Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 10, 2014

A second Fatah terror group is now shooting rockets at Israelis

We noted yesterday that a Fatah terrorist group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was taking credit for shooting many rockets at Israel.

This is being completely ignored in the media and by politicians.

The world is so wedded to the idea that Fatah represent the "good guys" and that they are "peace partners" that these facts must be downplayed, at the risk of revealing the truth: that there is really no difference between Fatah and Hamas.

Here is a video from the Abu Nidal division of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades showing them shooting rockets at Israeli civilians, many of them from clearly urban areas of Gaza:

Now, a second Fatah group has claimed responsibility for firing rockets at Israelis.

The Martyr Abdul-Qader al-Husseini Brigades says it fired two Grad rockets at Ashkelon and four mortars towards the Nir Oz kibbutz.

All of this is proudly reported on Fatah's official Facebook page.

A third Fatah terror group, the Abu Rish Brigades, has not engaged in any rocket fire yet, but they have videos showing themselves shooting mortars last year..

Mahmoud Abbas pretended to dismantle the Fatah terror wings years ago, but he never did - they still display their weapons freely in the West Bank as well as Gaza.

The truth must be told: Fatah and Hamas are two sides of the same coin. They cooperate fully in Gaza; there is no way Fatah terror groups could have smuggled Grad rockets without Hamas' knowledge or assistance. Their stated goals are the same.. They both support terror explicitly.

Yasir Arafat was known for playing the game of pretending to be a peace partner while simultaneously ordering terror attacks. I don't know if Abbas is actively supporting the many terror wings under his control, but he certainly has done nothing to discourage them.

It is way past time for Western media and diplomats to stop this facade of pretending that Abbas is peaceful and has no responsibility for the terror groups that attack Israeli civilians under the name of, and probably with the financial backing of, his own organization.

Who started the fighting? The UN lies, as usual

Here is the UN-OCHA-OPT backgrounder on the current situation:

On 7 July 2014, the Israeli army launched a large military operation in the Gaza Strip, codenamed “Protective Edge”, with the stated objective of stopping Palestinian rocket firing at southern Israel and destroying the military infrastructure of Hamas and other armed groups.

This development marked the collapse of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire understanding reached between Israel and Hamas in November 2012, which has been gradually undermined since December 2013. The latest escalation round started on 11 June, when Israeli forces targeted and killed an alleged member of an armed group, along with a child accompanying him, and Palestinian factions responded by shooting rockets at southern Israel. Tensions further increased following the abduction of three Israeli youths in the southern West Bank, on 12 June, which the Israeli government attributed to Hamas.

So the UN says that ISrael's current operation is what marked the collapse of the ceasefire, not the incessant rocket firing that occurred beforehand.

But look how the UN frames the very beginning - that it started with an Israeli airstrike on June 11, and that rocket fire was a "response" to an Israeli airstrike. What happened before that?

From Ma'an, June 12:

An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian in Gaza on Wednesday after new rocket fire from the territory prompted Israel's premier to warn he holds President Mahmoud Abbas responsible.

Even the Arab Ma'an notes that Israel's airstrike was in response to rocket fire.

How do we know which happened first? Because there was quiet for eleven days beforehand.

What happened then?

June 1, from the Gaza NSO:

So this NGO documented that Israeli actions only came after terrorists fired rockets first.

This is a pattern. The previous incident on May 23rd is disputed as to who fired first, but the one beforehand on May 21st was just as clear:

A Palestinian farmer was hit in the head by an Israeli bullet on Wednesday in the southern Gaza Strip, sustaining minor injuries, medics told Ma'an.

The man, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a military hospital in Khan Younis after being shot in the Khazaa area.

He was hit as Israeli soldiers retaliated against Palestinian militants who had detonated an explosive device, damaging a military vehicle.

To recap:

May 21: Gazans set a bomb at the border, Israel retaliates.

May 23: Disagreement as to who started shooting first.

June 1: Rocket fired from Gaza, Israel responds with airstrike the next day.

June 11: Rocket fired from Gaza, Israel responds with an airstrike against a terrorist. More rockets are shot at Israel.

In three out of the four incidents culminating with the June 11th incident, everyone agrees that Gazans fired first and Israel retaliated. Chances are very good that the same thing happened on May 23.

So when the UN mentions the June 11 airstrike as being the first cause for rocket attacks, they are clearly lying. For any incident you can find between mid-May and the current operation, in the Gaza theater, the terrorists always fired first and Israel responded.

(h/t JW)

07/09 Links Pt2: Fighting enemies from within and without; ‘Peace Conference’ Marred by Violence

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Fighting enemies from within and without

Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was doing his own thing last Tuesday when he was abducted by Jewish terrorists, who slaughtered him. They killed him because he was an Arab, and they are racist murderers.
The police made solving Abu Khdeir’s murder a top priority. In less than a week, they had six suspects in custody. Three confessed to the murder.
There are dark forces at work in Israeli society. They need to be dealt with.
And they will be dealt with harshly.
They will be dealt with harshly because there is no significant sector in Israeli society that supports terrorism.
There is no Jewish tradition that condones or calls for the murder of innocents. In Jewish tradition, the line between protecting society from its enemies and committing murder is long, wide, unmistakable and unmoving.

The honesty of war

There’s something about war that can make intelligent people look foolish. I’m thinking right now of all those smart people in Tel Aviv who analyzed the subtleties of peace at the Haaretz Peace Conference—only a few hours before Jew-hating terrorists from Hamas began firing rockets all over Israel.
I wonder if they even considered having a session at the conference called, “What happens when people want to kill you no matter what you do?” That session might have included, for example, a panel of experts discussing the Hamas Charter, which calls for “the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.”
But there was no such panel at the conference. Instead, they had exclusive contributions from important people like President Barack Obama, who expressed the well-worn mantra of the sophisticated man: “Peace is the only true path to security.”
Well, maybe not, Mr. President. For the millions of Israeli residents now making sure they’re 15 precious seconds away from their bomb shelters, it’s more the other way around: “Security is the only true path to peace.”

Naftali Bennett reportedly assaulted at peace confab

Bennett was heckled when he went on stage to speak at the conference, to the point where he could not begin his talk.
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken went on stage to quiet the crowd. “There are people here who were prepared to speak with [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat. You can also listen to Bennett,” he said.
Once the crowd quieted down, Bennett delivered his talk, which was interrupted multiple times by shouts of “fascist” and “murderer” from the audience, according to Jewish Home officials.
When Bennett left the stage, he was jostled by multiple members of the audience, the sources said. The crowd reportedly had to be pushed aside by Bennett’s security detail to allow him to leave.
During the jostling, Bennett was reportedly punched in the back; he spun around and demanded to know who had punched him. Before he could receive an answer, his security detail spirited him out of the hall. (h/t Yenta Press)

Vanity Fair falsely accuses Israelis of seeking genocide against Arabs (updated)

From Vanity Fair, discussing the events of the past few weeks:

A Facebook page calling for Israeli vigilantes to “kill an Arab every hour” quickly gained more than 20,000 likes.

However, the page doesn't say that at all. It says "Kill a terrorist every hour" until the boys are returned.

You don't even have to know Hebrew to understand this. The "About" page says in English:

We must use a strong hand to fight violent and life-threatening terror. The weakness shown by the Israeli Government, which released thousands of murderers has only increased their drive and led to the kidnapping of the teens. The only way to bring the teens back is to instill fear in our enemies and make them understand that they will suffer. We support executing a terrorist every hour until the teens are released.

Nothing about killing "Arabs." And there is nothing wrong with killing terrorists - unless you support the terrorists.

When the page was first publicized, papers like The Independent assumed that it was a call for vigilante lynchings, even though the page doesn't call for that at all either.

So what unreliable source did author Anna Lekas Miller get this information from?

In all likelihood, from the liars at Electronic Intifada:

Kill a Palestinian “every hour,” says new Israeli Facebook page

The Facebook page’s main profile picture and background image show Palestinians as targets through the crosshairs of a gun.

More than 16,000 Israelis have joined a Facebook page that calls for the murder of a Palestinian every hour until three missing Israeli settler teens are located. The page is titled “Until the boys are back, every hour we shoot a terrorist.”

(By the way, the "Palestinians" in the crosshairs are all known terrorists.)

So what kind of "journalist" would make such a ridiculous mistake?

Obviously, it was no mistake. Because Anna Lekas Miller has done the same thing before, and embarrassed her editors for not checking her facts.

Last year she wrote an article for "Open Zion" riddled with lies, as I proved then - claiming that an "Israeli soldier threw a young Muslim Palestinian woman’s Qu’ran on the floor, trampling it until it was destroyed on the Temple Mount," that "Israeli settlers" regularly "storm" the Al Aqsa mosque, that "eight Israeli settlers accompanied by soldiers stormed the mosque, interrupting the worshippers during prayers and violently ripping off a woman’s hijab" - all complete lies that were taken uncritically from the most extreme, dishonest Islamist media.

Open Zion was forced to correct some of the lies, and it let others stand, without any evidence.

One would think that a major media outlet would do a basic background check on the track record of Anna Lekas Miller (whose qualifications for being a journalist are nil) before publishing her lies. But, as we've seen many times before, when the lies fit the preconceived notions of the editors, why bother?

(h/t Yair Rosenberg)

UPDATE: Vanity Fair corrected it - with the same mistake that other media used as I mentioned above:

A Facebook page calling for Israeli vigilantes to “shoot a terrorist every hour” quickly gained more than 20,000 likes.

No, the page did not in any way urge Israeli citizens to go out and kill terrorists every hour. It was obviously referring to the state itself.

Vanity Fair really wants to get its narrative across, doesn't it?

And look at the correction:

"Literal translation"? It is the translation, period. VF is trying to imply that they know what the people behind the Facebook page really wanted, and to disregard what they actually wrote..

This correction is almost as bad as the original, sloppy reporting.

More from the humor site PreOccupied Territory:

Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, July 9 - The leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad threatened to "open the gates of Hell" on Israel if the latter continued attacking their fighters launching rockets at Israel, but the chief resident of Hell is not amused, and complains that Hamas is perpetually opening those gates and neglecting to close them after passing through.

"This is at least the fourth time in the last few years that Hamas has opened those gates, but I'll be damned if they've bothered to close them again even once," said Satan this afternoon. "We have countless imps running around, completely unaware that they can fall into the River Styx. Thank God that hasn't happened yet, but our demons already have their hands full with their regular duties and don't need to be neglecting their torture assignments to go rounding up the imps because some terrorists forgot basic manners and put all of the little ones at risk."

He also noted other disruptions that occurred as a result of the open gates. "The temperature down here is calibrated very precisely, and those cold drafts that come in through the open gates play hell with our thermostats," he explained. "I'd expect people who are our natural allies in the mortal realm to take into account our basic needs."

Another minor grievance involves the difference in humidity between the inside of Hell and existence beyond the gates. "When the gates stay open for too long at a time, the humidity in here shifts dramatically, and it messes up Mrs. Satan's hair. You don't want to be in the same chamber as her when that happens."

But most egregious of all, says the Prince of Darkness, are the journalists who come poking around when the gates are carelessly left swinging in the breeze. "We had a reporter here yesterday from TMZ. He just waltzed in and started asking questions about how Michael Jackson is faring here. As if we need the headache. Mind you, this particular correspondent found out pretty darn quickly that freedom of the press is not a concept we respect here."

Lucifer has sent repeated reminders to Hamas that they are expected to close the gates when they use them, but understands that they might not see the urgency of doing so. "What am I going to do, threaten them with Hell? They already live in the Gaza Strip. I can't compete with that."

07/09 Links Pt1: Operation Protective Edge; IDF Foils Terror Attacks from the Ocean and Tunnels

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Protective Edge

Hamas, meanwhile, has vowed to expand the range of its rocket attacks to Tel Aviv and has rejected any talk of deescalation. Until now, there were many factors mitigating against Hamas attacking on a large scale.
The terrorist organization has been severely weakened by a number of recent developments, from the loss of its Iranian and Syrian patrons, to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s destruction of the lifeline tunnels from Sinai that connected the Gaza Strip to goods, materials and weapons from the outside world, to the lack of financial support from Qatar, to Saudi Arabi’as antagonism toward the Muslim Brotherhood and, as an extension, toward Hamas. But according to Benedetta Berti, a fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Hamas is stepping up rocket attacks on Israel to boost its popularity.
“After every armed struggle, Hamas’s popularity goes up,” Berti says.
Because Israel is so widely vilified in the Arab world, Hamas gains support by attacking Israeli civilians. If innocent Palestinian civilians are inadvertently injured or killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli retaliation, the benefits to Hamas are compounded.

Amidror: If We Have to Go In to Gaza – Then Let's Go All the Way

Operation "Protective Edge" is underway, and already the Israeli public feels a sense of deja-vu. Given similar operations in the past, it's easy to predict what will happen over the next few days: the headlines will blare "The IDF prepares for a ground incursion", while the Air Force will work overtime, reserves will be called up and the "Home Front" will be asked to "keep calm." Meanwhile, Hamas will continue to make the lives of Israeli citizens in the south miserable, perhaps even giving residents of the country's center a "taste" of the experience. The operation will end with the declaration that "deterrence has been restored"; the citizens of Israel will meantime take bets on when the next such outburst will happen.
Is this merry-go-round inevitable or is it possibly to defeat Hamas once and for all, thus permanently restoring peace to the south of the country? If the latter, then how?
Mida spoke with three experts with extensive experience in the defense and diplomatic arenas to see what they have to suggest.

IDF Foils Palestinian Terror Attack Launched From Sea Near Gaza (VIDEO)

Israeli army forces interdicted and foiled a Palestinian terror squad trying to infiltrate the Kibbutz Zikim area just north of Gaza, Tuesday evening.
IDF troops killed five gunmen in the bid to carry out a terror attack under cover of a heavy rocket barrage overhead, according to the IDF Spokesman.

Hamas Terrorists Infiltrate Israel and are Neutralized

Israel Navy Prevents Infiltration of Hamas Terrorists

Will the State Department condemn Abbas for his own group's rocket fire?

Yesterday, the Washington Free Beacon noted that the State Department was continuing to maintain that Hamas is not part of the "unity" government and therefore Mahmoud Abbas cannot be held responsible in the slightest for rocket attacks:

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki claimed again Tuesday that “no evidence” existed that the terrorist organization Hamas “plays any role” in the Palestinian government.

A reporter asked Psaki if President Mahmoud Abbas bore any blame for the current fighting between Israel and Hamas, saying, “at one point, yes, it was a conflict between just the U.S. and Hamas, and Abbas had no real kind of skin in the game, because it was between the two parties even though it was affecting the Palestinian people directly. But now, he’s part of a unity government and has some influence with Hamas now, wouldn’t you say?”

” Well, we have no evidence that Hamas plays any role in the interim technocratic government, and as far as we know, there have also been no steps taken for the implementation of the reconciliation,” Psaki said.

In my opinion, the reporter (almost certainly Matt Lee of AP) did not ask the right question.

The State Department can claim that no Hamas members are part of the PA, which is not really much of a government to begin with since it only deals with domestic matters. However, Mahmoud Abbas has a far more direct responsibility for rocket attacks against Israel.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of Fatah, has taken gleeful credit for a number of rocket salvos on Israel. And Mahmoud Abbas is the leader of Fatah.

This Fatah group issued three press releases yesterday claiming credit for shooting 19 rockets at Israel (which they call "usurped land") including 11 rockets towards Ashkelon.

They don't even claim that they are aiming at military targets, only naming the cities that they are shooting the rockets toward.

Abbas has not condemned rocket attacks by his group aimed at Israeli civilians. There is no indication that he has dissociated himself from this group. It is entirely possible that Fatah - or the Fatah-dominated PLO - pays their salaries.

This clear connection between the "man of peace" Mahmoud Abbas and the terror group that answers to him is the issue that the State Department must address.

Hamas encourages human shields (update)

From MEMRI:

We saw yesterday that is was likely that the Hamas leader in the house called the neighbors to protect him during the five minutes from the phone call to the bombing.

Since then, as far as I can tell, none of the other terror leader houses that have been bombed have been protected by "human shields," meaning that the neighbors trusted Hamas to put their lives on the line exactly once.

Of course, Hamas is happy either way. If the human shields work then their houses and weapons caches are saved by their encouragement or coercion of civilians. If civilians are killed, they can then say this:

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on his Facebook page that the civilian casualties in Gaza meant that Hamas could do the same to Israel.

Hamas is actively trying to endanger Gaza civilians for PR purposes, which is depraved - and par for the course.

Keep in mind that there is no analogy, as much as Hamas pretends there is. International law allows the targeting of a military objective even if there are civilians in the area as long as the target is of high enough value. International law forbids purposefully placing military targets in civilian areas. And international law forbids purposefully moving civilians to a military target in order to protect it.

International law does not require a combatant to warn their enemy that they are going to be attacked. Steven Erlanger in the New York Times made a sarcastic comment yesterday implying that there was such a standard in warfare, at least for Israel:

Israel does not always give warnings, of course. Also on Tuesday, a missile hit a car traveling along a central Gaza thoroughfare, killing the three occupants. It was not immediately clear who the targets were, though one was reportedly a senior Hamas military official, Muhammad Shaban, and it seemed unlikely that anyone had called them to warn that a missile was on the way.

That comment should be enough to fire the reporter for obvious bias. But, hey, it's The New York Times.

(h/t David G)

UPDATE: This video from 2008 proves that Hamas does indeed call people to protect houses.

Text of Israel's leaflets being dropped on Gaza

From Ma'an:

Israeli warplanes on Monday dropped warning leaflets in the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, witnesses and Israeli media reported.

The leaflets read:

"To the people of the Gaza Strip: The terrorists and smugglers are well aware that their terrorist acts of digging tunnels to smuggle military ammunition is a target for the Israeli Defense Forces, but they keep working and taking cover near your residences.

"Do not stand still. You are being used by terrorists who will not be by your side when you get hurt. Take responsibility for your future!"

The leaflet also provided a telephone number and email address to provide information to, with secrecy guaranteed, it added.

Ma'an blacked out the phone number and email, but Saraya.ps published it, probably without thinking.

So, Gaza residents, remember: call 02-5830746 or email to HelptoGaza2010@gmail.com when terrorists want to endanger your lives!

(By the way, the IDF has used that same phone number and email address for years, probably since Cast Lead.)

New York Times criticizes Israel for trying to save Arab lives (update)

This is really sickening reporting by the New York Times:

The call came to the cellphone of his brother’s wife, Salah Kaware said Tuesday. Mr. Kaware lives in Khan Younis, in southeast Gaza, and the caller said that everyone in the house must leave within five minutes, because it was going to be bombed.

A further warning came as the occupants were leaving, he said in a telephone interview, when an Israeli drone apparently fired a flare at the roof of the three-story home. “Our neighbors came in to form a human shield,” he said, with some even going to the roof to try to prevent a bombing. Others were in the stairway when the house was bombed not long afterward.

Seven people died, Mr. Kaware said, a figure also stated by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, which also said that 25 people were wounded. The Israeli military said that targeted houses belonged to Hamas members involved in launching rockets or other military activity, and that they had been used as operations rooms.

But the events on Tuesday were another example of a contentious Israeli policy in which occupants of a building about to be bombed or shelled are given a brief warning in Arabic to evacuate. The Israelis have used such telephone calls and leaflets for years now, in a stated effort to reduce civilian casualties and avoid charges of indiscriminate killings or even of crimes against the rules of war.

During Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in late 2008, the Israelis often used telephone calls and leaflets to tell occupants to leave before striking. In some cases, the Israelis fired missiles without explosive warheads onto the roof to get Palestinians who had gathered there to leave. The Israelis called it “the knock on the roof.” But often, as in the Khan Younis case on Tuesday, people die in any case, because they ignore or defy the warnings, or try to leave after it is too late.

And, of course, sometimes bombs and missiles do not hit the building at which they are aimed.

The Israelis also regularly drop leaflets over Gaza urging citizens not to cooperate with terrorism and to stay away from border zones, an injunction that has been criticized by human rights advocates, like the Palestinian organization Al-Haq, which argue that such leaflets do not protect Israel from allegations of the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Where to begin?

The article clearly states that Gazans are deliberately putting themselves in harm's way, knowing that a rocket is coming and deciding to act as human shields anyway. The residents of the building made the decision to stay. (Those in the stairwells are not described as trying to flee, rather the implication is that they were heading to the roof as well. An earlier version of the article wrongly said the opposite.)

Also, if there was only a five minute period between the warning and the human shields assembling, the targets in the house must have been the people calling their neighbors to act as human shields.

But even though Gazans decide to go into an area about to be bombed, the Times is slamming Israel's policy of warning them. The IDF sacrifices the element of surprise in order to save lives; even though the terrorist leaders in the houses are legitimate military targets (yes, under the Geneva Conventions) who can live another day to attack Israelis if they heed the warning, as most do.

And the NYT criticizes Israel.

Article 28 of the Geneva Conventions, to which "Palestine" is legally bound, says "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." That is exactly what the Hamas human shields are doing.

The NYT and Al Haq and HRW which is also quoted in the article do not have a negative word to say about the flagrant Palestinian violation of international law but they criticize Israel for going beyond international law in an attempt to save the lives of its enemies.

(h/t David G)

UPDATE: Here is what the article said at one point, before it was edited out - apparently for not having been true:

A telephoned warning was made to the owner of the targeted home in Khan Younis five minutes before the bombing, apparently part of the Israeli military’s stated effort to minimize unintended civilian casualties. Salah Kaware, 25, who lived in the house, said that a call came to the cellphone of his brother’s wife, and that the caller urged them to leave. Some of the occupants were descending the upper floor stairway when the roof was hit with a rocket, Mr. Kaware said in a telephone interview.

A few hours later, the sentence "Some of the occupants were descending the upper floor stairway when the roof was hit with a rocket, Mr. Kaware said in a telephone interview." was deleted.

Clearly, either the reporters (at the time the article was credited to Isabel Kershner and Fares Akram) made the idea up that residents were leaving the house at the time of the bombing, or they realized that Kaware was lying when he said so, but that wasn't important enough to mention. And during that time the "human shield" part of the story was missing from the NYT.

Abbas spokesman implies that rockets aimed at Tel Aviv are "defensive"

Ma'an reports:

A Presidential spokesman on Tuesday condemned Israel's escalation of airstrikes on Gaza, saying Palestinians have the right to defend themselves.

Israel's new operation is a "declaration of war on Palestinians and the Israeli authority alone will bear the consequences," Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

"Palestinians have the right to defend themselves by all legitimate means," Abu Rudeineh said, calling the new assault on Gaza an "open massacre" against children, women, and the elderly.

Palestinian officials will make "fateful decisions" to defend their people, he added.

What exactly does that mean? Since it is a threat against Israel, it must mean that the PLO's definition of "defending itself" is to attack Israel. And since Gazans have no weapons to effectively target soldiers, it sounds like tacit support for the barrage of rockets that most of Israel has been having to deal with. Possibly also kidnappings. (Unless Abbas plans to instruct his security forces in the West Bank to start shooting at IDF forces there, and I don't think he is that stupid.)

A hint might come from this unintentionally funny video by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is part of - who else - Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.

The software that they used did not understand that Hebrew is read from right to left, so all the Hebrew threats are backwards. Even then, they make some major mistakes.

07/08 Links Pt2: Lumish: Where are the Jewish Riots?; Israel's Moloch Syndrome

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: Where are the Jewish Riots?

I cannot but help notice the general lack of Jewish rioting.
Three Jewish Israeli kids, including an American, were killed strictly for political reasons.
And, yet, there is no rioting. Jews are not rioting in the streets of Tel Aviv. Jews are not rioting in Jerusalem... or Yerushalayim... if you like. Jews are not rioting in Brooklyn and they are not rioting in Miami.
They are not rioting in Timbuktu nor Walla Walla, Washington.
They are not rioting in Canada nor Australia nor the United States nor England nor Ukraine.

Anti-Israel bloggers assume we hate like they hate — they are wrong

I added Legal Insurrection’s name to the list of pro-Israel blogs and bloggers supporting Elder of Ziyon’s open and unequivocal condemnation of the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
In a follow up post today, Elder makes points I made this morning in Israeli reaction to murder of teen a sign of Israel’s moral strength.

Israel's Moloch Syndrome

A morally superior society doesn't clamber onto some universalist moral high ground. It isn't infinite restraint in war that makes one society superior to the other. That's a recipe for the eventual extinction of everything that society has to offer, to itself and to the world.
The elements that make one society superior to another are to be found in its culture, its arts and its sciences, in its religious inspirations, its engineering feats, its medical research, its poems and songs, its roots to the past and its vision to the future. A morally superior society protects these things by protecting them against invaders and enemies.
Charity begins at home. So does morality.
A society that is too moral to protect itself is immoral because it is incapable of protecting the sources of its morality.

Malmo, Sweden: Man beaten for displaying an Israeli flag (update)

SvD Nyheter reports that a Malmo man placed an Israeli flag in the window of his house:

Someone threw a stone through the window, as you can see.

When the man went out to investigate on Sunday night he was attacked, kicked repeatedly and beaten with metal rods. One newspaper says that about a dozen men took part in the beating.

The man ran away but collapsed a short distance away, where he was found and taken to the hospital. He was still there Monday morning with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

While Malmo police have not yet classified it as a hate crime, they do say that their information indicates that he was beaten because of the flag.

Naturally, the media is not speculating on what kind of Malmo residents might have decided to beat a man for displaying a flag in his apartment window.

Between 10% and 20% of Malmo's residents are Muslim. Jews have been harassed, threatened and attacked constantly and many have fled the city for their own safety.

Here is a documentary from last year about the situation.

(h/t Ken S)

UPDATE: The victim's family was born in Iraq and later moved to Iran. He is a Kurd who is fond of Jews and Israel.

(h/t S)

WHAT REPORTERS NEED TO KNOW during Operation Protective Edge

As an observer of previous Israeli operations in Gaza, and as the person who has uncovered and publicized some huge journalistic errors during those times, I strongly caution reporters not to make the same mistakes that they have made in the past in their coverage.

Mistake #1: Assuming that all Gaza casualties are the result of Israeli airstrikes

Traditionally, the number of Gaza rockets that fall short and never reach Israel, or that explode as they are fired, is over 35% -and sometimes as high as 80%!.

Between June 12-25, terrorists fired 41 rockets at Israel, of which 24 exploded in Gaza, killing one child and injuring six more children. That is a 58% failure rate.

At least three Gaza civilians have been killed this year by terrorist rockets.

Egyptian politician kissing dead baby killed by Hamas

During Operation Pillar of Defense, the media was fooled at least twice - and possibly three times - with false Arab reports that children were killed by Israeli airstrikes when they were killed by errant terror rockets from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Even schools have been hit by terrorist rockets.

Also, several civilians have been killed from gunfire during funerals of terrorists.

When terrorists are firing rockets hurriedly, as they are now, the chances for misfires is even greater. Not to mention "work accidents" (which have killed dozens this year alone) are probably more likely to occur in Gaza weapons workshops and laboratories.

Also Gaza spokespersons are known to lie and blame Israel for deaths caused by internal explosions.

For all these reasons, journalists must be especially careful when reporting on civilian deaths in Gaza.

The rule of thumb is that if the IDF denies an airstrike in an area where people were killed, the people were not killed by an Israeli airstrike.

On a similar note:

Mistake #2: Assuming that Gaza casualties and damage are the direct result of Israeli airstrikes

Lots of Israeli airstrikes towards terror targets hit weapons caches and explosives, and often the secondary explosions are larger than the direct explosion from the strike. Israeli forces don't always know the size of the weapons caches, and sometimes the secondary explosions cause deaths and injuries that cannot be blamed on Israel which is only aiming at military targets according to the laws of armed conflict.

This is of course much more difficult to know for sure, but stories should be filed with this in mind.

Mistake #3: Believing that victims are civilian when they are not

Most of the time, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are happy to announce deaths of their members, ushering them into paradise. But not during wartime.

Over 750 of the people killed during Cast Lead were terrorists, but Hamas did not publicize the deaths of many of them until months afterwards. As a result, during the operation the media assumed, wrongly, that the majority of deaths were civilian. It took a long time to research and crosscheck the names of the dead and their affiliations. (It would be wonderful if an enterprising reporter would do this research instead of people like me.)

Some NGOs will even call combatants "children" in order to inflate the number of supposedly civilians being killed. DCI-Palestine and Euro-Mid Observer have been particularly egregious in this regard.

PCHR and Al Mezan doesn't lie as badly, but their definition of "combatant" is usually restricted to anyone in uniform actively engaged in fighting, not terrorists who are hiding in civilian clothing. So Hamas "policemen" who are also members of the Al Qassam Brigades terror group would invariably be called "civilian" even though Hamas admits that they regard them as combatants.

It is easy to allow oneself to be fooled in the fog of war, especially when one doesn't know the history of how terror groups manipulate the media. Let's hope that this time around the reporters are more aware of the pitfalls of believing, uncritically, what terrorists and their supporters tell them.

I don't usually ask this, but please tweet or email this to every reporter and media outlet you know.

07/08 Links Pt1: Operation Protective Edge Commences; 450 Rockets Since January, 200 in June

From Ian:

Operation ‘Protective Edge’ Commences as IDF Targets Terror Sites in the Gaza Strip

In combined efforts of both aerial and naval forces, the IDF targeted overnight approximately 50 terror sites and targets across the Gaza Strip, commencing operation ‘Protective Edge’ – aimed to retrieve stability to the residents of southern Israel, eliminate Hamas’ capabilities and destroy terror infrastructure operating against the State of Israel and its civilians.
Among the targets are 4 activity sites utilized by Hamas operatives who are responsible for numerous rocket attacks and were involved in various terror activities against the State of Israel.

IDF Targets Two Terror Sites in Op. Protective Edge

3.5 Million Lives in Danger: the Growing Range of Hamas Rockets

More Than 450 Gaza Rockets Fired at Israel Since January, 200 in Last Month

Since January of this year, Gaza terrorists have fired more than 450 rockets towards Israeli citizens in communities across southern Israel, according to an IDF spokesperson. More than 200 of those rockets have been fired since June 12, the day on which three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists.
At least 80 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel within 24 hours on Monday, July 27, with air raid sirens sounding throughout Monday night in southern Israel including the city of Ofakim and the Merhavim region. According to the IDF, 11 of the 80 rockets were shot down by Iron Dome systems. The IDF spokesperson also stated that Hamas was responsible for launching a large majority of the rockets.

Iron Dome Intercepts Rockets Over Ashdod

ToI Liveblog: State orders massive call-up of 40,000 reserves as Gaza death toll hits 10

Israel launched a major operation against Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, following heavy Hamas rocket fire over the preceding days. The fast-escalating situation in the south comes in the shadow of spiking Jewish-Arab tensions in Israel over the brutal killings of four teenagers — three Jews and one Arab — by extremists. Stay with The Times of Israel’s liveblog for updates throughout the day.