Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 14, 2014

The top 22 things HRW's Ken Roth DIDN'T tweet about Gaza (update)

As we've already discussed, Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth tweeted obsessively about Gaza during during Operation Protective Edge. We've shown how inaccurate and biased his tweets were.

But let's look at the many human rights violations in Gaza that Ken Roth didn't bother tweeting.

There was not one tweet that admitted that Hamas uses Gazans as human shields - even when Roth linked to a HRW article whose definition of human shields exactly matched Hamas' methods.
Nothing about terrorists using ambulances for military purposes.
Nothing about shooting Fatah members in the legs to keep them under "house arrest."
Nothing about the Palestinian report that over 160 Gaza children were killed while digging tunnels.
Nothing about Hamas booby-trapping civilian homes and marked medical facilities.
Nothing about using children for military purposes.
Nothing about Fatah's accusations of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid.
Nothing about terrorists shooting rockets into Kerem Shalom - from which aid was sent to Gaza.
Nothing about terrorists shooting mortars at Erez, where patients and reporters could enter and exit Gaza.
Nothing about Hamas preventing reporters from leaving.
Nothing about Hamas shooting rockets at the Israeli field hospital set up to help Gazans.
Nothing negative about Hamas' explicit intentions to kidnap Israeli soldiers to take them hostage, a war crime.
While he mentioned Hamas rockets, he didn't mention Hamas' explicit threats against Israeli civilians, via video, text messages and the like, which is also against international law.
Nothing about Hamas targeting Israel's nuclear power plant - which is the definition of nuclear terrorism.
Nothing about Hamas' threats to journalists. - including threats from March about kidnapping them in the "coming war."
Nothing about Hamas war headquarters being in the basement of a hospital.
Nothing about Hamas rockets falling short and causing deaths, injuries and damage.
Nothing about Hamas deliberately aiming rockets at its own people.
Nothing about the report that Hamas threatened UNRWA employees.
Nothing about Hamas instructing Gazans to stay in their homes when Israel dropped leaflets urging them to leave for their safety.
Nothing about Hamas shooting rockets from schools and playgrounds.
Nothing about Hamas instructing Gazans to lie to reporters and NGOs by claiming that every dead person is an "innocent citizen."

All of these were reported in the media, and all of them are at least as well-sourced as the anti-Israel reports that Roth did tweet.

While no anti-Israel rumor was too far out for Ken Roth to link to it, when it came to Hamas, he only mentioned three things: shooting rockets at civilians, shooting from civilian areas and assassinating "collaborators." Despite clearly obsessing over media reports from the region, and tweeting over 400 times on this topic alone, nothing else was worth his attention from the Gaza side.

Bias isn't only in what you say - it is in what you don't say. Roth's bias is obvious.

But what is even worse, and what should bother every person who cares about human rights, is that Ken Roth has been deliberately downplaying and ignoring human rights violations against not only Israelis but even against Gazans.

Why does Ken Roth's supposed interest in the human rights of Gazans disappear when Hamas is the party threatening them?

The only possible reason is that Roth doesn't want to distract people from his primary goal in the Middle East: to denigrate and delegitimize Israel. He does this so enthusiastically that he covers up and minimizes human rights violations by a terror organization - simply because they share his anti-Israel views.

People who truly care about human rights would not ignore the many, many examples above of Hamas human rights violations. They would not downplay the ones that they cannot deny.

Roth's hate for Israel is so extreme that he feels that he must cover up and minimize Hamas war crimes.

Any member of HRW's board of directors should be considering, very carefully, whether they want a person with such clearly documented bias representing the organization.

UPDATE: #23 - Not a word about Hamas and other groups recruiting children for fighting.

The Guardian reported on July 29:

Flames and clouds of black smoke billowed over Gaza's only power plant on after it was destroyed during the most relentless and widespread Israeli bombardment of the current conflict.

"The power plant is finished," said its director, Mohammed al-Sharif, signalling a new crisis for Gaza's 1.8 million people, who were already enduring power cuts of more than 20 hours a day.

Amnesty International said the crippling of the power station amounted to "collective punishment of Palestinians". The strike on the plant will worsen already severe problems with Gaza's water supply, sewage treatment and power supplies to medical facilities.

"We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room," said Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza energy authority. "Everything was burned." He said crew members who had been trapped by the fire for several hours were evacuated.

It wasn't only The Guardian that said this. The Times (UK), Haaretz, the ICRC,and many others reported that the power plant was "destroyed."

Israel denied attacking the power plant or having bombed anything in the vicinity that day but that news was barely reported outside being buried in a single CNN report. That didn't stop Amnesty and HRW from blaming Israel for the attack, and not one media outlet or NGO even considered that Hamas may have attacked Gaza infrastructure and been guilty of war crimes in order to increase suffering - which was a major part of its war strategy.

As recently as two weeks ago, the PA continued to blame Israel for the supposed destruction of the power plant. The PA claimed that "the energy sector needed $250 million after the Strip's only power plant was destroyed by two Israeli missiles."

I guess there has been a miracle, then.

Gaza's only power plant is ready to begin running again as soon as a shipment of fuel arrives to the Strip, the plant's executive manager said Saturday.

Walid Saad Sayil said at a news conference that he was waiting on a response from President Mahmoud Abbas' office on providing fuel to run the plant.

Sayil expects to hear back from either Ramallah or Qatar within 48 hours regarding a fuel shipment, he said.

Within two weeks the power plant went from being completely destroyed to being ready to work. All the reports from the major media and NGOs were found to be quite wrong.

People were lied to.

And yet reporters will continue to report the lies of the Palestinian Arabs, no matter how many times they are made to look like fools by doing so.

Moreover, not one of these concerned media outlets of NGOs are even considering the idea that Gaza terrorists are the ones who fired at the power plant to begin with.

Who needs truth when you can so easily obtain anti-Israel lies?

Fake Gaza "Civilians" of the Day

(Part of a series.)

On July 24, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said that the IDF killed Mohammed Barham Abu Draz, who they called a "civilian."

He was a member of the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades. Here is his "martyr" poster and video, from a Facebook page memorializing him:

And here is Draz with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and (I believe) Fathi Hammad, during his day job when he wore the red cap of Hamas security forces.

The PCHR claimed that Hayel Shihda Abu Dahrouj, 28, killed on August 23, was a civilian.

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

(h/t Bob Knot)

09/13 Links: Erdoğan Aligned Newspaper: Tax Turkish Jews to Pay for Rebuilding Gaza

From Ian:

Columnist at Erdoğan Aligned Newspaper Calls for Taxing Jews to Pay for Rebuilding Gaza

A Turkish pundit writing for Yeni Akit, a major publication aligned with President Erdoğan, called for the country’s Jews to be taxed to pay for reconstructing buildings damaged in Gaza during Israel’s recent Operation Protective Edge.
Faruk Köse said that the “Gaza Fund Contribution Tax” should apply to Turkish Jews as well as foreign Jews doing business in Turkey and any Turkish nationals with commercial ties to the Jewish state.
The columnist even said the tax should apply to any company or business that maintains a partnership with a Turkish Jew.
“The reconstruction of Gaza will be paid for by Jewish businessmen,” he said.
The penalty for failing to pay the tax should be the revocation of the Jew’s business licence and the seizure of his property, Köse said.
Köse also sparked controversy in July when he penned an open letter to Turkey’s chief rabbi, calling on Erdoğan to demand that the Jewish community apologize for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Jewish Voice for Peace: A Tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing

In speech, volume is often inversely proportional to thoughtfulness. Jewish Voice for Peace is living proof. Rumor has it that JVP is planning on disrupting the San Francisco Christians United for Israel gathering on Sunday. If their past behavior is any indication, they are planning on standing up at random intervals and shrieking like banshees. Perhaps they still believe that filming themselves shrieking mindlessly at public gatherings is a sure-fire way to help the Palestinian people. More likely, they simply cannot abide not being the center of attention. The shrill attention seeking behavior of groups such as Code Pink and Jewish Voice for Peace often moves beyond politics into the realm of abnormal pathology.
For those who are tempted to call Jewish Voice for Peace “self-hating Jews”, I beg to differ. If you’ve ever had an encounter with a JVP member, you’ll know that they are some of the most narcissistic people on the planet.

Qanta Ahmed: My beautiful faith is being overtaken by the beheaders I’ve studied

In recent days, I have watched in stunned horror as America struggled to come to terms with the brutal decapitation of journalist James Foley, followed just two weeks later with that of Steven Sotloff. But unlike most Americans, I am all too aware of the fact that such barbaric punishment is far from unusual. In a recent conversation, Horowitz summed up the situation with these bleak words: “Decapitations are now mainstream.”
As a devout Muslim, the tragedies of recent days have packed an added blow. Along with the senseless loss of two promising young lives, I have been forced to confront the fact that the beautiful religion that continues to sustain me — that supports me in my life-giving work as a physician — is increasingly the domain of those who would use it to destroy everything I hold dear.
Recent events have left me able to draw only one conclusion: Islamism — the radical imposter form of my religion — has declared war on Islam.

09/12 Links Pt2: Where is the Jewish Pro-Israel Left?; Turning Hamas Rockets into Fruit Trees

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: Where is the Jewish Pro-Israel Left?

If the great majority of Jews are liberal-progressive and if the vast majority of progressive-left Jews believe in Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people, just where is their media presence?
I do not see it. Do you?
Given the fact that most Jews are progressive and given the fact that most progressive Jews are Zionists, one would think that there would be a significant media presence to support the progressive Zionist viewpoint, but there is not.
Why is it that almost all the pro-Israel magazines, newspapers, and blogs are considered "conservative"? Ha'aretz, of course, is not, but pretty much everything else is. The Jerusalem Post features Martin Sherman and Caroline Glick and would definitely be considered a conservative news outlet. The almost brand-spanking new Times of Israel is moderate, under editor David Horovitz, as is the venerable Jewish Daily Forward.
And among the blogs, fuggedabout it. The pro-Israel / pro-Jewish blogs are considered conservative almost entirely across the board. Israel Thrives is non-partisan and we welcome voices from across the political spectrum with the obvious exception of anti-Semitic anti-Zionists.

Irwin Cotler: The fatal flaws of the Schabas Inquiry

Firstly, the resolution giving birth to the inquiry presupposes Israeli guilt, condemning “in the strongest possible terms the widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from the Israeli military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.” Thus the empowering resolution displays an Alice-in-Wonderland violation of judicial logic because the conviction is pronounced before the inquiry begins.
Secondly, and astonishingly, the biased commission mandate not only presupposes Israeli criminality – referenced 18 times in the resolution – but makes no reference at all to Hamas’s spectrum of war crimes and crimes against humanity, let alone its ongoing terrorist war of attrition during which it has launched 10,000 rockets targeting Israeli civilians since 2007, the proximate cause of the latest iteration of the conflict.
Third, and astonishingly again, the resolution refers to Israeli perpetration of “hate crimes,” but makes no reference to the Hamas Charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews wherever they may be – the toxic convergence of the advocacy of the most horrific of crimes, namely genocide, embedded in the oldest and most enduring of hatreds, namely anti-Semitism – and the perpetration of terrorist acts in furtherance of this genocidal antisemitism, which is the root cause of the conflict as a whole.

UN Watch: When William Schabas was convicted in 1974, he tried to disqualify the judges for bias

William Schabas has mocked calls by eminent jurists for him to step down from the UN’s Gaza inquiry on account of bias, and is refusing to provide any legal response, instead telling an Arab newspaper that “even if Spider-Man were appointed to head the commission they would attack him.”
Yet when Schabas himself was in the dock, he charged all three of his judges with bias.
In 1974, when Schabas was a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Toronto, and a leader in the radical SDS group, he was charged and convicted with violating human rights and freedoms by physically obstructing a visiting lecturer from speaking on campus.
Schabas was found guilty on four charges and suspended from the university for four years, later reduced to two.
It is a curious bit of history that, according to a decision of the Ontario Divisional Court (Re Schabas et al. and Caput of the University of Toronto et al.), Schabas tried to disqualify the entire panel hearing his case by arguing that they were biased.
The court rejected Schabas’ claims, finding “no evidence whatsoever to support a reasonable apprehension” of bias.

A tree falls on the Temple Mount, so who's to blame?

The Al Aqsa Foundation is pained to report that a cypress tree on the Temple Mount fell down.

They have 11 photos and a video of this tragic event.

Naturally, they are blaming the imaginary Israeli digging under the area for the tree falling, and for the other trees that fell beforehand.

The Muslim authorities are calling for experts to come and examine the tree for any forensics evidence. Perhaps remote controlled Joo-Rays felled the tree.

The photos and video show that they have a bulldozer on the Mount, which I saw when I visited. Imagine that people in the most archaeologically important spot on the planet are allowed to use heavy earth-moving equipment whenever they want, in areas that archaeologists wouldn't use a toothbrush.

PART 7

(Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6)

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

August 26 Devoted to reporting Palestinian life under occupation, @Levy_Haaretz is now "one of the most hated men in #Israel." http://trib.al/MzqStRK

Truth: When Ken Roth quotes Al Jazeera, he does it accurately. That is a great synopsis of the article there.

Of course, it is not true.

The reason Levy is hated isn't because he tells the truth - it is because he lies. He has reported inaccurately and defended it even when other left-wing journalists took him to task. He lied about the Mavi Marmara. His lies have been cataloged again and again. And all his lies are in one direction: against Israel.

Just like Ken Roth's.

Of course Roth will approvingly quote from Al Jazeera about Gideon Levy, where Levy praises himself - because the people who actually read Levy's writing know better.

August 26 retweet: Peter Bouckaert‏ @bouckap #IDF destroying major apartment buildings in #Gaza wholly unrelated 2 #Hamas 2 pressure pop--called collective punishment, maybe war crime.

Truth: Peter Bouckaert is another HRW employee. This tweet has no links, no proof, and no facts. It makes a general accusation that the IDF is destroying buildings for no reason, not even perfunctorily quoting the IDF's reasons.

The tweet is an assertion made without any HRW people in the field in Gaza, No IDF official was interviewed. It is utterly without any basis in truth.

So, of course, Ken Roth must retweet it.

August 31: Massive new #Israel settlement expansion again violates 4th Geneva Convention--more war crimes http://trib.al/7ckDAw6

Truth: There was no settlement expansion. There was no land grabbed. There was no private land seized. The only thing that happened is that land that was uncategorized before was declared state land.

It is not against international law to do that. It is not a war crime. It is, actually,the sort of administrative act that

As Eugene Kontorovich - who is truly an expert in international law - writes:

... if Israel is indeed an occupying power, it has a duty to administer and maintain the rule of law, and oversee public resources, both of which require the authorities to know what land has private owners and what does not.

...The hysteria over this announcement illustrates several points. First, it reflects how detached discussions of “illegal settlements” are from international law. The entire legal argument against settlements rests on one sentence of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an “occupying power” to “deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population” into the territory it occupies.

Assume the treaty even applies to this situation–and there is good reason to think it does not. Further assume that Israelis moving across the Green Line can be considered a “deportation or transfer” committed by the Israeli government, though it does not appear the government is moving anyone. None of that has anything to do with the occupying power determining the ownership status of the land, an action which does not transfer or help transfer, and indeed, has nothing to do with the movement of people.

On the other hand, Israel also announced this week the construction of thousands of housing units in eastern Jerusalem for Arab Israelis. If the Geneva Convention indeed forbids building apartments in occupied territory for one’s nationals, it does so without any ethnic discrimination. The question would not be whether the “settlers” are Jews or Arabs, but whether they are part of Israel’s “civilian population.” Yet on this action, the international community was entirely silent.

The outrage over Israel’s “settlement” actions has no basis in law. Moving people is settlement activity, but only when done by Jews. Not moving people is also settlement activity. “Settlement activity” has just become a term of opprobrium with legal pretensions.

When Roth calls this a war crime, he is showing off, yet again, his profound ignorance at best and his gross bias at worst.

August 31: Non-excuses for Israel war crimes: 1. We respect rights at home; 2. Hamas started it; 3. Hamas commits war crimes too http://trib.al/3qa0LeT

Truth: This is perhaps a fitting way to cap the series.

The link that Roth points to are letters to the New York Times responding to an article called "The End of Liberal Zionism." The writer of the article, Antony Lerman, was essentially saying why Zionism - the movement for self determination of the Jewish people - is no longer for him, and those liberal Zionists who still exist are fooling themselves.

Lerman has many problems with Israel today - perceived religious intolerance, a supposed assault on free speech, treatment of illegal immigrants - and its conduct during war was only a small portion.

To Roth, it was the whole article.

Only one letter in the responses is being referred to by Roth, and that writer was responding to the article, not defending "Zionist war crimes." The fact that Roth read the original article through his own distorted lens and therefore assumes that the reactions are through the same lens just proves that Roth has lost the ability, if he ever had it, to see clearly.

Lerman advocates the end of Israel (a "one state solution.") Roth, apparently, agrees. Roth, who has never said a word about Arab antisemitism, is non-plussed with the idea of a state where Jews are a persecuted minority (after the "right of return," which HRW supports by lying that such a right exists.) Self-determination might be great for Palestinian Arabs, a people who no one had heard of before the 1960s, but to Ken Roth, the Jewish nation has no such rights.

This is the last of this series of Roth's lying tweets, but there is still much to say.

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.