Gaza reality check: Terrorist-run territories will produce terrorism
Mass chaos erupted along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip this weekend as the Hamas-sponsored "March of Return" predictably descended into violent confrontations that left at least sixteen Palestinians dead and hundreds of others injured. Friday’s affair was the first in a series of planned provocations along the frontier over the next six weeks, culminating with the May 15 commemoration by Palestinians of the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation on so-called Nakba Day.PMW: Palestinian flag is wonderful "soaked in the blood of the Martyrs," says Abbas’ Fatah
While much of the international community denounced Jerusalem's "disproportionate" response to the storming of its border by an estimated 40,000 people, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Sunday that the military will, by contrast, employ even tougher measures if the unrest continues. The defense chief also claimed that ninety percent of the "protesters" comprised Hamas officials or "activists"—accompanied by their families, including children—who were paid to sow disorder. This is reinforced by the IDF's assertion that at least 10 of the 16 individuals killed in the conflagration were card-carrying members of Palestinian terror groups, with Hamas proudly acknowledging that among the dead were five fighters from its ranks.
In fact, many analysts are astonished by the widespread shock and awe generated by the fully foreseeable outcome of an initiative spearheaded by a terror group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. Since assuming power in the Strip just over a decade ago, Hamas and Israel have fought three major conflicts—the last being the fifty-day confrontation in the summer of 2014—interspersed by the unprovoked firing of thousands rockets at Israeli cities; the construction of a network of subterranean attack tunnels stretching into Israeli territory; and the kidnapping of numerous Israeli soldiers and civilians. This, as Hamas has reigned over Gaza with an iron fist, consistently using its "subjects" as a collective human shield and squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on its war machine that instead could have been spent with a view to alleviating the humanitarian plight in the enclave.
Yet, when another round of hostilities inevitably breaks out, so too does the same old international chorus of refrains ranging from "independent investigations" and "restraint by both sides" to accusations that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. And this by actors that seemingly should be capable of digesting the simple fact that terrorist-run territories invariably produce terrorism.
And that, as a tragic corollary, people are going to die.
Fatah: “We are sowing our land from the veins, from the arteries, and from blood, and from the inner heart we will build our state and will not relinquish”Fake News: Actress Katherine Heigl 'Welcomed' to Gaza by Palestinians Applauding Her as a 'Doctor'
A bloodied Palestinian flag lying on the ground is reason to rejoice according to Abbas’ Fatah Movement’s Bethlehem branch, which posted the photo above with text glorifying the spilling of “the blood of the Martyrs”:
Posted text: “How wonderful and mighty you are, O flag of Palestine, when you are soaked in the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids)”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, March 31, 2018]
An image of a man in an Arab headdress leaning over barbed wire and planting a flower with bleeding hands was also posted by Fatah. Accompanying text emphasized that it is with “blood” that Palestinians are “sowing the land”:
Posted text: “We are sowing our land from the veins, from the arteries, and from blood, and from the inner heart we will build our state and will not relinquish” [Official Fatah Facebook page, March 31, 2018 (image only); Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, March 31, 2018 (image and text)]
The PA and Fatah continuously state that “all means” are legitimate in the “struggle against the occupation” and in the process of building a Palestinian state. “All means” include the use of violence and terror - when these are viewed as beneficial. Therefore Fatah repeatedly promotes the ideal of Martyrdom-death and spilling one's blood for "Palestine."
The first casualty of war is truth, a maxim the Palestinian Information Center is learning for itself in the hardscrabble world of social media communications.
In the wake of the Hamas-instigated “March of the Return” Gaza riots that tore across the Israeli border last week, the center was keen to publicize what it claimed was a publicity coup. In a Facebook post, it told its 500,000 followers that a French doctor had arrived in the Gaza Strip to perform her work and treat ‘wounded Palestinian protesters.’
See the evidence below:
Trouble is, the shot is of actress Katherine Heigl who played a doctor on TV in the hit show Grey’s Anatomy from 2005-2010.