Support Michael Totten. Defeat Juan Cole.

As we were discussing in my earlier post, one of my main beefs with Joe the Plumber's new gig is the fact that we need solid coverage of this conflict, and JTP's celebrity amateur act just doesn't cut it in my book. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. As Pat points out in the comments, bad journalism by the MSM is no excuse for bad journalism by an amateur.

One guy who has proven himself over and over is Michael Totten, who is up for another award for best Mideast or Africa blog. He deserves it I think, but he's up against hysterical hack Juan Cole, who has apparently decided to try to win the award by telling filthy lies about Israel, and their war against Hamas. Totten schools him:

Southern Israel has been under indiscriminate rocket fire from Hamas for years. And Hamas’ stated goal, as Cole knows very well, is the total destruction of Israel. No government on earth would sit idly by while tens of thousands of its citizens live under constant rocket attack, and Cole knows that, too. He also knows that the Israel Defense Forces adheres to the laws of war, goes out of its way to avoid harming civilians, and even warns terrorist leaders themselves that their homes are on the target list.

Cole responds by attacking Totten and supporters of Israel in predictable fashion, by calling him a right-wing neo-con lunatic. Totten schools him again:

Cole is free to characterize me as some kind of right-wing Zionist lunatic all he wants. But he also knows very well that the American public and the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly back Israel’s war against Hamas. And if he thinks only neoconservatives, right-wingers in general, and right-Zionists in particular have my back in the voting, he’s wrong.

Exactly. Back him up, y'all.

ADDED: Not to keep piling on JTP, but besides Mike Totten, we may already have a voice on the Israeli side of things, from an actual Israeli. Good read.

HT: MJT