Gaza and the worthlessness of international opinion
It is by no means clear that the Palestinian border riots turned out to be the great propaganda triumph Israel's enemies were hoping for. Most of the Arab world is responding with the same perfunctory protest as they put forward after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.PMW: Murderers of Israelis are "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine," says PLO official
Egypt is not lifting the Gaza blockade. While European governments demand Israeli restraint, they won't be applying any real pressure on Israel to strengthen the terrorist regime in Gaza.
The purpose of the march was not - as claimed by those who have accepted Hamas' propaganda - a march for "a better future." It was explicitly a march to demand a "right of return" for descendants of the 1948 Palestinian refugees into Israel.
As such, it is a call for war without end, since no Israeli government of any political stripe could ever concede this claim, which would effectively end the Jewish state.
The purpose of the protest was to produce Palestinian corpses, not to highlight any grievances. Given the numbers of those assaulting the border, the IDF showed its commitment to a limited use of force.
If you call for open borders for Gaza, you're not so much advancing a humanitarian cause as you are advocating the arming of an Islamist terror group.
Mother of 5 terrorist sons, among them 2 murderers, raised "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine"UNESCO to pass ‘most extreme’ Jerusalem resolution next week
Reporting on an event honoring Palestinian mothers "of Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded," the official Palestinian Authority daily mentioned in particular the mother of 5 terrorists, among them 2 murderers. Although the paper listed the number of life sentences each is serving, it failed to mention that they are imprisoned for murder of 8 people as well as numerous other terror attacks (see descriptions below):
"Um Yusuf is the mother of Martyr Abd Al-Mun'im, and the mother of four prisoners serving life sentences: Nasser, serving 7 life sentences and an additional 50 years; Nasr, serving 5 life sentences; Sharif, serving 4 life sentences; and Muhammad, serving 2 life sentences and an additional 30 years."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 23, 2018]
This is not the first time the PA has honored this mother of 5 terrorists (also known as Um Hmeid) as a model for Palestinian mothers. In 2011, the PA chose her to launch the PA's statehood campaign with the UN.
At the recent event, a senior PLO official praised the mothers of the terrorists as "crowns on our heads" because they have educated their sons to carry out "heroic acts," and raised them to become "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine":
The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture is expected next week to pass another resolution on Jerusalem that an Israeli official has denounced as “the most extreme and problematic text” ever proposed.
At first blush, the short text appears harmless from an Israeli perspective, devoid of any incendiary claims or designations. And yet, Jerusalem opposes it because it cites previous UN resolutions on Middle Eastern affairs, thus legitimizing more problematic formulations “through the back door,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said.
The resolution, sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, consists of only four paragraphs. Two recall previous resolutions, one calls for their implementation and future discussion, and one reaffirms “the importance of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions.”
UNESCO has passed “less elegant” resolutions in the past, Shama Hacohen acknowledged, but nonetheless condemned next week’s draft as “the most extreme and problematic text we have ever seen.”
In a letter to fellow UNESCO envoys, a copy of which was obtained by The Times of Israel, he argued that the text’s brevity and lack of offensive language against Israel was misleading. Rather, he said, the resolution is “based on politicization and hateful propaganda against UNESCO’s core mandate and own sake, as well as against the Jewish People and the State of Israel.”
For one, the resolution is entitled “Occupied Palestine,” which the Israeli envoy argued is a “pure[ly] political title.”
Furthermore, the draft refers to the 1981 inscription of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls in UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and the subsequent decision to add the site to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger. Both requests were made by Jordan and “were, and are, political fictions,” Shama Hacohen wrote.