Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 12, 2009

"Free Gaza"'s latest snow job begins

The Free Gaza terror supporters just put out a new press release:

The Free Gaza Movement ship, "SPIRIT OF HUMANITY," left Larnaca Port at 3:00 pm, Monday, 12 January, on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. It is expected to arrive in Gaza at approximately 11am (UST) Tuesday morning. Aboard the ship are 36 passengers and crew, representing 17 different nations. They are doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and five European parliamentarians representing Belgium, Greece, Italy, and Spain (see below for a complete passenger list). The mercy ship also carries desperately needed medical supplies meant for hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Gullible editors will read this and think that Free Gaza is trying to help deliver medical aid to Gazans that is being blocked by Israel.

The truth is the exact opposite. Free Gaza is a group of people dedicated to destroying Israel. Free Gaza is against nations delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans! They have written in their own emails:

Although humanitarian aid is very much needed, especially now in Gaza, focusing on humanitarian efforts alone is a form of complicity in Israel's malevolent quest to destroy the Palestinian people.

And this:

Free Gaza is neither a "protest group" nor an aid agency. Our mission and our work are political. We are a Palestinian and international effort dedicated to the principle of non-violent direct action. We are engaged in active, civil resistance against the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the violence this occupation uses to sustain itself.

And just in case you think that they only define "resistance" as non-violent, here is how they describe Qassam rockets aimed at Israeli kindergartens:

Do you know my dear reader how many Israelis were killed by Palestinians resistance rockets?

Israel has so far delivered 230 tons of medical equipment plus ambulances via the Red Cross in Gaza and about 300 more tons via the World Health Organization and UNICEF, not to mention many hundreds of tons of food and medical supplies donated by Turkey, Jordan, Greece and Egypt. If the Free Gaza people cared about delivering medicine, they could have sent it through Israel yesterday.

The Free Gaza boat is not meant to make a dent in the medical situation in Gaza, it is meant purely to make Israel look bad. To that end, they write in their email:

Once we set sail, we do not plan on turning back. We will stay at sea, insisting on access to Gaza, until we succeed or Israel gravely attacks or arrests us.

Since Israel has already informed them that they will not be allowed to dock in Gaza, they are deliberately putting on a theatre to force a showdown and gain more press.

And have no doubt, the press is complicit in making Free Gaza look like a humanitarian organization rather than a PR wing of Hamas that tells its members that now is the time for a "third intifada."

In fact, this so-called "mercy ship" has 6 doctors, 7 "human rights workers" - and 17 journalists, including reporters from CNN, Sky TV, the BBC, the Sunday Herald (UK), Mega TV and France's Channel 2. The reporters know that Israel will not allow the boat through and that makes a good, manufactured story.

Not that the presence of reporters will stop the Free Gaza terror-supporters from lying even more egregiously, as they falsely claimed last time that a half dozen Israeli ships fired upon them with live ammunition and still cannot produce a single video that verifies their claim that Israeli boats rammed them three times "without warning."

The media should not allow these clowns to manufacture "news" and to brazenly lie about this so called "mercy ship."

Open thread, Blogosphere edition

Yesterday I was asked to create an open thread where people can list the blogs that they have found to be good resources in the past few weeks beyond the many I listed here.

I started off with Zionism-Israel, an excellent blog and reference site from Ami Isseroff, that I have mentioned before.

Another brand-spanking new blog that looks to be a great addition to any blogroll is The Realist, who just commented here.

Who else do you like to read?

The zero-sum game and Arab mentality

In the wake of the 2006 Lebanon war, with hundreds of dead Lebanese civilians and a destroyed infrastructure, a Gulf News analyst - and professor of political science at UAE University - wrote:

The controversial discussion about the quality and significance of the victory and the size of destruction caused by the war is legitimate and healthy. But, despite the massive destruction in Lebanon, the Arabs seem to be better off after the war.

Logically, when Israel is in a worse condition, which is the case now, Arabs are definitely better off.

Although Israel was not routed in the battle, it surely seems defeated and frustrated. It is also living in a state of doubt and comprehensive review of its military and political performance during the war.

The equation of victory and defeat between the Arabs and the Zionist state has always been and will remain zero equation. This means that when Israel is defeated, Arabs have the right to celebrate victory.

Hatred of Israel can be found in the genes of all Arabs. Although it is hereditary, its intensity varies from time to time. All facts on the ground indicate that the Arab rejection of the Zionist entity reached its peak after the aggression.

The unification of Arabs in their deep enmity against Israel is a positive matter.

This is not some crazy member of the "Arab street". This is someone who has a respected job as an intellectual, who is saying that anything that is bad for Israel is, by definition, good for the Arabs. The Arab world, and a large number of its supporters, look at the Middle East as a zero-sum game where when one side wins, the other loses.

History shows that this is not an isolated opinion; in fact, it is still mainstream Arab opinion. Even as pragmatic and moderate a leader as Jordan's King Abdullah reveals that he still looks at the conflict the same way, that what is good for Israel is bad for the Arab world, although Abdullah is much more nuanced.

Westerners must understand this mindset. We grow up with the idea ingrained in us that the best solutions to problems are "win-win", where each side can gain or at least compromise in ways where their losses are minimized. This is so obvious to most Westerners that we cannot conceive of a mentality that is exactly the opposite - that if I win, you must lose, and vice versa.

The writings of the early Zionists show that rather than trying to hurt the surrounding Arab communities, Zionism intended to enrich them with a growing economy and modernization. When Israel won the Six Day War, it immediately set out to build a new infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank for the Arabs - electricity, hospitals, clean water. The Palestinian Arab mortality rates plummeted and their life expectancy soared under Israeli rule. From the outset, Zionism was meant to be a "win-win," not zero-sum.

On the other hand, the zero-sum mentality is heavily tied to the genetic hatred of Israel that was mentioned by the professor above that is endemic among the Arabs. It goes to the root of the divide between the two cultures. Zero-sum implies hatred and eternal conflict, "win-win" implies pragmatism and peace.

At the outset of Operation Cast Lead, Israeli President Shimon Peres asked an extremely good question:

Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us reasonably: why are they firing rockets against Israel? What are the reasons? What is the purpose?

Everyone who has answered that question in the explosion of anti-Zionist articles that have been written recently uses a variant of this zero-sum answer. Rockets hurt Israel, therefore it is obvious that they must be good for Arabs. Hurting Israel is a worthy goal in and of itself, independent of any consequences. From their perspective, Israel's pain equals Arab gain.

This twisted mentality is most prominent in Hamas' actions now. Hamas has stated that Israel's killing of civilians is evidence of Israel's failure in battle. In other words, Hamas considers the death of Palestinian Arabs to be a victory! There is a complete disconnect between the major goal - Israel's pain - and any desire to defend Gazans.

For Westerners, it is self-evident that the purpose of a military is to defend one's citizens. When your own population is being killed, your military has failed.

Hamas' purpose, though, is not to defend Palestinian Arabs - it is to destroy Israel. This necessarily means that they want to inflict pain on the enemy by any means possible. Their own people are not to be defended: on the contrary, they are to be used for this ultimate goal. Dead civilians are just another weapon to "win."

Moderate Arab rulers have been able to at least understand the pragmatism of the West; they know that any open conflict with Israel will cause them to lose their own positions. But as we saw with King Abdullah, the Arab mentality of seeing Israel not as a partner but as an enemy is still ingrained in the collective Arab psyche. For the "moderates," the zero sum game is still very real, but it is played diplomatically, rather than militarily.

While Israel would be thrilled to send its experts throughout the Arab world to help with agriculture, desalination, solar energy or medicine, to increase two-way trade with the Arabs, the Arab world remains leery of anything that makes Israelis happy - even if it helps the Arabs. From the beginning, Israel has wanted "normalization" to be part of any peace agreements precisely because Israel thinks in terms of win-win - but the Arabs just cannot wrap their heads around this concept.

To the Arab world, if Israel wins, the Arabs must be losing. And as long as they have this mentality, there can be no real peace.

The literal human shield

Israel-bashers like to claim that the IDF uses "human shields" when fighting.

Well, here's one case where they are absolutely right:

Transcript from an Israeli news show, while showing reconnaissance video of a firefight:

# Here are the two terrorists,circled in red, hiding behind bushes
# The soldiers, circled in blue, approach ...
# without knowing they're so close to the terrorists
# And here is the first terrorist
# He identifies the soldiers...opens fire...but doesn't hit them
# The two officers immediately attack, the other soldiers descend from the scene
# The officers attack and kill one terrorist...
# meanwhile they don't notice the other terrorist
# the other terrorist throws a grenade...it explodes...but doesnt hit
# and then the two officers attack him
# the terrorist throws a second grenade
# and now pay attention to what the company commander does...
# he picks up the terrorist from the bushes
# and uses him as a human shield against the grenade
# the explosion kills the terrorist but not the officer
# lets see this scene again...
# the officer sees the terrorist, runs to him...
# --the terrorist throws a grenade at him--
# ...and then simply with two hands
# the officer raises the terrorist in the air
# and uses the body of the terrorist as a shield from the exploding grenade
# the encounter ends with a lightly wounded officer and two dead terrorists.

UPDATE: I just found out that this video was from a year and a half ago (h/t Jameel.) Doesn't make it any less amazing, though.

Arab world not happy with Hamas

Ahmed Abdel Rahman, official spokesman of the Fatah movement, slammed the Damascus leader of Hamas Khaled Meshaal for his bravado in claiming that Hamas is winning the Gaza war. Rahman said that to listen to Meshaal, "one would think that Hamas tanks are surrounding Tel Aviv." He said that Meshaal is speaking as if he has no idea what is going on in Gaza, and by his rejection of any negotiations he is selfishly sacrificing Palestinian Arab interests for narrow Hamas political interest.

Egyptian Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel-Hadi, who is also in charge of stopping illegal immigration, has accused Hamas of "terrorism and corruption" and said the leaders of the movement are espousing "an extremist and terrorist ideology." She also tried to forestall the possibility of Egypt allowing Gazans to enter and become citizens, pointing out that Arafat himself was against Palestinian Arabs having citizenship in any other countries.

Qatar's leadership dismissed Arab pressure to close the Israeli trade office in Doha, saying that “they only want Qatar to make a sacrifice (while) they continue to deal with the Jewish state,” referring to Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania, which have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Palestine Press' El Maamoun harshly criticizes Hamas, asking what they have done since taking over Gaza that has helped Gazan lives.He writes that Gaza had a chance to be a significant port territory like Singapore or Bahrain, but Hamas instead to emulate the model of Tora Bora, the caved areas where Al Qaeda hid. He said that Hamas has failed to go beyond its "adolescent" revolutionary thinking into making responsible decisions for Gazans.

This is not to say that the Arab world is not very concerned about Gazans, nor that they have any love of Israel. But the governments are not nearly the fans of Hamas that one might think.

Outright anti-semitism in Denmark "peace" rallies

EoZ friend Henrik emails about rallies in Denmark:

The first video is of the pro-Israeli rally held by Dansk Zionist Forbund (Danish Zionist Society). I'm not going to speak much about that, since the pictures show how peaceful and happy a gathering it was (I had multiple friends attend, but couldn't make it myself). About 3-400 people came out.

The other video is of the Palestinian counter-demonstration, fielding about 100, maybe 150 people. After their demo ended, they marched around creating havoc, throwing...Im not sure of the word - its called a kanonslag (thunder-blow), it's fireworks and explodes, but more powerful than a firecracker - into a McDonalds and stopping a car, pulling out a woman and her child that were sitting inside, before the police intervened and arrested about 75 of them.

Most of what they shout is self-explanatory, if you want I can explain, though. At the 0:44 mark, we have one of them Heiling in the typical Nazi fashion. At the 1:10-mark, the leader switches into Danish, and he says "Hamas will never be eradicated, on the contrary we would very much like to eradicate Israel from the world map. We want to kill all Jews around the world. All Jews have to be exterminated. That's obvious, there is no reason for them to exist".

On the 9th, there was a "peace" demonstration in the city of Århus. The attendance was divided in three: Muslim men at the front, Muslim women and children in the middle and the communists at the back. Note what the Muslim men are chanting (in Arabic) : "Takbir, Allah hu akbar" = "Conquest, Allah is the greatest". When the demo wound up where it was supposed to end, there were speeches. When a representative of the centre-left Radical Party ended her speech, the Arabs attending began shouting (in Danish) "Vi vil ha´ krig, Vi vil ha´krig" = "We want war, We want war".

So which ones are the "peace" demonstrators again?

Knock, knock - another example of Free Gaza/Hamas propaganda

The Free Gaza Movement is trying hard to be the premier place to go to get unfettered pro-terrorist propaganda. Here is part of a recent email meant to stir up rage against Israel:

1. Israel has begun a new policy in Gaza in the past two days called the "roof knock". This is when a "small" rocket is fired from Israeli military aircraft that is strong enough to blast open the roof of a targeted building. It is sent as a "warning message" to the building's inhabitants giving them between 2 and 3 minutes to evacuate before the building is completely destroyed. A number of cases of this new technique have been reported recently.

And what is the truth? From the New York Times:

A new Israeli weapon, meanwhile, is tailored to the Hamas tactic of asking civilians to stand on the roofs of buildings so Israeli pilots will not bomb. The Israelis are countering with a missile designed, paradoxically, not to explode. They aim the missiles at empty areas of the roofs to frighten residents into leaving the buildings, a tactic called “a knock on the roof.”

The evil-sounding IDF method is, yet again, a way to save the lives of Gazans that Hamas is purposefully putting into danger. And the FGM just happens to leave out the part about Hamas using human shields. This shows yet again that Israel spends time, effort and thought into how to save Gazans' lives while going after terrorists, and Hamas spends time and effort on how to endanger Gazans' lives in order to save their own. Hamas' and Islamic Jihad's tactics of purposefully hiding behind civilians is the evil here, and no amount of pro-terrorist "human rights' spin can make it otherwise. Plus, we once again see that Free Gaza is simply a Hamas PR front organization who cares little about real Palestinian Arab lives and much about whitewashing Hamas' crimes against the people they pretend to care about. Just like many of the "pro-Palestinian" protesters.

Another great post by Yaacov Lozowick

It's tough to keep writing good blog posts when others keep raising the bar.

OK. Here I am: a supporter of this war. The proud and fearful father of a soldier fighting this war. A man who hates violence, and shudders with horror at the sight of murdered children. I take upon myself responsibility for the deaths of those Palestinian children to the full extent a voting citizen is responsible for the actions of his government, his army: the ultimate responsibility, since I'm part of the sovereign. It's my country. I'm not a passerby, or a detached observer: I'm an actor in the events.

My justification is that it is a greater injustice to allow the evil to act unchecked, than to check them. Of course, we must take all reasonable measures that we not become equally evil ourselves; but once we've done so, and so long as we continue to do so, it is better to kill would-be murderers than allow them to kill.

This doesn't mean we must spend our days hunting down whoever might potentially be willing to kill us. I'm making a conceptual statement, not a political one. Of course using violence must be an act of last resource, and it must be calibrated to achieve its goals, and it must be done with the greatest of care, and so on. All those conditions must be met, and repeatedly questioned lest what was true earlier is no longer true now, and so on. Once those conditions exist, however, it is legitimate to go to war, even with the certainty that some number of innocents will die, because not going to war will create a greater injustice.

Read the whole thing. Hell, read his whole blog.

Hamas "no longer protecting Shalit" and other news

Firas Press quotes an interview with Hamas spokesman Abu Marzouk where he states that he no longer knows if Gilad Shalit is alive and that his safety is no longer a concern for Hamas.

In other news, Marzouk also claims that Hamas has kiilled dozens of soldiers and that Israel is hiding their deaths, in one of the many examples of Elder's First Rule of Arab Projection that is very relevant today.

This rule states that "Arabs will project their own crimes and worldviews on everyone else." The corollary is that if Arabs accuse Israel of a crime, they are invariably far more guilty of that same crime.

To give another example, Palestine Today accuses the IDF of using "human shields" in Gaza. This is laughable, as Hamas would have no compunctions about firing on its own civilians in order to hurt IDF soldiers.

In this same vein of lies for the sake of propaganda, as YNet reported,

We come across a local family in one of the buildings. Grandparents, a few young parents, some children and a few toddlers. Sitting on a rug, their legs are covered in blankets and two soldiers are standing guard nearby. "What about them?" I ask. "They're free to go if they want to, but they don't want to," said Eilon Perry, Givati's operations officer. "They informed us they would be staying in the house and we have no choice but to accept that."

The family suddenly notices the cameras, and immediately, the expression on their faces changes. "We have no food," they say in Arabic, as one of the youngsters suggests we interview him in English about their plight. Givati troops are extremely concerned about being portrayed as abusing innocent civilians. Perry points to a stack of canned goods, water bottles and other provisions. "We provided some of that and they cook and eat quite well," he said. The Palestinians seem to understand him and one of them smiles. It's a war – they had to try.

The citizens and "witnesses" themselves that are relied upon by the media are in on the game, and will anxiously seek out the media to repeat whatever the current propaganda line is. If an "eyewitness" is being quoted by name, you can be certain that they are making sure that they don't say anything that would make Hamas angry.

Back to Shalit's case, the loudest claims about Israel is that the IDF is breaking international laws in Gaza. Well, besides the laws we've already proven that Hamas is breaking constantly, there's another little one about how to treat prisoners of war, and Hamas now admits that it is ignoring that one, too.

PaHamas Pajamas! [new EoZ video]

The official sleepwear of the Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades!

The myth of the "pro-Palestinian" rallies

The media loves to cover demonstrations, the more colorful and loud the better. And there has been ample opportunity to show lots of demonstrations about Gaza these past couple of weeks. The only problem is that the vast majority of the protesters don't really care about "Palestinians." When thousands of Palestinian Arabs were killed during Black September in 1971, there were no crowds at Jordanian embassies. When hundreds of Palestinian Arab civlians were killed in a single day in Lebanon in1975, no one protested. When thousands of Palestinian Arab civilians were murdered by Syrian-backed militia in Lebanese camps in 1985-86 (including Sabra and Shatila!), there were no demonstrations. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were expelled from Kuwait in a single week in 1991, there were no rallies. When Hamas and Fatah fought only two summers ago, killing hundreds in a month, the so-called "peace camp" was silent. Only when Israel gets involved in a conflict do these "activists" come out of the woodwork. Ignoring the many conflicts around the world, their fake indignation is ignited at the thought of Israel defending itself. Muslims who barely go "tsk, tsk" when Arabs kill each other are driven to a frenzy when Israelis finally decide to act after years of provocation. International ANSWER, the Communist party behind a large number of Western anti-Israel demonstrations, has nothing that is "pro-Palestinian" on its website; only diatribes against Israel and the United States. The current rallies aren't pro-Palestinian or even anti-war - they are purely anti-Israel, with more than a little anti-semitism. They are not crying over civilian deaths, they are gleefully calling Zionists "Nazis." They aren't demanding human rights; they are demanding Israel's destruction. The media is part of the problem when they refer to these demonstrations as being "pro-Palestinian." They don't give a damn about Palestinian Arabs, they never have and they never will.

The advantages of craziness

I once had a co-worker - a really nice guy, actually - who was a master manipulator of other people. He would set up office politics in ways that would benefit himself, without anyone really realizing that he was calling the shots.

One way he manipulated the boss was to give an aura of unpredictability and scariness. Once every couple of months, he would (quite purposefully) get into an argument with the boss at a staff meeting, and it would degrade into a shouting match. This was meant to keep the management a little leery of him, and the boss would give him a wide swath to avoid these embarrassing confrontations. The net result was that management felt that he was a good worker as long as his superiors didn't cross any of his "irrational" lines.

In other words, he would use craziness as a tool to keep himself on top.

I am reminded of this by this posting on Power Line, quoting JCPA analyst Dan Diker:

Israel may have reached a deterrent moment in its war in Gaza against Iranian-backed Hamas. I spoke with a senior Arab diplomat last night. He told me that the Arab street is afraid that "the Jews have gone crazy."
Yes, it's true. He noted, "Israel has begun to restore its deterrence" in the Arab world. "Hamas miscalculated," he added. They had thought Israel would not attack, but would merely accede to tougher Hamas demands for an improved "Tahdiya," their version of a temporary calm.

This is perhaps one of the more optimistic assessments I have heard from Arab colleagues recently. There is supporting documentation. Hizbullah's immediate public denial yesterday of the Katusha rocket attack from Southern Lebanon against Israel's North and the reports on Lebanese TV of convoys of Lebanese (read: Hizbullah) vehicles moving north in expectation of a major Israeli reprisal strengthens this sense.

It's also notable that Al Jazeera's reportage yesterday avoided interviewing ordinary Gazans. Arab sources in Gaza confided that the public anger is not directed at Israel any more than it is at Hamas. Al Jazeera, doing a superb job as PR agents for Iran's proxies, likely wanted to avoid risking those types of reactions from the battlefield.

The Arabs thought they had the Jews figured out. They thought they knew just how far to push them and still get concession after concession; they thought they knew that Israelis would inevitably bow to public pressure, they thought that Israel couldn't stomach the civilian deaths that Hamas was orchestrating.

But once they get the idea that they miscalculated, things change - not only for this war but for the next couple of decades.

And you can only make predictions about someone else's behavior when they act consistently and rationally. Once they start acting crazy, you have to be afraid, because you simply can no longer guess what is coming next.

I don't think that Israel is feigning craziness like my friend used to. Israelis clearly had enough of the Qassams over the past seven years and are not going to let them go on, world pressure notwithstanding. But from the Arab perspective they have crossed a line that Arabs felt comfortable would never be crossed. The Hamas strategy of using human shields and putting Gazans in grave danger in order to pressure Israel is backfiring - because Israel is not being daunted by the civilian deaths this time. From Israel' s perspective, it is clear that all civilian deaths are Hamas' fault; from the Arab perspective, it looks like Israel really is indiscriminately killing civilians this time.

It is not so much that the Arabs are afraid that the Jews have gone crazy - they are afraid that the Jews are starting to act like Arabs.

And if Israel is fighting a war with the same rulebook that the Arabs have used forever, that is something to be scared of.

Today's "craziness" could end up saving many, many lives in the future. Because in the end, it is not concessions or land or handshakes that will protect Israel; it is deterrence.

Hamas shoots mortars at aid convoys, no one cares

While the UNRWA gets its collective panties bunched up over supposed Israeli violations of humanitarian law, they are completely, absolutely silent over Hamas' direct attacks on Gazan aid.

We have already seen that Hamas confiscates aid at gunpoint once it gets into Gaza, takes the lion's share, then sells the rest to Gazans and takes profit, before any other agency gets their part.

Not a word from UNRWA.

Today, we see that Hamas broke the three-hour truce by firing at the Kerem Shalom crossing while humanitarian aid was being delivered.

Not a word from UNRWA.

I know this sounds crazy, but it is almost as if the UNRWA is solidly on the side of the terrorists!

Ha'aretz (Hebrew only so far) has news of some outstanding archaeological finds in the City of David in Jerusalem. When the English version comes out I'll reproduce it, but the most stunning find is the one pictured here, of a 2 cm high pomegranate.

The reason this is interesting is because the description of the building of Solomon's Temple in I Kings 7 includes:

40 And Hiram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of the LORD: 41 the two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; 42 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; 43 and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases; 44 and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea; 45 and the pots, and the shovels, and the basins; even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of the LORD, were of burnished brass.

h/t My Right Word

Al Aqsa's late night pr0n

EoZ friend Henrik emails me:

Danish press says that al-Aqsa TV by accident switched to showing Polish po-rn tonight. Apparently a technician switched the source for image to Polish station Patio TV, that was at the time showing a po-rn movie featuring a nude blonde playing around with a veil.

To make it even funnier, the soundtrack wasnt changed, so for six minutes, Gaza residents were watching Polish po-rn with a soundtrack of Arab war-songs :-)

The clip, which is hilarious and absolutely not suitable for work, can be seen at The Jawa Report The ubiquitous green Arabic news crawl continues underneath the woman and her veil and Arabic music plays, turning the entire thing into a Arabic po-rn music video.

Syrian pilots stopped from attacking Israel?

According to a couple of Palestinian Arab newspapers, quoting the Hebrew Omedia site (I could not find the original,) seven Syrian pilots were conspiring to fly over and bomb Israel a few days ago. Syria found out about the plot and arrested them, and also told their pilots that if anyone goes on such an adventure, Syria would kill their families.

It added that Syria is keeping a tight lid on any pro-Hamas demonstrations.

A UN resolution that Hamas can love (updated)

The UN passed a cease-fire resolution that Hamas can wholeheartedly support, according to its own twisted logic. Itis a shame that the US couldn't see through the diplo-speak to understand this enough to block it.

Let's look at how Hamas will interpret UN Security Council Resolution 1860:

1. The Security Council stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Hamas: Which will indicate that we drove the Zionists out of Gaza.

2. The Security Council calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment.

3. The Security Council welcomes the initiatives aimed at creating and opening humanitarian corridors and other mechanisms for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.

4. The Security Council calls on member states to support international efforts to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza, including through urgently needed additional contributions to UNWRA and through the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee.

Hamas: Perfect. We have never bothered to set up any infrastructure for humanitarian aid since we took control of Gaza, leaving all normal functions of government to NGOs and, when not a danger, Fatah members who continue to get paid by the PA. This way we can continue to work on our primary mission as the leaders of Gaza - building a terror infrastructure.

5. The Security Council condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorist.

Hamas: We agree. The Zionist entity is purely terrorist, targeting our civilians. We are against attacking civilians and only shoot rockets at military targets.

6. The Security Council calls upon member states to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable ceasefire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained reopening of crossing points on the basis of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access between the Palestinian Authority; and in this regard, welcomes the Egyptian initative, and other regional and international efforts that are underway.

Hamas: We are not a member state so this doesn't apply to us. The member states have already tried to stop smuggling and failed, so we are fine with that part of the paragraph.

As far as the Egyptian border is concerned, we call on Egypt to work with us directly to open Rafah fully and bypass international and Israeli involvement, which is consistent with the EUBAM agreement and will give us international recognition as the legitimate rulers of Gaza.

7. The Security Council encourages tangible steps towards intra-Palestinian reconciliation including in support of mediation efforts of Egypt and the League of Arab States as expressed in the 26 November 2008 resolution, and consistent with Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008) and other relevant resolutions.

Hamas: We agree that the Palestinian people should be united under their democratically elected leaders, Hamas.

8. The Security Council calls for renewed and urgent efforts by the parties and the international community to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders, as envisaged in Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008), and recalls also the important of the Arab Peace Initiative.

Hamas: This is so watered down as to be meaningless, so, sure, why not, as long as the international community considers tactical truces to be "peace."

9. The Security Council welcomes the Quartet's consideration, in consultation with the parties, of an international meeting in Moscow in 2009.

Hamas: Keep on talking while we keep on firing in legitimate self-defense at Israeli schools that we call "military bases."

While at first glance it appears to be "balanced," in fact only Israel has any obligations under this resolution - to give Hamas a symbolic victory, which is the only kind that Arabs recognize. Hamas is not mentioned once. Hamas has no obligations under this resolution. The word "rockets" is not mentioned specifically, and Gilad Shalit is not mentioned at all.

Under these terms, Hamas gains immense prestige and bragging rights, Gazans continue to live in misery, and Israeli residents will still be subject to regular rocket fire that the UN is powerless to stop.

UPDATE: Even so, Hamas rejected the resolution:

Hamas rejected the resolution, with spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri telling Arabic news channel al-Jazeera from Yemen, 'We are not concerned by the decision because Hamas was not consulted and it did not take into consideration the interest and demands of our people in Gaza.'
The Islamic Jihad also said in a statement the council's decision was not acceptable.

A Hamas spokesman from Damascus put it this way:

Abu Marzouq: We have three conditions for any peace initiative coming from any state.

First, the aggression of the Israelis should stop. All of the gates should be opened, including the gate of Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Finally, Israel has to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

We are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel - we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

When others talk about a ceasefire, they are saying all military operations should stop.

But we are sending a message [by firing rockets]: "We will not surrender. We have to fight the Israelis and we will win this battle."

We know we are going to lose a lot of people from our side, but we are going to win, inshallah.

Iran urges assassinations worldwide

From the National Council of Resistance to Iran website:

A one-million-dollar reward for the assassination of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s President, has been set up, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) front organization has announced. Sadegh Shahbazi, secretary of the so-called “Student Justice-seeking movement,” announced the reward.
Shahbazi, the IRGC front organization’s secretary, announced the news of a million dollar prize for assassinating the Egyptian President at the sit-in in Mehrabad airport. He added: Just as we have a bounty for the assassinations of the Zionist army commander, head of Mossad, and War Minister, we also have a reward for the assassination of Hosni Mubarak.
Shariatmadari, Khamenei’s representative in Kayhan daily, in a January 5, 2009 editorial, entitled “Mourning Sacred Ghassem,” issued a command to start carrying out assassinations in various countries.
In the editorial, Shariatmadari recounted a story from a 13 year old teenager who had gone to the front lines during the Iran-Iraq war with the permission of the mullahs’ current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, and was later killed. Shariatmadari compared him and other teenagers who were sent to mine fields by the regime, to “Ghassem,” a young man who fought alongside the revered Shiite Imam Hussein in 680 and died. The editorial goes on to say:
“In Gaza, all of Islam has come head-to-head with all of infidelity. Bush is not Christian, Olmert is not Jewish, and Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah are not Muslims. This is a war of opposing parties, just like the forced war [with Iraq] and the 33 day war [in 2006 in Lebanon]. Today, this war is in Gaza. As the Imam [mullah regime’s founder Khomeini] used to say, with the revitalization of true Islam of Prophet Muhammad, the Great Satan roared and issued a call to all the other big and small devils. … Now that the war in Gaza is the point of conflict for all of Islam against all infidels, why should the act of confronting the Zionists only be limited to the borders of occupied Palestine? Are the people of Gaza not representing the entire Muslim world in their fight with the Zionists? Therefore, offering broad support, including military support, to them is the duty of all Muslims and all Islamic countries. Today, the people of Gaza are on the front lines, but the war front is much larger than the internal confines of occupied Palestine. As such, attacking the backers of the Israeli military, i.e. its global and regional supporters, is an inalienable right of all Muslim people. Outside of occupied Palestine, the latter are easily accessible. Can one not easily attack some Arab leaders and US-imposed governments? The interests of the US, Britain, Germany, and other supporters of Israel, are easily accessible – or, we should say, they are “within range.” … The time to take revenge against the violent Zionists, these corrupt and destructive forms of disease, has finally come. … Therefore, the talk of a cease-fire only serves to grant an opportunity to carry out future crimes and has no other rationale.”

Nah, this is only hyperbole, and probably a mistranslation. There's nothing to be concerned with here.

Today's UNRWA hypocrisy

A week ago, the UNRWA slammed Israel for not allowing enough humanitarian aid into Gaza, implying that the security concerns of Israel were meaningless compared to the needs of the Gazans:

[UNRWA Commissioner Karen Abu Zayd] said Israel has closed down the Karni crossing, the main gateway for cargo into Gaza where it is normally delivered, for security reasons.
She said UNRWA was told by the Israeli humanitarian coordinator that all other crossings aren't open because "there is intelligence about serious preparations for security operations."
"We wonder if it's serious enough to really keep things completely closed and to keep people on their edge of subsistence," she said.

She of course knows very well that mortar fire on the crossings is very common, and sometimes fatal. Yet she airily downplayed Israel's security concerns as not being nearly important enough to stop giving aid to Gazans.

Today, the UN is singing a different tune, in the wake of the death of a UN driver under unclear circumstances:

As a result of the incident, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it was suspending operations relating to the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid.

But here, too, there seemed to be confusion.

Richard Miron, the chief UN spokesman in Israel, told the Post that UNRWA was not suspending all of its operations, but just those relating to humanitarian aid.

"It's too dangerous and our staff are not safe," he said, adding that UNRWA would still be operating its schools and other centers in Gaza.

You mean, the possibility of being shot at can cause the UNRWA to stop delivering all humanitarian aid? What about the starving, bleeding, imprisoned Gazans that the UNRWA wants Israelis to give their lives for? Aren't they more important?

Of course not. To the UNRWA, the value of Israeli lives is literally zero, the value of Gazans is somewhat higher, and the value of UNRWA personnel is at the peak, according to their own statements.

(h/t L. King)

Summing up Hamas (MEMRI)

MEMRI put together this great compilation of Hamas leaders' statements showing their hatred for Israel, Jews, Christians and Americans.

More on the jihadists' joy at dead civilians

From the NYT (h/t EBoZ):

The emergency room in Shifa Hospital is never calm, but on Thursday, the 13th day of Israel’s assault on Gaza, this place of gore and despair was also a lesson in the way ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth.

...One [patient] was a 21-year-old man with shrapnel in his left leg who demanded quick treatment. He turned out to be a militant with Islamic Jihad. He was smiling a big smile.
“Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting,” he told the doctors and anyone else who would listen.
He was told that there were more serious cases than his and that he needed to wait his turn. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling.
“Why are you so happy?” a reporter asked. “Look around you. Don’t you see the misery that you are helping to cause?”
A girl who looked about 18 was screaming from pain as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded was looking around helplessly. A man had a head injury, with parts of his brain coming out. He was on a stretcher, his family wailing at his side.
“Don’t you see that these people are hurting?” the militant was asked.
“But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”

This recalls not only this posting I wrote yesterday but also a YNet report from Tuesday (h/t Henrik):

s the Israeli operation in Gaza wears on it appears Hamas has relinquished any visage of a socio-political party, abandoning its claim to govern the residents of Gaza in favor of engaging in open war at their expense.

...Civilians are simply used as cannon fodder or human shields. Reports out of Gaza say residents who attempted to flee their homes in the northern area of the Strip were forced to go back at gunpoint, by Hamas men.

The organization is presumably interested in increasing civilian casualties in order to give rise to international pressure against Israel. Arab media reported that in an IDF strike on a UN school 30 civilians were killed, but there is no legitimate way to prove gunmen were among those killed as Hamas tends to bury these bodies quickly, thus eliminating evidence in Israel's favor.

Other civilian complaints state that Hamas gunmen pull children along with them "by the ears" from place to place, fearing that if they don't have a child with them they will be fair game to the IDF. Others hide in civilian homes and stairwells, UNRWA ambulances, and mosques.

In other reported cases Hamas gunmen hold civilians hostage in alleyways in order to provide themselves with a living barricade to ward off IDF forces.

These reports lead to the assumption that Hamas is attempting to exacerbate the atmosphere of a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, as this may promote an international ceasefire initiative. In any case the reports clearly show that the residents of Gaza have fallen prey to Hamas as well as the IDF.

Despite this, no authoritative anti-Hamas sentiments have been heard from the Gazans. However Palestinian sources claim that grievances against the group are voiced in secret. The animosity towards Israel has not disappeared, say the sources, but it is now accompanied by bitterness towards the organization many are dubbing Iranian in its extremism.

The jihadists are explicit not only in their cynical endangerment of civilians but also in their desire to see more of their people get killed, as long as the international community blames Israel.

Free Gaza calls for a "third intifada"

At the end of a long email detailing in horrific detail every death and injury in Gaza that she could detail, Free Gaza member Ewa Jasieiwcz ends off with this:

The third Intifada being urged now has to be our intifada too. As Israel
steps up its destruction of the Palestinian people, we need to step up our
reconstruction of our resistance, our movements, of our communities in our
own counties, where so many of us live in alienation and isolation. We
need to be the third intifada – people here need more and say repeatedly
that they need more than the demonstrations, because they are not stopping
the killing here. Demonstrations alone, are not stopping the killing here.

There are concrete steps that people can take, learning from the lessons
of the first Intifada and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
to dismantle the South African Apartheid regime. Strategies of popular
resistance, strikes, occupations, direct actions. From the streets into
the offices, factories and headquarters is where we need to take this
fight, to the heart of decision-makers that are supposedly making
decisions on our behalf and the companies making a killing out of the
occupation. The third intifada needs to be a global intifada.

I suppose that she can argue that she is speaking purely about a non-violent "intifada", but when she uses that word is it clear what she means - a return to the types of terror attacks that started this whole problem.

What is notable about her advice is that she doesn't even consider the advice that many of her fellow Arabs are espousing, even after two weeks. From The National (UAE):

Regardless of the outcome of the barbaric Israeli Operation Cast Lead, one thing is certain; it is high time for Hamas to step down as the keeper of Gaza. This is where people will object and remind us that they were democratically elected. My answer to that is: Yes, but they are incompetent.

Ewa would never suggest that Hamas stop firing rockets, or that it should re-unify with the PA. No, her advice is to do everything possible to hurt Israel rather than stop terror.

Just going to show yet again what a bunch of hypocrites the "Free Gaza" movement is.

Another dreaded Open Thread

I'm going to be in meetings much of the day, so if anyone sees a cool link, place it in the comments.

As far as the Weblog Awards go, now that the category has become politicized there are tons of votes going towards beating the other guy. 86% of the voting is now for the top three in the running and the rest of us are fighting for crumbs.

And what am I going to do, dis Martin Kramer to try to catch up to him? The dude has more initials after his name than I have letters in mine, and from adding up all his impressive work experience on his resume he must be like 103 years old. I can't start attacking him for fun, he's more Elder than the Elder.

Fundametally Freund is uncomfortably close, but he dedicates his life to charity - also not a fun target, even if he only posts once every three days.

Nope, as much as I want to make it fun, I can't find a good blog to start a feud with. Oh well.

PalArab press roundup Jan 8 2009

Islamic Jihad admitted that four of its members were killed today. These admissions have been rare.

Palestine Today refers to the Katyusha rockets shot from Lebanon this morning to Nahariya as being fired to "occupied territory."

When The Jerusalem Post, Yediot Aharonot and Arutz-7 reported on Hamas' policy to execute and injure Fatah members during this war, Hamas ignored it. But now that Ha'aretz' Amira Hass has written that between forty and eighty Fatah members have been executed, Hamas had to respond. So it forced a very scared Fatah leader in Gaza to deny that Hamas was killing and injuring Fatah members and their families.

Meanwhile, Firas Press goes into detail on one such instance, where a dedicated Fatah member who swore to continue in the ways of his martyred father in fighting Israel was ironically murdered by Hamas, which also shot the legs of his entire family.

Firas Press reminds us that, according to Hamas, PA President Mahmoud Abbas' term ends tomorrow, and Hamas will not recognize any Fatah member as his successor.

Palestine Today doesn't only love gruesome pictures of martyrs - they try really hard to find dead Israelis, too. But the best they could do was a photo essay showing grieving soldiers burying one of their friends, titling it "Zionist soldiers crying and screaming as they buried their dead."

A Firas Press writer strongly condemns Hamas for this war, blaming it for breaking the unity of Palestinian Arabs and acting selfishly as opposed to the interests of the people. The writer compares Hams to Hezbollah in Lebanon, also breaking from the Lebanese government to an adventure that was disastrous to the people of Lebanon.

(A UAE editorial also slams Hamas as "incompetent.")

Egypt's official Al-Ahram newspaper kept up the war of words between Hassan Nasrallah and Egypt, saying that while Egypt works quietly towards a truce in Gaza, Nasrallah is screaming from his underground hiding place that Gaza will be a graveyard for the Zionist invaders without doing anything to help. The writer sarcastically notes that Hezbollah is "bravely" confronting the occupation from their satellite channels. The editorial ended with a veiled threat towards Hezbollah, reminding them that they are still a group of fighters while Egypt has an entire army.

Terrorists brag about causing Gaza civilians to die

The video I posted earlier on Wednesday, showing some Gazans shooting a 120mm mortar towards Israel from the middle of a tree-lined street in Jabalya, was notable for something else (noticed by a commenter): the shooters were dressed like civilians.

No masks (although the Arab TV station that recorded it helpfully obscured their faces,) no guns, no uniforms - just a couple of regular looking guys.

This is a deliberate strategy by the terrorists. Not only are they hiding behind civilians, they are hiding as civilians.

The PCHR for Tuesday counted deaths as it does every day (the English version is not yet available.) It claimed that out of 83 deaths on Tuesday (of which they counted 27 in the UNRWA school), 80 of them were "unarmed civilians."

This makes it sound like the IDF has astoundingly bad aim.

But to understand it, one can read between the lines of this gloating article from the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today:

There is no visibility of the men of the resistance in the streets of the [Gaza] strip. No one sees their means of transportation, and even light weapons can no longer be seen with people publicly in the Gaza Strip. The resistance completely disappeared. Anti-aircraft artillery fires on the aircraft without them knowing the location. The whereabouts of rockets launched from the heart of the strip cannot be seen or known.

According to medical sources, the number of martyrs and wounded of the elements of the Palestinian resistance are few in comparison to the number of civilian martyrs who were killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, except for the large number of Palestinian policemen who were martyred on the first day of the war in Gaza.

Abu Mohammed - one of the field commanders in the Jerusalem Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine - said: "The goal is to take the "energy of concealment," to mislead the occupation aircraft and its agents [collaborators.]

In other words, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have made an official tactic out of using civilians as human shields and out of shooting at Israel as civilians. They are proud that the number of apparent (and real) civilian casualties has increased in recent days.

Their war policy is to violate the Geneva Conventions brazenly and officially. Their aim is to maximize the number of civilians killed in Gaza.

The video shows this policy in action. If Israel manages to hit the rocket shooters, they get counted as "civilians," and any bystanders on that street who get killed are icing on the cake for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Since the dead are "martyrs" anyway, they can justify this sick and cynical use of their own people as just another shortcut to Paradise, and each dead civilian is a victory for them, each dead body a literal prize to be photographed and shown off ad infinitum on Arab websites and TV networks.

We've always known this, but they have not usually been as forthcoming about it as this article indicates.

Do explosions look like this?

One can browse wire-service photos of explosions during the first week of Cast Lead, but none of them looks like this one from AP:

(click to enlarge)

Mere Rhetoric and Snapped Shot (and others) have been looking at it, wondering if it is Photoshopped.

I don't see too much motivation for a photographer (Adel Hana, whose pictures have been reproduced on this blog a few times, including for staging photos and for selling pictures to Islamic Jihad) to enhance an explosion, which is impressive enough already.

But the flying debris makes no sense to me.

It is too high, it is too large, and appears to be way too close to the camera. It also all seems to be on the same plane relative to the camera - not in the sphere that debris should be if it was equally blown in all directions.

Snapped Shot is trying to get hold of Hana to get a larger original.

Arab world fears return of Gaza settlements

AFP wrote an interesting story about the reaction of former Gaza residents to Operation Cast Lead:

NITZAN, Israel - Like most of her neighbours, Galit Kakoun dreams of returning to the Gaza Strip which until three years ago was home to 8,000 Jewish settlers like her.

Her reminiscences of the good old days were interrupted by a siren warning of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, 15 kilometers (10 miles) away from her bew home in the small community of Nitzan.

Residents rushed to a shelter and barely made it to safety before a dull thud was heard outside.

For the former Gaza settlers, the rocket underlined what they believe was the error of Israel forcing them to leave Gaza in the summer of 2005. Israel withdrew all of its ground forces from the densely populated territory and handed it over to the Palestinians.

"The current situation never would have existed if we had stayed at home," said Orit Berger, 34, who had lived in Gaza's Gush Katif settlement bloc since the age of three.

"Now Hamas is stronger than it was then," she said.

Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007 and Israel says the offensive it launched on December 27 is aimed at wiping out the Hamas movement's ability to fire rockets on southern Israel.

Israeli authorities insist hostilities will end only when they have achieved their goals.

That, said Berger, would be repeating the mistake of 2005.

In this community of 3,000 where wooden signs bear the names of former Gaza settlements, many neighbours share her views.

"We were told: "You have to give up your home, your life in Gush Katif to give peace a chance," said Deborah Neor, her voice dripping with irony.

"Now we have left. And the Palestinians, what are they doing with this chance?" the 52-year-old geography teacher asked.

The I-told-you-so argument is also popular in Nitzan, close to the port city of Ashkelon.

"We knew it, we said at the time that if we leave, rockets would soon fall on Ashkelon and Ashdod," said Gush Katzion veteran Mauria Bentolila, 57. "We gave it all up for nothing."

Even as the toll from the Israeli offensive spirals with Palestinian medics reporting at least 660 dead, many in Nitzan dream of returning to Gaza, which Israel occupied after the 1967 war.

"I am sure we will return," said Kakoun, a 39-year-old mother of four. But she keeps her optimism in check. "If not me, at least my children."

Anat Yaakov, 49, has more ambitious hopes for the impoverished Palestinian territory of 1.5 million that is one of the most crowded places on Earth.

"I believe we will return, but only if the Gaza Strip becomes a fully fledged Israeli territory and not a series of settlements."

Not a bad article, but what I find interesting is where it can be found.

I could only find this story published in two places: The Khaleej (UAE) Times and the Arabic al-Arabiya (without attribution to AFP.) A third wildly inaccurate story, written by an Arab for Alternet, takes for granted that Israel plans to re-occupy Gaza.

This indicates that the Arab public is not nearly as afraid about nor as upset over Gazans being killed as it is about the hated Jews controlling any additional territory. Even the slightest whiff of an idea that Gush Katif would be rebuilt is enough for the collective antennae of the Arab world to twitch. There is also a little irony involved in that this story is sympathetic to Jews who were expelled from their homes, a narrative that the Palestinian Arabs feel that they should own completely.

As I've mentioned before, this fear should be exploited by Israel. When Israel's leaders say that they have no intention of re-occupying Gaza, they are taking their best bargaining chip off the table. Even if it is a bluff, or even if all they end up doing is a symbolic capture of a few square meters, the Arab world would be far more afraid of an "expansionist" Israel taking their land than by a measly few hundred killed, something Arabs do to each other much more effectively and brutally than those genocidal Zionists.

Rocket fire would stop, and many lives would be saved, if the immediate consequence of rocket fire would be a border adjustment, no matter how small.

Comments on comments

I have been extraordinarily lucky that the number of rabidly anti-semitic and anti-Zionist comments have been a minimum at this blog. I see that other pro-Israel bloggers aren't as lucky.

But I do get to see quite a few ridiculous comments on my YouTube videos. Here are a few:

yahoodiekillers has made a comment on Hamas teaching children to kill Jews:
i love hitler for what he did for science, jews treatment of palestinians for the last 50 years makes me understand and love the guy even more.

ozpkiller:
Fuck israel anf fuck these people 2. I hope they destroy israel and then americans realize what the jew fucks been doing to are country and runs them out. Jews are destroying america but the media will not let you find that out cause there run by jews. Your taxes are going where??? israel. these people must be destroyed like hitler was trying to do.

goodhew6155:
Cool, kill all kikes, until the kikes leave Palestine,

arabs4lyfe:
this kid is a hero. kill all tthe jews

To be fair, there is no shortage of "kill all the Muslims" comments as well. Either way, I can appreciate that my readership is generally a bit higher class than YouTube's!

Open thread

While I try to get some real work done, and as I despair that my vote count in the Weblog Awards have gone from from 12% down to below 4%, here's a place for people to talk, and perhaps include links to things you guys have found interesting.

Another six Gazans killed - by Hamas

From YNet:

Six Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel have been executed in the past two days by Hamas security officers in the fighting zone in Jabalya, Ynet has learned.

Among the alleged collaborators were three brothers, one of whom attempted before his arrest to swallow a cell phone's SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, which is believed to have documented his conversations with Israeli security officials.

In addition to the siblings, three other Palestinians were executed shortly after being seized on suspicion of collaborating with Israel and guiding the IDF forces, particularly Air Force warplanes, before the strikes.

Which means that the number of Arabs killed by Hamas since the war started is at least 50 (8 from 2008).

This is not counting the likely deaths from Hamas firing at IDF soldiers. (I recall a story a few days ago about 10 students killed in crossfire, sorry I did not bookmark it. If someone has that story please ping me.) It also doesn't count the two young sisters killed by an errant Qassam the day before Operation Cast Lead started.

It is not likely that you will find any newspapers keeping a count of the number of Arabs killed by Hamas, however. It is extremely likely that they are all included in the incessant counts of people supposedly killed by Israel.

My 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 43 (one of whom was in the West Bank.) These numbers are necessarily mostly from Israeli sources, as the Palestinian Arab media is very reluctant to speak about these except in very general terms, so I have had to loosen up my rules a little in deciding who is included. (This YNet article included their own verification, the earlier JPost article on 35 "collaborator" deaths didn't, which bothers me.) In reality, the numbers are probably higher.

UPDATE: I may have double-counted some; I'm adjusting accordingly.

Video: 120mm mortar shot from Jebalya

From Arab TV, terrorists shooting mortars from a city street. Notice that the shooters use the trees lining the wide street for cover.

Is Israel allowed to shoot back under the bizarre restrictions that the world community seems to require?

from the Israel Foreign Ministry website.

UPDATE: Naftali in the comments points out that the terrorists are not wearing fatigues, so if Israel kills them they would be considered "civilians."

Israel is following the "Powell Doctrine"

In 2001, an interesting event occurred in Gaza:

On April 17 (2001), Israeli military forces, after what was described in the press as fierce bombardment of Palestinian security positions in Gaza, took control of a square mile of territory in the Gaza Strip (territory that had been transferred to Palestinian control pursuant to the 1993 Oslo accords) and announced plans to hold it indefinitely as a buffer zone. The Israeli action was in response to a Palestinian mortar attack on Sederot, a town in Israel about four miles from the border with Gaza. The Israeli government explained its action as part of its ongoing effort to defend Israel from Palestinian violence.

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a statement that said in part, "The hostilities last night in Gaza were precipitated by the provocative Palestinian mortar attacks on Israel. The Israeli response was excessive and disproportionate. We call upon both sides to respect the agreements they've signed." Shortly after Secretary Powell's statement was issued, the Israeli army announced that it was withdrawing from its positions in Gaza. The army withdrew, though it returned for 45 minutes the next day and destroyed a police station. The Israeli government denied that it had yielded to U.S. pressure to withdraw, but Israeli state radio and some others said the withdrawal was a response to U.S. pressure.

Powell's response at the time was a bit ironic.

Ten years earlier, in 1991, Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, articulated the US policy for getting involved in conflicts. Powell used this initially to justify the first Iraq war. This became known as the Powell Doctrine, and it is most interesting to revisit during Operation Cast Lead.

The doctrine is summarized as follows:

1) Military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target;
2) The force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy;
3) There must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and
4) There must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged.

Perhaps the Powell Doctrine didn't apply to Israel in 2001, as that was the very start of the mortar and rocket attacks towards Israeli towns in the Negev and massive force may not have yet been considered a "last resort."

But while we do not yet know Israel's exit strategy, the first three points are exactly in line with what Israel is doing today. Israel already tried truces, diplomacy, "soft" persuasion, and very limited military action to no avail, and in fact over time the rocket attacks only got more serious - and everyone in Israel realizes that the status quo was wholly unacceptable.

Most notable is the second point, where the Powell doctrine states that disproportionate force is not only not discouraged, it is required!

I have not yet seen anyone try to argue that the Powell doctrine is illegal under international law even though it explicitly states that the force used must be disproportionate. It must be one of those international laws that are only selectively invoked, for a single nation.

What really happened at the UNRWA school?

Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, said that the agency was "99.9% certain" that no terrorists were on the grounds of the UNRWA school that saw some 30 people die yesterday.

John Ging, director of the UNRWA in Gaza, says that there is no way that terrorists could have been there. How does he know? Because "U.N. staff members and Palestinian families in the school compound in the Jabaliya refugee camp had been screened for weapons."

The AP reported immediately after the explosions:

Two residents of the area who spoke by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, the Associated Press reported. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, the AP said. The residents said the two brothers were known to be low-level Hamas militants. They said a group of militants - one of them said four - were firing mortar shells from near the school.

The IDF says that "The information that we have is that there was the launching of a mortar from the school's yard towards one of our forces. Our forces retaliated but it turned out that the school was booby trapped and as a result of our retaliation, everything flared up. There were a lot of secondary explosions from which probably those people were wounded."

From the pictures of the school that have been published, and from statements, it does not appear that anyone is claiming that mortars were being shot from within the school nor that Israel shot back into the school building. And Ging is clearly lying when he says that no weapons are allowed into UNRWA schools, as the IDF showed video of mortars being shot from that same school in 2007. In addition, in at least one case a UNRWA teacher was also an Islamic Jihad terrorist. And it is hard to take seriously that idea that the UNRWA can stop heavily armed terrorists from doing whatever they want at their schools anyway, especially when the agency will never criticize Hamas; and most of its employees are Palestinian Arabs who know that they would be killed if they do anything against the wishes of Hamas. Beyond that, Hamas has shown that it uses schools to store weapons, as the IDF showed yet again yesterday.

At this time my guess is that the mortars were shot from either very close to the school or within the school compound, Israel automatically returned fire to that same spot, and some of that shrapnel caused secondary explosions from bombs or weapons that were inside the school compound, although I am not sure about the booby traps. The death total seems way too high for tank shells alone. Obviously the residents of Gaza are too afraid to give evidence that would implicate Hamas and similarly photographers are afraid to take pictures that would show any clear terrorist activity in the school or outside it. (Hamas has already shown no compunction about brutally murdering "collaborators" in the fog of war, that are in all likelihood being counted as deaths from the IDF.)

(It is also interesting that while the initial reports said 42-45 dead, the UN later said that it was 30 dead, but today's newspapers report the higher figure as fact. The casualty count from the war is certainly higher than the reality.)

Jeffrey Goldberg on Hamas kiddie death pr0n

From Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic:

...Wwe've all seen endless pictures of dead Palestinian children now. It's a terrible, ghastly, horrible thing, the deaths of children, and for the parents it doesn't matter if they were killed by accident or by mistake. But ask yourselves this: Why are these pictures so omnipresent? I'll tell you why, again from firsthand, and repeated, experience: Hamas (and the Aksa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, the whole bunch) prevents the burial, or even preparation of the bodies for burial, until the bodies are used as props in the Palestinian Passion Play. Once, in Khan Younis, I actually saw gunmen unwrap a shrouded body, carry it a hundred yards and position it atop a pile of rubble -- and then wait a half-hour until photographers showed. It was one of the more horrible things I've seen in my life. And it's typical of Hamas. If reporters would probe deeper, they'd learn the awful truth of Hamas. But Palestinian moral failings are not of great interest to many people.

This is the sort of thing that you can be sure that many reporters have seen in Gaza over the years...and don't bother to report.

Because getting a great picture of a dead kid is much more important than writing about Hamas' sick use of dead bodies as props.

Suburban Gaza

Here, from Google Maps, is Jabalya, the town in Gaza where Hamas just detonated booby traps at a UNRWA school, killing dozens and blaming Israel:

Here is a bit more detail of the section in the center (click to enlarge):

While parts of the town are certainly crowded, it looks like plenty of people are living in houses where there are lots of trees. This looks just like any suburban US community. (This is not the "refugee camp" next door, which certainly is more crowded than this. But the school was apparently in Jabalya, not the camp.)

"One of the most densely populated places on Earth."

See also my recent video on the same theme.

Al-Arabiya Arabic news roundup

Al-Arabiya in Arabic covers completely different stories than its English counterpart.

Some publicity-seeker named Jacob Bender led a "Jewish prayer service" at Al Azhar University for Palestinian Arab victims of the war, calling israeli actions a "crime against humanity." Somehow, I don't think he had a minyan.

Analysts are theorizing that Iran may be behind Hamas' decision to escalate, as a way of showing relevance as a regional superpower or of diverting attention from its nuclear program.

Gazans are supposedly getting constant automated phone calls from Israel saying that Hamas has been defeated, as part of psychological warfare. The article mentions that they are fearful when they get these calls.

Jordanian officials are getting more fearful that one result of this war would be that Jordan will be forced to take responsibility for the West Bank rather than there ever being a two-state solution. They do not want to rule another 3 million Palestinian Arabs.

An Egyptian court refused to grant a divorce to a Christian woman whose husband converted to Islam. Her argument was that since her marriage was done in a church and was predicated on Christian principles, her husband had effectively annuled the marriage by changing his religion. The Egyptian courts said that since, under sharia, a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman and since she was not being mistreated, they cannot force him to divorce her.

The link list again

The coverage in the blogosphere of Operation Cast Lead is excellent, and I want to urge all of you again to read those for the basic news and links to other good analysis:

Israellycool and The Muqata liveblogging the war itself, and Backspin liveblogging the media about the war.
Mere Rhetoric doing his snarky best at putting things in context.
Israel Matzav doing a comprehensive and amazing job.
Jack's Shack has been putting up fantastic, twice a day roundups of articles in the old media as well as new.
The Augean Stables skewers the mainstream media coverage and digs up amazing facts.
Yaacov Lozowick has great, instant, in-depth observations and analysis.
The IDF Spokesperson Blog has some good info as well.
Snapped Shot adds his own expertise in finding media bias, especially in photographs.
Plus the usual JBlogosphere suspects: Daled Amos, Meryl Yourish, Soccer Dad, Yid with Lid, Boker Tov Boulder, Oleh Girl....

It gets hard to find original things to post when everyone else is doing such a great job!