Saturday, July 12, 2014
Netanyahu: Gaza conflict proves Israel can’t relinquish control of West Bank
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday vowed to fight Hamas and other Gaza terror groups until Israel was safe from the threat of missile attack, and then launched a highly unusual and extremely bitter verbal assault on would-be peace-brokers, including US Secretary of State John Kerry, who have been urging Israel to relinquish security control of the West Bank to a Palestinian state.Israel acting disproportionately? Think again
Speaking to the Israeli public on the fourth day of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, which he said has seen Israel attack “over 1,000″ terror targets while sustaining hundreds of rocket attacks from Gaza, Netanyahu vowed that the IDF campaign “will continue until we are sure that Israel’s residents have quiet.” He said that no terrorist target was off-limits, and accused Hamas’s leaders and gunmen of “hiding behind Gaza’s residents” — using them as human shields — and thus being responsible “for any harm that comes to them.”
While Israel did everything to protect its citizens, he said, and had “spent billions to protect the homefront” in recent years, Gaza’s terror groups deliberately put Gazans “in harm’s way.” Israel does its utmost not to harm Gaza’s civilians while targeting the terrorists, whereas Hamas targets Israel’s civilians, he said.
The fact that Israeli fatalities are low in this conflict does not reduce the military necessity of attacking Hamas. As famed jurist Alan Dershowitz points out: “Proportion must be defined by reference to the threat posed by the enemy and not by the harm it has produced”.Israel activist Chloe Valdary assaulted in Boston
The accusation of targeting civilians, a violation of the rule of distinction, is equally baseless. At the moment, the Israeli Air Force is carrying out precision raids on Hamas' terrorist infrastructure, including arms dumps, rocket launchers, command and control centres and the homes of terrorist figures.
Where houses have been turned into military targets, the IDF has provided advance warnings to Palestinian residents (so called roof knocking) to leave their houses prior to an attack. This is designed to minimise civilian casualties, rather than maximise them. In any case, targeting civilians would be futile. It would achieve nothing in military terms and hand a massive propaganda victory to Hamas.
This is the face of hateAnti Israel Woman attacks me at Hate Fest
A Palestinian "peace " activist has physically assaulted Israel activist Chloe Valdary at a Boston solidarity rally for Israel. Shrieking that the Jews would go to hell while the Christians and the Muslims took over Jerusalem, she knocked Chloe's phone out of her hand.
The unidentified woman was not arrested..
For those of you attending Israel solidarity rallies this weekend, be careful out there. Its never been about peace for the anti-Israel crowd. In the unforgettable words of International ANSWER organizer Dick Becker, this isn't about peace. Its about the "victory of the resistance"
Israel Air Force Aborts Gaza Airstrike After Spotting Children Near Target (VIDEO)
The Israel Air Force called of an airstrike on a “terror activity site” on Thursday after spotting children in the vicinity of the target, a recently released video shows.IDF Pilot Calls Off Airstrike After Children Spotted Near Target
“There are people close to our target,” the pilot carrying out the mission is heard saying in the clip. “It looks like there are people, possibly children in our targeted area.”
An operator responds: “We are not going to strike this target now, let’s move on.”
Hamas' Lies
IDF Makes Precise Strikes on Hamas Infrastructure
IDF Targets Rocket-Launching Site Next to Gaza School
Life in Israel: Iron Dome Interception Over Tel Aviv
Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Land Invasion: Beware the Trap Laid by Hamas
Operation “Defensive Edge” must create an Israeli -made sitution - aimed at Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, because there is a gut feeling that Hamas has no choice but to restore quiet and force, the other organizations to do the same. That means Islamic Jihad and the Comnittee for Popular Resisance. There is no escaping the conclusion that this is not just a struggle between the IDF and the Hamas military arm, but a struggle between two societies – the Israeli one and the Gazan one – and that the winner will be the stronger society, the more cohesive one and the one more prepared to sacrifice.Trent Franks Blasts Obama's Cowardly, Unprecedented Betrayal of Israel
If this requires temporary evacuation of children, women or families from the south to other areas – that is what must be done in order to give our government the possibility of acting as long as it must against the rocket terror without worrying about casualties.
If the government of Israel acts in such a way that she protects Israeli citizens, if our Prime Minister can appear before the public and explain the concept behind this operation, the vast majority of the public will cooperate and go along with government policy on this issue.
The Israeli public realizes that this is a war and that “in war, as in war”. Israel must achieve a victory, and it must be an unequivocal one, clear as the afternoon sun in July. If at the end of the current round of violence, the jihadists can claim that they have won, this will encourage them to try again.
Earlier this week Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) blasted the Obama administration's handling of the unfolding military crisis developing between Israel and Palestine saying "I thought nothing this president could ever say or do would surprise me anymore, but this flushed and breathless rush to embrace terrorists launching rockets at Israeli children is an unprecedented act of cowardice and betrayal"Why Israel has been forced to go to war: An op-ed by Dr. Denis MacEoin
Franks called for America's fleet to be deployed to the coast of Israel to "protect our most precious ally on earth."
In June the Obama administration signaled support and crtizied Israel for being unwilling to negotiate with the newly formed “government of national unity” that included the participation of Islamist militant group Hamas. (h/t Canadian Otter)
I want you to imagine this. An independent Scotland, fired up by new-found freedoms and ruled by President Robbie Burns II, bursts into ructions of tartan nationalism. An army of men wearing kilts and sporrans, playing horrendous squalling tunes on their war pipes, advances to the border, calling for the destruction of England and the murder or expulsion of everyone who lives on what, they say, is former Scottish soil. Specially trained militias roll up and start to fire rockets into Northumberland and Newcastle, where I live. As some years pass, the rockets get bigger and their range longer, until York and Leeds are threatened. Thousands of these rockets are fired, and even if they do little physical harm, they force the inhabitants of the English North to cower in bomb shelters, running to them when sirens announce a fifteen-second gap before the latest rockets fall. Add to this that Scottish fighters have been infiltrating England for years beyond number, detonating car bombs, slitting throats, and blowing themselves up in shopping malls, restaurants and town squares, using suicide belts to kill as many English men and women and children as possible. In one case, a Scottish woman, treated for severe burns in the burns unit at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, returns for out-patient treatment wearing an explosive belt designed to murder the doctors and nurses who improved her life and is only caught thanks to the vigilance of soldiers at a checkpoint built to prevent such incidents.Liberman: Time to Put an End to Hamas's Rule Over Gaza
Now ask yourself, what would the government of the UK do? Send for the Archbishop of Canterbury to organize national prayer vigils? Wring their hands and hope the belligerent Scots soon see the error of their ways? Apologize to their sworn enemies and evacuate the country (except, perhaps, Celtic Wales), relocating in a distant desert or hell-pit, assuming anyone, fired by post-colonial outrage, would take them? Do a Jim Jones and deliver bottles of cyanide-laced Flavor Aid to every household, and apologize to Scotland for forcing its undertakers to remove and cremate the bodies?
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) said on Friday that it was time to put an end to the Hamas rule of Gaza, and that an aerial operation is not enough to accomplish this.Footage Shows Devastation, Charred Remains in Aftermath of Rocket Attack on Ashdod Gas Station (VIDEO)
Speaking to Channel 2 News, Liberman noted that Operation Protective Edge is the third IDF operation in Gaza over the past five years, and added that this time it was important “not only to stop the rocket fire now, but to prevent a fourth operation.”
"I hear the citizens and have been speaking with dozens of them in recent days," he said. "Everyone says, ‘Go all the way, we have patience, we are prepared to take [rocket fire]'. But we cannot repeat the same script every few months. We need to put an end to this phenomenon.”
Raw footage of the aftermath of a Friday morning Gaza rocket attack on a gas station in Israel’s port city of Ashdod has emerged online showing widespread destruction as emergency crews aim to douse leaping flames.Condition of Ashdod Rocket Victim Improves
Multiple charred vehicles including an oil tanker are seen in the video of the strike which severely wounded a 61-year-old disabled man and left 7 others with light injuries.
The condition of the man who was seriously injured on Friday when a Gaza rocket hit a gas station in Ashdod has improved.Imagine a big ‘wobbly Coke bottle, flying faster than the speed of sound, on an irregular course’
The man underwent surgery at the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva and doctors were able to avoid having to amputate his hand.
His condition is now listed as stable and his life is not in danger.
The challenge was to develop a system capable of identifying aerial threats — mainly rockets — and eliminating them autonomously. Explains H.: “Our system includes a sensor that locates the threat, a command and control center that analyzes the rocket’s trajectory and its damage potential, and an interceptor (missile) that eliminates it. It’s a very complex system.IDF Gets Defense Boost in Form of New Iron Dome Battery
“Qassam rockets are comprised of make-shift components, and their trajectories are very ‘wobbly’ rather than smooth,” he elaborates. “Imagine a Coke bottle flying several times faster than the speed of sound on an irregular course. Intercepting it seems farfetched.”
Adds D., chief engineer for Iron Dome: “Now if that weren’t enough, we were faced with some grueling constraints,” most notably the imperative to develop the system “within a 30-month timeframe. Just to clarify, we spent over 10 years on developing the previous missile. Also, the approved cost for the missile firing unit was a mere eighth of the price compared to the previous system we developed.”
As rocket fire from Gaza continues, the defense establishment received a reinforcement on Friday in the form of an additional Iron Dome anti-missile battery.Danish journalist tries to draw moral equivalency between Israelis watching air strikes on Gaza and Palestinians celebrating in the streets the kidnapping/murder of 3 Israeli teens
The new battery, the eighth one to be acquired by the IDF, was given to the Israel Air Force on Friday afternoon. The battery became operational in the evening hours and will improve Israel’s ability to defend residents from rocket attacks.
Palestinian unity deal didn’t moderate Hamas, and never will
In addition to those promoted the fantasy that the unity deal would moderate Hamas, others simply ignored any possible negative implications of the Fatah-Hamas merger.Video: Hezbollah flag-waving protester at Israeli Embassy in D.C.
The unity agreement didn’t require Hamas to give up its arms or accept Israel’s right to exist. By not giving up its genocidal ideology or its arms it showed that it was adopting the “Hezbollah model,” meaning that it was “establishing a better-armed entity-within-an-entity in the midst a weaker central government.” In fact rather than moderating Hamas, “Hamas officially interpreted it as an opening for militant activities of all kinds,” according to David Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
To be sure, the editorial is correct that Israel offered a truce. But it wasn’t “small militant groups” that refused the ceasefire, it was the big militant group, Hamas, that did.
We highlighted earlier this week The threatening face of anti-Israel boycotters in America.What It’s Like To Be Outside Under Rocket Fire
Here’s another example.
The Capitol City Project attended an anti-Israeli protest in Washington D.C. today, and had a nice chat with an anti-Israel protester carrying a Hezbollah flag:
This is something millions of Israelis experience on a daily basis in certain parts of Israel…Amid Rocket Attacks, Roger Waters Reiterates Demand for Neil Young to Cancel Israel Concerts; SWC Calls Waters an Anti-Semite
Not everyone is sitting at home in their bomb shelters because life goes on…however, random rockets are fired indiscriminately in different parts of the country all day long, so most people get caught outside!
It is frightening believe me, I live like this too!
Veteran Israel-basher Roger Waters was labelled an anti-Semite after taking to Facebook on Friday to re-iterate his earlier call for rock and roll legend Neil Young to cancel his upcoming performances in Israel.Hamas to Gazans: Don’t show Israel where we’re firing from
The former Pink Floyd bassist also admitted that his previous request was completely ignored. (h/t oldschooltwentysix)
Hamas’s Ministry of Interior in Gaza — still active despite a unity government with Fatah which officially disbanded it — has requested that citizens not share photos of rockets launched from residential areas in downtown Gaza lest Israel strike those areas.Hamas officials denounce 'criminal' Abbas as 'Likud member'
The ministry’s social media department published a video in Arabic Thursday containing guidelines for “cautious and effective” social media engagement on Facebook and Twitter during Operation Protective Edge. The ministry calls on residents to be wary of repeating Israeli “rumors,” and of adopting “the occupation’s narrative.” “Always doubt it and dispel it,” the video advises.
“Beware of posting photos of missiles launched from the center of town directed at Israel. This is used as a pretext to strike residential areas in the Gaza Strip,” it continues.
Leaders of the Islamist movement which rules Gaza said that Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah faction, was “aiding the enemy” by making his statement. Hamas accused the PA chief of “acting as a third party” while branding him “a criminal” and “a Likud member.”IAF strike kills two of Hamas chief Haniyeh's nephews
In an interview with Lebanese television network Al-Ma’ayadin, Abbas said that Hamas’ demands for a ceasefire were unnecessary, and that both sides needed to halt hostilities immediately.
The nephews who died, were among six people who were killed in a reported IDF strike on Haniyeh's sister's home. Since the latest outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, at least 121 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and over 900 have been wounded, according to Israel Radio.Egypt shuts border with Gaza, thwarts bid to smuggle rockets into Sinai
537 Gaza houses have either been destroyed or damaged, according to the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Association for Human Right
Israel’s air force will continue to pound targets in the Gaza Strip over the course of at least the next 24 hours, the IDF Spokesperson said on Saturday. (h/t Bob Knot)
Egypt closed the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Friday, preventing ambulances and passenger buses from leaving. Israel, meanwhile, continues to maintain its commercial gateway open, allowing in fuel, food, and medical supplies.Palestinians draft UN resolution urging ceasefire
Also Friday, Egyptian security forces said they thwarted an attempt to smuggle 20 Grad rockets from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai region. The projectiles were apparently meant to be used in attacks against Israel from the peninsula.
An initial draft of the proposed Security Council resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses “grave concern” at the escalating violence and deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories due to Israeli military operations, particularly against the Gaza Strip, and at the heavy civilian casualties including children.Jew wearing IDF shirt assaulted in Melbourne
The council is deeply divided and often paralyzed over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the United States defending close ally Israel and the majority of other council members firmly backing the Palestinians.
The Palestinian draft makes no mention of the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel by Hamas, which controls Gaza, and that would likely make it unacceptable to the United States if it was introduced in the Security Council.
A Melbourne man wearing an IDF T-shirt said two Arabic-speaking men assaulted him on the street.Richard Millett: Protesters compare “Palestine” to Auschwitz and Dachau outside Israeli Embassy.
Zachary Gomo told JTA he was walking to a shop around 10 P.M. in a Jewish neighborhood on Thursday night wearing a T-shirt from his service in the Israel Defense Forces when he was set upon by two young men.
“I noticed them when it was too late. They jumped on me, started punching, screaming ‘kalb Yehud!’ (Jewish dog), ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is great) and something about Gaza in Arabic,” Gomo said.
“One of them tried to pull me to the ground, I started fighting and punching back,” he recalled. “I grabbed one of them by the throat and screamed at them, cursing in Arabic as well. This shocked them, they ran off.”
Gomo said he was covered in cuts and had a swollen face. The Community Security Group accompanied him to a police station to make a statement, he said.
Some mocked the Holocaust, others disfigured the Israeli flag, a few screamed “Allahu Akbar”, they all called for the destruction of the Jewish state.Multicultural Toronto - Our Mosaic Of Diversity - Scenes From the Pallie Rally In Toronto
That was the scene outside London’s Israeli Embassy yesterday afternoon as many thousands thronged to hear blood-curdling speeches calling for the end of Israel.
Kensington High Street was closed off to traffic leaving London buses stranded by the protesters who requisitioned them and covered them with anti-Israel slogans.
The protest against Israel’s latest attack on Hamas in Gaza was a toxic mix of Islamists, trade unions like Unison, charities like War On Want, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and, of course, the extreme religious Jewish sect Neturei Karta.
I knew I had outstayed my welcome when a protester grabbed me and shouted “A Zionist!”. I shook him off and made for the relative safety of the tube station. (h/t Yenta Press)
Palestinian-terror supporters on Toronto's streets make the case for overhauling Canada's immigration systemMulticultural Toronto - Our Mosaic Of Diversity
Today in the heart of Toronto's downtown, foreign-born fanatics were screaming their fury at Canada and for Canada's support for the middle east's only democracy. They were there in the hundreds. Grubby men in shabby, earth-toned clothes accompanied by pudgy, hirsute women shrouded in chadors and hijabs, all clustered beneath a sea of flags they brought representing Canada's enemies like Iran. Their clothes were like some perverse caricature of the satanic ideology of the terror group Hamas, which they came to support and which boasts that while their enemies love life, the Islamists love death. Some of these miscreants even waved flags of organizations listed by our government as banned terror groups, including those of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad in Palestine.
JCPA: “The Father of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Missile Program Is Firing at Tel Aviv”
Iran has long been trying to fill the Arab void that has emerged. As in the past, Iran is now springing to the aid of Hamas despite the tension between them that stems from the crisis in Syria. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei keeps attacking the “Zionist regime” and supporting the Palestinians with calls to come to their assistance.1 President Hassan Rouhani, for his part, continues to maintain a low media profile with regard to the military operation.UN Human Rights Commissioner Attacks Israel Over Self-Defense
In an announcement on July 9, the spokeswoman of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called on the “Arab and Islamic states and the human rights organizations” to react firmly and put an end to what she called “Israel’s crimes” against the Palestinian people during the month of Ramadan. The spokeswoman stressed that Israel’s acts only intensify the hatred of the “Zionist regime” among the Muslim states and all peace-loving nations.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay attacked Israel's right to defend itself on Friday, casting into doubt Israel's right to stop the constant rocket fire from Gaza under international law.Fauxtography returns to Gaza
"We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian casualties, including of children, occurred as a result of strikes on homes," Pillay stated. "Such reports raise serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law."
A spokesperson for the UN added that, despite the fact that Hamas is deliberately using human shields, there is no 'legitimate' reason to strike homes in Gaza - terrorists or not.
Not another doll!Diana Buttu, Who Tangled With CNN Reporter, Has History of Falsehoods
During the Second Lebanon War a new term entered the bloggers’ lexicon: fauxtography – a combination of faux meaning imitation or artificial and photography. A close cousin to the video version AKA Pallywood, it took several recognisable forms, such as, posed photographs pretending to be real-time events; deliberately mislabeled real photographs and staged photo opportunities, even to the extent of bring dead babies to the shoot. Obvious Photoshopping and reusing photographs several times at apparently different dates and locations appeared.
But the most iconic were characteristics of image composition unlikely to occur in real life, for example, toys in rubble.
The hardball interview style might be best suited for discussions with Buttu, who has a history of egregious on-air fabrications. For example, in 2008 and 2009, a time when rockets fired by Palestinians carried between 20 and 40 pounds of explosives, Buttu absurdly insisted during interviews on CNN and Fox News that rockets fired from Gaza "do not have explosive heads."As Hamas Targets Israel, Erlanger and the NY Times Join In
At a 2012 conference at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Buttu again asserted that the rockets "don’t have an explosive head." And she didn't stop there. “There weren’t any grad rockets fired in 2008 and 2009,” she said. (Dozens were fired.) "The period of 1996 to 2000 were actually the years that were the most secure years in Israel’s history," she said. (Dozens of Israelis were murdered by Palestinian suicide bombers.) When challenged about the murders during those years, she stated that "All of the people you are talking about were settlers." (Again, false.)
Responsible news organizations should think twice before interviewing propagandists with a well-documented disregard for the facts. But if journalists insist on interviewing Buttu anyway, they should absolutely be prepared to challenge her lies.
Really? Jewish youth hate Arabs? Did Erlanger and his editors find this charge so obvious and so compelling, that there was no need to, for example, consult other experts who might disagree? Like for example, a pollster?Zbigniew Brzezinski Blames Netanyahu for Conflict with Hamas
As it turns out there is recent credible polling data, right in the middle of the period referred to by Lion, that demolishes Lion's and Erlanger's core claim.
The survey in question was carried out by the Maagar Mohot Survey Institute, headed by Professor Yitzchak Katz, for Tel Aviv University's School of Education and the Citizens' Empowerment Center in Israel.
In a representative sampling of Israeli youth, age 15-18, published in March 2010, respondents were asked a number of questions including:
Do you think that the slogan "death to the Arabs" is legitimate or racist and illegitimate?
Total Jews: Legitimate 21% Not 73% Other 6%
Secular: Legitimate 16% Not 78% Other 6%
Religious Legitimate 45% Not 45% Other 10%
That is, 73% of Jews between the ages of 15 and 18 thought the chant "Death to the Arabs" was racist and illegitimate. Does that sound like they hate Arabs?
Friday's Morning Joe program featured a discussion about the ongoing Israel and Hamas conflict. Joe Scarborough spoke with Zbigniew Brzezinkski the National Security Adviser for Jimmy Carter, famous for helping to create the Taliban, inventing anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric. For viewers who are anti-Israel Brzezinski did not disappoint. He blamed the present conflict on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu; a right-winger who is "determined to prompt, to precipitate a direct military collision with Gaza." Brzezinski also presented Hamas as a terrorist group that has moderated.Third example of BBC promotion of the lie that Israel deliberately targets civilians
It was a tough interview for Scarborough to do as he could only go so-far in confronting Brzezinski as he is the father if co-host Mika Brzezinski.
From the start the elder Brzezinski asserted the present Israeli government was anti-peace.
In actual fact, Israel of course does its utmost to avoid civilian casualties in a territory in which terrorists fire missiles from, and store military grade weapons in, residential areas – turning the local civilian population into human shields.Edward Luttwak: Why Zionism Outlives the Political Players Who Work for and Against It
On three separate occasions now the BBC has deliberately amplified what it knows full well to be a lie propagated for the purpose of political propaganda. That is not accurate and impartial journalism: it is self-conscription to the public relations campaign of a terrorist organisation and its supporters.
All of the above are merely disjointed reflections of a veritable transformation of Israel’s position in a transformed world. After 1967, when the U.S. State Department and U.S. Joint Chiefs, compelled by the Soviet engagement with Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, reluctantly accepted the necessity of supplying and supporting Israel, their spokesmen missed no occasion to remind Israeli diplomats and soldiers that they were entirely dependent on the United States, for it alone stood between Israel and complete isolation. That was true enough, because in those years China, India, and the entire Soviet bloc were aligned with the Islamic countries, while even the two key U.S. allies, the United Kingdom and Japan, went out of their way to minimize relations with Israel. Now the situation has been almost entirely reversed across the globe, so much so that even among the Islamic countries only Iran and a few of the most lethargic and peripheral still refuse all dealings with Israel.
Looking back on the vast, abrupt, unpredicted, and amazingly rapid transformations of the world in which the Zionist project advanced over the last 100 years, it is perfectly evident that the importance of “geopolitical realities” and “Great Power Politics,” and of the political preferences and Middle East priorities of the mighty of the earth—sultans, emperors, prime ministers, presidents, and Popes—were all of them very greatly overrated, at every remove, when compared to the growth of Israel’s villages, towns and cities, family by family, house by house.
