08/15 Links Pt1: Supporting Hamas is Anti-Semitic; Groundhog Day in Gaza; Better Off Without UNWRA

From Ian:

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Alan M. Dershowitz: Supporting Hamas is Anti-Semitic

Some of those who support Hamas, such as Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson, claim that they support its political goals, but not its anti-Semitic policies. (We must recognize "its legitimacy as a political actor".) Others, such as the Turkish Foreign Minister and the leaders of Qatar, support its military goals. (We support the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas "because it embraces the Palestinian cause and struggles for its people.") These distinctions hold no water, since Hamas' anti-Jewish policies are central to its political and military actions. Some supporters of Hitler made the same argument, claiming that the Nazi Party and its leaders espoused good economic, educational and political policies. No reasonable person today accepts that excuse, and no reasonable person should accept the excuses offered by supporters of Hamas who claim to be able to slice the bologna so thin.
The same is true for those who argue that Hamas is preferable to ISIS or other Jihadist groups that might replace it. A similar argument was made by fascists who claimed that their parties were preferable to the Communists. The reality is that Hamas is an anti-Semitic organization, based on a Jew-hating philosophy, with the goal of destroying the nation state of the Jewish people and killing its Jewish inhabitants. It is evil personified. There is no excuse or justification for supporting Hamas, and anyone who does is supporting anti-Semitism.
Some Hamas supporters — such as those who chant "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas" — proudly acknowledge this reality. Others, such as Cornell West, who according to the American Spectator "headlined a high profile pro-Hamas demonstration," deny it. But all are complicit, even if they are themselves Jewish or have Jewish friends. Supporting an organization that at its core is anti-Jewish and whose charter calls for the killing of all Jews is anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent. And those politicians, academics, entertainers and others who support Hamas — and there are many — must be called out and condemned, as Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has been. So must those, like Navi Pillay, the head of the United Nation's Human Right Council, who see a moral equivalence between this anti-Semitic terrorist group and the democratic nation state of the Jewish people. She demanded that Israel share its Iron Dome system with Hamas, without condemning Hamas for using Palestinian civilians as its own Iron Dome.

Caroline Glick: Anti-Semitism and its limitations

A survey of Britons taken at the end of last month by YouGov showed that 62 percent believed that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza. This includes 72% of Labor supporters and 57% of Conservatives.
In other words, nearly two-thirds of Britons believe that Israel has no right to defend itself. And since Israel is surrounded by forces that seek its destruction, we can extrapolate that nearly two-thirds of Britons would, at a minimum, have no problem with Israel being wiped off the map.
This rising political force of anti-Semitism is already impacting previously supportive governments’ policies toward the Jewish state. Bowing to the anti-Israel positions of his Liberal-Democrat coalition partners, British Prime Minister David Cameron decided that arms exports to Israel will be suspended if Hamas continues its current round of war with Israel.
The primary engine propelling Western nation after Western nation to abandon their support for Israel and deny the protection of law to Jewish communities is the rising power of Muslim minority communities in these countries. As Douglas Murray explained in an essay published by the Gatestone Institute this week, when it comes to Israel and Jews, otherwise integrated, moderate Muslims in Europe are quick to join jihadists in denouncing Israel and rallying behind anti-Semitic curses and threats.
The unanimity of anti-Semitic prejudice among Muslim communities in the West, and its impact on the politics of Western nations, indicates that in the future, Western nations’ polities toward Israel may have more in common with the positions of Sunni Arab states than with those of the US.

Sarah Honig: Groundhog Day in Gaza

It took Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, countless rocket barrages of ever-increasing ranges (all the way to Zichron Ya’acov), ambushes, abductions and mega-scale weapons arsenals to impress average Israelis with the truth.
Yet some political Phils still want to drag us back to their Punxsutawney in the sand, and force us to wake to another Groundhog Day with Abbas once more in charge of Gaza, quite regardless of his proven perfidy, quite regardless of what has already happened under his watch in Gaza, quite regardless of the fundamental fact that he couldn’t hold on to Gaza in the first place, that he was the incompetent who lost it Hamas.
What Livni, Herzog, Gal-On and their hangers-on prefer we forget is that this isn’t a classroom exercise in conjuring outlandish screenplay outlines. It’s doubtful that they believe their own folly-mongering. There’s something beyond the cynical in trying to cause others to blunder through the identical ghastly experience time and time and time again.
It’s nothing less than unconscionable to deceptively inspire false optimism in others and urge them to stake their lives serially on what has miserably failed for 20 years, assuring all and sundry that it would this time end up really well.
Weatherman Phil was a fictional fellow. Yes, he became desperate, even suicidal, but his exploits were side-splitting and destined for a Hollywood happy-end. Our interminable ordeal, however, is anything but a funny flick. Our infatuation with the homegrown version of Groundhog Day firmly belongs in the horror genre.
Our nightmarish ordeals are for real and we can’t awaken to another reality. We, alas, aren’t in pastoral Punxstawney. There’s nothing humorous about Hamas and nothing amusing about its enabler, Abbas.

StandWithUs: Col. Richard Kemp on the IDF & Hamas in Gaza (47 Min)




Sarah Honig: Seemingly Sisyphean Quest

The most effective weapon which Hamas wielded against Israel throughout Protective Edge was its manipulation of civilian casualty numbers and images. The cumulative impact was used to provoke hate campaigns against Israel and/or Jews worldwide and misrepresent Israel’s self-defense as a calculated massacre of helpless civilians.
Some of the ploys were cynical beyond belief.
Photos of dead bodies from the Syrian conflict were recycled as Gazan victims of Israeli malevolence. Even pictures of the Fogel family children, slaughtered inside their Itamar home in 2011 by Palestinian terrorists, were purported to show Arabs murdered by Israeli troops.
Footage from the emergency room at Shifa Hospital in Gaza was rerun continually as if chronicling brand new incidents. Patients brought in due to disease, accidents and domestic violence were all exhibited as casualties of deliberate Israeli barbarity.
But none of this rivaled the numbers game.

Sarah Honig: Better Off Without UNWRA

UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, has joined Hamas’s clamor for lifting the blockade on Gaza forthwith. This was the gist of what UNRWA’s Gaza spokesman Chris Gunness demanded. No surprise here. UNRWA never played a remotely constructive or impartial role in the Mideast.
Its self-preservation interests perhaps rule out neutrality and fairness to begin with, lest these actually lead to improvements that might obviate the sham pretext for keeping UNRWA around. UNRWA’s continued existence hinges on not solving this region’s problems.
Put differently, it’s in UNRWA’s distinct interest to keep the flames of conflict burning high.

Times of Israel Live Blog: Egyptian paper publishes the 11 clauses of Cairo’s purported ceasefire offer

A five-day truce began amid rocket fire midnight Wednesday, but held through Thursday and deep into Friday. Reports Thursday suggested new strains in the Israel-US relationship, with Washington confirming new review procedures for arms sales to Israel. Israel’s negotiators are due back in Cairo Saturday night.

For 90 Minutes, Jewish Leaders Tell UN’s Ban Ki-moon About Hamas Abuses, List 19 War Crimes

The group included Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, directors of The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman, Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and representatives from B’nai Brith and Hadassah.
Rabbi Cooper told The Algemeiner on Thursday, “Bottom line, the Jewish world will have to be more proactive on the international stage, not only to defend Israel, but ourselves as well. We will continue to interact with Ban Ki Moon to insure that this important leader will be more responsive.”
In a follow-up note to Ban after their meeting, the SWC rabbis summed up the argument they presented. They said that “we must frankly ask you how many times will the world allow itself to be held hostage by Hamas? This is the third time since 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza that Hamas has brought death and destruction to the people of Gaza. Once again they are using the people of Gaza, the civilian infrastructure and UN facilities in its non-stop campaign to terrorize the Jewish state.”

How the Obama Administration is helping Hamas

So in other words, the White House is sabotaging Israel’s war effort while at the same time validating Hamas’ line that Israel is brutally unconcerned with civilian casualties in Gaza. As a matter of fact, the actual number of noncombatants killed or wounded is not high at all, given the conditions under which this war — and we need to emphasize that it is a defensive war — is being fought.
Hamas deliberately tries to actually increase noncombatant casualties on its own side, as well as exaggerating the numbers as part of its political strategy whose intent is to encourage the ‘international community’ to tie Israel’s hands so that it is unable to defend itself. Thus the US is in effect helping Hamas carry out this strategy.
The cutoff of Hellfire missiles is especially silly if the US is upset about casualties from artillery or other non-precision weapons. The Hellfire is about as surgical a weapon as you can get, preferred for taking out a target as small as a car or motorcycle without collateral damage.
There is also a degree of hypocrisy involved, since the US has a far worse record than Israel of safeguarding civilians in its recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Israeli envoy to US: 'Impossible' for Israel to go around White House for arms

It would be "impossible" for Israel to go around the White House's back to get a resupply of arms from the Pentagon, former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, told Ynet on Thursday, in response to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
"There is a claim in the Wall Street Journal that Israel went around the back of the United States to get a resupply of ammunition from the Pentagon, that it didn't get permission from the White House. I can only tell you as an ambassador that is impossible because there's a very specific and deeply embedded procedure for doing that and Israel, in order to get access to preposition military equipment in this country, American equipment, has to go through the administration," Oren said.

State Department: Stopping Missiles Shipment 'Not Unusual'

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Thursday disputed an article in the Wall Street Journal which revealed that U.S. President Barack Obama's administration stopped a shipment of missiles to Israel late last month and tightened weapons shipment procedures to Israel.
According to AFP, while Harf acknowledged that the administration was looking carefully at arms shipments to Israel, she said the process was "by no means unusual."
"Given the crisis in Gaza, it's natural that agencies take additional care to review deliveries," she was quoted as having told reporters.
"The United States has an unshakable commitment to Israel's security. No country has done more to support their security than the United States," she stressed.

Poll: Most Americans Disapprove of Obama's Israel Policy

Fifty-four percent (54%) of respondents noted their disapproval of Obama's policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whereas just 30% approved.
The responses showed deep divides between Republicans and Democrats, White and Black Americans, as well as different age brackets.
Among Republicans, 74% disapproved of Obama's policies toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to just 34% of Democrats; 59% of White Americans gave Obama a low approval rating on the issue, compared to just 24% of Black Americans.
In addition, younger voters were slightly more likely to disapprove of the White House's Israel policies; while 58% of voters under the age of 25 gave Obama a low approval rating on the issue, that percentage gradually fell to 44% for voters over the age of 65.

Netanyahu says Israel will respond forcefully even to a ‘drizzle’ of rockets

Amid mounting public criticism, especially in the South, that Operation Protective Edge might well end without removing for a long period the rocket and mortar threats from the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu met in his office with the heads of the Hof Ashkelon, Sha’ar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regional councils.
“The IDF launched Operation Protective Edge after Hamas returned to drizzle rocket fire on the southern communities,” the prime minister said. “Our policy is clear and consistent – even to a drizzle we respond forcefully.
We launched this campaign to strengthen the security of all Israeli citizens in general, and yours in particular.”

Bennett: For Every Rocket, Hit 20 Commanders' Homes in Gaza

Jewish Home Chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said Thursday that it is time to stop the “unbecoming” negotiations with Hamas and opt for unilateral action against the terror organization.
"Open up the crossings into Gaza for humanitarian equipment, and respond with disproprtionate force to any fire on the southern communities,” Bennett prescribed, as he entered a session of the Diplomacy and Security Cabinet.

Six Terrorists Arrested as IDF Preps for Day of Rage

Six wanted Arab terrorists were arrested in Judea and Samaria overnight Thursday/Friday, according to IDF sources.
Four of them were arrested in Deir Istiya, southeast of Qalqilya, and another Hamas terrorist was arrested in Beit Ummar, southwest of Bethlehem. They were interrogated by security forces.
In addition, Duvdevan special forces apprehended a Hamas member in the Aida "refugee camp" in Bethlehem.

Elkin: It's Okay to Say 'No' to Obama

MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said on Thursday that it is okay to say “no” to U.S. President Barack Obama if Israel's security is at stake.
"The United States is a senior partner of ours and is very important to us, but this partnership cannot come at the expense of the security of Israel's citizens," Elkin told Army Radio.
"So because of the pressure exerted on us by the Americans we should give up on the security of Israel's citizens and strike a deal which is unequivocally in favor of Hamas? I expect the government to know when to tell the Americans ‘no,’" he added.

“If I’m not back in 5 minutes, I’m dead”: Testimony of Lt. Eitan

Lt. Eitan lead a group of soldiers into the tunnel, warning them that it could be booby trapped and that if danger arose, they needed to open fire immediately.
“There, I saw Hadar’s blood and his equipment.” To his right, Eitan found bags blocking the passage and a gun. He stepped forward, opened one of the bags and found explosives inside. He immediately sent an expert to defuse them.
Lt. Eitan wanted to reach the end of the tunnel to find Lt. Goldin, but he knew that terrorists could kill him or take him hostage. “I turned around and said to my commander ‘Count how long I’m here. I will run as fast as possible to reach the tunnel’s entrance. During this time, call the other soldiers into the tunnel. If I’m not back in 5 minutes – I’m dead’.” Lt. Eitan started running as he fired. Inside the tunnel, he saw more explosives, weapons, and entrances to other tunnels.

'Why be a soldier in the US when I can do it in Israel?'

"A year ago, after a large family dinner, I got up and told my parents and my siblings that I had something important to say, and that I needed their undivided attention for a few moments," says 19-year-old Josh Harris, the sparkle in his eyes as evident as his American accent. "Everybody grew quiet, and listened. Then I told them I had decided to make aliyah to Israel and to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces."
It seems the Harris family was unready for the bombshell. This was a military family which had sent three generations of young men off to combat in some of the most elite units in the American army. Josh's father, Richard, is an American Jew who retired from the U.S. armed forces with the rank of lieutenant-colonel; his mother, Jackie, is a Christian of Korean descent. Josh Harris himself had recently been accepted into four military academies, and he was expected to choose one of them and continue on the life path his parents had planned for him since the day he was born. A four-year stay at the academy, on a full scholarship, would have given him a degree in the sciences, an officer's rank, and a starting salary of $3,000 a month.

Israel's first Christian Arab pre-military class graduates

Thirty members of Israel's first pre-military course specially tailored for Christian Arab citizens entering the Israel Defense Forces celebrated their graduation in a formal ceremony in Haifa this week. The group includes four women.
Current law does not require most Israeli Arabs to serve in the military. But in April, the IDF launched a campaign to encourage more Christian Arabs to volunteer, mailing out voluntary enlistment forms to potential recruits, male and female. The information detailed the process of volunteering for service and spelled out the possible roles available for the recruits, including combat positions. Some 128,000 Arab Christians live in Israel.

Thousands demonstrate support for southern towns

Some 10-15,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Thursday night in a show of support for the rocket-ravaged southern communities and to call for an end to the constant interruptions to their daily lives.
The event was organized by the mayors and municipal leaders of towns and communities living near the Gaza border, together with the Tel Aviv municipality.
Under the title “Don’t stay quiet on a red,” a reference to a similarly worded road safety campaign slogan and the Color Red missile warning system, the mayors expressed their frustration with living under persistent mortar and rocket attacks.

Poll Shows Nationalist Surge; Jewish Home at 19 Seats

The latest Knesset Channel poll indicates that the nationalist and religious bloc would surge if elections were held today.
The poll gives Likud 28 seats (up from 19), the Jewish Home 19 (up from 12), Yisrael Beytenu 9 (down from 12), Shas 7 (down from 11), United Torah Judaism (UTJ) is unchanged at 7.
All in all, the nationalist-religious bloc is at 70 seats – up 9 from its current 61 seats, which gives it a bare majority in the Knesset. (h/t Canadian Otter)

Far-Left Groups Shocked by Public Backlash

Israeli public opinion has overwhelmingly supported Operation Protective Edge, which was launched over a month ago to end indiscriminate rocket fire from Gazan terrorists against Israeli civilians. A poll carried out by The Israel Democracy Institute last month said 95 percent of Israeli Jews believed the offensive was just.
Only a few fringe groups from the Israeli left have voiced opposition to the operation, including radical Haaretz journalist Gidon Levy, who accused air force pilots of perpetrating "the cruelest (and) most despicable deeds", despite going through great pains to avoid civilian casualties.
Haaretz itself has suffered as a result of Levy's pieces, which have been considered beyond the pale even by the paper's left-wing readership, and hundreds of readers have cancelled their subscriptions. The paper hired Levy bodyguards after people stopped in the street to insult him and government whip Yariv Levin denounced him as a liar, a "mouthpiece of the enemy" who should be put on trial for treason.
"I have never faced such aggressive reaction, never," Levy told AFP in his cramped office at Haaretz in Tel Aviv, away from the coffee shops where he fears being insulted.

Cuomo Takes a Tunnel Terror Tour

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrapped up his quickie pre-election tour of Israel Thursday with an armored car escort of tunnels Hamas terrorists had dug with the aim of mass slaughter of Jews at a kibbutz near the Gaza border.
Cuomo has enjoyed five-star hospitality from Israel in appreciation of his solidarity trip. He said that Hamas is an enemy of New York just like it is of Israel.
Like most Americans who see Israel thought the lens of CNN or the photos in The New York Times showing IDF soldiers and dead Gazans, the governor and his delegation really didn’t understand the extent of the sophistication of the tunnels.

Despite War, Israel Continues Vast Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

Israel continues to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite Hamas’ terrorist attacks and violations of ceasefires.
Approximately 270 trucks carrying 5,580 tons of goods and supplies have entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing since August 11, according to a report released by the Israel Ministry of Defense’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) .
Among the trucks were 133 trucks carrying 2,820 tons of food, and 10 trucks carrying 100 tons of medicine and medical supplies. Since July 8, 3,324 trucks have entered Gaza from Israel. In addition, Magen David Adom (MDA) transferred 18 Palestinian patients at the Erez Crossing, which included sick and wounded individuals, from Gaza to Turkey via Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, August 13.

Soldiers rapped for celebrating after shooting Palestinian

Several IDF soldiers were disciplined after footage emerged showing them apparently congratulating one another for shooting an 18-year-old Palestinian in the leg. The army said the Palestinian youth was shot while attempting to throw a Molotov cocktail.
One of the soldiers also appeared to mock the injured Palestinian’s limp as he scrambled away after he was shot.
The International Solidarity Movement reported on the incident on Tuesday, saying that the shooting took place on August 9 in Hebron.

Hebrew U. refuses to remove Schabas despite anti-Israel stance

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has refused to remove Professor William Schabas from the advisory board of a law faculty publication, despite what is seen as his strong anti-Israel stance.
Schabas was recently appointed to head the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigation into Israel's conduct during Operation Protective Edge, despite his well-publicized political views, sparking outrage among Israeli politicians.
Israeli lawyer David Schonberg wrote to the Hebrew University, requesting Schabas' dismissal from the advisory board role in light of the appointment and his history of inflammatory comments about Israel.

Full-Page Ads Denouncing Head of UN Gaza Probe to Run in NYT, WSJ, WaPo, Guardian

This World: The Values Network, an organization headed by author and occasional Breitbart News contributor Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, announced Thursday that it will run full-page advertisements in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and multiple online media outlets denouncing the recent appointment of William Schabas to head the UNHRC commission on human rights violations during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Schabas has made several well documented anti-Israel statements over the past few years, at one point saying his "favorite would be Netanyahu in the dock of the international criminal court."
"The days are over when hypocritical and fraudulent human rights activists can impugn Israel at will," Boteach told Breitbart News in a phone interview Thursday night. "There must be an end to the days where Israel is a punching bag, everyone's doormat."

Jews pull the strings in world events, prominent Quebec media personality says in anti-Semitic rant

Gilles Proulx was invited onto Montreal’s Radio X last Friday after writing a column in the Journal de Montréal on the Israel-Hamas conflict. “No need to be an expert to say that Israel could make Washington, Paris or Ottawa bend, knowing in advance that its diaspora, well established, will make any government submit!” he wrote in the Journal.
Speaking to Radio X, he elaborated on his thinking, suggesting Jews historically provoke hate and persecution. “The diaspora is scattered around the world, where they take economic control, provoke the hatred of local nations, whether it is in Spain, for example, with the Inquisition, or again later with Adolf Hitler,” he said.
Later he added: “The diasporas are so powerful in Paris, New York, Toronto or in Ottawa or Montreal, that they can manipulate the government through their opinions, their threats, their pressure, making it a marionette.” The show’s host never challenged Mr. Proulx’s remarks.
Mr. Proulx has a long history of incendiary comments, going back as far as the 1990 Oka crisis when his anti-aboriginal rants were blamed for drawing a mob that hurled rocks at a convoy of Mohawk women, children and elderly leaving the Kahnawake reserve.

US victims’ lawyer: Arab Bank financed terrorists

A large Jordan-based bank funneled tens of millions of dollars to the families of suicide bombers and terrorist operatives with ties to Hamas during the Second Intifada from 2001 to 2004, lawyers for American terror victims said Thursday at a federal trial in Brooklyn.
The funds were distributed over the counter in cash to relatives of dead bombers at Arab Bank branches in the West Bank and Gaza by bank officials who “knew these neighbors of theirs were evil and criminal people,” attorney Tab Turner said in opening statements.
Arab Bank attorney Shand Stephens countered by telling jurors that Arab Bank had followed regulations requiring it to screen transactions against lists of known terrorists compiled by the US and European officials and none were flagged. The bank, he added, was following the instructions of an organization run by the Saudi government, the Saudi Committee for Supporting Al Quds Intifada.
“The Arab Bank did not choose who to pay,” Stephens said. “The Saudi Committee did that.”

The Arab Bank and the Future of Terror

Yet some observers, like those quoted in a New York Times article on the case, believe a victory for the plaintiffs will make it harder for banks to do business in “strife torn areas” of the globe. They further argue that a ruling against Arab Bank would set a precedent in which all financial institutions could be held accountable for the crimes of their clients.
But this is nonsense. Banks are not liable if criminals have accounts there. But when banks become the conduit for the movement of funds to terrorism, they are not playing a passive role in the crime. They are directly facilitating groups that traffic in murder for ideological reasons. In the case of Arab Bank, which openly supported the siege of Israel in its own publications, the defense that it didn’t know what it was doing is hardly credible.
Moreover, as we have learned in the last decade since 9/11, straightforward law enforcement efforts aren’t enough to shut down terrorism. The only way to effectively choke off terror groups like al-Qaeda or Hamas is to shut down their financial networks that use institutions like the defendant to both bankroll their operations and provide what amounts to insurance policies for suicide bombers.
If the plaintiffs in Linde v. Arab Bank prevail, as they should, it will deal a critical blow to Islamists and others who use the banking system to launder the vast sums they get from Arab and other Muslim sources to pursue a genocidal war against Jews and Israel. If they do, the State Department will complain but the world will be a lot safer.

Norway Reagan Fan Parliamentarian Gets Death Threats for Supporting Israel

A libertarian member of the Norwegian parliament has received death threats after attending a pro-Israel rally in Oslo.
The Local reports that Kristian Norheim, who is a secretary of the Freedom Party (Framstegspartiet) and admirer of Margaret Thatcher has said he received threats that his family were going to “go through the same as the civilians in Gaza”.
Norheim is a long standing and vocal supporter of Israel, and critic of Islamism. His tweets include condemnation of the boycott of Israeli goods, and praise for former United States President Ronald Reagan.

Fatah official calls for dual nationality troops to be prosecuted

Senior Fatah official Muhammad Shtayyeh called for Israeli soldiers with dual nationality to be prosecuted for war crimes.
“Israeli soldiers with dual citizenship who participate in the aggression on Gaza make it so their countries participated in some way in the aggression against Palestine,” he said in a forum at the Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron, according to a report by the Middle East Monitor website on Wednesday.
Shtayyeh said that these soldiers should have their non-Israeli nationalities revoked.
The Palestinian politician reported that there were around 5,000 Israeli soldiers with dual nationality, approximately 1,000 of whom have American citizenship.

PA to UNESCO: Destruction of mosques in Gaza is a war crime

The IDF did not comment on the matter. But Israel, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has in general stated that Hamas has stored weapons in mosques. The IDF has also in past charge that Hamas has dug tunnels underneath mosques or used them as a base from which to launch rockets.
Last year Al Monitor – the DC-based news website on the Middle East – ran an article that charged that Hamas had expanded the harbor for military purposes.
“The military wing of the Islamic movement of Hamas, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea,” Al-Monitor said. “The Brigades damaged the harbor in order to expand its military training zone, which was initially opened on the location in 2002.”
But the PA Tourism Ministry, focused solely on Israel in its call to the international community and UNESCO.

Some Palestinian leaders signal end to hostilities in Gaza

The ceasefire talks to end Operation Protective Edge in Cairo remained on hold Friday, but some representatives of Palestinian terror groups in Gaza intimated that the fighting might be over.
Deputy head of Islamic Jihad Ziad Nakhaleh told the al-Hayat newspaper Friday that the hostilities between Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel are done, and at this stage there’s no choice but to reach a long-term ceasefire agreement. Khaled al-Batsh, another senior member of the terror group, had said Thursday that even if a deal isn’t reached that addresses the demands of the Palestinians, the groups in Gaza would weigh a long-term ceasefire to protect the civilian population.
A Hamas source told Israel Radio Friday that he believes the fighting won’t start again, even if a deal isn’t reached by Monday. Another unnamed Hamas official who spoke to Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin said the Islamist group wanted a long-term ceasefire with Israel, and would even accept international oversight to ensure that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip took place above ground instead of below.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas Under Pressure As Armed Wing of Fatah Insists on Fighting, Questioning His Sincerity for Peace

The report could embarrass and weaken Abbas at a time when international mediators are trying to raise his status as the potential peace keeper for Gaza, although his inability or lack of interest to disarm Fatah’s own Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades raises more questions about his own desires for living peacefully with Israel.
“The only effective course of action against the enemy is armed struggle – kidnapping soldiers, striking the enemy, and martyrdom operations, ” an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader said in the footage translated by MEMRI and flagged on Wednesday by blogger Elder of Ziyon. “We in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades promise you that we are preparing a high-profile attack against the Zionist enemy: kidnapping Zionist soldiers and imprisoning them, in order to empty the Zionist prisons of our commanders and comrades held there.”
As solutions to the conflict in Gaza point towards Fatah, in the West Bank, rising above the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad factions, in Gaza, blogger Elder of Ziyon called out the hypocrisy of the party, and Abbas, in particular, for never renouncing the violence or clamping down on its own armed wing.
“Not once has Abbas denounced the terrorist groups that operate under his own party,” the blogger said. “This is one of the biggest unreported stories of the war – the Israelis don’t want to mention it because they are cooperating with the PA on security and don’t want to embarrass Abbas, and the media stays away from the topic because it contradicts their meme of Abbas being a man of peace.”

Grumbling in Gaza: Bitter voices of anti-Hamas dissent surface

Exhausted by a month of pounding by Israel’s military — on top of seven years of stifling closure of the tiny Mediterranean coastal strip — they questioned Hamas’s handling of the crisis and the wisdom of repeatedly going to war with Israel.
“We do not want to be bombarded every two or three years. We want to lead a good life: Sleep well, drink well and eat well,” said Ziad Rizk, a 37-year-old father of two, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He stared at the damaged apartment building where he lived. His sofa and a blue baby carriage were perched precariously on a tilting concrete slab that was his floor.
It is impossible to say how widespread such discontent is among Gaza’s 1.8 million residents. Under Hamas rule, it’s rare and dangerous to share even as much as a hint of criticism of the government with outsiders.

Nasrallah: Israel is a cancer and the ultimate goal should be to remove it

Speaking in a multi-part interview on Thursday, which is to be published over the next two days in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which tends to support Hezbollah, Nasrallah said that Israel seeks short wars that lead to “a quick, decisive and clear victory.”
“The reason for this is their realization that any future war is going to be a lot more difficult in terms of its targets and the ability of the resistance – its rocket capabilities and capabilities in all areas. The enemy cannot withstand a war of attrition,” he said.
Nasrallah played down the success of the Iron Dome defense system, asserting “it will face a real issue when there is a large number of rockets.”
Asked about advice he would give the “Palestinian resistance” in Gaza, Nasrallah responded, “When a human being is given two choices, either surrender or fight, there is no choice between fighting and humiliation. The culture of the resistance and the choice of the resistance grew among the Palestinian people because they have no other option.”

IRGC Commander Lists His 5 Favorite Palestinian Terror Groups

The Daily Beast reported yesterday that two weeks ago, when he pledged his support the Palestinians fighting Israel, Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Qods Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), singled out five groups for special mention: Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, the al-Aqsa Martyrs and the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades.
The Qassam Brigades is the active terrorist branch of Hamas and “the largest and best-equipped group operating in Gaza today.” It is led by Mohammad Deif, who is sometimes referred to as the defense minister of Hamas. The Daily Beast notes that Deif reportedy lives in the Shuja’iya neighborhood which, the IDF noted, was the site of much of the terror infrastructure that was threatening Israel.

David Singer: Hamas Has Grossly Humiliated World Media in Gaza

Some reporters however reportedly received death threats. Sometimes, cameras were smashed. Reporters were prevented from filming anti-Hamas demonstrations where more than 20 Palestinians were shot dead by Hamas gunmen.
Evidence of Hamas controlling the flow of news is obvious in its failure to allow the media to:
independently determine, separate and verify the number of civilian and Hamas deaths photograph any Hamas forces launching rockets from residential areas or civilians being used as human shields.
A BBC investigation has uncovered photos of dead children from earlier conflicts being passed off as casualties in the current conflict – being fed to gullible reporters to send around the World to even more gullible target audiences.
Why would reporters keep going back into Gaza to be so humiliated by Hamas?
They are certainly not reporting what is actually happening.
Maybe they should stay out of Gaza and let Hamas do its own media releases.
The media barons would certainly save a lot of money.

British Jewry's woeful 'official leadership'

I was unable to attend last night's 'Town Hall meeting' hosted by the Board of Deputies in response to the Gaza crisis and the rise in antisemitism in the UK. Judging by the report here the audience gave the 'leaders' a bit of a tough time, but it seems that nobody asked the really tough questions I suggested here (especially why the BoD was partnering with Oxfam and why it was lobbying with Islamists to stop pro-Israel speakers from coming to the UK).
It is clear there is no hope of our 'leaders' stemming the tidal wive of antisemitism because they refuse to understand that this tidal wive is almost exclusively wrapped up in the form of demonization of Israel and support for Hamas. Anything that fails to address this is doomed to failure In particular, anybody who uses a statement like "British Jews should not be punished for the actions of the Israeli government" is not only failing to help but is part of the problem as they are actually providing further fuel for the antisemitism. Any statement like that simply confirms in the minds of the antisemites that they are right in their premise that Israel is the root cause of evil. The fact that today's Jewish Chronicle - the so called 'voice of British Jewry' - includes a full page advert for the DEC Gaza appeal scam is a perfect summary of everything that is wrong. This appeal (as discussed here) is a perfect case study of how our enemies' lies lead to demonization of Israel and provide both financial and moral support for Hamas terrorists.

Cleared, the Lib Dem who said he’d bomb Israel

The Liberal Democrats sparked fury last night after saying they would not suspend an MP who had said he would be ready to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel.
David Ward, Lib Dem MP for Bradford East, initially apologised after he was accused of inciting violence following a post on Twitter last month in which he said: 'The big question is - if I lived in Gaza would I fire a rocket? - probably yes.'
Last night, after an investigation lasting three weeks, the Lib Dem chief whip Don Foster said he did not believe Mr Ward's comments were 'in any way anti-Semitic' or motivated by anti-Semitic intentions.

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after storming Port Melbourne roof

POLICE have arrested six pro-Palestinian protesters who stormed the roof of a subsidiary of an Israeli arms manufacturer in Port Melbourne this morning.
Three men and three women from the Melbourne Palestine Action Group occupied the roof of Elbit Systems of Australia for five hours before being removed by police about 10am.
Police arrested the six people and expect to charge them on summons with trespass.
Group spokeswoman Sam Castro claimed Elbit Systems was responsible for manufacturing the “majority of drones” used in the Gaza conflict.

Postal Service Apologizes for Denying Mail Deliveries to Israel

The USPS admitted that some customers may have been turned away and apologized for the confusion when reached for comment by the Washington Free Beacon.
“Any post office that might have turned away customers tendering mail addressed to Israel and dispatched by the U.S. Postal Service during this time did so in error, and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience they experienced as a result,” a USPS spokesman said in a statement.
No authorization was ever granted to stop mail delivery to Israel and the USPS attempted to ensure that service to Israel continued during the duration of the Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) suspension of flights to Israel last month.

Anti-Semitic Flyers Surface at Jewish-Owned Business Near UCLA

Ant-Semitic flyers have been found near the UCLA campus. A flyer bearing the words “Wanted” and “Warning” with swastikas was put under the door of a store owned by a Jewish man.
“I don’t know why some people are against Judaism,” the store’s owner told CBSLA. “I was very deeply sad,” he added. The store owner sought spiritual counsel from Rabbi Boruch Cunin at Chabad House near UCLA.
The new leaflets come after similar flyers were found in Valley Village in June.
Students by the UCLA campus were stunned to hear about the anti-Semitic flyers. “This is ridiculous…My boyfriend is Jewish. I have so many Jewish friends. There’s a Jewish frat just down the street. I cannot believe that this is happening,” Shannon Charrette, a student at UCLA, said.

Unused Grad Rocket Feeling Left Out, Inadequate (satire)

GL-5678832, a Chinese- made Grad missile, is the only unit in its lot of 32 missiles to remain unused in the recent Hamas-Israel conflict, and is questioning its self-worth.
“I don’t know what they think is wrong with me,” it said. “I passed Quality Control. I’ve been properly assembled. Somebody even scrawled a boastful, demeaning message to Israelis on my fuselage. I was all set to be loaded into a 122 mm 9P132/BM-21-P launch tube and sent hurtling over the border, but – nothing.”
GL-5678832 was stored with its lot-mates in an underground bunker in the city of Khan Younis, only to be moved to a location closer to the border in anticipation of launching. The Hamas crew managed to fire all the other missiles in the lot, but on Saturday the Israel Air Force struck the mosque in which the rocket was waiting, causing it to collapse. The falling debris buried the tunnel under the building, blocking access to the rocket. A separate, simultaneous strike killed three members of the five-man launch crew and seriously injured the other two.

Amid Missouri Violence, US To Suspend Missile Delivery To US (satire)

Following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri this week and the heavy-handed police response to the ensuing protests, the Obama administration has instructed the Pentagon to put on hold any scheduled shipments of missiles to the United States, to demonstrate American displeasure with the police and government response.
A White House statement sent to the US government and distributed to reporters condemned US authorities’ repressive tactics and warned that despite existing arrangements for the manufacture and delivery of various weapons system components, the president would be forced to reevaluate its adherence to those arrangements if US authorities continued to violate the civil and human rights of the demonstrators and of the press covering the events.

On Iraq, Obama Vows To Restore American Weakness (satire)

In an address to reporters and fellow Democrats, the President gave the rationale for delaying a strike, if any, until after Congress takes up the question instead of summarily deciding against military action. As Obama sees it, simply letting the Islamic State off the hook for its brutality would not have the same deleterious effect on American global influence as a protracted display of cowardice, backpedaling, partisan divisiveness, and lack of political will.
“Iranian ascendancy remains only one possible outcome of many if the US launches strikes against Iraq,” Obama told those in attendance. “But to simultaneously guarantee decades of profound Ayatollah influence in the Middle East and a retrenchment of American power not seen since the withdrawal from Vietnam, we have to approach the very idea of military action with a manifest absence of confidence; with an unwillingness to deploy the power in which we’ve invested trillions of dollars; and with an ironic obliviousness to the effect this compromising of principles has on both our allies and enemies.”