Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 12, 2014

09/12 Links Pt1: Hamas threatened UNRWA staff during Gaza war; Politicians and Moral Courage

From Ian:

Hamas threatened UNRWA personnel at gun-point during Gaza war

Hamas used violence and threats against UN personnel in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, The Jerusalem Post learned from credible sources this week.
During the operation, Hamas was hiding weapons in facilities run by UNRWA, and firing rockets from close proximity to its schools, it was discovered. UNRWA workers were subject to Hamas threats at gun-point during the operation.
In a number of incidents, Hamas terrorists threatened to kill UNRWA personnel if they revealed that the Islamist group was using the UN facilities for purposes of war, to ensure that they would not speak out about Hamas’s activities.
Details have also emerged of the fate of medical supplies and food that were intended to be distributed by UNRWA to residents of Gaza in need of humanitarian aid. On a number of occasions, armed Hamas operatives forcefully confiscated the supplies, taking them for their own use.
In a few cases, both during and after the Gaza war, trucks carrying supplies to UNRWA facilities were intercepted and taken over by Hamas terrorists.

Alan Dershowitz: Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas

In 2009, I published a short book entitled The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza. Very little has changed since that time, except that Hamas has built many more tunnels, and that the reach and sophistication of its rockets has increased.
I am writing this book to warn the world that unless Hamas's dead baby strategy is denounced and stopped — by the international community, the media, the academy, and good people of all religions, ethnicities, and nationalities — it will be coming soon "to a theater near you." Hamas repeatedly employs this despicable and unlawful strategy because it works! It works because despite the material losses Hamas suffers in its repeated military encounters with Israel, it always wins the public relations war, the legal war, the academic war, and the war for the naïve hearts, if not the wise minds, of young people. And if it is indeed winning these wars — if its dead baby strategy is working — why not repeat it every few years? That's why cease-fires between Israel and Hamas always mean that Israel "ceases" and Hamas "fires" — perhaps not immediately, while it regroups and rearms, but inevitably. And if it works for Hamas, why shouldn't other terrorist groups, like ISIS and Boko Haram, adapt this strategy to their nefarious goals, as Hezbollah has already done?
The only way to end this cycle of death is to expose the Hamas dead baby strategy for what it is — a double war crime whose ultimate victims are civilian children, women, and men.

IDF Blog: Hamas Reveals Jihadi Character on Arabic Twitter Account

The difference in speech from English to Arabic
On its English twitter account, Hamas’ Islamist character is played down. The terrorist organization publishes more reserved statements such as, “The Palestinian people are committed to their right to their land, to defend themselves and to lift the siege imposed on Gaza,” (although there are some notable exceptions to this “moderation.”)
However, on its Arabic twitter account, Hamas reveals its Jihadist nature by issuing far more virulent statements, such as:
“We will not rest until Palestine is free … We are not tired nor weary, and we’ll continue on the path of Jihad with the help of God. “

Caroline Glick: Of politicians and moral courage

Leaders are not elected. Politicians are elected. Their election in turn provides politicians with the opportunity to become leaders.
You don’t become a leader by telling people what they want to hear, although doing so certainly helps to you get elected. A politician becomes a leader by telling people what they don’t want to hear.
If they are lucky, politicians will never have to become leaders. They will serve in times of peace and plenty, when it’s possible to pretend away the hard facts of the human condition. And they can leave office beloved for letting people believe that the world is the Elysian Fields.
Certainly this has been the case for many American politicians since the end of World War II.
This is not the case today. In our times, evil rears its ugly head with greater power and frequency than it has in at least a generation. As Americans learned 13 years ago this week, evil ignored is evil empowered.
Yet fighting evil and protecting the good is not a simple matter. Evil has many handmaidens.
Those who hide it away enable it. Those who justify it enable it. Those who ignore it enable it.
To fight evil effectively, a leader must possess the moral wisdom to recognize that evil can only be rooted out when the environment that cultivates it is discredited and so transformed. To discredit and transform that environment, a leader must have the moral courage to stand not only against evildoers, but against their far less controversial facilitators.
In other words, the foundations of true leadership are moral clarity and courage

Aspiring for their kids to grow up and become - terrorists

Seen on Facebook, with auto-translation:

"The first media appearance of the Qassam commander Fateh Mohammad."

See? They want success for their kids! They're just like us!

How dare anyone demonize those who want their kids to become the best possible Jew-killers they can be?

The page is from someone who lives in Jordan.

(h/t My Right Word)

AP notices that Hamas fired rockets from civilian areas as NGOs find excuses

Newsflash: Cutting-edge wire service AP just sort-of discovered that Hamas fires rockets from civilian areas!

Two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, there is growing evidence that Hamas militants used residential areas as cover for launching rockets at Israel, at least at times. Even Hamas now admits "mistakes" were made.

But Hamas says it had little choice in Gaza's crowded urban landscape, took safeguards to keep people away from the fighting, and that a heavy-handed Israeli response is to blame for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

OK, let's first let Hamas explain itself before getting to the evidence:

"Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone," said Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.

Here might be a good place for a news agency to put a few satellite images of Gaza to see just how true that statement is. Like these, north to south:

AP is too polite to disprove Hamas' statements so easily. It is their narrative, and narratives are sacred.

But since Hamas is admitting that it did shoot some rockets from areas that we all know they shot from, the pro-terror crowd needs a new meme:

Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.

"The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with," Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.

AP actually does a tiny bit of reporting to show that Hamas' statements are hogwash, although it also downplays Israel's "reams" of evidence proving that Hamas was near houses, mosques and schools.
The article also mentions (but doesn't link) to its own video of rocket launches from urban areas.

It also doesn't mention that AP reporters themselves witnessed rocket launches right next to their offices:

And it just seems that these rocket batteries are located everywhere, around every corner. Just yesterday, my colleagues in Gaza City in our office looked to the side off the balcony out of our building. Swoosh, two rockets just took off right — almost from outside the building. They had no idea that that was there.

So much for hard-hitting reporting.

Human Rights Watch and The Carter Center, so concerned about human rights, do everything they can to excuse these war crimes by Hamas:

"I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip," said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches."

The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

"Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?" said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. "The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate."

According to the Carter Center, human shielding is only a violation of international law if it is "consistent and widespread" - and the only real question is about Israel, not about Hamas.

Can you imagine how NGOs would react if Israel would respond to alleged incidents of war crimes by saying, "well, it isn't consistent or widespread, so you can just ignore it!"

We see yet again so-called "human rights" groups who don't even attempt to hide their desire to excuse the war crimes of a genocidal terrorist group. (And the media itself, too clueless to push back.)

Here is an IDF video showing some of Israel's "competing narrative":

The funny part is, I don't think AP would have even published this pathetic piece of "even-handedness" had it not been for the withering attack on its biased coverage by Matti Friedman.

(h/t Daniel)

Israel shown on map during "Arab Idol," Arabs freak out

During an episode of the popular "Arab Idol" singing competition shown on Saudi Arabia's MBC, this shocking graphic was briefly shown:

Oh. My. Allah.

That evil word, the One Whose Name Must Not Be Said, was shown, in English, for a couple of seconds on Arab TV!

The audience went into full rabid conspiracy mode, of course. People accused Saudi Arabia of "normalizing" relations with Israel. Internet activists demanded a boycott of MBC.

Hundreds showed their indignation on Twitter with the hashtag "اسمها_فلسطين" meaning "It's called Palestine." Here is the reaction of one angry tweeter:

I'm boycotting Arab idol because #اسمها_فلسطين pic.twitter.com/h55jv7Anb2
— Nadia (@nadiadaniali) September 8, 2014

Palestinian singers made a video demanding an apology, even though their own government recognizes Israel.

The show immediately apologized for what they said was a technical error. The map was briefly shown during a montage video segment showing all the places that auditions were held. It was "corrected" immediately so even the same montage when shown later did not have the hugely offensive word "Israel."

"Deranged" is too mild a word to describe the insane reaction to this kerfuffle.

Hatred of Israel provides the few tiny particles of unity that still exist in the Arab world.

Four more fake Gaza "civilians" (update)

PCHR said

At approximately 12:00 on Wednesday, 23 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Deir al-Balah. As a result, Na’im Jum’a Abu Mizyed, 33, was killed and another 2 persons were wounded.

It counted him as a civilian.*

But no one tried to hide the fact that Mizyed was a member of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades. The very same day his death was mentioned in Palestinian newspapers, saying that Islamic Jihad said it proudly.

There is no way that PCHR could not have known that he was a terrorist.

But he was not counted as one.

On August 2, PCHR wrote:

At approximately 18:20, medical crews recovered the body of Ussama 'Abdul Malek Abu Mu'alla, 37, whose house in the west of al-Nussairat refugee camp was bombarded by Israeli warplanes on 25 July 2014.

Again, they regarded him as a civilian.

He was a member of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades Nusseirat Battalion.

August 1, PCHR:

At approximately 16:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the vicinity of a house belonging Hatem 'Abdul Karim al-Louh in Deir al-Balah. As a result, the owner's son, Kamal, 32, was killed.

Here's his Islamic Jihad Al Quds martyr photo:

Mohammed Khattab, PCHR civilian.

Reality:

I didn't go through the entire list given out by Islamic Jihad today of "martyr" families that they visited, but if anyone wants to find more, feel free.

My entire collection of fake Gaza civilians can be seen here.

(h/t Bob Knot for correction.)

UPDATE: :PCHR at that point was not naming terrorists and was implying that all non-"members of armed groups" were civilians. But on that day the numbers don't quite add up, meaning that they named between 2 (Arabic) and 6 (English) terrorists, without mentioning who they were. So while they implied Mizyed was a civilian, they didn't say it explicitly. (h/t Pat)

09/11 Links Pt2: Yale Students try to stop Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speaking; Anti-Israel Group's Secret BDS Vote

From Ian:

Yale Students 'Disrespected' That Ayaan Hirsi Ali Is Speaking On Campus

The Muslim Students Association at Yale University has written a letter expressing concern that the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program on campus is hosting women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to speak about Islam. The Somali-born Hirsi Ali is an outspoken critic of organized religion, specifically Islam, which was used as justification for genital mutilation and attempting forced marriage.
In an email obtained exclusively by TruthRevolt, Abrar Omeish, an MSA board member, asks for campus organizations to stand against Hirsi Ali’s proposed talk. Hirsi Ali is “a speaker who is very well known for her hateful comments towards marginalized groups, especially the Muslim community. It is making many Muslims on campus feel unwelcome and uncomfortable,” she wrote.
“We would like to point out though that her main source of fame - or, rather, infamy - has been her inflammatory comments about Islam and its followers. Not only are these comments hateful, but they are also very hurtful to the Muslim community, particularly to Muslim students at Yale,” she continued.
Through its efforts, the MSA managed to recruit 35 other campus groups and student organizations to stand against Hirsi Ali's talk because she "is being invited to speak as an authority on Islam despite the fact that she does not hold the credentials to do so." Hirsi Ali is scheduled to to give a lecture titled “Clash of Civilizations: Islam and the West” on Monday September 15th.

Anti-Israel Group Plots Secret BDS Vote

Anti-Israel activists at the City University of New York (CUNY) have launched a stealth campaign to pass a student government measure boycotting Israel during a meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening during the Jewish Sabbath, when observant Jews could not attend, according to sources aware of the situation.
Pro-Israel student activists and others accuse CUNY’s Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC) of intentionally trying to silence opposition to the measure by holding the vote at a day and time not amenable to many who would speak out against the divestment resolution.
The vote was quietly publicized earlier this week only among its supporters, spurring accusations that the DSC is attempting to ram through the divestment measure without input from pro-Israel voices, according to sources who were only made aware of the situation after an internal DSC email about the vote was leaked.
The DSC, a student body group that claims to represent popular opinion, first informed its members of the upcoming vote last Friday, Sept. 5, according to a copy of the email message obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Dominique Nisperos, the DSC’s co-chair for communications, informed members that no materials about the resolution would be handed out, a decision that has raised concerns among critics.

The court’s in session

The UNHRC is occupied territory.
It is controlled by corrupt third world regimes who abuse its platform to promote their self-serving and hypocritical agendas. They have no historical right to this territory.
Their traditions don’t embrace human rights. They don’t speak its language.
For its own sake, the Council must be liberated by the leaders of the free world so it can fulfill the mission for which it was created. Gross violations of human rights go uninvestigated and unpunished because these corrupt bigots have hijacked and continue to occupy the body created by the international community to protect and enhance human rights.
I’m not a lawyer and even I see through this transparent and flagrant abuse of authority to promote the UNHRC’s warped political agenda.
This is not a Commission of Inquiry created in good faith but a charade intended to stage a show trial for the sole purpose of discrediting Israel.
By its actions, the UNHCR bestows its blessing on the tidal wave of anti-Semitism currently sweeping streets and campuses around the world. It is complicit in the movement to demonize and delegitimize Israel with a view to creating the public opinion to justify Israel’s annihilation.

Hillel Neuer: "Imagine rockets fired at your countries' airports; how would you react?"

Egypt's ON TV today featured "member of the Historical Society" Dr. Amr Sonbol, where he discussed his "research" on 9/11.

According to Sonbol, the planes that hit the World Trade Center were remotely controlled drones. But to control them, the Mossad had leased 5 floors in a building that overlooked the towers, because, somehow, the controllers had to be in the vicinity of the towers to do their job. How exactly that works when the planes were diverted from their original flight paths from hundreds of miles away is a little fuzzy.But, we are assured, that it would have been technically impossible to do the attacks otherwise.

Also, of course, many Jews didn't come to work that day in lower Manhattan.

He also said that Mohammed Atta, who was a hijacker of the remotely controlled planes, was really an American air force pilot based out of Hamburg.

He has previously accused the "Jew" George Soros of writing the 2012 Islamic Brotherhood constitution when they were controlling Egypt.

So this guy is perfect to discuss matters on Egyptian national TV.

Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today published a public-service announcement for tunnel-digging terrorists: Don't bring your cell phone to work.

Even though the terrorists have been trying to hide the tunnel entrances, by blindfolding the diggers and the reporters they are bringing to display their handiwork, apparently the Israelis have been able to pinpoint the entrances to the tunnels by following their cell-phone signals.

When the evil Zionists see the signal disappear in the middle of a house, they know that the phone has just gone deep underground to where the signals do not reach.

So Islamic Jihad recommends that all terrorists turn off their phones far from work.

They also urge fellow terrorists who read Palestine Today to change their SIM cards and phones from time to time to frustrate the nefarious Zionists.

Too bad that they cannot communicate by land lines or by cell phones. Maybe they should learn smoke signals. After all, they claim to be just like Native Americans.

09/11 Links Pt1: Israel commemorates 9/11 attacks; Col. Kemp: The Gaza War in 5 Minutes

From Ian:

9/11 knocks at the door

“We do not regret the things we did. In this life, that passes so rapidly. No, it was when we failed to grasp the moment. The one that never came again.”
Dvora Waysman, who has, with sweetness and insight, helped us better understand life and find its meaning, was on my mind as the current countdown to the thirteenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks has been making itself felt. Yes, Dvora says to us, “life passes so rapidly,” so “take life with both your hands” because each moment will never come again.
The piercing impact of 9/11 has begun to fade somewhat, as even terror will do. What it should tell us is that the countdown of our days can always be interrupted so unexpectedly, so dramatically, we must grab hold of each 24 hours placed at our door. As 9/11 recalls pilots who learned “how to take off” but not to land, we are currently being invited to the “beheading” of an individual, an act in flaming red in pristine sand about which we can do nothing.
One of the major theological interpreters of 9/11, Arthur Magida, put it this way. “And now something indecent has happened and it strikes at the very core, not just of our nation, but at something deeper and more fragile than that; at our sense of who we are and what we are and how we are to live our lives.
We try to repair the world and it collapses down on us.”

Israel commemorates 9/11 attacks

People around Israel commemorated on Thursday the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, in which al-Qaida terrorists killed almost 3,000 people.
A memorial ceremony was held by the Jewish National Fund at the site of the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem. US ambassador Dan Shapiro spoke at the ceremony along with other ambassadors from around the world, as well as representatives of the Israeli families who lost their loved ones in the attacks.
A second ceremony was held on Thursday afternoon at the The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, close to the actual time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke about Israel's shared sorrow with the US over the attacks.
"We remember that day 13 years ago and we mourn with you on this day for the thousands who lost their lives in that horrific attack," Netanyahu said. "All of Israel mourns on September 11."

On 9/11. Remembering Daniel Lewin. The First victim

This one is for the nutbars, anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists who continue to claim that no Jews were killed on 9/11.
Remembering Daniel Lewin, z'l.
His remarkable life, cut short by terror, was the subject of a biography published last year, "No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet."
In 1984 , Daniel Lewin moved with his family to Israel. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as an officer in the elite Sayeret Matkal for 4 years. After graduating from the Technion, he received a scholarship for graduate studies at MIT. While at MIT, he worked on the theoretical side of computer science, developing innovative algorithms to enable web sites to handle heavy traffic. He co-founded Akamai Techonologies which handles 30% of the worlds internet traffic and posted an annual revenue of $1.37 billion in 2012.
Daniel Lewin was one of the 81 passengers, nine crew members, and two pilots on American Airlines Flight 11 when it took off from Boston’s Logan Airport.early on Sept. 11, 2001. Daniel was sitting in business class seat 9b.

America and Israel Standing United on Sept 11 | iVoteIsrael

PART 6

(Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5)

Continuing my series of lies that were tweeted by Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch over the past two months.

August 21 #Israel troops in #Gaza reportedly forced this 17yo to serve as human shield to find tunnels. http://trib.al/XKYlVei
August 25 This 17yo says #Israel army used him as human shield, reviving practice that court had banned. http://trib.al/Z3VElbL

Truth: Ken Roth here is first linking to Defense for Children International - Palestine, which has a track record of lying. They literally prompt kids to lie. If the "testimony" is inconsistent with the facts they coach the kids to re-testify until they get it right. They do not engage in the least amount of fact checking - if the story is anti-Israel, it is believed.

Moreover, I have proven that DCI-P will consistently ignore any evidence of Palestinian Arab kids being militants - even when other Gaza human rights organizations admit it. They have lied about the number of child casualties.

The specific testimony of this teenager is literally unbelievable - except to people who want to believe the worst about Israel. The idea that the IDF used him to dig tunnels for them, or to check houses for bombs, is nothing but fantasy.

Proof of this comes from a later article about this kid, where his father - a Hamas official - says that the family "forgot" to photograph the teen's bruises until they were gone and and threw out the clothing that the IDF supposedly forced him to wear. It is incredibly convenient that the two biggest pieces of evidence that would prove the case against Israel are accidentally overlooked by a Hamas official, isn't it?

Only a person who has an intense hate for Israel could believe this story. Ken Roth believes this story.

In fact, he believes it enough to tweet it twice.

August 24 For supposed command center (tho can't ID floor), #Israel destroys entire 11-story aptmt building home to 42 families http://trib.al/z3COG0m
Israel has capacity to pinpoint supposed command center. Why destroy entire 11-story building? http://trib.al/0ZpAH40

Truth: Just because the IDF spokesperson couldn't immediately answer which floor the command center was on doesn't mean that there was no command center.

But where did Roth get the idea that Israel has the ability to take out only one or two floors of a building - without destroying the structural integrity of the entire building?

If the command center was in the basement, there isn't much choice. If it was on the second floor, and Israel shot missiles only to that floor, the building would have a good chance of toppling into other buildings and causing even more damage.

Which Ken Roth would then criticize.

The fact is that Roth is clueless as to what intelligence Israel has and what the intentions are in targeting buildings. Intention is the key to determining if these actions are illegal or not under international law. Roth knows this quite well - and doesn't care. He pretends that he knows that Israel is targeting civilians, that Israel targets buildings for spite, that Israel targets power plants even though it is providing Gaza directly with power.

Since Israel cannot reveal its intel in anything close to real time, Roth knows that he can make these accusations and not have to worry about the truth being revealed while people are still following the story. Even when the truth comes out, as it did when Israel released its responses to the Goldstone Report - responses that showed that Goldstone was just as clueless as Roth - it doesn't matter, because the responses will be ignored. Certainly HRW will not defend its shoddy methodology and clear cluelessness that will be revealed when the IDF reports finally come out.

So Roth can make things up. Which is exactly what he does.

Hamas' Interior Ministry has banned all public concerts, weddings and other celebrations in Gaza.

The stated reason is "in response to the difficult humanitarian conditions prevailing after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip."

In other words, they don't want any videos or photos of happy Gazans to be spread around because they are vested in showing the world nothing but misery and destruction. Gazans having normal lives means less international funding.

Gazans are still allowed to have celebrations in private.

In a honor/shame society, "optics" is inherently more important than reality. How things appear is what generates honor or shame, not how they really are. Putting on a show to the world is as natural as breathing. That's one reason why public self-criticism is so rare in Arab society - shame must be avoided at all costs.

As we have seen from "honor killings," shame is often worse than death.

This means that literally everything that Western observers see in Gaza and the Arab world is being presented through a distorted lens, where facts are hidden or fabricated or spun as needed. The competing desire for honesty that Westerners have in their culture is subsumed to the requirements of honor and avoiding shame.

This is a small example of this phenomenon, but it is terrifically important to understand. While today's Jews are anxious to admit their shortcomings to the world and try to explain them, Arabs will simply hide them.

Without understanding this, one cannot report reliably from the Arab world.

Human Rights Watch just issued what it calls an "in-depth look" at three separate incidents at Gaza schools, concluding that Israel must have deliberately attacked these schools.

Let's look at their bias, and errors of omission, from the July 24 Beit Hanoun incident.

In the first attack, at about 3 p.m. on July 24, apparent Israeli mortar shells struck a coeducational elementary school in Beit Hanoun run by the United Nations, killing 13 people, including six children, and wounding dozens of others.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that days of fighting in the area had caused most of the people staying at the school to leave, but several hundred remained. Most were awaiting transport to a safer area when two munitions, probably 81mm or 120mm mortar shells, hit inside the school compound.

Jamal Abu `Owda, 58, said he was sitting outside a classroom when one of the munitions struck. “Most people got killed in the middle of the courtyard,” he said. There were “shredded bodies, a mix of everything, boys, men, girls, women, a mix of different faces and bodies.” Witnesses said a second shell hit the courtyard shortly after the first, followed in quick succession by two more just outside the school compound.

The Israeli military alleged that Hamas fighters had “operated adjacent to” the school. After coming under fire with anti-tank missiles, soldiers responded by “firing several mortars in their direction.” The military said a “single errant mortar” hit the school courtyard, which was “completely empty” – a claim disputed by seven witnesses who separately spoke to Human Rights Watch.

Witnesses described at least four shells striking in and around the compound within a few minutes – a precision that would be extremely unlikely for errant Palestinian munitions. And there were no reports of Israeli troops near the school that might have led the Palestinians to fire mortar rounds there.

HRW assumes that Hamas would never, ever shoot at Gaza civilians.

Let's think about that for a second.

We know that Hamas purposefully places its rockets, weapons caches, command and control centers - indeed the entire infrastructure of their military operations - among civilians, placing them at risk.

We know that Hamas kills people it doesn't like without trial.

We know that Hamas wants to maximize the appearance of civilian casualties to the world.

We know that Hamas shoots rockets towards its own people - sometimes aiming at areas that have no Israelis.

HRW has no problem accusing Israel, a professional army, of deliberately shooting multiple munitions at a school that it clearly knows is filled with civilians. But it cannot imagine a terror group, whose major war strategy was to shoot rockets at Israeli civilians, doing the same.

Human Rights Watch doesn't mention that the IDF was trying for days to evacuate the school, and that Hamas had stopped many of the people there from leaving.

Here's what HRW didn't say:

Why didn't HRW mention any of this? Clearly the IDF was under attack from Hamas terrorists in the area. Clearly the IDF was trying to evacuate the school for days. Clearly the IDF gave a window for evacuation that Hamas prevented.

And guess who also tweeted that Hamas rockets fell in Beit Hanoun that day?

None other than Chris Gunness of UNRWA itself!

I received an email recently from a source that is knowledgeable about the incident, and here is their description of what happened:

COGAT had tried to get them to evacuate the shelters in beit hanoun for 3 days because there was increased fighting in the area and the writing was on the wall that there would be civilian casualties in the area if they stayed. UNRWA refused because according to them they are not legally obligated ot move IDPs [internally displaced persons - EoZ] if the IDPs refuse to leave - which was the case here. The morning of the incident there was an agreed upon 4 hour evacuation window from 10 to 2. They ended up not utilizing it because they didn't have transport because Hamas had actively interfered with the efforts to secure buses. COGAT reached out to local leaders to appeal to the IDPs to leave, and pretty much when they agreed there was the security incident and the rocket/mortar/shell/whatever hit the school yard.

Then UNRWA goes around claiming Israel didnt give them an opportunity to leave - only the UN could have it both ways: they refuse to leave and then blame israel for making them stay.

I floated the idea of a purposeful Hamas (or other terror group) attack on the school the day it happened.

Human Rights Watch is making two basic, and very biased, assumptions. The first is that Israel is so immoral as to target the very people it is trying to evacuate. The second is that Gaza terror groups whose entire strategy is to attack civilians and use their own civilians as shields would never do anything to harm their own people.

When HRW says that the schoolyard was hit "probably 81mm or 120mm mortar shells" that means they want to match the incident up with known Israeli munitions with zero forensics evidence.

When HRW says that "there were no reports of Israeli troops near the school that might have led the Palestinians to fire mortar rounds there" they are assuming that Hamas - the only party that stands to gain from the death of women and children - would never target women and children. It also proves that HRW was not looking for evidence of Hamas fighters near the school.

By making these assumptions, not only does it prove that HRW is not a credible investigator. It doesn't only prove that HRW is suffused with anti-Israel and pro-Hamas bias.

It also proves that HRW cares little about human rights if Arabs are both the attackers and the victims.

The fake Palestinian "civilians" just keep on coming! (update)

PCHR reported on July 15 that Jihad al-'Eid was killed in an Israeli missile strike that destroyed his brother's house.

While PCHR admitted that his brother, 'Omar Ahmed Sheikh al-'Eid, was a member of the Islamic Jihad Al Quds Brigades, it counted Jihad as a "civilian."

Here's Jihad's martyr poster from Islamic Jihad:

On August 1, PCHR announced that Mahmoud Dahlan was killed the night before when his motorbike was targeted by an Israeli drone. It counted him as a "civilian."

Here is a photo of kids from his family playing with his Islamic Jihad martyr poster:

In his obituary from Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades, they specifically say that Dahlan knew that his enemy was "the Jews."

The entire collection of fake Gaza "civilians" can be seen here.

(h/t Johnny)

UPDATE: Someone made a video of Dahlan's "civilian" life:

(h/t Bob Knot)

09/10 Links Pt2: The Israeli Origins of Anti-Israel Bias; South Africa, Netanyahu and The Dalai Lama

From Ian:

The Israeli Origins of Anti-Israel Bias

Israel’s problem is that members of the international media - such as AP bureau chiefs or others - who reside in Israel live within a milieu of Israelis who primarily lean to the left. They are fed information by NGOs such as Rabbis for Human Rights. Some of them already have the ready-made narrative of “giving a voice to those who have none” or “helping the weak.” A ready-made narrative of Israel already exists, set in stone since the 1960s, and tragically fed by former Israeli elites who dislike the current right-wing government and use foreign media to get back at it.
The international media thus naturally gravitates towards Israel’s critical press like Haaretz that has no problem publishing misleading stories such as the May 18 headline “settlers torch Palestinian orchard” for Lag B’omer which was subsequently corrected. In other countries, such as Russia, Turkey or the United Arab Emirates, the foreign media does the same, in terms of relying on local English-language media and NGOs for its stories, and the result is the same in each country: Where there is critical civil society and self-loathing left wing press, the international media will come away with negative stories, where there is censorship and forced patriotism, the media will parrot back patriotism. Rare is the foreign media that truly discovers a story for itself without handlers, fixers and the like.
On the other hand, the more interesting stories in Israeli society, such as about Jewish diversity, or about minority communities that don’t get media attention, such as the Druze, Circassians or Ahmadiya, are routinely ignored. Foreign media almost never expresses interest in things that galvanize large masses of Israelis, such as Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef’s funeral or Mizrahi musicians. The media simply is not attuned to Israeli popular society or its nuances; even its poverty, simply because Israeli media doesn’t care about this issue and doesn’t report about it in English.
The tragic fact is that international media’s focus on Israel is a twisted blend of Jewish leftists from abroad posted to Israel who have a contentious relationship with the Jewish state. It concentrates on Israeli media sources from the highly critical left, and fits them into a pre-conceived box relating to the conflict through such themes as “David versus Goliath” and “weak Palestinians suffering at the hands of Israel,” with clichés in the background about the “persecuted becomes the persecutor.” Both the Israeli public and the world at large deserve better.

South Africa, Netanyahu and The Dalai Lama

The South African Government has a long history of supporting the disenfranchised and the oppressed. That is if they are Palestinian. They haven’t been too bothered with the terrible plight of the Zimbabweans who are on our doorstep (actually they are now inside, in the dining-room) or anyone else in Africa really, or those pesky Syrians who keep dying by the tens of thousands. We have also yet to hear outrage with regard to the beheadings and brutality of radical Islam but no doubt we will soon.
And as for China’s occupation of Tibet? Given the fact that the SACP (South African Communist Party) says that it has always been part of China along with Taiwan, so that seems to be that.
So when the Dalai Lama wants to come and visit us down South, it is perhaps no surprise that we land up delaying his Visa approval until he has no choice but to cancel his trip. In fact in 2012 when he applied to visit the country and was not granted permission to do so, the Supreme Court of Appeal found that the Minister of Home Affairs had in fact “unreasonably delayed her decision,” and “acted unlawfully” in doing so. It does need to be said that there is a small amount of satisfaction that we can derive from that refusal given that the trip was to celebrate Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday (and we are clear what we think him “tsu tsu tsu”). It also needs to be noted that that trip coincided with the Deputy President Kgalema Motalanthe’s visit to Beijing, which I am sure, was just that, an unfortunate coincidence.

John Bolton: The United Nations at 70: How to Fix a Broken Organization

The UN system today is a huge operation, defying orderly analysis, which is precisely one of its biggest problems.
In many often-unknown or overlooked UN specialized agencies and programs, considerable important technical or humanitarian work is being done. The World Food Program, the International Maritime Organization and the Universal Postal Union, for example, generally serve their members well, without contentious political matters interfering, and without much publicity.
Others, unfortunately, have gone far astray, even humanitarian bodies like the UN Relief and Works Agency (“UNRWA”). It has helped preserve Palestinians as “refugees” over several generations, in violation of every precept of “refugee” status, for entirely political, anti-Israel goals.
In fact, it is the UN’s well-known political institutions that are fundamentally broken: the Security Council, the General Assembly and the misbegotten Human Rights Council.

New tunnels already being built (video)

From MEMRI (whose YouTube channel has been silent for a while, so this is embedded from their site directly.)

A recent Al-Jazeera TV report took the viewers down into new tunnels dug by the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, after the Gaza cease-fire. "We are getting these tunnels ready for the next battle, in order to launch attacks and fire mortars and artillery. These tunnels will also have other uses, which we will not disclose," said a masked militant. The report aired on September 4.

Reporter: We are in a tunnel which is being dug by resistance fighters in this border area. As you can see, conditions here are extremely harsh. As you can see, these tunnels are very narrow and not very high, making the conditions very difficult. What is remarkable about this tunnel is that it has been dug recently. As you can see, it is still being dug. Let’s try to shed some light on what is going on at the other end of this tunnel. This is clearly another stage in the preparation of this tunnel. There have been some cave-ins, but the work goes on. We’re trying to go as far as possible down the tunnel.

May Allah bless you, guys.

Worker: You too.

Reporter: Can we get inside?

Worker: Sure, go ahead.

Reporter: How’s it going?

Worker: Fine.

Reporter: What are you guys doing?

Worker: We are now inside one of the tunnels of the Al-Quds Brigades, on which work began the minute the war on Gaza ended, and the cease-fire was declared. We have begun work, and we are continuing it, regardless of the threats by the Zionist enemy.

Reporter: So despite the war, the Israeli raids, the heavy shelling in this border area, and the scorched earth policy, you seem to be continuing the work.

Worker: Yes, we are. We will not be hindered by the threats of the enemy, or by the ban on importing cement and other building materials.

Reporter: It is well known that this area is on the border. What is the purpose of these tunnels?

Worker: We are getting these tunnels ready for the next battle, in order to launch attacks and fire mortars and artillery. These tunnels will also have other uses, which we will not disclose.

Reporter: It is clear – at least from what we have just heard – that the Palestinian fighters are preparing for the (battle) to come. This will give you an idea of what the near future will have in store in the Gaza Strip, especially if the conditions and demands of the Palestinian resistance are not met. We have moved on to another tunnel in tis border area. It is clearly in better condition than the previous one we were in, and it is clear, from what we have been told, that it is an attack tunnel, used to repel attacks by Israeli armoured vehicles and tanks, in the event that they infiltrate this area. Obviously, it is very hard to climb up. Perhaps this is the end of the tunnel. We have reached this place…

Reporter: Hello. What do you do here?

Worker: Blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad and those who follow his path. We are in a forward position right now – a special room for launching anti-tank weapons, especially the Kornet missile. Allah willing, we are awaiting instructions to go out and take on the targets of the enemy.

Reporter: Would it be possible for us to see some anti-aircraft weapons?

Worker: Of course, we’ll take you there now.

Of course, any weapons Israel creates to destroy the deep tunnels will also cause severe damage to the surrounding areas, and the world will blame Israel....