Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 04, 2014

08/04 Links P2: Hamas Manual Explains Benefits of Human Shields; The Media is enabling Hamas

From Ian:

IDF BLOG: Captured Hamas Combat Manual Explains Benefits of Human Shields

IDF forces in the Gaza Strip found a Hamas manual on “Urban Warfare,” which belonged to the Shuja’iya Brigade of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The manual explains how the civilian population can be used against IDF forces and reveals that Hamas knows the IDF is committed to minimizing harm to civilians.
Throughout Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has continuously used the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. The discovery of a Hamas “urban warfare” manual by IDF forces reveals that Hamas’ callous use of the Gazan population was intentional and preplanned.
This Hamas urban warfare manual exposes two truths: (1) The terror group knows full well that the IDF will do what it can to limit civilian casualties. (2) The terror group exploits these efforts by using civilians as human shields against advancing IDF forces. (h/t Yenta Press)

CNN Guest Rips Media For Being 'Used As Dupes' By Hamas [slightly different content at the link vs CNN YT clip]

In a surprising segment, CNN’s New Day discussed the role of the media in the Israel-Hamas conflict and whether they are providing proper context regarding the two sides. In an interview with co-host Kate Bolduan, guest Lee Habeeb, columnist for National Review, slammed the media for its biased coverage of the issue, going so far as to suggest that they have acted as “co-conspirators to Hamas.”
When Bolduan asked where Habeeb believed the media was lacking, he argued that “the point of the spear is the media and dead children and dead women...and I don’t believe the media is covering it.” Toward the end of the segment, Bolduan cited Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal, who claimed that the U.S. has now adopted the Israeli narrative. The New Day co-host wondered how it could go both ways. Habeeb blasted the media again: (h/t dabney)

Columnist: Media is enabling Hamas

Algerians have started a Facebook campaign to cancel a planned August 22 concert by Jamaican rapper Sean Paul.

The reason? Because his paternal grandfather was Jewish.

One of the activists wrote, "Does it make sense to think of greeting a singer with Jewish origins in Algeria after all the massacres committed by the Israelis in Palestine our brothers?"

Another wrote, "This is a great shame and we must stand up against this farce immediately."

Even worse, one of them dug up this photo of Sean Paul at "the Wailing Wall in Tel Aviv" back in 2007.

There ya go.

The promoters seemed highly unlikely to cancel the concert, since they already paid for everything.

I wonder if the BDS crowd will support this.

Latest Gaza casualty figures that don't rely on liars

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), which has close ties to the IDF, has been keeping its own tally of those killed in Gaza.

As of August 3 at noon, they counted:

1,438 Palestinians killed is as follows:
1) 407 terrorist operatives:
A. 222 Hamas operatives
B. 123 PIJ operatives
C. 62 operatives from other terrorist organizations
2) 452 non-involved Palestinians
3) 589 Palestinians whose identity is not yet known

This comes out to 47% of the known casualties being terrorists, which tracks exactly to what the IDF said yesterday. Chances are these are the same figures the IDF is using, though it may be a coincidence.

At roughly the same time, the UN counted 1,717 Palestinians killed.

The difference in count of over 270 is fairly significant.

The UN doesn't publish a list of the dead (neither does ITIC) so it is not easy to identify the sources of the discrepancies. But we do have a few educated guesses.

During Cast Lead, the number of people who were reported of dying natural deaths in Gaza plummeted. It seems likely that many people who died naturally in Gaza over the past month were moved over to the "martyr" category.

There have been reports of Hamas killing collaborators. Also unverified reports of Hamas killing demonstrators. Beyond that, there are clearly people who were killed by Hamas rockets or explosions.

We have also seen quite few people double-counted, or even triple-counted, although I don't know if the UN list includes those. (The UN count is about fifty fewer than the Hamas Health Ministry count.)

Once the actual names are released, it seems very unlikely that any journalist in Gaza would endanger him- or herself to research the circumstances behind every disputed death. It also seems unlikely that the IDF figures, which have been found to be accurate (as much as could be determined) in the past, will be given the same attention as the UN or Hamas figures.

Earlier this year I reported on (and gave samples) of the antisemitic poetry of Belgium's Poet Laureate whose pen-name is Charles Ducal. His poetry includes equating Israeli Jews to Nazis, invoking the idea of "chosen people" as meaning that Jews think of themselves as better than everyone else, and frequent references to the ashes of the crematoria against the lives of Palestinian Arabs today.

Joods Actueel reports that Ducal has just written another similar poem for what is happening in Gaza, and is being criticized by another popular Belgian poet:

Benno Barnard picks up on the derogatory way his colleague Charles Ducal writes about Jews. Below is a poem of Ducal's that appeared in in the newspaper De Morgen and on the website of the communist Labour Party. According to Barnard, the content is not only "offensive and hurtful" but involves "aestheticized hatred".

"This poem hurts me deeply, and I'm not even a Jew, let alone an Orthodox one. It is unacceptable that a Poet Laureate, who basically is the poet of all Belgians, in such a fashion antagonizes thousands of compatriots, not only on an extremist left-wing website but also in a national newspaper which is read by more than one Antwerp Jew," writes Barnard.

"Ducal may not understand well how deeply insulting this poem is for every ordinary Belgian Jew , even a Jew who is possibly an opponent of Netanyahu. He probably doesn't understand how humiliating it is to hear Jews as thinking they are "better", which is not the meaning of that infamous word "chosen" (forgive me, Charles, but I know a little Hebrew, and "chosen" means "designated as volunteers", which equates approximately to 'chosen to be damned.')

"Why doesn't Ducal write a poem against young Muslims in our streets, who wave ISIS flags in a frenzy against Israel?

"I quote the Dutch writer Leon de Winter: "Since 1950, eleven million Muslims were killed, excluding "ordinary" murders. Slightly more than 0.3 percent of them died in the conflict with Israel, or 1 in 315 Muslim fatalities. . 90 percent of the total number of fatalities died in conflicts with other Muslims (...)

"'Every death is one too many - especially when it comes to children,' we hear enlightened and educated Westerners saying.

But there are many Muslims (especially in the Arab world) who think differently. In their tribal honor-shame culture the extermination of the enemy and his family is an accepted principle. The young fighters of ISIS proudly show the severed heads of their victims.

Here is the poem, translated by a couple of email correspondents:

You're now better. It's written
in The Book. It can be seen in your eye
when you see them approaching: in fanatical clothes,
dusty, their IDs ready in their hand

You look at them as a creator of water
in a world of sand. They live [here] by chance
without promise, can be swept away
like withered leaves. This is your land.

You have learned to keep the fear of persecution
alive without fear, arrogant as the man who chose his enemy for himself.
You knock him down. You are threatened, the outstanding debt gives every bulldozer,

every tank the right to safety
without borders. Your eyes saw the Temple
destroyed, the paving stones bleed under the hooves

of the Crusaders. You're two thousand years old
was there in Treblinka, Schirmeck and Dachau

Though you have stolen their water, shot their children, trapped
them behind barbed wire, you are simply God's people, chosen exactly on
[this ground/these grounds]. Those who still hear the old village screaming
under your woods, your roads, your cities , get ashes in their mouth.

In short: You Jews have become your oppressors because you think you are hot stuff. We liked you better when you were being slaughtered. Boo, Jew.

Not only is it offensive - it is unoriginal, as these motifs have already been covered by Ducal in his earlier antisemitic poetry.

Ducal was offended when I called him an antisemite in January. So I will couch my criticism of him as a poem, since who can be offended by a poem?

Charles Ducal

Hidden behind his pseudonym

as if he is ashamed

of his sickness

yet he conceals it

with sanctimony

a facade of piety

that none other can approach

his target is chosen

his pen at the ready

to mask his own depravity

the choice

reveals the ugliness hidden

within his heart

within his "art"

(h/t Rudi, including updates on translations)

08/04 Links P1: Brendan O’Neill: This anti-Israel hysteria is the opposite of a peace movement

From Ian:

Brendan O’Neill: This anti-Israel hysteria is the opposite of a peace movement

There is nothing remotely progressive in today’s myopic, disproportionate Western fury with Israel. On the contrary, it is a profoundly ugly phenomenon, masquerading as a peace movement but actually devoting its energies to drumming up hatred, sanctions and possibly even intervention against a state that it has found guilty in the kangaroo court of liberal opinion of being a ‘rogue’. It is always concerning when Western activists and institutions try to have foreign states written off as ‘criminal’ and ‘insane’, for such judgements further moralise and destabilise international affairs, resurrecting the divide between the civilised nations and the savage nations and making war more rather than less likely. But it’s particularly concerning to see Israel branded a ‘rogue state’. For whether you like it or not, Israel is intimately bound up with the Jewish people. Recent outbursts of anti-Semitism in Europe suggest it could be a short step indeed from labelling Israel a rogue state to looking upon the Jews themselves as rogues.

Douglas Murray: Hamas censors British journalists. Why don’t we care?

Before the 2003 war in Iraq, for instance, reporters broadcasting for television or radio from inside Iraq nearly always made reference to the fact that they were reporting under restrictions imposed on them by Saddam Hussein’s government. This often meant a Hussein goon was standing nearby checking that nothing untoward was said.
In the same way, Hamas takes great care to ensure that the ‘wrong’ message does not come out. Indeed they recently expelled a reporter from the Putin propaganda channel Russia Today because he mentioned that Hamas were launching rockets from Gaza.
Yet I can think of no example during this conflict when reporters for any major broadcaster have told the truth – which is that if they stay in Gaza they are only able to tell Hamas’s account of this conflict (complete with ‘deliberate’ Israeli targetting and only ever ‘innocent’, never ‘guilty’ victims). There will be those who think this a small technical point. But I suspect this is one major reason why some surprising Western observers seem to have become so rancidly pro-Hamas during this conflict.

Times of Israel Blog: Man killed in J’lem tractor attack; soldier shot near Mount Scopus

A unilateral humanitarian window declared by Israel takes hold Monday morning. The IDF death toll stands at 64, as it partially redeployed in and around Gaza, nearing the end of its work demolishing Hamas tunnels. A Palestinian delegation held talks on ceasefire arrangements in Egypt. Israel was condemned for hitting a UN school, killing 10, and said it was looking into the incident. Gazan health officials put the death toll there at some 1,800. Israel says many of those are Hamas fighters.

The Bolt Report - Gaza

Imam in Italy preaching death to the Jews (UPDATE)

From MEMRI:

In a Friday sermon in northern Italy, Sheik Abd Al-Barr Al-Rawdhi prayed to Allah to "count [the Jews] one by one and kill them to the very last one." Al-Rawdhi, leading the prayers at Al-Rahma Mosque in San Donà di Piave, the Province of Venice, called upon Allah to "turn their food to poison and make the air they breathe blazing hot." The sermon was posted on the Internet on July 29, 2014.

Following are excerpts:

Sheik Abd Al-Barr Al-Rawdhi: What can we possibly expect from [the Jews], whose hearts are harder than stone? What can we possibly expect from people whose hands are soiled with the blood of the prophets, not to mention the blood of defenseless, innocent people? What can we possibly expect from people who lost all respect for Allah, saying to Moses: "Show us Allah outright"? What can we possibly expect from people who said: "The hand of Allah is shackled"? "May their own hands be shackled, and may they be cursed for what they said."
[…]
Oh Allah, bring upon them that which will make us happy. Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them to the very last one. Do not spare a single one of them. Turn their food to poison, make the air they breathe blazing hot, make their slumber full of grief, and make their days black. Oh Allah, plant fear in their hearts.

Now, what would make you think Muslims are antisemitic?

He is clearly referring to the "Zionists" of thousands of years ago who killed the prophets!

UPDATE: He is being deported from Italy. (h/t Ori)

Don't mess with the Diamond District (video)

This is very entertaining, as an anti-Israel rally goes down the wrong street in Manhattan.

Notice the "peace protesters" with the dollar symbols, seemingly to show how those "Zionists" (wink, wink) control all the money.

Pallywood! Little girl used as prop for cameras at UNRWA school

Lots of photos of the UNRWA school yesterday in Rafah feature this seemingly tragic little girl.

We see her being picked up by a man with a striped shirt, presumably to get her help...

Here's the same striped shirt guy. We see him again here, with the girl in a somewhat different position than she was in Photo 1:

It doesn't look like he is reaching down to pick her up.

He is putting her down and arranging her next to the dead jihadi!

Wouldn't it be great if we had video of that?

They put her down, another looks like he wants to pick her up but he waits for more photographers to take their shots.

I don't know if the girl is a ghoulish prop or if she is alive, but this shows that no one seems very concerned about getting her to an ambulance.

After the obligatory photo shoot, then a man can start running with her for more good shots, presumably, to get help:

Once he is a bit further away, his urgency in running seems to flag a bit:

There is also clear evidence that the bodies of the jihadists who were killed by the Israeli airstrike were moved to be closer to the school for that photo op - even the drag marks are visible, as Thomas Wictor shows.

The Gazans know that photos are worth more than bullets. Yesterday's hysterical condemnations based on Pallywood photos proves their case.

And the photographers are in on the scam.

The question is, are the journalists?

J-Street endorses candidates who voted against Iron Dome funding

H.J.Res.76 was "A joint resolution making an emergency supplemental appropriation for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, to provide funding to Israel for the Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats."

The Senate Amendment to H.J.Res. 76 appropriates $225 million in supplemental emergency funding for the remainder of FY2014, to provide additional funding to Israel for the Iron Dome missile defense system to counter short-range rocket threats. Any funds that remain unobligated at the end of FY2014 will remain available until September 30, 2015.

The bill passed the House, 395-8.

Three of the eight who voted against the bill were Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D, CA-19), Rep. Keith Ellison (D, MN-5) and Rep. Walter Jones (R, NC-3).

All three of those are currently endorsed by J-Street.

Pro-Israel? No.

Pro-peace? No.

J-Street a hypocritical organization that goes out of its way to support those who hate Israel? You betcha.

Fatah terrorists brag (falsely) to have killed 3 Jews in Judea/Samaria

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, claim to have killed three Jewish "settlers" in the Halamish (Neve Tzuf) settlement.

The military wing of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah

Our belief in the right and the legitimacy of the resistance and to defend the soil of Palestine... thank God Almighty managed the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Palestine from storming usurped Halamish near the city of Ramallah promptly at 5:49 pm on Sunday, 03.08.2014 AD. Fighters clashed with a group of Zionist settlers directly resulting in the death of 3 of the settlers and our fighters return to their bases safely.

We of the Al Aqsa Brigades warn the enemy we will hit them more painfully.

Fire with fire.... murder with murder by bombing and shelling

God is great and God praise

Resistance will continue until victory or martyrdom

Al -Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Palestine

08.03.2014 AD

Here's what really happened:

A home in the Jewish village of Neve Tzuf in the West Bank was broken into by two men, allegedly Palestinians, on Sunday afternoon, police said.

The owner was lightly injured in a confrontation with the burglars before they escaped.

Security forces were combing the area for the perpetrators. The incident was categorized as criminal, although nationalist motives for the break-in were also being investigated.

I think we can rule out "criminal."

As we've noted before:

If Abbas controls his own groups, then he is a terrorist.

If he can't control even his own Fatah groups, then how can you expect that he can be trusted with a peace agreement?

Israel is not violating international law in Gaza - part 1: Principle of Distinction

I have described how Hamas is violating at least 19 principles of international law in the current fighting.

Now, is Israel?

The criticism most often given of Israel's actions is that it is violating the "principle of distinction." The Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol 1, article 52, states it this way:

1. Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.

2. Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.

3. In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.

Many countries, when they ratified this article, clarified it to ensure that collateral damage is not covered by the first sentence of paragraph 2. So, for example, Canada wrote:

It is the understanding of the Government of Canada in relation to Article 52 that ...the first sentence of paragraph 2 of the Article is not intended to, nor does it,deal with the question of incidental or collateral damage resulting from an attack directed against a military objective.

Italy, Australia, the UK, France and New Zealand added similar language (CIHL II para. 83-91)

Logic dictates that it cannot be otherwise. If these caveats aren't in place, then anyone can make any military target immune from attack placing a civilian there, or placing the target in a house or church or hospital that is still used as such. So, for example, Australia's Defence Force Manual states:

The presence of noncombatants in or around a military objective does not change its nature as a military objective. Noncombatants in the vicinity of a military objective must share the danger to which the military objective is exposed.

Note that we are not saying that the existence of civilians at a military target can be ignored; that is part of the Proportionality discussion that will be forthcoming. But clearly international law allows the attack on military targets even if there are some civilians there.

Who determines whether something is a military target or not?

It is not reporters, or eyewitnesses, or residents of nearby houses, or human rights organizations. That decision is given to the military commander, based on the best available information at the time.

So, for example, The Military Manual of the Netherlands says that “the definition of ‘military objectives’ implies that it depends on the circumstances of the moment whether an object is a military objective. The definition leaves the necessary freedom of judgement to the commander on the spot."

Sweden's IHL manual states "it is up to the attacker to decide whether the nature, location, purpose or use of the property can admit of its being classified as a military objective and thus as a permissible object of attack. This formulation undeniably gives the military commander great latitude in deciding, but he must also take account of the unintentional damage that may occur. The proportionality rule must always enter into the assessment even though this is not directly stated in the text of Article 52." (para. 335, 338)

The military commander is not only concerned with the safety of the civilians in the area. The commander is also concerned with the safety of his or her own troops. The US Naval Handbook says "Military advantage may involve a variety of considerations, including the security of the attacking force." (para. 339)

Civilian sites can become valid military objectives. So, for example, Australia’s Defence Force Manual lists among military objectives “objects, normally dedicated to civilian purposes, but which are being used for military purposes, e.g. a school house or home which is being used temporarily as a battalion headquarters”. The manual specifies that "For this purpose, 'use' does not necessarily mean occupation. For example, if enemy soldiers use a school building as shelter from attack by direct fire, then they are clearly gaining a military advantage from the school. This means the school becomes a military objective and can be attacked." (para. 687)

Israel's Manual on the Laws of War goes even further to protect civilians: (para 694)

A situation may arise where the target changes its appearance from civilian to military or vice versa. For instance, if anti-aircraft batteries are stationed on a school roof or a sniper is positioned in a mosque’s minaret, the protection imparted to the facility by its being a civilian object will be removed, and the attacking party will be allowed to hit it . . . A reverse situation may also occur in which an originally military objective becomes a civilian object, as for instance, a large military base that is converted to a collection point for the wounded, and is thus rendered immune to attack.

However, attacks may not be indiscriminate.

It is ultimately up to the commander to determine the nature of the specific, fluid situation. Everything hinges on his or her intent - not on the judgment of other observers and not on finding out better information in hindsight. As stated by Rüdiger Wolfrum and Dieter Fleck in The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, "The prerequisite for a grave breach (of IHL) is intent; the attack must be intentionally directed at the civilian population or individual civilians, and the intent must embrace physical consequences."

In order to find that the commander has committed a war crime, the bar is set quite high. ICRC commentary on art 85 of the Additional Protocol states:

The accused must have acted consciously and with intent, i.e., with his mind on the act and its consequences, and willing the ("criminal intent" or "malice aforethought"); this encompasses the concepts of "wrongful intent" or "recklessness"....

As long as the IDF did not deliberately attack civilians, and the local commander had a military purpose for each target based on the best information available at the time, there is no violation of the principle of distinction.

Clearly, the observers on the ground and around the world who are looking at the results through the distorted lens of TV cameras cannot possibly know what the intent of the IDF commanders are. They don't know the specific intelligence available, the real-time situation on the ground, the danger to IDF troops or Israeli civilians (in the case of targeting rocket launchers,) the topography of the area (when, for example, the IDF needs to take hgh ground in order to protect its troops) - none of that is available to the armchair analysts who breezily and ignorantly say that IDF actions could amount to war crimes. The bar to determine that is incredibly high, and is not decided by people at Human Rights Watch who change international law at will for their purposes.

The argument that Israel is deliberately attacking civilians has another fatal flaw: if the policy was to attack civilians, then is it difficult to explain how thousands of air strikes and thousands more artillery strikes have killed so few. If the objective is civilian, then there would be tens of thousands of civilian victims. One cannot claim that the IDF is both a uniquely bloodthirsty army using precision weapons to target civilians and at the same time maintain that the IDF is so poor at targeting. Anyone claiming that the IDF is deliberately targeting civilians is either grossly ignorant of how wars are waged, or they are willfully slandering the army.

Caveat - I am not a lawyer. I am getting much of this from the IDF initial response to the Goldstone Report, and as of yet I have not seen a single scholarly rebuttal to the legal aspects mentioned in that report. If someone has written such a rebuttal, please let me know.

08/03 Links Pt2: Defund the UNRWA; Prof on MSNBC: No Anti-Semitism in Middle East before '67

From Ian:

Defund the UNRWA

The UNRWA has become the mask that Hamas wears.
It’s a tactical asset for a terrorist group that empowers its human shield strategy. The UNRWA is not only endangering Israeli civilians, but it is also endangering Gazans who are exploited as human shields by members of a terrorist group masquerading as the staff of an international humanitarian organization.
This issue has come up before and the UNRWA’s long record of evasions and denials, admitting the substance of the claims about the Hamas takeover of the UNRWA, while insisting that its Hamas members are neutral and that all the rocket stores and rocket attacks around UNRWA facilities are unrelated to the Hamas members on its staff, are not good enough anymore.
The United States should not be in the business of funding the corruption of young minds. Money should not be taken from American schools to fund the spread of hatred and terrorism.
It’s time to defund the UNRWA.

Kenneth Meshoe [MP]: The moral obligation to support Israel

Therefore, the political organization in South Africa of which I am the president, the African Christian Democratic Party, supports the right of Israel to exist within safe and secure borders, and to enjoy the inalienable right to self-defense. We reject attempts by some nations and international organizations to question Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, including rockets and missiles that continue to be fired by Hamas into Israel.
The ACDP believes that Israel has a moral obligation to protect all its citizens, particularly the elderly, women and children, from danger and all forms of external threats to their existence. We further believe that Israel's right to self-defense is in accordance with commonly accepted principles of international law.
War is a terrible thing and the ACDP is grieved by the loss of life and terrible anguish families on both sides of the conflict are facing at this time. We regret the fact that some nations have chosen to condemn Israel only, conveniently ignoring the fact that Israel responded with air raids only after enduring a week of constant firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel.
Kenneth Meshoe is a member of the South African parliament representing the African Christian Democratic Party

12000+ Rally In Johannesburg For Israel

Today in Huddle Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, more than 12000 Pro-Israel supporters gathered to show their solidarity with Israel.
I received some feedback from one of the participants and she said that she is “so proud to have been a part of this incredible Rally for Israel.” Included with the large amount of Jews who attended was also many Africans, Lemba’s, Christians & more.

Prof on MSNBC: There is No Anti-Semitism in Middle East

In the segment, Harris-Perry seemed troubled over the idea that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is "ancient" and "visceral." If only she could grasp that this conflict is "relatively recent," then she would be more "optimistic" about the future.
Luckily for Harris-Perry, Professor Leverett was there to guide her with this "well informed" commentary:

"If you look at Jewish communities in other places around the Middle East, there certainly was after the creation of the State of Israel and especially after the '67 war, an immigration of Jews from many of these Arab countries to Israel -- but there still are Jewish communities. For example, there is a thriving Jewish community in Iran. And when I've talked about that people say, 'Oh, that's so terrible. How could you say that? Of course they're suffering.' No, I've actually been there. I've been to the Kosher restaurants, I've been to the Jewish hospital in Iran.
There is not this deep-seated Arab/Jewish, or Muslim/Jewish, animosity. There's not an anti-Semitism in the Middle East the way that there was in Europe, which is based on race, which is based on color, which is based on genes and biology. That doesn't exist in the Middle East. There's no history of that in the Middle East."

R U SRSLY MSNBC?! Middle East Wasn't Anti-Semitic Until America Sided with Jews

The purpose of the medieval blood-libel was to justify political violence against Jews through the claim that Jews kill children.

Typically it was said that Jews use the blood of Christian babies for use in the making of matzoh... however anti-intuitive that may sound. The blood-libel is an exceedingly primal defamation in that it pits the targeted group, in this case the Jews, against the natural desire of the majority population to defend innocent children, particularly their own. This is why the blood-libel is so heinous. It morally obligates the majority population to take harsh measures, even deadly measures, against the accused minority population.

Therefore those who spread the blood-libel - by suggesting or insinuating that Jews or Zionists or Israel target children for violence - are actually targeting Jews for violence.

Just as anti-Semitism evolves and adapts itself according to contemporary political circumstances, so aspects of anti-Semitism, such as the blood-libel, likewise adapt themselves to current circumstances as they are articulated by those infected with this particular disease.

Those who follow Israel Thrives know that I come out of the progressive-left and was, until recently, a "lifelong" Democrat. The progressive-left, in the United States and Europe, represents the foremost political movement today in the west and is exemplified in the United States by the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic Party.

It is also the foremost racist political movement in the west today with the sole exception of political Islam.

If one wishes to understand the nature of the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic Party and, therefore, the potential future of the Democratic Party as it relates to Israel, it is a good idea to look at venues that the grassroots and netroots engage in. One of those venues, needless to say, is Daily Kos and whatever anyone might think of that blog, it offers a glimpse into the thinking of the base of the party, as does examining the Huffington Post, for example, or any number of other similar venues.

Ever since Ariel Sharon pulled Israel out of the Gaza Strip the area has become a launching pad for Arab attacks against the Jewish minority in the Middle East. Southern Israel has experienced something close to continuous rocket fire on its kibbutzim and townships, such as S'derot and Ashkelon, for well over a decade. While it is true that very few people have died from this rocket fire, it nonetheless remains the case that southern Israel can simply not function under this constant harassment.

Those "liberals" who compare the rockets shot at southern Israel to children's bottle rockets display a callousness toward the Jewish people, and the Jewish predicament in the Middle East, that is nothing short of hateful. Those rockets ruin lives. They ruin the economy of the southern part of the country. They spawn children who are practically born with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And just how are old people supposed to get into a shelter, when the sirens go off, in just fifteen seconds?

With this in mind, let us take a gander at one "diary" recently written by a "Kossack" entitled, Today Israel Shells Another UN School Housing Refugees, 19+ Killed.

The writer quotes UNRWA Commissioner-General, Pierre Krähenbühl as saying:

Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.

There is no reference in the diary to the fact that Hamas places its weaponry and rocketry in schools and hospitals precisely so that useful idiots, of the type that publish in progressive-left venues like Daily Kos, can defame the Jews when we dare to eliminate that weaponry and rocketry.

In this way Daily Kos serves Hamas because it does precisely what Hamas wants it to do in terms of its media strategy. Hamas is responsible for the death of over 1,000 Gazans because it kept bombing Israel until Israel was forced to respond in defense of its own citizenry and now they whine and bitch and moan and complain that the Jews are vicious barbarians who love to kill children and they encourage western-liberals to do likewise.

That is the whole point of this insidious exercise in blood and stupidity. The whole point from the beginning was to get soft-hearted and soft-minded "progressives" to raise their fists and shout hatred toward the Jewish State of Israel. It is a propaganda war and as far as Hamas is concerned Gazans, and particularly Gazan children, are expendable props in their media-driven, Koranically-based, racist aggression against the Jewish people.

But, let's see what the Kossacks have to say in this popular "diary" with 275 comments.

At this point, it is clear the IDF views (11+ / 0-)

Palestinian children as weapons. We already know this is the opinion of some MKs and essentially all of the Orthodox community in Israel.

Everything good a man can be, a dog already is.

by pajoly on Wed Jul 30, 2014 at 07:30:54 AM PDT

This is an example of the contemporary blood-libel. The commenter "knows" that the Jews of the Middle East, via the Israeli Defense Forces, views "Palestinian children as weapons." This is, of course, entirely false, but it helps create hatred towards Jews, which is the point of the comment to begin with.

so yesterday. today they are celebrating (11+ / 0-)

the deaths of civilians and children! its party time!

pinpoint accuracy and all!

by live1 on Wed Jul 30, 2014 at 06:32:03 AM PDT

Notice the enthusiasm within which this commenter hates on Jews who he considers to not only be child-murderers, but exceedingly joyous child-murderers.

Notice, also, that these people almost never castigate "Jews" specifically. Instead they rely on words like "Zionists" or "Israelis," but the fact of the matter is that we know we very well that they are talking about the small Jewish minority fighting back from Fortress Israel.

jfromga writes:

f Israel wants the Palestinian population to turn on Hamas, killing Hamas won't effect a change. Stopping the carnage of their children just might.

This commenter thinks that Arabs voted for Hamas because Jews kill Arab children. That is essentially his message, no? Thus the initial assumption from this particular "liberal" is that the Jews are guilty. Apparently all Israel needs to do to eliminate Hamas is not respond to their rocket fire.

The argument seems to be that if Israel allows its southern population to be terrorized by rocket fire for a long enough period of time without responding then, perhaps, Hamas will get bored and take up some other hobby.

dallasdunlap says this:

This is "mowing the grass." IOW, deliberately slaughtering civilians. In an overcrowded region in which the average age is seventeen, they know that anytime they target civilian housing, they'll be killing and hurting children.

That's the point. They want to kill Palestinians and reduce them to abject desperation.

This kind of comment, in its implication of Jewish malice, could practically come out Der Stürmer. There is zero recognition of the fact that southern Israel endured thousands of rocket attacks over the course of about fifteen years and that, in fact, its response has been exceedingly restrained. If anything Israel's response has been too restrained given the fact that the Gazan rocketeers keep doing their thing.

It is as if they do not consider violence against Jews to be violence at all and therefore the Jews of the Middle East must simply put up with continual kicks to the head unless they wish to be considered immoral barbarians by the self-righteous and hypocritical western left.

No more slaughter of the innocents. We are respnsibile for the safety of the children and innocents no matter what country or ethnic or religious background one maintains. This about ethnic cleansing, ad crime that was halted by the world perpetrated upon the others in WWII.

WE ARE OUR BROTHERS KEEPER. It is incumbent that we as a world live up to our responsibilities of doing so.

"Never Forget" now more than ever applies here to this genocide of a people and culture.

One of the favorite tactics of western anti-Semitic anti-Zionists is to accuse Jews of committing a genocide. They absolutely love this kind of mind-rending and malicious historical reversal for the purpose of cudgeling Jews with the worst catastrophe that has befallen us in our long history.

Within living memory of the Holocaust they use it as a club against us.

it's the children who are always targeted (27+ / 0-)

it's the fear of Palestinian demographics...

Bibi the Baby Killer has gone berserk in the killing fields of Gaza

We're shocked by a naked nipple, but not by naked aggression.

by Lepanto on Wed Jul 30, 2014 at 06:32:25 AM PDT

"it's the children who are always targeted" and this comment has 27 "uprates."

In other words, this person, and all those people who "uprated" it, honestly believe that the Israeli government specifically targets Arab children. There is no other description of this other than the blood-libel. And if that is what they think of the Israelis, just what can we expect that they think of diaspora Jewish supporters of Israel?

Not much, I am afraid.

The hatred toward Jews is so intense within "Lepanto" that he believes that the Jewish people are monsters and he is willing to help create an atmosphere of hatred, and thus potential violence, in order to stop our nefarious ways.

live1 writes:

israel is committing war crimes.

any one who tries to justify killing children is beneath contempt

Precisely. That is the entire point of this focus on "the children." The truth is that if these people honestly cared about children they might have something to say about the fact that Hamas, and much of the local Arab population, train their children to despise Jews which is why they have this kind of grief to begin with. If the local Arabs do not want the Jews to hit them back, perhaps they should consider not hitting the Jewish population to begin with.

The Day of the Dhimmi Done, after all, and the Jewish people simply no longer need to put up with it.

Tchrldy says this:

Or perhaps you are saying that the children killed by the IDF are complicit with Hamas and deserve what they get? Placing blame on Hamas would be understandable if the civilians had someplace to go. They do not. They are bound by the Mediterranean on one side and Israeli territory on the other. The IDF, Bibi, and their apologists have no one to blame but themselves for the deaths of the Innocent children.

In other words, you, my dear reader, you IDF apologists, are to blame for the slaughter of the innocents in Gaza.

That about sums up my point, I would say.

Bombing shelters and schools... (18+ / 0-)

Killing children playing soccer on a beach is what terrorists do.

by fl1972 on Wed Jul 30, 2014 at 07:19:39 AM PDT

In this example not only is the blood-libel evoked, but it is a twofer. We not only have the blood-libel, but the inversion of Israeli Jews into "terrorists."

"Hamas this, Hamas that" (0+ / 0-)

Pathetic.

Nothing Hamas does excuses the IDF's mass-murder of children.

by nosleep4u on Wed Jul 30, 2014 at 08:29:33 AM PDT

Now it is not just a matter of the idea that Jews like to kill children for no reason whatsoever, but it is the "mass-murder" of children that we are said to be engaged in for no reason whatsoever. Notice, obviously, the complete indifference to the nature of Hamas as a genocidal organization that not only calls specifically for the genocide of the Jews directly in its charter, but has sought on a daily basis to make good on that claim.

I suppose that nosleep4u considers it unjust that the Jews of the Middle East have successfully defended themselves from their Arab-Muslim aggressors.

At the end of the day, many will claim that none of this has anything to do with Jews, but merely with the allegedly atrocious behavior of the Israeli government. They will allow the Jewish people a moral excuse - a sort-of moral "get out of jail free" card - so long as we join them in their condemnation of the Jewish State.

So long as we separate ourselves from Israel, and point the trembling finger of blame at our own brothers and sisters in the Middle East, then maybe leftists will consider us to be acceptable righteous Jews.

Unless we do that - unless we betray our own within an entirely unjust and dangerous propaganda campaign against the Jewish people - the left will never accept us as anything other than apologists for Israeli terror, if not downright ZioNazis.

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

08/03 Links Pt1: The Truth about Gaza's Civilian Casualties; How Gaza became one big suicide bomb

From Ian:

Richard Kemp: Gaza's Civilian Casualties: The Truth Is Very Different

With few exceptions, reporters, commentators, and analysts unquestioningly accept the casualty statistics given by Gaza's Hamas-controlled medical authorities, who ascribe all deaths to the IDF. We have never seen so much as a glimpse of killed or wounded fighters.
Analysis of casualty details released by Qatar-based Al Jazeera indicate that so far most of those killed in Gaza have been young men of fighting age, not women, children or old people.
All Palestinian civilian casualties in this conflict result ultimately from Gaza terrorists' aggression against Israel, and Hamas's use of human shields — the most important plank of Hamas's war-fighting policy.

How Gaza became one big suicide bomb

Gaza is a suicide bomb. It is rigged by its leaders to explode.
This is not a metaphor. It is a war crime. It makes the calculus of proportionality in the use of armed force by the Israeli Defence Forces complex and uncertain.
The Hamas use of suicide bombings is well-developed. A decade ago, it involved the leadership preparing vulnerable Arab individuals to end their lives by blowing up Jews in Israeli cities. The use of Hamas towns and local populations in their entirety as huge suicide bombs to kill Israeli soldiers drawn into them by repeated Hamas provocations is an innovation.
There is clear and abundant evidence of this strategy in leadership declarations of it and in the use of civilian shields, booby traps, refusal of humanitarian ceasefires and lack of civilian protections. In a single street last week, 19 of 28 buildings were found to be booby-trapped. More than 1000 improvised explosive devices have been used by Hamas in Gazan cities so far.

Hamas's Blood-Drenched Cynicism

If, however, there is silver lining to the dark clouds hanging above Israel and Gaza it is the belated recognition – by Palestinians, other Arabs and credulous Westerners – that Hamas has nothing to offer Palestinians, Israelis and the region but death and destruction. Already blacklisted as a terror group by the UK, US and EU (for starters), Hamas has now lost its main backer in Iran (the terror group having sided against the Syrian government against Tehran’s wishes), and its Muslim Brotherhood ally that briefly ruled Egypt. Indeed, Egyptian media now denounce Hamas with vitriol once reserved only for Israel.
Even among Gazans themselves support for Hamas is plummeting. A new survey by a credible Palestinian pollster shows just 15% support Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, while an overwhelming 88% want the PA to take over administration of their enclave. Most striking, 70% believe Hamas should maintain a ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Hamas has fired more than 2,000 rockets at Israel, sending millions of Israelis into bomb shelters, and is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Gazans. As the Gaza fighting enters its third week, it should be clear that Hamas offers neither ‘resistance’ nor national liberation, but blood-drenched cynicism and despair.

Times of Israel Live Blog Ahead of funeral, PM calls Goldin ‘a great hero’; rockets fired at Tel Aviv

The IDF late Saturday night confirmed that Givati Brigade officer Hadar Goldin, who according to initially assessments had been captured in Gaza on Friday morning in a Hamas attack, had been killed, and IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz and other officials broke the news to the family. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced earlier Saturday that the IDF would redeploy when it completes demolishing Hamas tunnels, but that the operation in Gaza would continue for as long as needed to ensure sustained calm for Israel. He indicated that Israel would not seek ceasefire agreements with Hamas, which he said deliberately breached a truce on Friday morning with the “pre-planned” attack in which Goldin and two other soldiers were killed. The deaths in Rafah brought the IDF toll to 64; three civilians have also been killed on the Israeli side. Gazan health officials put the death toll there at some 1,600. Israel says hundreds of those are Hamas fighters.

The Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today is bragging that Gaza has won the media war - thanks to all those photos of dead babies. Yay!

There is a noticeable change in the attitudes of the mainstream media, and condemnation on Israel's targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of children, and this is due to the resistance not targeting civilians as the resistance has done previously.' said one Palestinian media analyst.

Hamas and resistance factions began to realize the tools of the battle, in light of the explosion of news and information, and the proliferation of social networking sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, and it dispensed with the suicide bombings it had used previously.

The resistance in Gaza has tools that enable them to manage the battle ethically, and more realistic, as directed as a battle against the Israeli soldiers.

Recently there have been dozens of articles published in the major British and American newspapers critical of Israel, and its war on the Gaza Strip... U.S. and British newspapers have accused Israel of bombing Palestinian civilians and kill their children, the British newspaper The Guardian published an article by writer Yuli Novak (Breaking the Silence) criticizing the actions of the Israeli army during the war on Gaza, particularly in relation to the behavior of the Air Force , and said that Israeli aircraft bombed civilians in Gaza unabated.

Hani Habib, political writer in Palestinian Al-Ayyam in Ramallah in the West Bank said in an interview with Anatolia News Agency: 'The image is now different, obviously that the resistance triumphed in this battle. This time it differs, both in terms of articles published in the Israeli press, and in articles carries in Europe and the West, which carry pictures of the children of Gaza who are dead, in their bedroom, carrying their toys.'

Abdel-Sattar Qassem, writer and Palestinian political analyst, said that the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip has benefited from their previous experiences at both the military and the media levels.

He told Anatolia: "The resistance benefited from the experiences of previous wars with Israel, and it learned the lesson well, that they can direct painful blows to Israel by targeting its army, without the need to touch the civilians. "

He added, "The tone of condemnation by the media, and academics, in European countries, is evidence of the triumph of a message of resistance."

Perhaps the most absurd part of the statements is the idea that the terror groups did not target civilians with the 3000 rockets they fired on Israeli cities.

But Iron Dome did intercept most of them, so they are now claiming that they never even aimed at civilians to begin with. This is more of that honor/shame mentality - since their rockets aimed at civilians mostly failed, they must claim that they never aimed to kill them to begin with!

They are right about one thing - too many Western reporters confuse results with intent. The absurd claim that Gaza terror groups are not aiming at Israeli civilians might resonate with clueless reporters since there are relatively few casualties. After all, these same clueless reporters conclude that Israel must be targeting civilians because hundreds of them were killed.

It is also notable how the "Zionists" of "Breaking the Silence," who claim they are only trying to improve the IDF's morals, are giving aid and comfort to terror groups via the pages of The Guardian. How moral that is!