Hitchens in Iraq..

You can't find more honest reporting in Iraq than Christopher Hitchens.

If there is a flickering pulse that holds any of this together, it is kept going by two sources. The first is the astonishing actual and potential wealth of the country. The budget negotiations, which were occupying all parties during my visit, were to discuss the allocation of more than $41 billion. This is not a paper figure: New oil fields are being prospected in parts of the country that haven't been explored yet, and there is no reason in principle why Iraq could not be one of the most prosperous countries on earth. For the moment, feuding sects use their control over ministries to enrich their own supporters, but even the most blinkered tribalist can glimpse the idea that a shared country would be more beneficial to each than a shattered one. The second source of life is the presence of the coalition, where yet again even the most hard-line factionalist will admit that as bad as things are, they would be instantly worse (and instantly worse for his own group) in the case of a withdrawal. These facts are stubborn: The idea that we could even consider abandoning such a keystone state, and so many decent people, to the forces of the faith-based is as inhumane as it is unrealistic.

Hezbollah pays terrorists to fire Kassams into Israel...

Since the truce in Gaza, the Palestinians have fired 50 rockets into Israel.

Hizbullah is paying Palestinian splinter groups "thousands of dollars" for each Kassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to Israeli intelligence information, Hizbullah is smuggling cash into the Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.

"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.

"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later."

According to the officials, while Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded 14-year-old Adir Basad in Sderot - several splinter terrorists groups are also involved and have received direct funding from Hizbullah.

According to security officials, Islamic Jihad gets the money via its headquarters in Damascus while Fatah's Tanzim terror group and the Popular Resistance Committees receive payment from Hizbullah in Lebanon.

GayandRight is back!

Well, we're back from our holiday in Italy. I have to admit that I gained weight - the food was simply amazing. We ate tons of terrific pasta, some great steaks, pizza, and tons of gelato, creme caramel and teramisu. Abd, we drank a awful lot of wine!

Rome was incredible...everywhere you turn you see something amazing. St. Peter's Cathredral is beyond belief....the wealth that went into building it is hard to believe. Then you go to the Jewish Ghetto and you learn that just when Michaelangelo was creating his amazing dome, the Pope was locking up Rome's Jews into a 200 metre by 200 metre ghetto that locked at 11 PM at night. The Ghetto is right on the banks of the Tiber and it flooded every year....and the Pope would not allow any construction that would alleviate the problem.

We went to Pompeii near Naples...and that was also amazing. And, a week in Sicily driving to different cities and towns.

But, now I am back to blogging...and happy that our Parliament has decided NOT to re-open the gay marriage debate. Hurray. Now the Conservatives can put this issue behind them for good (at least while Stephen Harper is leader).

Gazans are warned....

The Islamists have taken Gaza...next is the west bank...

A hitherto unknown group calling itself the Just Swords of Islam issued a warning to Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip over the weekend that they must wear the hijab or face being targeted by the group's members.

In pamphlets distributed in various parts of the Gaza Strip, the group also claimed responsibility for attacks on 12 Internet cafes over the past few days.

The warning was directed primarily against female students in a number of universities and colleges who do not cover their heads in line with Islamic tradition.

The group said its followers last week threw acid at the face of a young woman who was dressed "immodestly" in the center of Gaza City. They also destroyed a car belonging to a young man who was playing his radio tape too loudly.

Addressing female students, the group said: "We will have no mercy on any woman who violates the traditions of Islam and who also hang out in Internet cafes."

According to the group, its members used rocket-propelled grenades to attack 12 Internet cafes and a number of music shops in different parts of the Gaza Strip.