Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Suburban Gaza

Here, from Google Maps, is Jabalya, the town in Gaza where Hamas just detonated booby traps at a UNRWA school, killing dozens and blaming Israel:

Here is a bit more detail of the section in the center (click to enlarge):

While parts of the town are certainly crowded, it looks like plenty of people are living in houses where there are lots of trees. This looks just like any suburban US community. (This is not the "refugee camp" next door, which certainly is more crowded than this. But the school was apparently in Jabalya, not the camp.)

"One of the most densely populated places on Earth."

See also my recent video on the same theme.

Al-Arabiya Arabic news roundup

Al-Arabiya in Arabic covers completely different stories than its English counterpart.

Some publicity-seeker named Jacob Bender led a "Jewish prayer service" at Al Azhar University for Palestinian Arab victims of the war, calling israeli actions a "crime against humanity." Somehow, I don't think he had a minyan.

Analysts are theorizing that Iran may be behind Hamas' decision to escalate, as a way of showing relevance as a regional superpower or of diverting attention from its nuclear program.

Gazans are supposedly getting constant automated phone calls from Israel saying that Hamas has been defeated, as part of psychological warfare. The article mentions that they are fearful when they get these calls.

Jordanian officials are getting more fearful that one result of this war would be that Jordan will be forced to take responsibility for the West Bank rather than there ever being a two-state solution. They do not want to rule another 3 million Palestinian Arabs.

An Egyptian court refused to grant a divorce to a Christian woman whose husband converted to Islam. Her argument was that since her marriage was done in a church and was predicated on Christian principles, her husband had effectively annuled the marriage by changing his religion. The Egyptian courts said that since, under sharia, a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman and since she was not being mistreated, they cannot force him to divorce her.

The link list again

The coverage in the blogosphere of Operation Cast Lead is excellent, and I want to urge all of you again to read those for the basic news and links to other good analysis:

Israellycool and The Muqata liveblogging the war itself, and Backspin liveblogging the media about the war.
Mere Rhetoric doing his snarky best at putting things in context.
Israel Matzav doing a comprehensive and amazing job.
Jack's Shack has been putting up fantastic, twice a day roundups of articles in the old media as well as new.
The Augean Stables skewers the mainstream media coverage and digs up amazing facts.
Yaacov Lozowick has great, instant, in-depth observations and analysis.
The IDF Spokesperson Blog has some good info as well.
Snapped Shot adds his own expertise in finding media bias, especially in photographs.
Plus the usual JBlogosphere suspects: Daled Amos, Meryl Yourish, Soccer Dad, Yid with Lid, Boker Tov Boulder, Oleh Girl....

It gets hard to find original things to post when everyone else is doing such a great job!

The Guardian publishes Hamas lies

Today, The Guardian published an op-ed by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. Setting aside the incongruity of a Western newspaper publishing the words of a terrorist who shares the same murderous ideology as Al Qaeda and whose organization's charter is unapologetically anti-semitic, we are also treated to an article that is filled with real lies - not only the half-truths one would expect. For example:

For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start. Israel was required to open crossings to Gaza, and extend the truce to the West Bank.

Hamas violated the cease-fire agreement from the start by smuggling weapons continuously. This was the major reason why Israel never fully opened the crossings, although it eased the restrictions significantly. In addition, the cease-fire was meant for all terror groups, not just Hamas, and Hamas encouraged rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad and other groups since the beginning of November.

The West Bank was never part of the agreement, period.

It proceeded to tighten its deadly siege of Gaza, repeatedly cutting electricity and water supplies.

Israel did not cut electricity nor water during the six months.

The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated - as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire.

Both false. From the PCHR I count 22 alleged deaths in Gaza during that time period: 4 during the initial shaky couple of weeks when there were still rocket attacks, 6 during the operation in November to destroy the kidnapping tunnel, and the other 8 during the rocket barrages that followed - and nearly all of the 22 were terrorists. As far as the "hundreds of patients" dying, I followed that from the beginning and it was a complete fiction where doctors from Gaza would regularly announce that certain patients died because of the "siege" when pretty much all of them would have died anyway. Israel never blocked sick patients unless they also posed a security risk, and Israel allowed hundreds of patients from Gaza to be treated in Israel during that time, as well as before and after the "truce."

When this broken truce neared its end, we expressed our readiness for a new comprehensive truce in return for lifting the blockade and opening all Gaza border crossings, including Rafah. Our calls fell on deaf ears.

This one is an egregious lie. Hamas explicitly and repeatedly rejected the truce extension, as The Guardian itself reported.

No rockets have ever been fired from the West Bank.

Another lie. They have rarely been fired, but quite a few have been built there.

What is being visited on Gaza today was visited on Yasser Arafat before. When he refused to bow to Israel's dictates, he was imprisoned in his Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by tanks for two years. When this failed to break his resolve, he was murdered by poisoning.

Another Arab fantasy.

Most of the rest of the article is obvious Hamas spin, but that is acceptable for an op-ed (if still reprehensible for a newspaper to allow a terrorist to write on its pages to begin with.)

What is not acceptable is including these lies. A casual reader would understand that the views are slanted but he would expect a major newspaper to vet out clear fabrications. Meshal just managed to spread unabashed falsehoods, which is far worse than just opinion.

This is simply unethical journalism on the part of the Guardian.

Overnight PalArab news roundup

I finally found confirmation that Hamas has been executing "collaborators" during this operation in the Palestinian Arab press, although they do not give any numbers nor do they say that the victims were exclusively Fatah as the earlier Jerusalem Post story indicated.

There is one specific report of Hamas executing a 76-year old Fatah member and injuring his son, a woman and child because the man didn't adhere to his "house arrest."

For the purposes of my counting of Palestinian Arab on Arab deaths (the "self-death count") there is of course no way to know how many civilians are being killed by Hamas during the urban fighting with Israel. It is fair guess that Hamas is not nearly as concerned about Gaza civilian deaths as Israel is, and more than likely that Hamas craves such deaths so it can blame Israel. For example, yesterday's Guardian said that ten children were killed in Hamas-IDF battles - but who actually killed them? Similarly, there were at least three separate instances of Qasssams falling short in Gaza, killing two children and injuring others, in the thre days before Cast Iron started. How many of the hundreds of missiles since then have also fallen short, killed people and then Israel was blamed? One possible example is this story from Maan about a girl who was injured by a "missile" supposedly from an air strike; but how probable was it to have been an errant Qassam? We'll never know for sure, but it seems to me that the chances for Qassams falling short increase dramatically when the people launching them are in a very big rush to shoot it and disappear as quickly as possible. For now, though, I am only adding one to the 2009 self-death count, raising it to 37.

Another Arab source has an intriguing report, that Israel warned Syria that if Hezbollah tried to open a second front against Israel. Israel will hold Syria responsible - and attack the Syrians. Syria typically uses proxies to do its dirty work, but it is deathly afraid of anything that might destabilize the regime, so this makes a lot of sense.

There are reports that Israel arrested an Iranian reporter in Jerusalem for not adhering to Israeli military censorship.

The polls are open!

You can now vote for this blog (or whomever you like) in the 2008 Weblog Awards in the Best Middle East or Africa Blog category.

You are allowed to vote once in 24 hours.

(I know I have no chance of winning, but my ego can use a boost every once in a while! And I certainly appreciate every vote!)

Is Israel winning the media war?

Backspin has solicited bloggers, asking how Israel is doing on the PR front.

The short answer is that Israel is doing a stellar job in the media war, and it is still losing.

For long-time critics of Israel's hasbara, this operation has been huge improvement. The Twitter page, the IDF Spokesperson's blog, the IsraelPolitik blog, the YouTube page, the pro-active sending of articulate spokespeople from across Israel's political spectrum to TV news and talk shows - all of these are way overdue and, more importantly, they have not made mistakes. On the contrary, Israel's PR is now releasing relevant videos the same day, not weeks later; they are answering questions and refuting false allegations in real time and not after the falsehoods have had the chance to dominate for three or five news cycles.

My only criticisms of Israel's PR efforts is relatively minor:

- The Foreign Ministry home page is still very poorly organized and hard to navigate. That should be the central repository of relevant materials, but as it is, it is much less useful.

- I would also love to retire my rocket calendar, and I knowI am undercounting - especially in regard to mortars and Grads. The Israeli government should have a searchable database with accurate information on Qassams, mortars, Grads, and variants like the "rocket mortars," plus all terror attacks, dates, injuries, victim names, pictures, and links. If I could do as much as I have done in minutes a day, they could do it right.

These quibbles notwithstanding, it has been incredible to see things done right. There is no doubt that Israel's current hasbara efforts have been effective and that they help fair-minded people understand what is going on. Personally, they also help free me up from spending time trying to counter basic arguments and going on to more creative ways of helping spread the truth.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that they are "winning," and in fact it is impossible to win at this time. The sheer number of rabidly anti-Israel news and Web 2.0 outlets and anti-Israel protests and letters to the editor - all parroting the same lies to their varied audiences - makes "winning" a most difficult proposition. A simple word search of the word "Zionist" in Google news unleashes a torrent of vitriol, anti-semitism and pure loathing. Nothing that Israel does can combat the sheer amount of hatred that exists.

I have no doubt that most European governments (and a fair number of Arab regimes) are privately very happy that Israel is going after Hamas, and they hope that this will become a great victory against Islamic terror. Yet most of the European heads of state are not going to publicly "take sides." The conditioning from years of ingrained bias makes support of Israel quite unpopular. They are hoping that Israel ignores the media-fueled hate and "international rpessure" and does what has to be done. But they cannot avoid being a part of that same pressure, which feeds the anti-Israel media, and continues the cycle.

That doesn't mean that Israel's hasbara efforts are useless. They are very effective, and admirable. But to say that Israel can "win" the PR war in one battle is very premature. It would take years of Israelis unapologetically stating their case, over and over again, without the dissent that causes such cheer in the Israel-bashing press, before anyone can consider thinking about a "victory."

Only when the environment is changed to where Zionists in major European cities can rally for Israel with no fear of being physically hurt by anti-semites, only when there are just as many passionately pro-Israel people on message boards and talkbacks as Israel-bashers, can we start talking about a PR win in the West.

Why would Israel want civilians to die?

For the many who are claiming either that Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians, or are actively targeting civilians, they are strangely silent on the question of - why?

There are many reasons why Israel would want a minimum of civilian casualties, or, ideally, none at all:

* Simple morality. Israelis never rejoice when enemy civilians are killed.
* Civilian casualties undermine the justness of the battle against terrorists.
* Civilian deaths add untold pressure on Israel to cut the operation short.

The only reasons ever given by Israel's critics to support their contention are easily discarded:

* The most common is the genocidal reason: "Israel wants to destroy all Palestinians so they can re-occupy Palestine/because they hate them/because they hate Goyim/because they want to rule the world." These people are beyond reason, of course, but the simple question they cannot answer is that if Israel wants to kill so many innocents, why is it doing such a poor job? Why did they wait so long? Why are there more Palestinian Arabs alive today then there were a week ago? This argument is most often a projection of the accusers' own feelings towards Jews.

* The "fairness" argument: "There is a 'large' number of Palestinian civilian casualties, which is much higher than the number of Israeli casualties. It is not fair.." This argument implies that Israel should wait until hundreds of Jews are purposefully dead before defending itself in a way that is likely to accidentally kill hundreds of civilians in the quest to stop the attacks, a manifestly stupid argument. A government's highest priority is the safety of its citizens, which is - for any country - a much higher moral priority than the safety of its enemy's citizens. Certainly Israel should do everything necessary to minimize enemy casualties - but not at the expense of its own people's lives. Once we establish the clear facts that Israel does not purposefully target civilians, and that it spends great amounts of time and money to minimize civilian casualties while still effectively trying to defeat the enemy, then that is all one can reasonably expect, and there is no moral concept of "fairness" in war any more than there is in any other field.

* The empirical evidence argument: This is a favorite of human-rights advocates, saying that they have evidence that Israel has a reckless disregard to human life, or uses weapons that are not calibrated to minimize civilian deaths (or are designed to maximize civilian deaths, as the case might be.) The problem here is that the arguers are no more privy to the minds of the generals than anyone else is, nor are they experts in war tactics, intelligence or strategy. Neither am I, but given the first three points mentioned above, and since it is clear that increased civilian casualties is counterproductive to the war effort, this "evidence" doesn't fit any possible motivation. This means that the premise must be false, and that there are some hitherto unknown reasons for that specific form of weapon at that place and at that time. It may be because of intelligence that the observers are not privy to; it may be because the "civilians" are really not civilian, or - very possibly - it could be a mistake, or which there are tragically many in the heat of battle.

The upshot is that unless someone can give a reason for the IDF to target or disregard civilian deaths that makes strategic sense, it is absurd to jump to the conclusion that it was the result of negligence or maliciousness a priori. That thinking does not fit the idea of a disciplined army; it does not fit with published IDF standards; it does not fit the psyche of the Israeli public; it does not fit the philosophy of the government. Beyond that, it is highly counterproductive to the success of any operation. It is, simply put, nonsensical.

It is frustrating, and insulting, for Israelis and admirers of Israel to see that these "human rights" advocates are so glib with accusing Israel of wanton disregard for human life. Anyone who does a modicum of research sees that the IDF and IAF calibrate the size of explosives to be the smallest necessary to take out a target, that they go to extraordinary lengths to inform civilians (via leaflets, phone calls, text messages, sound bombs - and inevitably terrorists) to leave an area that is going to be targeted, that major decisions like bombing places of worship go through an entire bureaucracy before being made. Not only that, when mistakes are made - as they inevitably are, especially when the enemy tries new tactics - the IDF will take that into account and do everything possible to ensure that they are not repeated.

The contrast to the terrorists cannot be starker - Hamas and its supporters are eager to kill as many civilians as possible, by their own tacit or explicit statements. Their motivation is stated daily in TV shows and weekly in mosques - to cleanse Palestine of the Jews (which they are generally careful to translate into English as "Zionists.") To give a small example, a poll last March showed that 84% of Palestinian Arabs, and some 91% of Gazans, supported the terror attack that massacred 8 students at Mercaz Harav.

Numbers like these are inconceivable among Israelis when referring to Palestinian Arab civilians, yet the "human rights" advocates are so even-handed as to assume that both sides have the same motivation to attack innocents.

But none of them can give a reason why.

Threats increase against Yemen Jews

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.

Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops

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.”

The Zionist Collaborator Hierarchy

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.

Another Gaza casualty: Assud the Killer Rabbit

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.)

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.

YouTube bans Rachel Corrie song parody

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:

The Islamic Jihad wildcard

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.