Yes, the Japanese author was referring to Palestine as the egg. The problem is that it’s not Israel versus Palestine. It’s Israel versus the entire Arab world. How Israel can be described as the wall is beyond me. Furthermore, let’s go ahead and forget about the rest of the Arab world and pretend that the only players in the conflict are Israel and Palestine. Hamas sends rockets into Israel on a daily basis. These rockets target Israeli civilians. Are the Israelis really expected to live like that? I think President Obama put it nicely when he said, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to [sic] do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

Hamas is deliberately targeting civilians with these rockets. Despite this utterly despicable behavior, Murakami is going to side with the “egg?” He’s going to side with the perpetrators of reprehensible acts because they are the “little guy?” How morally blinded can you get? Will he choose the side of justice if Israel should one day become the weaker of the two after years of terrorism and proxy wars with Iran and Syria? Does he really have to wait until then to condemn terrorism?

It was the Palestinian people that elected Hamas. Hamas terrorists hide themselves among the civilian population to increase casualties. Is Israel supposed to refrain from retaliating because the terrorists use women and children as shields? That’s an easy thing to suggest, but as Obama pointed out, if you’re in that situation, you’re going to do everything in your power to stop the terrorism and protect your nation.

The violence can end overnight. All that has to take place is for the Palestinians to quit engaging in terrorism against Israel. Israel does not engage in unprovoked attacks. Every military action by Israel is a reaction. If the violence on the Palestinian side were to stop, the conflict would be over just like that. They could then begin negotiations on a peaceful two-state solution. That’s going to be quite hard, though, since Hamas refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

Hamas is ready to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders but “it will not recognise Israel,” the Islamist movement’s exiled chief Khaled Meshaal told a news conference Monday.

“We accept a Palestinian state within the June 4 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital — a sovereign state without settlements — as well as the right of Palestinian refugees to return, but without recognition of Israel,” he said.

Isn’t that nice? So they’re willing to negotiate with Israel as long as Israel agrees to cease to exist. Yep, all this violence, it’s Israel’s fault.

Meshaal was making his first public comment following two meetings in Damascus with former US president Jimmy Carter, who said earlier Monday Hamas told him it would accept the right of Israel “to live as a neighbour” if a peace deal was approved by a Palestinian referendum.

Jimmy Carter is an embarassment to the United States and a useful idiot to terrorists.

Update: See the comments below for links to articles that state that there have been droughts in Israel since its re-establishment and that rainfall has actually decreased in the last century. The 1,800-year drought is still interesting to note, but the amount of rainfall is apparently not still increasing (although the trend may still show an overall increase).

Have you ever wondered why the Holy Land was a wasteland during the 1,800-year dispersion of the Jews that lasted until they returned in significant numbers beginning in the early 20th century?Have you ever wondered why Mark Twain was so disappointed at what he found in his travels through the area in the 19th century?

Have you ever wondered why, during that period of nearly two millennia, no other people successfully and permanently settled this land that is so much in dispute today?

Rabbi Kohen points out the land suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.

Kohen sees this as a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy found in the book of Deuteronomy – especially chapter 28:23-24.

“And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

“The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.”

The climate in Israel dramatically changed during this 1,800-period – way before Al Gore discovered “global warming.”

Before the Jews entered Canaan, it was described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. If you read what Israel’s climate and natural landscape was like from the time Joshua crossed the Jordan right up until the time of Jesus, it sounds like a heavily forested land. There were amazing crops raised by the people who inhabited the land when the Jews arrived.

Sometimes I’ve wondered what happened to Israel to turn it into the dusty, arid land it was when the Jews came back in the 20th century. Until I read that prophecy in Deuteronomy, brought to my attention by Rabbi Kohen, I had no clue.

For 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Israel. This was the barren land discovered by Mark Twain. So-called “Palestine” was a wasteland – nobody lived there. There was no indigenous Arab population to speak of. It only came after the Jews came back.

Beginning in A.D. 70 and lasting until the early 1900s – about 660,000 days – no rain.

I decided to check this out as best I could and examined the rainfall data for 150 years in Israel beginning in the early 1800s and leading up to the 1960s. What I found was astonishing – increasing rainfall almost every single year – with the heaviest rainfall coming in and around 1948 and 1967.

Is this just a coincidence?

I’ll be quite honest with you: I don’t think so.

Nor do I think Israel can continue today to make bad stewardship decisions regarding the land bequeathed the Jews by God without consequences – serious consequences.

The headlines they use to describe Israel in the mainstream media are ridiculous. How can anyone negotiate with another party that refuses to even acknowledge their right to exist? How can any sane person encourage someone to engage in such utterly pointless talks?