Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Hey, Abbas: Would "Palestine" allow conversions to Christianity?

In June 2009, an Egyptian court declined a request by [Christian convert Maher] al-Gohary to register his current religion in his identity documents. The verdict said that "conversion from Islam is unacceptable since it contradicts the prevailing order and because society has a Muslim majority," adding that "conversion is at odds with Article 2 of the Constitution which says that Islam is the primary source of legislation."

Islam prohibits conversion to Christianity, even for Muslim coverts originally belonging to the Christian faith.

Al-Gohary’s request to be recognized as a Christian is the second to be turned down. In January 2008, the administrative court dismissed another request by Mohamed Haggay, who later named himself Bishoy.

So the legal reasons given by the Egyptian court to not accept al-Gohary's conversion is because the Egyptian constitution says "Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia)."

Now, it just turns out that the constitution of Palestine has virtually identical wording ("The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.")

So, as the world continues to rush to provide recognition for the state of "Palestine," Mahmoud Abbas should answer a simple question:

Would a Muslim be allowed to convert to Christianity in Palestine?

(To make it even more interesting, change "Christianity" to "Hinduism," which Islam abhors.)

Why Israelis are skeptical (The Australian op-ed)

A pretty good summation of how Israelis think, by Jeremy Sharon in The Australian:

The current Israeli insistence on the deployment of Israeli troops on both the western and eastern borders of any future Palestinian state is regarded as of critical importance to Israel's long-term security. This is seen as one of the inviolable lessons of the Gaza withdrawal and the 2008 Gaza conflict. The other lesson Israel learnt from Operation Cast Lead is that the country can in no way rely on the international community to support its right to self-defence. Having been bombarded with more than 3000 rockets and mortars in 2008 alone, the Israeli government felt it was well within its rights to try to put an end to the intolerable situation in which hundreds of thousands of its citizens found themselves before Cast Lead was initiated.

But the torrent of condemnations, denunciations, diplomatic attacks and media outrage that was directed at Israel for having the temerity to defend its own citizens was unprecedented, even for Israel. This campaign culminated with the publication of the Goldstone report that, were it to be enforced, would essentially prevent the Israeli armed forces from protecting its citizens in the future, should they be attacked by artillery fire from civilian towns and cities, as they were prior to Operation Cast Lead.

In this context, Israel's concern over a withdrawal from the West Bank is quite clear. It is apparent to Israelis that should the urban areas of the West Bank be turned into rocket launching-pads, as happened in Gaza, the international community would not afford Israel the right to self-defence. The Israeli public is therefore much more inclined to forgo the risk of being shelled in their houses in Tel Aviv despite the international opprobrium that accompanies such a choice.

...The lesson Israel has taken from this appalling negligence is obvious; it can rely on no one to protect its citizens and stand up for its right to self-defence other than itself. It is this accumulated sentiment that those who wish to see a Palestinian state established must contend with, because Israelis cannot be expected to trust external forces with their security.

Read the whole thing.

HuffPo op-ed: How a liberal can defend Israel

From David Harris in the Huffington Post:

"I read the things you write about Israel. I hate them. How can you defend that country? What happened to the good liberal boy I knew 30 years ago?"

I replied: "That good liberal boy hasn't changed his view. Israel is a liberal cause, and I am proud to speak up for it."

Yes, I'm proud to speak up for Israel. A recent trip once again reminded me why.

Sometimes, it's the seemingly small things, the things that many may not even notice, or just take for granted, or perhaps deliberately ignore, lest it spoil their airtight thinking.

It's the driving lesson in Jerusalem, with the student behind the wheel a devout Muslim woman, and the teacher an Israeli with a skullcap. To judge from media reports about endless inter-communal conflict, such a scene should be impossible. Yet, it was so mundane that no one, it seemed, other than me gave it a passing glance. It goes without saying that the same woman would not have had the luxury of driving lessons, much less with an Orthodox Jewish teacher, had she been living in Saudi Arabia.

It's the two gay men walking hand-in-hand along the Tel Aviv beachfront. No one looked at them, and no one questioned their right to display their affection. Try repeating the same scene in some neighboring countries.

It's the Friday crowd at a mosque in Jaffa. Muslims are free to enter as they please, to pray, to affirm their faith. The scene is repeated throughout Israel. Meanwhile, Christians in Iraq are targeted for death; Copts in Egypt face daily marginalization; Saudi Arabia bans any public display of Christianity; and Jews have been largely driven out of the Arab Middle East.

It's the central bus station in Tel Aviv. There's a free health clinic set up for the thousands of Africans who have entered Israel, some legally, others illegally. They are from Sudan, Eritrea, and elsewhere. They are Christians, Muslims, and animists. Clearly, they know something that Israel's detractors, who rant and rave about alleged "racism," don't. They know that, if they're lucky, they can make a new start in Israel. That's why they bypass Arab countries along the way, fearing imprisonment or persecution. And while tiny Israel wonders how many such refugees it can absorb, Israeli medical professionals volunteer their time in the clinic.

It's Save a Child's Heart, another Israeli institution that doesn't make it into the international media all that much, although it deserves a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Here, children in need of advanced cardiac care come, often below the radar. They arrive from Iraq, the West Bank, Gaza, and other Arab places. They receive world-class treatment. It's free, offered by doctors and nurses who wish to assert their commitment to coexistence. Yet, these very same individuals know that, in many cases, their work will go unacknowledged. The families are fearful of admitting they sought help in Israel, even as, thanks to Israelis, their children have been given a new lease on life.

Read the whole thing.

(h/t Daled Amos)

Egyptians unhappy with Jewish pilgrims

From Al Ahram, Sunday:

Cairo International Airport announced on Sunday it was implementing emergency measures as hundreds of Israelis arrive to mark the annual moulid of Abu Hasira.

A 19th-century Moroccan Jewish rabbi, Abu Hasira's mausoleum is located in the village of Damatiuh, outside the delta city of Damanhour, where he died while travelling to Jerusalem in the 1880s.

Three flights from Tel Aviv arrived in Cairo today carrying 550 Israeli passengers. They were transferred to Abu Hasira's tomb by a secure convey. More Jewish pilgrims are expected to attend the eight day festival.

The moulid and the presence of Israelis have provoked indignation and legal action. Residents of the area are opposed to Israelis celebrating in their midst with some going as far as stating that the tomb should be transferred to Israel.

From Al Masry al-Youm:

Dozens of largely Israeli Jewish pilgrims on Sunday arrived in Egypt to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Abu Hasira, a 19th-century Jewish Rabbi whose mausoleum is located in the village of Damtu in the Nile Delta.

Nearly 60 Jewish pilgrims have arrived and authorities anticipate an additional 280 tourists will arrive on Monday.

Security authorities have tightened measures around the mausoleum. Places of business were closed for the day and some 3000 security officials formed a cordon around the area, home to roughly 30,000 Egyptians.

Meanwhile, the National Association for Change leaders announced the group will hold a seminar at the Gabha Party headquarters in Damanhour to protest the festival. A number of other opposition movements also plan to stage a protest vigil on Thursday in front of Damanhour's municipal court.

The government’s approval of the festival has fomented popular reproach, particularly after the Supreme Administrative Court recently upheld a 2001 lower court decision to ban the annual event.

From The Media Line:

Hebrew signs reading "death to the Jews" greeted Israeli pilgrims who came to the Egyptian Nile Delta village of Damtu to commemorate the annual anniversary of death of a 19th-century rabbi.

Some 550 Israelis arrived Monday at the mausoleum of Rabbi Yaakov Abu-Hasira, a revered Moroccan rabbi, who died in Egypt in 1880 en route to the land of Israel. But 3,000 Egyptian security personnel cordoned the village, closing down local businesses for the day.

Last year, Egyptian President Husni Mubarak allowed Israeli pilgrims to enter Egypt, responding to a personal request by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Pilgrims had been refused entry the previous year, when the anniversary fell immediately after Israel's Cast Lead offensive on the Gaza Strip, and Egyptian security officials agued they couldn’t ensure the safety of Israelis in the country.

But Egyptian opposition parties said the event shouldn’t pass quietly this year either. The local chapter of the Nasserist Party launched a campaign titled "You shall not pass on my land," calling on the government to disallow the presence of "Zionists" in Egypt.

"I welcome Jews from all parts of the world in my home and I will be their servant," Gamal Munib, secretary-general of the Nasserists and coordinator of the campaign, told The Media Line. "But I refuse to welcome Zionists, who killed Egyptian prisoners of war and are killing my brothers in Palestine."

Munib said his party convened an anti-Zionist meeting Monday night, and was organizing a protest vigil on Thursday across from Damanhour's municipal court with the participation of "all national forces.”

The burial site wasn’t identified as Jewish until 1996, when it began being developed, Munib added. The Nasserist Party petitioned the court to declare the area isn’t a historic site, a move that would ban the annual Jewish festivities he said included the drinking of alcohol.

I couldn't find any use of the site in the early part of the century, but I did find a mention in Google News Archive search results in a paywalled Jerusalem Post article from 1989 that has a fragment that says "drove 100 km. to recite psalms at the grave site of Ya'acov Abu Hatzeira," so it was known as a place of pilgrimage from at least as early as then.

It is to Egypt's credit that the government allows these pilgrims to come, and protects them, almost every year.

Some history here.

Israel joins the big leagues!

From Iran's FARS News Agency:

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday that a fate worse than what Hitler experienced is waiting for the US and Britain's warmongering leaders.

"The American, British and Zionist regimes are the three sides of the evil triangle of warmongering and terrorism in the world," Vahidi said, addressing senior military and law enforcement commanders in Iran's Northern province of Alborz today.

He denounced the recent threatening remarks made by the US Defense Secretary and his British counterpart, and said, "The frequent visits paid to the region by the US military officials as well as their warmongering remarks are clear indications of their evil plots for looting the wealth and the riches of the regional nations."

Vahidi further viewed "nations' belief in God, self-belief, insightfulness and resistance" as the main deterrents which can defuse the plots hatched by the aforementioned evil triangle, and said, "If the US and Britain do not seek to revise their policies and if they don't start fundamental changes in their approaches and strategies, a fate worse than those of Hitler's and Saddam's will be waiting for them."

Congratulations to Israel for making it to the big leagues, on par with the US and UK as part of the "evil triangle!"

I think it would be fair, therefore, to raise Israel's profile at the UN to become a permanent member of the Security Council and have veto power over any resolutions. Why shouldn't the triangle be equilateral?

I think that the Evil Triangle of Warmongering deserves a logo:

Um, needs some work.

HRW ignores widespread slavery in Mauritania

Italy's La Repubblica has a report on the phenomenon of widespread slavery in Mauritania.

Members of an anti-slavery NGO group were jailed for protesting the enslavement of two girls, aged 9 and 13.

"White Moors," who are ethnic Arabs, are enslaving nearly 600,000 "Black Moors" in Mauritania. Last month a UN special envoy noted that slavery is still a major problem in the Islamic country. Blacks who are former slaves and others are living in real apartheid conditions, forced to live in black-only camps with poor services and suffering continued abuse from the Arab-Berber minority rulers.

Don't bother to try to find a single report on this phenomenon at the Human Rights Watch website. They don't even have a country listing for Mauritania, and their last full report on abuses in the country was written in 1994. The UN and the BBC can somehow find out about these practices, but Human Rights Watch is far more preoccupied with a certain country with a Jewish majority. (Amnesty, on the other hand, does a nice job on covering these crimes.)

UPDATE: NGO Monitor wrote about this issue a year ago.

Morning links

Those moderate Palestinian Arabs have yet again reiterated that they want everything and will not accept anything less, even as a temporary measure.

The Islamo-nazism blog has a lot information about how brutally Arabs are treating Africans trying to get to Israel, The Africans are subjected to torture, rape, and extortion.

Evelyn Gordon at Commentary: Islamists slaughter Christians and Jews are blamed.

Wired has more information on how Stuxnet seems to have targeted Iranian nuke plants. (h/t Israel Matzav)

Iran claims to have caught, and executed, a Mossad spy.

Also at YNet, an important report on how the Islamic Movement in Israel is attempting to claim Waqf ownership of some 17% of Israeli land. It also talks about how they are placing fake gravestones around the country as a land grab.

Turks scream "Death to Israel" at Mavi Marmara ceremony

From NPR:

Thousands of people crowded into a port area on Istanbul's European side Sunday to welcome the aid ship Mavi Marmara, scene of a deadly clash off the Gaza coast in May. Volunteers from the Islamic charity IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) directed the crowd past huge posters of the eight Turks and one Turkish-American who died in the violence.

Chants of "Israel be damned!" rang out from the crowd as the ship was eased into dock. The anti-Israel sentiment threatened to undo tentative diplomatic efforts to restore Turkish-Israeli ties, which plummeted following the May 31 fatalities.

Israel's Channel 10 had a video report from Turkey where the reporter said that the protesters called out "Death to Israel" at the prompting of the speakers. The organizaers gave out buttons saying "Damn Israel" in Turkish, and some even had anti-Israel signs in Hebrew.

(h/t Joel)

PA backs down from banning PalArabs working in settlements

Last May I reported about how the PA was trying to ban some 25,000 people from working in jobs provided by Jewish employers in Judea and Samaria, saying that they would find alternative work or that they would simply become unemployed rather than work for their Jewish neighbors.

My comment at the time was that it would be interesting to see if Palestinian Arabs, working to provide for their families in an honorable fashion, would sacrifice their own personal dignity for the forcibly imposed "dignity" of the PA. My guess was that people still would prioritize their own dignity.

Ha'aretz's Avi Issacharoff reports that the plan to ban jobs working for pioneer Jews has hit a roadblock.

The Palestinian Authority has reconsidered a proposal that would have barred Palestinian laborers from working in West Bank Jewish settlements.

Although several PA officials, notably Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh and Prime Minister Salad Fayyad, came out in favor of such a move at the beginning of the year, it appears the PA has decided not to push for legislation on the issue because it is unable to offer the workers alternative employment.

The settlements and laborers who work in them have a mutually beneficial relationship, and settlement construction relies on Palestinian labor. Many Palestinian workers who do not have permission to work in Israel proper find employment in the settlements.

According to Israeli figures from September 2009 that were provided to the PA's donor countries, 22,000 Palestinians were working with Israeli permission in the settlements, including the settlements' industrial zones.

Non-governmental organizations have said, however, that about 10,000 other Palestinians are working in the settlements without formal permission, mainly in seasonal agricultural work.

It also appears that since September 2009, the number of Palestinians employed in the settlements has increased to nearly 35,000. These workers support a Palestinian population of more than 200,000, and PA legislation barring employment in the settlements would be an economic blow to Palestinians in the West Bank following a rise in Palestinian living standards there.

So since the PA publicly spoke out against Palestinian Arabs working in Jewish towns, the number of employees have actually increased by some 40%!

Evil Zionist Jellyfish terrorize Egyptians

The Zionist Attack Zoo has a new member!

From MEMRI:

Following is an interview with Mustafa Ismail, an Egyptian diving instructor, which aired on Egyptian TV on December 5, 2010:

Interviewer: What do you think are the reasons for [the Sinai shark attacks]? I am concerned resident of Sharm Al-Sheik.

Mustafa Ismail: You want me to be frank?

Interviewer: Yes.

Mustafa Ismail: The fish that caused the problem is not a sea fish. This type of shark is not a sea shark.

Interviewer: What kind of shark is it?

Mustafa Ismail: An ocean shark. This type of shark migrates from South Africa all the way to the top of the Earth. They don't enter alleys. The Red Sea is an alley compared to the ocean.

Interviewer: That much we know. What made it go into this alley?

Mustafa Ismail: The real question is: Who made it go into the alley? I will talk about something else, and then come back to this. Do you remember that when we were kids, the jellyfish in Alexandria would sting? Back home, in Al-Ghardaqa and in the Red Sea, you could roll the jellyfish in your hands and nothing would happen. Okay? There are all kinds of jellyfish. We would cut them up with a knife and use them for fish bait.

For some years now, there is a phenomenon nobody is talking about. Killing, paralyzing jellyfish have appeared in Al-Ghardaqa and on the Red Sea. Who brought these jellyfish there?

Interviewer: Who?

Mustafa Ismail: Who indeed? Who brought the sharks there? Even if this is a baby shark that got lost and passed through the Mandab Strait, could it possibly have continued like a peaceful angel, flapping its fins, all the way to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Shark Al-Sheik, in order to attack there? Why didn't it attack at Masra Alam or Brothers Islands? Why didn't it attack there? I have been diving at Sharm Al-Sheik for 50 years, and there has not been a single shark attack on any living creature.

Go ahead and say it, don't make gestures. Out with it.

Interviewer: I already asked you who, and you started telling me jellyfish stories.

Mustafa Ismail: Who? I will be even more frank. I'm not afraid of anyone.

Interviewer: Go ahead.

Mustafa Ismail: Two or three months ago, an Israeli diver said to me...

Interviewer: What diver?

Mustafa Ismail: An Israeli diver. We work with everybody.

Interviewer: Without any problem?

Mustafa Ismail: It doesn't matter to us.

Interviewer: How can it not bother you?

Mustafa Ismail: Just listen to me for a moment. He told me that they had found a baby shark of a certain species opposite the Eilat port. Whey they found it, they saw it had a GPS device on it.

Interviewer: A guiding device?

Mustafa Ismail: Yes, on its back. Anyone else would have ignored it, but not us. Whoever brought these sharks to us from the ocean... From the Mandab Strait, there are about 4,000 kilometers, so how come there were incidents only around Sinai?

Interviewer: So how did it get all the way to Eilat?

Mustafa Ismail: You wanted to hear the true story, so I will tell you. There are some friendly neighboring countries, which do not wish us well at all. I am not talking about the conspiracy theories of the days of Abd Al-Nasser. This conspiracy continues and will continue to all eternity, until Allah bequeaths the land... The conspiracy continues.

For three months, we have been hearing that country [Israel] warning its citizens to leave the Sinai as quickly as possible. You can check how many Israelis left Sinai in haste at the Tourism Chamber. It was as if they were fleeing an Apartheid or something.

So now our Zionist Attack Zoo has dogs, pigs, wolves, lions, rats, sheep, squirrels, pigeons, sharks and jellyfish.

(h/t Serious Black)

New donation option for the Elder site

I just added a PayPal donation button on the top right side of the site.

So if you like the site and want to show your appreciation, simply click on the Donate button and go for it!

I do appreciate any and all donations. Thanks!

Trivia question of the day (ANSWERED)

What do would-be genocidal madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, master terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, and despot Bashir Assad have in common with our favorite "moderate" Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas?

Hint.

The answer? All of them have met with, and praised, Samir Kuntar, the terrorist who murdered a 4-year old girl along with her father as well as others.

"Built in a Day" (1938 video)

A video showing the building of Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, a tower and stockade settlement that had to be built in a single day to defend itself against terrorists and robbers.

Note that the Jews are greeted warmly by their new Arab neighbors.

Eldertoons/Poster: Abbas the Moderate

I've mentioned this a few times; don't know why it took me so long to make it a graphic:

My original post. Arabic source.

Arabic quote only slightly shortened in the poster:

هناك كثير من يتحدث عن الثوابت والتمسك بها وكثيرا يكون كلامهم مجرد شعرات لا يعرفون ما يقولون أنا
واضحا وثابتا وأقول لمن يتحدثون عن مسلسل التنازلات أتحداهم أن يجيدوا تنازلا واحدا لأي ثابت من الثوابت منذ العام 1988

Blizzard open thread

We Elders control the weather, of course, and I was proud of this snowdrift visible from Chez EoZ:

The hedge is about 3 feet (1 meter) tall. To the left of the photograph it gets covered completely.

Alas, I will need to go back to Round 2 of shoveling soon....

Greek bishop doesn't hate Jews. Just Judaism. (And Zionists.)

I had missed this story in the NYT following up on the anti-semitism of Greek Bishop Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim where he "clarified" his remarks:

In response to the outrage caused by his remarks, the cleric posted a statement (in Greek) on his Web site in which he stood by his theories and described himself as a friend of the Jewish people but an enemy of Zionism, a Greek newspaper, To Vima, reported.

Here is an English translation of the bishop’s complete statement, first posted online by John Sanidopoulos, a Greek-American blogger, and verified by a Greek-speaking reporter for The New York Times:

2. I respect, revere and love the Jewish people like any other people of our world according to the teaching of the incarnated Son of God and the true Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer, who was heralded by all the Prophets and was incarnated through the Jewish nation.

3. My public vehement opposition against International Zionism refers to the organ that is the successor of the “Sanhedrin” which altered the faith of the Patriarchs, the Prophets and the Righteous of the Jewish nation through the Talmud, the Rabbinical writings and the Kabbalah into Satanism, and always strives vigorously toward an economic empire set up throughout the world with headquarters in the great land beyond the Atlantic for the prevalence of world government and pan-religion.

So that means that the bizarre bishop is all for the Judaism that he thinks existed two thousand years ago, but not the Judaism that spawned the Talmud, Maimonides, Rashi, the Ibn Ezra, the Vilna Gaon, the Ba'al Shem Tov or any other Jewish leader since Old Testament times.

Not only that, but he equates normative Judaism of the past two millenia to be Satanism. Naturally, that Satanism is linked to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion where we evil Talmudists and our minions are controlling the world from New York City, in that great land beyond the Atlantic. So according to the Metropolite, every major rabbi of the past two thousand years has been a satanist, hell-bent on taking over the world.

How's that for an apology!

Photographers staging a riot

From Getty Images:

It looks more like a fashion shoot than a news photographer.

"Just hold that pose, ok baby, beautiful, turn a little more towards me, try to look angrier, I know you are wearing a hood, can you flex your muscles a little, hold on, your sleeve is in the way of my lens, ok, now we're talking, can you get a bigger rock? No? OK, now let 'er rip!"

See also Israelycool.

Blind man can't find job in Ramallah, Israel blamed

From Al-Arabiya:

Ramzy Abul Jedian is a blind radio presenter who worked for the Gaza-based Sawt al-Erada (The voice of determination) station for the handicapped, the first of its kind in Palestine and the whole world.

The station was established by the Higher Committee for Defending the Rights of the Handicapped in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip then was closed after Hamas took control of the strip in 2007.

“According to human rights activists, the station started facing pressure by the Hamas government and eventually had to close,” Abu Jedian told AlArabiya.net. “In October 2007, I left Gaza.”

Accompanied by his younger brother Ahmed, also blind, and Abul Jedian left for Ramallah, leaving behind his wife and children and hoping he would be able to find a job in one of Ramallah’s radio stations.

“I wanted a job that allows me to speak for my fellow handicapped, but the society still underestimates the handicapped and does not understand the role they can play in the media.”

After failing to secure the job he wanted, Abul Jedian now roams the streets of Ramallah with his brother, who he can’t leave alone at home, with coffee flasks in order to earn his living.

A sad story that shows the problems of the handicapped in any society as well as the problems from the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

But how does Al Arabiya introduce this article?

The sight of former Palestinian radio presenter Ramzy Abul Jedian selling coffee in the streets of Ramallah sheds light not only on the suffering of Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, but also the effects of internal divisions between Palestinian factions.

How exactly Israel is hurting Jedian is never mentioned. But then again, it is obvious that every Palestinian Arab who ever suffers must blame Israel. Israel is the one unifying factor that allows Palestinian Arabs to escape responsibility for their own shortcomings.

Thousands of Palestinian Arabs emigrating yearly

Palestine Today quotes a new study showing that some 32,000 Palestinian Arabs have emigrated from the PA between 2005-2009.

24% moved to Jordan, 20% to Persian Gulf states, and 22% to the US.

Keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that make such a move difficult - the PA passports are not recognized in many countries, for example, so often the would-be immigrants need to show citizenship of another country. If Arab countries would eliminate their laws that discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming naturalized, these numbers would skyrocket.

The false framework of the Gaza war

Today is the second anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead - but it is not the anniversary of the beginning of the Gaza War.

On the very first day of OCL, I pointed out something that has been all but ignored by the media (but that I had mentioned earlier): Hamas declared war on Israel on December 24th, a full three days before Cast Lead.

From Ma'an, December 25th, 2008:

The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.

According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls "Qassam", and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.

Al-Qassam Brigades threatened to enlarge the "Oil Stain" to get more thousands of Israelis "under fire". The group asserted that its fighters are "far greater than surrendering to Israeli threats and that they became much more prepared to counter Israeli aggression and to defend themselves than in the past."

Even after Cast Lead started, Hamas - in Arabic - continued to call the war "Oil Stain." For example, on December 30th, an article in the Palestine Today website brags that "Operation Oil Stain" had been expanded and a Grad rocket had reached Beersheva for the first time.

Hamas has since changed its tune. First, it renamed the operation during the war "Battle of the Criterion." And now that they have seen how much the Gaza war has hurt Israel's reputation, they have even changed their own history - in an article earlier this year on the Al Qassam website, they claim that Oil Stain was a reaction after Israel to reflect their deploying longer-range Grad rockets.

And there is a very good reason why Hamas has changed their history.

One of the most insidious ways that NGOs and the media attack Israel is by creating a false framework around events like Cast Lead. The issue isn't "competing narratives" - it is much bigger than that. By framing the issue in false terms, Israel looks like the aggressor without having to say it explicitly.Every time an NGO and newspaper says that the Gaza war started on December 27th, they really mean that Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians are not important and that Israel is the aggressive party.

Amnesty's history of the war starts on December 27th.

HRW characterizes the entire war as "Israel’s three-week-long military offensive in Gaza that began on December 27." It isn't even a war - it is simply framed as Israeli aggression. And this is in a report about Hamas rocket fire!

Goldstone's chapter headings show this false framework as well:

III. EVENTS OCCURRING BETWEEN THE “CEASEFIRE” OF 18 JUNE 2008 BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE GAZA AUTHORITIES AND THE START OF ISRAEL’S MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GAZA ON 27 DECEMBER 2008

VI. OVERVIEW OF MILITARY OPERATIONS CONDUCTED BY ISRAEL IN GAZA BETWEEN 27 DECEMBER 2008 AND 18 JANUARY 2009 AND DATA ON CASUALTIES

When the very framework of the issue is biased to begin with, anyone trying to take Israel's aide is already handicapped. It loads the dice before the game even starts, and it takes an effort to re-frame the argument - something that Israeli spokespeople have little opportunity to do when giving statements to the press or when answering questions about NGO accusations.

Even though Hamas wants to be known as a masculine defender of Arab rights in Arabic, and it was proud to take credit for starting the war back in 2008, it has realized the immense value of the false framework provided by Goldstone and HRW and Amnesty and the mainstream media. So it has adopted that framework simply because it puts Israel at a disadvantage.

This is one of the biggest issues that Israel faces when speaking to the world. The idea of Israel as aggressor is so ingrained in the fabric of the discussion that it is not easy for even Israel's defenders to recognize it when they see it. It is especially difficult in the heat of a debate to be able to step back and challenge the questioner as to their implicit assumptions.

One fact is clear - Hamas started the war, and they bragged about it. Any narrative of the Gaza War that does not recognize that simple fact is inherently biased from the outset. No mater how prestigious the NGO or media outlet that promulgates this lie - it is still a lie, and that lie must be corrected.