Monday, July 07, 2014
No moral symmetry
Muhammad Abu Khdeir’s murder is well on its way to becoming a core building block in the pantheon of anti-Israel propaganda, a central plank in the false argument that Israelis are just as murderous as the Palestinians. That Israelis are no more moral than the Palestinians.After Jewish, Arab Murders, Netanyahu Compares Israeli, Palestinian Societies: They Name Public Squares After Killers, We Don’t
Without being too defensive, or in any way forgiving of the inexcusable kidnapping and gruesome murder of the young Arab boy from east Jerusalem, let it be said loud and clear: Comparisons that place Israeli and Palestinian societies on the same moral plane are evilly intended and utterly untruthful. No parallels can be drawn between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to ethical standards. This is an asymmetrical conflict in every way: moral, political and ideological.
Israeli terrorists are few and far between. Over 100 years of conflict, they comprise a mere handful: Ami Popper, Jack Teitel, Yehuda Etzion, Baruch Goldstein, Yona Avrushmi and several others. This list of Palestinian terrorists fills fat ledger books across the globe, and the list of their victims fills even more.
“I pledge that the perpetrators of this horrific crime, which must be resolutely condemned in the most forceful language. I pledge that the perpetrators of this horrific crime will face the full weight of the law,” Netanyahu emphasized.Netanyahu Tells PA: Find Teens' Murderers, Like We Found Khder's
“I know that in our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers. And that’s the difference between us and our neighbors. They consider murderers to be heroes. They name public squares after them. We don’t. We condemn them and we put them on trial and we’ll put them in prison.”
“And that’s not the only difference,” the PM continued. “While we put these murderers on trial, in the Palestinian Authority, there is continuous incitement for the destruction of the State of Israel. It’s a staple of the official media and the educational system.”
Netanyahu was visiting the Frenkel family in Nof Ayalon. Their son, Naftali, 16, was murdered by Hamas terrorists along with Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Gilad Sha'ar, 16, by Hamas terrorists who are on the run.
"I am visiting today with my family, the families of Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists. I promised their dear families that we will continue to stand by them, even after the days of mourning," he said, with his wife Sarah standing at his side.
"We know exactly who kidnapped and murdered Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, and we'll get them. The murderers came from the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority; they returned to territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the Palestinian Authority is obliged to do everything in its power to find them, just as we did, just as our security forces located the suspects in the murder of Mohammed Abu Khder within a matter of days.
World cares only about Jewish killers
And now for a comparison: There is none. While in our case we are talking about the filthy margins of society, which is denouncing their crimes and wishing every evil in the world upon them, our neighbors who kills Jewish babies are admired -- public squares are named after them, school materials laud their mission, and there is no condemnation other than the toothless: "We condemn any murder of innocents," which really means "but the Jews who were killed weren't innocent."Eugene Kontorovich: Will the Jewish Terrorists Be Released for Peace?
When the kidnapping of the Jewish teens was announced, sweets were handed out in Ramallah in celebration. Israeli culture, in contrast, does not sanctify death. Israeli public opinion is uniformly appalled at the murder. And one last observation: Every rocket that lands in the Negev is also a murder attempt, and should meet an appropriate response.
1) Prisoner swaps. We know Israel will never ask for these Jewish killers to be released as part of a peace deal. This is because Israel recoils with revulsion from their act. They are no one’s heroes.
A useful initiative for Prime Minister Netanyahu now would be to offer to make a joint statement with Abbas, that neither would ever seek the release of either set of killers.
2) Pensions. Israel will never pay pensions to the killers. The prime minister will not take photos with them, or do anything other than condemn them. The glib questions making the rounds–will Israel knock down the Jewish terrorists’ houses–rather avoids the question that home demolitions are in part a way of offsetting the generous financial benefits Palestinian terrorists receive.
3) Finding the killers. The fact that during a massive three-week hunt for killers of the three Jewish boys, the authorities also managed to hunt down the killers of the Arab boy proves how seriously Israel takes crime against anyone, Jew or Arab. Indeed, the apprehension of the Jewish terrorists coincided with the arrest of an Israeli Arab for murdering a Jewish girl–three months ago. These cases take time, and the one involving the murder of an Arab boy got full priority.
4) Community support. The fact that the killers of three Jewish boys have hid out for three weeks shows they have a base of support, an organization: people to keep their secret, feed them, etc. Jewish killers had nowhere to hide because there is no Jewish community that accepts this.
Arab Murders Jews, Jews Murders Arab – Here’s The Difference
Just to clarify and calm the nerves on all you liberal or pro Palestine readers.Jewish group organizes visit with family of slain Arab teen
I want to make something very clear, the person or persons who were responsible for the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir are murderers of the worst kind and should be dealt with just like we SHOULD be dealing with Islamic terrorism.
That being said, there is a huge and very fundamental difference between what happened to the three Israeli teens that were abducted and murdered and the young Arab teen that was abducted and murdered. The difference lies on three different levels.
1. National backing of terrorists activity
2. World Reaction
3. Nation’s Reaction
The Tag Meir organization published details of the event on Facebook overnight Sunday and noted that the trip had been arranged with the approval of the family.Chief Rabbi Condemns Murder: 'Not the Way of the Torah'
“The visit is coordinated with the Abu Khdeir family, which welcomes and is moved by our upcoming arrival at their mourning tent,” the group said.
As of Monday morning some 330 people had responded online that they intend to join in the event.
Rabbi Lau's statements, made at the start of a Chief Rabbinate Council meeting, came in response to reports Monday morning that three of the six suspects who were arrested over suspicion of involvement in the murder confessed under interrogation to the murder. Security services described the six as "Jewish extremists."Rabbi Levanon: Death Penalty for Killers of Arab Boy
The murder is "not the way of the Torah," declared Rabbi Lau in sharp condemnation of the murder, which is thought to have been an act of "revenge" for the murder of three Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha'ar by Hamas terrorists on June 12.
Prominent religious-Zionist figure Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh Yeshiva, said Sunday night that the murderers of Mohammed Abu Khder should be given the death penalty – even if they turn out to be Jewish.Evil Murderers of Palestinian Boy Provide Fodder for Israel's Jew-Hating Enemies
“Unfortunately it appears that Jews were involved in this matter,” Rabbi Levanon said to students on Sunday night. “Jewish law has no mercy for the perpetrators of crimes like murder, whether of Arab or Jew, whether by Arab or Jew.”
On Sunday, Jews all over the world woke up to the news that Israeli authorities had arrested six described as “Jewish nationalists” for the murder of 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir. They were sickened and horrified by that news. There were no candies in the streets. There were no calls for streets to be named after the alleged murderers. There were no glowing interviews with their parents in the Israeli press, or suggestions that they were heroes or martyrs. There were no governmental officials hedging their bets about the evil acts.Arab Riots Made for TV (and Beware the Deceptions)
That’s because there is zero moral equivalence between Israel and those it fights. As I wrote last week:
"Should it turn out that Jews did perform this disgusting atrocity, the State of Israel will find, prosecute, and give the harshest possible penalty to the perpetrators. That in and of itself destroys any attempted moral equivalence between Israel and her enemies, given that the Hamas-unity government itself stands behind the murder of the three Jewish boys, that the Hamas-unity government propagandized in celebration of their kidnappings and deaths, and that Palestinians celebrated their deaths."
The trick of the trade is to deceive. Even when they tell the truth it is still a lie.Jerusalem Municipality: Routing Light Rail Through Hostile Arab Villages “Not Our Smartest Move” (satire?)
I saw reporters asking for “another take” when an Arab woman wasn’t weeping properly. I saw reporters “directing” the mobs for the perfect shot.
I saw a kid who was supposed to be dead from Israeli bullets get up and walk after the filming stopped, so do not blame me if I believe in nothing.
I know that Hamas and Fatah school reporters on how best to present the “cause” and how readily those reporters comply. Here’s BBC reporter Fayad Abu Shamala speaking at a Hamas rally: “Journalists and media organizations are waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people.” (I have all this documented in the novel “The Bathsheba Deadline,” regrettably out of print for the moment.)
It’s an open and shut case:
In Israel, terrorists and journalists work as a team. I will go so far a to say that therefore many of these journalists are themselves terrorists.
Anything that comes from them ought to be peppered with skepticism and suspicion. Their motives are impure.
In a press conference today, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat acknowledged that routing the Jerusalem light rail through three hostile Arab towns was “not the world’s most intelligent decision.” “We could have done better,” acknowledged Barkat. “Like, looked at a map.”Jews Held For Murder; Smugness Across Europe Suffocates Dozens (satire)
The currant spat of light rioting that has occurred in the hostile Arab villages of Shuafat and Beit Hanina have led to the total destruction of the train stops of those neighborhoods, with damages totaling several million Shekel. “That’s OK,” reassured Barkat. “We were wondering what to do with all that extra municipal cash, what with Jerusalem having the highest tax bracket in the country and all. Now we finally found a purpose for it.”
The smug reached 39 out of 40 on the SCHADENFREUDE (Smugness, Chauvinism, Hypocrisy, Arrogance, Disdain, Ethnocentrism, Narcissism, Fascism, Racism, Elitism, Uppitiness, Dilettantism, Exploitation) scale, a figure not seen since the suppression of colonial uprisings in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. It reached 33 repeatedly over the last several years as shooting attacks in the gun-happy US made the news, but otherwise the SCHADENFREUDE level has hovered at a disturbing, but otherwise harmless, 28 since the dissolution of European empires following the Second World War and the migration of the center of world culture across the Atlantic. It was further eroded by the emergence of American wines as comparable, if not superior, to those of France and Italy in the 1970′s.IDF Thanks Murderers of Arab Teen For Making Their Job SO Much Easier (satire)
However, the brutal murder of Abu Khdeir has revived among Europeans the urge to portray Jews as evil, whereas since the Holocaust that urge had been tempered, and Europeans were content to see them merely as undesirable and a reminder of their own moral complicity in the greatest crime in history. The story of Jews engaging in brutality caused the old urges to burst forth, as the news could be used to assuage Europeans’ guilt by reassuring them that the Jews probably deserved whatever they got during the Holocaust.
Senior commanders of the Israel Defense Force and officials at the Ministry of Defense expressed their gratitutde today to whoever burned an Arab teenager to death last week, saying that thanks to the killing, they will only have to work five times as hard to keep Israel safe.Palestinian Statehood Revisited
“Whoever killed that boy has accomplished what tens of thousands of enemy propagandists could not,” said Lt. Col. Maxim Facepalm. “It’s a serious achievement to undermine the credibility, morality, and image of an entire country, and in the process stiffen the resolve of that country’s enemies to further weaken her,” he noted. “Thanks to these patriots, the IDF can now look forward to bigger, more violent, and more problematic demonstrations, attacks, and other attempts to compromise the security and well-being of the average Israeli citizen.”
What kind of society encourages celebrations in its streets to mark the murder of Jews and Israelis?
What kind of society uses its summer camps to train thousands of its children how to make firebombs, use firearms, and ambush and kidnap Israelis?
What kind of society allows the portrayal of Jews as vermin and allows publication on its government’s Facebook page of a cartoon of three rats, each bearing the Star of David, dangling from a fishing rod?
What kind of society allows its own government websites (in Arabic) to continue to feature the original PLO and Fatah covenants and other founding documents, all of which explicitly rule out recognition or peace with Israel and assert a claim to all of historic Palestine.
What kind of society produces mothers who encourage their children to become suicide bombers and to slaughter their neighbors as in the case of the Fogel family of Itamar on March 11th, 2011? After having stabbed to death the parents, a boy of eleven, his four-year-old brother, and their three-month old sister - at the trial, the terrorists regretted not having noticed two other sleeping children in the home.
What kind of society encourages its soldiers to hide among civilians during battle and to use children as human shields?
Abbas' advisor: "Palestinians have been on this land for 5,000 years"
Human Rights Group Launches Campaign Calling for End to U.S. Funding for Fatah-Hamas Unity Government
Human rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, on Wednesday launched a petition campaign calling on President Obama to halt U.S. aid to the newly formed Fatah-Hamas Palestinian unity government following the recent kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens.Grad hits Beersheba as rocket fire from Gaza continues to pummel South
Within the first 24 hours, more than 10,000 supporters had joined the campaign, which urges Obama to issue an ultimatum to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to “choose between peace and Hamas.”
More than 30 rockets pounded southern Israeli communities on Monday, with one Grad rocket reaching as far as Beersheba. The Eshkol and Sha'ar Hanegev areas were heavily hit by rocket fire on Thursday morning and afternoon.IDF patrol comes under anti-tank fire along Gaza border
IAF aircraft struck three underground rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip in response to the fire. Palestinians reported that a 4-year-old boy was moderately injured in the air strike.
The Security Cabinet was meeting on Monday to discuss possible responses to the continued projectile fire from Gaza which has seen some 150 rockets hit Israel's southern communities in recent weeks.
Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF unit Monday morning as it patrolled along the border with the Gaza Strip, the army said. The soldiers also came under small arms fire. There were no injuries, and soldiers returned fire.Czech Police: Explosion Which Killed PA Ambassador 'An Accident'
“An IDF patrol was attacked along the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement. “Initial indications suggest they were attacked with an RPG anti-tank missile and firearm[s]. No injuries are currently reported.”
According to the statement, the explosion in the Palestinian embassy at the beginning of January this year was caused by Semtex explosives hidden in a book which was transferred to the new embassy building in Prague. The blast which killed Jamal al-Jamal happened when the PA envoy opened the book, unaware of the explosive device hidden inside.Why Iraq Must be Divided Into Three States
Among other factors, Czech Police apparently ruled out the possibility of a deliberate assassination after other PA officials at the embassy announced it was an accident.
“No person who would have been involved in the death of the ambassador has been identified.
Therefore we decided to shelve the investigation" said Zoulova.
Shortly after the deadly explosion, al-Jamal’s family claimed he was killed when he opened a rigged safe at the new embassy building; but police investigators found that the explosives were hidden inside the book many years ago and had apparently been forgotten about.
Shortly after the explosion, Czech police found 12 illegal weapons at the PA embassy complex.
The PA claimed the weapons, which date from the 1970s and 1980s, were given to them decades ago as gifts by officials in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, when it was a communist country with close ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
The Palestinian Authority later sent an apology letter to the Czech authorities for the illegal weapons stash.
Iraq was never meant to be a unitary state. Its ethnic and religious composition make it impossible. British and French colonial interests dictated the creation of an artificial states in the Levant, and British oil interests sought to bring together Basra’s oil in the South with Kirkuk’s oil in the North. Basra is predominately Shiite while Kirkuk is predominantly Kurdish. The Brits’ close collaboration with the Sharif of Mecca, or the Hashemite clan (related to the Prophet Mohammad), during WWI insured a Sunni over-lordship in this artificial creation called Iraq.ISIS Threatens Western Journalists as First Targets
The only sane solution to the murderous mayhem in Iraq (and Syria) is to satisfy the religious, ethnic, and tribal aspirations of the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis in Iraq. It can only be done by the U.S. and the international community supporting the division of Iraq into three separate states. A Shiite state in the South, a Sunni state in Anbar and north of Baghdad, and a Kurdish State that includes Kirkuk. The option of federalizing the three entities at a later stage will remain. Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Sunni Caliphate could be a shared capital of Sunnis and Shiites. Iraq, broken and divided, much like Humpty Dumpty, cannot be put back together again.
The message was written on a Twitter account associated with ISIS, which changed its name to "Islamic State" along with its declaration of an Islamic caliphate.Isis leader al-Baghdadi Mocked for Wearing 'Rolex' Whilst Preaching Jihad
"The brothers register the names of all the Western journalists who demonize the Islamic state, in case the United Heretical States of America decides to get involved in Iraq and Syria; in this way we'll know who to attack first," read the message.
The ISIS threat continued "their propaganda is what kills our women and children in the Muslim world, and indeed because of their lying propaganda many Muslim children died."
On Friday Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared in public for the first time, commanding Muslims to "obey" him as the "Leader who presides over you."From London to ISIS: The radicalization riddle
But it was not al-Baghdadi's attempt to evoke the last Caliphs who ruled from Baghdad by donning a black robe and turban that most struck many about the appearance of the elusive militant.
Instead it was the expensive-looking silver wristwatch he is wearing during the 20 minute long sermon.
It is believed to be either a Rolex, Sekonda or £3,500 Omega Seamaster. The choice of such an expensive accessory clashed with al-Baghdadi's austere message and professions of humility.
A volunteer from Belgium gladly gave an interview while driving a vehicle dragging dozens of bodies of people who had been slaughtered minutes earlier. A volunteer from Germany, Philip Bergner, a Muslim convert, posted a picture of himself smiling alongside severed heads. According to reports from Syria, the British are the cruelest of them all.British Jihadi Pledges to Return to UK When 'the Black Flag of Islam Hangs Over Buckingham Palace'
It doesn't just happen in Syria and Iraq. Volunteers have arrived in Afghanistan in the past, and volunteers arrive in Somalia from the West. They don't kill Zionists or Americans. They kill Muslims. Most of the victims of the Boko Haram organization in Nigeria are Muslims too.
Several days ago, ISIS posted a video aimed at recruiting Western volunteers. One of its stars is a young British man named Ali Kalantar. His father, Rahim Kalantar, told the BBC that his son was radicalized by an imam at his local mosque in Coventry.
A British-born jihadi who claims to be fighting in Syria has branded his former country “pure evil” and said he will only return to the UK when the “black flag of Islam” is hanging outside Buckingham Palace.Turkey economy risks choppy waters under Erdogan
According to the Daily Mail, the man, who referred to himself as Abu Osama, told a British radio show that he was in Syria taking part military training with the rebel Al Nusra front, which is linked to Al Qaeda. He claimed to be fighting for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate across the Muslim world, and said he had no intention of coming home.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell, he said: “There is nothing in Britain - it is just pure evil.
“If and when I come back to Britain it will be when this Khilafah - this Islamic state - comes to conquer Britain and I come to raise the black flag of Islam over Downing Street, over Buckingham Palace, over Tower Bridge and over Big
Ben.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears all but assured of winning upcoming Turkish presidential polls, but he could find himself in charge of a far more fragile economy than in the last decade of his rule.Turkish Lawmaker Forced to Resign Over Alcohol
Analysts say the Turkish strongman is jeopardizing the long-term health of the economy by picking a fight with the nominally independent central bank and pushing it towards a looser monetary policy at a time of stubbornly high inflation.
Meanwhile, the instability in neighboring Iraq, where swaths of territory have been taken over by Sunni Muslim militants, risks depriving Turkey of a key export market.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ordered a senior regional party official to resign after pictures apparently showed him drinking alcohol, AFP reported.
Mustafa Celebi, the head of the AKP in a district of the southwestern Mugla province, can be seen in photos posted on social media drinking alcohol with two colleagues, according to the website of the Hurriyet daily.
Drinking alcohol is legal in Turkey and beers, wines and spirits are easily available especially in Istanbul, Ankara and the coastal resorts.
However, the Islamic-rooted AKP takes a dim view of drinking.
