"The equation has changed."

The equation has changed, sayeth Israel. You people had better watch out. Now they're taking the gloves off.

Meanwhile, in a bid to regain her plummeting popularity ahead of the elections, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a gathering of the New York-based World Jewish Congress in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday that Israel would no longer show restraint against Palestinian attacks from the Gaza Strip.

"Israel is going to act according to a new equation. We are not going to show restraint anymore," Livni said. "We need to change the rules of the game until they learn that the rules have changed and the equation has changed."

All that WP, targeting civilians, shooting people waving white flags, collective punishment, preventing humanitarian aid, rounding people up and bombing them inside their houses, killing over 1,300 people, 90% of them civilians....that was Israel showing "restraint." But an Israeli soldier was killed on Tuesday, so all bets are off now.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an urgent meeting of top defense officials after the bombing. "This is a serious attack, and we will respond, but there is no point in elaborating," Barak said.

...Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, said Israel's response would not be limited to closing the crossings into Gaza. "The response will not be the way it used to be," Gilad said in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "The equation has changed."

The Israelis are angry, angry people. If you really want to understand why, you must read this whole thing, because he nails it.

What it all boils down to, after all the fancy talk and theories, is that the reason this attack took place is because the great experiment in Jewish self-rule in the Middle East is failing. By virtue of the corruption, blackmail and bribery that must take place in lieu of Yahweh’s Old Testament miracles in keeping this sickly stillborn known as the Jewish state alive, the fact is that Yahweh is not living up to his promises. The stories in the Old Testament that revel in the Israelites’ defeat of the various peoples living there are over and done with in a few sentences. The Israelites invade, kill everyone and everything, collect the spoils, burn the cities and with no losses.

Now however, 60 years later, it is still dragging on with no signs of letting up. All those promises by their god to “drive out” the various peoples living there has not happened. The assurance that “Every place you set your foot will be yours“ has turned out to be one giant goose egg.…The plan to make their territory extend “from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea” is so much like that infamous “Special report” Geraldo Rivera did years ago when he opened Al Capone’s secret vault, only to find nothing. The “No one will be able to stand against you and I, the LORD your God will put terror and dread of you on the whole land, wherever you go” is not materializing…

On the contrary, the Palestinians and other “Ishmaelites” in the area are not giving up. The “terror” and “dread” Yahweh is supposed to be sowing in their hearts and minds is not there, save for a few corrupt leaders who fear losing their multi-million dollar paychecks courtesy of Uncle Sam. The people themselves–be they Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or whatever–do not fear the Jews as the Jews dream. The spell that the god of Israel is supposed to cast over Israel’s foes has no power. The harder the Arabs are hit… the more miserable their lives are made, the stronger their resolve to survive and as a result the Jews are getting batty. Every rock-throwing child or bottlerocket-launching member of Hamas is a living testimony to the fact that the god of the Jews is a fantasy, a mirage and a tin god with no real power outside of his ability to destroy their humanity. Whereas the “Christian” world cowers in fear merely at the prospect of being called names by the Jews, Palestinian Muslim children stare down Israeli tanks KNOWING they will be blown to bits and have no fear in their hearts, and again, in effect making a liar out of Yahweh and his promises of “putting terror” into the hearts of Israel’s enemies.

The equation has changed. The spell of the chosen people has worn off for some of us humans. Well, not for everybody. (From the comments here.)

Israel, ignore the rest of the world !Vote for the one best able to defend you and keep you alive !We in the west,[speak for yourself] will happily sacrifice you [a Freudian slip???] to keep the wolf from our door. At least the Lord God of Israel still stands with the apple of his eye ! [And you know this because???...]

MEANWHILE, al-KI-duh is regrouping. They have to carry out some attacks or they will lose credibility with their funding agencies, man. You know, the "agency" (wink wink).

“These people will carry out painful attacks. They have announced that they will and they must carry them out or they will lose credibility with their funding agencies. They might carry out assassinations against foreigners and key security officials as well as oil installations,” said Mr al Bahri, who was imprisoned after the USS Cole attack in Aden in 2000 and was released after renouncing violence.

Well, actually, Netanyahu says that the "Islamic" "terrorists" will go straight for the Christian world's jugular: Jesus' burial site.

Netanyahu, who claims he had predicted [helped plan] an Islamic extremists attack on the World Trade Center six years before the actual attack, said terrorists will target Church of the Holy Sepulchre also known as the Church of the Resurrection - Christianity's holiest site.

The church located in Jerusalem (al-Quds) -- which according to the New Testament is the site of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus -- attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year and is considered a spiritual focal point.

"Radical Islam is willing [at least the ones on our payroll] and [we] will want [them] to attack the symbolic heart of the Christian religion," said the former Israeli prime minister. [Because you Christians and Muslims must kill each other off now. We will help you get started. xo-bibi.]

"This will incur a chain reaction [You know, like nuclear fusion?] we can't even envision. [Well, we can, but that would ruin the fun. So we can't.] We will witness an escalation of religious conflict above and beyond the regional conflict we have now," Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying. [Rubbing his hands together maniacally...]

The Right-wing Likud leader said he had warned in a 1995 book -- six years before the September 11 attacks -- that "Islamist terrorists" would detonate a nuclear device in the World Trade Centre in New York. [And miraculously, it happened. That Bibi, he is such a star.]

Back to The Ugly Truth and a choice quote from Ariel Sharon, who to this day remains on life support for some inscrutable reason, despite being brain dead since 1/4/06.

“Tell me, do the baddies of this world have a bad time? They hunt and catch whatever they feel like eating. They don’t suffer from indigestion and are not punished by Heaven. I want Israel to join that club. Maybe the world will then at last begin to fear us instead of feeling sorry. Maybe they will start to tremble, to fear our madness instead of admiring our nobility. Let them tremble, let them call us a mad state. Let them understand that we are a wild country, dangerous to our surroundings, not normal, that we might go crazy, that we might go wild and burn all the oil fields in the Middle East, or that we might start World War Three just like that…”

Because they're terrified. Because "the equation has changed." Because Israel is built of spit and toilet paper instead of justice, and it has finally started to rain.