As I've done for a couple of years, I'm trying to post a Chanukah-themed music video for every night of the holiday, using only new videos.
The Maccabeats of course must be included.
Tonight's bonus video: Boys Town Jerusalem Chanukah
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
QudsN is a Palestinian newspaper that on Friday warned Arabs about the impending holiday of Chanukah. It mentions that Jews have lots of holidays sprinkled throughout the year and that they use them all to Judaize Jerusalem. For example, on Chanukah they project Jewish images onto walls!
Awful!
I thought this part of the article was interesting. They reproduced a poster from a Temple Mount group:
It says "Did you know? The Temple Mount is more important than its Western Wall!" ....Ascend to the Temple Mount, the Heart of Israel."
This drove the newspaper crazy. They said that the poster "shows that the importance of storming Al-Aqsa mosque, more important than to pray in front of the Wailing Wall during the holiday, so as to incite the settlers to break into the Al-Aqsa."
Yes, mentioning the importance of the holiest site in Judaism is "inciting settlers to break into Al Aqsa."
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
A trip to Jerusalem by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1994 illustrates some of the difficulties. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and Prince Phillip went to visit her grave.
The princess is revered in Israel because she opened the doors of her Athens palace to a Jewish family seeking refuge from the Nazis during the Second World War. She is counted as one of the "Righteous Among Nations", an Israeli title given to those who saved Jews from Nazi death camps. Today, she is honoured at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial alongside Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who rescued hundreds of Jews and inspired the film Schindler’s List. But despite Israel’s warm feelings towards his mother, Buckingham Palace said the Duke’s visit was private and he was not there in an official capacity.
The contorted explanation mirrors Jerusalem’s own tortured geography. The Mount of Olives is in the eastern side of the city, which Israel captured in 1967. Israel claims East Jerusalem as part of its “complete and united” capital, but Britain considers the area to be occupied territory.
Any Royal visit would also have to be balanced by meetings with the Palestinian Authority, which brings a new set of sensitivities. Boris Johnson discovered the possible pitfalls last month when he was forced to cancel meetings in the West Bank after angering Palestinians by denouncing calls for a boycott of Israeli goods. Some Israelis have long believed that the Foreign Office blocks any Royal visits because of its supposed domination by Arabist diplomats.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been targeting American Reggae musician Matisyahu because he is Jewish and refuses to denounce Israel.
In the summer of 2015 an international firestorm of controversy erupted after BDS succeeded in getting Matisyahu banned at the Spanish Rototom Reggae festival. The ban was reversed only after an international outcry, including denunciations by the Spanish government and a leading Spanish newspaper that the action amounted to religious discrimination.
So when Matisyahu booked an appearance in Ithaca, NY, as part of his world tour, it was not long before the local BDS crowd, including our own BDS “star,” sought a boycott of the event and planned a protest.
But it didn’t work.
There was a substantial backlash in favor of artistic freedom. Ithaca resident Linda Glaser wrote a powerful op-ed in The Ithaca Journal, Let Jewish artist perform in Ithaca: Artistic freedom is the right of every American, as it is based on the First Amendment right of freedom of speech. The Ithaca Coalition for Unity and Cooperation in the Middle East (ICU-CME) supports the right of American musician Matisyahu to perform and to be heard free from intimidation at the State Theatre of Ithaca. Untrue statements are being spread by the Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine about Matisyahu to justify their discrimination against him. Because he is a prominent Jewish artist who refuses to take an anti-Zionist position, BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) supporters around the world are attempting to block his cultural and artistic expression.
As Matisyahu has said, “I have always believed in the power of music to unite all people, regardless of religion, politics or geography.”
We urge the Ithaca community to stand for artistic freedom and reject the boycott of American musician Matisyahu. I attended the concert last night, and it was great.
In addition, Israel has to remain in control in the villages and surrounding areas of Judea and Samaria in order to prevent the formation of a terrorist contiguity uniting the discrete city-emirates, butIsrael can then offer citizenship to the residents of these villages who make up only about 10% of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria. The other 90% can stay in their independently run city-states. These are the broad parameters of a program based on the "partner" to be found in each city-emirate, the natural, traditional leadership of the large clans in each city. Israel must negotiate with each emirate and reach an agreement with each one on the issues of electricity, water, waste, roads, industry, agriculture, traffic, security, the use of ports and airspace, and the boundary lines of each. If the emirates wish to form a federation, so be it. That doesn't pose a problem as long as their territories are not allowed to be contiguous.
The PLO, the organization that runs the Palestinian Authority, never agreed to the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state, and is therefore not a partner for peace. Israel, however, has a partner in each Judea and Samaria city. Israel must bring about the collapse of the PLO and PA, the two entities preventing a lasting peace agreement with the residents of Judea and Samaria, who will then be able to establish thriving emirates on the lines of Dubai, if not even better. The PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad want only wars, death and destruction, while peace between Israel and the Emirates will lead to growth and prosperity.
As with the Klan they feel it necessary to wear masks.
They are worse than Night Riders because they feel free to carry out their violence in the daytime because they know they have Arab-Palestinian society, ascreated by Yassir Arafat and the PLO, behind them... as well as the Western-Left.
A recent Watan Research Center poll, conducted between November 14 and the 21st of this year, reveals that 72 percent of Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza favor the Stabbing Intifada.
This is to say that 72 percent of Arabs who live within the Land of Israel believe that they have a religious-political imperative to send their kids into the streets with kitchen knives for the Allah-inspired purpose of murdering random Jews.
It does not matter the age of those Jews; a woman in her 80s, a child in her crib, it does not matter. Nor does it matter the personal beliefs of thoseJews. All that matters is that, if you are to kill them - and you are, young Achmud - that they be Jewish. Even Palestinian-Arab Jihadis do not necessarily have a particular desire to murder Tibetan-Buddhist care-takers , after all.
{But, who knows, really?}
Still another way of gaining perspective on this 72% figure is to understand that it also means that 72% of Arabs within Israel yearn for the genocide of theJews. It can mean nothing else. If you believe that Allah wants you to send your children into the streets for the purpose of killing Jews then, ipso facto, you favor the genocide of the Jews.
There is no way to escape from that conclusion, now, is there?
Referencing a recent poll of Arabs within Israel, Dalit Halevy, writing in Israel National News, tells us:
A full 72% said they support continuing the "Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Intifada," as it has been termed, until it achieves its "goals," which they were later asked to define.
No less than 44% of the Arab public expressed support for an armed intifada terror war using guns, 18% gave support to stabbing attacks, and 14% supported attacks throwing rocks at Israelis.
The goal of the intifada terror war according to 48% of the Arabs is the "liberation of Palestine," indicating the conquest and occupation of all of Israel.
This is not a border dispute.
The War of the Filthy-Footed
This is a theocratic war waged by a much larger, hostile Arab-Muslim majority inthe Middle East against a much smaller besieged filthy-footed Jewish minority endeavoring to survive and thrive.
The only reason that tiny bit of land on the edge of the Mediterranean is important to the Arab world is because Jewish people currently hold sovereignty over our ancestral homeland. Unfortunately, it is hard-coded into Islam that Muslims have a theological imperative to maintain sovereignty over any bit of land - including Spain - that at any time was taken from the "infidels" by Muhammad's soldiers.
Thus Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land is considered an abomination before the eyes of Allah and an indignity to the Prophet Muhammad... Peace Be Unto Him.
You can be sure, considering Israel's technological and medical contributions tothe world community, that if Israel represented a 23rd Arab-Muslim country it would be considered a "light unto the nations."
When Israel was under Ottoman rule, Jerusalem was a backwater. The al-Aqsamosque had no gold plating. The place was essentially a ruin and nobody spoke of it as the third holiest anything to anyone. The Jews, being indigenous to the region, have lived on that land for something close to four thousand years.
The Jewish people are the closest thing that the Land of Israel has to an indigenous population. It is true that other peoples have lived on that land prior to the Israelites, but unless there is a wondering band of Jebusites out there someplace then the land from the river to the sea is the land of Jewish sovereignty.
His argument is that the enemy is attacking the Jews in Israel via a dual strategy of "micro" attacks and "macro" attacks. The micro attacks represent things like the cute blonde child, who the Elder has dubbed "ShirleyTemper" - part of the vaguely annoying Tamimi clan - that they send out to shake her little fist at Jewish soldiers.
Here is a video from 2012:
As you can see, the Arabic press is there to broadcast any Israeli Jewish push-back as aggression.
The purpose is to induce an IDF response which can then be transmitted around the world via a sympathetic news media in Europe and the United States. The purpose of demonizing Israel is to soften it for its eventual dissolution.
If that were to happen the genocide of half the world's Jewish population - amazingly enough about 6 million people (there is that number again) - would diein Holocaust Version II, the Arab-Muslim variety that the Mufti hoped to accomplish with the victory of Nazi Germany over the Allies during World War II.
The macro strategy is to attack Israel in a military fashion with rocket-fire from Gaza in order to intimidate the southern Israeli population, particularly the towns of S'derot and Ashkelon, and then appeal to the world community for mercy from Israeli aggression when the Jews - after years of such attacks - finally respond.
It is pathetic, but effective, given western multiculturalism and failure of self-esteem.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Last week I wrote about Dr Gamal Abdel Nasser Mohammed Abu Nahel, head of the Palestinian Commission for Refugees Rights Protection which has been funded and/or supported by USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the UN Development Program and others. He regularly meets with delegations from around the world, most recently with people from Japan and Malaysia.
I noted his essay, promoted on the Facebook page of his NGO, that called Jews "the largest and most despicable gang in the world."
This may be the most hateful antisemitic article I have ever seen from the Arab world.
And the writer is respected by Western NGOs who continue to fund him!
Excerpts:
The Quran tells us that there is a people that are the kings of terror, it is their habit to kill, oppress, tyrannize and betray. They are still the top criminals in the world after centuries. They are the Jews, the Sons of Israel.
You Jews think that you are Allah’s Chosen people and you are above everybody else and everybody else should be your servants, and their souls are evil souls.
Yet Allah said in the Koran about you (Quran 3:21): "Those who disbelieve in the signs of Allah and kill the prophets without right and kill those who order justice from among the people - give them tidings of a painful punishment."
We are not surprised that you deem the innocent blood of women, children of non-Jews, especially Palestinians, free prey. The ancient and modern Zionist terrorists wrote the Torah and claimed it was God’s words.
Because you Jews falsify Allah’s words, curses came down upon you. You claim that Hitler burnt you and that Pharaoh killed your children. Now you are doing even worse things to Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians, committing war crimes.
Oh Jews, you are the criminal gang of Netanyahu and Lieberman, you gang of plunderer settlers, you are the last colonialist, criminal, terrorist, fascist, Nazi, Pharaonic, Hitlerite occupation that modern human history knows.
You extremist, criminal, plunderer settler Jews, you lowly, despicable gang, we say to you that Allah told us that He would enable us to get to your necks and torture you, and this will last till Judgment Day. You are gathering in Palestine so that it becomes your graveyard. You came here as plundering occupiers so that Palestine will become the place of your slaughter, humiliation, and the Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians will lie in ambush for you, make you pay the jizya and kill you.
It says in the Quran, 7:164-167: "And when a community among them said, 'Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?' they [the advisors] said, 'To be absolved before your Lord and perhaps they may fear Him.' And when they forgot that by which they had been reminded, We saved those who had forbidden evil and seized those who wronged, with a wretched punishment, because they were defiantly disobeying. So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, 'Be apes, despised and hated.' And [mention] when your Lord declared that He would surely [continue to] send upon them until the Day of Resurrection those who would afflict them with the worst torment. Indeed, your Lord is swift in penalty; but indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful.
[In other words, Allah will send against the Sons of Israel a tribe of Arabs that will torture them terribly until the Day of Judgment.]
Oh plundering, occupying, criminal, terrorist killer Jews, we the Palestinians are your fate in this holy and blessed land. Allah bestowed an honor upon us by giving us this land in order to be the vanguard of jihad, resistance and struggle in order to protect the honor of the Arab and Muslim umma (nation). Despite the bloodshed, the great and honorable Palestinian mother will keep receiving news of the martyrdom of her son and his ascent to Paradise with ululation. As for you, plunderer, cheater, criminal, pharaonic, worshippers of the Cow and the Calf, oh Zionists, your fate will be to be thrown to the garbage bin of history.
This respected NGO leader excretes bile like this weekly, all linked from the PCRP's official Facebook page. For example, this recent article says Jews are "herds of rapist pigs, the Jews are descendants of monkeys and pigs."
It never ceases to amaze me how such explicit bigotry is condoned by the world that continues to not only ignore but actually fund this hate.
Write to the NED, USAIDAnna Lindh and UNDP and ask them point blank why they support this Jew-hatred, ask them to explicitly condemn Dr. Mahel both in the email and on their webpages, and ask them to specify exactly what they plan to do to ensure that their grantees don't act unacceptably now and in the future. Stress that if they really care about peace, then they must be vocal about such incitement to hatred, or else they appear to be condoning it.
NGOs are very sensitive to things like this going public, even though they will try to sweep it under the rug. Some will try to say that they haven't funded PCRP recently so they are blameless. The answer is that whether they like it or not, they are associated with the group because of their past support and as such it is their responsibility to use their influence to get PCRP to fire Dr. Nahel and condemn his hate - if they really care about peace. Pretending that Arab antisemitism is somehow understandable is not an acceptable response, and if they aren't angry about this, then they are part of the problem.
Only a few polite emails will make a huge difference. Send any responses to me so we can get more pressure going to stop this hate and incitement.
And when you get just one of these funders to publicly denounce this Jew-hatred, then the media will notice, and the PCRP will be forced to either double-down on the hate or try to explain it away.
Here is where you, today, can make a difference.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Did he speak of hope and peace and goodwill towards men? A little, but only to push his main point of blaming everything on Israel. It was just another speech telling Palestinians that they have no responsibilities and Israel is evil.
Even the sentences that began with praise for peace and love and tolerance included hate for Israel.
Excerpts:
From the land of Palestine, which has long been home to the coexistence of human beings, religions and cultures, and their children taught the values of tolerance embodied by Jesus, the messenger of love, ...we bring the message that, in Palestine, people yearn to live in freedom and peace, and that the time has come to unite the world, to lift the historical injustice done to them, ..nd it is time for the implementation of UN resolutions on Palestine, and end the Israeli occupation.
As in every year, Palestine is celebrating the glorious festivals, while is reeling from the injustice of the Israeli occupation, and experiencing a serious Israeli escalation, with the intent of murder and torture, and holding the bodies of the martyrs. [Palestine] is facing the worst deportation schemes and forced displacement, turning towns and villages and towns into ghetto, and the destruction of their houses and confiscation of their land and violation of holy places. {Israel] prevents worshipers, Christians and Muslims alike, to have access to their churches, mosques, and the practice of worship and religious beliefs.
As we light a holiday Christmas tree, we remind the world that the city of Bethlehem represents the story of the Palestinian people and their history and their struggle. Despite our wounds and general pain and suffering and tyranny we remain steadfast, and we are still vibrant with joy despite the walls and settlements which encircle us, and Israel is trying to stifle hope and to confiscate the necessities of life from us. We hope the valued guests here will be ambassadors of the truth, and to relay to their countries and their governments how much sorrow and injustice that they have seen, and how much resilience and hope the people of Palestine have.
This is a celebration of the life of Jesus Christ and his values of peace and love, but bearing tidings of freedom and dignity, the achievement of the aspirations of our people's legitimate right to freedom and independence, in the full removal of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of full sovereignty on the 1967 borders of an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem, our eternal capital.
The speech was just more proof that Palestinians define themselves in terms of Jews, not as independent people.
The bolded sentence shows that the entire point of the Christmas tree lighting is anti-Israel propaganda. Bethlehem is being set up by the PA not as a place for pilgrimage but as another opportunity to get the world to hate Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Bernard-Henri Lévy, French intellectual and author sat down in the i24news studios Monday night to discuss his new book, "The Genius of Judaism."
Lévy, the famous philosopher who has been named on a list of the world's 50 most influential Jews as well as "perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today" will see his latest book published in France and the United States in February 2016.
He is in Israel to promote his latest book and will read excerpts of it this upcoming Wednesday December 2nd at the Tel Aviv Museum during which he will also pay tribute to the victims of the deadly terror attacks claimed by the Islamic State in the French capital of Paris where 130 people lost their lives. Lévy told i24news that he decided to promote his book in Tel Aviv so shortly after the attacks because he was "revolted" by the way that the world treats similar attacks in Israel as if "it was basically normal."
While the entire world expressed their outrage following the "terrible attacks" which struck Paris, they have not done so for terror attacks in Israel, and that, he said, "revolted me. This is my way to express this revolt." Lévy also spoke about IS, saying that Islamism is the "third fascism of our time. It obeys the same law. Now what do I mean by that? I mean that it is the third attack on civilization. First we had Nazism, then came communism, and now today we have Islamism which attacks all the values which we stand for."
The
day of remembrance for Jews expelled from Arab countries - the Jewish
Nakba - passed with barely a whisper. On the other hand the Palestinian
Nakba gets showered with attention. Why? The answer might have
something to do with the Breaking the Silence organization, and the far
left's tendency to distort history.
November 30, which was this
week, was declared the day of remembrance for the banishment and
expulsion of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The Jewish Nakba.
Aside from a conference at Bar-Ilan University, the subject echoed very
faintly through Israel. Part of our elite is busy with another Nakba,
which they celebrate again and again: the Palestinian one. They even
organized another festival of Nakba films, produced by organizations or
people who nurture the fantasy that is the right of return.
When
someone attempts to wonder out loud about this injustice, the crocodile
tears appear, along with complaints of silencing voices and other
assorted goods. Silencing voices? The Palestinian Nakba receives the
greatest marketing, in Israel and around the world. The first half of
the 20th century saw between 52 and 60 million people go through the
experience of forced relocation, most of them in the 1940s after World
War Two, for the purpose of building nations. Because that was the norm in those days. It went well with the right of self-determination. And
of all of the dozens of cases of population switches, only the Arabs,
who later became the Palestinians, receive this grand commemoration.
There are thousands of publications in their name and in their honor.
Entire shelves in every university. Departments and cathedrals in almost
every university in the world, all to celebrate and glorify their
suffering and victimhood. And Israeli film festivals as well.
Ilan Pappe's "Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine": A Hoax Revealed (h/t Daphne Anson)
US Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Saturday that the current trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were leading to a one-state solution, and said Israel would not be able to maintain its Jewish and democratic nature in such a reality.
Speaking at the Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, Kerry also warned Israel about the dangers of the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority. He said such an event would lead to a situation that would threaten the security of both Israel and the Palestinian people.
Kerry excoriated Israeli building in Area C of the West Bank as increasing Palestinian disillusionment and distancing the prospects for a two-state solution. In pointed remarks, Kerry called out Israeli government ministers who have voiced skepticism toward a two-state solution.
“The status quo is simply not sustainable and the fact of the matter is that current trends, including violence, settlement activity, demolitions, are imperiling the viability of a two-state solution,” Kerry warned. “And that trend has to be reversed to prevent this untenable one-state reality from taking hold.”
Kerry spent quite a bit of time describing how terrible it would be to Israel for a one-state solution where Israel would be forced to have a large number of Palestinian Arabs living as second-class citizens.
After spending some six minutes on that argument, Kerry then claimed that demolitions and settlement building are what is stopping the two-state solution. (He threw in "violence," I suppose, to be even-handed.)
He didn't say that the demolitions are for illegally built buildings. He didn't say that essentially all new building was within existing settlement boundaries. He claimed, falsely, that "settlement outposts are regularly being legalized." That has happened exactly three times in 24 years.
He stressed that 60% of the West Bank is in Area C. What he didn't say is that about 98% of Palestinians live in Areas A and B.
This was a speech filled with similar half-truths and omissions, that could have been written by Jeremy Ben Ami.
Kerry's main argument was "It is not a concession to be doing things that make you safer and broaden the political space to make choices, and to begin to give justice and a sense of rectitude to agreements that have been signed. And if everybody keeps waiting for the other person to move first, the risk is the situation spirals downwards and it makes it harder to ever be that first person to move."
It is astonishingly condescending to say that demolishing Jewish communities in the heart of the ancient Jewish homeland is not a concession.
It is astonishingly condescending to ignore - completely - Israel's attempts to offer a peace agreement. Every one of those offers would have created a Palestinian state and every one of those offers would have made Kerry's linchpin straw man argument against a "one state solution" moot.
It is astonishingly condescending to insist that Israel alone must make concrete, irreversible concessions, while the only concessions that Palestinians are expected to make are to stop incitement and violence. You know - to act like normal human beings. (Luckily, Kerry didn't call those concessions, but he certainly didn't detail any other concessions he expects Palestinians to make.)
The only side standing in the way of a two state solution are the Palestinians. Their insistence on 100% of the area (or equivalent) outside arbitrary 1949 armistice lines is arbitrary and not necessary for a viable state. Their insistence on Jerusalem being their capital is equally arbitrary and and not necessary for a viable state.
If they wanted a state, they could have one. It would be smaller than their demands. Why is that a deal-breaker?
But their words and deeds since the PLO was founded have been consistently geared not towards creating a state but towards destroying one. Just ask Abbas if he is willing to compromise on the "right of return," which he says in every single speech is just as important to them as Jerusalem and the Green Line.
Yet when has any American leader said these obvious facts out loud? On the contrary, their arbitrary and unreasonable demands have become sacred, except for "right of return" which is ignored as if they aren't serious. Ask the Arab nations that have refused to allow Palestinians to become naturalized what their plans are for them.
No, the Palestinian demands for the Green Line and Jerusalem and no Jews within their borders are considered to be inviolable, and only Israel must make concessions. Not only that, those concessions are being characterized as necessary because of the intransigence of Palestinian leadership to seriously entertain a real compromise.
And why should they? They have Kerry making their case for them!
Kerry made the politically correct noise about Palestinian terror and incitement. But given the venue of the speech, the audience, and the news coverage, it is clear that the administration wants only one side to make concessions.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is complicated, and would be even without the bad faith that is the region’s chief export. Many elements in the conflict go back to the 1930s, and are layered one atop the other, making peace impossible and even cease-fire difficult. The European elites and the blind left in the United States argue that the mere Israeli presence on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem is a form of violence. No one can ignore the constant interplay between the Israeli military power, which maintains its presence there, and the Palestinian population. Many Palestinians, who dare not say so, welcome the security these Israeli forces offer. They can see the alternative, of descent into the chaos in nearby Muslim countries, close at hand.
The outbreak of knife attacks during the Jewish High Holidays this fall, often against civilians and sometimes against the wrong brand of Muslim, was clearly terrorism by the Palestinians. The fact that the knife fighters are often adolescents, schooled from infancy to hate Jews, in schools sponsored by the United Nations, is particularly reprehensible.
The Israelis are usually accused of using “excessive force.” The bare statistics are used as an argument that, since more Palestinians die than Israelis, it’s obvious that the Israelis are the aggressors. But self-defense often results in “collateral damage,” and whose fault is that? Presenting these episodes by identifying the Palestinian dead as victims — as is done often in the international media — distorts reality. The London Guardian, which is reliably left-wing, reported the death of a Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli guard under a typical headline: “Palestinian shot dead at Damascus gate in Jerusalem after stabbing Israeli guard.” The severe wound the assailant inflicted on the guard was barely mentioned. A similar account in the London Daily Mail was only a little better: “Jerusalem’s streets run red with blood: Israeli police shoot dead man who stabbed border guard at Damascus Gate — the 99th Palestinian to die in latest wave of violence.” The attack on Pearl Harbor might have been headlined: “Americans slay two Jap pilots taking Sunday-morning flight over Pearl Harbor.”
Labor’s campaign for Muslim votes in western Sydney is corrupting its values - and betraying our own: Former foreign minister Bob Carr has lashed out at Israel, accusing the Jewish state of fabricating history and bribing Australian politicians, in an attack condemned by the Turnbull government.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hit back at Mr Carr’s tirade, describing his remarks as deeply unhelpful and provocative.
The one-time titan of the Labor Right let loose at a dinner in Sydney late last month at an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People function in a speech that has appeared online, accusing Israel of eliminating the Arab character of Jerusalem.
Mr Carr praised Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, the leader of the party’s so-called “watermelon” faction and an arch-foe of his old NSW Labor colleagues. “The people of Palestine are seeing street by street the character, the nomenclature, of Jerusalem being changed,” Mr Carr told the gathering. “The story of Jerusalem is now being fabricated. Judaising and eliminating the Arab character of this great Arab city is a shocking thing to take place.”
“I don’t want to be an icon,” says Shachar Rabinovitz. But in the space of a few days this week, the 13-year-old has already started to become a poster girl of sorts.
She’s siting on her sofa, shell-shocked at the international media frenzy that has taken place this week. On Sunday, she went to school, went to the dentist, returned to the northern Israel kibbutz Regavim where she lives, opened her emails, and then suddenly found herself propelled in to the news. To many, her experience this week sums up the case against the BDS movement. Over the weekend, she became the youngest ever subject of the academic boycott of Israel. A former Cambridge University academic, Marsha Levine, had written to Shachar refusing her request for information on horses because she is Israeli. “I’ll answer your questions when there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine,” Levine wrote, going on to add: “You might be a child, but if you are old enough to write to me, you are old enough to learn about Israeli history and how it has impacted on the lives of Palestinian people.” Shachar’s father posted the reply on Facebook, and it went viral. “When I saw the response I was speechless,” Shachar recalls, glancing at the old desktop computer where she saw the message as if to relive the moment. “I got upset. I don’t think an old and wise person needs to put her political opinions in an email to a 13-year-old who asks her about horses.”
An anti-Semitism watchdog organization in the United Kingdom has filed a complaint with the police against Marsha Levine, the British-American former Cambridge University professor who rebuffed a request for information from an Israeli schoolgirl, citing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. The Campaign Against Antisemitism filed the complaint with the Cambridgeshire Constabulary following the recent media storm that erupted when the mother of 13-year-old Shachar Rabinovitch posted a message on Facebook detailing Levine’s response to an email from her daughter.
Shachar, a horse enthusiast, had contacted Levine, an expert on the domestication and history of the animal, asking for information about breeding patterns and the use of horses by humans in ancient times.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 362.] Mr. Cobb to Mr. Mathews. City Of Fez, February 3, 1880
Dear Sir: I regret to state that a sad affair took place at this city just on my arrival, and I now beg to give an account as related to me by an eye-witness, and which has been corroborated by many respectable Moors and Jews during this day, which is as follows:
An Algerine Jew, strongly under the influence of liquor, walking near the Sultan's residence at the city of Fez, met a Moor with a woman; the Jew made an attempt to take the woman with him; the Moor retaliated by striking him; the Jew then drew a pistol and fired it off, not injuring any one; he was then set upon by a number of passers-by and severely beaten and taken off to prison; soon after, three Jews were passing by the Sultan's residence, when they were suddenly surprised by a party of Moors in a most violent manner; two of the Jews being young and strong made good their escape, but the victim, some eighty-five years old, was stopped; he inquired why ho was to be dealt with in this foul manner, assuring them that he was not aware he had committed any wrong; when they told him they wanted to show him about that, and immediately threw him down, saturated his clothes with petroleum, set fire to him, and there and then he was burned to death. A Moor of a most respectable appearance to-day informed me that he was an eye-witness to this operation.
Since which the authorities have asked the Jews to let the matter pass, offering $400 to the family of the deceased, and say no more about the affair. The Sultan liberated the French Jew who, during his state of intoxication, fired the pistol, without inflicting upon him any punishment whatever. After this affair the Jews all remained in their houses four days with barred doors, not daring to show their faces outside, under a terrible state of excitement, fearing death was to be dealt out to them all in the same cruel manner; but now they go out unmolested, otherwise than by occasional threats from Moors that soon the day will come when they will all share the fate of the aged victim.
From the Melah, where the Jews are quartered, to the house where I now reside, as you know, is a long walk, and many of them have come to lay their complaints before me, and, although the weather is cold for this country, the streets muddy, and very toughly paved, they all, rich and poor, male and female, come barefooted, assuring me that they would be murdered if they attempted to walk the streets of Fez otherwise; - which is truly a barbarously cruel state of affairs and should be noticed by the more civilized governments, and a matter which I believe could most easily be remedied.
You have no doubt, ere this, been made aware of the petroleum murder, but as these reports an they travel come in to yon so conflictingly. I give it to yon as I believe it actually occurred, and shall give yon further information if such appears. I have, &c,
JOHN COBB
When the US issued a complaint to the Sultan, he replied through his vizier with this flowerly letter:
Praise be to the only God! To our dear friend the judicious, the gentleman, the honorable mediator for the welfare between the two nations, the representative of the powerful American nation,
Mr. Felix A. Mathews:
We always inquire for you, and we pray to God for your preservation and welfare. We received your letter relative to the Jew that was burned, and we have taken note of all you have said and heard, and that His Majesty should take more care of his Jewish subjects, and that those that committed the crime were not punished, also that we should see that the Jews are well treated, &c. We have informed ourselves of all you have stated, which is all due to the good friendship which exists between us: and you also state that we must punish the aggressor, and you recommend us the safety of the persons and property of the Jews and that we should write to our governors so that they be well treated and that no injustice should be done to them.
We have read your letter to His Majesty the Sultan, who attentively took note of all its contents, and His Majesty recognizes and considers that your good advice emanated from the good friendship which you profess towards him, and His Majesty the Sultan ordains us to make known to you his acknowledgment, which we now do in his name.
You must be acquainted of the fact of the matter as we have been informed: that Moor of the suburbs of Fez came into the Yames Market in company with his wife to make purchases, and on returning in the afternoon the husband remained behind and she waited for him alone, when a French Jew appeared in her presence intoxicated, and the woman got frightened and called for help; her husband came up and pushed the Jew away, and the latter drew a pistol and wounded the Moor on the head, and afterwards threw stones at him; when those present arrested the Jew, who was imprisoned by the authorities. Soon after an old Jew made his appearance, insulting the government and menacing the people with an arm, then the crowd gathered, and it ended in his death and in his being burned.
From the foregoing you will observe that the fault rests on the Jews. His Majesty the Sultan was much annoyed when he was informed of what happened, and he gave orders for the arrest of some of those who were present, both of the country people as well as those of the city, but they could not make out who were the guilty parties and when the Jews became acquainted with the facts they came to an understanding, and the prisoners were set free, and the governor of Fez was deprived of his official position for being a man of little energy, and we appointed in his place Kaid El Arby Usef Urbah Mohamed Shergin.
The husband of the woman, who was wounded, died from the effects of the wounds inflicted on him by the Jew; and there was a settlement of the affair with the widow of the Jew who was burned, for the life of her husband, but there has been no settlement for the life of the Moor. You will thus see how well behaved are the people of Fez, which, if it had not been for those of good sense, we cannot imagine what would have taken place, as the populace never reflects upon consequences, therefore the Jews must behave well with the Moors.
You arc one of the oldest representatives in this happy empire, and you know what difference is in the present behavior of the Jews from what it was; and His Majesty, the protected by God, does not countenance injustices, and heeds what you advise us as to ordain our governors recommending the Jews. His Majesty the Sultan has issued strict orders on behalf of the Jews, and any one molesting them will be severely punished.
His majesty wishes you much happiness, and for friendship and peace.
The Sultan's vizier, protected by God,
MOHAMED BEN LAKBY EL MAJTAR.
According to the American witness, this letter is full of lies:
No. 509. Mr. Mathews to Mr. Evarts.
No. 302. United States Consulate At Tangier,
April 17,1880. (Received May 17.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 354, dated the 8th of March, I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a copy and translation of the reply to my letter addressed to the Sultan through his prime minister on the occasion of the recent persecution of the Jews of this empire.
From most reliable information on the subject of the burning of a Jew aged eighty-five, at Fez, the statement in the Sultan's prime minister's letter to me is incorrect. It is well known that no Barbary Jew would ever dare to even carry a walking stick at Fez; they are only allowed to use a reed as a cane to walk, and it must be of a certain length.
The well known timid character of all Moorish Jews who are obliged to walk barefooted and never permitted to ride any kind of an animal through the streets of Fez, makes it ludicrous to learn from a Sultan's minister that au old Jew, eighty-five years old, insulted and threatened a erowd of Moors at the fanatical city of Fez, when they are pent up in a ghetto, in constant fear of their lives. I have the most reliable evidence of the fact that no Moor died, nor even was wounded at the hands of a Jew, and that the story is a fabrication got up to extenuate the magnitude of the crime.
I herewith beg to inclose copy of a letter from Captain John Cobb, our consular agent at Casablanca, who happened to be at Fez at the time this affair took place (above).
I am happy to state that my letter to the Sultan has been productive of good in preventing thus far further ill-treatment on the Israelites, and it has been a source of satisfaction to the European Jews, who have expressed their gratitude and thanks to me through their various delegations, and through the press. I have, &c,
FELIX A. MATHEWS.
Mathews had earlier given a long description of life in Morocco. Here are some parts about Jewish life there:
The Jews, calculated in number to 200,000, descend for the most part from those who were exiled from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1496, and are, except those under foreign protection, persecuted, oppressed, hated, and degraded here more than in any other part of the world; they are even compelled to walk barefooted in the Moorish section of the cities, and with a handkerchief tied over their heads and chin to prevent the Moorish boys from tossing their caps in the air. My last address to the Sultan on their behalf has done much in the way of preventing, at least for the present, unprovoked personal ill-treatment. They exercise various arts and trades and display the ingenuity, pliability, and tenacity of their race, finding in the possession of money earned from their oppressors a recompense for all their woes.
...
Finally, here is a letter from the Jewish community of Morocco to the King of Spain, begging for help:
Exposition of the Grand Rabbi, the elders, and several Israelite! of high standing in the city of Tangier to Don Antonio Cdnocas del Castillo, prime minuter of His Majesty the King of Spain.
Most Excellent Sir:
Convinced of the high degree of humanity, impartiality, and justice which distinguish your excellency, we have the honor to expose through your excellency's worthy channel to the illustrious representatives which will form the diplomatic congress which in to take place in that court, that the object of the Hebrews of this empire in soliciting so earnestly the foreign protection has never been, nor is, to exempt themselves from the payment of taxes, as some of the newspapers have wished to conceive, but only to secure their lives and properties. Moreover, even the tax of capitation (Guezzia) [Jizya - EoZ] imposed exclusively to the Hebrews is religiously paid by those who are protected as well as by those who are not, and they would equally submit themselves to pay any other tax imposed on them by the Sultan's Government, should it be sanctioned by the representatives of foreign nations.
May God preserve your excellency for many years.
Tangier, April 1-2, l880.
Most excellent sir, yours, &c,
(113 signatures follow.)
They didn't seem to happy with how they were being treated by their Muslim overlords.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
How much lower will America sink before it regains its senses? Wednesday, two Muslims walked into a Christmas party at a community service center in San Bernardino, California where one worked. They were wearing body armor and video cameras and carrying automatic rifles, pipe bombs and pistols. They opened fire, killed 14, and wounded 17.
The murderers, Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik were killed by police.
Speaking to the Daily News, Farook’s father said his son, “was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He’s Muslim.”
Farook’s neighbor told the paper that over the past two years, Farook exchanged his Western dress for Islamic gowns and grew a beard. These data points lead naturally to the conclusion that Farook and his wife were jihadists who killed in order to kill in the name of Islam. But in America of December 2015, natural conclusions are considered irresponsible, at best.
In an interview with CNN following the shooting, US President Barack Obama said the massacre demonstrates that the US needs stricter gun laws. As for the motives of the shooters, Obama shrugged. “We don’t yet know the motives of the shooters,” he insisted.
So what Hamas is actually saying is: If the Palestinian Authority was able to steal large portions of land in the Gaza Strip in the past, there is no reason why Hamas too should not have a taste of the cake.
The Palestinian Authority and many Palestinians have expressed shock over Hamas's decision to compensate its employees with parcels of land. But besides strongly condemning the move by Hamas, Abbas and his lieutenants in Ramallah know that there is nothing they can do to prevent the land-grab.
The Palestinians are once again paying a heavy price for the continued power struggle between Fatah and Hamas and failed leadership -- both in the West bank and Gaza Strip. By stealing their people's land and distributing it among their followers, Hamas and Fatah are further undermining the Palestinian dream of establishing a proper state based on the principles of democracy, accountability, transparency and the rule of law.
Henry Kissinger recently asked an intriguing and politically incorrect question: With the state structure weakened in several Arab states and having collapsed in others, with Iran and Islamic State rising, and amid general instability in the Arab world, why create another potentially weak, dysfunctional Arab state in Palestine?
A decade or so ago, when I was a Middle East negotiator, even posing such a question would have been considered a hostile act among peace advocates or, worse, would have been seen as shilling for Israeli right-wingers and neoconservatives.
But amid so much disorder in the Middle East, it’s worth pondering–even if there are several reasons to be cautious or openly skeptical about the prospects:
Negative trend lines: In the Arab world, several states are melting down (Syria, Libya, Yemen); polities are run by authoritarian kings, emirs, or generals (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar); and a few, such as Tunisia, are struggling to reform. The region will be unstable for years to come, thanks to widespread dysfunction and/or plain bad governance, lack of respect for human rights, systemic corruption, and the absence representative institutions. Maybe a Palestinian polity would be different, being nudged up against Israel, the region’s only democratic state (however imperfect). But the challenges are enormous.
The commander of Islamic State forces in the Sinai is currently on what was intended to be a secret visit to the Gaza Strip, meeting with Hamas terror leaders to widen their cooperation and coordinate attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets, Israeli television reported Thursday.
Shadi al-Menei is meeting with leaders of the Hamas military wing, and discussing the ongoing supply of weapons sought by Hamas, the Channel 2 TV report said.
For its part, Hamas has smuggled weaponry from Gaza to al-Menei’s terror group in Sinai, including Cornet anti-tank missiles, which have caused heavy losses to Egypt, including considerable loss of life, at least one naval vessel and numerous tanks and armored personnel carriers, Channel 2 news said.
Al-Menei has also been responsible for occasional incidences of rocket fire from the Sinai on the Israeli southern resort town of Eilat, the TV report said.
The deepening cooperation between Hamas and al-Menei’s Islamic State hierarchy is infuriating to Egypt and “worrying for Israel,” the report added. It said that al-Menei was behind a 2011 terrorist attack in southern Israel in which four groups of terrorists targeted a bus and several Israeli army vehicles, killing six Israeli civilians, two members of the Israeli security forces and several Egyptian soldiers. Ten terrorists were killed.
Al-Menei was one of the founders of the Sinai terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which later joined Islamic State.
He was said by Egypt to have been killed in an ambush in May 2014, but the claim proved false.
Hamas “formally opposes” Islamic State,” the TV report noted, “but in practice they are cooperating.” The close interaction between Hamas and IS in Sinai is “one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the Hamas military wing in recent months,” The Times of Israel’s Avi Issacharoff reported in July.
The Channel 2 report apparently mentioned specifically that Hamas was supplying Daesh with Cornet missiles.
Egypt has been accusing Hamas of working together with the Sinai jihadists for years, even before they joined ISIS. Hamas has always strenuously denied this.
It is looking more and more like Hamas and the Islamic State are on the same side. Of course, outside Egypt and Israel, no one will say that out loud.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
A group of anti-Israel activists in the northern German city of Bremen on Saturday visited stores to ensure they marked their products as originating from Israeli settlements.
The Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) group stated in a press release: “With an ‘inspection tour’ on November 28 we want to examine which businesses are selling ‘products from Israel’ and to call upon them to comply with the EU labeling obligation.”
The activists, dressed in white overalls, visited downtown shops such as fruit stands and department stores in the German city of Bremen to enforce the rule. One spokesperson for the BDS group, Claus Walischewski, said the inspectors would guess which products were actually imported from beyond Israel’s 1967 lines because it is generally difficult to recognize products imported from Israel.
According to TAZ, the BDS group marked products on the shelves with notes that read, “Caution: The product could come from an illegal Israeli settlement.”
The photos show that the BDSers dressed as if they were health inspectors, trying to keep customers away from dangerous, contaminated Israeli products that might infect consumers with Jew-cooties.
The Liza's Welt blog notes that the leader of this action, which is arguably antisemitic, was Claus Walischewski.
Just more proof that Amnesty has long ago ceased being concerned with human rights and now is obsessed with demonizing Israel.
(h/t Vandoren)
UPDATE:
A complaint has been filed against against Walischewski. "The inspection of retail stores and the products therein is the sole responsibility of public authorities. The suspect, Claus Walischewski, and his accomplices (including, it is presumed, his wife, Doris Flack) are therefore charged with exercising a public office without authorisation and performing actions reserved for public officials by labelling goods that they considered to have originated in Israeli settlements."
(h/t Rab iBurns)
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq are using human shields to stop British RAF pilots killing them with drones operated from nearly 3,000 miles away, it can be revealed.
Barbaric militants are exploiting Western rules of engagement by travelling around the war-torn region with women and children or moving in civilian crowds so laser-guided Hellfire missiles are not fired to wipe them out.
New tactics mean high value targets on a British kill list may be watched by an 'unblinking eye in the sky' at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire for days on end waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Last week, RAF personnel seated behind screens from the comfort of a high-security hangar in either Lincolnshire or Nevada in the US took part in a US-led top secret mission to wipe out Jihadi John.
Although they did not fire the missiles that killed him - as they came from a US drone - they helped watch him for months until an opportunity came to strike him without injuring any civilians.
He was nearly killed twice before but on one opportunity he entered a crowded street and on the second he was deemed too close to women and children.
A defence source said: 'It is fairly obvious that the West prides itself on its strict adherence to international law and that is clear to anyone with common sense.
'It doesn't take rocket science for those who are medieval enough to exploit that and use women and children as human shields.'
As I wrote recently in light of the news that the US was also refusing to launch attacks unless there were no civilians around, this is an absurd and wholly incorrect interpretation of international law when dealing with high value targets.
The UK Laws of Armed Conflict Manual (2004), as amended in 2010, states:
[C]ivilian immunity does not make unlawful the unavoidable incidental civilian casualties and damage which may result from legitimate attacks upon military objectives, provided that the expected incidental casualties and damage are not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. This is the principle of proportionality.
As the ICRC documents, Great Britain has never had a policy of "no civilians killed" but rather that the target must be a military target and the damage to civilians not be excessive in proportion to the military advantage:
In 1991, in reply to a question in the House of Lords concerning the Gulf War, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence stated:
The Geneva Conventions contain no provisions expressly regulating targeting in armed conflict. The Hague Regulations of 1907 and customary international law do, however, incorporate the twin principles of distinction between military and civilian objects, and of proportionality so far as the risk of collateral civilian damage from an attack on a military objective is concerned. These principles and associated rules of international law were observed at all times by coalition forces in the planning and execution of attacks against Iraq
In 1993, in reply to questions in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons about the launching of “around 40 Cruise missiles by the Americans which resulted in the killing of innocent civilians in places like the Al Rashid Hotel”, the UK Minister of Foreign Affairs stated:
I do not believe the action was disproportionate. You know what it was aimed against; it was aimed against a plant that the Iraqis had themselves admitted was producing material for their nuclear programme … It seemed to me a proportionate target. It looks and sounds as if … one of the Cruise missiles went astray and killed innocent civilians in the Al Rashid Hotel. That clearly is to be deplored but I do not think the action as a whole can be regarded as disproportionate
In 2003, in reply to a written question in the House of Commons, the UK Secretary of State for Defence wrote:
The military campaign is crafted around the principle of minimum use of force. We attack only military objectives and combatants subject to the constraints of proportionality. If there is any expectation that harm will be caused to civilians, this must not be excessive when set against the direct and concrete military advantage anticipated from the attack.
But when discussing Israel in more recent operations, something funny happened. The British position changed from minimizing civilian casualties to avoiding civilian casualties:
In 2006, in a written answer to a question concerning, inter alia, “the implications under the Geneva Conventions of the targeting by Israel of civilian facilities and infrastructure in Gaza”, the UK Minister of State for the Middle East, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, stated:
We are opposed to the targeting of civilian facilities and call upon Israel to respect international law and, in particular, the requirement of proportionality and the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
In 2006, in a reply to a question in the House of Lords concerning “[w]hat representations [the UK Government] have made to the Government of Israel regarding their military response to the kidnapping of one Israel Defense Force soldier”, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, stated: “Any military steps taken should avoid civilian casualties, abide by international law and observe the principle of proportionality.”
In 2006, in a written ministerial statement, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, stated:
While Israel has the right to defend itself and to secure the release of Corporal Shalit, its actions should be proportionate and in accordance with international law, as we, the G8 and the EU have made clear. We call on Israel to exercise restraint and to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that both Great Britain and the US have changed their rules of engagement so as not to look like hypocrites for condemning Israel for doing what they themselves had done in the Gulf wars, in Iraq and in Bosnia.
The Geneva Conventions allows for civilian deaths in war as long as the target is military and the number of deaths is not excessive, as determined by the military commanders. To change that rule into one where civilian casualties are to be forbidden might make HRW and Amnesty happy, but it results in the ability for ISIS to mimic Hamas' use of human shields to avoid being targeted altogether. And we are seeing that now.
Wars cannot be won this way.
(h/t Elchanan)
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Everyone's been sharing this so I decided to actually translate it.
By the way, I am speaking on Sunday morning somewhere in the northern half of New Jersey. If you want to come, send me an email and I'll forward you the info. (Suggested donation to the venue is $10.)
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Sunday, December 06, 2015
Elder of Ziyon
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. 
