Monday, August 25, 2014
David Horovitz: Daniel Tragerman’s war
Daniel Tragerman is the inadvertent symbol of a war that has now lasted 49 days — a seven-week harvest of hatred and bloodshed, courtesy of Hamas.Khaled Abu Toameh: Will Hamas Be Held Accountable for War Crimes?
His heartbroken mother Gila said, as she leant on his small-child’s coffin for support at his funeral on Sunday, that Daniel had “iron discipline” when it came to the rocket alerts. He was resolute and mature about taking shelter, because he knew that his little, loving family — parents Gila and Doron, younger sister Yuval and baby brother Uri – would be safe only once they reached that protected room.
There’s symbolism there, too, of course — in a nation reestablished too late to offer safe refuge to the Jews of Europe, and adamant about ensuring safe refuge for subsequent generations. Because when all is said and done, that’s all we want here: safe refuge. Peace and security in our historic national homeland, alongside, not instead of, the Arab peoples around us.
That’s all we want. That’s what was denied to four-year-old Daniel Tragerman. “We were the happiest family in the world,” said Gila Tragerman. Until Friday.
What Khaled Mashaal forgot to mention was that Hamas and the Islamic State do have at least one thing in common: they both carry out extrajudicial executions as a means of terrorizing and intimidating those who stand in their way or who dare to challenge their terrorism.Ron Prosor: Club Med for Terrorists
According to Hamas's logic, all members of the Palestinian Authority government are "traitors" who should be dragged to public squares to be shot by firing squads. According to the same logic, Mahmoud Abbas himself should be executed for maintaining security coordination with and talking to Israelis.
As for the two executed women, the sources said that their only fault was that they had been observed asking too many questions about Palestinians who were killed in airstrikes.
Today, the petite petroleum kingdom is determined to buy its way to regional hegemony, and like other actors in the Middle East, it has used proxies to leverage influence and destabilize rivals. Qatar’s proxies of choice have been radical regimes and extremist groups.Why would the NY Times publish an uncorroborated allegation from the son of a top Hamas official?
In pursuit of this strategy, the gulf state is willing to dally with any partner, no matter how abhorrent. Qatar has provided financial aid and light weapons to Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria, and a base for leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban.
The emirate has also used the Arabic service of Al Jazeera news network to spread radical messages that have inflamed sectarian divides. In the early days of the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera’s coverage of popular uprisings earned the network millions of new followers and solidified its status as a mainstream global news network. Qatar capitalized on this popularity by advancing its own agenda — namely, using the Arabic network to promote the views of extremists who were undermining the region’s more pragmatic elements. In particular, Qatar’s open support for the Muslim Brotherhood angered its gulf state neighbors. In March, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha in protest.
This hasn’t stopped the Persian Gulf monarchy from serving as a Club Med for terrorists. It harbors leading Islamist radicals like the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who issued a religious fatwa endorsing suicide attacks, and the Doha-based history professor Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi, whom the United States Department of Treasury has named as a “terrorist financier” for Al Qaeda. Qatar also funds a life of luxury for Khaled Meshal, the fugitive leader of Hamas.
Surely, it’s not an impossible story to believe, though, as Elder of Ziyon points out, some of the details don’t make much sense. Meanwhile, as the authors themselves acknowledge, (a) there is no corroborating evidence; (b) the father is a high-level Hamas official, so the family has a very obvious motive for lying. Most telling, Israeli soldiers are alleged to have beaten Abu Raida repeatedly, yet he can’t he show the Times’s reporters any evidence of his injuries, whether photographic or lingering scars/scabs/welts/wounds.
If the Times’s reporters could actually corroborate the story, more power to them in publishing it. But at this point, they are just repeating unconfirmed allegations from a dubious source, in other words, passing along wartime propaganda as news.
Richard Behar recently noted that the co-author of the story, Gaza correspondent Fares Akram, is hardly an objective observer, happily also working for Al Jazeera and taking its pro-Hamas line. But why would Jerusalem bureau Jodi Ruderon put her name on this dreck, and how did it get past the Times’s editors?
IsraellyCool: Assessing The UN’s OCHA “Gaza Crisis Atlas 2014″ Report
It now becomes very clear that most of the damage was caused to 5 locations right on the border with Israel. The rest of the Gaza Strip was, for the most part, undamaged. The main population areas of Gaza city, Jabaliya, Khan Yunes, Rafah and Deir el-Balah were disproportionately undamaged.What You Can’t See on the UN’s Maps of Gaza
If we do a rough estimate of the damage area, it is once again clear the vast majority of the Gaza Strip was unscathed. With a fairly generous estimation that a damage point has a 25 meter radius – the footprint of a house, or the blast radius of a bomb – the total damage area of the 12,433 impacts was in the order of 15 KM2. The land area of the Gaza strip is 360 Km2. In other words, less than 5% of the land was affected.
One last point which should be noted: with roughly 15% of Hamas rockets and mortars falling short or misfired, it is safe to assume that a significant number of those damage points were not the result of Israeli air strikes, shelling, or detonations. This is not mentioned in the OCHA report.
Alan Baker: A letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
We are shocked at your utter disregard of the fact that the very UN premises of which you accuse Israel of attacking, have been cynically abused by Hamas and used as store-houses for ammunition, and launching pads for rockets.The UN’s refugee welfare racket
Rather than falsely accusing Israel, one might have expected that as the executive head of the UN, you would have admitted responsibility of the UN for such abuse of its facilities, and instituted a thorough inquiry as to how and why UNRWA facilities were placed at the disposal of the Hamas terror organization, how and why the UN officials responsible for such facilities permitted this situation to occur, and why those rockets and other weapons that were discovered in such facilities were transferred to Hamas, for their continued use against Israel’s citizens.
In permitting the storage of weapons, and in transferring such weapons into the hands of Hamas, the UN has in fact permitted itself to become accessory to the commission of war crimes.
We expect and demand that you, as secretary general and executive head of the UN, immediately establish a high-level inquiry with a view to thoroughly investigating these crimes and ensuring that those found responsible will bear the consequences of their actions.
Mr. secretary general, your exaggerated, selective, biased and often false accusations against Israel and your total disregard of the truth, have irreparably discredited you and the UN.
UNRWA then morphed from a temporary organization into a permanent “huge welfare agency, prolonging its beneficiaries’ dependence instead of giving them tools to become self-sufficient,” according a report by James G. Lindsay, a former legal advisor and general counsel for UNRWA, who lamented “the agency’s funding of food rations to large numbers of refugees who were perfectly capable of providing for their own sustenance.”Times of Israel Live Blog: Rocket launcher in Gaza school targeted; Israel mum on Egyptian truce bid
To expand its reach, UNRWA redefined who would be eligible for welfare. Its definition of “refugee,” always a politically determined moving target, changed from its early version: “a person whose normal residence had been Palestine for a minimum of two years preceding the 1948 conflict and who, as a result, had lost both his home and means of livelihood.”
UNRWA decided to treat homeless Palestinians who hadn’t fled Israel as refugees. Then less needy Palestinians who hadn’t fled Israel and hadn’t even lost their homes received refugee status — Palestinians who had always lived outside Israel could now receive refugee status, even if they lived continuously in the same home they, their fathers and grandfathers had inhabited.
Palestinians, Cairo said waiting on Jerusalem response to month-long truce offer; over 80 rockets shot at Israel Monday; Family of slain 4-year-old says they won’t return to Gaza-area kibbutzIDF Targets Concealed Launchers Used to Fire Rockets at Israel
Ground op is still an option, but time is not on Israel’s side
In mid-May the commander of the Israeli Air Force told an auditorium full of white-haired men, most veterans of the IAF, that the Israel of 2014 no longer has “the luxury of a month-long war.”'Hamas a less threatening enemy than previously thought,' Nahal intelligence officer tells 'JPost'
The number of targets struck from the air during 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said, could be hit in “less than 24 hours today.” The firepower deployed from the air during the eight-day effort in Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, he added, could be brought to bear in “less than 12 hours today.”
The point, it seemed, was this: Israel, post-Goldstone, cannot afford to be dragged through the international mud for the duration of a prolonged war, nor can it expose its citizens and its economy to weeks of rocket fire; therefore, with the aid, primarily, of precise intelligence acquired from space-based systems, and accurate munitions, Israel would win, or at least conclude, any future conflict swiftly.
We are “in the age of fire [power],” Eshel said. And because military strength, since at least Napoleon’s era, is seen as being composed of equal parts firepower and ground maneuvers, one can deduce that Eshel, a man who radiates a charismatic competence, meant to say that we are no longer in the age of the ground operation.
When directly confronted on the ground, Hamas became a less threatening enemy than previously estimated, the Nahal infantry brigade's chief senior intelligence officer, Maj. S (full name withheld for security reasons) told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.Israel is 'Choosing not to Win', Says British Expert
Nahal units remain deployed outside of Gaza together with other infantry divisions, as Israel currently fights a war of attrition with Hamas and limits itself to air power.
Maj. S recalled how Hamas "ran away from the battlefield" in northern Gaza after Nahal entered the Strip last month, as part of the army's mission to destroy Hamas's network of cross-border attack tunnels.
A small number of Hamas units in north Gaza did put up a serious fight, exhibited determination to engage the IDF, and killed a total of six Nahal soldiers during the ground offensive, Maj. S said. But "in comparison to what we expected, this was less. From the moment the ground offensive began in our sector of northern Gaza, the enemy ran away. Its commanders disappeared on the first day of the air campaign.
Barak Seener, an Associate fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, thinks Israel is “choosing not to win” the war in Gaza.This Was No Accident…
Seener – who has provided analysis and expert commentary for a range of international broadcasters and news outlets including the Associated Press, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Chinese CCTV, Fox News, Sky News, Voice of America, Bloomberg, Reuters and Xinhua – told Arutz Sheva that Israel is pursuing a misguided approach to the war, both on the ground and in the battle of words and images. The result will inevitably a deterioration of Israel's international standing, as the war wears on.
“In general,” he explained, “modern warfare is not geared towards protracted conflict, and thus Israel should have initially gone in harder. This was prevented by a lack of extensive sound intelligence of tunnels and the whereabouts of Hamas operatives. Israel's diplomatic standing will decline as Europe does not anymore understand the power of ideologies, let alone a genocidal, zero sum game Islamist and suicidal ideology.”
The photo above is of one of the three Israeli-Arab men who were transported to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon on Sunday.From the BBC template
The Israeli-Arab men were at the Erez Crossing along the Gaza border when they came under a Hamas mortar barrage.
It’s not incidental that I point out that the three men who were injured are Israeli Arabs, and members of the same family too.
Because it’s not coincidental that they were all at the Erez Crossing when it came under fire.
The men were there to pick up and transfer their injured relatives from Gaza, and bring them into Israel for medical treatment.
Hamas knows what goes in and out at Erez, and Hamas knew these Gazans would be crossing at that time at the Erez junction, and Hamas knew they were going to be picked up by their relatives.
So when Hamas opened fire at the Erez crossing, Hamas was purposely targeting their own citizens they knew would be there, and openly vulnerable to the attack. (h/t Yoel)
Even by BBC standards this is a messy cut-and-past job:IDF Destroys Launcher Used to Fire Rockets at Jerusalem
If you follow the simple, clear and correct Israel closes Gaza’s Erez crossing link from the BBC Mid East and News homepages you will reach Gaza conflict: Erez crossing ‘attacked’ amid Israel raids. You may be sorry if you do.
Attack of the ‘scare quotes’
Is there any doubt the crossing was attacked? If there was, why didn’t a BBC person go and check? Is there any reason for amid Israel raids in the headline other to deflect any possible blame from Hamas for attacking a crossing that benefits Gazan people? The article continues: Israel says it has closed the Erez crossing after it came under rocket fire from Gaza, wounding four people. Well, is it closed or not? Is the BBC suggesting that the crossing remains open and perhaps Israel is lying about it? The photo caption below, at least, expresses no doubt.
The Israeli Air Force on Sunday night targeted the rocket launcher from which rockets were fired at Jerusalem earlier in the day.Pro-Hamas Hackers Trying to Cripple Israel in Secret Cyber War
“A short while ago, we struck the rocket launcher that fired at Jerusalem earlier this evening,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit wrote on Twitter.
"Color red" rocket sirens were heard earlier Sunday evening in Beit Shemesh and several communities in the Jerusalem Hills, including Abu Gosh and Nave Ilan, as well as communities adjacent to Jerusalem such as Ora, Aminadav and Tzur Hadassah.
Israeli cyber security forces foiled a major cyber attack by pro-Hamas hackers during Operation Protective Edge, but hackers remain determined to harm essential Israeli infrastructure.Egyptian truce bid said to garner Israeli consent
While the Iron Dome system intercepted missiles and IDF robots destroyed terror tunnels, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) foiled an attack against Israel website over the Internet. Hackers from around the world planned the attack with the help of Iran on Al-Quds Day, an annual event organized by Iranian leaders against Zionism. T
“There was a direct connection between the progression of the fighting and cyber attacks,” according to Col N., the commander of the IDF’s cyber defense division.
“It wasn’t like this in previous operations,” he added. “For the first time, there was an organized cyber defense effort alongside combat operations in the field. This was a new reality.”
Egypt is expected to announce on Monday night an open-ended ceasefire to halt more than a month and a half of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli defense official asserted.Report: Israel Refrained from Attack on Deif, Due to Ceasefire
The anonymous official, who was quoted by the Walla news site, said Cairo would open the Rafah crossing to Gaza as part of the arrangement, adding that the initiative would likely be accepted by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The official said that Egypt expected the new ceasefire to last for at least a full month.
New information was revealed on Sunday in relation to the assassination attempt on Hamas's "military wing" Al-Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Deif, in which his wife, son and daughter were killed last Tuesday.Iran ‘will arm Palestinians’ after Israeli drone downed
While it was earlier reported that a phone call from Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal in Qatar gave away Deif's location, Channel 10 reported on Sunday night that in fact his position was known three full days in advance of the strike.
What was the reason for the delay? According to the report, Israel was bound by a ceasefire with Hamas, the terrorist organization that has broken numerous ceasefires during Operation Protective Edge, including ceasefires they called for.
Arabic-language Al-Alam aired a brief video on Monday filmed in a desert area showing what the channel said were parts of the drone. A TV scroll said the drone was downed on Saturday.Slain Israeli Child’s Letter to Wounded IDF Soldier: ‘Hero, Thanks for Protecting Me’ (VIDEO)
There were no visible Israeli markings on it.
Tehran will “accelerate” arming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for Israel deploying the spy drone over Iran, a military commander said.
“We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response,” said General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of aerial forces of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, in a statement on its official website, sepahnews.com.
About a month before he was killed by a Hamas-fired mortar round outside his home near Gaza, Daniel Tragerman, aged 4, sent an Israeli soldier wounded in Gaza a get-well letter, wishing him a speedy recovery, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported on Sunday.Qatari-Funded Soccer Star Messi Won’t Acknowledge Death of Israeli Child
“To the heroic soldier, Dolev, be healthy,” wrote Daniel, “thank you for protecting me,” and attached a drawing with a heart.
Dolev was a friend of the family, and was devastated by the news of the child’s mortal injuries at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, when a mortar shell slammed into the yard outside his home, where he was playing Friday morning.
Later that day, Daniel succumbed to his wounds, and was laid to rest Sunday at the Eshkol Regional Council cemetery.
Pressure is mounting on social media for soccer superstar Leo Messi to publicly condemn the death of a four-year-old Israeli child who was a fan of Messi’s before he was killed by Hamas rocket fire on Friday.Security Minister Admits Gov't Not Tough Enough Against Hamas
Messi, who plays for a soccer team funded by the Qatari government, which also serves as Hamas’ chief financier, has come under increasing pressure to condemn the death of Jewish child Daniel Tregerman just two weeks after the soccer player expressed remorse over the death of Palestinian children.
Tregerman was pictured in photographs sporting Messi’s Barcelona team jersey.
Israelis on social media are now launching a campaign to pressure Messi into condemning Hamas’ ongoing attacks on Israeli citizens.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) has called on the government to take a much firmer hand with Hamas, just hours before a ceasefire is rumored to go into effect Monday.Gaza war raises teens' motivation to serve in IDF
Aharonovich made his comments following a "difficult" visit to the Tragerman family, whose four-year-old son Daniel was killed in a mortar attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel on Friday.
Relating to criticism by residents of southern Israel towards the government's dealing with incessant rocket fire by Hamas and other terrorists, Aharonovich said "I understand these things and accept them," according to Channel 10.
Some 61 percent of Israelis aged 17 to 18 say that Operation Protective Edge has increased their motivation to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, according to a joint survey by the EduAction Forum and the Geocartography Knowledge Group.Rocket Explodes Near Swimming Pool in South
Nine percent of the teens polled said the current war against terrorist groups in Gaza had made them less motivated for army service.
Nearly half (49 percent) of those polled said they believe that combat roles contribute the most to the country's security. Also, 49 percent agreed with the sentence attributed to early Zionist war hero Josef Trumpeldor at Tel Hai: "It's good to die for your country." The number of respondents agreeing was directly proportional to how religious they were.
The Hamas terrorists who control Gaza continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians Monday morning, as Operation Protective Edge entered its 49th day.After Rocket Salvos From Lebanon, Syria, Israel’s Northern Residents Wonder Where to Hide
Sirens signalling rocket attacks sounded in the communities of the Eshkol, Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regions, and in the city of Sderot.
One rocket exploded next to a swimming pool in a community in the Eshkol region. It caused damage to the facility but hurt no one. Other rockets exploded in so-called “open areas.”
An unexpected volley of rockets fired from Lebanon and Syria late Saturday had some Israeli residents wondering where to take cover, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported on Sunday.Condition of Israeli hurt in stoning attack worsens
Some 25 Israelis were treated for shock and minor injuries when rockets hit villages in the western Galilee, among them, that of Nadir Ammar.
“We were sitting in the courtyard outside our house and there was no alarm or warning,” Ammar said. “We heard the Katusha’s distinctive ‘whistle’ and immediately heard a boom that shook the entire area. Pictures fell off the walls and chairs were shaking; the children were very scared.”
Yeda’ayah Sharhaton, 25, was wounded while driving to his home in the West Bank settlement of Yatir, in the South Hebron Hills, after a large rock thrown by Palestinians shattered the windshield of his car and struck him directly in the face, according to Yedioth Ahronoth. Sharhaton, who was in the vehicle with his wife, Hadassah, and their one-year-old baby daughter, lost control of the car as a result of the attack, and it subsequently overturned, skidding into a ditch at the side of the road. Both Hadassah and the baby were lightly hurt.The Student Operation to Bring Sderot Back From the Edge
A group of Palestinians from Beit Ummar who saw the crash rushed to the scene to help rescue the three Israelis from the overturned car. The group alerted IDF soldiers and called emergency medical services, who took the three Israelis to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for further treatment.
Sharhaton was diagnosed with several fractures in his skull, a broken eye socket, a broken jaw, and internal bleeding in the brain. He initially managed to communicate with his wife via notes on paper, but has since been sedated.
The people of Sderot want to win back their city. They want to find a way of restoring its beat and rhythm. But even if the immediate threat of rockets is curtailed, a city with a sordid history of terror stands little chance of ever being revived. And terror is only one variable in the equation. Sderot remains one of Israel’s most impoverished cities, with a disproportionately large number of welfare recipients, many of whom are illiterate immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. The burden of educating and integrating individuals of these diverse backgrounds is, by its own admission, beyond the capacity of Sderot’s local municipal authority, which is overwhelmed with simply trying to protect its citizens from the ongoing security threat.Southern Israel Resident Protests Gaza Rockets With ‘Manure Bucket Challenge’ (VIDEO)
Additionally, young people tend not to stay in Sderot, and this negative net migration means the city also has a population that is mostly elderly. Enter Ayalim’s latest initiative: building a student village in Sderot.
An Israeli living close to the Gaza Strip, on Saturday posted a YouTube video expressing his frustration over the seeming inability of the Israeli government to end 14 years of rocket fire from the coastal enclave, in a noxious parody of the famed ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.Meretz Blames 'Settlements' for Hamas Rockets
“I want to raise awareness for the residents of the Gaza-envelope area,” Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak resident Sa’ar Altman said in the video, standing in the community’s cowsheds – just before he signaled to a backhoe behind him to dump a shovel’s worth of soaked cow manure all over him.
“I challenge ‘Bibi’ [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman and [Economy Minister Naftali] Bennett, who think that we can use force to solve the problems of the south without a long-term solution. Because of this approach, we have been eating c**p for 14 years and our lives are hell!”
"The public must be told the truth in a clear way,” wrote Galon on her Facebook page. “It is either Kfar Aza or Migron, either Nirim or Yitzhar, either Kerem Shalom or Tapuach.”Don't let Israel advocacy falter
Kfar Aza, Nirim and Kerem Shalom are communities near Gaza. Migron, Yitzhar and Tapuach are communities in Judea and Samaria.
"Regrettably,” Galon added, “Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice the residents of the south, so as not to pay the price that will be required for real negotiations, toward an eviction of settlements and the advancement of a diplomatic horizon.”
Galon's statement reflects the leftist reasoning that says Netanyahu likes having Hamas in power in Gaza, because it makes it easier for him to avoid making concessions in Judea and Samaria. Meretz and other leftist elements would rather see Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement ascendant over Hamas, because negotiating land giveaways with them is easier to sell to the Israeli public.
The impressive conduct of our political and military leaders during Operation Protective Edge stands in stark contrast to the lackluster performance of our international public diplomacy apparatus during the flare-up. This disparity is becoming more and more apparent with each passing day.Abbas to seek deadline for Israeli West Bank pullout
Public diplomacy efforts are part and parcel of every military strategy or foreign policy initiative. Although has always been the case, it is doubly true in the hybrid wars of our day and era. Everyone today is an active participant in the conflict, thanks to social media.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his spokesman Mark Regev have already proved their public diplomacy chops. So have the officers at the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. And there are others like them. But what is missing is a comprehensive public diplomacy policy that would communicate Israel's military objectives, the guiding rationale behind the operation, the events that led to the operation, and the international and regional climate Israel has had to deal with.
A proposal by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aimed at setting a deadline for Israel to withdraw from lands captured during the 1967 Six Day War is reportedly to be presented to the UN Security Council by the Arab League’s representatives.JPost Editorial: Hamas and Islamic State
The proposal will also call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the areas evacuated by the Israeli government.
Abbas is coordinating the move with the Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, Army Radio reported Monday.
On Sunday, Palestinian officials warned that should the UN member states choose not to approve a resolution based on this proposal, the Palestinians will pursue war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
The officials said Abbas’s appeal is part of a “day after” plan following the end of the current war in the Gaza Strip. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been officially unveiled.
Are Hamas and Islamic State equivalent? The similarities shared by the two terrorist organizations outstrip the differences.British Islamist: Only ISIS Will Help Palestinians; All Muslims Believe in Jihad against Infidels
Both organizations use violence and terrorism indiscriminately.
Both seek to reinstate a medieval caliphate that persecutes religious minorities and women. Both are made up of religious fanatics who share a blind faith. Their militant followers are capable of committing the worst atrocities with the absolute conviction that their actions are condoned by the highest moral authority.
Mashaal, al-Risheq, and other Hamas leaders might try to hide behind the claim that they are freedom fighters struggling against the “occupation.” But no underlying causes – whether they be Western imperialism, American capitalism, or Zionist occupation – can justify the sorts of crimes Hamas or Islamic State commit against both their enemies and their own people.
Mashaal Threatens Terror Attacks in Judea and Samaria
Mashaal reiterated the Palestinian side's conditions for a ceasefire, including the lifting of the blockade, full opening of border crossings, construction of a seaport and airport, transfer of funds to and from Gaza, the passage of goods and people between Gaza and Judea and Samaria, releasing Palestinian Arabs who were released in the Shalit deal and re-arrested, and for Israel not to interfere with the operations of the national unity government between Hamas and Fatah.Hamas Spokesman Abu Zuhri: Our War Is for Liberation of Jerusalem, Not for Lifting of Blockade
The current war, Mashaal said, differs from its predecessors in the length and the scope of the Israeli attacks which, he said, led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and the wounding of more than 10,000.
He further claimed that the Israeli "crimes" in Gaza are far more serious than the crimes "allegedly" committed during the Holocaust.
He stressed that this is a war of wills, and that the Palestinian people's advantage is that they are willing to absorb the heat while realizing that the powers of the "resistance" are fighting Israel and that the day will come when “the Zionists will leave our land.”
Mashaal then warned that given the "crimes" committed by Israel in the Judea and Samaria, it is likely to face resistance by means of acts of terror in that region as well.
Poll: Majority of Gazans support peace, oppose disarmament
More than 90 percent of Gazans surveyed thought that resistance was either "well prepared" or "somewhat prepared" for the Israeli assault, and more than 93 percent opposed the disarmament of Palestinian militant groups, which Israel has said is a condition of any long-term truce.Hamas claims it seizes Israeli reconnaissance drone in Gaza
At the same time, despite an Israeli assault that has killed more than 2,100 Palestinians -- overwhelmingly civilians [sic.] -- in the last six weeks, nearly 88 percent of those surveyed also supported a long-term truce, and another 10 percent supported an unspecified "medium-term" truce.
80 percent rated US President Barack Obama's stance on the conflict, which has been decidedly pro-Israel, as "negative," while 65 percent said they were "very" or "fairly" content with Egypt's role as a mediator in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
More than 80 percent, meanwhile, were in favor of International Criminal Court intervention against Israel for prosecution for war crimes committed during the offensive.
The Izzadin Kassam Brigades announced the seizure of a “Zionist reconnaissance plane” via its Arabic Twitter account. The announcement included a photograph of a masked Kassam Brigades fighter holding a small, unmarked gray craft. The Kassam Brigades added that they intend to release a video of the drone.Hamas Arrests 150 of its Own Terrorists for Spying for Israel
According to the Gaza-based al-Watan Voice, the Kassam Brigades said in a statement that in addition to capturing the drone, the armed wing of Hamas had also “continued to pound enemy positions and cities with dozens of rockets” in response to “Israeli crimes against our people and ongoing barbaric aggression on our people in Gaza”.
After Israel took out 3 senior Hamas commanders, the circular firing squad has begun. Though, as seen above, Hamas doesn’t really do firing squads. It prefers hangings, motorcycle draggings and building roof tossing.New York Times Acknowledges Hamas Media Control
Informed sources from the Gaza Strip say that the Izz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of the Hamas movement, is waging a campaign of arrests in the ranks of the sons of the movement involving more than 150 members for interrogation about security leaks.
The sources said that “Hamas” in a state of internal confusion after the martyrdom of its leaders three Mohammed Abu Shamala, and Raed Al-Attar, Mohammad Barhoum, at dawn on Thursday,
The sources indicated that the three leaders of Hamas who were killed at dawn on Thursday in Rafah, were killed while meeting in a secret underground tunnel at a depth of 30 meters. (h/t Yoel)
In its report on the Israeli targeted assassination of Hamas finance official and terror funder Muhammad al-Ghoul, the New York Times includes a small yet important acknowledgment of Hamas control over what the media can report:CNN’s Distortions of the Gaza Conflict’s Psychological Toll
"The witness, who arrived at the scene minutes after the airstrike, said security men in plain clothes prevented photographers from taking photographs there, kept onlookers away, collected the money and searched what remained of the car for more cash. The witness spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution."
It’s safe to assume that the “security men in plain clothes” are Hamas members. That they are dressed like civilians begs the question as to how many terrorists have been classified as civilians simply because they were not wearing military uniforms.
Even if CNN wanted to do a video on the psychological trauma affecting Gazan children exclusively, why wouldn’t they include the fact that these children have been living under a terrorist regime? Maybe watching the governing authorities in Gaza commit public executions and drag bodies through the streets contributes to their trauma. Wouldn’t witnessing such scenes disturb children enough to require therapy?BBC World News’ Dani Sinha to Israeli minister: ‘why are you killing innocent people?’
CNN interviews Palestinian experts who say that Gazan children will not be able to start school in Gaza on time and that missing school contributes to their psychological trauma. But it has been well-documented that in Palestinian schools, children are indoctrinated to hate Jews. Terrorists are held up as role models. Violence is encouraged.
Below is an interview with Israel’s Minister of the Economy on BBC World News on August 20th. Presenter Dani Sinha gave a taste of things to come in the following Tweet.Gaza Airstrike Sparks New Violence on ‘Story’ Vs. ‘Storey’ (satire)
Of note are Sinha’s jaw-droppingly ignorant questions and her promotion of Hamas terminology.
“Why did you choose this particular time then, or this particular moment, to end the ceasefire? After all, there have been other occasions when Hamas have fired rockets.”
Even after having been told that it was Hamas which violated the truce, she continues to promote her own revisionist version of events.
A smoldering rivalry between two leading news agencies flared into violence today over the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip after each one used a different spelling of the same word to describe the height of a building destroyed in an IAF bombing.Parrots In Awe At NY Times Ability To Repeat Anti-Israel Propaganda (satire)
Israeli aircraft directed two high-explosive bombs at an apartment building in Gaza City on Saturday, leveling the structure, which had served as a Hamas command center. The AP reported that the building, with 13 floors, comprised “stories,” employing the American term, while British source Reuters insisted on ‘”storeys.” Reuters also described the target as a “block of flats,” bringing out into the open a longstanding conflict over English orthography and usage. AP responded by rocket attacks on Reuters headquarters, posting a derisive message on the latter organization’s Facebook page.
Monday morning saw Sophie and her avian colleagues again shown up by the New York Times, which featured prominently in its online edition an article composed almost entirely of the accusations of a 17-year-old Palestinian who claimed Israeli soldiers had used him as a human shield. The reporters, bureau chief Jodi Rudoren and Palestinian activist Fares Akram, took pains to detail even the most unlikely charges, including those that could easily be verified if anyone had bothered to check, such as photographs of injuries that would inevitably result from the treatment the boy described.
“I’m not sure we parrots can compete with that,” said an awestruck Sophie, to many nods and affirmative grunts from the other birds. “Maybe the Lyre Bird could do it, but us parrots? No way,” she said, referring to an Australian bird famous for its ability to flawlessly reproduce almost any sound. She added that she was especially taken by the article’s reliance on a single ultimate source for the information, an organization that specifically massages its data to conform with preconceived notions of Israeli guilt and malfeasance.
