Sunday, August 10, 2014

08/10 Links: Hamas could have chosen peace. Instead, it made Gaza suffer; Doctors for terrorism

From Ian:

Dennis Ross: Hamas could have chosen peace. Instead, it made Gaza suffer.

The Israelis will certainly resist an outcome that offers Hamas any gains. Having destroyed the tunnels that could penetrate Israel, the Israelis have pulled out of Gaza and were willing to extend the 72-hour truce that ended Friday. Hamas was not willing to do so. If Israel hopes to build broader international pressure on the group to stop firing, the Israel Defense Forces will need to avoid targets such as U.N. schools and hospitals. Of course, that is easier said than done, given that Hamas often fires rockets from or near such sites.
At some point, Hamas will stop firing rockets — if for no other reason than its arsenal is depleted. For the people of Gaza, however, the price has been staggering. But Hamas’s leaders have never been concerned about that. For them, Palestinians’ pain and suffering are tools to exploit, not conditions to end.
When relative calm returns, there will understandably be a push for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now even less able politically to tackle the core issues , a permanent agreement between the two sides is not in the cards. U.S. diplomacy, therefore, needs to be guided by several considerations and achievable aims. (h/t Alexi)

Exclusive: New Details Surface in Hamas Murder of IDF Soldier Hadar Goldin (update)

The officer explained how, after the suicide bombing that killed Lt. Goldin, a second kidnapping team of Hamas terrorists grabbed parts of his body and ran back into the tunnel from which the terrorists emerged. The tunnel led back into a mosque. From the mosque, they escaped in a clearly marked UNRWA ambulance. The terrorists then made contact with high-ranking Hamas officials hiding in the Islamic University.
As a result Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas, announced in Cairo that Hamas had kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Israeli intelligence intercepted a conversation between the kidnappers and the Hamas officials at the Islamic University and thus got all the particulars regarding the hiding place of the kidnappers. Within minutes, the IAF attacked both the kidnappers' location and the Islamic University.
In the midst of this attack, a second force of IDF soldiers--which had gone into a mosque looking for weapons, explosives, and rockets-- encountered a female suicide bomber who was about to detonate the belt she wore, which would have resulted in the deaths of the soldiers. One of the soldiers instinctively recited the opening words of the holiest Jewish prayer “Shema Yisrael”. The female suicide bomber hesitated and began trembling, giving the soldiers a chance to grab her and disable the device.
The soldiers then took her prisoner and turned her over to a counter-intelligence unit. Their investigation uncovered that the female suicide bomber’s mother was a Jew who had married a Palestinian in Israel and, after the wedding, was smuggled against her will into Gaza. There she lived a life filled with abuse and humiliation, and was basically a captive. In addition to the female suicide bomber, there were two smaller children as well. An armored force went in and rescued the two small children.

UPDATE: People I trust are telling me that this story does not add up to the known facts about the attack. There have been a lot of rumors going around as fact to try to make up for Israeli censorship and this story very well may be an example of that.

Hillary Clinton Criticizes Obama Foreign Policy, Slams ‘Unfair’ World Response to Gaza War

Much of my conversation with Clinton focused on the Gaza war. She offered a vociferous defense of Israel, and of its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well. This is noteworthy because, as secretary of state, she spent a lot of time yelling at Netanyahu on the administration's behalf over Israel’s West Bank settlement policy. Now, she is leaving no daylight at all between the Israelis and herself.
“I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets,” she told me. “Israel has a right to defend itself. The steps Hamas has taken to embed rockets and command-and-control facilities and tunnel entrances in civilian areas, this makes a response by Israel difficult.”
I asked her if she believed that Israel had done enough to prevent the deaths of children and other innocent people.
“[J]ust as we try to do in the United States and be as careful as possible in going after targets to avoid civilians,” mistakes are made, she said. “We’ve made them. I don’t know a nation, no matter what its values are—and I think that democratic nations have demonstrably better values in a conflict position—that hasn’t made errors, but ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas.”(h/t Bob Knot)

Doctors for terrorism

The one-sided campaign waged by Physicians for Human Rights Israel is also supported by several European governments as well as the New Israel Fund.
It is possible to diminish the influence of these bodies by exposing their misuse of medical ethics and holding the Norwegian, British and other bodies who fund them to account. This is not a simple process, but it has been proven effective in the long-term.
The Lancet medical journal is a financial body, therefore, the most effective (and certainly the most complicated) strategy would be to cancel subscriptions and to pull advertising in protest of the misuse of medical ethics. Those who use their professional status and prestige to promote anti-Semitism and support terrorism are dishonoring the Hippocratic oath they took, vowing to "never do harm."

Last week I discussed how the blood-libel has adapted to the current political moment and is growing within progressive-left discourse around the Arab-Israel conflict.

The function of the blood-libel is to create hatred toward Jews for political reasons. Just as the Nazis used hatred toward Jews as a uniting rallying-cry in the early-middle part of the twentieth-century, so vast numbers of Arabs surrounding the Jews of Israel do so today.

Thus when "liberals" or leftists screech to the heavens that Zionists or Israelis are intentionally murdering innocent cherubs in their beds, what they are really saying is that the Jews are evil and need to be dealt with as an evil force.

{And, needless to say, there is only one thing to be done with evil and we all know what that is.}

Another aspect of western-left discourse around the Arab-Israel conflict is the use of the Holocaust as a political club against Jews. When leftists or Democrats claim that Israel is committing a "genocide" in Gaza they are intentionally evoking the Holocaust in order to suggest that the Jewish people are "the new Nazis."

Were this not the case we would hear cries of "genocide" ring out across the land over the Syrian civil war, but we do not. Let us compare the two conflicts in terms of death toll, interest among progressives toward each catastrophe, and the use of the term "genocide" as a descriptor of these conflicts.

Death Toll

Death toll in Syria as of August 1, 2014 : approximately 150,000.

Death toll in Gaza as of August 1, 2014 : approximately 1,500.

A mere one hundred to one differential.

This means that the Syrian civil war has, in just over the last few years, created three times the number of dead than in the entire Arab-Israel conflict since 1950, both Arabs and Jews combined.

Relative Interest Among Democratic Daily Kos Participants

Everything else being equal, one would, therefore, expect to find one-hundred times more interest among progressives who claim to care about social justice and universal human rights.

One would, of course, be entirely wrong.

I have been revisiting Daily Kos because it offers a glimpse into the mindset of the progressive-left and the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic Party in the United States. These are people who claim to hold the moral high ground in American politics, so let us take a gander at how they have responded to the two conflicts.

From the first of this year until August 1 Daily Kos published 385 "diaries" concerned, at least in part, with the Arab-Israel conflict.

From the first of this year until August 1 Daily Kos published 143 "diaries" concerned, at least in part, with the Syrian civil war.

This means that among "Kossacks" there was 2.7 times more interest in the Arab-Israel conflict than in the Syrian civil war despite the fact that the Syrian civil war is one-hundred times more devastating than anything that Israel is doing in Gaza.

This means - in a crude, but nonetheless ethically significant calculus - that "Kossacks" demonstrate 270 times more interest for every Gazan life than they do for every Syrian life.

That is a rather large disparity, don't you think? If it had worked out to, say, 3 or 4 times more interest in Gazan lives than Syrian lives it might have made some sense, given the media play that the Arab-Israel conflict generates.

But 270 to 1?

That seems rather... disproportionate.

One begins to wonder if the progressives really care about social justice and universal human rights. If they did honestly have such gentle yearnings one would think that the much larger, much more devastating conflict, would capture more of their attention than the much smaller conflict next door, but it does not and this very definitely tells us a thing or two about the priorities of the progressive-left.

The "Genocide" Slander

As for "genocide" there is one taking place in Syria, but there is not one taking place in Gaza. If by "genocide" we mean a significant decrease in a particular population due to war and malice then Syria qualifies, but Gaza does not. The Armenian genocide was a genocide. The Holocaust of the Jews and the Sinti and Roma (Gypsy) were genocides. Syria, with its 150,000 dead, is a genocide. But, I'm sorry, while the Gaza operation is terrible for the Gazans and has resulted in around 1,500 deaths as of August 1, it does not come close to any meaningful definition of genocide.

Let us therefore take a look at claims of genocide on Daily Kos between the two conflicts. Given the fact that Syria does represent an actual genocide and Gaza does not, one would hope that this would be reflected in the sentiments among progressives. Once again, sadly, one's hopes would be dashed.

An examination of the 143 "diaries" with the tag "Syria" reveals no mention of the word "genocide." I combed through many of the more widely commented pieces and found no reference to "genocide" whatsoever.

I, of course, did not read every single comment under those 143 "diaries," but I did keyword search and found nothing.

By contrast, there were thirty comments accusing Israel of genocide in just one day alone, the day of August 1.

Here is a sampling:

You don't get to "own" land based on some vague religious claim

(historically it definitely aint), and then ethnically cleanse that land from its current inhabitants.

That's genocidal Nazi Blut und Boden talk.

Enzo Valenzetti on Fri Aug 01, 2014 at 08:16:47 PM PDT

Vague religious claim? I don't think that our friend, Enzo, here has much of a clue to the history of Zionism. In any case, you can plainly see the hatred in his Nazi analogy.

"compassionate genocide" (13+ / 0-)

by Pilsner on Fri Aug 01, 2014 at 01:06:34 PM PDT

I like this one by Pilsner very much because not only is it pithy, but it combines the "genocide" slander with mockery of Jewish attempts to spare civilian lives in a mere two words.

This shows a definite talent in writing.

He is no friend to the Jewish people, but the man potentially can write.

genocide is popular (0+ / 0-)

Calls for genocide are common in Israel:

by BradMajors on Fri Aug 01, 2014 at 06:03:55 PM PDT

What do you guys think of Brad Majors? If this is what he thinks of Israel, just what does he feel about Jews?

Israelis have slaughtered more than 100 times... (17+ / 0-)

...the number of innocent people in order to enforce their illegitimate territorial claims.

That makes them more than 100 times more murderous than Hamas...

If you support the murder of children sleeping next to their mothers in a UN shelter, there is no need to continue. Go support Israel if you want, just admit to yourself you are backing genocide.

by expatjourno on Fri Aug 01, 2014 at 01:18:50 PM PDT

According to expatjourno, Israelis are 100 times more murderous than is Hamas.

Of course, he does not actually mean Israelis. He means specifically Jewish Israelis.

So, what this particular Democrat is saying to other Democrats is that the Jews of the Middle East are one-hundred times more vile than is Hamas.

This comment received seventeen uprates, which means that this opinion is shared among others on Daily Kos.

The above is just a small sampling of the thirty comments that I either copied or noted on just one day at the beginning of this month.

In my years of observing the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic Party I can tell you that any measures of Jewish self-defense via the State of Israel are always condemned as a form of irrational aggression by the loudest voices in the Democratic Party and progressive-left circles.

I do not know that Jews need to go running to the political right, but I certainly think that American Jews need to get out of the Democratic Party and need to seriously reconsider our support for the progressive-left.

In your consideration of that proposition, I give you ExpatGirl:

Sorry. Threats to level a prison camp (2+ / 0-)

with 1.8 million trapped people crosses the Rubicon for me.

Although, truth be told, that line was crossed for me well before today.

Genocide is genocide. The word 'holocaust' predates the Shoah and WWII. Israel have no right to own it. Particularly if 'owning' it is a means to justify acting like a monster.

If Israel wants to be a nationalistic mass murderer, it needs to accept being compared to historical nationalistic mass murderers. Regardless of whether its citizens were once victims.

Time marches on. The oppressed are now oppressors. The persecuted are now the persecutors.

by ExpatGirl on Fri Aug 01, 2014 at 12:15:38 PM PDT

Marching On

Time does, indeed, march on and it is now time for the Jewish people to march the hell out of the Democratic Party and the progressive-left.

My dear old mom, were she still with us, would have said something like, "Good riddance to bad rubbish."

I could not agree with myself more.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

The "siege" is the biggest Gaza myth of all (repost)

Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch yet again proves his gross ignorance on Twitter:

If Israel really wants just to keep weapons from Hamas, not punish all Gazans, it should propose a narrow blockade. http://t.co/xe8s3tyiPD
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 8, 2014

Guess what? That is exactly what Israel does!

Here's a slightly updated repost of an article I wrote last December, after my visit to the Kerem Shalom crossing- a visit that most reporters are too lazy to do themselves:

On Wednesday, I visited both the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings and spoke to Israeli officials there.

I spend a lot of time reading about Gaza from Arabic and English news sources, but I learned a great deal from my meetings that I was unaware of. I hope to blog much more about it as I find time.

But there is one crucial fact about Gaza that has never been reported anywhere, as far as I can tell.

There is no reason whatsoever to "reopen the crossings" because Kerem Shalom can handle all of Gaza's import and export needs.

In fact, Kerem Shalom can handle more goods than all of the closed crossings ever could - combined.

Crossings such as Nahal Oz and Karni were closed over the years because they weren't secure. Those crossings were a tempting target for terrorists to attack. They can never re-open.

But Kerem Shalom - a hugely expansive and extraordinarily impressive feat of engineering and logistics - was sized to handle all of Gaza's needs if necessary. And it can do it without risking any Israeli lives (a forthcoming post will go into more detail.)

Here are all the limits of imports and exports to and from Gaza from what I learned today:

Besides a small list of "dual use" materials, Israel imposes no restrictions on Gaza imports. Even some of the "dual use" materials can be imported under certain conditions - for example, international NGOs can import construction materials. Israel allows potentially dual use items, such as CO2, to be imported on a case by case basis as well.

The head of the crossing told me that the idea of limiting cement and other construction material to "international agencies" was a joke. He said UNRWA doesn't send their own trucks to pick up the cement; they rely on contractors who he knows well, and he knows that they redirect some of the materials meant for agencies like UNRWA to the black market and to Hamas. The people ordering the items purposefully overestimate the amount needed so cement can be diverted - and some no doubt go to Hamas terror tunnels.

Workers are the crossing see Jacuzzis and BMWs being imported into Gaza.

Some said that Gaza did not have adequate pumps to handle the flooding (last year) because of Israeli restrictions. Nonsense. I asked specifically if water pumps are a "dual use" item and they are not. This was Gaza's government not being prepared, and nothing to do with the "blockade."

If needed, Kerem Shalom can run on three shifts, 24/7. But today there isn't the demand.

All Gaza imports are arranged between Gaza businessmen and NGOs, and Israeli or other suppliers. If Gazans needs more, they can buy it. There are no practical limits on how much Gaza can import even if its economy grew dramatically. No limits on fuel. No limits on raw materials for factories (again, except dual use materials.)

Kerem Shalom is building new pipelines for fuel, and increasing capacity of existing pipelines, in anticipation of a potential dramatic increase of demand as a result of Egypt's closure of Gaza. Right now, because of Hamas and PA infighting, the demand is not there and Kerem Shalom is not using close to its full capacity for fuel.

There are also no limits imposed by Israel on how much Gaza can export. Really.

After Hamas took over Gaza, Israel decided not to import goods from Gaza anymore - for good reason. Israel also limits exports to PA administered areas before the peace process gets moving again. But if Gazans can find markets in Europe and the US and the Arab world for goods, Israel is not stopping them at all. On the contrary, Israel is helping Gaza farmers export goods.

There have been some limited attempts to export furniture, clothing and other goods from Gaza. Right now Gaza farmers and manufacturers are dependent on Israeli exporters and must follow international rules for exports, so there are some regulatory hurdles that must be overcome, just as with any exporter. But there is no practical limit on how much Gaza can export. (Recently, Gaza exported potatoes to Jordan, but Jordan does not want them to protect its own domestic market.)

Yes, Israel has a naval blockade on Gaza, and the laws of a legal blockade is that there can be no distinction between types of ships allowed. If Israel wants to block Gaza from getting weapons - and there have been attempts to ship large amounts of weapons to Gaza by sea - then Israel must also ban commercial ships. That's the way it is, and it cannot be changed without allowing Francops and Karine-A's filled with weapons to be sent to Gaza.

But Gaza does not need to import goods from the sea - because Kerem Shalom is large enough to handle all of Gaza's needs, even if the current construction material limits are lifted.

Every single time an NGO or government calls for Israel to "lift the blockade," they are ignoring the facts.

Only a couple of weeks ago Human Rights Watch head Ken Roth was telling any media outlet that would listen that Israel was aiming at civilian targets that had no possible military value.

Now that some media are belatedly noticing that a high percentage of those killed in Gaza are young men of military age who are only a small percentage of the general population, Roth floats a new theory:

Young men over-represented among Gaza dead: unclear if Hamas won't acknowledge fighters or Israel targets young men. http://t.co/Vnk1QcsGls
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 9, 2014

As if it is needed, this is more proof that doesn't care about those pesky little things called facts.

As this early analysis shows, and there is no doubt that it remains true, even according to the false numbers provided by the UN, the chances that a random Hamas terrorist will be killed is about 30 times the chances that any other civilian would be killed. Which means that even among young Gaza men, even according to the vastly underreported numbers, Hamas terrorists are far more likely to be killed than innocent civilians who are young men.

But that won't stop Ken Roth from finding some other slander to hurl. That's how he rolls.

Posters in Rome: "Do not buy from Jews!" (updated)

Early Saturday morning, areas of Rome were plastered with posters saying "Do not buy from Jews!" with a list of 50 Jewish-owned stores to be boycotted.

Using the Gaza war as their excuse for hate, a group called "Vita Est Militia" signed the posters.

The poster says explicitly "non comprare dagli ebrei!" which means "Do not buy from Jews!"

Here is a translation of part of it (h/t JM):

Boycott Israel!
Contribute to ending the massacre of the Palestinian people!

The boycott of every kind of Jewish merchant and product is fundamental to ending the massacre in Palestine. Every industry, factory, and shop owned by Jews dedicates a percentage of its turnover to Israel, in order to supply it with weapons and in order to continue killing people that have the right to live in their own homeland! To buy from these DISGRACES is to contribute to the killing of thousands of women, children and senior citizens, that have to struggle to stay on a land, a land stolen with violence that is transforming every street into a trench, raping women, burning babies and destroying homes. To avoid the continuation of this:

DO NOT BUY FROM JEWS.

Ironically, this explicitly antisemitic poster is illustrated with a cartoon by antisemitic artist Latuff that claims that any criticism of Israel is silenced by calling it antisemitism.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a spate of antisemitic graffiti in Rome that included swastikas and this one that translates to "dirty Jews:"

The mayor of Rome and many other top officials condemned the acts.

08/09 Links: Time to face the ugly truth -- the UN encourages terrorism; UNRWA: end 'blockade'

From Ian:

Anne Bayefsky: Gaza Strip conflict: Time to face the ugly truth -- the UN encourages terrorism

As the terrorist organization Hamas breaks yet another ceasefire, it operates with the firm belief that it will be protected on the international stage. That’s because the modern United Nations has become an instrument of war, just seven decades after it was founded “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
It is time to face an ugly truth: The U.N. encourages terrorism. U.N. enablers on the ground in Gaza and U.N. broadcasters in the diplomatic comfort zones of Geneva and New York are partners in incitement to genocide against Israel, the Jewish state.
Think back to Rwanda, where a radio station broadcast that Tutsis were “cockroaches.” The message received was that killing was justified, that Tutsis deserved what they got. Such broadcasts were criminal.
The demonization of Israelis by the United Nations is similarly venomous, regardless of the diplomatic facade.

UNRWA calls for end to Gaza blockade

“Huge swathes of Gaza have been leveled. We cannot rebuild it with our hands tied behind our backs,” said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“The blockade must end. We are beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. All those directly and indirectly responsible for the carnage and destruction must engage,” he said.
The lifting of Israel’s land and sea blockade, imposed in 2006 [really 2007 after coup against Fatah] after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, has been a key demand of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority at stalled truce talks in Cairo.

Times of Israel Live blog: Israel says it refuses to negotiate while rockets fall

The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Saturday, August 9, the 33rd day of Operation Protective Edge. The IDF continued its air campaign in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as terrorists fired dozens of rockets at Israeli communities. The US had said Friday it hoped for a renewed truce in the ‘coming hours’ after Hamas ended a 72-hour ceasefire Friday morning and fired some 60 rockets into Israel in the course of the day. Israel began hitting back more than two hours after the rockets resumed Friday, and the Israeli delegation left the ceasefire talks in Cairo, with Israel saying it would not negotiate under fire.

Weekly EoZ roundup

Things continued to be crazy this week at Chez Elder. Early this week was the biggest day ever for the blog, we celebrated our 20,000th post, and next week is an even bigger blog milestone.

Out of my top ten all-time posts, five have been written during this war and two of them were written this week.

One was my Pallywood expose of an (apparently) dead girl's body being used for photo-ops for journalists who knowingly went along with the scam. 25,000 people read that one.

The second was the story about the Malaysian couple who decided to have a "hate Israel" theme for their wedding. Over 18,000 hits for that one. For a day or two, I ticked off the entire nation of Malaysia, as many angry citizens came here to spout their anger at Israel and support of the couple.

Other notable posts this week:

(I met the young woman who filmed this, Danielle Avel, at the anti-CNN rally, she's really great. She caught wind of the anti-Israel rally beforehand and she told me that they were deliberately targeting Jewish-owned businesses in New York for their "direct action.")

I think I have enough for another e-book! Maybe when this operation is really over I'll see if I can organize these.

Meanwhile, I have to work on my presentation for my upcoming talk...

Shabbat Shalom!

08/08 Links Pt2: Israel Does Not Exist to Make Liberal Jews Feel Good; The black flag of ISIS

From Ian:

Israel Does Not Exist to Make Liberal Jews Feel Good

In one of the most important pieces written during the course of this conflict, Shmuel Rosner has taken to the website of the New York Times, where he is a contributing opinion writer, with a profoundly thoughtful riposte to the disapora Jews who have expressed their disaffection with Israel as a result of the goings-on—from Jon Stewart to Ezra Klein, from Peter Beinart to Roger Cohen.
Rosner says these men may be right that Israel is in danger of losing its bedrock support among American Jews in particular. He says that would put Israel in a difficult position and represent a near-tragic development. But his central point is this: Israel is not actually their country. They do not live in Israel, they do not vote in Israel, their children are not in the Israeli army. Israel is a nation of 8 million people, and it must act in accordance with the views of its electorate and the existential needs of its people as Israelis define them.

Douglas Murray: The black flag of ISIS is flying in London

There is a phrase used of, and by, jihadists: ‘First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.’ Well there’s a fine example of this on display at the moment in East London. Even the Guardian has picked up on it.
At the entrance to a council estate near Canary Wharf, amid the banners of the hilariously misnamed ‘Stop the War coalition’ (‘End the Siege on Gaza’) the Black flag of Jihad is flying. Yes, that’s right, at a major council estate in the East End of London the black flag of ISIS is flying. Here is an excerpt from what one might hope is the Guardian’s learning curve:
This isn’t the first such sighting. A couple of weeks ago I drew attention on Twitter to the fact that the black flag of jihad had been hoisted when young Muslims from the East End of London blocked the Blackwall Tunnel in a gesture of anti-Israel activity. There, among all the Palestinian flags, also flew the black flag of Jihad. The black flag has been on display elsewhere in Western Europe in recent weeks, notably at pro-ISIS and ‘pro-Palestine’ demonstrations in Holland.

Humanitarian Pressure Helped Create Terror Tunnels in Gaza

Lt. Col (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, an expert on the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), explained that some of the materials, including cement and iron, were smuggled into Gaza by Hamas through other tunnels from Egypt. Yet due to pressure from international human rights organizations, until recently Israel itself was also providing Gaza with those materials. While the materials were earmarked for civilian construction projects, Halevi said that in reality, they were diverted by Hamas to create the network of attack tunnels.
“The pressure [on Israel to transfer building materials] was enormous and [was put on] by several [local] human rights organizations and international [ones], and was very effective in reaching out to the world’s public opinion, including the EU (European Union) and the U.S. administration,” Halevi told JNS.org. “And that, in a way, helped Hamas’s efforts in building these tunnels.”

The Japanese have some questions for ‘Palestine Supporters’…AND OH ARE THEY AWESOME

You are lamenting the “low sinking” of a “once proud” nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that “nation” proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call “Palestinians” are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over — or thrown out of — the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day “Palestinians” to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won’t work here.

Long time readers know that I used to use Spongebob Squarepants as part of my old logo. Alas, I had to fire him a while back because running the world sometimes involves making hard decisions.

Many EoZ fans were not happy and have been trying to get me to reinstate him, even as Spongebob fell on hard times. I pulled some strings to get him a good job at Sabra Hummus but then I was stunned to find out that he had seemingly defected to the other side, last being seen in Ramallah even as the "unity government" was being set up.

I am happy to say that Spongebob's stint in Ramallah was actually a ruse, as he was actually working for IDF intelligence. After that successful mission, he was set to relax in Netanya when he was called up to serve again:

While I mull over whether to find a new position for him at my homepage, SpongeBob has been sending me more updates:

He literally laughs in the face of death!

I may have to seriously consider his application to return to his job here.

(h/t anonymous)

UPDATE: Another sighting of our spongy friend with the other troops:

(h/t Phil)

Common-sense Zionism pops up in the Philippines

An op-ed in the Sun Star newspaper from Cebu, Philippines, by Mel Libre:

ON May 15, 1948, upon the recommendation by the United Nations General Assembly of the partition plan of Mandatory Palestine, present-day Israel was established as an independent state. The next day, five Arab neighbors, in support of Palestinian Arabs, pursued a war against the young nation.

But the early Zionist settlers fought back and, in many instances, defeated its enemies, some of which made peace, especially Egypt and much later the once-terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yasser Arafat.

God’s Promised Land, given to the Israelites after Moses led them out of Egypt, has been occupied, if not ruled by different peoples including the Egyptians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arab Caliphates, Crusaders, Ottomans and finally the British from 1923–1948.

It was thought that the Israel-Palestine peace accord signed by Israel Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO foreign policy official Mahmoud Abbas (the current president of Palestine) on Sept. 13, 1993 would finally end the animosity of the two enemies.

Israel willingly allowed the Palestinians to establish a government in a defined territory that included Biblical towns such as Jericho and Bethlehem. In 2005, Israel gave full control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. In 2012, with UN approval raising Palestine's status to that of observer state, Abbas decreed the use of the name, “State of Palestine.”

I am of the belief that the people of Israel have come to the acceptance of the State of Palestine that would exist for the attainment of peace in the region. But Abbas could not contain the Hamas, a terrorist group that has no love for Israel, with a declaration that "Hamas will not recognize Israel...this is a red line that cannot be crossed."

With Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and having initiated recent attacks on the civilian population of Israel, the Jewish state retaliated with intent to destroy the enemy. The result: more than 1,800 Palestinians dead and 2,502 injured and 67 Israelis killed. Some $6 billion worth of properties were destroyed.

It is said that the Gaza Strip, with a land area of 365 square kilometers, has a population of 1.82 million people (mostly Sunni Muslims) and is one of the most densely populated parts of the world. Hamas has embedded itself in the area like a ticking bomb strapped to Israel.

The act of Israel is one of self-preservation, as it had done so from the time of its establishment in 1948. Hamas and its supporters have blood in their hands, and the world must condemn not just their acts, but the very purpose of the group.

Israel has a right to exist. Its people didn’t cower in the past. They won’t cower now, not in the future.

It is nice to see something like this, and it is sad that it seems so anomalous.

Indeed, Israel's relations with the Philippines have been mostly warm, and in 1939 the president of the Philippines saved over 1300 Jews from the Nazis, and endeavored to save far, far more.

08/08 Links Pt1: BBC and NYT Admit Gazan Civilian Casualty Stats Not Credible; Some truly hated truths

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Some truly hated truths

The truth is that Israel’s cardinal sin is not allowing its genocidal enemies a deluxe war. This has earned us wrath in censorious capitals and yet another preposterous summons from the UNHRC’s kangaroo court.
The truth is that none of the moral relativists out there will admit that the only imbalance in our equation is between the morality of an ultra-liberal democracy and the immorality of the primeval fanatics who beleaguer it.
The truth is that Gaza’s piteous plaintiveness must be juxtaposed with the riotous rejoicing over a single Israeli’s “capture.”
But these unvarnished truths are unwanted in the smug societies that turn up their sneering noses at us. As George Orwell is reputed to have warned mankind, "the further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

BBC and NYT Admit Gazan Civilian Casualty Stats Not Credible

Since the conflict in Gaza began, many in the media have become obsessed with publishing “body count” casualty statistics, especially showing the number of Gazan civilian casualties. This data has been used to support those accusing Israel of committing “war crimes.” They say that the huge numbers of “civilian” deaths proves that Israel is being indiscriminate in its military operations.
Now both the BBC and the New York Times (which has been particularly fixated on the daily casualty stats) are admitting that there are serious problems with these numbers.
The BBC’s head of statistics Anthony Reuben, asks:
"If the Israeli attacks have been ‘indiscriminate,’ as the UN Human Rights Council says, it is hard to work out why they have killed so many more civilian men than women…
…In conclusion, we do not yet know for sure how many of the dead in Gaza are civilians and how many were fighters. This is in no sense the fault of the UN employees collecting the figures – their statistics are accompanied by caveats and described as preliminary and subject to to revision.
But it does mean that some of the conclusions being drawn from them may be premature.

UN Watch: Letter to Navi Pillay about her silence on Hamas

Dear Navi Pillay,
Every minute of your silence since Hamas attacked Israel this morning and broke the ceasefire only confirms what we already knew: You are a fraud.
Sincerely,
Hillel C. Neuer UN Watch

Deleted post from Forbes: The 20 Most Ridiculous Things People Believe About The Hamas/Israel Conflict

Jeff Ballabon published this in a Forbes blog, and then Forbes took it down. I haven't followed all the links so I don't know if one of them is problematic, but for now, here is the article that was taken down: If someone finds out why it was taken down, or one of the links points to something ridiculously offensive or wrong, let me know.)