Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 15, 2014

09/15 Links Pt1: ISIS targets Israelis, Jews abroad; Compromise with political Islam is impossible

From Ian:

ISIS may target Israelis, Jews abroad, Counter-Terrorism Bureau warns

The National Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Bureau released a biannual travel advisory on Monday, ahead of the High Holy Days, warning that Western Europe may become the scene of Islamic State terror attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.
"During this period, the potential threat has grown," the Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned.
The Bureau referred to the May 4 deadly shooting attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, in which a French-Muslim gunman killed four people – two of them Israelis. The gunman had returned from Syria, where he fought alongside radical rebel groups.
"There are concerns about additional attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, with an emphasis on Western Europe, by global jihadi elements (including the Islamic State), particularly by veterans of Syria and Iraq who return to their countries," the Bureau stated. Recent combat in Gaza has also led to a rise in anti-Israel demonstrations, it added.
At the same time, Iran and Hezbollah continue to wage a global campaign of terrorism, targeting Israeli and Jewish targets, with an emphasis on soft targets such as tourists, rabbis, Chabad homes, and heads of Jewish communities, the communique said.
Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists are also seeking to target Israeli business people and senior former officials for kidnapping or murder.

Hezbollah could advance into Israel in next war, official warns

A senior IDF official warned Sunday that while Hezbollah has no immediate plan to attack Israel, a minor security incident could erupt into a full-fledged war on Israel’s northern front during which the terror organization would likely try to capture swaths of the Galilee.
“The situation in the north is quiet; we don’t assume we are headed toward war,” the Northern Command official said, according to Channel 2. “On the other hand, there are many developments, there are small things that can create larger events. The instability can develop and erupt into war.”
The army also distributed pictures Sunday showing armed Hezbollah members near the border with Israel.
In the event of a confrontation with Hezbollah, the fighting would likely last some four months, would have the Israel Defense Forces face some 30,000 troops, would incur extensive civilian casualties on the Lebanese side, and may see infiltration into northern Israeli towns to carry out attacks, the IDF official predicted.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Many Arabs and Muslims Do Not Trust Obama

Many Arabs and Muslims identify with the terrorists' anti-Western objectives ideology; they are afraid of being dubbed traitors and U.S. agents for joining non-Muslims in a war that would result in the death of many Muslims, and they are afraid their people would rise up against them.
Many Arab and Muslim leaders view the Islamic State as a by-product of failed U.S. policies, especially the current U.S. Administration's weak-kneed support for Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki. Some of these leaders, such as Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, consider the U.S. to be a major ally of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi and his regime will never forgive Obama for his support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Also, they do not seem to have much confidence in the Obama Administration, which is perceived as weak and incompetent when it comes to combating Islamists.

NYC "Muslim Day" parade was really a Muslim Brotherhood parade

Yesterday in Manhattan was the 29th annual Muslim Day parade.

The theme was "Islam and America Share Common Values."

The image that the organizers want you to see look like this, with American flags prominently displayed.:

However, there was a significant anti-American Muslim Brotherhood presence at the parade. (All photos and videos from Urban Infidel site.)

Here is a vehicle sporting the "Rabia" symbol of the Brotherhood:

A representation of Egypt's president Sisi in "Pharaoh's Golden Chariot" was featured:

Here are actors representing Kerry, Obama and McCain:

Here are MB members - some masked - with toy guns pretending to arrest Sisi, I believe:

This clip shows a banner showing where Islamists took over various Middle Eastern countries for a time, including Israel. It also shows the Muslim Brotherhood with a float showing a woman being lynched to symbolize how they were taken out of power in Egypt.

Common values!

More here.

(h/t Jeremy, who was at a separate rally in Manhattan against anti-semitism.)

Human Rights NGOs, including the UN, refuse to adopt anti-bias standards

There has been a long history of international standards on fact-finding missions dating back to at least 1907.

While nearly all of the standards pay lip service to the idea of impartiality, only recent attempts have been made to ensure that the fact-finders themselves are unbiased.

The most comprehensive set of fact-finding standards written to date are the Lund-London Guidelines. They include these sections:

The mission’s delegation should comprise individuals who are and are seen to be unbiased.

The NGO should ensure that all members of the delegation are aware that they must, at all times, act in an independent, unbiased, objective, lawful and ethical manner.

The NGO should ensure that all persons associated with a mission [including interpreters - EoZ] and/or a report are aware that they must, at all times, act in an independent, unbiased, objective, lawful and ethical manner.

The NGO should ensure that the members of the delegation understand the need to be unbiased and not pre-judge any issues during the mission.

In order to enhance the overall quality and credibility of the report, it must be accurate, clear and drafted objectively so that the processes of the mission are transparent. It should fairly reflect all the information gathered and must refrain from bias. It is good practice to identify the standards against which the delegation members weigh the information obtained.

It should come as no surprise that these standards have been rejected by every major "human rights" NGO, including the United Nations.

It is obvious that the appointment by the UNHRC of William Schabas as the main investigator of the Gaza war violates these standards. He admits that he is biased, but he claims, improbably, that he can set his strong anti-Israel opinions aside for the purposes of the investigation. This is absurd. No judge could claim that he has a strong opinion on a case but then declare that he can set those opinions aside, and a fact-finding mission report is essentially a judgment.

Human Rights Watch has a webpage dedicated to its research methodology. It has no language to ensure that its investigators are unbiased at the outset. In fact, the document doesn't mention the word "bias" at all. Amnesty's methodology is similarly prone to abuse by biased researchers. Indeed, these organizations hire - and even seek out - employees who are already biased.

By ignoring the basic pre-requisite that researchers are unbiased at the outset, all of these organizations are fooling the world into believing that they are objective.

There is a relatively easy way to help ensure objectivity when choosing investigators. Choose human rights experts from other parts of the globe. Instead of choosing people who say they specialize in the Middle East, for the purposes of a fact finding mission they should choose human rights experts that deal with Southeast Asia or South America or former communist regimes.

In fact, NGOs should rotate their entire human rights staff among different areas of the globe. That way they aren't only using people who went into the field with a pre-existing political agenda and who truly care about gloabl human rights.

Rotating employees to different areas is a well-established practice in many organizations to help them see things from different perspectives and to ultimately improve their work. Why don't human rights NGOs adopt this very effective practice?

Can you imagine anti-Israel activists like HRW's Sarah Leah Whitson or Amnesty's Deborah Hyams being re-assigned to cover China? They would quit in less than an hour. Because they only joined these NGOs to demonize Israel, not because of a love of human rights.

Unfortunately, the real problems of bias in NGOs are not going to be addressed as long as the heads of these NGOs show that they aren't really interested in an unbiased organization. And their refusal to adopt the Lunn-London Guidelines show that politics is more important than impartiality.

From Al Jazeera America:

Fifteen Palestinian migrants attempting to flee the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip died Saturday after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of northern Egypt, media sources said.

The migrants' bodies were pulled from the water by the Egyptian military after they received a distress call from the vessel, Palestinian news website Maan News reported. Egyptian navy and border guards rescued at least 72 others, among them Egyptian and Syrian citizens.

As political instability widens in the Middle East and North Africa, increasing numbers of undocumented migrants have attempted to reach Europe in boats and makeshift rafts — many drowning along the way.

Sources told Maan that the Palestinians who drowned on Saturday fled Gaza into Egypt through underground tunnels, after which they boarded the ship bound for Italy.

An estimated 10,000 Palestinians have so far fled Gaza in 2014, sources told the Palestinian News Network (PNN).
...
With nearly 2 million people living on 139 square miles of land, Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated territories — where economic opportunity and even safety are in short supply.

Since 2006, when Hamas swept parliamentary elections, Israel has imposed a debilitating economic siege on the territory, restricting the flow of civilians and goods – including food, medicine [this is a lie - EoZ] and building supplies – for stated security purposes. Coupled with numerous deadly military incursions, including “Operation Cast Lead” in 2009 and “Operation Pillar of Defense” in 2012, residents have found it necessary to escape.
...
PNN reported that the average cost to be smuggled into Egypt through a tunnel and to Europe on a raft is about $4,000 per person, and that the journey is extremely dangerous — with families encountering criminals and treacherous conditions along the way.

Egypt blocks their fellow Arabs in Gaza from crossing their border. Egypt also blocks food, medicine, and nearly all other goods from being imported into Gaza.

The Gazans cross illegally and then are taken advantage of by smugglers who fleece them for thousands of dollars.

They are given dangerous boats to go to Europe where they will also not be welcome because of strict European immigration laws.

The ones that are caught in Egypt will be deported back to Gaza.

And Israel is the party that is primarily to blame. Not Egypt, not the smugglers, not the European countries who discourage their immigration.

On the other hand, when Eritreans and Sudanese sneak out of their countries because of severe economic and social conditions, and they go through Egypt (where they are often tortured, raped and killed by smugglers, or shot dead for the crime of existing) to Israel where they are not exactly welcome, and Israel pays them to go back to their homes - Israel is again the party that is primarily to blame. Not Eritrea, not Sudan, not Egypt, not the smugglers - Israel.

Who says there is a double standard? The standard is very clear - as long as Israel can be blamed, no matter how tangentially, it must be the prime culprit!

Iraq arrests Saudi who joined ISIS "to free Iraq of Jews"

From Arab News:

The Iraqi Civil Defense has released a six-minute video showing the arrest of a 21-year-old Saudi national, who reportedly left Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq to “free the land of Jews.”

Hamad Al-Tamimi had allegedly been ordered to leave the front lines in Syria and go to Iraq by the head of one of the IS battalions.

The video shows Al-Tamimi being questioned by a member of the Iraqi Army about his motives for coming to Iraq, to which he responded that he was “eager to go to Iraq after fighting in Syria.”

I don't have the translation, but here's the video:

Given that there are approximately 0 Jews in Iraq, this is an interesting perspective.

In fact, Iraqi TV claims that ISIS is Jewish, as this video showing the terror group being born from a union of the Devil and a Jewish woman shows:

That video would confuse poor Hamad even more than he already is.

As we all know, however, both Hamad and Iraqi TV really aren't talking about Jews, but about "the occupation," since that is the root cause of everything from cancer to tsunamis.

(h/t VultureTX)

Prank video of Lebanese man threatening to behead terrified Syrian refugee kids

Candid Camera, Lebanon-style:

From Naharnet:

A man who staged a sick prank by filming himself threatening to behead three Syrian refugee children has confessed that he was amused by their weeping and their mother actually loved the video, a police statement said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a security official told Agence France-Presse that the video proved to be a "sick joke," and that the children had been left in the man's care by their mother, his neighbor, while she went to buy groceries.

“He started filming because he liked the scene of the crying children, and that happened in the presence of Lebanese 14-year-old minor M. T.,” the ISF said in its communique.

In a surprising twist, the kids' mother arrived during the last moments of filming and she actually “loved the scene” and asked that the video be sent to her phone.

The knife man, M. F., was referred to the relevant judicial authorities while the minor M. T. was released after his father signed a pledge.

The mom was also freed after she pledged to take good care of her children, the ISF said.

The man had been arrested Friday by ISF Intelligence Bureau agents in the southern town of Ebba in the Nabatiyeh province.

The video, which was posted on YouTube Friday and shared widely, shows the three terrified children crying as a man standing behind a camera waves a knife and asks: "Whom do we behead first?"

“Put your hand here or else I will sever your head,” he tells one of the terrified boys, who cry their lungs out throughout the video.

“You, come here … Do you belong to Daesh?” the man says, using an acronym for the full Arabic name of the extremist Islamic State group, which has recently beheaded two Lebanese soldiers.

Adding to the pathos of the incident, the crying children respond by pointing at each other.

From Palestine Press Agency:

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, the spokesman for the president, said that without resolving the Palestinian issue there will not be there any solutions to the problems of the region.

He added that any regional alliances must lead to ending the occupation and the preservation of the national rights of the Palestinian people. What happened in the Gaza aggression is the biggest proof of the need for immediate action to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

He said with that all that is seen in the explosion of violence and civil wars and the collapses of states and entities in the region makes it imperative for regional and international powers to work hard to address the issue of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and the establishment of an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Abu Rudeineh said that the States United States of America and all of us must be aware that this solution which will lead to drying up the sources of terrorism and will give the region to regain the balance necessary to create a climate of peace and stability of the region and the world.

In other words:

"We aren't on the front pages anymore, and that means less money and less attention to our issues. Forget Libya and Syria and Iraq and ISIS and the Kurds and Yezidis and Yemen - we are the center of the universe and our priorities must be ahead of everyone else!"

ISIS beheading are ruining the long-running Palestinian pity party.

It is scary how many people actually still believe this absurd "linkage" logic. Then again, most of them have an ulterior motive.

09/14 Links: ISIS/Hamas? One Beheads, The Other Shoots People's Heads; Hollywood backs Israel

From Ian:

A new anti-Semitism? Why thousands of Jewish citizens are leaving France

Brussels Jewish Museum reopens four months after shooting that killed four

Four months after a shooting that killed four people, the Brussels Jewish Museum opened its doors to the public again on Sunday in a solemn ceremony attended by Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
The museum in central Brussels had been closed since the May 24 attack by a gunman who opened fire in the museum with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing an Israeli couple, a French woman and a Belgian man.
French national Mehdi Nemmouche is suspected of having carried out the attack after spending most of 2013 fighting in Syria with Islamist rebels, French prosecutors have said.
"We are fighting and will continue in our fight against terrorism," Di Rupo said at the opening ceremony marked by tight security.
"Belgium has strengthened and will intensify further its European and international cooperation to combat more effectively the networks and individuals that threaten our democracies."

Think Hollywood Is Anti-Israel? Page A7 of Saturday’s New York Times Might Make You Reconsider

Hollywood may be a famously liberal place, and liberals may be turning against Israel, but a significant chunk of the entertainment industry is standing up for the Jewish state.
In a massive full-page ad in Saturday’s New York Times, the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) reiterated their support of Israel — and, according to the organization, the group’s ranks of Hollywood backers have swelled from under 200 in late August to more than 300.

Creative Community for Peace in the New York Times

The text of the ad, and the signatories follow:
We, the undersigned, are saddened by the devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. We are pained by the suffering on both sides of the conflict and hope for a solution that brings peace to the region.
While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas' charter, Article 7 of which reads, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The son of a Hamas founder has also commented about the true nature of Hamas.
Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.
We join together in support of the democratic values we all cherish and in the hope that the healing and transformative power of the arts can be used to build bridges of peace.

In Arutz Sheva we read the following:

Israel on Wednesday dismantled a newly erected wooden access ramp to Jerusalem's Temple Mount compound that would have increased access for non-Muslims but which angered Jordan, according to AFP.

The half-built structure was erected by Israel in the midst of the Gaza conflict in early August, triggering outrage from the Jordanian government, which oversees Muslim sites in Jerusalem.

It ran alongside a bigger wooden structure - the Rambam (Mughrabi) ramp - that leads from the Western Wall plaza up to the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City. The ramp is the only access to the Temple Mount for non-Muslims, including Jews - an arrangement which has angered many Jewish groups given the fact that the site is the holiest place in Judaism.

Apart from only being allowed one access point (compared to several for Muslims), Jews are also controversially forbidden from praying or conducting any forms of worship on the Temple Mount in an attempt to appease Muslim leaders who have regularly threatened violence if Jews are granted the freedom to worship there. Despite several court rulings stating such practices are illegal and discriminatory, Israeli police and Waqf authorities continue to enforce the prohibition on Jewish worship, with those who disobey facing arrest.

Jewish groups are also sometimes harassed by Islamists on the Mount, which today is the site of several Islamic mosques and shrines built atop the ruins of the Jewish Temples.

I find this kind of story rather demoralizing and have never really reconciled my admiration for Moshe Dayan with the fact that almost immediately upon taking the area in '67 - "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" - Dayan forked it over to the Jordanian Waqf... whatever exactly a Waqf is.

I am simply not satisfied with my understanding of that decision. Or, more precisely, I am simply not satisfied with that decision, period.

Nonetheless, Jewish-Israeli weakness in the face of Arab-Muslim hostility is almost never a good idea. I am not particularly religious, but the Temple Mount has been at the center of Jewish history for over 3,500 years. It is, in a sense, the birthplace of the Jewish people as the Jewish people.

Yet Israel allows the Hashemites to push it around on the holiest place to the Jewish people in the entire world. It takes no greater a force than the Hashemites to push us off of Jewish holy land under what should be Israeli sovereignty.

It is both embarrassing and unnecessary.

In fact, maybe it is time to switch things around. Ever since 1967 non-Muslims have faced a variety of restrictions in access to the Mount and what we are allowed to do there. The last time that I was there, in January 2012, I forgot about some of these restrictions and had to temporarily relinquish a little shofar that I had purchased in one of the small shops in the Old City.

Perhaps Israel should institute similar restrictions for Muslims on the Temple Mount. I do not think that this would be unfair, do you? Israel can restrict access and can make it illegal for Muslims to pray on what is the holiest site for the Jewish people, just as Jews are not allowed to pray in Mecca. Of course, Jews are not only not allowed to pray in Mecca, but we are not even allowed to poison Meccan dirt by trodding that dirt with our filthy Jewish feet.

Or, I tell you what, here's a better idea:

Why not remove any and all religious distinctions in access to the site and make all regulations concerning behavior fair and equal to everyone?

Now, there's a novel thought!

Can you imagine Bahá'í praying on the Temple Mount?! Oh, my goodness. Rosicrucians and Mormons and Theosophists cheek-by-jowl with Rastafarians, Presbyterians, and Unitarian Universalists!

No?

Why the heck not?

In any case, the current arrangement should be entirely unacceptable to any Jew who has anything resembling a spine. And, of course, it is not just discriminatory toward Jews, but is discriminatory against all non-Muslims. Period.

From the comments:

Hoshea Allen · Top Commenter · Bet Shemesh, Israel

Don't you just love it when our illustrious government exercises sovereignty over our land?

I am a fan of concision.

Gila Rut Rina Wittow · Top Commenter · Works at Composer

This is an appalling decision. Would Saudi Arabia cave into pressure - if any existed! - to remove access to Muslims to their holiest places in Mecca? What a ridiculous suggestion! The Temple Mount is our very holiest site and we should have open access 24/7 through ALL the entrances to be able to pray there in peace (so long as Jews follow halacha in their preparations and where they walk there). It is the MOST IMPORTANT national treasure that we have - or should have. What business is it of Jordan? Noone is going to stop Muslims from continuing to pray there as well.

Indeed. I agree. But I have to wonder what it is like going through life with a name like Gila. Rut. Rina. Wittow?

Look, I know that I am an ignorant and crude American but, really, Gila Rut Rina Wittow?

I do not mean to insult the woman, but that is really quite some name!

I am kind-of hoping that on some off-chance she will catch wind of this comment and berate me before the entire Elder of Ziyon-speaking world.

peretz1
This bridge going to Har Habayis is for what purpose? So Jews ignorant of Jewish law can risk "careis" or spiritual excommunication by treading on holy ground they are not allowed to be on? Their are parts of the Temple mount forbidden to all Jews except the Kohein Gadol on Yom Kippur, and if they step there its lights out from heaven, so what is so bad?

For those who are religious these restrictions are not necessarily a problem.

Oh, and, "lights out from heaven"?

Well, that sounds rather unpleasant, doesn't it?

Y'know, I almost never discuss religion in these pages, or almost anyplace outside of the bedroom. But as a semi-former-progressive-leftist-counterculturalist-guy I respect religion at least, in part, because it was the Christian religion in the form of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that firmly established the mid-late twentieth century Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

This is to say, one need not be religious to respect religion and religious people.

The problem, of course, is when people in the name of religion cross the bounds of normal human decency and start doing little things like - oh, I don't know - chopping people's heads off in the name of Allah?!

I may be rambling a bit - and G-d only knows that I need a stalwart editor - but this popular head chopping fad that we have been reading about is ghastly... horrific... mind-bogglingly revolting... there are no words and it leads one to wonder the extent to which this kind of thing has been going on all along....that is, if I may wonder aloud without insulting anyone's religious faith, for chrissake.

Although I do respect people's religious traditions, this particular practice, for some strange reason, crosses a line for me, particularly when it is practiced on children as we saw with the Fogel family attack. Your mileage may vary, but I find myself in the nay-saying camp when it comes to chopping off people's heads in the name of the deity.

This is ritualized murder in the name of G-d and it is as unacceptable as cannibalism and normative Islam or moderate Islam needs to stand up and say very clearly one word.

NO.

And speaking of decapitation, in The Middle East Quarterly, from awhile ago, Timothy Furnish writes:

The February 2002 decapitation of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, true to its intention, horrified the Western audience. Chechen rebels, egged on by Islamist benefactors, had adopted the practice four years earlier, but the absence of widely broadcast videos limited the psychological impact of hostage decapitation.

The Pearl murder and video catalyzed the resurgence of this historical Islamic practice. In Iraq, terrorists filmed the beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg, Jack Hensley, and Eugene Armstrong. Other victims include Turks, an Egyptian, a Korean, Bulgarians, a British businessman, and a Nepalese. Scores of Iraqis, both Kurds and Arabs, have also fallen victim to Islamist terrorists' knives.

The new fad in terrorist brutality has extended to Saudi Arabia where Islamist terrorists murdered American businessman Paul Johnson, whose head was later discovered in a freezer in an Al-Qaeda hideout. A variation upon this theme would be the practice of Islamists slitting the throats of those opponents they label infidels.

This is what happened to Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, first gunned down and then mutilated on an Amsterdam street, and to an Egyptian Coptic family in New Jersey after the father had angered Islamists with Internet chat room criticisms of Islam.

At least the logic behind the guillotine was humanitarian, strangely enough to contemporary western sensibilities, but this Islamic head-chopping thing is no one's idea of representing human decency. Or am I wrong? Do the head-choppers think that they are doing the head-choppees a spiritual favor of sorts?

My guess is, probably not so much.

In any case, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your indulgence today, because I am well and truly disgusted and horrified. In fact, as soon as I drag myself away from this insidious laptop I will plunge head-first into the nearest washroom for purposes too unsightly to imagine on the written page.

Oh, and by the way, I very much recommend NOT keywording "decapitation" in Google images.

Please take my word on it.

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.

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.