Friday, July 04, 2014
Mordechai Kedar: We, However, Are Guilty
In the case of the boys, the guilty party is also whoever brought the snake inside the house and allowed him freedom to move around undisturbed.Melanie Phillips: Crocodile tears over the cult of death
The problem began in the eighties, when the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories decided to encourage and fund "Almajama Alaslami" - The Islamic Center - despite warnings he received from Gaza that this was not a social welfare agency but a particularly violent sector of the Muslim Brotherhood. Towards the end of 1987, when the first Intifada broke out, the "Almajama" founders of Hamas encouraged the violence.
The guilt continues on to 1993 when President Bill Clinton pressured Israel to allow 415 leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all of whom had been banished to Lebanon after the kidnapping-murder of Border Police soldier Nissim Toledano, to return. (h/t Yenta Press)
A barbaric and psychotic enemy killing Jews with impunity while an indifferent or hostile world looks the other way is the recurrent Jewish nightmare. When will they let us live, weep the Israelis, reeling from yet more slaughter. We are with you, soothes the world, as it lets the Jews once more swing in the wind.Stop Preaching Peace to the Peaceful.
This is wickedness piled upon evil. But in the center of this horror, the families of the murdered Israeli boys lit a flame in the darkness. Their strength of character, courage and undimmed faith moved us to tears because, even from the depths of their agony, they were affirming life itself. That’s what Jews have always done: In the face of persecution, torture and genocide they choose to live and not to die.
Ultimately that should be the weapon against this evil. Islamic fanatics threaten not just Israel but the free world. Israel can lead the common defense by doing the one thing the Islamic world fears most: reaching out in particular to Arab and Muslim women and young people, opening their eyes to truth and freedom and teaching them to love life rather than death.
Islamic fanatics do not fear death. They seek it out. We should be finding imaginative ways of doing what really will destroy them: using the weapons of the modernity they so deeply fear to subvert the cult of death that threatens us all.
A few Jews hold signs up on facebook saying they want revenge and an Arab boy gets killed by an unstable person, or maybe an honor killing by his own family because he was gay, we don’t know yet. Suddenly the Leftists are ready to pounce on their own people. I beckon you to go stand with your peace signs in an Arab village. Go to Gaza and speak of love and tolerance. You are cowards. You want to be humanitarians from the comfort of your safe streets. Perhaps it makes you feel better, but it’s not helping.
Daphne Anson: “The Israeli Army Killed Palestinian Children For Sport”: Vivid imaginations run rampant
It’s instructive to note how elements within the Western BDS movement reacted to the kidnapping crisis that began on 12 June and had its tragic denouement this week.Five minutes
From the start, conspiracy theories abounded. The earliest consisted of allegations that Israel had faked the kidnapping of the three tragic teenagers as a pretext to mount an offensive against the Palestinian Arabs, and an article in Ha’aretz (see below), the despicable rag that’s the Israeli newspaper of choice for foes of Israel everywhere, played its inevitable part in the dissemination of the theory.
There were suggestions that Israel had made sure to include among the abductees a youngster with American as well as Israeli nationality in order to whip up outrage on the part of American Jews and ensure their support for Operation Brother’s Keeper.
On behalf of my hometown of Nof Ayalon (where the Fraenkels and I live), I gave half a dozen interviews to foreign networks.Media bias was everywhere
But the network correspondents showed zero interest in the soft messages I offered of solidarity, faith and perseverance. What they wanted to hear was calls for revenge. Over and over again I was prodded to demand fierce Israeli military action against the Palestinians.
That would have fit the pat prism on the conflict these journalists purvey.
To us Israelis, the moral standards of our society are clear: We value life, not death, and seek conflict resolution, not annihilation of the enemy. Moreover, we acknowledge and seek to correct our imperfections.
The contrasting viciousness of much of Palestinian society is also clear to us, laid bare once again these past few weeks.
And the world? Alas, the gap is growing between Israelis and the world. Behind the hypocrisy and double standards, we can feel the chill. It doesn’t have five minutes to truly empathize with Israel, and can’t wait five minutes before pushing the “Condemn Israel” button.
The first port of call for an examination of bias in media coverage of the teens' murders is naturally the Guardian, one of the largest purveyors of the anti-Israel narrative. But it would be a mistake to focus there exclusively, as such coverage is, sadly, ubiquitous.Possible Third Hamas Kidnapping Suspect Identified
News stories during the weeks before the discovery of the bodies included a predictable emphasis on the settlements, a pictorial focus on Palestinian suffering and a failure to report the context of incitement.
Several stories falsely reported that the teens were "settlers", a pejorative term used to position Israeli victims of terror as somehow deserving their fate. The Guardian and Independent suggested this, although both errors were later corrected following our complaints. But the Economist has refused to correct their false characterisation of the teens as "three young Jewish settlers".
Most photos focused on the Israeli military response, rather than the boys or their families. A Daily Mail article stood out as the worst example: 16 photos depicting Israeli military operations near Hebron.
In addition to the two Hamas terrorists identified by the IDF as being behind the murder of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Sha'ar on June 12, another Hamas terrorist has been missing since the night of the abduction, Arab sources reported Friday.Operation Brother's Keeper by the Numbers
Sources in Hevron told Walla! that the third Hamas terrorist, Hussam Dufash of central Hevron, has been missing since the night of June 12 as well - implicating him in the teens' murder.
According to the reports Dufash has a long record of terrorism too, having been jailed by Israel and being part of a family strongly identified with Hamas.
IDF forces have searched Dufash's home several times since the abduction, telling his family that he is wanted for investigation.
Unnamed donor flies Torah to Israel for slain teens
A Torah scroll was dedicated to the three slain Israeli teenagers by an anonymous US donor on Thursday.Rome Chief Rabbi: Pope Wants to Meet Families of Slain Israeli Teens
The scroll was airlifted to Israel and presented to the Fraenkel, Shaar, and Yifrach families in their respective hometowns, as each of the fathers inscribed one of the final three letters to finalize the text.
“Condolences come from across the sea,” reads the Facebook page for Talmon, where the Shaars reside.
Rome’s Chief Rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni is working with the Vatican to arrange a meeting between the parents of the three slain Israeli teens, and Pope Francis.Londoners remember the murdered Israeli teenagers while the world sympathises with their murderers and villifies Israel
The unprecedented gesture comes in the wake of a personal telephone call between the two on July 1.
Last night several hundred people - crammed into a tiny narrow side street in Kensington - attended a vigil/remembrance service for murdered Israeli schoolboys Eyal, Gilad and Naftali.Abbas and Israel’s Murdered Teens: No Remorse in Sight
The setting was in many ways symptomatic of everything to do with Israel and British Jewry. Apparently not allowed by the Police to hold the vigil in the main road opposite the Israeli embassy - where every anti-Israel demonstration always takes place - the Jews and their reasons for mourning were firmly out of sight and out of mind. The case of the murdered boys - still largely unreported and unknown to the British public - was not even made to the shoppers in Kensington who would have been completely unaware of why all those people were crammed into a tiny side street.
The world’s praise for Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ opposition to the kidnapping of the Israeli teenagers has been as loud and frequent as the world’s condemnation of the kidnapping itself.Palestinians Fake Kidnap Report of Youth by ‘Israeli Settlers’
President Obama, in his statement following the discovery of the victims’ bodies, went out of his way to claim, not once, but twice, that Palestinian leaders were just as opposed to the kidnapping as Israel’s leaders.
Why this ludicrous insistence on portraying Abbas and the PA as Israel’s friend in the fight against terrorism?
Perhaps because it is a myth. And the way for a myth to gain acceptance is to repeat it so often that people get used to it and soon believe it to be true.
A group of Palestinian villagers in northern Samaria (the West Bank) on Wednesday night made a false “911″ call to Israeli Police, saying that a youth had been abducted by “Israeli settlers.”Guardian op-ed suggests murder of 3 Israelis was natural result of ‘asymmetry of power’
In the call, a resident of the village of Marda, near Tapuach Junction, alleged that two Jews had forced a youth into a vehicle and fled off, according to Israel’s Ma’ariv daily.
So, the three boys were killed, not by Hamas terrorists who sang and celebrated after they extinguished three young Jewish lives, but by an abstraction – “asymmetry of power between occupier and occupied” and the “consequences” occupation.Jewish analyst justifies killing of Israeli teens on Argentina TV
As Alan Johnson suggested in the passages cited above, Palestinians to commentators like Khalidi, do not possess moral agency or free will. They are not political actors but are always acted upon.
In short, per Johnson, according to the anti-Zionist moral paradigm, Palestinians always “remain perpetually below the age of responsibility; the source of their behaviour always external to themselves, always located in Israel’s actions”.
A better example of liberal racism would be difficult to find.
Argentine Jewish leaders slammed CNN in Spanish contributor Pedro Brieger for justifying the killing of three Israeli teens in a commentary on Argentina television.Netanyahu condemns murder of Palestinian teenager
“Every occupation provokes resistance of all kinds, peaceful and violent,” said Brieger, who is Jewish, in a commentary that aired Monday on public TV.
Speaking at an event to mark upcoming American Independence Day that was held at the home of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Thursday night, the prime minister recalled Muhammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian teen whose July 2 death sparked riots in East Jerusalem.Palestinian Girl Killed by Uncle: Where Is the Outrage?
“In both our lands, the rights of the individual are sacred,” Netanyahu said. “The foremost right without which the others cannot exist, is the right to live.”
“I unequivocally condemn the murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem two days ago,” he continued, and noted that the police investigation into the crime was still ongoing.
“We don’t know yet the motives or identities of the perpetrators, but we will. We will bring to justice the criminals responsible of this despicable crime whoever they may be.”
On July 2, the body of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khder was found, and all hell broke loose.BBC News promotes unverified speculation on motive for killing of Palestinian teen
On the very same day, The Jewish Press reported on the murder of a 15 year-old Palestinian girl named Omaima Jaradat, who was stabbed to death by her uncle near Hebron. Yet her story has not been picked up by the international media.
In other words, despite the fact that the police and forensic investigations were still in their initial stages, (and in sharp contrast to its two-day wait in reporting the kidnapping of three Israeli teens on June 12th) the BBC was already telling its audiences that the teenager, Muhammed Abu Khdeir, had been kidnapped, that the body found in the forest was his and that the motive “appeared to be” a “revenge attack” by Israeli Jews.Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah heats up confrontational atmosphere
Although the language used later on in that article is a little more guarded, nevertheless the BBC elected to promote and amplify a version of events which, even over 24 hours later, has still not been established as fact.
One post repeated Arafat's infamous statement calling for Palestinians to become Martyrs in Jerusalem, adding that "blood demands blood":The Peace Process Is a Game Israel Can’t Win
"Blood demands blood; millions of Martyrs (Shahids) are marching to Jerusalem." [Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," July 3, 2014]
In another post (above) showing a photo of burning tires and a child throwing a stone, Fatah stated that "I am Palestinian only through my struggle" and "my stone is my weapon":
"My mother taught me that my stone is my weapon; that I am Palestinian only through my struggle; she taught me to shout that this is my land, so get out!" [Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page", July 2, 2014]
That is how we got to the point that the State Department is defending a PLO-Hamas unity government and denouncing Israel for “building settlements” in Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world.IMF Calls for Funding of Fatah-Hamas Unity Government
The peace process is a political game that Israel can’t be allowed to win. The only way for Israel to win is to stop playing. Charles Schulz’s Lucy and the football gag dates back almost to the modern rebirth of Israel. That’s how long the variations of this game have been taking place.
Israel is trying to win a political game whose purpose is to prove that it’s evil. The PLO wins by keeping the game going. The diplomats win by keeping the game going. The Saudis win by keeping the game going. But the Israelis keep losing for as long as the game keeps going.
These aren’t just paper losses. The longer the game runs, the more Israel’s image suffers and the more emboldened its enemies become. If Israel doesn’t end the peace game, the game will end Israel.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday urged international donors to increase funding for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to aid "Palestinian reform efforts," indicating the new Fatah-Hamas unity government.Gaza rockets hit deeper, but Israel still limiting its response
IMF mission chief Christoph Duenwald said the PA is "doing a commendable job" of managing its economy, but that the global donor community needs to fill a "sizable" gap in funds for the PA, reports AFP.
It is worth noting that as of March, the PA had reached a staggering $4.8 billion in debt.
Despite talk of an imminent ceasefire, four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel Friday afternoon, with three apparently targeting the towns of Ofakim and Netivot southeast of Sderot, as Gaza militants increased the range of their attacks.Hamas Threatens as Rockets Wound Israelis, Slam Into Summer Camp Nursery (VIDEO)
One of the rockets hit a kibbutz in the Eshkol Region, causing some damage to a house. Two others were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system and one hit an open field. No injuries were reported in the attacks.
Walla news reported that 14 rockets and mortar shells had been fired into Israel by Friday afternoon. Israeli response to the attacks was limited, with one air strike reported on suspected Gaza launch sites in the morning. Israel was apparently waiting to see whether Hamas would curb the rocket-fire as reports proliferated of an impending ceasefire agreement.
In Sderot, one rocket scored a direct hit on a day care center located in an apartment building, but luckily, hitting the outside wall of the heavily reinforced safety room.Algemeiner Editor Dovid Efune: Timing of Calls for Israeli Restraint ‘Strange’
Children were to have entered the building for a summer camp session a short time after the rocket slammed into the building.
Calls from the Obama administration and others for Israel to show restraint in its response to the murder of three teens this week are suspicious in their timing, Algemeiner Editor Dovid Efune said Tuesday in an interview on Real News TV.Vandals paint swastikas on road to Western Wall
Efune said on Real News, “There is no question that it is at the very least very strange that these calls for restraint always seem to happen after Hamas…, [or] whichever group, has done its worst and Israel is poising to respond and restore its deterrent, and that is obviously the case here this time.”
Dozens of swastikas were spray-painted alongside the road to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in the past few days.Anti-Semitic slurs scrawled on bus stop, signs
On Friday, swastikas and hate graffiti calling for “Death to the Jews” were also found outside the southern town of Rahat, the Ynet news website reported.
Police are investigating the incident.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed in several places at the enterance to the Beduin city of Rahat in the south of Israel on Friday.Clashes on Temple Mount and in East Jerusalem
Tensions were high on Wednesday throughout Israel as rockets continued to fall on Israeli communities in the South and the IDF fired artillery into the Gaza strip.
Clashes broke out midday Friday between Arab youths and police around the Temple Mount complex.Video and Pictures of Jerusalem's Destroyed Light Rail
Blasts from stun grenades were heard from the site of the turmoil, as dozens of demonstrators tried to breach a police barrier at an entrance to the compound.
Clashes also broke out in the Ras-al-Amoud neighborhood on the Mount of Olives.
Video taken from inside an IDF vehicle traveling along the Light Rail lines in north-eastern Jerusalem shows just how extensive the damage has been, highlighting the three stations that were destroyed by the riots on Wednesday.IDF spokesperson’s Twitter account hacked
The wanton destruction is likely to have a long-term negative economic impact on the affected communities where the rioters themselves live.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Twitter account in English was hacked on Thursday night, with the hackers sending out a fake tweet warning of a nuclear leak at the Dimona nuclear plant after a rocket attack.Jews Allowed To Defend Themselves? Inconceivable! (satire)
The Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for the hack.
The IDF Spokesperson deleted the tweet and vowed to “combat terror on all fronts including the cyber dimension.”
The whole western approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict is based on the erroneous assumption that the Jewish State should have secure borders and the ability to defend itself. The Peace Process has become, like being hired to start a war, a prestigious line of work with a long and glorious tradition. Minus the “prestigious” part. Just look at Martin Indyk. I would’t be surprised if he winds up unemployed. In Greenland.Instructions Released for Terror Against 'Settlers'
After all, he grew up in Australia, and Australia, as everyone knows, is entirely peopled with criminals. It’s the country that recently decided to formally stop referring to the West Bank as “occupied” – criminals. If it’s not considered occupied, then clearly Israel might have a claim to it, and then they might start defending themselves against those who seek to oust them, so we can clearly not choose the claim that it’s not occupied.
A Palestinian Arab terror group dubbed the "Coalition of Youth for an Intifada" released a notice calling for violence against Jews in Judea and Samaria Thursday, including detailed operational and doctrinal instructions to "raise hell."
In the notice, entitled "Expelling Zionists Through Rocks," young Palestinian Arabs are called on to "scorch the earth and make it a living hell under the feet of the invaders", through the following methods:
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