Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Al Qassam Brigades

Showing posts with label Al Qassam Brigades. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

No matter what they do, Palestinians are victims

The official spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said today that the "assassination" of "three young men" by the IDF near the gate of Mount Gerizim in Nablus is a "war crime", and it is a continuation of the policy of "collective punishment" to which our Palestinian people are subjected.

The "victims" were terrorists who opened fire on the Israeli troops and were killed in response.

The "young men" were 32, 33 and 43 years old.

While the Palestinian Authority in English says that they were innocent victims of Israeli aggression, Hamas says it is proud of "this group of the al-Qassam Brigades' mujahideen, who set out with all their faith and certainty to confront this criminal enemy."

There is no universe where soldiers killing those who fire at them first are war criminals - except in Palestinian fantasy land.

Unfortunately, fantasies are often treated as reality when people want them to be true.

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Despite BBC blood libel, combatants under 18 are legitimate targets in international law

Here is a blood libel from the BBC.

In response to Naftali Bennett saying that every single person killed in Jenin was a terrorist, the presenter said, as a fact, "Terrorists but children. The Israeli forces are happy to kill children."

Bennett's answer was good, but here is another case where news interviewers are either ignorant or willfully twisting international law.

Child combatants are still combatants under international law. No matter whether they were forcibly recruited, whether they are under 14, whether they are girls - once someone is shooting at a soldier they are legitimate targets, according to every article I can find on the subject.

In 2000, a group of child soldiers in Sierra Leone known (in the West) as the "West Side Boys" captured a patrol of British soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment along with their Sierra Leone Army liaison officer. Several of the British soldiers were held for two weeks before the British Army decided to free them in an operation that killed between 25 and 150 of the West Side Boys.

Was the deliberate, planned killing of those children a war crime? Of course not.

Absolutely no international law scholar disputes that the British Army had the right to free their fellow soldiers because they were held by combatants under 18. And no BBC reporter responded to the event by saying on the air, "The British Army is happy to kill children."

No, only Jews are routinely accused of relishing the murder of children. The accusation is centuries old and it is as popular today in England as it was in 1144 when Jews were accused of happily murdering William of Norwich.

Unlike the West Side Boys, who were obviously children, the two "children" killed by the IDF in Jenin were heavily armed, fully grown near-adults. One was a member of Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades.

Of course soldiers in the middle of an operation are not expected to question the ages of those who are shooting at them to determine whether they've celebrated their 18th birthday yet. The idea is absurd to the extreme. International conventions do not distinguish between child combatants and adult combatants - anyone engaging in hostilities is a legitimate military target.

The BBC presenter is knowingly twisting the facts in ways that cannot be interpreted as anything but malicious. She says, " The UN has defined them as children and we know that four people between the ages of 16 and 18 have been killed in this targeted attack let's not forget it's a targeted attack."

Yes, the UN defines anyone under 18 as children. But the UN doesn't say that armed 16 year olds are not combatants.

And suddenly she switches from the UN definition of children to including 18 year old adults as "children," too, contradicting her own definition of children in the very same breath! Her desire to paint Israel as evil causes her to expand the definition of children to make it look like Israel "targeted" four children.

If you think that blood libels went out of fashion in recent decades, here is an example of how they are just as malicious today as they were in the Middle Ages.

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In English, Israel kills "five local young men." In Arabic, there are five "Al Qassam Brigades heroic martyrs."

From the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

Five Palestinians dawn Monday were shot dead by the Israeli military in Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, adjacent to the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, according to medical sources.

A sizable Israeli force barged its way into the refugee camp, triggering confrontations.

The heavily-armed soldiers opened fire towards local young men, killing five.

The Hamas-linked Felesteen says things a little differently in Arabic:

This morning, Monday, five resistance fighters from the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement " Hamas ", were martyred, during the occupation's storming of Aqabat Jaber camp, south of Jericho.

Outside the PA official media, no one is even pretending that the dead were anything but terrorists in Arabic. Here is a cartoon showing that their blood is watering new flowers of terrorists:

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The reactions - and non-reactions - to the murder of an 84 year old Jewish woman

Yesterday, a Palestinian man stalked and murdered an 84 year old Jewish grandmother in Holon. She was identified as Shulamit Rachel Ovadia.

Israeli security services suspect that it was a terror attack, since nothing was taken from her.

The suspect, Mousa Sarsour from Qalqilya, was found this morning after apparently committing suicide, hanging himself in an abandoned Tel Aviv building. He had a valid work permit in Israel.

When attacks like these happen, the reactions (and non-reactions) from the anti-Israel crowd reveal a great deal.

Palestinian terror groups are happy - but they pointedly do not mention the age of the victim. Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades describes the victim as "a Zionist usurper killed in a commando operation." Palestine Today, associated with Islamic Jihad, called her a "female settler."

More mainstream Palestinian newspapers understand that murdering an elderly lady is not something to be proud of. So they are instead quoting the suspect's family, saying that he suffers psychological problems - but he couldn't have murdered her anyway.

Jewish anti-Zionists who claim to care about human rights become deathly silent when the victim is an elderly Jewish woman. The anger that they show when Israeli forced kill a teen throwing Molotov cocktails evaporates when the Jewish victim did nothing to provoke the attack. Their righteous indignation, ready to ignite on a moment's notice at the death of a Palestinian, is simply nonexistent. I can find nothing in the social media accounts of the anti-Israel activists I follow.

To them, Palestinians are pure good and Zionist Jews are pure evil, and they are so invested in pushing that narrative that they will never say a negative word about a terror attack, no matter how heinous. They will go to rallies to support Rasmea Odeh but do not want you to know the name Shulamit Rachel Ovadia.

One Israeli leftist - Dror Etkes, who heads the Kerem Navot NGO - tries to redirect the conversation to make this about Israeli racism:

The man murdered an 84-year-old woman and then committed suicide. Horrifying and shocking by any measure. The man was not investigated and from what has been published so far, it is not known what his motive is. What's more, it is very uncharacteristic for someone with a nationalistic motive to commit suicide after a murder. But the fact that he was Palestinian and she is Israeli, is also enough for the newspaper Haaretz to call him a "terrorist"

And maybe he was "just" a psychopath?

So that's it, a Palestinian cannot be a psychopath, because if he kills an Israeli, that means he is by definition a "terrorist". I don't know what was the motive behind this horrible act. It seems that even the police and the network do not know. But I do know that there are Palestinians who are "just" psychopaths. By the way, there are also such Jews.

To Etkes, the characterization of a murderer of an 84 year old woman as a terrorist is just evidence of Israeli racism. (He also uses the propaganda method of "sure, the attack is horrifying, but look at how terrible the reaction is!")

His theory might make sense if there were random murders of unrelated Palestinians by Palestinian psychopaths. In general, there are very few reports of anything like that.

Mousa Sarsour went out of his way to kill a Jewish woman in Israel, and even if he did have psychological problems, the reason for choosing a Jew has everything to do with Palestinian antisemitism that is called "nationalism." It has everything to do with the social and monetary benefits in Palestinian society of murdering Jews.

Most terrorists, including suicide bombers, are not entirely sane. To claim (without evidence) that this was just a psychopath is simply another way to justify terror.

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Yesterday, I reported that the Palestinian Authority arrested Mosab Shtayyeh, a commander in the Hamss Al-Qassam Brigades, in Nablus.

Coming after Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party has been taking responsibility for terror attacks itself, including attacks by its own security services, this move was simply an attempt to claim that the PA really opposes terror - so Mahmoud Abbas can make that claim ahead of (or within) his annual anti-Israel speech at the UN.

The arrest was also reportedly after intense pressure from the US and Israel for the PA to adhere to its own signed agreements to fight terrorism, not to contribute to it.

In my post, I predicted that by next week, we'll see that this was simply political theatre.

It seems that we don't have to wait for next week.

After massine riots in Nablus and Jenin, in which Palestinian security forces killed one protester, the PA caved to the terrorist supporters who wanted Shtayyeh released. At dawn today, after all-night negotiations with the rioters, reports say that the PA will release Shtayyeh "within a few days."

Conveniently, this will be after Abbas' speech to the UN and after he leaves the US.

The PA is not serious about fighting terror. On the contrary, it supports terror. And it always has.

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More and more members of Palestinian security forces directly attacking IDF

This morning, an IDF soldier was shot and killed by two Palestinian militants during an arrest operation.

One of the terrorists, Ahmed Abed, worked for the Palestinian Authority security forces.

Both of the terrorists, who appear to be relatives, were claimed by Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

There has been a significant increase in Palestinian Authority forces directly attacking Israel in recent months. Under signed agreements, the Palestinian police and security forces are supposed to work with Israeli security to arrest and imprison terrorists - but lately they have become the terrorists.

Joe Truzman writes in the Long War Journal:

Since last year, IDF troops have increasingly engaged in armed clashes with members of the Palestinian Authority Security Services (PSS) in the West Bank. In some cases, PSS members belonged to militant organizations.

The trend began in June 2021 when two members of the PA’s military intelligence, Adham Tawfiq and Tayseer Issa, were killed after they fired at Israeli special forces who were attempting to arrest Jamil al-Amouri, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Jenin.

In May 2022, IDF troops arrested an officer of the PA’s Palestinian Preventative Corps during an anti-terrorism raid near Jenin. Three months later, Israeli forces arrested a member of the PA’s customs police after a lengthy armed clash in the town of Rujeib, near the city of Nablus.

In late July, a Palestinian police officer named Mahmoud Hujeer, fired at Israeli troops at the Huwarra checkpoint in the West Bank. Hujeer was arrested after he was critically injured during the attack.

Other examples involve militants and their supporters working for the PSS. In May, Dawood Zubeidi, a member of the PSS, was shot and wounded in Jenin by Israeli forces during an anti-terrorism raid. He later died in an Israeli hospital and was lauded by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a commander belonging to the organization.

The evidence suggests the PA is ostensibly losing control of its security services. While the number of PSS members launching attacks against IDF troops has not reached the level of the second intifada, the upward trend should be noted. Adding to the PA’s problems is the erosion of its authority in pockets of the West Bank.

The question is whether this is the PA losing control - or making an active decision to play both sides of the fence. The public appearances of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in recent months indicates that this might be an conscious decision to go back to Yasir Arafat's game of controlling both the "good guys" and "bad guys" and telling the West that he needs more help to control his own terrorists.

Just as Hamas policemen are also members of Hamas' terrorist Al Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Authority policemen are members of Fatah's terror group (that was supposed to have been dismantled 15 years ago.)

It is also possible that this is part of the larger fight of who is to succeed Mahmoud Abbas, and that these "rogue" militants are being led by one of the aspiring new Palestinian leaders.

The trend of Palestinian security forces attacking the IDF has also been noted approvingly in Palestinian media, some of whom call for a new violent intifada led by the Palestinians who were armed by the West. From an Amad editorial:

The developments that characterized the act of resistance in recent months are the practical participation of the Palestinian security forces as a vital and active part...Those services and their sons, who fought with a people and under the leadership of the Founder, the longest military confrontation with the army of the national enemy for 4 years from 2000 to 2004, confirmed that the conflict will not be without the Palestinian’s right to his full national entity,...

This is a difficult and complex situation.

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Pro-Hamas Arabic media still insisting that captured Israeli Arab is a "soldier"

On Tuesday, Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades published a video showing Hisham al-Sayed, one of two Israeli men being held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip, hooked up to an oxygen mask.

Al-Sayed is a Bedouin with mental health problems - but Hamas insists that he is an Israeli soldier.

Much of the anti-Israel Arabic media is happily parroting the claim, since it would look really bad for Hamas to have kidnapped a mentally ill Arab civilian whom their allies in the human rights community call "Palestinian."

According to Abu Ali Express, as soon as Hamas released this video Palestinians on social media started making fun of Hamas. They had been led to believe that Hamas had captured a Jewish Israeli soldier, and al-Sayed obviously is neither Jewish nor a soldier. They wondered about the timing of trying to pressure Israel to make a prisoner swap when the government is in limbo, they sarcastically asked whether he was on a hunger strike or whether his family could visit - showing the difference between Arabs in Israeli prisons and this Arab in Hamas custody.

Yet some are doubling down, still insisting that al-Sayed is a soldier. A Nablus academic is upset at the pushback, saying, "The cheap media underestimates the achievement of the Palestinian resistance and depicts it as murderous monsters who hold a mentally ill person for political purposes, even though the prisoner is a combat soldier!!"

One popular tweet reproduces his wallet showing a bus card for the Metropoline Public Transportation, claiming that the bus line really only transports soldiers and no ordinary Israeli citizen holds such a pass. (It isn't true.)

Tellingly, Al Jazeera Arabic calls him a soldier as well. (I cannot find coverage of this in AJ English.)

Hamas' narrative falls apart when people see that they are holding an Arab hostage.

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.@NYTOpinion writer @itranslate123 calls me a "fascist" - but he is a Hamas propagandist whose brother was a terrorist

In the early days of the Gaza operation, Refaat Alareer wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about how hard it is to be a good parent during wartime.

He mentioned that the lost his brother in the 2014 war along with many relatives:

In 2014, during the last war, Israel killed my brother Hamada; it destroyed my apartment when it brought down the family home that housed 40 people. It killed my wife’s grandfather, her brother, her sister and her sister’s three kids.

Why would Israel target his apartment?

Well, because Refaat Alareer's brother was a Hamas operative, and he was holed up in the apartment with a fellow Hamas terrorist - effectively holding the family hostage as human shields.

Here is Mohammed (Hamada) Alareer, still memorialized on Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades website:

He was killed along with Musab al-Ajlah, another Hamas terrorist.

If Refaat owned the apartment, as he implies, that means that he was knowingly shielding two Hamas terrorists and his own family members. If anyone is responsible for the deaths of his wife’s grandfather, her brother, her sister and her sister’s three kids, it may be Refaat himself!

Hamada also played the Nahoul the Bee character on a Hamas kid's show, telling children to shoot Jews and smash them.

I don't know if Refaat himself is a Hamas member, but he certainly is a fan. His now-suspended Twitter account included this:

Now he is pretending to be an upright, moral dad who values human lives. But he clearly teaches his daughter to lionize terrorists as well. This is from her Facebook page a few years ago - the photo on top is Refaat posing in front of a cannon in Turkey, and her profile picture is of a masked Al Qassam Brigades terrorist:

Lots more details about this family here.

This is who the New York Times promotes.

On Friday, the same New York Times had a front page photo essay highlighting the photos of children killed in Gaza, a truly grotesque demonization of Israel that is unprecedented.

Of course every child killed is tragic. But only those that can be blamed on Israel are front-page news for the New York Times. Kids killed by gunfire, in Afghanistan, in Syria - none of them are named, let alone plastered on the front page of the leading newspaper in the West.

In response to this, I tweeted

I just gave $64 to Friends of the IDF, one dollar for every kid in the @nytimes front page that (despite denials) paints Israel as a child killing entity.

The IDF does more to save children's lives on BOTH sides than any media, NGO or "pro-Palestinian" group ever has - or will.

My point, which was clear, is that the IDF saves more Gaza kids' lives while defending Israeli kids than the New York Times, or PCHR, or Amnesty, or any of the others whodemonize Israel - combined.

Refaat is a terrorist fan who teaches his daughter to love Hamas and that Hamas is legally allowed to blow up Jews. And he writes how wonderful a father he is for the New York Times. Then, today, he called me a fascist who celebrates dead kids - the exact opposite of my post:

He throws in a little antisemitism for good measure, saying that me, a child of Holocaust survivors, is a Nazi.

Yes, this Hamas propagandist who fully supports murdering Jewish children in Israel, who supports the antisemitic Hamas charter, who says that suicide bombs are "legitimate resistance" and moral - is calling me a fascist and someone who celebrates killing children.

This isn't even psychological projection: this is a terrorist supporter who is gaslighting the Western world into thinking that Israel is the monster and Hamas is only defending poor Gaza children, the exact opposite of the truth. He knows this and he chooses to propagandize for a terror group.

Refaat Alareer cannot hide his true allegiance for antisemitic, genocidal Hamas.

Work (tunnel) accident!

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades announced the death of Thaer Nayef Al-Zuraie, 30, from Deir Al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip.

He died Sunday "while working in a tunnel for resistance."

The usual flowery language asking Allah to recognized him as a "martyr" (so he can rape lots of young virgins in Paradise) follows.

He was apparently a father as well.

Hamas is still spending millions on digging tunnels - but the people who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian" never mention that when they blame Israel for Gaza's economic woes.

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Irony alert: Terrorist groups upset at being the target of a suicide bomber

Times of Israel reports:

A suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza early Thursday when forces tried to stop him from infiltrating into Egypt, members of the terror organization said, in what sources described as a rare attack against the Islamist group.
“Early this morning security forces stopped two people approaching the southern border (with Egypt),” an interior ministry spokesman in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement.
“One of them blew himself up,” it added.
Later a medical source confirmed a member of Hamas had died in the attack.
The source named the man as Nidal al-Jaafari, 28.

Here is the late Mr. Jaafari.

Notice that he is a member of the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' "militant wing." But he is also a guard - which means according to the Goldstone report and the PCHR, he is a civilian.

Hamas doesn't distinguish between civilians and their "militants." Yet the world keeps pretending that there is a distinction.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Rafah crossing is open now for the first time in four months, as Egypt is allowing Hajj pilgrims to leave. Practically no one has been reporting on the actual siege by Egypt on Gazans for four long months - months during which Israel allowed thousands to pass through its own Erez crossing.

More interesting is the reaction of other terror groups to this suicide bombing, apparently by a Salafist.

Islamic Jihad condemned the bombing in Rafah as "outside religion, culture and morality."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stressed that it is "against the use of weapons, abuse and assault" describing the suicide attack as a "dangerous violation."

Fatah called it a "terrorist act."

The Popular Struggle Front called this a "dark act that must be combatted"

Yes, the Islamists who innovated suicide bombings as suddenly aghast at the idea of becoming the victims of Islamist suicide bombings. It's so immoral!

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Hamas' "military wing" beating up people who insult them

From PCHR:

‘Abed al-Rahman Ahmed Barakah (59), from Deir al-Balah, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that, at approximately 19:40 on Monday, 31 July 2017, while he along with his two sons, Shadi (36) and Mohammed 31, was training some young men in the Equestrian Club he owns in al-Bassa area, northwest of Deir al-Balah, around 30 masked armed men from Al-Qassam Brigades entered the Club. The armed men pointed their firearms at ‘Abed al-Rahman’s sons and then started beating him with batons and the riffels’ butts. Around 30 minutes later, the armed men pushed ‘Abed al-Rahman into their jeep, took him to al-Barouq neighborhood, southwest of the city, where he lives. They then threw him near his house, telling him, “This is what you get for cursing Al-Qassam Brigades.” ‘Abed al-Rahman’s relatives saw that and attempted to approach him, but al-Qassam Members opened fire in the air and withdrew from the area. ‘Abed al-Rahman was then taken via an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to al-Aqsa Hospital, and he underwent medical tests which showed that ‘Abed al-Rahman sustained bruises and fractures to his hands.

Of course, the "moderate" Palestinian Authority does the same with those it deems enemies.

But the "pro-Palestinian" groups somehow never manage to utter a word about these sorts of incidents. I wonder why?

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In Hamas, doesn't take much to reach martyrdom

The headline of the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website laments the death of Nabil Zaig, 41, who was a part of the terror group since its inception in 1987 (which would have made him 17 at the time.)

The article calls him a "military martyr."

But how did he die?

He drowned, after going for a midnight swim.

Becoming a martyr ain't what it used to be.

Root causes of media bias against Israel

Tonight, Dr. Richard Landes spoke at Rutgers University. He is the author of The Augean Stables blog, The Second Draft blog documenting media manipulation by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters, and the driving force behind the Understanding the Goldstone Report blog. Somehow, he also manages to be a professor of history at Boston University and the author of numerous books and articles on topics I cannot begin to understand.

His topics tonight were wide-ranging but centered on the media and the Middle East conflict. He brought up numerous videos showing how the media reported on Gaza and how they purposefully ignored facts that would make Hamas look bad. Landes also spent a bit of time on the Goldstone report and on the Mohammed al-Dura Pallywood case. I hadn't told him one way or the other whether I would attend, and tried to keep a low profile, but when he mentioned my blog I admitted who I was. (I am not utterly without ego, but I am working on it.)

So this was a rare public appearance by The Elder. Landes ascribes much of the anti-Israel bias of the media to the media's fear of Hamas (and Hezbollah.) There is no doubt that this is a strong contributor - terrorists make no secret of the fact that if they are displeased with you, they will make your life unpleasant. And they watch the news. We saw it happen in Lebanon with Hezbollah, and we saw it in Gaza with Hamas and the other terror groups, especially a few years ago when journalists were regularly kidnapped.

After Western reporters all fled Gaza, all that were left were Palestinian reporters who have an inherent anti-Israel bias. But more importantly, they are scared witless of Hamas. Hamas has attacked press agencies numerous times. Here is an incident last year when Hamas attacked a mosque, beat people there and trashed it before taking it over. Not one mainstream media outlet published this story. The reason is clearly because of Hamas' threats against Gaza reporters. (Hezbollah also carefully managed news media access to the Lebanon war in 2006, a lot more subtly than Hamas but very effectively.) The New York Times did run a story once on how Gaza reporters censor themselves out of fear. One can pinpoint the exact date that Gaza journalism died. It was mid-June, 2007, and it is detailed in this article from Ma'an - possibly the last objective article Ma'an has ever written about Hamas:

Local Palestinian radio stations in the Gaza Strip were launched in quick succession over recent years. As many as eleven radio stations were counted operating in Gaza Strip in a short space of time. Many of the stations had been closed and looted during the recent conflict in the strip. Ash Sha'b station, affiliated to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was looted, whilst Al Hurriya and Ash Shabab, affiliated to Fatah, chose to cease transmission. The spokesperson of the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubayda, vehemently denied that the brigades had threatened any of the local stations. Abu Ubayda told Ma'an that the radio stations halted transmission willingly because they were working within a certain framework and their coverage of events in Gaza was partial, rather than objective. He added that the employees and owners of the radio stations closed them out of fear, rather than any direct threats from the Qassam Brigades. Abu Ubayda also said that some of the radio stations were affiliated to well-known Fatah figures, or directly owned by Fatah. Palestine radio stopped transmission from the Gaza Strip during the recent events. A statement was issued accusing the Al Qassam Brigades of torching the station's headquarters and a local transmission tower in Khan Younis. Palestine satellite and terrestrial TV stopped transmission last Friday in Gaza City and began transmitting from Ramallah, in the central West Bank. The director of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, Basim Abu Sumayya, ascribed the stoppage to Hamas' seizure of the Gaza Strip, which prevented employees from accessing the company's buildings in order to work. Abu Sumayya accused Hamas of taking control of every property that belongs to the PBC, in addition to the live transmission vehicle and the satellite frequency, which the PBC changed immediately. ...As for the radio stations, which stopped their transmission, Abu Zuhri said they did so voluntarily because they were involved in inciting and they committed criminal acts when they were fuelling disputes in the Palestinian arena. He asserted that the Al-Qassam Brigades and Executive Force never attacked or robbed any radio station. The Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa satellite TV station, which many accuse of lacking professionalism and fuelling dispute, was the sole TV station that continued broadcasting during the conflict in the Gaza Strip. They transmitted special photos of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Executive Force, while they were storming the security HQs. They also conducted exclusive interviews with Hamas leaders. The most criticism-provoking act of Al-Aqsa TV was the transmission of the execution of Samih Al-Madhoun. The chief editor of Ma'an News Agency threatened to close the agency's Gaza office as a result of the pressure exerted on him and the agency's correspondents and photojournalists. The Al-Qassam Brigades visited the office, but did not harm any employee or property. Meanwhile, Hamas and their Fatah allies criticised Ma'an's reports and some issued threats.

Things only got worse after that. I agree with Richard that fear is a factor in the loss of objectivity in journalism. He mentioned other factors as well, such as the fact that liberal reporters are (perhaps subconsciously) advocates of the simplistic idea that the absence of war is always a desirable objective and that their role is to help that to happen. Therefore you will see a large number of stories about Israel's use of "disproportionate" force and of Arab civilian victims, but very few giving context of everything Israel tried to do over eight years to stop rocket attacks before resorting to the battlefield. I think that a lot can be ascribed to ignorance. Arabs have hammered the West with consistent, simple-minded memes ("occupation," "intransigence," "illegal settlements," "Likud=far right hawks," "Fatah is moderate") that have become ingrained in the very psyche of the media personalities themselves. This is how we see situations like I mentioned today of Fox misrepresenting their own interview with Obama, after it was colored through the glass of Middle East conventional wisdom.

Another factor that I mentioned in the Q&A, and that Dr. Landes expanded on, is that Israeli self-criticism, which is part of what makes it strong, is perceived by the media as proof of its being immoral. As Richard noted, when the media interviews 100% of Arabs who say that Israel is completely wrong, and 50% of Israelis interviewed agree with the Arabs, then the impression one gets is that Israel is 75% wrong. All in all, it was an interesting evening, and as you can imagine, Richard is a really nice fellow. The turnout might have been better had this not also been the night that Rutgers held a meeting to discuss contributing leftover meal-plan money to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, a charity that has uncomfortably close connections to terrorism.

Goldstone report inaccuracies part 3

264. On 22 December 2008, a 24-hour ceasefire was declared at Egypt’s request. Three rockets and one mortar were launched from Gaza that day. Israel opened the border to allow a limited amount of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.149

265. By 23 December 2008, rocket and mortar fire was again increasing significantly; 30 rockets and 30 mortars were fired into Israel on 24 December 2008. 150 The Israeli armed forces continued to conduct air strikes on positions inside Gaza and the crossings into Israel remained closed. On 26 December 2008, a rocket launched from Gaza fell short and hit a house in northern Gaza killing two girls, aged 5 and 12.151

266. The intensified closure regime on the Gaza crossings which began in November continued in December, with imports restricted to very basic food items and limited amounts of fuel, animal feed and medical supplies. According to OCHA, many basic food items were no longer available and negligible amounts of fuel were allowed to enter Gaza. This resulted in the health sector in Gaza deteriorating further into a critical condition, with hospitals continuing to face problems as a result of power cuts, low stocks of fuel to operate back-up generators, lack of spare parts for medical equipment and shortages of consumables and medical supplies.152 On 18 December 2008, UNRWA once again suspended its food distribution programme for the rest of the month, owing to shortages.153

267. On 27 December 2008, Israel started its military operations in Gaza.154

The report goes into great detail on everything that happened between the beginning of the truce and Israel's response, but it skips an important fact: that the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades declared "Operation Oil Stain" on December 24th concurrent with their huge increase of rocket attacks. The Brigades continued to boast about this operation until well after Israel's response. In a very real sense, they declared the war. Also, Goldstone spends much space on the humanitarian situation in Gaza at that time. From reading the report one would get the impression that Gazans were to the point of starvation. Yet as this video shows, they didn't seem to be in such bad shape:

Although my version is satirical, the video is real, and was taken during this exact time period of December 2008. It isn't a place one might choose to live but it is a far cry from many places - including much poorer areas of Egypt right across the border.