Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, November 17, 2018

11/17 Links: Melanie Phillips: The muddled obsessions of progressive American Jews; Ben Shapiro: The Only Proper Response To Anti-Semitism; What is Europe without Jews?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The muddled obsessions of progressive American Jews

Having spent the past week or so in Los Angeles, I have been struck once again by the deep anxiety in the American Jewish community over the intensifying demonization of Israel on campus and over self-styled progressive Jews.

I have also been exposed to the even more intense divisions within that community over President Donald Trump. One of the most bizarre conceits among those who hate him is that he’s an antisemite, or at the very least knowingly encourages antisemites.

A guest of the Hanukkah celebration at the White House last year told me he had the opportunity to observe the president up close.

Surrounded by Jewish friends and Republican colleagues, Trump said proudly when his family arrived: “Here are my Jewish grandchildren.” It was simply inconceivable, said my informant, that anyone could seriously believe there was an antisemitic bone in his body.

For those who hate him, however, it’s as if all the evils and problems in the world are somehow his fault. It’s not simply a question of loathing his uncouthness or finding his personality objectionable. He has become their obsession. He occupies their every waking thought. He is their personal demon.

The same people, however, are overwhelmingly silent about the antisemites and Israel-bashers in the Democratic Party, more of whom have been elected to Congress in the mid-terms.

There’s silence from such quarters over Ilhan Omar, elected in Minnesota and who has said: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

Silence over Rashida Tlaib, elected for a Michigan seat and who, asked if she would vote against military aid to Israel, replied: “Absolutely … I will be using my position in Congress so that no country, not one, should be able to get aid from the U.S. when they still promote that kind of injustice.”

Silence, too, over Women’s March leaders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, despite their support for Louis Farrakhan who raves about “satanic” Jews.

Ben Shapiro: Intersectionality Leads To Ignoring Anti-Semitism. Here's Why.

On Friday, Batya Ungar-Sargon, opinion editor of the Left-wing Jewish publication The Forward, tweeted her disappointment at the behavior of Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour. Sarsour, a longtime anti-Semite, issued a statement in support of Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar, who is herself an anti-Semite who supports boycott against Israel designed to destroy the Jewish State; in the past, she’s tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Sarsour, angry at Leftists who have called on Omar to recant, tore into “folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”

This charge of dual loyalty is textbook anti-Semitism; it’s also wildly illogical, given that Left-leaning people are in favor of downplaying Left-wing anti-Semitism so as to promote the intersectional ideal (Ungar-Sargon’s piece on the topic is an incredible exercise in logical pretzling to avoid the obvious conclusion that Omar is a BDS supporter). Here was Ungar-Sargon tweeting her disappointment:

Really, really, really disappointed to see this canard of dual loyalties from @lsarsour. I don't know if she's subtweeting my piece which actually defended @IlhanMN (https://t.co/84rOBEZAwf) but I am pretty upset by this. What a betrayal of the intersectional ideal. pic.twitter.com/e3JfdTn0W2
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) November 16, 2018

Herein lies the problem for those in the Jewish community who embrace intersectionality: the very tenets of intersectionality tend toward downplaying and pooh-poohing anti-Semitism. That’s because intersectionality posits that all inequality is the result of power hierarchies reflecting differential privilege of group identities. If one group is more powerful than another in some way, that’s because the group has benefitted from a power hierarchy. The intersectional coalition is directed at destroying the hierarchy, which is presumed to be based on maintenance of white, male, straight power.

Ben Shapiro: Only Proper Response To Anti-Semitism

Linda Sarsour Accuses Jews Who Oppose Anti-Semitic Muslim Congresswoman Of Having Dual Loyalties

This week, Omar revealed in an interview with the “Muslim Girl” website that she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) that targets Israel. As Jordan Schachtel of Conservative Review noted, “The statement marked a stark reversal from Omar’s previous position on BDS. Prior to the election, Omar told Minnesota Jews that she was opposed to the boycott movement. Aaron Bandler of The Jewish Journal reported Omar said that BDS wasn’t “helpful in getting that two-state solution … I think the particular purpose for [BDS] is to make sure that there is pressure, and I think that pressure really is counteractive. Because in order for us to have a process of getting to a two-state solution, people have to be willing to come to the table and have a conversation about how that is going to be possible and I think that stops the dialogue.”

The charge of dual loyalty against Jews goes back thousands of years to the story of Esther, when Haman, the anti-Semitic right-hand man of the Persian king Ahasuerus, who wanted to eradicate the Jews, said, “there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the poples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from every other people’s and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let it be recorded that they be destroyed.”

That slur was echoed by Flaccus, the Roman governor of Alexandria Egypt, in the first century, who tried to appease rioters targeting the Jews who were successful there. The charge persisted through the centuries; in the late 19th century he French, during the Dreyfus affair, launched charges that the Jews had dual loyalties. Ironically, it was the Dreyfus affair that convinced Theodor Herzl, a secular Jew, to realize the Jews could not live freely in Europe and spearhead the movement for the reestablishment of the state of Israel. The charge was used in the Stalinist Soviet Union; echoes of it were promulgated after the 1991 Gulf War and the Iraq war.

11/16 Links Pt2: Stan Lee's final essay, about the Holocaust; Simone O’Broin: The white supremacy of the Palestinian cause and BDS; Merkel urged Romanian president to not move embassy to Jerusalem

From Ian:

Stan Lee's final essay, about the Holocaust

Note: Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee, who passed away this week, took a strong interest in the Holocaust in recent years. His final published essay appeared as the introduction to the recent book We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust, by Neal Adams, Rafael Medoff, and Craig Yoe (IDW / Yoe Books, 2018). We Spoke Out features Holocaust-related comic book stories, including superheroes from Stan Lee’s Marvel Universe such as Captain America, the X-Men, and Captain Marvel. Arutz Sheva reviewed its predecessor, How Cartoonists Fought the Holocaust.

INTRODUCTION TO “WE SPOKE OUT: COMIC BOOKS AND THE HOLOCAUST”
People don't usually associate so profound and forbidding a topic as the Holocaust with the costumed superheroes and bombastic villains who inhabit the world of comic books. But the truth is that those colorful characters aren’t the only residents of the comic book universe, and comic books can serve more purposes than entertainment alone.

Amidst all the thrilling tales of superheroes foiling evil villains, my colleagues and I have more than once used the pages of comic books in an effort to educate readers about real-life topics. When I wrote the storyline about drug abuse for three issues of Amazing Spider-Man in 1971, and when Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil created stories about drugs, racism, pollution, and other hot-button subjects for Green Lantern/Green Arrow from 1970 to 1972, we were no longer just comic- book creators. We were also teachers.

I’m very proud that comic creators have taught about the Holocaust, too.

Sometimes we forget that talking about the Holocaust is a relatively new thing for most Americans. Sure, thirty-five states now require teaching the Holocaust in public schools. But the first of them, Illinois, adopted that policy as recently as 1990. There were very few opportunities for young people to learn about the Nazi genocide during the years before that, although comic book creators made an effort to fill that gap.

As far back as 1955, Al Feldstein and Bernard Krigstein created the astounding comic story "Master Race," about an encounter between a Holocaust survivor and a Nazi war criminal. To this day, that story gives me chills. As far as I know, it was the first attempt by comic creators to address the Holocaust and, appropriately, it is the first story in this volume.

David Collier: Simone O’Broin: The white supremacy of the Palestinian cause and BDS

The white supremacy of the Palestinian cause and BDS

The expletives deflect from the important element of the video. Simone O’Broin comes across as a racist, clearly displaying a white supremacy mindset in the words that she hurls at the Air India employees. She mentions her credentials as an ‘International Human rights Lawyer for the Palestinian people about a dozen times. A snippet:

you’re the Captain aren’t you. I am working for all ‘your’ people…. don’t get any money for it by the way….I’m leader of the f..king boycott movement, if I say boycott Air India – done….do I not have the right f..king clothes on? rich Indian ‘f**king money grabbing bastards…I’ll turn you f**king inside out…

This happens far too often to be a coincidence. Racists attached to anti-Israel activism. Many put it down to simple old-school antisemitism, but it is deeper than that. If you listen to activist-academic Ilan Pappe closely, you’ll hear desperation in his voice when he talks about Palestinians not ‘leading the way’. Pappe clearly knows what needs to be done. He looks ‘white’ and is ‘clever’. In the video it seems that Pappe is implying that people like himself in the west created BDS and gave it as a present to the Palestinians because they are not capable of directing themselves. I’ve seen Pappe speak dozens of times, he often appears to treat Palestinians as incompetents who need help.

Raw racism
But the raw racism in the Air India rant leaves little for doubt. Simone O’Broin is a ‘white person’ who gives her time to help ‘non-whites’. Those who are ‘not white’ should be thankful. She clearly expects them to do her bidding. She is ‘white royalty’.

BDS, Palestinianism and anti-Israel activity is loaded with such messaging. A racist movement that views Palestinians as lesser people who have no agency and are incapable of improving their situation without ‘white man’s’ help. The truth is that BDS was designed that way. It was built to feed from antisemitism and the white- supremacist, imperialist nature of the west. Think about it. BDS wants to impose it’s own value system and redraw borders of a far-off landscape against the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants. BDS may as well just call itself Sykes-Picot 2.

All the Palestinians have to do is sit at the table and negotiate with Israel. But some feel this is clearly beyond them. The leaders of the Palestinian cause in the west tell them not to negotiate. They tell them who to talk to, when to talk and what to say. More people wave the Palestinian flag at the Labour Party conference than the Arabs do in Ramallah. How brutally obvious is this?

Antisemitism comes into play because the enemy is the ‘Jewish people’. Those poor Palestinians have no chance against the ‘chosen’ – the untrustworthy, manipulative people who secretly control the world. How can those ‘lesser-people’- possibly do it on their own. In this fashion the Palestinian cause (Palestinianism) has attracted a whole host of antisemites and white-supremacists, all willing to attack Israel in the name of ‘human rights’. Don’t believe me? Just give one of them too much to drink.

11/16 Links Pt1: Sherman: Israel’s stark option: Arabs in Gaza or Jews in Negev; Gazans plan border protests Friday to ‘thank the resistance’ for rocket fire; Muslim Brotherhood's Qaradawi Resigns

From Ian:

Dr. Martin Sherman: Israel’s stark option: Arabs in Gaza or Jews in Negev

If the Israel leadership persists with its perception of the Palestinian-Arabs in general, and the Gazan's in particular, as potential partners in some future peace arrangement rather than perceiving them as they perceive themselves – as implacable enemies, whose enmity towards the Jewish state is not rooted in what it does but what it is—it will never be able to formulate a policy capable of effectively dealing [with]... the continuing, and continually intensifying, threat emanating from the Gaza Strip.

Fatal failure of conventional wisdom

The dramatic escalation in violence on Monday—the very day after Israel permitted the transfer of millions of Qatari dollars into the Hamas- ruled- enclave, allegedly to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis there—underscored the futility of adhering to the dictates of conventional wisdom—i.e. that increasing humanitarian aid will work to quell the violence along and across the border with Israel, or to significantly reduce it. Indeed, recent events have only highlighted just how baseless prevailing dogmas that dominate the discourse have proved to be.

Time and again over the course of the conflict, it has been shown, clearly and convincingly, that the penury and privation are not the reason for Arab enmity toward Israel. Quite the reverse! It is Arab enmity towards Israel that is reason for the prevailing penury and privation.

Almost inevitably, the dismaying recurrence of violence along Israel’s source border brings to mind the pithy dictum attributed to Albert Einstein, who reportedly observed: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

After all, the problems of Gaza are the undeniable outcome of the ill-conceived attempt to foist self-governance on Gaza and the Gazans. As such it is aproblem that cannot be resolved by persevering with the same mode of thinking that created it. Accordingly, the failed formula of self-rule for Gaza must be set aside—since any obstinate insistence on it will only continue to exacerbate the current situation and extend the misery it precipitates—for Arab and Jew alike.

Elite officer who died heroically in Gaza may receive army's top medal

Days after a covert IDF operation inside Gaza went awry, and Lt. Col. M. was killed under heroic circumstances, officials say there are grounds to grant him and another officer the military's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, for their actions in battle.

Due to the sensitive nature of their work in the military, the names of the two officers have not been released for publication. According to information approved by the military censor, the covert squad entered Gaza in disguise on an intelligence-gathering mission and was discovered at a checkpoint near Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, where the soldiers engaged in a firefight with Hamas operatives.

Lt. Col. M. was reportedly killed while drawing fire away from his comrades and allowing them to escape.

The other officer made a charge toward M.'s position to try to save him, and after managing to kill three terrorists, reached M.'s vehicle but was badly wounded in the process.

According to various reports and statements from senior officials, Lt. Col. M. sacrificed his life to save his comrades.

Israel's highest decoration, the Medal of Valor, was last given 43 years ago. Only 40 soldiers have received the honor for "performing a supreme act of valor while facing the enemy and risking their life."

David Horovitz: The path of a piece of shrapnel: A minor story that made no headlines

Late on Monday evening, at the height of the latest round of indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel by Hamas and other Islamist terror groups in neighboring Gaza, one rocket got through Israel’s remarkable Iron Dome missile defense system and landed directly on a house in the southern working-class town of Netivot.

As documented by reporter Moshe Nussbaum and his camera crew from Hadashot TV news, the rocket caused astounding damage.

It brought down the ceiling in one of the bedrooms, it smashed a large hole in an outside wall, it devastated the living room, it destroyed furniture, it injured the family dog, whose blood was still on the floor when the TV crew entered.

The story played prominently on Israeli TV news late Monday (Hebrew video below), though it made little international impact, unsurprisingly, since mercifully nobody was killed.

Though Netivot is barely 15 miles from central Gaza, and thus a prime target for Hamas rocket fire, this neighborhood in the town, Nussbaum reported, does not have municipal bomb shelters. And these particular homes were constructed before it became mandatory to include a reinforced “sealed room” in residential buildings, where Israelis rush in the seconds after the sirens wail, to take refuge from rocket attacks.

For the Netivot family whose home was destroyed in this strike, and many more like them, therefore, the only option when the sirens ring out is to “lie down on the floor, put their hands over their heads, and pray and hope for a miracle,” Nussbaum reported. “That’s what happened here today: A miracle.” Their home was destroyed, but the family, apart from their dog, emerged unscathed.

During the years 2003 to 2008, Abbas threatened at least 13 times to quit as president.

Has anyone noticed that it's been a while since Abbas has made such a threat? [I found an implicit threat from 2015 - EoZ]

It kind of makes you wonder just how relevant Abbas is these days?

True, Abbas continues to be the go-to guy when it comes to making payments to the families of Palestinian terrorists.

And Abbas does love to dedicate stadiums named after Palestinian terrorists.

But those do seem to be the main -- if only -- ways for him to stay relevant to the Palestinian Arabs.

Even his victories at the UN and abroad in getting recognition of a Palestinian state don't seem to have won Abbas much recognition, let alone leverage. "Palestine" currently is recognized as a "non-member observer state." And 137 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, while according to Abbas, France is considering the possibility too.

But that does seem to have helped the Palestinian Arabs much.

Hamas, too, wants to be relevant, and to do so they have been organizing regular riots at the Gaza border with Israel -- when they are not busy launching 500 rockets at Israel.

Things have not changed much from 2010 when this video came out:

From Hamas' perspective, they have been pretty successful:

o  They got $15 million from Qatar
o  They got Israel to agree to a ceasefire
o  They take credit for Avigdor Liberman's resignation as Minister of Defence

Instead of letting the hard work of governing tame them, as people claimed would happen once Hamas took power, Hamas has stuck to what they do best -- terrorism and holding hostages (in this case, Gaza) and waiting for others to come to them.

Hamas' method seems to be working better.

Thanks to Qatar, Hamas was able to negate Abbas' leverage of withholding salaries and have not been cowed by Abbas' threats and withholding of funds.

Meanwhile Abbas, for his part, is being bypassed and played no part in this week's ceasefire.

True, like Hamas, he will not be criticized for his incompetence, corruption or incitement of hatred.
But no one is knocking on his door or rushing to infuse the West Bank with cash either.

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.

Antisemitism also up in Canada, Britain, Australia. Because of Trump?

When statistics on the increase of antisemitism in the US are released, the knee-jerk reaction from the media and the Left is that this is a reflection of the policies of President Trump.

If that is true, then why are antisemitic incidents up across the board in other liberal Western countries?

In Canada, antisemitic incidents in 2017 were at an all time high.

In the UK, antisemitic incidents in 2017 were also at an all time high.

In Australia, antisemitic incidents were up 10% compared to 2016.

In France, antisemitic incidents were up 69% this year so far.

In Germany , antisemitic incidents have been rising as well.

Antisemitism is a disease. It is not aligned with any specific cause - any cause given is an excuse.

On a related topic, here is a nice video of Yossi Klein Halevi explaining why anti-Zionism is today's antisemitism.

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.

Every week, the riots at the Gaza fence have a theme. In the beginning the theme was for "right to return" but then the weekly themes branched out into other areas, like honoring Palestinian workers, or their flag, or commemorating the 1967 war, of honoring martyrs.

This week the theme isn't aimed at boosting the morale of Gazans nor demonizing Israel, but to protest Arab states who "normalize" relations with Israel.

The title of this week's riots is "Normalization with the enemy is a crime and betrayal."

Organizers of the march - meaning Hamas - issued a statement saying they "condemn all steps and projects towards normalization with the occupation" calling on the people of the Arab and Islamic nation to "confront normalization" and saying that these moves towards peace will result in "looting of Arab goods."

Other officials from Gaza factions issued statements against "normalization" as well.

It is notable that the so-called "peace camp" in both Israel and the US have all but silent on the incredible meeting between Netanyahu and the Sultan of Oman, as well as recent invitations for Israeli officials to attend meetings in Bahrain and the UAE.

Perhaps they agree with Hamas that peace and "normalization" is a terrible idea, when so-called "most rightwing government in Israel's history" is the one that has been successful in moving towards those goals.

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.

11/15 Links Pt2: Evelyn Gordon: Don’t Trust Middle East Experts to Predict the Future; Irish BDS lawyer arrested for drunk, racist rant; It’s Time for Natalie Portman to Take a Stand on the Women’s March

From Ian:

Evelyn Gordon: Don’t Trust Middle East Experts to Predict the Future

The Jewish state’s relations with Arab states continue to improve—evidenced most recently in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Oman and Minister of Culture Miri Regev’s visit to Abu Dhabi. Consequently, many experts on Israel and the Arab world, who long insisted that such reconciliation could not occur absent a resolution to the conflict with the Palestinians, have been forced to change their tune. But even while admitting they were wrong, their response has been simply to move the goalposts and suggest that the Palestinian issue will serve as a “glass ceiling” preventing complete normalization. Evelyn Gordon comments:

The experts [claiming normalization is impossible] generally favor Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, so they don’t want Israel to be able to normalize relations with Arab states without such concessions. Similarly, the few experts who confidently predict that normalization is possible regardless of the Palestinians are generally people who oppose such concessions.

[But more importantly], predicting change is hard. For decades, with the notable exception of the peace with Egypt, Arab attitudes toward Israel were in stasis, making it easy to predict that the future would resemble the past. But now, with Arab attitudes in flux, nobody can really know how far Arab states are willing to go. . . . That’s precisely why experts are so often wrong on so many issues—not because they’re stupid or evil, but because they’re too arrogant to admit that even experts can’t predict the future. They can’t predict whether a complex policy will succeed or fail; they can’t predict when a seemingly stable country will suddenly implode; they can’t predict when long-held attitudes will suddenly shift.

That doesn’t make them useless; experts excel at concrete tasks that don’t require oracular powers. For instance, though Israel’s intelligence agencies failed to predict the second intifada, they became very good at the day-to-day task of thwarting terror attacks once they adjusted to the new situation. But unless experts acquire enough modesty and honesty to admit that they have no special expertise about the future, they will keep getting big issues wrong. And eventually, like the boy who cried “wolf,” people will stop listening to them altogether, even on issues where they do have something to contribute.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Renewed US Sanctions on Iran are Good News for Palestinians

What the Hamas official is actually saying is that thanks to Iran's backing, Hamas continues to hold hostage the two million residents of the Gaza Strip, whose lives have been literally destroyed by the Hamas leaders' policies.

The message that Hamas and PIJ are sounding is: How dare the US administration impose sanctions on Iran, the only country that is helping us in our effort to continue our terrorist attacks against Israel?

The renewed US sanctions on Iran are good news, however, for many Arabs and Muslims who feel threatened by Tehran's actions and rhetoric. Iran has long been systematically working towards undermining moderate Arabs and Muslims in the region.

The Palestinian Authority and Abbas are actually attacking a US administration that is seeking to undermine the enemies of Abbas: Hamas and Iran. The Palestinian Authority is, thus, aligning itself with its own enemies.

Officer “M” was killed in an operation so secret, we’re not allowed to know his name. By all accounts, the operation was important and Officer “M” was a hero. Why then, is the media rushing to call the operation “botched?”

Reuters:

Haaretz:

Washington Post:

New York Times:

Financial Times:

CNN:

Jerusalem Post:

It's like a contagious disease, this word "botched." Yet there is no proof that the operation was not a success.

None of these articles carry quotes from Israeli officials to the effect that the operation was “botched." Probably because it wasn't. Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, the IDF spokesperson, to the contrary said, "We are talking about an operation that was well-planned right down to the smallest of details. It is the sort of thing that takes place every night, and in most instances remains under the media's radar.”

This time, added Manelis, the soldiers had found themselves in a "very complicated situation.”

In no way does anything Manelis said suggest the operation was “botched.” Something happened. That doesn’t mean the operation didn’t achieve its goal. That someone died does not mean the operation didn’t achieve its goal. There is just not enough information out there for us to come to that conclusion or to any conclusion at all.

Think of it this way: we all know about the Israeli team that infiltrated Iran to smuggle out their deepest nuclear secrets. Now imagine that just after that intelligence was successfully sent out of Iran to Israel, an Israeli agent was found out and killed. Does that mean his operation, with all the wealth of information he managed to sneak out of Iran, was “botched?”

Of course not.

By the same token, the fact that Officer “M” lost his life in the performance of his duty, does not mean that the goal of his operation was not achieved, or that it was somehow less than a success. A death in the performance of an operation does not make it “botched.”

The question is, why then, did so many news outlets hasten to report it as such?

The answer, of course, is that to call the operation “botched” serves to demonize Israel.

The word “botched” has a negative connotation. When used in association with the IDF, it suggests that mighty Israel is an incompetent failure, something everyone who hates Israel would like you to believe, though obviously, the opposite is true, considering Israel’s military history. The IDF is the finest army in the world.

As the idea for this blog was forming, friends began sending me articles suggesting the operation was botched, or commenting on Facebook threads to the effect that the operation had been botched. One friend wrote, “I thought the botched operation was an attempt to take out the Hamas leadership.”

To which I answered, “I have not seen any proof it was a botched operation. I wish people would stop saying that.”

She saw my point: “Ah. Okay. I just meant that the consequences to us, with the loss of M, were very dire. So, therefore it was not an unadulterated success. But you are correct. In the end, they may have accomplished what they set out to do.”

All the outlets that called the operation “botched” did so without evidence. They did it to harm Israel. My friend read that and it entered her subconscious. So she repeated it.

I don’t blame her. I blame them.

Be we do need to be careful not to absorb these harmful narratives.

A second friend sent me the NY Times article, “Cost of Botched Gaza Spy Mission? Israel’s Back on Brink of War.”

I responded, “It wasn't botched. That's the NY Times telling you a lie. CNN and Haaretz peddled the same lie. You shouldn't ever believe them.”

She asked, “How would I know the difference? I have 7000 people on my list who help advocate for Israel. Would appreciate your guidance.”

I explained it to her, how “botched" has a negative connotation of incompetence. So you have to look to see if they are quoting an actual, credible Israeli official saying that it was botched. None of the outlets have that. The evidence just isn’t there. So clearly, they just want to smear Israel.

And they’re quite willing to exploit the death of the heroic Officer “M,” who gave his life for the State of Israel, to do so.

They simply have no shame.

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.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war. – Winston Churchill, to Neville Chamberlain

As I write this, the recent “security incident” in Gaza seems to have receded to become, well, a “security incident” and not the opening volleys of a war.

It started when one of Israel’s special units had penetrated 3 km. into Gaza to carry out an “intelligence gathering mission,” which was intended to proceed quietly without contact with the enemy. Maybe the intention was to find out about tunnels, or the location of the Israelis (and bodies) held hostage by Hamas. Or something else. In any event, the force ran into a Hamas checkpoint and aroused suspicion. A firefight broke out and the Israeli commander, a 41-year old sgan aluf (referred to only as “Lt. Colonel M.”), was killed, and another officer moderately wounded. The force was extracted with assistance from the air force. Seven Hamas fighters were killed in the incident, one of whom was a battalion commander. The IDF made a point of saying that no Israelis (alive or dead) were in the hands of Hamas.

Hamas retaliated by firing almost 500 rockets and mortars into Israel starting about 4 pm the next day and continuing until the early morning hours, the most concentrated barrage in Israel’s history (during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah succeeded in firing about 130 rockets per day). The Iron Dome system intercepted many of them, but several buildings were hit, there were numerous injuries and one fatality.

In addition Hamas fired an antitank missile at a military bus immediately after dozens of soldiers had disembarked from it. One nearby soldier was seriously injured and the driver lightly wounded. The bus was stopped in full view of the border, in violation of IDF protocol. Disturbingly, it was clear that the bus had been under observation for some time before the attack, and the missile could have been fired when it was occupied, causing mass casualties. It’s been suggested that Hamas deliberately exercised restraint to avoid provoking a massive Israeli response.

In any event, Israel struck back by destroying numerous military targets in Gaza, including three high-rise buildings in urban areas, which an IDF spokesperson proudly announced, was done “without casualties.” The IAF also hit some rocket-launching teams, but many of the rockets were launched by timers and other remote-control devices while the Hamas operatives were safely underground in Gaza’s tunnel system.

The fighting was stopped when the two sides agreed to an Egyptian cease-fire proposal. Some Israeli cabinet ministers (Lieberman, Bennett, Shaked, and Elkin) were strongly opposed, but the position of the PM and the defense establishment was to accept the cease-fire, and since the IDF offered “insufficient options” for continuing to fight, their position was carried without a vote.

In response to what he called “capitulation to terror,” Lieberman has just announced (Wednesday afternoon) that he will resign as Defense Minister and take his party, Israel Beytenu, out of the coalition, leaving Netanyahu with a one-seat margin. That almost certainly guarantees that there will be early elections.

So who won this round?

Hamas suffered greater numerical losses in manpower and military assets, with buildings, tunnels, even ships destroyed. The death of Lt. Colonel M., a highly accomplished career officer who had apparently participated in or led numerous successful operations of the type that failed on Sunday night, was a very heavy loss for Israel that is hard to quantify.

From a psychological warfare standpoint, as always, the incident was a clear victory for Hamas. Although everyone knew it already, it was demonstrated that the Iron dome system cannot provide 100% protection, and that it is possible to overwhelm it with the sheer number of projectiles. Hamas demonstrated that it could fire rockets without risking its fighters. Israelis were sent scurrying into shelters like insects, people were hurt, homes and vehicles were destroyed, and only by luck (or a miracle if you prefer), was only one person killed. Hamas limited its barrage to short-range rockets that only reached Ashkelon, but announced that if Israel continued its response, they would introduce their longer range missiles, which can strike Tel Aviv.

And Israel blinked.

Many Israelis are furious at the government and at the defense establishment, which hasn’t come up with a practical plan to defeat Hamas. There seem to be several reasons for this:

Truly defeating Hamas would probably result in significant civilian casualties in Gaza, since Hamas has embedded its military installations in the civilian population, and officials are afraid that the “international community” (the UN and the EU) would severely punish Israel as a result.
A full-scale war would cause even more casualties and destruction on Israel’s home front, which officials believe the public would not accept, and they would be blamed.
A war against Hamas could provoke intervention from Hezbollah, and would inflame the situation in Judea and Samaria, leading to a much more serious multi-front war and an outbreak of terrorism.
Hamas’ rival, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is closely tied to Iran, would be empowered if Hamas were defeated.
Israel would have to take full control of Gaza, which would require a military occupation and probably bring about a long-term insurgency.

There may be other reasons. But whatever they are, our leaders have decided that fighting, except in a very limited way, isn’t an option. They have decided to appease the UN and the EU, to try to keep Hamas in power but limit its offensive abilities, and to try – an impossible but in any case pointless feat – to improve the humanitarian condition of the civilian population without allowing Hamas to use the resources provided to strengthen its military capabilities.

For months they allowed the fire-bombing of thousands of acres of agricultural land and nature reserves. Now their response to a murderous rocket attack is to demonstrate our ability to take down tall buildings without hurting anybody.

They have decided to accept an unending war of attrition – which implies sacrificing the citizens of southern Israel, who will get no peace. Hamas is getting more and more competent; its rockets are more numerous, more powerful, and more accurate. When Hamas demonstrated its ability to create chaos with a carefully calibrated attack in the South and threatened to extend it to the heart of the country, our leaders allowed themselves to be deterred and backed down. Hamas is in control. Hamas decides when to fan the flames and when to turn them down.

Our leaders gave in to extortion, and they accepted humiliation. Like Neville Chamberlain, they chose dishonor over war, but like Chamberlain, in the end they will get war.

Lieberman is right. The cease-fire with Hamas is just the latest example of capitulation to terror.

The end result, if this policy is allowed to continue, will be the depopulation of southern Israel and the loss of part of our country. Netanyahu’s Sudetenland will be Sderot, Nahal Oz, Yad Mordechai, Mifalsim, Nativ Ha’asara, Or HaNer, and the rest.

Yesterday a friend in America asked me if I was safe. Yes, I said, I live in Rehovot and the rockets only went as far as Ashkelon. This time. I realized that I was embarrassed. I wanted to say, believe me, we taught them a lesson; they’ll never try this again. But I couldn’t say that because I knew they would. We have given them permission.

Dear PM Netanyahu, Chief of Staff Eisenkot, and whoever will be the new Minister of Defense: this is not acceptable. I know the problem is difficult, but you need to solve it. You need to come up with a solution that is better than giving up, paying them off, and hoping for the best. You need to develop an integrated military, political, diplomatic, and cognitive/psychological plan to extirpate the Nazi-like evil from its nest, to restore our power of deterrence, and to bring back our self-respect as a sovereign nation.

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.

11/15 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Iran Opens a War Against Israel from Gaza; Israel-Hamas ceasefire after Gaza violence pushes Abbas toward irrelevancy; Terrorist stabs 7 police officers in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Caroline Glick: Iran Opens a War Against Israel from Gaza

A Kornet anti-tank missile hit a civilian bus transporting Israeli soldiers adjacent to Israel’s border with Gaza at 4:30 in the afternoon on Monday.

According to the bus driver, 50 Israeli soldiers had alighted the bus just moments before it was hit by the missile. The missile struck while the bus was moving slowly towards a parking lot. One soldier, who was standing next to the bus, was critically wounded in the blast.

Immediately after the missile strike against the bus, Hamas and its partner, Islamic Jihad, initiated the largest bombardment of Israel they had ever undertaken from Gaza. By late Tuesday morning, the two terror groups had fired more than 400 projectiles into Israel. Fifty Israelis were wounded in the onslaught. One person was killed when a mortar hit an apartment building in Ashkelon. Hundreds of mortars and rockets and missiles were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile batteries. And the government announced it was rushing more Iron Dome batteries to the area.

In the hours following the joint Hamas-Islamic Jihad assault, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (who stepped down Wednesday) ordered the Israel Air Force (IAF) to carry out a large-scale air assault against Hamas command posts and other facilities in the Gaza Strip.

In a media briefing, a senior Air Force commander said the IAF strikes since Monday night have been the most far-reaching raids Israel has ever conducted in Gaza. More than a hundred targets were hit in under two hours, he said.

Israel’s Security Cabinet, which is authorized to order the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to open large-scale operations, including war, convened on Tuesday morning. Its final decision was to walk back the conflict and agree to a ceasefire, with no terms.

The cabinet’s decision was met with fury by residents of the south. They came out in droves, blocked a major highway leading to the embattled border town of Sderot, and set fire to tires while attacking the government for opting not to go to war against Hamas.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel-Hamas ceasefire after Gaza violence pushes Abbas toward irrelevancy

As Hamas celebrated its “victory” after Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel, with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is increasingly finding himself irrelevant on issues concerning the Gaza Strip. By all accounts, he is the biggest loser from the recent developments in the Strip.

In recent weeks, Abbas’s insignificance has been accentuated by efforts made by Egypt, Qatar and the UN to reach a truce between Hamas and Israel.

Abbas is furious that the three parties have been negotiating directly with Hamas. He believes that direct negotiations will only strengthen Hamas and earn it legitimacy and popularity among Palestinians.

He maintains that the PLO, in its capacity as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians,” is the only party authorized to reach a truce with Israel.

Abbas has repeatedly stressed that Hamas is just another Palestinian faction – one that does not have a mandate to reach agreements with anyone, particularly Israel. He even pointed that it was the PLO, and not Hamas, who reached the last ceasefire that ended the 2014 operation in the Gaza Strip.

But the events of the past few weeks have shown that Egypt, Qatar and the UN are determined to proceed with their efforts to achieve a truce in Gaza, with or without Abbas’s consent. The three parties have reached the conclusion that Abbas is not going to change his position regarding the truce between Hamas and Israel, and that’s why they are now negotiating directly with Israel and with Hamas.
Abbas’s biggest fear is that a truce will embolden Hamas and enable it to maintain its control over the Gaza Strip. He also fears that a truce will solidify the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and pave the way for the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Worse, Abbas was forced this week to sit by and watch as Egyptian, Qatari and other international mediators negotiated a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip without referring to him.

Jonathan S. Tobin: In praise of Netanyahu’s caution

People demonstrated in the streets of Sderot on Tuesday, and who could blame them? They had spent days running back and forth to bomb shelters and safe rooms, enduring the tension and dangers of being subjected to hundreds of rockets fired at their town, as well as the rest of southern Israel, by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists from Gaza.

But their reaction to news of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes didn’t bring the usual joy and relief. They were mad that once again, Hamas had terrorized and held hundreds of thousands of Israelis hostage—and gotten away with it. More to the point, they blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing them and the country by refusing to respond more forcefully to the 450-plus rockets fired on the country. They said he had not only abandoned them, but had encouraged Hamas to repeat this dismal process the next time it suited them.

Nor were these demonstrators alone in castigating Netanyahu. Some members of his coalition sniped at him for what they considered timorous behavior. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced Netanyahu and went so far as to resign because of the prime minister’s failure to escalate the conflict against Hamas. Lieberman’s motives were transparently political since he opposed military action only weeks ago; his goal was to position himself to Netanyahu’s right if the country went to early elections. But opposition leaders also joined in the Bibi-bashing, giving some on the left the rare opportunity to criticize him from the right for allowing a dangerous security situation to develop and then not resolving it in a satisfactory manner. Most embarrassing was the way his critics in the Knesset and the media used video clips of Netanyahu saying the same things about former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s similar policies towards Gaza when he was in the opposition.

But being hoisted on his own petard in this manner didn’t appear to faze the prime minister. Nor should it. The world looks a lot different from the perspective of being the person who must make life-and-death decisions, as opposed to those who can criticize from the sidelines.

Pittsburgh shooter a fan of sites that love Electronic Intifada, Max Blumenthal, Mondoweiss

EoZ contributor Petra Marquardt-Bigman writes in The Forward that the white nationalist Pittsburgh mass murderer also hated Israel, and he was a fan of neo-Nazi sites that loved to quote anti-Israel sites.

To give one example he would reproduce posts from a disgusting blog with the disgusting name Diversity Macht Frei. The author of the blog say he's a fan of Electronic Intifada, "which publishes a lot of good research on the Jews, if you can ignore their disturbing sympathy for brown people.”

The blogger often quotes not only Ali Abunimah, but also Mondoweiss several times and Max Blumenthal: (I'm not linking to the site.)

I’ve also recently been reading the book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” by the Jew Max Blumenthal. Some of the details about the systematic ethnic discrimination the Israeli government routinely practises are amazing. Equally amazing is the fact that this is almost completely unknown in the wider world. For example, he describes a law that requires any Gentile who has a relationship with a Jewish girl to register it with the government and provide documentation to the government that the girl’s parents approve of her having a relationship with a non-Jew!!

Obviously, the quality of research by neo-Nazis is roughly the same as that of Max Blumenthal - both hawk anti-Jewish and anti-Israel lies.

Neo-Nazis are quite aware that these leftist sites agree with them about Jews. At least the white nationalists are honest as to their Jew hatred; the far Left and "pro-Palestinian" sites pretend that they care about human rights and swear up and down they aren't antisemitic.

The neo-Nazis and "pro-Palestinian" sites agree that Jews and the Jewish state are their misfortune. The only real difference is that the far Left sites will quote anti-Zionist Jews as proof that they aren't antisemitic; the far right will quote the same to lend proof to their own proud antisemitism - even the Jews admit that the Jews are as evil as they say.

The irony is that EI and Mondoweiss and Blumenthal and company will happily trot out the most bizarre relationships to "prove" that Zionists are antisemitic - when the antisemites are openly praising the far Left and passionately hate the Zionists.

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On March 19, 2004, a man was shot to death while jogging in French Hill in Jerusalem, Israel.
And Fatah was profuse in its apologies.

Why?

The man killed was 20-year-old George Khoury, a Christian Arab and son of a well-known attorney, Elias Khoury of Beit Hanina.

He was killed by Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (after all, what peace partner doesn't have their very own terrorist group?)

In 1975, George Khoury's grandfather, Daoud Khoury, was killed, along with 12 others, when a booby-trapped refrigerator set up by Fatah exploded in Jerusalem.

In a statement, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades apologized and said that the killing of Khoury was a case of "mistaken identity" -- they thought Khoury was a settler. They went on to say that as far as the terrorist group was concerned, Khoury was a shahid, a martyr.

The most recent Palestinian Arab victim of Palestinian terrorism is Mahmoud Abu Asba, a construction worker in Ashkelon. He was killed this past Monday when one of Hamas' hundreds of rockets hit the apartment building where he was staying while working in Israel.

In Mr. Abu Asba's case, there has yet to be an apology from Hamas.

And what about Abbas?

Abbas has been vociferous in his defense of his payment of stipends to the families of Palestinian terrorists who have murdered Israelis. In the past, as an equal opportunity supporter of terrorism, Abbas has paid stipends to the families of Hamas terrorists as well.

Will Abbas be as quick to dispense a stipend to the family of Mahmoud Abu Asba, who was murdered by Hamas?

For that matter, just how many innocent Palestinian Arabs have been killed by terrorist groups like Hamas and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade?

Back in 2014, Yisrael Medad wrote a post, "Of Course Hamas Kills Gaza Civilians" and links to a report that can still be found, archived here. The website for the group no longer exists.

In a later post, Does Hamas Really Kill Its Own Civilians?, Medad followed up and found for the first 4 months of 2014:

o 9-22 Januaryout of 36 Home Made Rockets (HMRs)/Mortars, 19 landed in Gaza.

o 23 January-5 February50% fell inside Gaza.

o 6-19 Februaryno mention.

o 20 February-5 March6 dropped in Gaza.

o 6-19 March24 out of 64 firings dropped short/exploded on-site.

o 20 March-2 April.
9 civilians injured and 1 death due to accidents involving explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.

o 3-16 April.
3 fatalities and 6 injuries due to accidental explosions.

o 17-30 April.
8 rockets dropped short out of 24.

In an article in The Syndey Morning Herald in 2014, Gregory Rose, a specialist in International Law, wrote in "How Gaza became one big suicide bomb":

About 5 per cent of Hamas rockets misfire and land on Gazan targets, such as one in a hospital and another in a market last week. Three rocket caches at three UN schools have been discovered in the past fortnight. Ironically, in each case, the rockets were handed by UN employees, who are mostly locals, back to Hamas, which is the local government authority with which the UN co-operates.

In July, 2014, Gabriele Barbati tweeted -- after leaving Gaza -- about Gazan children killed by a faulty Hamas rocket

Even Amnesty International noticed that one:

Amnesty International said Thursday Palestinian rocket fire during the 2014 summer war in Gaza had killed more civilians in the Gaza Strip than in Israel.

...In the deadliest such attack, "13 Palestinian civilians -- 11 of them children -- were killed when a projectile exploded next to a supermarket in the crowded Al-Shati refugee camp," the report said.

Palestinian witnesses blamed the attack on the beachside camp on an Israeli F-16 warplane, but the army denied that, accusing militants of misfiring their own rockets.

Amnesty said "an independent munitions expert who examined the available evidence... concluded that the projectile used in the attack was a Palestinian rocket."

Army figures released after the war ended on August 26 showed Gaza militants fired 4,591 projectiles at Israel.

Of those, 3,659 struck Israeli territory and 735 were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, leaving another 197 falling short and landing inside the coastal enclave.

All of which raises questions:

o How many Hamas rockets have misfired and landed in Gaza?
o How many Gazans have been injured by Hamas rockets?
o How many Gazans have been killed by misfired Hamas rockets?

There is no real way to know.

Hamas is not about to admit to how many of their own people have been killed, and there is no free press to report on what is happening.

But the murders of people like George Khoury and Mahmoud Abu Asba are a reminder that Palestinian terrorists also kill their own people.

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