Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 18, 2014

And now, a cartoon break

Here's a cartoon I put on Twitter yesterday after UNRWA announced that they found 20 rockets in one of their schools:

And a new one I just made:

I've been tweeting editorial cartoons from previous operations, because they are just as appropriate today as they were previously. Feel free to spread them around.

During the humanitarian truce, Gazans moved rockets into a mosque (update)

From the Washington Post, burying the lede:

The ground assault came hours after a short break in the fighting. Residents rushed outside their homes to take advantage of a five-hour “humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas requested by the United Nations. It was a brief respite on a day that began with mortar fire from Gaza and ended with the ground assault.

During the lull, a group of men at a mosque in northern Gaza said they had returned to clean up the green glass from windows shattered in the previous day’s bombardment. But they could be seen moving small rockets into the mosque.

Too bad we don't know the name of this mosque.

Here's an IDF video from 2009 showing how Hamas hides weapons in mosques, schools and other civilian structures.

UPDATE: The article's update in the afternoon took out the reference to the rockets: But an earlier story still has that reference.

Hamas instructs Gazans on propaganda, "Always call people 'innocent civilians'"

I had noticed that unlike in previous operations, Arab message boards and social media are not publishing lists and photos of "mujahid martyrs," making it harder to determine how many of the dead in Gaza are terrorists and how many are really civilian.

Now we know why. Hamas told them not to, and to lie and say that every victim is an "innocent civilian."

And the UN, NGOs and world media are regurgitating the Hamas lies.

From MEMRI:

In light of the recent round of fighting in Gaza, the Hamas interior ministry has issued guidelines to Gaza Strip social media users for reporting events and discussing them with outsiders.

The ministry's guidelines, which it is calling the "Be Aware – Social Media Activist Awareness Campaign," were issued via an instructional video posted on its official website and via posters published on its Twitter and Facebook pages. Both the video and the posters were also posted on the ministry's social media accounts and forums.

Following are excerpts from the guidelines:

Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don't forget to always add 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent citizen' in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Begin [your reports of] news of resistance actions with the phrase 'In response to the cruel Israeli attack,' and conclude with the phrase 'This many people have been martyred since Israel launched its aggression against Gaza.' Be sure to always perpetuate the principle of 'the role of the occupation is attack, and we in Palestine are fulfilling [the role of] the reaction.'

Beware of spreading rumors from Israeli spokesmen, particularly those that harm the home front. Be wary regarding accepting the occupation's version [of events]. You must always cast doubts on this [version], disprove it, and treat it as false.

Avoid publishing pictures of rockets fired into Israel from [Gaza] city centers. This [would] provide a pretext for attacking residential areas in the Gaza Strip. Do not publish or share photos or video clips showing rocket launching sites or the movement of resistance [forces] in Gaza.

To the administrators of news pages on Facebook: Do not publish close-ups of masked men with heavy weapons, so that your page will not be shut down [by Facebook] on the claim that you are inciting violence. In your coverage, be sure that you say: 'The locally manufactured shells fired by the resistance are a natural response to the Israeli occupation that deliberately fires rockets against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza'..."

Additionally, the interior ministry prepared a series of suggestions specifically for Palestinian activists who speak to Westerners via social media. The ministry emphasizes that conversations with them should be conducted differently from conversations with other Arabs. It stated:

When speaking to the West, you must use political, rational, and persuasive discourse, and avoid emotional discourse aimed at begging for sympathy. There are elements with a conscience in the world; you must maintain contact with them and activate them for the benefit of Palestine. Their role is to shame the occupation and expose its violations.

Avoid entering into a political argument with a Westerner aimed at convincing him that the Holocaust is a lie and deceit; instead, equate it with Israel's crimes against Palestinian civilians.

The narrative of life vs. the narrative of blood: [When speaking] to an Arab friend, start with the number of martyrs. [But when speaking] to a Western friend, start with the number of wounded and dead. Be sure to humanize the Palestinian suffering. Try to paint a picture of the suffering of the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank during the occupation's operations and its bombings of cities and villages.

Do not publish photos of military commanders. Do not mention their names in public, and do not praise their achievements in conversations with foreign friends!

It is clear that most of the Arabic news media, and not just the social media, are adhering to these guidelines perfectly.

These instructions come with an implicit "or else" clause.

See also these posts on the real statistics of deaths from Gaza and how Hamas' websites in English and Arabic give completely different messages.

Why everyone is getting the "Sderot Cinema" story wrong

This photo taken last week, of Sderot residents going to a hilltop to watch IDF strikes in Gaza, has taken on a life of its own. And no one - not the original photographer/tweeter nor the "analysts" - have understood the scene pictured there.

The New York Times reported:

Explaining that he has also previously witnessed Palestinians cheering news of bombings that killed Israelis, Mr. Sorensen said that in a war, “this is what happens.” Civilians and fighters on both sides, he said, “go through a process of dehumanizing the enemy.”

This reminds me of a much older photo that was also widely misinterpreted as a paradigm for Israeli heartlessness.

In 2006, during the Lebanon war, a million Israelis in the north of the country were stuck in bomb shelters for a month as Hezbollah rockets rained down on them. They were frustrated and felt helpless and powerless. Then, someone came up with an idea of having the children, who are the most powerless of all, to write messages on missiles that were going to be shot to Lebanon. The resulting picture caused an even greater uproar:

A popular Arab blog that made the photos go viral created a fake message of what they said (originally) the kids were writing:

Dear Lebanese/Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Christians – Kids,
Die with love.

Yours,
Israeli Kids

But that is not what the message said, even though that was what thousands on the Internet who read the article internalized.

The real message on the missile said "To Nasralah, with love, from Israel and Daniele."

The Israeli kids didn't want to kill Lebanese kids. They wanted the rockets that had been terrorizing them for a month to stop, and they hoped that decisive Israeli action against Hezbollah - not Lebanon, but Hezbollah - would accomplish that. That is what these missiles symbolized.

This is what is happening in Sderot.

An entire community has lived, off and on, under siege for over ten years. Previous Israeli operations have given them a reprieve, but every time the rockets returned.

Like the schoolchildren in the north in 2006, the residents of Sderot just want to live normal lives again. Every bomb Israel drops is, to them, a potential step towards that goal. They are most emphatically not cheering the tiny minority of those bombs - perhaps 2% of them - have accidentally killed Gaza kids. They are cheering a feeling of empowerment, the feeling of relief, the hope that this time there might be a chance that IDF actions can stop the incessant rocket fire and their lives will become normal. Each boom that they hear is a symbol of the hope that this goal is a little closer.

To say that they are "dehumanizing the enemy" is flat out wrong. I'm sure that there are a small number who are angry enough to say "Death to Arabs," which is to be condemned, but they do not represent Israeli society or even Sderot society. There are racists in every nation on Earth. Those who take a photo like this and then pretend that they know what is going through the minds of the people in the photo have no clue.

There are some people in the region who cheer rockets that are aimed directly at civilians, though:

There is no hand-wringing over that, no Arabs who feel that their people have lost their moral compass, no triumphant articles in the New York Times about how we can feel morally superior to the Arabs.. No, when Arabs cheer Jews being targeted or indeed being killed, the world yawns.

To the world, this is how Arabs are supposed to behave. But there are a lot of journalists who are uncomfortable with the idea of Israelis being on a higher moral plane than Arabs, so they feel that they must denigrate the Israelis to even the playing field. Hence, the misrepresentation of these photos.

Reporters who desperately want to draw an equivalence between Israelis who cheer missiles aimed at terrorists with Arabs who lustily cheer rockets that are aimed squarely at Jews are not only irresponsible, but they are purposefully demonizing an entire people. There is no comparison - Israelis do not as a rule cheer the deaths of innocent Arabs. Their visceral revulsion to the murder of Mohammed Khdeir proves that. There has never been a similar, across-the-board, Arab reaction to the death of any Jew, ever.

The reporters and Israel haters who try to make such a comparison are at best lazy - and at worst, antisemites. Because the only way that it makes any sense to represent Israelis as cheering bombs that kill kids is to make the assumption - a priori - that Israeli Jews are bloodthirsty monsters.

That is not reporting. That is revealing your own hatred.

07/17 Links Pt2: Guardian editor defends Hamas’s right to kill Israelis; Brandeis’s Anti-Israel Listserv

From Ian:

Guardian editor defends Hamas’s right to kill Israelis, AGAIN.

Now, here is the relevant passage from Milne’s latest op-ed, published today (Gaza: this shameful injustice will only end if the cost of it rises, July 16th) at the Guardian:

So the Palestinians of Gaza are an occupied people, like those in the West Bank, who have the right to resist, by force if they choose – though not deliberately to target civilians. But Israel does not have a right of self-defence over territories it illegally occupies – it has an obligation to withdraw.
However, Milne is consistent in both op-eds with regard to one thing: Israel has no right to defend itself from Hamas terror.
While Milne’s justification for the intentional killing of Israelis is not surprising given his history of praising anti-imperialist “resistance movements” across the globe, the mere fact that his latest polemic is consistent with his broader political orientation certainly doesn’t make it any less morally repulsive.

Andrew Bolt: ABC [TV Australia] still blind to the savagery of terrorist group Hamas

In fact, Israel drops leaflets in targeted areas warning civilians to get out. At times it also gives a knock at the door — a rocket that just makes a loud noise as a warning before the real missiles come.
But Hamas hides its missiles among civilians it conscripts as a human shield — and as propaganda props if they die.
Hamas’s Al Aqsa TV station on July 13 even broadcast a command to residents “to remain in their homes and disregard the demands to leave, however serious the threat may be”.
Then there’s the ABC’s naive belief that Israel is dealing with a rational enemy. Here’s Ferguson again, telling the Israeli spokesman, “you’re going to have to sit down with Hamas in order to secure that solution”.
In fact, Israel can’t talk peace with Hamas when it wants Jews dead and Israel destroyed.
The Hamas charter even declares the time of peace “will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them) ...”
Why does the ABC not recognise a true enemy not just of Jews but of the values of the West?

Bloodguilt Over Jews Leads to Blood Libels Against Jews

The Europeans, it seems, are becoming increasingly comfortable with old-fashioned Jew hatred in their midst, whether homegrown or imported.
There's a reason for that. In much of Europe, bloodguilt over the Holocaust still hangs over the heads of the population. According to a 2012 Anti-Defamation League survey of European countries, 45 percent of Austrians, 35 percent of French, 43 percent of Germans, 63 percent of Hungarians and 53 percent of Polish citizens felt that it was "probably true" that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust." Many of those who wish to move beyond the Holocaust, therefore, look for a rationale to relieve national guilt -- and what better way to relieve national guilt than to label the Jewish State an aggressor? After all, if the Jews have become the villains, then why spend too much time thinking about their victimization?
Of course, the labeling of Jews as bloodthirsty villains led to the Holocaust in the first place. Adolf Hitler saw the Jews as bloodsuckers driven by greed and dual loyalty. So did much of the rest of Europe. In the minds of those who murdered Jews en masse, Jews had it coming, because, in the words of Hitler: "The struggle for world domination will be fought entirely between us -- between Germans and Jews. All else is facade and illusion."

Hamas released a video meant to scare Israeli soldiers, showing actors pretending to be soldiers standing at the top of a hill without any cover and getting shot by Hamas snipers, or "soldiers" carrying a large Israeli flag into battle and getting attacked and running away.

It is wonderful that Hamas not only employs dozens of Gaza actors, but it goes out of its way to hire really bad actors. When the economy is so bad, this is clearly a growth industry in Gaza. Kudos!

I just wonder if that Israeli flag in the video was imported through the Kerem Shalom crossing or if it was locally manufactured in Gaza.

Turkish newspaper close to govt threatens Jews

From YNet:

A Turkish daily affiliated with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the country's Jewish community to apologize for the Palestinian casualties of the Israeli operation in Gaza.

"You came here after being banished from Spain," Yeni Akit correspondent Faruk Köse wrote Wednesday in an open letter to Hakham Bashi, the chief rabbi of Turkey's Jewish community. "You have lived comfortably among us for 500 years and gotten rich at our expense. Is this your gratitude – killing Muslims? Erdogan, demand that the community leader apologize!"

Apparently, even after being citizens for 500 years, Jews in Turkey are still not considered Turkish.

A quick look at the newspaper, Yeni Akit, shows lots of naked Jew-hatred that doesn't even pretend to be only anti-Zionist. They openly support the Turkish singer's tweets last week saying "May God bless Hitler," they show a photo of Israeli "Na-Nachs" dancing and they caption it as if they are celebrating the killing of Arab civilians, they title an article about Israelis going into bomb shelters as "Jews have once again proven their cowardice," and they have openly accused the Jewish community in Turkey of "treachery."

The writer Faruk Kose has an article called "Is it permissible to kill Zionists?" that mentions Jews 21 times, including many accusations of a "Zionist/Jewish terrorist base."

No wonder Jews in Turkey are ready to flee for their lives:

Meanwhile, on the backdrop of the fighting in Gaza, Turkish initiatives to boycott Israeli goods and Jewish-owned businesses are gaining momentum on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Under the hashtag #zulmesessizkalamam ("I will not keep quiet in light of the persecution"), Turkey's residents are urged to boycott products such as Coca-Cola (as one of its owners, Warren Buffett, supports Israel by investing in companies like Iscar) and are provided with explanations on how to spot Israeli products in local supermarkets.

"I have never felt as threatened as I have in the past year," says Linet, a textile importer. "The government is inflaming the hatred and anti-Semitism and we are simply living in fear.

"Many of those who have not left yet – and the vast majority of Jews immigrated to Europe and Israel a long time ago – are weighing their options," she adds.

07/17 Links Pt1: Hamas: playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives; 20 Rockets in UNRWA School

From Ian:

Twenty Rockets Found in UNRWA School

The UN agency for Palestinian Arab "refugees," the UNRWA, said Thursday it was investigating after finding 20 rockets hidden in one of its vacant schools in Gaza, AFP reports.
It condemned the incident as a "flagrant violation" of international law and said the rockets had been removed and the "relevant parties" informed.
"Yesterday, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered approximately 20 rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip," the agency said in a statement.
"UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations," it continued. "This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law." (h/t Bob Knot)

Globe and Mail: Palestinian Rockets Launched Near UN School in Gaza

“Heading toward the exit, we were overwhelmed by the jet-like sound of two rockets being launched from somewhere near the school. Hamas, or some or militant group, clearly is hoping the Israelis won’t strike at the launchers, which are kept underground until the moment of firing, because they’re close to the school and so many refugees.
As the Hamas-made missiles screamed off into the sky, leaving a white vapour trail, the kids all cheered. One older boy of maybe 12, shouted in Arabic “They’re R160s,” named for the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. These are the big, long-range rockets usually reserved for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or the airport in between.”

Gaza Beach Shelling Eyewitnesses

Let's review eyewitness accounts of yesterday's sheeling of the beach when four Arab youngsters were killed:
The IDF seems to have targeted a specific structure, not an open area or the boys.
The area, having been attacked "at least three times" previously, would seem to indicate a terrorist target. You don't waste ordnance on children.
UPDATE of an acknowledgement from The Guardian:
"A witness who identified himself only as Abu Ahmed said the boys had been scavenging for scrap metal when the first shell hit a nearby shipping container used in the past by Hamas security forces. He said the boys fled but a second projectile "hit all of them"."
There you have it --- one, two, three.
And because of Hamas terror, four young kids lose their lives.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Hamas Said No to Egypt's Sisi

Hamas leaders complained this week that President Sisi did not even bother to consult with them before drafting his cease-fire proposal. "We heard about the cease-fire proposal through the media," said a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip.
The official claimed that Sisi chose to negotiate with Israel and PA President Mahmoud Abbas instead of with Hamas and the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is also suspicious of Sisi's true intentions. Leaders of the movement are convinced that the Egyptian president's ultimate goal is to disarm the movement and other terror groups and hand the Gaza Strip back to Abbas's PA.
Some Palestinians believe that Qatar and Turkey exerted pressure on Hamas to reject Sisi's cease-fire plan. Relations between the two countries and Egypt have deteriorated as a result of their continued support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Hamas is probably interested in a cease-fire, but not one that would bolster the standing of Sisi. This war is not only between Hamas and Israel. It is also a war also between Hamas and Sisi's Egypt.

Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives

SO FAR Hamas’s military campaign against Israel has been a dismal failure. Thanks in part to Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, some 1,200 rockets fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities have caused only one Israeli death and a few other casualties. Attempted commando attacks via the sea and a tunnel were stopped short, and a drone that ventured into Israel was quickly shot down. Yet Hamas on Tuesday rejected an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was supported by Western governments and the Arab League and had been accepted by Israel.
Why would Hamas insist on continuing the fight when it is faring so poorly? The only plausible answer is stomach-turning: The Islamic movement calculates that it can win the concessions it has yet to obtain from Israel and Egypt not by striking Israel but by perpetuating the killing of its own people in Israeli counterattacks. More than 200 people, including a number of children, have already died in Gaza; Hamas probably calculates that more deaths will prompt Western governments to pressure Israel to grant Hamas’s demands. (h/t Zvi)

Times of Israel Live Blog: Rockets target Tel Aviv area as fighting renews after humanitarian timeout

Israeli officials deny reports that sides have reached ceasefire deal; all clear given after security scare; IDF thwarts cross-border attack, killing Hamas gunmen as they emerge from tunnel; Israel, Palestinian teams in Cairo for negotiations

Hamas' legal experts decide that targeting Jewish civilians is A-OK

Hamas sent texts to Israelis today:

Your government claimed yesterday that it stopped the battle, but without our consent and meeting our conditions - and it thought we were rash enough to [agree to a] cease-fire. On the contrary, we hurried to strike anywhere in Israel - from Dimona to Haifa - and we made you hide in shelters like mice. . .

Again, we warn you - if your government does not agree to all of our conditions, then all of Israel will legally remain open to our weapons fire.

Izz - Eddine al-Qassam Brigades

See how moderate they are? They recognize Israel!

I searched high and low for the international legal principle of "do what we demand or else we kill you." After much effort, I think I found the source:

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Quran 9:29.

Since so many Muslim countries refer to the Sharia as the basis of their judicial systems in their constitutions, that makes it by definition "international" law!

But there is still a problem. That Quranic verse doesn't support killing Israeli Arabs, only Jews. So how can they shoot rockets into Israel that might hurt Arabs?

The answer, of course, is magic rockets that only target "the Hebrews."

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 11, 2014:

We say to [Israeli Arabs], living in Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Lod, Ramla, and the Negev: The rockets fired by the Al-Qassam Brigades will not hit you. We know those parts. We are familiar with the geography and with the history. Not a single Arab Palestinian child will be hit by one of our missiles. Our rockets are aimed at the Hebrews, the murderers, the Israelis, the criminals. Don't be afraid. Go on with your everyday life, and celebrate our victory, just like we will celebrate it here, in Gaza....We say to our people in Haifa: The missiles of Al-Qassam will not hit any Arab home. Rest assured, our missiles accurately target the homes of the Israelis and the Zionists. As Arabs, Muslms and Christians, you must support Gaza in the streets, by demonstrations, with slogans. You must besiege consulates of European countries supporting the occupation.

Yes, Hamas is bragging about performing war crimes. NGOs' are responding like they always do.

Why I think the IDF is undercounting rockets launched from Gaza

On Wednesday, I received word from the IDF spokesperson that so far in the current conflict, 106 rockets had fallen short in Gaza. This was after they had released this graphic:

In their daily roundup, the IDF adds detail:

Since the start of the operation:

Over 1350 rocket have been launched at Israel.
1027 of those rockets hit Israel
Approximately 265 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Unfortunately, these numbers indicate only 58 rockets falling short in Gaza, so I don't know how to explain the difference.

I have been counting rockets launched from Gaza based on bi-hourly reports that the Gaza NGO Safety Office has been issuing on certain days during the fighting. Their numbers indicated far more rockets launched from Gaza than what the IDF is reporting.

Normally, I trust the IDF. But the Gaza-NSO has been doing these rocket counts for years, and they have no real incentive to exaggerate the numbers.

Moreover, the terrorists themselves are claiming far more rockets being fired than the IDF says, and while they are admittedly terrorists, their statistics seem pretty detailed.

Hamas claims to have shot 1002 rockets so far as of Wednesday. Islamic Jihad claims 864 rockets. Fatah's Al Nidal Brigades averages about 7 rockets a day, and the PRC a few more, and many other smaller groups who join in, so altogether there seem to have been about 2000 rockets fired from Gaza according to the armed groups. This seems roughly what the Gaza-NSO is reporting as well.

I know the Gaza-NSO counts rockets that explode on the launchpad, as well as those that fall short.

The divergence between the two sides is still quite large. My guess is that Israel is mostly only counting rockets that get close enough to the border, or high enough over the horizon, to be registered by Iron Dome radar, and there have been hundreds that simply did not get detected, mostly (I imagine) because Iron Dome is tuned to ignore false positives. The IDF map seems to show far more rockets near the borders than within Gaza, but I don't know if it is showing where rockets are launched from or where they land.

Whether it is 100 rockets that have fallen short in Gaza so far or closer to 800, it is a statistic that is still being roundly ignored by the many foreign correspondents who are in Gaza right now.

Terrorists shooting long-range rockets from near UNRWA school/shelter

From The Globe and Mail:

Because of the threat of Israeli bombardment – and because the Israelis have been sending out warning notices to some neighbourhoods of impending attacks – there are close to 20,000 Gazans who have sought refuge with relatives in safer districts or in United Nations schools.

The Fakhoura School is one of them, offering temporary housing to about 1,200 people who arrived last week after receiving an Israeli warning. That works out to about 30 people in each of the school’s 40 classrooms – a pretty tight fit when you consider everyone has to find room to sleep there.

...When it came time to distribute the UNRWA food, a patrol of clean-cut Boy Scouts, around 16 years of age, marched into the compound dressed smartly in khaki shirts and purple neckerchiefs with the white fleur-de-lys Scout emblem. They were volunteers from Jabalia and organized themselves in front of the distribution doors so as to make sure people stayed in line and there was no pushing or shoving.

To help people just like these, Israel announced Wednesday that it would facilitate a five-hour humanitarian truce on Thursday to allow people who fled their homes to return to them to pick up supplies. During these hours, Israel said it cease all operational activity in Gaza and hold its fire.

Heading toward the exit, we were overwhelmed by the jet-like sound of two rockets being launched from somewhere near the school. Hamas, or some or militant group, clearly is hoping the Israelis won’t strike at the launchers, which are kept underground until the moment of firing, because they’re close to the school and so many refugees.

As the Hamas-made missiles screamed off into the sky, leaving a white vapour trail, the kids all cheered. One older boy of maybe 12, shouted in Arabic “They’re R160s,” named for the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. These are the big, long-range rockets usually reserved for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or the airport in between.

There is approximately zero chance that any UNRWA spokespeople will condemn the firing of rockets from near their facilities, endangering the people they pretend to care about.

(h/t Honest Reporting Canada)

07/16-17 Overnight Links: My Jewish family's roots in Gaza; JVP: No empathy for Israel; The ‘Unsustainable Status Quo'

From Ian:

My Jewish family's roots in Gaza

Gaza is all over the news headlines - but here's one story you won't hear about. Read Steven Plaut's heartwarming article from the Jewish Press, first published in 2009. (With thanks: Eliyahu)
My family has roots in Gaza. We were there a century ago.
OK, technically it is my wife’s family. I am married to the granddaughter of Nissim Ohana, the rabbi of Gaza City.
But let’s back up a bit here.
In Genesis, Gaza is explicitly listed as part of the Land of Israel promised to the Jews. It was conquered by the tribe of Judah during the era of the Judges, though it was later recaptured by the Philistines. It was captured again by the Jews during the time of the Maccabees, only to be seized by the Romans, who handed it over to King Herod.
Gaza had a small Jewish community during the era of the Talmud. A synagogue was erected near the Gaza waterfront in 508 CE. A survey of the town in 1481 found about 60 Jewish households there, many producing wine. Later, quite a few followers of Shabbtai Zvi lived there, including the famous Natan of Gaza. There was a thriving Jewish community in Gaza when Napoleon arrived in 1799 via Egypt, but a plague followed his troops and the Jews abandoned the city.

JVP: No empathy for Israel

This is the latest solicitation I ‘ve received from the self-proclaimed wedge group, Jewish Voice for Peace.
Not a word- not a single word about the thousands of rockets launched from Gaza. Not a single word about the millions of Israeli civilians spending their nights in bomb shelters. Not a single word condemning Hamas for its indiscriminate shelling of civilians. Not a single word of compassion for the Israeli Jews, Christians and Muslims living under constant threat of Hamas’s long range rockets targeting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Not a single word of empathy for the families of our boys murdered by Hamas.
Its as though 8 million Israelis simply don’t matter to JVP. Perhaps because 8 million Israelis don’t actually matter to JVP.

Stop American Jewish Extremists

An organization called the Jewish Voice of Peace (JVP) has issued a letter which says that the issue in the Middle East is “rooted in the idea that Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives.” The note – which they plan to place in ads in Jewish newspapers including The Forward – continues “I’ve seen terrified Palestinian children in Hebron and Halhul, sitting on the ruins of their homes.”
Their so-called “Open Letter” claims that the Israeli government “created this situation. For weeks, the government knew that the three kidnapped teenagers were dead. But they instituted a gag order on the media, lied to Israelis and the world, and falsely claimed the mass arrests and collective punishment of Palestinians was all in the hopes of finding the teenagers alive.”
Shameful, hateful rhetoric. Akin to blaming America for the WTC bombing, these conspiracy theorists must be rejected. While this shameful organization does not reveal the source of their funding, they have previously described themselves as the “Jewish wing” of the Palestinian solidarity movement.

Latest Fatah video shows more rocket fire from populated areas

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah groups (Abu Nidal Brigades of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) continue to fire rockets at Israel, and the world continues to pretend that they simply don't exist.

Because closing your eyes and ears and yelling "Hamas bad! Fatah peaceful!" over and over is such a great political strategy.

As usual, the rockets are being shot from urban areas.

To their credit, their graphics have improved since yesterday. To their detriment, they feel they must show each firing twice, the second time in slow motion.

Remember that it is highly unlikely that Fatah smuggled these rockets into Gaza themselves. Hamas controlled all the tunnels when Egypt was still turning a blind eye, and Hamas was attacking Fatah as late as a few months ago.

This means that Hamas has been providing Fatah, and other terror groups, with their rockets for the current fighting.

Who said that the Hamas-Fatah unity didn't bear fruit?

07/16 Links Pt2: Test: Are you pro-human rights, or anti-Israel?; Islamist Jew-haters and leftist enablers

From Ian:

UN Watch: Test: Are you pro-human rights, or anti-Israel?

If in the past year you didn’t CRY OUT when thousands of protesters were killed and injured by Turkey, Egypt and Libya, when more victims than ever were hanged by Iran, women and children in Afghanistan were bombed, whole communities were massacred in South Sudan, 1800 Palestinians were starved and murdered by Assad in Syria, hundreds in Pakistan were killed by jihadist terror attacks, 10,000 Iraqis were killed by terrorists, villagers were slaughtered in Nigeria, but you ONLY cry out for GAZA, then you are not pro HUMAN RIGHTS, you are only ANTI-ISRAEL.

Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Hamas Have Become Oxymorons

Over the years, we at the Investigative Project on Terrorism and many others have called on American Islamists to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization. They have steadfastly refused.
Fine. But if Palestinian advocates really want a better life for the people of Gaza, today's events make it clear they must condemn Hamas for making the plight of the people there demonstrably worse.
For six hours, Israel stopped bombing Gaza, accepting a cease-fire put forth by Egypt. All Hamas had to do was stop firing rockets at Israeli civilians and the people of Gaza could start trying to resume their lives, confident that the latest conflict had ended.

Douglas Murray: The West has drifted away from Israel — and itself

What I am coming to is that it seems to me — from many visits there, and seeing the country in peace and war — that it is Israel that remains the truly western country. It is Israel which takes its history seriously, thinks deeply about where it is going and what it exists for. It is Israel which takes western values seriously and fights for the survival of those values rather than sitting back and assuming they are simply part of some birthright. Israel’s questions and dilemmas are not the stuff of North London or other parts of western Europe these days, though they remain febrile in much of the US. In conclusion, and despite my admiration for his frankness, I cannot help thinking that Hugo has got this wholly wrong and upside-down. Geography aside, it is Israel that is still truly a western country. Far more than many parts of western Europe now are.
A gap may well be emerging. But not because Israel has drifted away from the West. Rather because today in much of the West, as we bask in the afterglow of our achievements — eager to enjoy our rights, but unwilling to defend them — it is the West that is, slowly but surely, drifting away from itself.

Analysis of the latest developments in the Israel-Gaza conflict

Media treats Gaza war as a sporting event

A number of TV news shows have been publishing graphics comparing Israel and Hamas during the current events. Here's an example from MSNBC a couple of days ago, but CNN has done it as well:

The implication is that this is some sort of game.

When viewers see a graphic like this, they automatically think that the comparison is a fair one. To the uninformed viewer, this is a sporting event, and Israel is "winning."

Everyone loves a winner, but not when that winner is unsportsmanlike. What could be more unsporting than to keep running up the score and humiliating your opponent?

Any gentleman on the playing field would allow the other side to score some points. Or, in this case, to kill some Jews.

The comparison is wrong for a very basic reason: Israel wants to minimize casualties on both sides, and the Gaza terror groups want to maximize them.

Sports don't work that way.

Every dead Palestinian civilian is a loss for Israel and a gain for Hamas. But that fact - which underpins the entire conflict - is nowhere to be seen in these simplified visual shortcuts. All the viewer sees, no matter what is being said by the analysts, is that Israel is a bully picking on their poor neighbors who can't defend themselves.

It's no wonder that the anti-Israel crowd loves these sorts of graphics.

More from the humor site PreOccupied Territory:

New York, July 16 - New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet expressed surprise today upon discovering the word "terrorist" in the dictionary, to the point that he repeatedly showed the entry to every other person in the newsroom he could find.

Baquet was looking for a precise definition of the pottery term terra cotta, and in turning the pages of the book his eye fell upon the curious new word. "A person who uses violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal," he recited aloud, and repeated, with a disbelieving look on his face.

Colleagues relate that Baquet first consulted several online sources, each time with increasing disbelief that the word had escaped his knowledge until now. His confusion was compounded upon further discovering that the term is not, as he had initially suspected, an obscure or obsolete word, and he immediately began consulting other personnel over whether they had ever encountered the term.

"He had this excited look on his face," recalled Deputy Managing Editor Lawrence Ingrassia. "He showed me his paperback dictionary and this strange new word, and I was just as shocked. Here was this term that perfectly and cogently describes half of the people involved in the Middle East stories we report, and we've been using bland, namby-pamby 'militant' instead. Frankly, I'm kind of embarrassed this perfectly suited word was available and current the whole time, and it never occurred to us to use it."

From Ingrassia, Baquet continued to Andrew Rosenthal, the Editorial Page Editor. The latter admitted some awareness of the term, but only as vaguely associated with the Bolsheviks, and occasionally bandied about on the internet. "I seriously had no idea there were still such people," he confessed. "I mean, fighters, yes, and even freedom fighters, but people who employ violence, especially against civilian targets, to sow fear and thus bring about political change - I mean, who does that anymore?"

Baquet has already had a prolonged conversation with crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz about perhaps including the term in a puzzle, and that is likely to be the only section of the paper that features it.

07/16 Links Pt1: There's something very ugly in this rage against Israel; Hamas gets Hebrew grammar 101

From Ian:

Times of Israel Live Blog: Rocket hits near Ashkelon house; Hamas said to offer 10-year truce

The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Wednesday, the ninth day of Operation Protective Edge. On Tuesday, while Israel accepted an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, Hamas rejected it and continued its rocket fire into Israel. An Israeli was killed by mortar fire. In mid-afternoon, Israel resumed attacks on Hamas targets, as Foreign Minister Liberman called to retake full control of the Strip, an idea Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects. After targeting Hamas leadership in a number of overnight strikes, the death toll in the Strip rose to over 200.

Israeli civilian killed by Gaza mortar fire

A Beit Aryeh resident succumbed to his wounds Tuesday after being hit by Gaza mortar fire near the Erez Crossing, marking Israel's first fatality during Operation Protective Edge. Dror Hanin, 37, was a civilian who had come to bring food and drinks to soldiers serving on the Gaza border.
Hanin suffered severe injuries to his chest, and despite efforts to save his life, he was pronounced dead after arriving at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A friend who was standing beside him when the mortar struck was lightly injured.

Brendan O’Neill: There’s something very ugly in this rage against Israel

Anyone possessed of a critical faculty must at some point have wondered why there’s such a double standard in relation to Israeli militarism, why missiles fired by the Jewish State are apparently more worthy of condemnation than missiles fired by Washington, London, Paris, the Turks, Assad, or just about anyone else on Earth. Parisians who have generally given a Gallic shrug as French troops have basically retaken Francophone Africa, stamping their boots everywhere from the Central African Republic to Mali to Cote d’Ivoire over the past two years, turned out in their thousands at the weekend to condemn Israeli imperialism and barbarism. Americans who didn’t create much fuss last month when the Obama administration announced the resumption of its drone attacks in Pakistan gathered at the Israeli Embassy in Washington to yell about Israeli murder. (Incredibly, they did this just a day after a US drone attack, the 375th such attack in 10 years, killed at least six people in Pakistan. But hey, Obama-led militarism isn’t as bad as Israeli militarism, and dead Pakistanis, unlike dead Palestinians, don’t deserve to have their photos, names and ages published by the concerned liberals of Twitter.) Meanwhile, hundreds of very angry Brits gathered at the Israeli Embassy in London, bringing traffic to a standstill, clambering on to buses, yelling about murder and savagery, in furious, colourful scenes that were notable by their absence three years ago when Britain sent planes to pummel Libya.

Caroline Glick: The popular Palestinians

And even as Palestinian officials acknowledge the nature of this war, rather than rethink their support for genocidal terrorists anti-Israel activists in the US and Europe redouble their support for the Palestinians, by among other things engaging in violent assaults on local Jews. In so doing, they demonstrate that they share the Palestinians’ ultimate objective.
These activists are in turn supported by the leftist academia.
Their efforts are buoyed by the media which, at a minimum, fail to report on the nature of the campaign against Israel and generally, actively strive to obfuscate it. Leftist Jews, while compelled to condemn Hamas rocket fire, (but not rocket fire by Fatah militias), nonetheless make clear that at a minimum, Israel is also to blame for the Palestinian assault because it doesn’t give other Palestinians its heartland and capital city.
Finally, as we see with US-led Western demand that Israel reach a cease-fire with Hamas without first defeating the Palestinian terror machine in Gaza, the activists, the professoriate and the media are joined by political leaders who all agree that inciting and acting on behalf of the genocide of Jewry is not a disqualifying offense.

Alan Dershowitz: Media death count encourages Hamas to use human shields

Proportionality is not judged by the number of civilians actually killed by Hamas rockets, but rather by the risks posed to Israelis. These risks have been diminished, but not eliminated by the Iron Dome system. They have also been considerably diminished by Israel’s counterattacks on the missile launchers and those who employ them. Without these counterattacks, it is highly likely that more Hamas missiles would have made it through the Iron Dome system which has been approximately 85% effective. Israel has every right under the rules of proportionality to attack these military targets, so long as they take reasonable efforts to reduce civilian casualties. They have done so by leafleting, by calling, and by other methods of warning civilians to leave target areas. Hamas leaders, on the other hand, have urged, and sometimes compelled, their civilians to remain in harm’s way as human shields.
The media, by emphasizing the comparative body counts without providing the reasons for the disparity, play into the hands of Hamas, and encourage that terrorist organization, to continue to pursue its dead baby strategy. So the next time those in the media promote a body count without explanation, they should point a finger at themselves for contributing to this deadly count.

Antwerp store refuses to sell to Jews, and other Belgian antisemitism (video) (UPDATE x2)

From JP Updates:

A 29-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman went shopping at the Coton store in the Keyserlei area of Antwerp, Belgium, but was told that she could not buy anything there because she is Jewish.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, told police that she went to purchase cotton at the store at 3:00 on Monday afternoon, and the woman at the register told her that “we don’t sell to Jews at this moment due to the ongoing situation in Israel.”

After the woman returned home and told her husband about the humiliating incident, he went to the store with a friend. Employing a hidden camera to record the exchange, the two asked a saleslady about the alleged snub.

Translated from Flemish, the conversation went as follows:

> He: “A friend of mine wanted to buy something today and was not allowed to buy.”
> Lady at the register answers, “Eh, Yeh.”
> He: “What was the story?”
> She: “A protest, I think. My boss was here and he was protesting.”
> He: “Can I buy something?”
> She: “Yes, go ahead.”
> He: “Where is the boss?”
> She: “He’s not here.”
> He: “So he doesn’t sell to Jews?”
> She: “That’s how he said it.”
> He: “Can I call him or talk to him?”
> She :”No.”
> He: “Were you here also?”
> She: “I wasn’t here but they told me the story.”
> He: “Can I have his number?”
> She.: “I can’t give it out.”
> He: “It’s a strange story no?”
> She:”Yes.”

After police came to the store and asked the boss about the story, she denied the incident and said that a lot of her wholesales are Jewish, so she has nothing against Jews. Police told the victim they will investigate the incident since the conversation confirming it was captured on video by her husband.

A number of Antwerp residents told JP that they were shocked when they heard about the incident, as the store is located in the middle of the Jewish neighborhood.

Also:

Figen Erol is an intercultural facilitator at St. Francis hospital in Heusden-Zolder. But some recent comments she posted online suggest she shouldn't be employed in a position which requires contact with people, and especially not with foreigners.

For example:

"Hitler said" a day will come when you will curse me for leaving over a few heads

She later removed this comment, but another one is still online:

On the facebook page of Knack Magazine, a user named "Zafer Aksoy" posted a comment saying: 'When all Jews are dead... then there will be a ceasefire'. Erol responded: "Quite right, and the rest can get lost. Or to Israel!! If it happens to still exist."

Those posts were made during work hours.

(h/t Bob Knot)

UPDATE: (h/t sophie44)

Approximately 500 people attended Saturday’s protest in the capital of Belgium’s Flemish region, where one of the speakers used a loudspeaker to chant a call in Arabic that means “slaughter the Jews.”

UPDATE x2: The hospital worker was fired (h/t Akiva who received email from the hospital.)

The REAL statistics of those killed in Gaza

Times of Israel reports:

The truth is that the number of casualties, and the percentage of civilians among the dead, comes exclusively from Palestinian sources. Israel only publishes its version of the body count — which is always significantly lower than the Palestinian account — weeks after such operations end. Meanwhile, the damage to Israel’s reputation is done.

For Operation Protective Edge, the only data published so far comes from the health ministry in Gaza. This ministry is run by Hamas, therefore rendering the number of casualties and injuries it reports more than unreliable, said Maj. Arye Shalicar of the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s unit. “Hamas has no shame about lying. We know they’re a terrorist organization that makes cynical use of casualty numbers for propaganda purposes. You can’t trust a single number they publish.”

And yet, the figures from the Gazan ministry are routinely adopted, unquestioned, by the United Nations. “According to preliminary information, over 77 per cent of the fatalities since 7 July have been civilians, raising concerns about respect for international humanitarian law,” states a situation report published Tuesday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Once given the stamp of approval of such an important body, these numbers are quoted everywhere else.

While the IDF does not publish their statistics in a timely manner, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center does. They use similar methods that I and my team used in 2009 when we exposed the lies on casualties from Cast Lead.

In order to ascertain who was killed and whether the victim is a terrorist or a civilian, the center’s staff looks up their names on Palestinian websites and searches for information about their funerals and for other hints that could shed light on a person’s background.

Foe example, when they are referred to as "mujahadin" in terrorist supporting message boards, or if there are photos of them in terror gear and with weapons.

So here are the most accurate statistics as of Tuesday at noon:

According to (initial) ITIC information, the distribution of those killed is as follows:
1) 72 terrorist operatives:
A. 35 Hamas operatives(most of them from its military-terrorist wing)
B. 27 PIJ operatives
C. Ten operatives from other terrorist organizations
2) 80 non-involved Palestinians
3) 41 Palestinians whose identity still cannot be ascertained.

Of the victims that are known, nearly half are confirmed to be terrorists. This is roughly in line with what we saw during Cast Lead, a 1:1 ratio of terrorist to civilian, a ratio that is unknown in any other military operation in urban areas in history outside Israel.

It is outrageous that NGOs trust the Gaza authorities, who have been proven liars time and time again, for their information.

Here's an example of "civilians", as reported by Ma'an:

When their next-door neighbors received a "warning call" from Israel to evacuate a home in Jabaliya refugee camp, Yousef Qandil and his son Anas fled their property, fearing that they could be killed or injured by shrapnel.

Both men took refuge under a tree near the site, awaiting the imminent airstrike which they expected to hit the house, or neighboring properties.

Yousef had already sent his wife and younger children to their parents' house to protect them from harm.

Moments later, both Yousef and Anas were killed in an airstrike that targeted a group of Gazans sheltering under a tree for protection.

"Anas was a high school student and Yousef was a tailor. What threat or danger were they to Israel sitting under a tree?" Yousef's brother told Ma'an.

Yet Islamic Jihad says that Yousef was a leader in the Al Quds Brigades and that one of the others killed with him, Sweilem Mohammed, was also a mujahid. And so was his 17 yer old son Anas, who his father did not send to safety with his younger children but took with him to meet with other terrorists.

This is proof that you cannot trust the information that comes from Palestinian Arab sources with a vested interest in inflating the number of civilians.

I've mentioned before that the Goldstone Report found three separate international treaties that he said Israel violated when chickens were killed during military operations. The UN report concluded, without any military experience, that Israel killed the chickens deliberately, and therefore it violated "article 1 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 12 (2) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women."

Of course, the IDF did have a valid military reason to destroy the chicken coops:

123. The command investigations conducted with regard to this incident reveal that the Sawafeary chicken coops were destroyed for reasons of military necessity.

124. Specifically, the investigations revealed that the area around the Sawafeary chicken coops was occupied by an IDF ground force beginning on 4 January 2009, as part of the ground maneuver, with the intention to take control of rockets and mortar launching sites and reducing the number of terror attacks on Israeli territory. The force took positions in several houses, including one house that was adjacent to the chicken coops. This positioning was necessary to secure the area for military operations against Hamas and to protect the IDF troops in those operations. The IDF’s defense plan for this area needed to meet three serious threats to the safety and security of the IDF troops: the firing of anti-tank and RPG missiles on IDF positions; sniper fire; and infiltration of terrorist operatives into the immediate vicinity of the forces in order to plant and detonate explosive devices, including by suicide bombers.

125. The terrain in the area made this location more dangerous for IDF forces. The area was agricultural in its original use and thus included many orchards, groves, and greenhouses, located between and around the houses occupied by the IDF. This made it harder for the IDF to identify Hamas positions and fighters. The threat was not theoretical—on 5 January 2009, an RPG missile was launched at one of the IDF positions in that area. In addition, several shooting incidents occurred originating from the orchards located to the south of the chicken coops.

126. In order to overcome these threats, the IDF decided to create a security zone around each of the IDF positions with a perimeter of 20–50 meters around each post, which would allow uninterrupted observation and firing capabilities for the force in each position, as well as joint protection among the different IDF outposts. These security zones allowed IDF forces to anticipate at an earlier stage the approach of terrorist operatives.

127. The Sawafeary chicken coops were located only a few meters away from one of the key IDF positions. The IDF position was, itself, dictated by the lay of the terrain in the area. As the command investigation determined, this IDF position could not be adequately secured if the chicken coop structures were left intact. The demolition of these structures was needed to allow a clean line of sight for protection of IDF forces. The investigation also determined that the decision to destroy the coops was consistent with the demands of the principle of proportionality: there was a compelling military need for the area to be cleared for the safety of the IDF forces and for the success of IDF operations against the Hamas forces operating in the area. The local commanders determined that these advantages outweighed the damage to private property that would result from the demolition. The commanders avoided the destruction of residential buildings or other facilities in the area, when such destruction was not required by military necessity or appeared to be disproportional.

Will human rights groups say that Hamas is violating the same treaties they accuse Israel of violating?

No, and for good reason: Hamas wasn't aiming at the cows. It is aiming at Israeli civilians. So the food supply was only accidentally destroyed in pursuit of murdering people.

Hamas is safe from worrying about the UN going after it.

Incidentally, this shows a small example of what many populated sites in Israel would look like if Iron Dome wasn't protecting people. And this was a small rocket.

(h/t Yoel)