July 2014 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Videos of Gaza reporters as human shields (UPDATE)

From France24: And what looks like a different view of the same rocket launch, from Al Jazeera: The Al Jazeera woman appears to be the same person as the one seen in the background of Gallagher's France24 report. This means that there were multiple reporters at the area, doing their dispatches from the exact same place as they like to do. If there are two, there are usually a dozen. So the terrorists who shot the rockets were using the reporters...

07/31 Links Pt2: B-H Levy: The ugly tide washing across Europe; Obama's Walter Cronkite Moment

From Ian: Bernard-Henri Levy: The ugly tide washing across Europe - WSJ The double standard is odious. And it has become increasingly evident across Europe in the past month. Bluntly anti-Semitic slogans have marred most European demonstrations "in support of the people of Gaza." Residents of Frankfurt and Dortmund were horrified in mid-July to see neo-Nazi groups join hands with left-wing Islamists in a grim chant: "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas."...

From Joods Actueel: A Flemish doctor, who was manning the telephones Wednesday night for a group of physicians, refused to provide a 90-year-old Jewish woman who had suffered a rib fracture with medical help. "I will not! Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she will not feel pain anymore," was his reply. The son of the 90-year-old Bertha Klein called the doctor hotline...

Times of Israel reports: Very little face-to-face fighting is taking place in Gaza. Mimicking the tactics used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas heavily relies on two types of weaponry: anti-tank missiles and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The anti-tank weapon of choice is the Russian shoulder-launched RPG-29, and is used against infantry troops and armored vehicles. If...

Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel by Joshua Muravchik is a wonderful overview of the history of how Israel went from being the darling of the left in 1967 to becoming the victim of the UN's infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution in 1975. Muravchik expertly identifies, and dissects, the factors that turned the Left against Israel in such a...

07/31 Links P1: Richard Kemp: Double standards, moral cowardice; Joan Rivers Strikes Again

From Ian: Richard Kemp: Double standards, moral cowardice Protecting his people, U.S. President Barack Obama sends drones to kill Islamist terrorists in Pakistan, causing civilian casualties, while castigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for defending his own people. The failure of EU nations to reject last week's UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel for war crimes was shameful. Such double standards and moral cowardice validate...

From i24News: Israel's Shin Bet discovered the existence of a Hamas air commando unit. In 2010, ten Hamas commandos were sent to Malaysia to participate in paragliding training, with the end goal being to use it to carry out terror attacks on Israel. This information came to light during the investigation of a Hamas fighter arrested by the IDF a few days ago and investigated...

Times of Israel reports: Hamas has executed more than 30 suspected collaborators in the Gaza Strip over the past few days, a Palestinian news agency reported on Monday. Unnamed Palestinian security sources in Gaza told Palestine Press News Agency that Hamas has managed to apprehend dozens of suspected spies in the northern neighborhood of Shejaiya — which saw heavy fighting...

I have been on a bit of a rant about Gaza reporters giving only one side of the story. This post by Israeli media figure Michael Grynszpan helps explain why: I met today with a Spanish journalist who just came back from Gaza. We talked about the situation there. He was very friendly. I asked him how comes we never see on television channels reporting from Gaza...

The questions that Paul Mason (Channel 4 UK) refuses to answer

Paul Mason of Channel 4 (UK) tweets that anyone can ask him anything from Gaza. Okay this #askMason thing whereby I am answering questions from Gaza, will happen tomorrow... fire questions - I'll draw on experts here — Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) July 29, 2014 He'll answer questions! He'll draw on "experts!" Finally, we can discover things that we didn't know! So I asked a few questions, with zero expectation of any answers. Here are my questions...

07/30 Links Pt2: 14 Ways Hamas Weaponizes Women, Children, Animals, Against Israel

From Ian: 14 Ways Hamas Weaponizes Women, Children, Animals, Against Israel Although in 2005 Israel gave up Gaza to the Palestinians in a naive "land for peace" unilateral withdrawal, the result was not peace but rather over 10,000 rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian communities. Here we show how Hamas and other groups weaponize Palestinian civilians and institutions to attack Israel. The Hamas Charter of 1988 - Defines the Hamas Mission...

More from the humor site PreOccupied Territory: That "If NJ Fired Missiles At NY" Argument Gives Me An Idea We had to shrink this image more than usual. By Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey We in the Garden State are strong supporters of Israel. That's especially the case when Republicans, such as me, are in charge. So we don't need much convincing...

He might occasionally grudgingly admit that Hamas rockets aren't exactly wonderful, but for any area where one can argue to be stricter or less strict on human rights, Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch always chooses the anti-Israel side. Here's something he tweeted yesterday: Tunnels used to attack or capture civilians is a rights violation. Tunnels used to attack or capture...

PCHR "human rights" group follows Hamas instructions

PCHR is one of the three "human rights" groups that the UN relies on to give statistics on the dead and wounded in Gaza. A week ago, their reports would mention the names of some of the dead who were clearly members of terrorist groups. For example, in this dispatch from July 22: At approximately 21:00, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that Mohammed ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Eshtaiwi, 27, a member of Palestinian armed group, from Um...

07/30 Links Pt1: With Israel, the world is blaming the victim; Netanyahu's Popularity Soars to 82%

From Ian: Caroline Glick: Israel, Hamas and Obama’s foreign policy When US President Barack Obama phoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, in the middle of a security cabinet meeting, he ended any remaining doubt regarding his policy toward Israel and Hamas. Obama called Netanyahu while the premier was conferring with his senior ministers about how to proceed in Gaza. Some ministers counseled that Israel should continue to limit...

More on the importance of Arab honor in understanding the conflict

On Monday I wrote an article about how crucial it is to understand the importance Arabs give to honor in order to understand the conflict altogether. While Westerners like to look for win-win solutions to problems, Arabs look at everything as a zero-sum game - because when the other side gains, their honor of defeating the enemy is taken away. The Federalist has an article about the same phenomenon: To understand why Hamas would pursue such a strategy,...

Hamas video praises #EyalGiladNaftali murders, another says Jews

From Palestinian Media Watch: Unabashedly praising the murderers for capturing their "prey - a child," the song puts them on a pedestal: "You are from Hebron, O hawk, and all are proud of you." The song encourages further kidnappings as a means of freeing terrorist prisoners. From MEMRI: Osama Hamdan: The Israelis concentrate on killing children. I believe that this is engraved in the historical Zionist and Jewish mentality, which has become...

"Moderate" Mustafa Barghouti lies repeatedly to justify Hamas war crimes (video)

Here are excerpts of an interview on Australian TV with Mustafa Barghouti showing how much "moderate, pacifist" Palestinian Arabs will lie to justify Hamas war crimes. (h/t Ahron...

Third time's the charm! Rockets found yet AGAIN in UNRWA school (ElderToon)

From Reuters: The United Nations agency that looks after Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday it had found a cache of rockets at one of its schools in the Gaza Strip and deplored those who had put them there. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness condemned those responsible for placing civilians in harm's way by storing the rockets at the...

Rocket tally from IDF much lower than from Gaza groups

As of this morning, the IDF says that 2600 rockets had been fired from Gaza to Israel. Hamas claims to have fired 2090 rockets. Islamic Jihad claims to have fired 2039 rockets. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade hasn't added them all up but they have fired about 10 a day, and the PRC perhaps 5 a day. Other groups also claim a number of rockets a day. There is nearly a 2000 rocket gap. How to explain this? Are the terror groups exaggerating? I'm sure that...

07/29 Links Pt2: Why Anti-Zionism Is Modern Anti-Semitism; 8 Times Kerry Betrayed Israel

From Ian: Why Anti-Zionism Is Modern Anti-Semitism Israel’s defensive Operation Protective Edge against Hamas rocket fire revealed that it took a military conflict to show that anti-Zionism cannot be decoupled from anti-Semitism. As veteran observers of contemporary anti-Semitism are aware, the rejection of Jewish state sovereignty in Israel (i.e., anti-Zionism) has always been an inherent part of Jew-hatred. In the late 1960s, the Austrian Jewish...

A tweet from Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati tells the truth about the incident at Shati and Shifa yesterday, and it reveals even more than that: Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris — gabrielebarbati (@gabrielebarbati) July 29, 2014 In this one tweet, we have confirmation: The...

I took my top articles about Operation Protective Edge as of last Sunday and created an e-book (in PDF format.) For a $25 donation, I'll send you a copy. Use the PayPal button on the top right of the blog or you can send an Amazon gift card. (If you have given me a donation of over $25 in the past three weeks and didn't receive your copy already, let me know.) Yes,...

If you want to understand the IDF viewpoint, you MUST read these

One of the problems that the IDF has is that the people making accusations against it don't understand how the army can possibly justify some of its actions. This is inevitable. An army cannot be fully transparent during a war without compromising the security of its troops and citizens. But we do have history. The most famous - and most famously flawed - indictment of Israeli actions during Operation Cast Lead in 2009 came from the UN's Goldstone...

07/29 Links Pt1: Excuse Me For Living; US diplomacy is going bankrupt; It's terrorism, stupid

From Ian: Hamas denies agreeing to 72-hour cease-fire Fatah official Yasser Abd Rabbo claims announcement was made with consent of all Palestinian factions, however Hamas says cease-fire cannot exist while Israeli forces are inside Gaza. Times of Israel Live Blog: Hamas says it’s ready for 24-hour truce as IDF indicates op reached goals Military death toll at 53 after 10 soldiers killed Monday; IDF kills senior Islamic Jihad officer and strikes...

The evidence that two Hamas rockets were wildly fired and killed at least ten people yesterday is overwhelming. The first and best piece of evidence is that the IDF denied doing anything in that area to begin with. Usually they say they were targeting terrorists and it takes them many hours to even begin to release results of an investigation, but in this case they knew immediately...