Saturday, August 09, 2014
Anne Bayefsky: Gaza Strip conflict: Time to face the ugly truth -- the UN encourages terrorism
As the terrorist organization Hamas breaks yet another ceasefire, it operates with the firm belief that it will be protected on the international stage. That’s because the modern United Nations has become an instrument of war, just seven decades after it was founded “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”UNRWA calls for end to Gaza blockade
It is time to face an ugly truth: The U.N. encourages terrorism. U.N. enablers on the ground in Gaza and U.N. broadcasters in the diplomatic comfort zones of Geneva and New York are partners in incitement to genocide against Israel, the Jewish state.
Think back to Rwanda, where a radio station broadcast that Tutsis were “cockroaches.” The message received was that killing was justified, that Tutsis deserved what they got. Such broadcasts were criminal.
The demonization of Israelis by the United Nations is similarly venomous, regardless of the diplomatic facade.
“Huge swathes of Gaza have been leveled. We cannot rebuild it with our hands tied behind our backs,” said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).Times of Israel Live blog: Israel says it refuses to negotiate while rockets fall
“The blockade must end. We are beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. All those directly and indirectly responsible for the carnage and destruction must engage,” he said.
The lifting of Israel’s land and sea blockade, imposed in 2006 [really 2007 after coup against Fatah] after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, has been a key demand of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority at stalled truce talks in Cairo.
The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Saturday, August 9, the 33rd day of Operation Protective Edge. The IDF continued its air campaign in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as terrorists fired dozens of rockets at Israeli communities. The US had said Friday it hoped for a renewed truce in the ‘coming hours’ after Hamas ended a 72-hour ceasefire Friday morning and fired some 60 rockets into Israel in the course of the day. Israel began hitting back more than two hours after the rockets resumed Friday, and the Israeli delegation left the ceasefire talks in Cairo, with Israel saying it would not negotiate under fire.
The United Nations "Human Rights" Council
When anyone tries to take the floor of the United Nations Human Rights Council and reveal the truth about abusive states, watch the abusers press their buzzers and demand that the truth-teller be stopped from speaking. Expecting the UNHRC to carry out a fair, balanced or accurate investigation of anything involving the State of Israel is rather like expecting the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to carry out investigations into persecution of Christians in Muslim countries.West encouraging terror with 'massacre' claims
The impact of the OIC and its many backers in Africa and elsewhere has led to a cynical failure on the part of the UN, the world leading human rights body, to address the greatest rights abuses of the modern age. North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Cuba, Nigeria or other of the world's great tyrannies…are never criticized.
Western states support Israel's right to defend itself, as long as it goes to war with its hands tied.Countering the shrinking Palestinan maps scam: applying the same logic to the USA
France and Britain were in the exact same situation when NATO planes bombed Belgrade and its surroundings. A Hospital, a retirement home and a refugee camp suffered direct hits. On April 15, 1999, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook reacted to the targeting of innocent people: "How dare they now produce crocodile tears for people killed in the conflict for which they are responsible."
It happened again in 2012 in the bombardments against the Libyan regime. Innocent people were killed. Amnesty demanded an investigation. NATO ignored it.
And it happened when the Lebanese army destroyed an entire refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared, in order to uproot a handful of 450 members of a terror organization. The West encouraged Lebanon, both materialistically and morally, to do all that it takes, including destroy most of the camp's building, in order to uproot the terror cancer.
Until it comes to Israel. Then the West supports Israel's right to defend itself, as long as it goes to war with its hands tied.
Following on from this article, here is another way to expose the scam of the "shrinking Palestine" maps (above) that are waved at every anti-Israel demo in the world. All I have done is apply exactly the same logic and terminology of the Palestine maps to the USA just before and after the 1776 declaration of independence and today. It makes as much sense as the Palestine maps. (h/t Bob Knot)The Obama Admin. Has Permanently Destroyed its Standing Among Israelis
In one week, the U.S. had to deny handing the Israelis a cease-fire proposal that all but adopted Hamas’s demands. There was also a harsh phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Obama in the midst of an Israeli cabinet meeting in which the president called for Israel to unilaterally end its campaign against Hamas.Irwin Cotler: How to stop Hamas's genocidal anti-Semitism
The U.S. insistence on looping Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar into discussions was a source of untold frustration for Israel, as was the administration’s insistence on issuing strongly worded condemnations every time Hamas-tied authorities in Gaza claimed civilian casualties from an Israeli airstrike.
This stance was especially objectionable after Mr. Obama himself explained that civilian casualties are among the necessary horrors of any war in an interview with The New Yorker earlier this year.
“The way I’ve thought about this issue is, I have a solemn duty and responsibility to keep the American people safe. That’s my most important obligation as President and Commander-in-Chief,” Mr. Obama said, applying a calculus the generosity of which he did not grant to the Israeli people.
Accordingly, what is so necessary now is not another ceasefire or humanitarian pause, but a ceasefire that is enduring and comprehensive, that will put an end to the Hamas Terrorist War of Attrition that has targeted Israel’s population and engulfed its own, and that will be protective of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, as President Obama and other leaders have called for. Such a ceasefire will hopefully be the basis for an Israeli-Palestinian peace, anchored in two states for two peoples living side by side in peace and security. This will require traveling on the road not yet taken – an agreed upon, and guaranteed, set of international, legal, diplomatic, political, security, economic, and humanitarian undertakings and initiatives as follows:Obama: Netanyahu too strong, Abbas too weak for peace
Speaking during an interview with the New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman, Obama said he believed Netanyahu’s high approval ratings among the Israeli populace contributed to the stalemate in peace negotiations, since Netanyahu was consequently less inclined to engage in risky and divisive political endeavors.Tom Friedman: Obama on the World
Netanyahu’s “poll numbers are a lot higher than mine,” Obama admitted, adding that the Israeli prime minister’s favorable ratings “were greatly boosted by the war in Gaza.”
The president argued that “if [Netanyahu] doesn’t feel some internal pressure, then it’s hard to see him being able to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement. That’s a tough thing to do.”
I asked the president whether he was worried about Israel.NYTs: Obama on Israel
“It is amazing to see what Israel has become over the last several decades,” he answered. “To have scratched out of rock this incredibly vibrant, incredibly successful, wealthy and powerful country is a testament to the ingenuity, energy and vision of the Jewish people. And because Israel is so capable militarily, I don’t worry about Israel’s survival. ... I think the question really is how does Israel survive. And how can you create a State of Israel that maintains its democratic and civic traditions. How can you preserve a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who founded Israel. And, in order to do that, it has consistently been my belief that you have to find a way to live side by side in peace with Palestinians. ... You have to recognize that they have legitimate claims, and this is their land and neighborhood as well.”
Asked whether he should be more vigorous in pressing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, to reach a land-for-peace deal, the president said, it has to start with them. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “poll numbers are a lot higher than mine” and “were greatly boosted by the war in Gaza,” Obama said. “And so if he doesn’t feel some internal pressure, then it’s hard to see him being able to make some very difficult compromises, including taking on the settler movement. That’s a tough thing to do. With respect to Abu Mazen, it’s a slightly different problem. In some ways, Bibi is too strong [and] in some ways Abu Mazen is too weak to bring them together and make the kinds of bold decisions that Sadat or Begin or Rabin were willing to make. It’s going to require leadership among both the Palestinians and the Israelis to look beyond tomorrow. ... And that’s the hardest thing for politicians to do is to take the long view on things.” (h/t Bob Knot)
The Guardian: Antisemitism on rise across Europe 'in worst times since the Nazis'
Arfi said that in France antisemitism had become "a portmanteau for a lot of angry people: radical Muslims, alienated youths from immigrant families, the far right, the far left". But he also blamed "a process of normalisation, whereby antisemitism is being made somehow acceptable". One culprit, Arfi said, is the controversial comedian Dieudonné: "He has legitimised it. He's made acceptable what was unacceptable."Hamas backers spend fortunes on terror while Gaza civilians suffer
A similar normalisation may be under way in Germany, according to a 2013 study by the Technical University of Berlin. In 14,000 hate-mail letters, emails and faxes sent over 10 years to the Israeli embassy in Berlin and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Professor Monika Schwarz-Friesel found that 60% were written by educated, middle-class Germans, including professors, lawyers, priests and university and secondary school students. Most, too, were unafraid to give their names and addresses – something she felt few Germans would have done 20 or 30 years ago.
Almost every observer pointed to the unparalleled power of unfiltered social media to inflame and to mobilise. A stream of shocking images and Twitter hashtags, including #HitlerWasRight, amount, Arfi said, almost to indoctrination. "The logical conclusion, in fact, is radicalisation: on social media people self-select what they see, and what they see can be pure, unchecked propaganda. They may never be confronted with opinions that are not their own." (h/t VultureTX)
The Jerusalem Post reported that Peres “charged Qatar, saying that Qatar had no right to spend millions of petrol dollars to enable Hamas to build rockets and tunnels instead of developing Gaza.”Faux Pro Israel Group, J Street Hammers Israel As Racists Who Are Causing Anti-Semitism
Meanwhile, the Palestinians who suffer under Hamas’ governance can only watch as money that could have been spent to improve their lives is spent on rockets and tunnels now being systematically destroyed by the IDF.
“Most of Gaza’s civilians survive in substandard living conditions without the infrastructure to support basic sanitation, running water, and a sewer system,” said Itamar Gelbman, a former IDF special forces lieutenant and a U.S.-based security consultant. “The unemployment rate is over 40 percent and for the lucky ones who actually do work, they have to settle for an average salary of $16 per day.”
Gelbman said instead of building terror tunnels, Hamas could have used the same money, equipment, and engineering to construct sewage and water treatment facilities, improve old infrastructure, build schools, and even create beach front resorts
While its leaders live lavish lifestyles with luxurious villas on the Mediterranean shore, most Gazans sit and suffer as government workers go unpaid and money that could have been used to improve many lives continues to be squandered on Hamas’ pursuit of destroying Israel.
“Only judging by their deeds you understand that there is no way that [Qatari] money went to civilian programs” said Amidror. “The materials went for military purposes.”
In Friday, J Street, the faux pro-Israel organization created by George Soros and promoted by Barack Obama, accused Israel of ignoring its friends in the administration, being racist in its conflict with Hamas and, of course, “fanning growing flames of anti-Semitism” by waging its military campaign to stop Hamas terrorists from murdering its citizens.Amnesty’s Q&A on the Gaza War: Many Questions, Few Answers
In a post on the J Street website called "Word on the Street: Difficult Questions and Hard Truths," President Jeremy Ben-Ami claimed:
"Getting to the roots of this conflict means that we – as friends of Israel – have to put forward some hard truths that have become even clearer over the past month."
He goes on to list four falsehoods about the conflict Israel has with Hamas:
"Keeping the Palestinian people locked up under near-total blockade or occupation only strengthens extremists like Hamas, undermines moderate partners like President Abbas, and increases the threat to Israel rather than making it more secure."
Amnesty’s equating of providing weaponry to Israel with Hamas is immoral in the extreme. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the EU, U.S., UK, Canada, Jordan, Japan, Israel, and others. Providing any assistance, whether direct or indirect, to terrorist organizations is prohibited under international law pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1373, as well as under domestic law in many countries.IDF Targets Rocket Launcher Concealed Next to Mosque
Similarly, while emphasizing the U.S. as Israel’s “key supplier,” Amnesty makes no mention of Iran, Syria, and North Korea that have provided weapons and training in violation on international law to Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.
Moreover, it is strange that Amnesty is calling for an arms embargo on Hamas when it has campaigned extensively for the end of Israel’s blockade - imposed precisely in order to prevent weapons flows to the terrorist organization.
Footage of IDF Strikes on Gazan Terror Sites
Israel’s Left: Ludicrous, loathsome and lethal
In reality, the Left has no genuine concern for humanitarian values . All it truly desires is dominance over the political system.. That is why they would shut down debate and dismiss all dissent as demagoguery.Livni presents plan to end conflict with Hamas, restart talks with PA
They are willing to submit non-belligerent Palestinians to incessant rounds of death and destruction rather than relocating them to safe locations, where they could build better lives for themselves and their families, free from the cruel clutches of the corrupt cliques that have misled them for decades. Rather than debate options for humanitarian rehabilitation and economic enhancement, they perpetuate the Palestinians’ predicament.
Rather than relinquish the fatal and failed formula of land-for-peace, they prefer to denigrate competing constructive concepts as fascist ethnic cleansing.
That is why today, Israel’s Left is ludicrous (in terms of its doctrine), loathsome (in terms of its conduct) and lethal (in terms of its consequences).
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) said she presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday with a diplomatic proposal to end the fighting in Gaza while restarting peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.Former Military Intelligence Head: Gaza Goals Weren't Achieved
Her plan would include, in this order, a ceasefire; the immediate transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza; “steps” that would answer Israel’s security demands while also addressing Gazans’ economic needs; the recognition of Palestinian Authority rule over Gaza overseeing one set of armed forces; the establishment of a Palestinian Authority system that would ensure funds and aid would reach civilians and not terror leaders; the opening of the crossings with Gaza and the simultaneous establishment of a system that would bar the transfer of raw materials, such as concrete, for the purposes of terror; and the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. (h/t Canadian Otter)
Amos Yadlin, formerly the head of Military Intelligence who now heads the Institute for National Security Studies, said on Friday that Israel had not achieved the goals it set for itself in Operation Protective Edge and that Hamas is not weaker as a result of the operation.Arabs Riot at Rachel’s Tomb, Border Guards Wounded
"Israel failed to achieve the goals it set for itself," Yadlin told Channel 10 News, adding, "There is an opportunity here because Israel is stronger and its citizens are strong and determined. The citizens are willing to give the IDF the three weeks to do what it didn’t do.”
“We didn’t hurt Hamas enough so that it would have someone else to make the decisions instead of Mohammed Deif,” he said, referring to the head of Hamas’s “military wing”, who is in hiding and recently threatened Israel.
Two Border Guard security personnel were lightly wounded while trying to control a mob of some 600 Palestinian Authority Arabs rioting Friday afternoon near Rachel’s Tomb.Poll: Most Israelis Satisfied With Leadership’s Conduct During War
Three of the rioters were allegedly shot in the legs with rubber bullets, according to the Hebrew-language 0404.co.il website.
The rioters burned tires and hurled firebombs and rocks at the Border Guards, who at first used standard crowd control methods but then allegedly opened fire when all else failed.
According to a poll conducted by Israel Hayom and the New Wave Research Institute to sum up the recent fighting, 74 percent of the Jewish public in Israel think that operation Protective Edge should be called a war. An even higher percentage of women and residents of southern Israel (around 80 percent) said it was a war.Facebook Friends Without Benefits: The Social Cost of Hamas’s War Against Israel
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the conduct of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Gaza fighting, and a similar percentage expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Eighty-six percent of people polled saw the elimination of the terror tunnels leading into Israel as a “significant achievement” for Israel, and 70 percent agreed that Hamas had been dealt a harsh blow.
Bat-sheva Hass, a new immigrant from Holland who lives in Jerusalem, posted a short clip of herself on Facebook ducking at a bus stop while a siren rips through the air. Naturally, the comments she received – many of which were from friends back in the Netherlands – were mostly concerned with her wellbeing.Direct Strike on Homes in Sderot, Ashkelon in Rocket Barrage from Gaza
Then there was a post from Naima Oustou, a Dutch “friend” of Muslim-Moroccan origins, that read thus: “Do not forget to thank Satanyahu. Lucky you. Wish that the children of Gaza had an Irone [sic] Dome too! Sorry I forget it’s not a war. It’s genocide..!”
The Algemeiner put out a call for social media users who have lost Facebook friends over the conflict in Gaza to reach out and share their experiences. The response was overwhelming. Within a matter of hours, hundreds of stories flooded in. Painful vignettes of how 20-year-friendships ended in the blink of an eye over posts which turned sour. Cruel, personal attacks from strangers and schoolmates alike.
A Qassam rocket slammed directly into a private home in the Gaza Belt community of Sderot at around 3:30 pm Friday afternoon, just a few hours before the start of the Sabbath. It was the second home in Sderot to be hit by a rocket today. No one was physically injured in the attack.How to Deal with Rockets Falling Around You
This is the second home to be damaged in a Qassam rocket barrage from Gaza today (Friday, August 8, 2014). Miraculously, no one was home.
The Code Red rocket alert system allows residents of the communities in the Gaza Belt area – those in the Eshkol, Sdot Negev and Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council districts – only a 15-second window within which to reach a safe space before rocket impact.
Less than half an hour after the house in Sderot was hit, a home in the coastal city of Ashkelon suffered the same fate.
An Israeli friend of mine, a girl named Tal, just attended the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium. (I had to Google extensively to find out if Boom is a real place—turns out it is). Tal had just finished her reserve duty, so she flew over to Europe with some friends for a change of pace.PHOTOS: When War Becomes Home
Tal is a proud Israeli, and in a show of solidarity with her home—as she partied in a country which is enabling anti-Semitic conduct—she wore an Israeli flag as a cape. Her hair was decorated with flowers, her body covered in glitter. She looked like any other 23-year-old at a music festival. The flag was simply a show of patriotism—like someone wearing an American flag, or a German flag, or even a Palestinian flag. What happened during the festival was shocking. She told me that she was accosted by strangers numerous times. They told her that her flag was insulting, and what she supported was wrong.
Apparently, toward the end of the festival, the concertgoers had enough of Tal and her cape. She and her girlfriend were surrounded by people, all of whom were shouting, “Juden! Juden!” She was shocked. She was heartbroken.
“Never in my life have I felt more like a Zionist,” she told me. I thought about her words throughout a sleepless night. I realized immediately why they resonated with me—I agreed. Before I moved to Israel, before the current war, I would not have described myself as a Zionist. Why?
As Israel’s Operation Protective Edge entered its fourth week, The Tower Magazine’s photographer Aviram Valdman braved the missile fire in the south in order to document the life of IDF soldiers as they readied themselves for the intense urban combat of the Gaza Strip. He found the men of an army post near the border determined, professional, and even capable of a laugh or two as they prepared to fight a harsh battle against a brutal and ruthless enemy, the terrorist group Hamas.
New York Man Arrested for Playing Israeli Music Outside Mosque
A Williamsburg man allegedly disrupted Ramadan for Muslim worshipers in Bay Ridge, after he repeatedly drove by their mosque blasting Israeli music, law enforcement sources said Friday.What’s behind the Green’s Door?
The 20-year-old Chaim Weiss decorated his 2013 Honda with a handful of Israeli flags and pumped up the music as worshipers were inside a mosque at 68th Street and Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge at 4 a.m. July 20, a criminal court document states.
Weiss allegedly then parked in front of the mosque, which was filled with a large congregation of people who approached and tried to stop him, law enforcement sources said.
Weiss fled the scene and drove back and forth four more times with the Israeli hits playing as the religious ceremony was in session, the sources said.
It sounds like they tried to assault him for playing loud music, but of course we hear nothing about that. Muslim assaults aren’t a crime. Israeli music is.
Green is the colour of the Environmental Movement. It is also the colour of Hamas.Friends of Freedom
What they have in common is they are both anti-freedom. The Green Movement has been around for a few decades now. Ostensibly concerned about our earth and everything in it – that is, unless you’re elderly or disabled, in which case you’re using up precious resources and a suitable case for euthanasia – in reality it has a much darker agenda.
When I was young and naïve, I voted for the Greens, as I believed they cared about the environment and were kind to all humanity. I also assumed they would admire Israel, a tiny country which made the desert bloom and led the world in looking after its scarce resources and protecting the environment.
It was only after encountering their level of hatred towards those who disagreed with them that I realised my mistake. Not only did they have a totalitarian mindset, they were also virulently antisemitic.
While Hollywood has its fair share of celebrities who openly denounce Israel, the current conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has brought a proud group of celebrities to light that refuse to succumb to the town’s anti-Israel mindset.Joan Rivers in new Gaza diatribe
Some freedom-loving celebrities have spoken out against those that have chosen to support Hamas in its conflict with Israel. Others have simply refused to give in to demands made by those who try and get the world to join in on their crusade against Israel.
Here are Israel’s celebrity defenders:
The reporter, who spoke to Rivers at LAX airport earlier this week about her previous remarks, received another rant in response — more controversial than the last.Hamas plays a dangerous poker game in Cairo
“Oh my God! Tell that to the people in Hiroshima,” Rivers said with dramatic flair when confronted with the Gaza death toll.
“Good. Good. Ask Colin Powell. When you declare war, you declare war. They started it. We now don’t count who’s dead. You’re dead, you deserve to be dead. You started it. You started it. Don’t you dare make me feel bad about that,” she said.
Naji Charab, a political affairs expert at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, says Hamas is looking for some kind of compromise that would give it “an honorable exit.”Friends of Hamas
The Islamist movement may have inflicted greater losses on Israel in the battlefield than it expected to, but it has been forced into a corner and lost an ally in Egypt. The overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement has close ties to Hamas, has seen Cairo lash out hard against Hamas, destroying its tunnels on the Egyptian side of the border and freezing out the movement.
Kobi Michael, a political scientist at Ariel University, said Israel’s most important alliance in the Middle East had become Cairo.
“Egypt has no problem seeing Gazans buckle under the burden,” he told AFP.
“In that aspect, Israel might have even disappointed Egypt a bit for not doing to Hamas what Egypt would have done to them if it were up to them,” he added.
Hollywood celebrities young and old have come out in condemnation of Israel since the beginning of hostilities with Hamas in Gaza.For Gaza critics, lessons from ISIS on genocide
Opponents of Israel have not been shy about making their thoughts known, whether it be through social media or letters denouncing Israel. Some have just cluelessly tweeted themselves onto team Hamas, and then rushed to clarify that they had no idea what they were talking about.
Here are some of the celebrities that have found themselves on the side of Hamas:
Protestors against Israel's operation in Gaza should pay close attention to what is happening tonight in northern Iraq. From a mountaintop, with a view over enemy combatants from a clear moral high ground, the United States is acting against the pending threat of actual genocide: the intentional, regime-sponsored systematic extermination of a people based on their identity.Refugee Fleeing ISIS Massacre of Yazidis Laments World’s Focus on Gaza – ‘Save Gaza, Save Gaza’
Genocide is not a word often uttered by American presidents. In part, that is because genocide is an exceptionally rare crime. But when the act occurs, it is unmistakeable in its scale and its hallmarks: the world knows what has happened, because historically, its perpetrators hold a worldview that their murderous actions were justified.
Can we expect mass protests in Vienna, Paris and Berlin calling for the protection of the oppressed of Iraq? The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says over 1 million have been displaced across Iraqi territory in the last month alone, with over 100,000 Christians, Yazidis, and many Muslims now seeking shelter.
This is what the threat of genocide looks like, for all those confused by its definition. Yazidi children are dying of thirst on the peak of a low mountain, without roofs over their heads to protect them from the August Iraqi sun, in flight from their homes because ISIS believes their families should submit and convert or perish. ISIS wants these people dead at their hands; the acute travesty unfolding in Iraq is just that simple.
He wrote of his previous interview: “Karim is a Yazidi, a member of an ancient religious minority in Iraq. Ethnically, he’s Kurdish. An engineer and a father of three young children, Karim spent years working for the U.S. Army in his area, then for an American medical charity. He’s been waiting for months to find out whether the U.S. government will grant him a Special Immigrant Visa because of his service, and because of the danger he currently faces.”Michael Lumish: Open Gaza to the Yazidi!
Packer said the Yazidi are being ignored as Israel’s involvement in a crisis captures world attention: “The front-page news continues to be the war in Gaza, a particular Western obsession whether one’s views are pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace, or pro-plague-on-both-houses. Nothing that either side has done in that terrible conflict comes close to the routine brutality of ISIS.”
He said: “Karim couldn’t help expressing bitterness about this. ‘I don’t see any attention from the rest of the world,’ he said. ‘In one day, they killed more than two thousand Yazidi in Sinjar, and the whole world says, ‘Save Gaza, save Gaza.””
I say that we move the Yazidi to Gaza! I think that is just a fine idea, but not just the Yazidi. Israel could open the Gaza as a refuge for all those persecuted by al-Sharia throughout the Middle East.We Now Know: Gaza Edition
Thus persecuted Copts from Egypt could come and live in the Gaza. Kurds living under Islamic persecution could come and live in Gaza. And, needless to say, any current Gazans willing to live in peace with their new non-Muslim neighbors would be welcome back with open arms.
It might be a little snug in there, I suppose, but without Hamas running things and with an influx of people not dedicated to political Islam, they could possibly turn the Gaza into some cross between Monte Carlo and Singapore.
The fog of war often means the first draft of history makes the greatest impact but needs to be corrected by later drafts. After the Cold War was over, historian John Lewis Gaddis called his updated book on the conflict “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” More famous is Kinglsey Amis’s suggestion that Robert Conquest call his new edition of The Great Terror “I Told You So, You F—ing Fools.” Yet now we have a rare opportunity in Gaza to apply what we now know to additional fighting in a war thought to be over.The Gaza War Has Changed the Way the World Talks About Hamas
We now know, that is, that Hamas was firing rockets from civilian areas and among neighborhoods where journalists were staying. That meant they were getting a twofer: reporters wouldn’t expose their war crimes and they would draw return fire from Israel that would endanger foreign journalists and Palestinian civilians. As we know from the Tet Offensive, if you can spook the reporters you can get your sky-is-falling coverage made to order.
Amid all the metrics commentators propose to determine “who won” Operation Protective Edge, one is staring everyone in the face: the international community’s attitude toward a postwar (if and when the war is over) Gaza. And on that score, Israel seems to have won a convincing victory. The Gaza war has changed the way the world is talking about Hamas and the Gaza Strip–and, despite all their tut-tutting at Jerusalem, they sound quite a bit like Benjamin Netanyahu.When bad men combine the good must associate
It’s possible that this is Hamas being a victim of its own morbid “success” with regard to the propaganda war. That is, maybe the international community is so torn up by the violence in Gaza that they want more than ever to prevent its recurrence. And no matter how often they try to blame Israel, they seem to understand that there’s only one way to prevent future bloodshed: demilitarize, at least to a significant degree, the Gaza Strip.
The West’s reaction to the Gaza war, its condemnation and abandonment of Israel, its lack of reaction to the massive atrocities committed in Syria and Iraq, Nigeria and Sudan (and many other places) by sociopathic Jihadi murderers, the main stream medias’ complicity in carrying out a terror PR campaign, the hypocrisy at the UN and the masses violently demonstrating around the world against Israel and no one else, the rise of anti-Semitism and its minimization by the media, the complete moral bankruptcy and betrayal of liberal “intellectuals”, the self-defeating political correctness and racism of lower expectations propagated in university campuses, the dramatic rise in radical Islamic anti-democratic populations in Europe and the decline of European culture… all lead me to the sad conclusion that Western Civilization is coming to an end. Maybe not in a year, or ten, or twenty, but certainly within our life time. It’s not going to be a smooth transition.Chris Cuomo’s Terrible Gaffe on Christians in Jerusalem
It doesn’t have to be this way. Maybe now people in London, New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, Mumbai, Beijing and Sidney, Moscow, Cape town, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires will wake up to the harsh reality. Because, to quote Edmund Burke, “When Bad men combine, the Good must associate, else we will fall one by one, a pitiful sacrifice in a contemptible struggle”.
And if you want to see Good, go visit Shalva to learn kindness and love and altruism. A ray of hope in a bleak cruel landscape.
In a segment that aired on Thursday, August 7, 2014, CNN’s morning show New Day did a brief segment on the ethnic cleansing of Christians from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq. CNN correspondent Nic Robertson described how tens of thousands of Christians “are now fleeing for their lives” into Kurdish-controlled areas, looking for sanctuary.The New York Times’s Erroneous and Shameful Defense of Hamas
It was a brief segment, but had great value because it communicated to the viewers about a humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place.
But then Chris Cuomo undermined its value with the following statement:
"Of course the question becomes is who is going to defend the Christians. A large under reported story. The same thing is going on in Jerusalem."
No, Chris, the same thing is not “going on in Jerusalem.” Christians are not being forced to flee Jerusalem by the tens of thousands. Christians are not having their heads cut off in the Holy City as they are in Iraq.
What a sad day when The New York Times, the U.S. “newspaper of record,” defends the way Hamas deliberately endangers its own citizens.Have pro-Hamas trolls taken over the Telegraph’s headline writing?
According to the paper, Hamas intentionally embeds its weapons and fighters in and around houses, mosques, schools, and hospitals—thereby drawing fire to them. It discourages civilians from heeding warnings to leave those areas. But for the NY Times, if Hamas doesn’t quite force those civilians to stay, it isn’t technically using “human shields.”
Here are the indisputable facts about what occurred today – a timeline of events that even the Guardian isn’t disputing.Glenn Greenwald Retweets “If Obama Were Consistent He’d Bomb Israel,” Then Deletes It
After warning that they wouldn’t agree to extend the ceasefire, Hamas carried though on the threat and, shortly after 8AM, began firing dozens of rockets at Israel.
Israel then responded to the Hamas rocket fire – which injured several Israelis – by targeting terror targets in Gaza.
Here’s how the Telegraph framed it:
"Israel launches air strikes on 'terror sites' in Gaza as ceasefire ends"
The purpose of his screed is to attack the Obama administration’s limited airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. These airstrikes are intended to degrade ISIS’s ability to attack American advisers, and also give cover for humanitarian airdrops for the Yazidi people, who are under quite explicit threat of genocide from the Islamist militants.Tens of thousands march in London, Cape Town in solidarity with Gaza
Greenwald, however, alleges that the Obama administration has hidden motivations for this military action, and that it simply cannot be for humanitarian purposes because the US “does not oppose tyranny and violent oppression in the Middle East.”
Tens of thousands of demonstrators in central London participated in a solidarity march for Gaza on Saturday as fighting between the IDF and terrorists in the enclave resumed after a 72-hour cease-fire ended Friday morning.Block the Boat earns the endorsement of the PFLP terror group
Also on Saturday, tens of thousands of people rallied in Cape Town against the IDF's renewed operations in Gaza amid fresh salvos of rocket attacks launched from the Strip following Hamas's refusal to extend a temporary cease-fire with Israel.
At the rally in the South African city, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu accused Israel of behaving like a "barbaric bully" in Gaza.
The Aug 16 blockade of a Zim cargo ship in the port of Oakland has the endorsement of the PLFP terror group, who writeTimes article’s claim that Cruz is being ‘blacklisted’
"The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praises the direct actions taken by various groups around the world to shut down the operations of the war machine assaulting the Palestinian people, and calls for increasing and escalating these actions everywhere the occupier and its supporters are present.
Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and others have attracted some criticism following the publication of a letter written in protest at the conflict in Gaza. It employed hyperbole, referring to ‘genocide’, but was not of course in the same league as comments made by some other Hollywood stars (Mel Gibson is the obvious example.)Extremist Al Awda Perpetuates Intel BDS Hoax
When reporting on sensitive news items, it’s important to remember the impact a headline can have. Perhaps Rhys Blakely didn’t write this one himself – ‘Studios blacklist Cruz over Gaza letter’ – but, whoever’s to blame, it seems a very irresponsible souping-up of unevidenced rumours, presenting these as established fact.
The BDS' holes will do nearly anything to claim victory. Routine restructuring of a corporate portfolio, the usual ups and downs of the financial market- its all used to tout the "success" of the BDS movement- the momentum, as they like to say is "unstoppable". As often as not, in the absence of any real success the BDS'ers will invent something out of thin air. It's happened before. It will happen again, because at its core, the BDS movement is morally bankrupt and is built on a fragile foundation of lies.Starbucks: We Don't Provide Financial Support to Israel
This is one of the more elaborate BDS schemes I can remember.
A fake press release was recently sent out announcing that Intel is suspending investments in Israel, pending an investigation of war crimes, and a fake website was set up that mimics Intel's real PR site. The site has since been removed.
The global coffee company Starbucks released a statement this week to clarify apparent misconceptions about the company's patronage of Israel, Huffington Post reports.Demonstrating against Israel in Cambridge
In a fact sheet updated August 5, Starbucks notes it does not support any political or religious causes, adding that neither Starbucks nor its CEO, Howard Schultz, provides any financial support to the Israeli government or Israeli military.
"Rumors that Starbucks or Howard provides financial support to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli Army are unequivocally false. Starbucks is a publicly held company and as such, is required to disclose any corporate giving each year through a proxy statement," the statement reads, according to Huffington Post.
As already flagged in the comments, last night’s disturbing proposed demonstration outside a synagogue in Cambridge was cancelled following outrage from many.Muslim Brotherhood stages large pro-Hamas demonstration in Amman
The comments under the story demonstrate a rare convergence of Zionist and anti-Zionist opinion – everyone seems agreed this was an utterly offensive idea.
More than 15,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered at a pro-Hamas rally in Jordan’s capital on Friday, with many chanting “Death to Israel” and urging the Palestinian group to step up rocket salvos against Israeli towns and cities.Ongoing harassment and vilification of students on campus.
The evening rally, the largest such protest in Amman in years, saw scores of masked youths dressed in the uniform of Izzadin Kassam, the armed wing of Hamas, stage a mock military parade to the cheers of a flag-waving crowd.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students has voiced concern at the weak response from La Trobe University to the ongoing harassment and vilification of students on campus.REPORT: 'ISIS Flag' Flying on London Council Estate, Breitbart London Investigates
Following the overwhelming failure of a hateful anti-Israel motion proposed by the Socialist Alternative at the La Trobe Student Union (LTSU) last week, Jewish students, and their supporters, have come under attack.
Posters have been placed around campus claiming Labor and Jewish students who opposed the motion support “genocide,” including the full name and a photo of three students.
Furthermore, there has been substantial ongoing verbal abuse.
Breitbart London went to the Will Crooks Estate in Poplar today to investigate. When we arrived, the flag had been taken down, and journalists were milling around looking for people to speak to.Watch: Exclusive Interview with Marine Attacked by Pro-Hamas Mob
Though cautious when speaking to us, residents were quick to point to the work of a nun, Sister Christine Frost, in taking the flag down.
What remained on the dilapidated, ghetto-like estate was a tatty, torn, Palestinian flag fluttering at the entrance, emblazoned with the shahada - the first pillar of Islam that states 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of God'.
In this episode, The United West conducts an exclusive interview with a U.S. Marine attacked by pro-Hamas mob in front of White House in Washington, D.C. and guests discuss the uncovered Hamas Urban Warfare Manual, which may expose "war crimes."Parkour mishap will make you shudder
Merely standing on the roof of a 40-story building is enough to stoke your fear of heights, but watching a careless daredevil attempt a back-flip on the skyscraper’s ledge, only to lose his balance as he lands, has the potential to make you physically ill.Veteran Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan dies at 85
In a video uploaded to YouTube on July 26, a 24-year-old Russian parkour artist named Sergey can be seen performing that exact stunt, with the same failed results, in the coastal city of Ashdod.
Miraculously, instead of falling to a rather gruesome death, Sergey, who goes by the alias Jumping Buddhha, manages to grab a hold of the ledge, picking himself up clumsily to safety.
Born in pre-state Israel as Menahem Globus, Golan was a pilot and bombardier in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and got an Oscar nomination for his film “Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt,” about the daring 1976 Israeli commando raid to rescue hostages held at an airport in Uganda. The only Israeli soldier killed in the operation was the commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In this Monday, Sept. 15, 1997 file photo, veteran movie maker Menahem Golan, right, motions for action during filming of "The Versace Murder" on location in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Golan, a veteran Israeli filmmaker who produced some of the biggest action movies of the 1980s, has died in Tel Aviv. He was 85.
Along with his cousin and partner Yoram Globus, he established The Cannon Group production company, running it for a decade and turning it into a major force in international film production and distribution. The Golan-Globus films earned a reputation for being low-budget, high-violence movies in which tough guys blast away terrorists.
“The Delta Force,” perhaps the most famous film Golan directed and produced, also was inspired by real-life events, based on the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet to Beirut. Lee Marvin, in his last film, starred as Col. Nick Alexander, who leads a daring rescue mission against Arab terrorists to free a commandeered plane.
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