Monday, January 05, 2009

  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Reliefweb:
Members of the small Jewish community of some 270 people in Amran Governorate, northern Yemen, say they have been receiving renewed death threats from their Muslim neighbours since the start of the Israeli offensive against Gaza on 27 December.

Harassment and intimidation have been stepped up: On 4 January a number of schoolchildren attacked Jews with sticks and stones in Raydah District during a protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza, local Jews said.

"Zaher Salem, 36, was injured after boys threw stones, hitting him in the head. The boys also attacked Jews in a number of houses, breaking windows and frightening children," Hayeem Yaish, a Jewish activist, told IRIN.

Yaish said Jews had been receiving threats from Muslim extremists since the killing of a Jew on 11 December by a Muslim extremist, but that harassment had increased since the Israeli action in Gaza.

"The protesters told us the state won't protect us and that they would attack us secretly if not openly," he said, adding: "We are intimidated every day and our pain grows constantly. We even receive threats on our mobile phones."

The Interior Ministry's Information Centre said on 4 January that the boys who had attacked the Jews - along with the boys' fathers - had been arrested by the authorities.

Relocation delayed

According to Yaish, the Jews were told by the authorities they would be moved to Sanaa City on 4 January, but that has not yet happened. "The Jews got ready to be relocated to Sanaa but the process of transferring us was delayed. We don't know when we can move," he said.

"The longer we stay here in Raydah, the more the threats against us. We really fear for our lives and the lives of our children."

The Jews, unlike other local people in Amran Governorate, do not carry guns or daggers. Only the state can provide protection for them, said Yaish.

"When a minor problem occurs between a Muslim and a Jew, you can see armed men gather to protect the former. But when we get harassed, no one stands by us," he said, adding that tension had been simmering in Amran since two Jews were killed by Muslims in separate incidents a few years ago.

But I thought that Islam protected the dhimmis?

More details here.
  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
We are seeing lots of anti-Israel rallies, but the efforts that Zionists and Jews are exerting to support Israel are a bit less visible.

Here is a purely Jewish response to the situation, received from a mailing list:

“Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” Gets Underway

As the members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) battle Hamas terrorists and Palestinian militants in Gaza, leading international Torah scholars have launched a worldwide effort aimed at providing them with spiritual support.

“Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops,” which was launched by Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Israel, and the Bostoner Rebbe (Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz) of Har Nof, Israel, partners people from around the world with soldiers in the IDF. Each person who takes part in “Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” is paired with an Israeli soldier, and is responsible to say tefillot (prayers), learn Torah, and do special acts of chesed (kindness) on behalf of that solider.

Rabbi Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe noted that this concept is one that has been a part of the Jewish people for thousands of years. When Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) led the Jewish people to war with the nation of Midyon, for every person who went to battle, there was a designated person who was responsible for praying and learning for him. Throughout his reign, David HaMelech (King David) utilized this practice as well. During the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, more than 50,000 people worldwide participated in this initiative spearheaded by Rabbi Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe, and facilitated in North America by the National Council of Young Israel.

To participate in “Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” and receive the name of an Israeli soldier who needs your prayers, send an e-mail to the office of Rabbi Kook at maortlmo@gmail.com. To request the name of a soldier by phone or fax, call the National Council of Young Israel at 212-929-1525 x100, or send a fax to 212-727-9526. Members of the IDF who wish to have a “partner” praying for them are urged to e-mail the office of Rabbi Kook as well.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, noted that every tefillah that is said on behalf of a soldier will make a difference, regardless of where a person may be in religious observance.

“Each soldier that is putting his or her life on the line to defend the land of Israel and safeguard the Jewish nation deserves to have someone praying for their well being and safe return,” said Rabbi Lerner, “During my conversations with Rabbi Kook, he emphasized that every Jew is encouraged to participate in this critical endeavor and to pray for a soldier in a manner in which they feel comfortable, irrespective of their religious background.”
  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
So far during this operation, we have seen:

Hamas accuse Fatah members of being Zionist collaborators
Yemeni parliamentarians accusing Al Arabiya of being Zionist
Hezbollah accusing Egypt of being collaborators with the Zionists
Hamas and others accusing the PA of being collaborators
Jordanian journalists accusing Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera of being collaborators
Free Gaza accusing anyone who focuses on sending aid to Gazans as being "complicit"
The Islamic Brotherhood accusing any Western-friendly Arab countries as "collaborators"

Which means that the current hierarchy of people who hate Israel and love terrorism looks something like this:

1. Free Gaza Movement and Iran
2. The Islamic Brotherhood and assorted jihadist organizations
3. Jordanian journalists and Hezbollah
4. Al Jazeerah and Yemeni parliamentarians
5. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf countries
6. Jordan
7. Egypt
8. Mahmoud Abbas and the PA

Rankings subject to change based on new invective and vitriol.
  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The MEMRI blog gives a heads-up that Assud the Bunny, current star of the famous Hamas TV show "Pioneers of Tomorrow," is dying in a Gaza hospital after being killed by the IDF.

It is a thankless job, as the previous stars of the show have suffered similar fates. Nahoul the Bee died from an illness when he couldn't be treated properly in a Gaza hospital, and Farfour the Mouse - perhaps in fear of being sued by Disney - who was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers.

Given the 100% fatality rate that Hamas cartoon characters have, it is entirely possible that a large percentage of Gaza casualties are, in fact, these mascots of terror. (This is what passes for "statistics" in Gaza, anyway.)
  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
A Jordanian TV host burned an Israeli flag on the air.

Fatah came out with a statement condemning Hamas for targeting Fatah members in Gaza and telling its members to take proper precautions.

A Yemeni member of Parliament praised Al Jazeera's coverage of the Gaza operation, and slammed Al-Arabiya, saying "This Zionist channel is trying to highlight the Zionist and unfaithful voice and trying to find out excuses for the Jews. It represents the alien voice in media and performs the role of the devil in covering and defrauding the facts." Interestingly, Hamas has been using Al Arabiya to announce made-up claims of kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, Jordanian journalists slam both Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya as being too pro-Israel, by interviewing Israeli officials to "promote the Zionist perspective of the aggression and massacres." These journalists for Israel's peace partner helpfully add, "serving the Palestinian cause" during times of crisis is more important than journalistic codes of conduct.

An analysis in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press of European media's reactions to the Gaza operation takes comfort in Tikkun magazine's "Rabbi" Michael Lerner, who wrote for The Times of London that "it breaks my heart to see Israel's stupidity."

Israel resumed sending humanitarian aid through Kerem Shalom, and for the first time since the operation started managed to transfer fuel through the often-mortared Nahal Oz crossing, including aid from Jordan and Egypt.

A Palestinian taxi driver was "accidentally" shot dead in Nablus.

The Islamic Jihad mouthpiece newspaper Palestine Today now claims that 80% of the dead in Gaza are children! The percentage of truthful news in such a paper therefore can be determined to be somewhere around 20%.

There is a discrepancy in the count of victims of Gaza between the "hospital sources" quoted by newspapers worldwide and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which has a flawed but consistent methodology for counting. As of yesterday, when the worldwide media were claiming that there were over 500 people killed so far, the PCHR's count was at 424.
  • Monday, January 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
My Rachel Corrie song parody, which as far as I can tell does not violate any of YouTube's Community Guidelines, was removed by YouTube, probably because some moonbats were offended by it and flagged it.

So here is is again, from LiveLeak:

Sunday, January 04, 2009

  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
An on-line poll at qudsway.com, which is the official Islamic Jihad webpage, asks: Who is responsible for the Gaza massacre?

At the moment, out of 3000 votes, the tally is

The Zionist enemy - 20%
The Hamas government in Gaza - 13%
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank - 45%
Arab silence - 21%

Islamic Jihad is a wildcard that people keep forgetting about. They are just as radical as Hamas but refused to take part in elections so we don't know how popular they are, but they are the second-largest military group in Gaza behinf Hamas itself. They have generally sided with Hamas and stayed out of the Hamas/Fatah battles in 2007. Hamas is coordinating their military plans with Islamic Jihad now, and clearly Hamas gave them carte blanche for terror training and rocket fire before this operation.

It appears that PIJ supporters hate Fatah nearly as much as Hamas does. In the supposed "best case" scenario (which is anything but), where Fatah takes over Gaza again, PIJ will not accept the PA's decisions on Israel. They need to be defeated as much as Hamas does, as do the other terror groups with rockets (PRC, PFLP and DFLP.) Otherwise, any of those will be poised to fill any vacuum that Hamas may leave behind, and perhaps half of Gazans can be expected to side with them.
  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the Jakarta Globe:
Israel’s prolonged strikes against Gaza have prompted Muslims worldwide, including in Indonesia, to seek to help Palestinian citizens.

The Aceh chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, will recruit Muslims to fight in Palestine, chairman Yusuf Al-Qardhany said.

“The recruitment of jihadis to Palestine will start [today],” he said. “At present, 13 applicants wishing to become jihad fighters have already registered.”

Speaking from Banda Aceh, Yusuf said that at least 60 fighters from Aceh would go to Palestine via Egypt.

Prior to their dispatch, they would receive a week-long military training in Aceh, he said.

Registration for potential recruits would be open for two weeks.

All applicants would have to fill out a form which included parental approval for them to go to Palestine, he said.

“As a manifestation of Muslim brotherhood, we are ready to become martyrs to help our Muslim brothers in facing the brutality of the Israeli forces,” he said.
Since Egypt won't let them through Rafah, they might have to go to Plan B - using the newest Free Gaza boat. I have no doubt that they have a much better chance to get to Gaza that way.
  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
A new email from the Free Gaza movement to its mailing list, not published on their website, proves again what the organization's goals are. Here are excerpts:
On Monday, December 29 we sent our small ship, the DIGNITY, to besieged Gaza in an act of civil resistance against Israel's ongoing massacre and blockade....

Free Gaza is neither a "protest group" nor an aid agency. Our mission and our work are political. We are a Palestinian and international effort dedicated to the principle of non-violent direct action. We are engaged in active, civil resistance against the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the violence this occupation uses to sustain itself.

We do bring medicine, supplies, and doctors to besieged Gaza as we can, but this is utterly insufficient. Although humanitarian aid is very much needed, especially now in Gaza, focusing on humanitarian efforts alone is a form of complicity in Israel's malevolent quest to destroy the Palestinian people.

The Dignity is currently in Lebanon. It is estimated that it might take between one and two months to repair the Dignity. It looks like the frame is warped, and the blows by the Israeli warship are deeper than we first believed. Repairs to this ship are also going to cost much more than originally expected (over $50,000 USD).

We have located an alternate ship, which we're currently working on procuring. It's probably not the perfect boat for the Free Gaza Movement, but it's the most suitable and affordable one that we could locate in the short amount of time that we're trying to work in. Our new ship will carry about 30 passengers and 10-15 tons of cargo. We intend to leave for Gaza as soon as is possible, sometime within the next two weeks.

We will give priority for places on the boat to doctors, journalists (preference going to major media outlets), and political figures or other high profile people. We will try to take 2 or 3 long-term human rights workers in on this voyage as well.

Once we set sail, we do not plan on turning back. We will stay at sea, insisting on access to Gaza, until we succeed or Israel gravely attacks or arrests us.For continued updates from Palestinians and FG and ISM volunteers on the ground in Gaza, please refer to our website: http://www.FreeGaza.org

In solidarity & struggle,
The Free Gaza Movement
We have already seen how "peaceful" the ISM is, as they laughingly pose with armed Palestinian Arab terrorists.

Every time the media refers to the Free Gaza boats as "aid boats" they are buying into the deception that the Free Gaza terror-supporters try to spread.

Not a single word on their website has anything negative to say about Qassams, or Hamas, or the kidnap of Gilad Shalit. The reason is because all of those are part of their goal, and while they claim to be "non-violent" they are more than willing to support the violence of others that are aimed at the same goal.
  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
News you might have missed:

The 2009 PalArab self-death count got a huge boost from reports that Hamas has been executing Fatah members, killing 35 of them, worried that they are planning a coup during Israel's invasion. Palestine Press reports on many incidents of Hamas shooting Fatah members in the legs and beating them up, but only a few deaths.

Hamas is claiming very few casualties on their side; that they have killed 10 Israeli soldiers, and that they have kidnapped two of them, and destroyed tanks. All of these claims are, shall we say, dubious.

Here's a good example of PalArab "reporting," in English, from Ma'an:
Israel's air force strikes orphanage in Ar-Ramal; one killed

Israeli air forces struck an orphanage in the Ar-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza city on Saturday night, Ma'an's reporter in Gaza said.

One person was killed in an attack. The apparent target of the attack was a group of Palestinian fighters stationed near a mosque in the same neighborhood.

Residents of the Ar-Rimal neighborhood said that explosions could be seen in the vicinity of the Al-Amal (Hope) orphanage.
The headline implies Israel killing a kid in an orphanage; by the end you can see that it is likely that Israel killed a "fighter" near an orphanage.

Gaza cell phone and Internet service is being severely disrupted.
  • Sunday, January 04, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The "Palestinian Center for Human Rights" has been coming out with daily reports of Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza since Operation Cast Lead started.

Typical is this headline from yesterday:
The Number of Palestinians Killed Rises to 372, Mostly Civilians, Including 75 Children and 16 Women, and the Number of House Bombarded Mounts to 73
Yet on Thursday, in their normal weekly report of deaths and injuries in the territories, here was their tally:
334 Palestinians, including 121 civilians, have been killed throughout the Gaza Strip. The victims include 33 children and 11 women.
So, according to the PCHR, between Thursday and Saturday there were 38 deaths. Out of those 38, 42 of them were children and 5 were women!

Not only that, but for the number of civilians dead to rise to a majority, that means that at least 64 civilians must have died during a time that 38 total people died!

I guess that this is the math taught in UNRWA schools.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

  • Saturday, January 03, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The terrible living conditions in Gaza, captured on video.


h/t to Suzanne for finding the original raw video and jhrhv for pushing my mind in this direction...

Friday, January 02, 2009

This article by veteran Israel-basher Richard Falk in the Huffington Post is ripe for a full, line-by-line fisking. As it is, I will only show the more egregious falsehoods and bias.
During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.
It would have been nice if Falk would give a date, or a name, to whomever in Hamas supposedly offered a truce extension. Proving a negative is impossible. My recollection is that some noises were made to the Western press from anonymous "Hamas sources" floating ideas of possibly agreeing to not attack Israel for ten years if Israel first withdraws to the exact 1967 borders, and even then not recognizing Israel. To anyone who is the slightest bit even-handed, this is a non-starter.

Beyond that, when the actual chance of extending the then-fictional truce came up in early December, while Israel was more than receptive to the idea, Hamas rejected it outright, in no uncertain terms. Falk is being incredibly dishonest here by blaming Israel.

Israel indeed increased the amount of aid to Gaza during the truce by a huge amount, closing the crossings only in response to attacks (and sometimes for Jewish holidays.) It also increased the types of goods sent to Gaza, including building materials that were then used by Hamas to build underground bunkers for weapons caches, instead of allowing Gazans to build.

The truce also stated that Hamas would not be allowed to smuggle weapons into Gaza, something it ignored completely.

Falk here is cherry picking half truths to paint Israel as being guilty and Hamas as being righteous.
Clearly, prior to the current crisis, Israel used its authority to prevent credible observers from giving accurate and truthful accounts of the dire humanitarian situation that had been already documented as producing severe declines in the physical condition and mental health of the Gazan population, especially noting malnutrition among children and the absence of treatment facilities for those suffering from a variety of diseases.
Even when Gaza was closed to journalists - after Hamas started it volleys of rockets into Israel during the "truce" - it had plenty of people reporting the situation there, from the Free Gaza members to the Reuters and AP stringers in Gaza to the UNRWA. It is laughable that Falk is claiming that no news was allowed out of Gaza when one could see daily wire-service photos. If anything, according to Falk's logic below, Israel was keeping out the "pro-Israeli" Western press!
As always in relation to the underlying conflict, some facts bearing on this latest crisis are murky and contested, although the American public in particular gets 99% of its information filtered through an exceedingly pro-Israeli media lens.
See?
Hamas is blamed for the breakdown of the truce by its supposed unwillingness to renew it, and by the alleged increased incidence of rocket attacks. But the reality is more clouded. There was no substantial rocket fire from Gaza during the ceasefire until Israel launched an attack last November 4th directed at what it claimed were Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing several Palestinians. It was at this point that rocket fire from Gaza intensified.
In the first two months of the "truce" there was still substantial missile fire, although Hamas did appear to try to stop it. Falk purposefully leaves out that Israel's attack was directly towards a tunnel meant to kidnap Israeli soldiers. The IDF didn't know where in Israel the tunnel was leading so it had to bomb the Gaza side, its first major operation in Gaza in months. Hamas' forebearance on missile attacks is something to be congratulated, according to Falk, but Israel's reluctance to act on solid intelligence is taken for granted.

Notice how he refers to the Hamas terrorists killed as "several Palestinians" - even though Hamas brags about its members' martyrdom. Also notice his use of the passive voice, "rocket fire from Gaza intensified," as if rockets have a mind of their own. This is a hallmark of bias.
Also, it was Hamas that on numerous public occasions called for extending the truce, with its calls never acknowledged, much less acted upon, by Israeli officialdom.
When? Where? What were the circumstances and the details? As I wrote above, the proof of this being a lie is what Hamas actually did when the truce timeline was ending.
Beyond this, attributing all the rockets to Hamas is not convincing either. A variety of independent militia groups operate in Gaza, some such as the Fatah-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade are anti-Hamas, and may even be sending rockets to provoke or justify Israeli retaliation. It is well confirmed that when US-supported Fatah controlled Gaza's governing structure it was unable to stop rocket attacks despite a concerted effort to do so.
Here Falk again plays on Western ignorance about Gaza. Every rocket shot from Gaza since November has been claimed by some Palestinian Arab terror group. True, Hamas did not participate in most of the November rockets, but it wasn't Fatah either. It was the Hamas-linked PRC, and Islamic Jihad, with the PFLP and DFLP doing some others. The point is that Hamas managed to control the rockets relatively well during the truce and decided not to from that point on. This "Fatah" theory is purposeful disinformation, nothing less.
What this background suggests strongly is that Israel launched its devastating attacks, starting on December 27, not simply to stop the rockets or in retaliation, but also for a series of unacknowledged reasons.
Here he goes on to the usual conspiracy theories about Israeli elections and the Israeli psyche and so on. Of course, he ignores and obfuscates the basic facts:

* The truce was broken in November.
* When the deadline came up to extend it, Hamas refused.
* Israel waited to see if there would be a "de facto" truce anyway.
* Hamas then intensified its rocket attacks as the truce expired, making the lives of the residents of southern Israel a living hell again.
* Israel decided that enough was enough, after giving weeks of warnings.

These things all happened in the past few weeks, and are well documented. Falk is trying as hard as he can to spin this to support the terrorists that he clearly has an affinity for.
  • Friday, January 02, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Anyone who has seen the IDF aerial videos of airstrikes in Gaza has seen the initial IDF charge explosion, followed by (often much larger) secondary explosions from the bombs and weapons that were stored in the targeted facilities. Here's one from a terror mosque that was targeted today:


And this one was from an attack at an underground rocket storage facility:


The problem is that it appears that international law would prohibit Israel from targeting these clearly military objectives - because while Israel believes that they house explosives, and the IAF can calibrate their bombing to the minimum amount possible, there is no way to know how large the secondary explosions will be. And the secondary explosions often kill more people than the primary explosions, judging from the relative sizes of the explosions in the video.

Under international law, Israel must be careful when targeting facilities in civilian areas. Geneva Protocol 1 par. 48 states:
In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.
Paragraph 51 includes details of what is not allowed:
4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are: (a) those which are not directed at a specific military objective; (b) those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or (c) those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol;

and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.

5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate: (a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects;

and

(b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
So while the legality of a military target illegally placed in a civilian area is proportional to its importance, its legality as a target seems to be inversely proportional to the size of a resultant secondary explosion affecting the neighboring civilians. And there is no way to know how large the secondary explosion will be, so there is no way to know ahead of time whether a target is going to blow up the entire neighborhood.

Israel is trying to do everything possible to minimize this problem - sending text messages to residents before a bombing raid so they can get out of the way, and now using sound bombs to startle them into leaving. While this is laudable (perhaps to the point of being foolhardy) there will still be some civilian casualties that "impartial" jurists could interpret as being the result of illegal actions under para 51.4(c) - effects that cannot be limited, because of terrorist action.

As we have seen before, international law needs to catch up to the age of terrorism. The blame for casualties caused by secondary explosions in mosques and private homes used as weapons caches must go squarely to the terrorists who placed them there (endangering residents even when not at war.)

UPDATE: Commenter Amy points to an excellent treatment of fighting terrorists in Gaza and international law. My point is not that Israel is in clear violation, but that Geneva can be interpreted against Israeli actions, which would give terrorists an advantage.

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