Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 22, 2014

Chanukah video night #7: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Hanukkah

Former Finnish MP says Chabad spies for Israel

Ex-MEP: Helsinki sold city center property to spies and state terrorists

Esko Seppänen says that the Sea Customs Barracks should not be sold to Jewish groups.

"I'm not an anti-semite," Esko Seppänen says.

The former MEP Esko Seppänen criticized the City of Helsinki’s decision to sell the old maritime customs barracks to the cultural organization Chabad Lubavitch. In Seppänen’s view, the Orthodox Jewish organization could spy on Finland, being close to the Israeli secret service Mossad.

"The international funding that the Finnish branch of this association enjoys, the City of Helsinki has been selling real estate to its members’ for cultural pursuits – and possibly also for the organization’s synagogue activity – straight from Finland’s parade scene at the Presidential Palace and in the immediate vicinity of the Government," Seppänen, writes in his blog.

"Former Marine Customs property offers a great location, for example, for the interception of messages of the telecommunications of the Finnish State and capture."

Seppänen believes that the Mossad represents “state terrorism.” For this reason, the Sea Customs Barracks will in the future also be an attractive target for anti-Israeli terrorist attacks, he says.

This is not the first time that antisemites have accused Chabad members of being spies.

(h/t Tundra Tabloids)

Israel haters really upset at donations of Israeli food to the poor

Yesterday, a number of British groups held their "IsrACTION Day:"

The day was a smashing success, with scores of bags of food donated, based on what the Facebook page shows:

Who could have a problem with the idea of Zionists coming together to buy non-perishable Israeli goods, in coordination with local food banks and supermarkets, and donating them to the poor?

Well, for one, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign writing in Palestine News Network:

To counteract the widespread revulsion at Israeli massacres that has led millions to shun Israeli produce, the UK Zionist response is to exploit the misery of the homeless and the hungry to promote Israeli produce.

Many of us with a roof over our heads and enough to live on have taken a decision to boycott Israeli produce; being homeless or having to rely on food banks limits a person's or a family's options. SPSC understands that homeless shelters and food banks have a duty to accept the food in order to help their needy clients. We also know that the sort of people who dedicate their time to helping the victims of this Government's austerity drive are likely to be opposed to injustice abroad as well as at home.

SPSC asks citizens to deny any propaganda publicity to these pro-Israeli campaigners, the supporters of homelessness and hunger for Palestinians who come bearing Israeli foodstuffs. It is part of their effort to defeat the Palestinian call for BDS and their struggle for freedom. Supporting the manufacture of homelessness and hunger in Palestine; exploiting homelessness and hunger in Britain to sanitise the perpetrators, the Israeli State.

Unfortunately, at least one liberal Jew (proudly quoted by SPSC in the article just mentioned) also came out against the initiative, with a screed in the Times of Israel that included this little piece of insanity:

Nobody, as far as I am aware, has bothered to ask the food banks what they need. The general attitude seems to be, let’s dump a load of lokshen noodles on it and they should be grateful. Naftali Bennett meets Marie Antoinette: let them eat Bamba. (That is an absolute lie.)

...And far from making the poor self-sufficient, they are giving arbitrary Israeli produce to food banks who will find Yarden hummus about as much use as shekel coins – and that is no doubt the organisers’ next ‘charitable’ initiative.

So what is the point of IsrACTIONday? It provides an admirable opportunity to vilify opponents. The BDS movement has (ridiculously) been urging food banks to boycott donations of Israeli produce. The Friends of Israel groups immediately pounced on this as evidence that not only do anti-Israel organisations want to gas the Jews, they want to starve the poor: a smear about as undignified as it is wilfully inaccurate.

Sussex Friends of Israel is even using the day to stoke controversy within the British Jewish Zionist community, demanding aggressively of pro-Israel pro-peace group Yachad: “Are you supporting IsrACTIONday? If I don’t get a clear yes or no answer I’m going to slaughter you tomorrow!”

I don't see Yachad on the list of sponsors so I guess they will need to call the police for fear of being slaughtered by those evil right-wing Zionists.

Sheesh.

12/22 Links Pt1: EU Gives Hamas Green Light to Attack Israel; The price of Israeli restraint

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: EU Gives Hamas Green Light to Attack Israel

The EU court's decision represents a "severe blow to the Palestinian Authority and Egypt," according to Palestinian political analyst Raed Abu Dayer.
Any victory for Hamas, albeit a small and symbolic one, is a victory for the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood and other fundamentalist groups, and causes tremendous damage to those Muslims who are opposed to radical Islam.
Hours before the EU court's decision was made public, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar announced that his movement would never recognize Israel, and that Hamas seeks to overthrow the Palestinian Authority and seize control of the West Bank.
The EU court's decision also coincided with a rapprochement between Hamas and Iran. Now, the Iranians and other countries, such as Turkey and Qatar, are likely to interpret the EU court's decision as a green light to resume financial and military aid, including rockets and missiles, to Hamas — not only to Gaza but to the West Bank as well — to support those Palestinians whose aim it is to eliminate Israel.

Europe doesn't care about dead Jews

As long as Europe maintains its prejudice against Israel, Israelis will have little reason to believe that further concessions will win them Europe’s favor.
Instead, they will continue to shrug their shoulders and rightfully recall that the “goyim” are always against us and will remain so despite the Palestinian terrorism that will inevitably follow the next concession.
At the same time, Europe’s obsession with Israel leads Palestinians to view Europe and the international community, their institutions, and the various pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations they fund as tools and forums which can be utilized to force Israel to meet their demands outside of a negotiated peace. With Europe as their advocate, they can win concessions – as they did with the 2005 disengagement, the 2010 settlement freeze and the recent release of 78 terrorists – before negotiations even begin or merely for participating in negotiations. There is no need for them to relinquish their quest for Israel’s ultimate destruction, or cease acts of terrorism and indoctrination, incitement and funding of terrorism.
Even more disturbing than the negative consequences for the prospects for true peace is the unspoken, but readily apparent disregard for Jewish life implied by these European resolutions and actions.
Israel’s security concerns are real. A century of Palestinian violence against Jews is not a mere excuse that Israel conjures to avoid Palestinian statehood or other concessions. Europeans, however, are unfazed. Even as Palestinians plow their cars into pedestrians with encouragement from Palestinian Authority institutions, European officials do not even attempt to explain why Israelis shouldn’t worry about the concessions they demand. They want Israel to give the Palestinians what they believe the Palestinians deserve, even if unaccompanied by a termination of violence on the part of the Palestinians. If that results in more dead Jews, that is none of their concern.

How the State Department Annually Perpetuates Palestinian Misery

This constitutes an UNRWA commitment to update its human resources manuals, nothing more. There is no mention of UNRWA's refusal to use U.S. or Israeli terror watch lists to ensure any commitment to combat terrorism.
The unreality is compounded by the still more ludicrous statement that the U.S. "notes with appreciation efforts taken by UNRWA during the course of 2014 to strengthen the Agency's neutrality compliance, including but not limited to the development of social media guidelines for official UNRWA communications…"
Whether the UNRWA spokesman crying on camera while being interviewed constitutes "neutrality compliance" is unclear, as is the celebration of the recent Jerusalem murders of rabbis on the Facebook pages of UNRWA teachers [EOZ link]. Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect UNRWA employees, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian, to express neutrality. But if that is the case, then the Framework's endorsement of "UNRWA's human rights, conflict resolution, and tolerance education program" may also be questioned, or at least its implementation.
But a deeper look at the document and the background of the American commitment to UNRWA suggests another vast disconnect. The framework states "All U.S. foreign assistance programs are required to demonstrate performance and accountability, and clearly link programming and funding directly to U.S. policy goals." How prolonging the Palestinian "refugee" issue through the permanent institutionalizing of UNRWA serves U.S. policy goals is mystifying.
Beyond that, UNRWA officials at the top continue to defend the Palestinian "right of return," in speeches as well as on official web pages, not to mention its pervasive promotion in UNRWA schools. How does promoting the Palestinian ideology that they are entitled to return to places once occupied by parents, grandparents and great-grandparents which are now in Israel, and in the process transform Israel into a Jewish minority state, serve U.S. policy, much less the cause of peace?

Fake "Child Victim" of the Day

On July 30, PCHR reported:

- At approximately 18:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a motor cart in Bani Suhaila. As a result, 4 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were killed: Mohammed Shawqi Mustafa Abu Hammad, 26; Ahmed Ismail Mohammed Abu Hammad, 31; Mohammed Mustafa Ismail Abu Hammad, 14; and Muhannad Ashraf Ismail al-Qarra, 17.

Muhannad al-Qarra was, of course, considered one of the "children" killed mercilessly by Israel during the war.

I turns out that he was an Islamic Jihad terrorist, whose obituary was just published.

In that obituary we find that he eagerly became a member of Islamic Jihad's Saraya Brigades even though he was under 18. His family had many mujahadeen members.

During the war al Qarra transported weapons to the terrorists in different areas of Gaza.

His brother Mohammed reminisces how much Muhannad would talk about ejecting all the Jews from the land.

Notice how the terror groups have been only slowly admitting how many of their members were killed, waiting until months after the meme of Israel killing mostly civilians was embedded in the world's consciousness. This is exactly what they did during Cast Lead as well, and I predicted on the first day of the war that it would happen again.

(h/t Israellycool and Judge Dan)

Video: IDF soldiers give food to hungry kids in Hebron

From YNet Hebrew:

IDF paratroopers' hearts went out to two Palestinian children who approached their post on Sunday asking for food.

One of the soldiers, Corporal Oren, told his friends about the two children, and they didn't hesitate before giving most of their lunch to the children, even giving them some snacks as well.

"After talking to our friends, it was clear to us we couldn't let those kids keep looking through dumpsters for food, while we had extra food," the corporal said.

Normally, IDF soldiers meet Palestinian children when they riot, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the troops. But after hearing the kids' plea: "We're hungry, we have no food at home and we're looking in dumpsters for something to eat," the paratroopers decided to give them a loaf of bread, meatballs, fruit, vegetables, hummus and snacks they had bought for themselves.

"One of the children told me he already searched through all of the dumpsters around. I told them to wait a few minutes until I got back," the soldier said. "We went out to them and sent them on their way with food and drink."

Before meeting the children, Corporal Oren wrote on his Facebook page that the pillbox he was stationed at was pelted with stones. "We were preparing to disperse the crowd, which was continuing the massive stones onslaught against us. I was preparing one of the crowd dispersal measures we had," he wrote. "At that moment, my sergeant noticed a little girl standing outside her house, between us and the rioters. He told me to cease fire and that I wasn't to fire until we made sure the girl is safe inside her home. During that time we were exposed to the stone throwers and were hit a lot and hard, but at no point did we even think to do anything while innocent children could get hurt."

He went on to say: "I hope the two stories I told you - as someone who is out on the field experiencing things without mediation - helped paint a certain picture of what soldiers deal with every day. Next time you hear someone in Israel or abroad slamming the IDF, saying we're not a moral army, you're welcome to send them my way."

Officials at the IDF Judea and Samaria Division said this was a local and independent initiative taken by the soldier, and that he received no orders to help the children. They added that the Palestinians often use children to set up a trap for IDF soldiers in order to film them attacking the kids after they provoked the troops.

By far the most popular video I've ever uploaded was a similar one of IDF soldiers in Hebron giving food to two little kids who hug them.

(h/t Yoel)

From The Hindu.com:

In what could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign policy, the Modi government is looking at altering India’s supporting vote for the Palestinian cause at the United Nations to one of abstention.

Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the change, which will be a fundamental departure from India’s support to the cause of a Palestinian state, was under consideration.

“Like other foreign policy issues, the Modi government is looking at India’s voting record at the United Nations on the Palestinian issue,” a government source told The Hindu. The change only needs an administrative nod, the second source said.

Despite the growing defence and diplomatic ties with Israel, the UPA government, which junked traditional ally Iran to vote with the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005, had baulked at making any change in India’s support to the Palestinians.

Even former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s government, which invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, did not amend India’s voting record at the U.N.

India’s stance at the U.N. has been an irritant in Indo-Israeli relations, with Tel Aviv frustrated that close bonds had not resulted in any change in the stance on Palestine.

A senior Israeli interlocutor told a visiting Indian External Affairs Minister some time ago that New Delhi treated Tel Aviv like a “mistress” – by keeping the bilateral relationship away from the public gaze. This re-examination of India’s voting stance will come as sweet music to Israeli ears just as it will raise concerns in West Asian capitals about the future course of Indian foreign policy.

Just the publication of this story will probably bring unprecedented Arab and Muslim pressure on India not to change its stance.

But if India truly changes its stance, especially when the EU is in the midst of mindlessly becoming more pro-Palestinian, it would be huge.

(h/t Yoel)

A small anecdote that illustrates the honesty of anti-Israel "journalists"

I came across an English article from 2012 by Charlotte Silver, who has written for Al Akhbar, Electronic Intifada and Al Jazeera.

Check out this piece of amazing historical revisionism:

Beersheba – the Hebraized name of the Arabic Bir al-Sabah – translates to English as “the well of the seven.” This is in reference to the city’s location which allows for easy access to underground aquifers that flow from the Hebron hills.

Wow! Beersheba is a Hebraicized version of the ancient Arabic name!

I guess that Abraham and Abimelech conspired to rename it in Hebrew from the ancient "Palestinians" who lived there at the time! '

But don't be too surprised. The same kinds of people pretend that Tel Aviv, built on sand dunes and vineyards, was originally an Arab village named "Tel- ar-Rabi" - a completely fictional place.

1882 map

The year in ElderToons

As the year comes towards a close, and it gets to be the time I ask for donations, I thought I'd take a walk down memory lane. (Hey, magazines do it all the time.)

Here are some of the cartoons I made this year:

And, my personal favorite:

If you enjoyed my posts, videos, cartoons and posters this year, why not make a donation to EoZ? Just use the PayPal button on the sidebar of the main blog page, or send me an Amazon gift card.

12/21 Links: Intellectuals in service of Palestinian propaganda; Parkour on top of Al Aqsa Mosque

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: Intellectuals in service of Palestinian propaganda

Petition urging European parliaments to support statehood only reinforces rejectionist approach and drives further anti-Semitism.
What exactly goes through the minds of intellectuals when they sign a petition that urges European parliaments to support the Palestinian Authority's demand for statehood?
But what the hell qualifies them to poke their long noses into political issues and developments?
After all, the Palestinians have time and again rejected the offer of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
After all, they've rejected the formula of two states for two peoples time and again too.
After all, Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear, recently too, in an interview with Akhbar Alyoum, that his opposition to a Jewish state is a direct consequence of his demand for the right of return.
After all, this appeal to the European states and United Nations is not designed to promote a peace settlement, but to dodge the formula of two states for two peoples instead.

Netanyahu: We will not ignore even one rocket from Gaza

Israel's safety is the number one priority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, regarding a rocket from Gaza that landed in Israel on Friday and an IAF attack on a Hamas cement factory on Saturday in response.
Speaking during a Hannuka candle lighting ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said "I want to thank you soldiers for your contribution to Israel's safety. Israel's safety comes first. I won't allow even one rocket, and that is why the IAF responded to the rocket and destroyed a cement factory that was making cement to repair tunnels that were hit during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas will be held responsible for every escalation. We will protect Israel's safety. Happy holidays to everyone," he said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon also spoke on Saturday evening saying that Israel will not tolerate a new "trickle" of rockets from Gaza.
"Last night's IAF airstrike in Gaza, which was in response to Friday's rocket attack, was on a factory making cement that would be used to build tunnels. It is a clear message to Hamas that we won't put up with a 'trickle' of rockets on our citizens. We hold Hamas responsible for what happens in the strip, and we know how to respond to the attacks if they don't know how to stop them," Ya'alon said.

Young Boy Recites Song on Hamas TV: The Jews Are Barbaric Apes, the Most Evil of Creatures

In a recent Hamas TV children's show, a young boy recites a song titled "I Do Not Fear the Gun," in which he says: "Oh sons of Zion, oh the most evil of creatures, oh barbaric apes, Jerusalem rejects you and vomits your filth." The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 5, 2014

Writing in Arutz Sheva, Ari Yashar tells us:

The EU's New Best Buddies

Hamas, in both its military and governmental branches, has been temporarily removed from the European Union's list of proscribed terrorist groups as the result of a technical legal blunder.

After Hamas filed an appeal against its terrorist list standing, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg published its decision on Wednesday, with Hamas being removed due to claims that the group's inclusion in the list was against EU procedures and without sufficient evidence.

The court said in a statement that Hamas's inclusion was based on "factual imputations derived from the press and the Internet" as opposed to sound legal judgments. But it stressed that Wednesday's decision to remove Hamas was based on technical grounds and does "not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group."

They are trying to soft-pedal this move. The Europeans know damn well that Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls specifically for the genocide of the Jewish people directly in its founding document. So as they ease Hamas into social and political acceptability in the West they need to pretend like its not really happening.

They remove Hamas from the terror list, but because this will make some people - most notably Jews - rather uncomfortable they pretend that Hamas was only kind-of removed from the terror list, and even then only for technical reasons. Besides, they tell us, Hamas will probably end up back on the list sometime in the future, anyway... maybe. Also, they assure us that they have maintained the freezing of Hamas assets in European lending institutions, so really nothing has at all changed.

Except things have changed and here is why.

What we are witnessing, essentially, is the open introduction of Hamas into the social and political European mainstream. Such a move is fully in keeping with the rise of "Eurabia" as described in Bat Ye'or's Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. That is, close economic and political ties between Europe and the Arab world is changing the nature of European society in ways highly detrimental to Jewish people throughout the world.

This is, in fact, nothing less than the wholesale betrayal of the Jewish people by the European governments. The EU insists upon a two-state solution while pressuring the party that has accepted two states for two peoples (Israel) and putting no pressure on the intransigent party (the Arabs). This has been Obama's and the EU's modus operandi for many years, now.

Israel agrees to two states. The Palestinian-Arabs say "no" and refuse to negotiate, thus irrationally causing the EU and the US to pressure Israel to accept what it has always accepted since the 1937 Peel Commission. It says something about how twisted and topsey-turvey EU and US foreign policy is viz-a-viz the conflict. They place all pressure on Israel, despite the fact that Israel agreed to two states long ago, and they place no pressure on the intransigent party.

It simply makes no sense from a geopolitical standpoint. Heck, it makes no sense from a perspective of normal human decency and basic rationality.

But, then, the very idea that the EU would remove Hamas from its terror list also makes no sense from a perspective of normal human decency and basic rationality.

Here is a tid-bit from the Hamas charter that is actually part of one of the hadiths:

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.

They have talking rocks and trees who yammer for the blood of the Jews and, yet, somehow, this is alright with our European allies?

My favorite parts, however, have to do with these bizarre paranoid fantasies and conspiracy theories concerning the Freemasonic Lodge and other such old-timey men's associations. Here is a bit from article 17 of the charter referring specifically to the Masons and the Rotary Club:

These organizations have ample resources that enable them to play their role in societies for the purpose of achieving the Zionist targets and to deepen the concepts that would serve the enemy. These organizations operate in the absence of Islam and its estrangement among its people. The Islamic peoples should perform their role in confronting the conspiracies of these saboteurs. The day Islam is in control of guiding the affairs of life, these organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated.

In any case, this is a very important moment because it is the moment, historically, wherein the European Union is openly welcoming Hamas into their network. They may see a good strategy in poo-pooing the move but we need to be vigilant concerning the meanings of such diplomatic gestures and we must not be afraid to get into their faces about this kind of thing.

The EU can befriend Hamas or it can befriend the Jews, but it certainly cannot befriend both.

Oh, and by the way, this is Hamas' opinion of the Jews:

With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.

Again with the Freemasons!

One of my dearest friends from college is 33 degree Master Mason of Irish descent and I am pretty sure that he is not running around sabotaging societies, nor doing anything for "Zionist interests." In fact, I am pretty sure that what they mainly do is business networking and community / charitable efforts.

But, who knows?

Maybe the EU is right to side with Hamas over the Jews. They may lose their Freemasonic constituency - to the extent that their is any such creature - but why should they care? I feel reasonably certain in asserting the idea that the Freemasonic Lodge, whatever its past glories, no longer plays much of a role in European politics.

But, then, neither do the Jews.

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.

Fact checking and Arab media do not exactly go together:

A Palestinian man from the northern West Bank has said that a group of Jewish settlers attempted to kidnap his four-year-old son from a parked car on Friday evening.

Majd Asous told Ma'an that he left his four-year-old son Nadim in a parked car outside a store in the village of Huwwara south of Nablus when a group of Israeli settlers ina red Subaru approached the boy.

Asous said that the settlers approached the car and grabbed the boy, but they fled the area after the child started screaming.

The father added that following the incident he followed the settlers' car, which then entered the Jewish-only settlement of Bracha near the village of Burin.

Asous was unable to follow the vehicle into the settlement as access is forbidden for non-Jews.

The boy was subsequently taken to a hospital to be treated for trauma.

So on Friday evening (which must have been close to or after sunset, since sunset in Israel this time of year is about 4:35) a Palestinian Arab man left his four year old son alone in his car while he went shopping. Settlers from a religious community decided to ignore Sabbath because they really wanted to kidnap some random child that they were cruising around hoping to find instead of the usual Shabbat activities. Their plans were foiled by the courageous kid, but they ducked into their settlement before they could be caught. The man apparently didn't bother to go to either Palestinian or Israeli police to file a complaint, nor did he tell the guard at the settlement gate that the people he just let in were would-be kidnappers. .

Sure, this all adds up.

Given that Ma'an will publish the most absurd accusations without doing the slightest verification, people who want their 15 minutes of fame know where to go.

There was a real kidnapping in Hebron on Thursday night, but no Jews were accused of it so it really was not worth reporting in English.

Lies about medical care in the territories under Israel debunked in new paper

A new article in the Fathom Journal by Dr. David Stone, Emeritus Professor of Pediatric Epidemiology at the University of Glasgow, methodically takes apart the continuous allegations of the Lancet that Israeli actions has caused sub-par medical care in the territories. Excerpts:

The incendiary claim that Israel has deliberately damaged the health of the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is not evidence-based, argues Dr. David Stone. In fact, the opposite is true: the health of the Palestinians has improved steadily since 1967. Stone maps a cluster of changes – in demography, crude death rates, life expectancy, infant mortality, as well as maternal, perinatal, under-five mortality, immunisation coverage, nutrition and infant growth patterns, primary and secondary health care, and the Israeli influence on ‘the causes of the causes’ of ill health (housing, water, education, employment) – to show that Israeli policies have brought about measurable improvements in Palestinian health and welfare. This was achieved, in the face of formidable obstacles, by a variety of means including an outstanding child immunization programme, the launching of need-responsive innovations in primary care (crucially including maternal and child health services), a large hospital development programme, collaborative modes of working with Palestinian professionals, UNRWA and NGOs, and – arguably even more important – providing high quality training for doctors, nurses and other health providers in Israeli institutions thereby bringing modern standards to anaesthesia, renal dialysis, cardiac surgery and many other critically important fields.

A recurrent assertion is that Israel deliberately impeded or neglected the healthcare system, basic infrastructure and economic development during the period of its administration of WB/G between 1967 and 1994.

Among the claimed adverse effects of these (alleged) policies are counted the substantial and widening gaps between the health of Israelis (or at least Israeli Jews) and Palestinians living in WB/G during and even beyond the period of Israeli rule. In recent years, this narrative, once virtually confined to Palestinian and Arab sources, has been endorsed, reiterated and elaborated by several respected international UK-based medical journals, most notably The Lancet.

Here is just a small sample of the accusations:

Between 1967 and 1993, health services for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory were neglected and starved of funds by the Israeli military administration, with shortages of staff, hospital beds, medications, and essential and specialised services, forcing Palestinians to depend on health services in Israel. (Rita Giacaman et al, Lancet 2009.)

The people of the Palestinian territory matter, most importantly, because their lives and communities are continuing to experience an occupation that has produced chronic de-development for nearly 4 million people over many decades. (Richard Horton, Lancet, 2009.)

Following the June war of 1967, Israel was required by international law to assume responsibility for health services in the newly occupied West Bank and Gaza. Between then and 1993, health services in the occupied Palestinian territory were starved of funds and there were shortages of staff, hospital beds, medication and essential specialised services, while responsibility for healthcare passed from the Israeli Ministry of Health to the military government and then to the Israeli Civil Administration, under the Ministry of Defence. During that time, Israel aimed only to maintain standards of public health and did not attempt to build services beyond primary care. (Aimee Shalan, Spectator, 2013.)

The evidence presented in this paper overwhelmingly points to a clear answer to the question posed in the title – Israel has not damaged Palestinian health. In fact, the opposite is the case. Israeli policies were carefully formulated to improve health conditions in WB/G as rapidly as possible. These policies were carried through to implementation on the ground and brought about measurable improvements in Palestinian health and welfare....The data presented here, for all their shortcomings, permit the following six conclusions to be drawn:

1. Palestinians residing in WB/G generally suffer poorer health than their Israeli neighbours but enjoy better health than many Arab states.

2. Since 1967, following the cessation of hostilities between Israel and several Arab states and the establishment of an Israeli civil administration in WB/G, the health of Palestinians improved markedly.

3. 3. Given the low baseline, especially in Gaza, which suffered serious Egyptian neglect from 1948 to 1967, improvements in Palestinian health and healthcare could not have occurred by chance but were a consequence of health-promoting Israeli policies and activities closely coordinated with local and international partners, including UNRWA.

4. Subsequent to the assumption of full responsibility for health by the PA in 1994 in the context of the Oslo Accords, many of the public health initiatives undertaken by Israel since 1967 were continued

5. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many of Israel’s critics – including distinguished doctors, scientists, politicians and NGO officials – continue to lay most or all of the blame for contemporary Palestinian health problems and related disadvantages exclusively or predominantly at the door of Israel and the occupation.

6. The politicisation of health by Israel’s enemies is not a new phenomenon. It is manifested in UN agencies, the media, medical journals, academic conferences and research reports published by humanitarian or medical NGOs purporting to promote universal human rights.

Three examples of the politicisation in the health arena are especially egregious.

First, the banishment of Israel into a separate ‘Committee B’ of the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region in 1951, at the behest of the Arab League, was a cynical move designed to isolate Israel further from her immediate neighbours. (In exasperation, Israel eventually accepted membership, despite its obvious geographical absurdity, into the European Region of WHO).

Second, for over half a century of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies refused either to admit Israel to its ranks or to recognise her Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) as the symbol of its emergency medicine organisation. This policy was justified on the spurious grounds that the Star of David was a ‘religious’ symbol – despite the Christian Red Cross and Muslim Red Crescent being granted recognition without challenge.

Third, several medical NGOs have exploited the ‘double halo effect’ (humanitarianism plus health) to attack Israel unfairly for its allegedly health-destructive behaviour towards the Palestinians. Many of these NGOs launched a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel at a notorious anti-racism conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, at which Israel was denounced as an allegedly ‘apartheid state’ and anti-Semitism was openly on display. The Lancet’s relentless pillorying of Israel, in the guise of promoting Palestinian health and welfare, resonates strongly with the Durban strategy and should be viewed in the light of that unsavoury enterprise.

(h/t Irene)

12/20 Links: illridewithyou Hashtag Hypocrisy; IDF aircraft strike Gaza following earlier rocket fire

From Ian:

#illridewithyou Hashtag Hypocrisy

In December last year, a gang assaulted 5 Jewish people as they were walking home from a Shabbat dinner. Not only were some of the victims injured, but the trauma of the event would have made them very wary of venturing out at night again.
In August this year, six drunken teenagers boarded a school bus taking children from 2 Jewish schools, hurling anti-Semitic abuse and threatening to cut the throats of its young passengers, some as young as 6 or 7. This incident would have been absolutely terrifying for the young victims.
Both these events happened in Sydney and were racist to the core; yet I can’t remember anyone from the Greens/Left rushing to accompany Jews walking home on Shabbat; there was no #illwalkwithyou campaign to make the Jews feel safe on the streets of Sydney. Similarly, the Greens didn’t offer an #illridewithyou gesture to the poor frightened Jewish kids.
If the Greens were really the compassionate and anti-racist party they claim to be, they wouldn’t be supporting the racist BDS movement, but would show empathy for Israel, the victims of a vicious jihad by Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups. In fact, their hashtag would read #illridewithjews
But don’t expect to see this any time soon!

Amb. Roet addresses UNSC on Threats to International Peace & Security

IDF aircraft strike Gaza following earlier rocket fire

The IDF struck a site belonging to Hamas in southern Gaza near Khan Yunis early Saturday morning, following an earlier rocket attack from Gaza into Israel on Friday afternoon, which exploded in open territory near the Eshkol Regional Council.
The reports are of at least two strikes by the Israel Air Force, which was reportedly assisted by the Israel Navy.
The Palestinian Interior Ministry tweeted that a medical source confirmed there were no injures resulting from the strike.
The IDF Spokesperson's unit said in a statement, "The IDF struck terror infrastructure belonging to the terrorist organization Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip. A direct hit was identified."
The IDF says the strike was in response to earlier rocket fire into Israel on Friday afternoon.
"The IDF will not allow any attempts to hurt the safety of Israel's civilians. The Hamas terrorist organization is the address, and they bear responsibility," said the IDF Spokesperson's Unit statement.

Hamas threatens retaliation following Israeli airstrikes

Hamas Prime Minister in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh said that the Israeli airstrikes constitute “a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
“We will protect and guard the resistance’s victory in the last conflict,” he said. “We call on Egypt as the guarantor of the agreement to act and stop the violations by the enemy.”
Another senior Hamas member said Saturday that “the resistance [as Hamas calls itself] has the right to respond to Israeli aggression at the time and place of its choosing.”
Ismail al-Ashqar warned that Israeli action “against Palestinian fishermen and agriculture workers [was] a dangerous escalation.”

Missile from Gaza not news for the BBC but Israeli response gets headlines

On the morning of December 19th a missile fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Eshkol region of the Western Negev in the third such incident since the ceasefire in late August which brought the fifty-day summer conflict between Israel and Gaza-based terrorist organisations to a close. Like those previous incidents of missile fire, this one too was not reported by the BBC at the time.
During the night between December 19th and 20th, the Israeli air-force launched a retaliatory strike against a Hamas military installation near Khan Yunis. That event was considered news by the BBC.