Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 12, 2012

Now, Arabs claim the Magna Carta provides the "right to return"

In the UN on Wednesday:

The Palestine refugees would not disappear into thin air, the representative of Lebanon stated, urging that they be given the right to return. That right was acknowledged in the Magna Carta in 1215 and codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, implementing international humanitarian law and resolutions seemed to be inconvenient for Israel, but acting according to law and normality was not a matter subject to convenience.

The Magna Carta? This was a new one on me.

Since Lebanese representatives to the UN tend to simply parrot talking points, I found the likely source for this idea that the Magna Carta discusses a "right to return" all the way back from 1979.

It was mentioned in a document prepared for the UN's "Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People." And the text there shows that duplicity by the "pro-Palestinian" crowd is hardly a recent phenomenon.

The document, called "An international law analysis of the major United Nations resolutions concerning the Palestine question" by William Thomas Mallison and Sally V. Mallison, states:

Historically, the right of return was so universally accepted and practiced that it was not deemed necessary to prescribe or codify it in a formal manner. In 1215, at a time when rights were being questioned in England, the Magna Carta was agreed to by King John. It provided that: "It shall be lawful in the future for anyone... to leave our kingdom and to return, safe and secure by land and water..."

So let's look at the Magna Carta, and see what is hidden behind the ellipses.

42. In the future it shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear, by land or water, preserving his allegiance to us, except in time of war, for some short period, for the common benefit of the realm. People that have been imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the land, people from a country that is at war with us, and merchants - who shall be dealt with as stated above - are excepted from this provision.

Ah, so it only applies to people who are citizens of the country they left! And it clearly does not apply to members of a entity that is hostile to the country.This is hardly a universal "right of return," and the authors of this paper knowingly quoted only a small excerpt to promote a ridiculous assertion - one that is now confidently shouted at the UN.

It also obviously doesn't apply to descendants.

1979 anti-Israel writers were no less deceptive than their more modern counterparts.

What about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

It says

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

But this also only applies to citizens or nationals of that country. The text was meant primarily to stop nations from preventing nationals from leaving, and the "return" clause was only added to strengthen the right of citizens to leave. See CAMERA's analysis. Regrettably, the 1963 UN document that is the source for this is not online as far as I can tell.

(UPDATE: Ian found it online, with free registration from Calameo. Ingles' entire monograph is suffused with references to the right of return of nationals. Several times during his discussion he refers to "the right of a national to return to his country." In addition he discusses the matter of how countries may strip nationality from those who leave their country over a long period of time; again the point being that he is only speaking of nationals of the country in the context of return. Beyond that, the language added to the UDHR for "return" being only to strengthen the right to leave was added by Lebanon:

The Lebanese amendment was to add, at the end of paragraph 2, the words
"and to return to his country".

In submitting his amendment, the representative of Lebanon pointed out that
the text under discussion:

"... was intended to cover all movements inside and outside of a given
State. According to that article, any person had the right to leave any
country, including his own. The ideal would be that any person should be
able to enter any country he might choose, but account had to be taken of
actual facts. The minimum requirement was that any person should be able
to return to his country. If that right were recognized, the right to leave a
country, already sanctioned in the article, would be strengthened by the
assurance of the right to return. Such was the object of his amendment."

And, again, it clearly does not include descendants of those who left. That is an innovation that is uniquely applied to Palestinian Arabs, with legal arguments that are at least as specious as these are.

After last week's fabricated reports that former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni admitted that she had sex with prominent figures in order to blackmail them to do Israel's bidding, I suppose it was only a matter of time for some Arab "reporters" to start rumors as to who Livni supposedly slept with.

Even though the original rumor was that Livni slept with the enemy while working for the Mossad, the new rumors say that she slept with PLO figures Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo, presumably during negotiations.

The stories are saying that Livni admits that she outfitted the bedrooms with cameras to catch the naked Palestinian officials having sex with her, and that she threatened to post the videos on YouTube if they didn't concede to Israeli demands.

The latest version of this ridiculous story seems to have originated at the Charles Ayoub news site in Lebanon. The story has since been taken down after Saeb Erekat threatened a lawsuit, but it lives on in many other Arabic sites.

Hamas celebrates targeting Israeli civilians - but only in Arabic

From the English website of Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades:

Al-Qassam Brigades is declaring its responsibility for the following operations as a response to Zionist aggression on the Palestinian civilians:

Day: Sunday Date: November 11th, 2012.
Time: Early Morning - Al Qassam Brigades and Palestinian factions target Israeli military sites around Gaza Strip.
These operation is part of the repelling operations against the occupation assaults on Gaza Strip and West Bank, and as a response for the ongoing aggression against Palestinian people.

Hamas has publicly claimed for years that they only target Israeli military sites with their rockets, even though it is obvious that they and the other terrorist groups aim right at Israeli communities and schoolchildren.

In Arabic, however, Hamas is celebrating the destruction of Israeli homes and the injuries of Israeli civilians. From the Arabic al-Qassam website:

The Zionist enemy admitted Monday morning the fall of several Grad rockets fired by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, towards the usurped "Netivot" West occupied city of Beersheba, injuring 26 and causing panic and destruction of homes.

Channel Two Hebrew reported that 26 Israeli usurpers were wounded and of panic situations after a rocket hit a house in the usurped "Netivot" west of the occupied city of Beersheba. The channel reported, on the morning of Monday, 11/12/2012, that the missile directly hit the courtyard of the house causing severe damage as well to neighboring houses, and also damage to the electricity grid in the usurped area. Occupation authorities announced the cancellation of classes in the town until further notice. Since the dawn of the day Monday, the Palestinian resistance shot more than 30 rockets at Israeli settlements around Gaza in response to the continuous Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The residents of communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip in the occupied Negev spent the nightin fear near protected areas, and since the middle of the night there was maximum alert in the region.

No pretense here that they are only targeting the IDF, and glee at whatever they can do to disrupt the lives of ordinary people. Plus they scour Israeli websites to find all the photos they can to celebrate the damage they inflict on civilians:

Even though their Arabic press releases also claim they are targeting the military, their happiness at hitting civilian targets and causing schools to close makes it obvious to their Arabic readers what the real targets are.

The UN's news site has yet to say a word about the 130 or so rockets fired at Israel since Saturday night on its Middle East page.

Video report on luxury homes in the West Bank

Speaking of luxury houses in the West Bank....Here is a BBC report.

(h/t jzaik, Elder of Lobby)

PA TV: "Jesus was Palestinian, the first Shahid"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Issa Karake: "We are standing at Jesus' Plaza, in front of the Church of the Nativity, [to convey] to those who uphold human rights: Take action before it is too late, take action to save [the Palestinian prisoners] the sons of Nativity, the sons of Jerusalem, and the sons of Jesus, the Palestinian, and the sons of Jesus, the Palestinian, the first prisoner and the first Martyr (Shahid) in history."

[PA TV (Fatah), May 4, 2012]

(h/t Ian)

12 11/11/12 links

12 from Ian:

BDS Fail in Brighton by Jonathan Hoffman

Brighton Argus: "A large group of pro-israel supporters gatecrashed a planned protest outside the Brighton Dome last night. Pro-Palestinian campaigners had arranged to picket the performance of controversial dance group the Batsheva ensemble. But unknown to them, their opposite numbers had arranged a counter-demo, outnumbering the original protest."

Finance minister threatens to withhold tax revenues if Palestinians make UN statehood bid
Yuval Steinitz points at success of freezing assets in preventing similar measure last year

BBC Watch: Petition for release of BBC’s Balen Report

“We call upon the BBC to release the findings to the general public of the Balen report that looked into its Middle East coverage and allegations of bias against Israel by the BBC. The BBC has spent over a third of a million pounds on covering up these findings for eight years."

Islamic Leader Praises Zawahiri, Calls For Shariah Law in Egypt

"Rifai Taha, the former president of Gamaa Islamiyya’s Shura council in Egypt, said that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri should be praised and called on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to allow Zawahiri’s return to Egypt."

EU to mull listing Hezbollah as terror group
Austria’s Foreign Ministry tells 'Post' discussions underway to designate Lebanese Shi'ite group as terrorist organization.

Turkey searches Armenian plane en route to Syria
Aircraft flying to Damascus detained, searched by Ankara authorities in attempt to thwart potential arms delivery to Syrian military

Refugee-Turned-Activist Seeks Attention for Plight of Egyptian Jews

“The difference between the Israeli refugee camps and the Palestinian ones is that in Israel we worked, studied, got out, and prospered,” Zamir says. “The Palestinians keep themselves in their camps for four generations, with UNRWA (the United Nation Relief and Works Agency) giving more and more money.”

Cotler to Canada: Recognize Jewish refugee rights
Canadian MP proposes formal government recognition of 850,000 Jews "forcibly displaced and exiled from Arab countries."

His deep, dark secret: He’s Arab, Muslim and serves in the IDF
New film looks at the tiniest of Israel’s minorities — Muslim Arabs who voluntarily enlist
Video with Hebrew subtitles

Israeli team to help put ‘disaster robots’ on their feet
Researchers from BGU to participate in US-sponsored program to develop robots to assist in an emergency

The top 10 advances in diabetes research in Israel
Israel is a powerhouse in diabetes research. In honor of World Diabetes Day, November 14, ISRAEL21c brings you the top developments emerging from the country.

Bahá'í Shrine voted most beautiful structure in Israel
More than 40,000 readers of lifestyle portal Xnet rank 50 public structures famous for unique architecture

Also, Christian Zionism - a Overdue Reality Check by David Brog

PalWatch on PA kids saying "the Jews" killed Arafat

(h/t AC)

The Arabic says "Hezbollah."

The Zionist community in South Africa is concerned that this is more than just a private person or organization showing approval for Hamas and Hezbollah, pointing to a very tall radio tower on top of the building. Whether or not this is true, the fact that people in parts of Cape Town are willing to loudly advertise their support for terror organizations is alarming enough.

(h/t Israel Muse)

EU's Catherine Ashton's latest folly (Missing Peace)

From Missing Peace:

On Thursday EU high commissioner Catherine Ashton issued a statement in which she condemned the issuing of tenders for some 1200 new housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisqat Ze’ev and Ramot.

Ashton labeled these neighborhoods ‘settlements’ and called them ‘illegal under international law’. She furthermore claimed that the building in Ramot and Pisqat Ze’ev was threatening to make the two state solution impossible.

Ashton’s condemnation of the new building in Jerusalem is once again based on gross distortion of the facts. This happened earlier when she condemned a housing plan for the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Pisqat Ze’ev: illegal settlement?

Pisqat Ze’ev, for example was mainly built on land that was legally bought by Jews during the British Mandate - before the establishment of the state of Israel.

The Jews who bought the land almost a century ago planned to build a new settlement by the name of Chawtselet Benjamin. The Holocaust foiled the plan since most of the Jewish landowners perished in Hitler’s death camps. This wasreported by the Israeli paper Ha’aretz earlier this year. Ha’aretz based its story on original documents in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem

Settlements illegal under international law?

The EU consistently labels Jewish settlement in the West Bank ‘illegal under international law’.

Many experts on international law disagree with this EU position. Among them are Professor David Phillips, Professor Eugene Kontorovich , Professor Julius Stone, who wrote a book on the subject titled “Assault on the law of nations”, and Eugene Rostow the former dean of Yale Law School..

Here’s what Rostow wrote at the time about Jewish settlement in what is now termed the West Bank:

“The heated question of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank during the occupation period should be viewed in this perspective. The British Mandate recognized the right of the Jewish people to “close settlement” in the whole of the Mandated territory. It was provided that local conditions might require Great Britain to “postpone” or “withhold” Jewish settlement in what is now Jordan. This was done in 1922. But the Jewish right of settlement in Palestine west of the Jordan river, that is, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, was made unassailable. That right has never been terminated and cannot be terminated except by a recognized peace between Israel and its neighbors. And perhaps not even then, in view of Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, “the Palestine article,” which provides that “nothing in the Charter shall be construed … to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments….”

Threat to two state solution?

Ashton writes that the new housing projects in Ramot and Pisqat Ze’ev threaten the two state solution.

However the so called ‘Palestine Papers’ which give a detailed description of the peace talks between the Olmert government and the Palestinian Authority tell a different story.

In fact the Palestinians proposed during these negotiations that Israel annex these neighborhoods.

Here’s what the Palestinian negotiator Abu Allah said to former US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice during the talks:

We proposed that Israel annexes all settlements in Jerusalem except Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa).This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition; we refused to do so in Camp David.
We cannot accept the annexation of Ma?ale Adumim, Ariel, Giv'at Ze?ev, Ephrat and Har Homa settlements

So the only Israeli settlements that were unacceptable to the Palestinians and could have threaten the two state solution were Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev,Ariel, Efrat and Har Homa.

Har Homa is in that list the sole Jerusalem neighborhood: the rest are towns outside Jerusalem.

So how can building in neighborhoods that the Palestinians themselves proposed for annexation by Israel threaten the two state solution?

Jordanians freak over tiny map in health brochure that mentions "Israel"

Assabeel notes that Jordan's "Association Against Zionism and Racism" is strongly protesting a tiny map shown in the background of an illustration in a pamphlet meant to teach health awareness.

Here's the drawing:

And here is the offensive map, enlarged:

The anti-Zionist group is upset at a number of things.

One, of course, is that "Israel" is mentioned within the 1949 armistice lines.

Second, is that instead of saying "Palestine" in the area between Israel and Jordan, it only says "West Bank."

Third is the complete absence of the word "Jordan" at all in the light blue area.

Fourth is that the Golan Heights is referred to as "occupied by Israel" - which implies that other areas of the territories, and Israel itself, are not themselves "occupied."

Their research showed that other health brochures were partially funded by USAID, so their little conspiracy-leaning minds went into overdrive, saying that the US has been behind this travesty.

They are claiming that the US is pushing a "Jordan is Palestine" scenario by publishing this map in the background and not mentioning Jordan, as well as forcing Jordanians to recognize a state that their government already recognizes.

The commenters wholeheartedly are latching on this conspiracy theory of US -funded brainwashing of innocent Jordanian kids. After all, don't all kids obsess over the background details of boring health pamphlets?

(h/t Yisrael Medad)

Religious and moral Hezbollah involved in drug scandal

From Al Arabiya:

Lebanon has been rocked by a scandal involving the brother of a top Hezbollah official suspected of importing untested pharmaceutical products through forged government documents.

Lebanon’s Parliamentary Health Committee chief Atef Majdalan revelead on Thursday that “four pharmaceutical importers were involved in an operation to import more than 100 types of drugs through forged [documentation].”

It later emerged that a brother of Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish -- also a Hezbollah member –was involved in the scandal. Media reports even suggested minister Fneish might have facilitated the forging of health ministry documents for his brother and that four pharmaceutical firms implicated in the case had ties to Hezbollah.

Future News television reported on Friday that Fneish’s brother “forged the signature” of Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil to import untested drugs. The television added that the drugs entered the country “10 months ago” and that the firms involved in the importation had ties with Hezbollah.

Future News is close to the Lebanese Future Movement critical of Hezbollah and its military arsenal.

Lebanese al-Nahar newspaper reported that the firms imported most of the drugs from South East Asia and sealed them with the stamp of an accomplice company in Britain to suggest that the medicines were made in Europe.

Of course, Hezbollah has been involved in the South American cocaine trade, so this is child's play for them. But it shows that they have as little regard for the lives of fellow Lebanese as they do for infidel drug addicts in the West.

Videos of Gaza "firecracker" launches

Terrorist apologists love to refer to Gaza rockets as harmless "firecrackers."

Here are two videos, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad respectively, showing off their multiple rocket firing ability to their own people. Both were posted in the past 24 hours.

Over 70 such "firecrackers" were shot at Israeli civilians overnight, causing injuries (which the terrorist websites also celebrated.)

11,000 Syrian refugees in 24 hours

These are real refugees:

Thousands of Syrians fled their country on Friday in one of the biggest refugee exoduses of the 20-month civil war after rebels seized a border town, and the United Nations warned that millions more still in Syria will need help as winter sets in.

The UN said 11,000 refugees had fled in 24 hours, mostly to Turkey. The influx caused alarm in Ankara, which is worried about its ability to cope with such large numbers and has pushed hard, so far without success, for a buffer zone to be set up inside Syria where refugees could be housed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that compiles opposition activist reports, said at least 20 members of the Syrian security forces were killed when rebel fighters attacked a security headquarters in Ras al-Ain.

Thousands of residents poured out of the Arab and Kurdish town, in the northeastern oil-producing province of Hasaka, 600 km (375 miles) from Damascus.

In Geneva, a senior UN official highlighted the plight of Syrians still in the country. An estimated 4 million people would need humanitarian aid by early next year when the country is in the grip of winter, up from 2.5 million now, said John Ging, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

I didn't realize that Ging, who left UNRWA last year, was now at UNOCHA. Ging was consistemtly critical of Israel and let anything from Hamas slide - even though he was the target of at least two murder attempts in Gaza.

Saturday night links

From Ian:

Why is the Jewish and Israeli Left so Extreme?

"While many of Meir’s views on economic policy would differ from those of today’s Prime Minister, as she was a member of the left-wing Mapai political party, her views on security coincide with the leaders of the Israeli government today."
"Whether one defines themselves as a Revisionist Zionist like Jabotinsky, or a Liberal Zionist like Meir, Zionists must be concerned with the security of the Jewish state more than “peace” with an enemy who wants to destroy Israel piece by piece."

On Middle East Peace, Obama Will be More Realistic in Second Term by Dore Gold

"Presently, there are a host of Israeli commentators who foresee a difficult period for Israel because, as they argue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bet on the wrong horse. Never mind, as David Makovsky writes in Foreign Policy, the Israeli leader never came out and endorsed President Obama’s opponent, Governor Romney, they still are trying to paint baseless scenarios of doom and gloom. Over the last four years, there is no escaping the fact that the U.S. and Israel had real differences over policy. But at the end of the day, the U.S.-Israeli relationship is based on common interests and shared values and those will continue to form the fabric of the ties between the two countries in the years ahead."

Abbas ‘seriously considering’ pushing off UN statehood bid to January
Palestinian sources cite Obama’s victory in the US elections and his need for time to organize a second term agenda

Levy Distorts, Haaretz Supports

"How absurd for Haaretz to be so named for the Land of Israel when it is quite unworthy of the title. Through the years, Haaretz has been known to produce “news” that has been called “unconscionable,” “unacceptable,” and “slanderous,” yet the editors fail to properly correct serious factual errors. They employ journalists who, with malicious intent, villify and cast Israel as racist, oppressive and unjust to its Arab population. Gideon Levy is a pathetic example of a Jew who is afflicted with pathological tenderness or traumatic bonding, a form of Oslo Syndrome, as he cringes at Israel’s successes and defines himself by reproaching his own people and aligning himself with their enemy. It is also ludicrous to realize that if Israel were what Levy and Haaretz claim her to be – unjust, unfair, and totalitarian in nature – the paper would have long been closed down. It exists and Levy continues his lies and invectives precisely because Israel is a democracy."

BBC Watch: Upcoming Radio 4 programme on “The BBC and the Hungarian Holocaust”

"Mike Thomson investigates documents which suggest that the BBC was directed not to broadcast crucial information and examines claims that it could have saved thousands of lives.”

Toronto Islamic School Caught Teaching Anti-Semitic Material Will Not Face Criminal Charges

"A Toronto Islamic school whose teaching materials disparaged Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad will not face criminal charges but police did issue a warning and said they had identified passages in school materials that were of concern."

Girl, 9 forced to marry older man as 'compensation' in Pakistani rape case
Pakistani elders have ruled a nine-year-old girl must marry a 22-year-old man as compensation to settle the case of the rape and abduction of another young girl.

More than 5,000 child brides in Saudi Arabia
More than 5,000 girls below the age of 14 are married off in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports.

Bahrain: Sunni leadership strips 31 Shiite lawyers, activists of citizenship
US rebukes Gulf kingdom for policy barring all protest rallies

Pakistan's minority Hindus feel under attack

"They came after dusk and chanted into the night sky "Kill the Hindus, kill the children of the Hindus," as they smashed religious icons, ripped golden bangles off women's arms and flashed pistols. It wasn't the first time that the Hindu temple on the outskirts of Pakistan's largest city was attacked, and residents here fear it will not be the last."

Security and Defense: Night raid
The ‘Post’ joins the Kfir Brigade in a search for terror suspects in the West Bank village of Azun.

"The village of Azun has long stood out on the IDF’s radar as a hotbed of security threats, due to the frequent Molotov cocktail attacks, rock throwing, and more ominously, two shooting attacks on Israeli vehicles in the northern West Bank area this year, the most recent of which occurred on September 30. (No one was injured but a car was damaged by bullets.)"

Israeli researcher among three winners of EU's new Marie Curie prize

“An Israeli researcher is one of the three winners of the European Commission's new Marie Curie Prize for outstanding achievement in research, announced today at a ceremony in Nicosia.
Dr Sarit Sivan, a senior research fellow in the department of biomedical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, won the prize in the 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' category. She has developed an innovative treatment for lower back pain resulting from the degeneration of discs in the spinal column.”

Arab "researcher" upset that UNESCO doesn't (yet) deny Second Temple

Jordanian newspaper Assabeel quotes an Arab "researcher" who is livid that there are Hebrew signs in Jerusalem pointing out where Second Temple-era sights can be found.

Fakhri Abu Diab is aghast that Israeli authorities have put up signs on archaeological and historical sites "in the northern part of Silwan, just tens of meters from the southern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," - meaning around City of David and close to the Temple Mount.

Abu Diab, who has read a bit too much anti-semitic propaganda, further says that the Israelia are trying to push the idea that the Temple was located near this area. He said the move is "an attempt to falsify history and monuments, and target awareness for future generations and to brainwash visitors and tourists... to erase the truth and the Arab and Muslim nature of these historical places, and rework and rewrite the history of the Hebrew forgers. "

He stressed that the falsification of history and archeology "comes at the hands of the occupation authorities, after Jewish archaeologists have confirmed the fact there is no history of Jews in Jerusalem, despite long years of research and exploration in the corners of the city to prove its Jewishness."

Abu Diab pointed out that "this fraud takes place" right under the nose of the world! He is especially upset at UNESCO, who refuses to deny the fact that a Temple existed in Jerusalem or to condemn Israelis saying that there was.

I would laugh at the idea of UNESCO denying the Temple, but then again UNESCO believes the provable lie that Rachel's Tomb is the "historic Bilal bin Rabah mosque." Similarly, UNESCO has no idea what the Western Wall actually is.

So the idea that UNESCO might one day deny the existence of Jewish Temples in Jerusalem is all too believable. After all, the ultimate goal of the PLO joining UNESCO to begin with was to ban Jews from worshiping in their own holiest sites, and denying their existence is a step in that direction.

Gaza terror groups up the weapons ante

From The Times of Israel:

Four soldiers were injured when an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck and penetrated an Israeli army jeep patrolling some 200 meters inside the Israeli border with Gaza on Saturday evening.

Two of the four were in serious condition and were undergoing surgery on Saturday night.

Retaliatory strikes by the IDF against terrorists in the Gaza Strip left at least four Palestinians killed and two dozen wounded.

Later Saturday, a rocket barrage fired from Gaza pounded southern Israel; residents were ordered to stay within 15 seconds of sealed rooms or other protected areas. No major damage or injuries were reported. Red Alert sirens sounded as far north as the cities of Ashdod and Gan Yavne after long-range Grad rockets were fired in their direction.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed responsibility for the anti-tank missile attack shortly afterwards, saying it fired two Kornet missiles at the Israeli vehicle.

The IDF and Israeli media reports were skeptical about the PFLP’s claim, and instead posited that the likely perpetrator of the attack was Islamic Jihad.

Kornet missiles have been used rarely but most infamously in the attack against a schoolbus in April 2011, killing a teenager. A 9K111 Fagot (AT-4 Spigot) anti-tank system also targeted a jeep in March 2011.

Islamic Jihad graphic bragging about rocket fire

Notably, Iran now builds its own clone of the Kornet-E missile.

Islamic Jihad claims another first, saying that in the barrage of missiles targeting Israeli communities that they shot, for the first time, something called a KS8 missile aimed at the community of Nir Yitzhak.

Last month, a shoulder-mounted surface to air missile was shot by Hamas towards an Israeli aircraft.

There is no doubt that more sophisticated weapons are being smuggled into Gaza, but using them is an escalation that the IDF cannot ignore. The only reason that they haven't used them much so far is because of fear of massive Israeli response, and unfortunately that fear is the only path to have Israeli Negev communities live near-normal lives.