamas suffered heavy losses. They also reasoned that if the destruction went on for much longer not only would they lose militarily but the political support they had with the population would be gone as well. It may be gone anyway, but right now it doesn’t matter.

Hamas has a divided command structure. There is the government in Gaza, with a Prime Minister (Hiniya) and a bunch of other ministers and functionaries. There is also a command structure in Damascus, the Hamas “Politburo” headed by Haled Mashaal.

The Gaza contingent sent a delegation to Egypt to try for a negotiated ceasefire. The Egyptians presented a take it or leave it proposal: both Hamas and Israel declare a cease fire, Hamas stops shooting rockets and Israel retreats from Gaza. The border crossing at Rafah (Gaza – Egypt) will return to Palestinian Authority control under EU supervision. Smuggling through the Egyptian border stops.

Hamas Gaza asked for time to confer with their Damascus leadership. In the meantime Egypt presented the same proposal to the French and to Israel.

Hamas Damascus wasn’t in a hurry to agree – they didn’t feel the pain their colleagues in Gaza did. Hamas came back to the Egyptians with terms: Israel will promise to open the border crossings and stop blockading Gaza and Hamas will have control over the Rafah crossing.

The Egyptin response: we meant what we said – take it or leave it. Israel more or less accepted the Egyptian proposal – it wanted to insure that effective measures will be taken to stop weapons smuggling.

After two more days of Israeli military pressure Hamas Gaza agreed to declare an unconditional cease fire. Hamas Damascus approved the decision the next day. It was obvious from the speeches of Hania (recorded in a bunker in Gaza) and several of the Damascus contingent that Hania accepted defeat whereas the Damascus leadership was still looking for a face-saving maneuver.

Then Israel suddenly declared a unilateral cease fire.

The officially given reasoning for this ceasefire was as following:

1. Israel will not recognize Hamas and will not negotiate with it.
2. The damage to Hamas was extensive and enough to teach the organization a lesson.
3. Israel and the U.S. signed a Memorandum Of Understanding to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
4. Negotiations with Egypt and other countries will continue to prevent further smuggling.

So much for the official position.

The official Israeli reasoning makes no sense:

1. At no time were they negotiating with Hamas and therefore any agreement would not have been a recognition of Hamas. Any agreements would have been between Hamas and Egypt and Israel and Egypt.
2. Some analysts, notably Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, claim that Israel didn’t have to destroy Hamas, which, in his and others’ opinion, was impossible anyway. Friedman brings Lebanon and Hizbulla as an example. Hizbulla declared victory in the 2006 Lebanon war and the Israeli press and public agreed. Since then Hizbulla rearmed, courtesy of Syria and Iran, but keeps the peace. Apparently they learned their lesson and want no more wars with Israel. Friedman concludes that the same is true for Hamas. The problem with this reasoning is the fundamental difference between Hizbullah and Hamas.
   Hizbullah represents a minority Shiite group in Lebanon. The Sunnis, Druze and Christians were seriously upset by the war Hizbullah started. It was clear to the Hizbullah leadership that starting another engagement with Israel would cost them dearly on the home front. So they are quiet.
   Hizbullah being based in Lebanon and having an open border with Syria has a strategic depth Hamas doesn’t enjoy and hence is  more difficult to defeat.
   As opposed to Hizbullah, Hamas has no strategic depth. Their main and only base is in Gaza. Israel controls most of the borders and the approach by sea. Only a short border with Egypt gives the organization access to weapons and money.
   Hamas was always much more aggressive than Hizbullah. They perfected the culture of death where children are taught from birth that there is nothing better or more noble that to die while killing Jews.
   Hamas’ reason for existence is the destruction of Israel. So expect a renewal of rockets and mortar attacks on Israeli towns as soon as Hamas licks it wounds. As a matter of fact, today, as the Israeli troops are on their way out of Gaza, Hamas already fired a number of mortars. Just to show that they won.
   As far as lessons go, Hamas was taught two: The first one was tough: the Israeli armed forces have rebuild themselves after the Lebanon war in 2006 and Hamas is no match for them. The organization was severely damaged both militarily and politically. The second lesson was: the Israeli politicians are exactly the same as during the Lebanon war (except for the Minister of Defense who is from the same party) and committed exactly the same follies, rescuing Hamas at the last possible moment.
3. The MOU with the U.S. is meaningless – it states that the U.S. will do its best to assist in the cessation of smuggling. Since the weapons in question are not smuggled through U.S. territory the statement obligates the U.S. to nothing.
4. As to continuig negotiations with Egypt and others: these were going on for years and produced no results. Now that the fighting is over they will continue. Likely with the same outcome as before. Israel will have to persuade Egypt to formally agree to prevent smuggling of weapons (somewhat futile as such an agreement is in place already but not enforced by Egypt). Israel will also need to persuade other nations to help with supervision of the Egyptian-Gaza border to prevent tunnel digging (help Egypt is not happy to accept). Since weapons to Gaza come mostly from Iran through a complicated land/sea route they can be stopped on the way. This will require an international effort with questionable chances of success. These negotiation are stalled and will likely remain so, especially as there is no fighting and it’s not urgent to do anything.

Israel could, if its political leadership was wiser and braver, destroy Hamas in this operation. With its leadership captured (which was only days away as Israeli troops approached the hospital and bunker underneath it) and most of the military might gone, Hamas would be unable to govern Gaza. At that point Israel would have to establish a civilian occupation government for a very short time. A couple of moths down the road the Palestinian Authority would be ready to take over and pay back Hamas for the murder and torture of the Fatah operatives in Gaza.

Obviously the current Israeli government decided to take the easy way out. If they continued their negotiations with Egypt, a ceasefire would have been declared eventually. But in the four or five days it would have taken, Israel could brake Hamas. Apparently Israel didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of a victory.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

War crimes in Gaza

January 8th, 2009 nk

According to news reports war crimes are committed in Gaza. On a massive scale.

The Israeli ground offensive is, apparently, successful in causing great distress to Hamas. The command structures are either disintegrating or gone, Hamas is not the Government of Gaza anymore and doesn’t pretend to be such. Their leaders are in hiding, reportedly in bunkers under hospitals, and the armed terrorists on the streets do what they like.

There is one policy that Hamas still executes very effectively: using civilians as human shields. From media reports you would think that Israeli soldiers are running around Gaza looking for civilians to kill and hunting down Hamas fighters only incidentally. The truth is that the fighting is heavy and the IDF does everything in its power, including endangering its soldiers, to prevent civilian casualties.

Hamas, on the other hand, has a policy of using its own civilians to protect their fighters. It is done in many ways:

1. Since it is dangerous for an armed man to cross a road (Israel is watching and taking them out), Hamas fighter use children to protect them. Crossing a road holding a child’s hand is a common means, and works most of the time.
2. Many houses have been wired with explosives as booby traps – in case Israeli soldiers come in they can be exploded from a nearby house, with the perpetrators escaping through a tunnel. The fact that there are civilians in those house bothers Hamas not at all and they mostly neglect to inform the civilians that they live in a bomb. At least once soldiers from the Golani brigade noticed the booby trap and went to search for the activation point as the house was demolished by Hamas operatives. The result: ruins with heaps of dead civilians that Hamas blames on Israel and the gullible media repeating the charges.
3. Hamas regularly sets up firing positions near schools. A case in point is the latest incident for which, predictably Israel was blamed. Two known Hamas mortar men set up a position on a street next to a school. They didn’t feel that this was protection enough and collected a bunch of children to crowd around them (not difficult, considering the martyrdom brainwashing the kids go through day after day). When they felt they were ready they opened mortar fire on a group of Israeli paratroopers nearby. The paratroopers responded with a mortar shell of their own. The result was catastrophic: the shell hit the Hamas mortar team and several powerful secondary explosions ensued. It looks from areal video taken by a drone that the school was prepared to explode with hundreds of pounds of explosives. Now Hamas blames Israel (predictably) and the UN representative agrees (also predictable). If anybody listened, Hamas was warning of such an event. They planned something like the Kafr Kanaa “massacre” in the 2006 Lebanon war: lots of civilian casualties to be blamed on Israel. That one was also staged by Hizbullah – they position rocket launchers around and inside a house and when Israel attacked those they claimed tens of civilians dead. It is still not clear whether this was true, but Israel was pressured to stop the offensive.
4. Hamsa prevents civilians from leaving northern Gaza. Israel opened a safe corridor from the north to the south just to let civilians escape. None left because Hamas fighters closed the roads and threaten to shoot anybody that tries to leave.
5. Hamas attacked several food and medicine convoys that enter Gaza daily from Israel and took most of the food and medicine for themselves.

The list goes on, but the above alone should be enough to put the Hamas leadership on trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and what not.

Will anybody do that? I don’t think so. The world doesn’t seem to think that Jews have the right to self defense and would rather see the Jewish state eradicated than act against terrorists. This is, of course, a stupid and short sighted approach. History shows that when Jews are persecuted it is only a first step. In this specific case Hamas is emboldened, Palestinians and Israelis die, Iran is celebrating. The conclusion the Islamists draw is that the West is weak, corrupt and easy to fool. They are apparently correct.

Are you ready to convert to Islam and live under the laws of Sharia? You better be because that is where we are heading.

Posted in Foreign Affairs | No Comments »

The “Terrible” Attack on Gaza

December 29th, 2008 nk

As of today, December 29 2008, Israel is still beating up on the Hamas in Gaza. Should we press them to stop their attack that kills “innocent Palestinians”?

Let’s examine the popular claim that the Palestinians being killed are innocent: Even tha Hamas admitted that about 180 of their operatives were killed. This brings the number of “innocents” killed down to about 180. According to sources other than the Hamas about 300 of the 360 dead were members of the organization. The fact that they were not in uniform doesn’t make them civilians. Terrorists wear no uniforms but this doesn’t make them innocent.

The other aspect to be examined is whether Israel attacks civilian targets and kills civilians on purpose. Apparently they do not. All the targets attacked were connected to Hamas. These were training bases, munitions storage, munitions manufacturing, underground silos prepared and armed with rockets to fire at Israel and homes of senior Hamas leaders. If no civilian targets are attacked, how come some civilians are killed? The answer is simple: Hamas is not concerned about Palestinian’s lives. They position their facilities in the midst of civilian populations in the hope of using them as a human shield.

Only yesterday I heard a report of a munitions factory making rockets on the first floor of a building and a family with small children living an the floor above it. Israel did the humane thing: it warned people in Gaze that proximity to Hamas installations will be deadly and asked them to either expel the terrorists or move away. This warning somewhat spoiled the surprise factor of the attacks but Israel chose to do it anyway. Some moved and some didn’t. Should the presence of civilians (who may be supporters of Hamas) stop the IDF from finishing off the terrorists? I think not. If they decided to never attack a target protected by civilians Hamas would be left free to shoot rockets and kill truly innocent civilians in Israel.

There is also a question in my mind as to how innocent are the “innocent civilians”? I don’t think that small children are guilty of anything, except, maybe, of believing the incessant hate propaganda. The adults are a different matter. In a recent poll about 80% of Gazans expressed support of Hamas. This is not only theoretical. Hamas would not have been able to control the area if a majority of the population didn’t support them. The fact that a majority of Gazans help and abet in the killing of innocent civilians across the border in Israel makes them at least as responsible as German civilians were in World War II. We had no qualms bombing them. Why should Israel not bomb Palestinians who not just yell “Death to the Jews” but actually do their best to kill the Jews?

On a lightly different note:

What does the price of oil have to do with Israel’s attempt to vanquish the terrorists in Gaza?

On the face of it nothing. Yet the price of oil went up slightly today “on fears that the turmoil in Middle East will influence shipments of oil from the region”. Do the traders know geography? Did they ever look at a map? How much oil do we get from Gaza?

OPEC decided to reduce production and the price of oil wend down on the news. A little military action against a terror organization that is thousands of miles from the nearest oil producing are pushes the price up. Anybody can explain to me why?

Posted in Foreign Affairs | No Comments »