HRW's Ken Roth wants to minimize Iran's culpability in Argentina bombings

Ronen Bergman reports in the New York Times:

 Two terrorist attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the 1990s that killed scores of people were carried out by a secret Hezbollah unit whose operatives, contrary to widespread claims, were not abetted knowingly by Argentine citizens or aided by Iran on the ground, according to an investigation by the Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

The internal Mossad study, the written findings of which were shared with The New York Times, provide a detailed account of how the attacks were planned — including how material for the explosives was smuggled into Argentina in shampoo bottles and chocolate boxes.

While Mossad stresses that Israeli intelligence still believes that Iran, a supporter of Hezbollah, approved and funded the attacks and supplied training and equipment, the findings counter longstanding assertions by Israel, Argentina and the United States that Tehran had an operational role on the ground. They also countered suspicions in Argentina that local officials and citizens there had been complicit.

In the first attack, which killed 29 people in 1992, the Israeli Embassy was blown up. The second, in 1994, targeted the headquarters of a Jewish community center, killing 86 people, including the bomber, in one of the deadliest anti-Semitic crimes since World War II.

Now, what should a human rights leader take out of this story, if anything?

Ken Roth, outgoing head of HRW, tweeted this:

Two 1990s attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires that killed scores "were carried out by a secret Hezbollah unit whose operatives, contrary to widespread claims, were not abetted knowingly by Argentine citizens or…Iran on the ground.”

The only part of the article he wants to share with his human rights community is to minimize Iran's culpability for the attack!

Even though everyone knows that Hezbollah does Iran's bidding. Even though Iran funded the bombings and bought the equipment. 

In every other context, HRW (and Amnesty) always wants to maximize culpability for any human rights crime. But when it comes to attacks on Jews, HRW consistently tries to minimize the culpability of the attackers - as Roth claims that Hamas and Hezbollah aren't guilty of using human shields. They bend over backwards to find obtuse reasons to make Israel appear guilty of violating international laws but they act just as energetically to find Israel's enemies innocent, even when they are directly attacking civilians. 

This is a consistent pattern. For these NGOs, human rights are paramount - but Jews are less than human. 

---

---

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

Read More

The difference between honest critics of Israel and the antisemitic BDSers who really don't care about Palestinians

Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan is a Labour MP for Tooting and a physician.

She recently traveled to Gaza and reported back on the issues she saw with Israel's permit system for patients to leave Gaza. She is obviously not a Zionist and some of the resulting articles have been called out for major inaccuracies. Nevertheless, she is someone who cares deeply about the people of Gaza.

What happened to her when she tried to help the children of Gaza shows that the purported "pro-Palestinian" crowd really don't give a shit about Palestinians.

From her Twitter thread which she titled, simply, Anti-Semitism:

I travelled to Israel and Palestine earlier this year, working as a doctor, with the aim of finding out what issues Palestinians (especially from Gaza) currently face with accessing hospital treatment.

I saw some truly horrific cases inc. of Palestinian babies being born prematurely, but because of permit issues mothers were sent back to Gaza shortly after birth, with some babies dying alone in hospital.

I spoke at length with many news outlets, the Guardian and the Today Prog did good pieces on this. Kids undergoing chemotherapy can’t travel with parents because they’re deemed a security risk. But the issue has many sides to the story and is not simple.

This caused a stir. I was called a liar, some people tried to discredit what I was saying. I held firm, I have proof of these horrific cases - it’s a fact that many Palestinians are not treated with dignity.

So, in my quest to improve the permit system, I had a very lively radio discussion with the Deputy Israeli Ambassador - something which continued in the green room at the BBC. Weeks later, she invited me to meet with her to discuss it further.

So last week, I went to the Israeli Embassy to discuss it, in the hope to get some traction, to improve the permit system - which will benefit thousands of Palestinians waiting for hospital treatment.

Instead of supporting my work, those purporting to support the Palestinian cause have spouted horrible anti-Semitic abuse. See some examples here - it’s disgusting, these views are abhorrent - but also misguided and ill-informed.

This behaviour does nothing to help the Palestinian cause. I have been there, called out what I’ve seen and spoken in the press. Am I now not meant to work to improve this dreadful situation?

I’ve worked with Palestinians across the Middle East for 10 years - but these racists think they can sit behind a keyboard here in the U.K and troll someone genuinely trying to help. It’s revolting - it’s wrong.

People claim that Zionists call all critics of Israel "antisemites." It was never true; legitimate criticism of Israel is not antisemitic in the least.

Dr. Allin-Khan's criticisms are clearly legitimate.

Her story shows that Israeli officials have no interest in hurting Palestinians. Their main concern, as with any country, is the security of their citizens. But there is no desire to hurt Palestinians, and if solutions can be found to help even the children of their enemies without endangering Israelis, the Israeli government not only wants to find them but has implemented hundreds of such ideas, big and small, every year.

The BDS crowd doesn't care about Palestinians. As these tweets show, including from some prominent BDS leaders, they are all about hate for Israel, not support for Palestinians. They are hypocritical. And, as even Dr. Allin-Khan notes, their hate is based on antisemitism.

BDSers assume that all Israeli Jews are murderers and racists and therefore must never even be treated as human beings. People who care about Palestinians know that Israelis must be their partners in helping mitigate the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza. (They also know that Hamas and Fatah are responsible to a large extent on the problems in Gaza.)

Honestly, I respect Qatar more than the BDS crowd. Qatar, even with its support for Hamas, actually works with Israel to bring aid to Gaza - thereby violating the "BDS call" that so many idiots treat as sacred.

This episode is just one more that proves that BDS is nothing more than a hate group. And while they claim they are supporting Palestinians, when it comes down to it the only thing they love about Palestinians is to see them suffer - Palestinians are only useful when they can be used as PR weapons against Israel.

---

p

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Read More