Saturday, January 17, 2009

  • Saturday, January 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The JC lists them, as of last Thursday:
A young Orthodox man was viciously beaten after last Wednesday’s pro-Israel rally in what is perhaps the most serious incident.

Daniel Lowe, from Hendon, a bearded Orthodox Jew who wears a kippah, was a founding member of MuJewz, the Muslim-Jewish dialogue group at Oxford University. He had attended last Wednesday night’s pro-Israel rally in Kensington and was on his way to visit friends nearby afterwards when he was attacked.

He said: “As I was about to knock on their door, someone behind me said hello.” He turned to find two men of Asian appearance, one wearing a Palestinian flag on his jacket, the other wearing a keffiyeh. “They asked me where I had been. When I told them it was none of their business, they punched me in the head, pushed me to the ground and kicked me.”

Mr Lowe said the attack made him even more determined to attend Sunday’s Trafalgar Square event: “Jews shouldn’t be attacked for expressing their views in public.”

On Tuesday, a gang of Palestinian supporters forced their way into the offices in central London of the Israel lobbying organisation Bicom after a man called saying he was delivering a parcel.

Eight men and women — one armed with a loudhailer — shouted at and intimidated staff, ripped out computer cables, cut telephone lines and threw leaflets out of the windows.

One staff member said: “They were very aggressive, and asked whether we were Jewish and why we were supporting Israel. It was very frightening.”

It is understood that detectives at Westminster are investigating the criminal damage and viewing CCTV footage of the incident.

Bicom chief executive Lorna Fitzsimons said: “The vandalism and thuggery at our offices and against my staff this morning was utterly reprehensible. Bicom is a pro-peace organisation that promotes understanding and dialogue, often promoting moderate Palestinian voices for the sake of a speedy and peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East.”

Both Marks & Spencer and John Lewis contacted suppliers this week to ask whether goods they stocked originated from Israel.

But both companies insisted that they were regular routine calls and that the timing was coincidental.

On Saturday, three protestors were arrested after occupying an Israeli-owned cosmetics store in central London.

The protestors chained themselves to the door of the Ahava store in Covent Garden, forcing it to close for around five hours. They also hung a banner in the window accusing the company of “funding Israeli war crimes in Gaza”.

A protest in Belfast on Saturday by pro-Palestinian campaigners against a stall selling Israeli products is being investigated by police as a racially motivated incident. Video footage posted on the internet showed the Sea Spa stall, which sells Dead Sea cosmetics, being deluged with leaflets from a balcony above as demonstrators shouted “Boycott Israeli goods”.

In Bristol, one man was arrested after about 30 pro-Palestinian protestors entered a city centre branch of Marks & Spencer, filled their trollies with Israeli produce and then refused to pay.

And the absurd targeting of Starbucks and other supposedly "Zionist" stores continues in England, as Harry's Place enumerates:

The week of smashed up shops with alleged Jewish ownership and supposed links to Israel continues.

Tonight I walked Rubert Street towards Shaftsburry Avenue in Central London and encountered quite a commotion on the corner. The police were cordoning off a section of the street and there were several police vehicles and about a dozen officers. I managed to capture the cause of the all this activity on my mobile phone.

Yes, thugs have attacked another Starbucks.

sb-shaftave01

sb-shaftave02

sb-shaftave03

The antisemitic conspiracy loons and inciters who make irresponsible calls to “close down” shops, egged on by forums hosted on sites like Indymedia and elsewhere have done their job. The libel spreads.

Unlike the attack on a Starbucks in Whitechapel a few days ago which the thugs thought was empty, (but which wasn’t, and a manager could have burned to death had he not made it to the fire escape), this Starbucks would have been open for business. I saw the staff huddled behind the counter looking startled.

As you can see from the photos, crockery and furniture have been smashed to bits. A large litter bin has been thrown through the plate glass windows.

And still, after a spate of these attacks, the national media is silent, though there is a small mention of this evening’s attack in on the AP wires. Let’s see if the news desks of the national broadcasters think there’s anything worth reporting here.

UPDATE: They’re already crowing about the attack as some sort of victory at Indymedia.

UPDATE 2: There’s a short item, including a small photo, on the ITN News website. Another Starbucks - in Picadilly Circus - was also attacked, smashed and looted this evening.

Gaza has turned into the excuse that hundreds of Jew-haters were looking for to express their hate.

As one of the commenters at Harry's Place wrote:
Old school antisemitism = Jews are a fundamentally Middle-eastern people who don’t belong in Europe. If they won’t understand this, we’ll just have to teach them the hard way.

New antisemitism = Jews are a fundamentally European people who don’t belong in the Middle-East. If they won’t understand this, them over there will just have to teach them the hard way. And oh what the hell, let’s have a go at them here too.

You can’t stop progress.
  • Saturday, January 17, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Even though Firas Press is associated with Fatah, it published a long and angry article upset at Israel for daring to kill Hamas spiritual leader Said Siad. A commenter said that even though Siad was responsible for the deaths of many Fatah members, still is is not proper for Israel to have killed him. Which is an illustration of Elder's Second Rule - that no matter how much Arabs hate each other, they will always hate Israel and the West more.

It appears that Hamas members who have been captured by Israel gave some of the crucial information needed to target Siad successfully. It seems he rented a house at the very beginning of the operation for secret Hamas meetings and once Israel caught wind of this they have been watching that house closely.

Turkey's Foreign Minister said that breaking off relations with Israel would be a mistake.

Six members of Hamas' Presidential Guard were killed by Israel today, and their names are listed.

There are reports that Qatar privately requested, and Israel agreed, not to assassinate the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees while they were in Doha for the Arab meeting there.

Another report claims that Hamas turned part of Al Aqsa University into a torture chamber for Fatah members or others it is not happy with.

And today's Lie of the Day: Gaza doctors are now claiming that Israel coats it bullets with some sort of biological agent that poisons the blood and reduces its clotting ability, causing certain death within a few hours.

In close second place for Lie of the Day is that Israel bombed the Egyptian side of Rafah - and killed two Israeli soldiers there. Apparently, the IDF is now operating out of Egypt!
Palestine Press Agency is reporting that Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar escaped from Gaza into Egypt using an ambulance.
Witnesses said that Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader and former Minister for Foreign Affairs, fled in an ambulance after Bassem Naim, Minister of Health in Gaza, forged a medical report and put medical gauze on his head to disguise him.

Zahar took advantage of the three-hour humanitarian period of calm declared by the Israeli army in Gaza and this allowed the first move in coordination with the Red Cross to move between the terminal and hospitals.
The Arab commenters at that site are happily calling Zahar a coward.

Friday, January 16, 2009

  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Thank Israeli Soldiers is a program where soldiers get care packages, along with encouraging letters. The packages are specially packed with items that are useful for soldiers on duty.

This is in addition to the other ways I listed to help here.

And don't forget this great free way to help.
  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The video I found of the "literal human shield" has received thousands of hits. It spread through message boards, first military and weapon-oriented boards and then spreading to other testosterone-driven sites like those for car enthusiasts. It is very cool to get so much attention, and at least a few of the visitors stuck around to read other posts, but it just reminds me that this comfortable little corner of the Web is still very, very small, and if I want to make an impact I need to find new ways to enlarge it. Videos are one way, but they do take time as well as good ideas (the one I worked on yesterday just didn't gel; I don't know if I can salvage it to make it funny enough.)

Anyway, here's a spot for people to put their own random thoughts....
  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al-Arabiya (Arabic only) talks about how West Bank Palestinian Arabs are criticizing Hamas:
After the atmosphere of national unity that prevailed during the first days of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the voices of officials of the Palestinian Authority are now publicly criticizing Hamas policy, especially in terms of abuse with the political initiatives to stop the war. A minister of prisoner affairs, Ashraf El Ajrami, says that Hamas and Israel aim to keep the catastrophic situation in Gaza as it is, to abort the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

In turn, the President of the Fatah parliamentary bloc, Azzam al-Ahmad said he had contacted the Vice-President of the political bureau of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, two days ago and asked him to agree to begin dialogue according to the Egyptian initiative, "but they refused."

Al-Ahmed said: "I think that Hamas is now aiming from behind to take the hard-line position to recognize it as a fait accompli leadership in the Gaza Strip, regardless of the number of victims who fall."

Palestinian writer and political analyst Samih Shabib mentions a "high level of media criticism in the Palestinian movement over Hamas' handling of the war in Gaza." The analyst, who is close to the Fatah movement, added, "I think that when the war began, Hamas presented itself as capable of causing surprises, and promised to create these surprises, but since then Hamas did not achieve the promised surprises, and Hamas' credibility was damaged."

He continued, "Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh two days ago talked about an outright victory, while we notice the ground is a large Israeli incursion in Gaza, on the outskirts of cities to the extent that the citizen is aware of the inequality between the resistance and the Israeli army."

He added, "that in my every day that passes, Hamas loses more credibility, loss of lives of more than 5 thousand between the martyrs and wounded, in addition to the billions of dollars lost a result of the demolition of buildings."

The editor of newspaper al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Hafez al-Barghouti, said, mocking the statements from Hamas officials that "from some of the requirements of the Hamas movement for a the cease-fire it would seem that our forces are moving in the Tel Aviv district and not in their own home."

For his part, Pharaohs Hamada wrote in al-Ayyam that "Hamas has succeeded in absorbing a first strike and attacks, despite the exposure of the destruction and loss of the extensive stockpiles of arms and the death of some leaders of field", he said, "but Hamas this time, unfortunately (.. .) failed, and failed to strike painful blows quality or about the Israeli enemy, despite all the threats and warnings by the leaders of Hamas martyrs and the surprises waiting for the occupation forces in the invasion. "
These opinions, by "moderate" Palestinian Arab opinion makers and leaders, are striking. Not because they are unhappy with Hamas, which we have known for a while, but because of their source of unhappiness.

These leaders are not only saying that Hamas is (partially) responsible for the suffering of Gazans, but they seem more upset that Hamas promised to strike hard at Israel - and has failed.

Hezbollah promised to hurt Israel and managed to kill dozens of people with Katyushas, forcing the entire north of the country to flee. This was Hezbollah's "victory," not merely survival. They managed to take at least a partial offensive and hurt Israel.

Palestinian Arab anger is apparently at least as much as Hamas' failure to launch a "quality" attack on Israel as it is on Hamas bringing death and destruction on Gazans.

This is critically important to understand. Just as a huge majority of Palestinian Arabs rejoiced over the Mercaz Harav massacre of schoolchildren, their ambivalence towards Hamas will turn to love if Hamas manages to hit a school or apartment building in Israel that causes dozens or more casualties.

Once we see this we can understand Hamas' single-minded war strategy - try not to be killed by Israel but put all of your resources into anything that would cause Israelis pain, whether it would be another soldier kidnapping or a successful Grad attack at a populated area, killing many. A single deadly attack will make the so-called moderate Palestinian Arabs into unqualified supporters of the terrorists.

Right now, Hamas is perceived as losing because it hasn't managed to pull off that attack, not because of a thousand dead Gazans. To Palestinian Arabs - to Israel's "peace partners" - a few dead Jews would be worth the price of hundreds of civilians.

This also partially explains Hamas' reluctance for a cease fire and the concomitant increase of rockets today. Hamas is banking on getting "lucky" enough to rocket a school bus or an old-age home. And such an attack will enable Hamas to crown itself as the undisputed leader of Palestinian Arabs.

Because, deep down, even the PalArab "doves" want to see such attacks succeed as well.
  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an reports on the funeral of Hamas "interior minister" Said Siam:
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them Hamas supporters, attended a mass funeral procession in Gaza on Friday for de facto Interior Minister Said Siyam, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday.

If Gaza is as ravaged as the news reports and "human rights" activists want us to believe, and if Gazans all believe that Israel is targeting civilians; if Israel's goal (as that moderate Mahmoud Abbas has said) is to "eliminate the Palestinian people from Gaza".... then why would so many people put their lives in their own hands and gather in such a large crowd, with the knowledge that surely Israel will drop megaton bombs on them? Imagine how many of these people could have been killed by a single bomb of the type that killed their hero (crater pictured on left).

Could it be that they really know that Israel is more moral than they are, and are willing to bet their own lives on it?

(By the way, his Ma'an obituary includes the fact that Siam used to get his paycheck from the UN:
Siyam worked as a math and science teacher at local United Nations-run schools. He joined Hamas in the 1980s, one of its earliest members. Siyam quickly assumed leadership of the local teacher's union.
(Meaning that he was a UNRWA teacher and a terrorist simultaneously.)
  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
This piece by prominent Israeli writer and leftist A. B. Yehoshua slamming Ha'aretz' Gideon Levy is a must-read.

Sultan Knish has the excellent "Why We Choose Us."

An entire unit of Hamas trained by Iran has been destroyed.

A picture of "starving Palestinians."

No one is crying over Said Siam.

UPDATE: Natan Sharansky explains things as well as anyone has.
  • Friday, January 16, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Islam Online decided to open up a message board where its readers can compose their own prayers to Allah to support the people of Gaza. While some prayers ask for no more suffering and similar requests, others are a bit more...violent. In English, too!
Victory or Martydom
By Noureddine - New Zealand on 2009-01-16 04:14 (GMT)

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful. Oh Allah bestow your blessings on our brothers and sisters in gaza and bless them with patience and help then against their aggressors. Oh Allah you don't like transgression and injustice destroy the transgressors children of pigs and monkeys. Oh Allah save your sincere slaves and destroy the arab leaders our shame and burden. Oh Allah bless me with shahada in your sake. Ameen Ameen ya rab elaalameen.

READ AL MUNTAQIIM EXCESSIVELY INSHALLAH ALLAH WILL TAKE REVENGE SOON
By SADIQA on 2009-01-16 01:45 (GMT)

ya ALLAH DESTROY YOUR ENEMEIS AND ENEMIES OF PEACE AND ISLAM AN CHRISTAINS AND REST OF THE WORLD. DESTROY THESE ISRAELIS PLEASE ONCE AND FOR ALL AND THEIR SUPPORTERS IN WESTERN COUNTRIES AS WELL. AND MAKE THEM BURN IN HELL FOR GOOD. EVERY MSULIM SHOULD TAKE UP ARMS AGSINT THEM NO MATTER HOW SMAL IT IS . AND READ AYAH KURSI 313 TIMES WITH STRONG CONVICTION INSHALLAH ALLH WILL GIVE US VICTORY ARAB RULERS SHOULD RISE UP , AND HAVE FAITH IN GOD AND SUPPORT THE OPPRESSED BECAUSE IT COULD BE THIER TURN NEXT . THEY SHOULD SUPPORT GAZA NO MATTER HOW SMALL THEIR ARMIES REMEMBER THAT ALWAYS THE WEAK HAVE GAINED VCITORY OVER THE STRONG IN HISTORY AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. WE HAVE THE QURAN AND SUNNAH AND LOT OF DUAS WHICH COULD HELP SAVE OUR LIVES AND THOSE OF OUR LOVED ONES TOO. LIKE BISMAILLAHILLAZZI LAYAZZURUU MAISMIHI SHAYYUN FIL ARZI WALA FISSAMAI WAHAUWAS SAMIUL ALEEM , 3 TIMES DAILY ON OURSLEVES AND OUR FAMILIES. THE JEWS DNT HAVE FAITH ON THEIR SIDE. THEY ARE DECEIVED BY THERI ORTHODOX RABBIS WHO TEACH TALMUDC HATRED AND KABBALA . BUT WE HAVE THE QURAN SO USE IT AT THIS TIME. ALSO READ SURAH FEEL EXCEESSIVELY DURING WAR AND VICTORY WILL BE OURS INSHALLAH . MAKE TAWEEZ OF MANZIL, OR WIRD AL LATIF DUAS AND DO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO. IF WE STOP NOW ALL OF US WILL BE MASSACRED OR MADE SLAVES OF THESE PEOPLE .

Dua
By Seema on 2009-01-16 01:16 (GMT)

Ya Allah let the whole community of Christian and Jews, punish them the way that all whole world will see it and learn lesson not to torture our brothers and sisters.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
News Yemen quotes the official Saba news agency:
Yemeni Jews condemn the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip and agree that such crimes being committed by the Zionist entity put Jews in risk. They fear reactions from their Muslim neighbors because of brutal genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza.

Whenever Israel commits genocide in Palestine, the Jewish community is exposed to harassment by Muslims. Israeli aggression against Gaza people and killing of the Yemeni Jewish Moshe Yaish Nahari are two incidents evoked shedding lights on Jewish minority in Yemen.
I should mention that Nahari was murdered by a Muslim in Yemen two weeks before Operation Cast Lead.
"Harassments against us are increasing whenever Israel commits massacres against Palestinians. Killing of the Jewish Moshe Nahari is a personal criminal act and we hope we will get justice," said one of Yemeni Jews.

"Israeli killings of Palestinian people force us to stay at our houses fearing of harassments by persons do not understand that Yemeni Jews have nothing to do with what is happing in Palestine," said Rabi of Raida Jews, Yahya Yaish.

"What is happening in Palestine does not satisfy Allah and His Messengers. What is happening is a crime against Palestine and against all religions," added Yaish.
Does this sound like something a Jew would say of his own free will?
While Suleiman Yacoob, Yemen Jewish, says what Israel is doing does not satisfy any person and that Allah prohibits killing human being. "The Yemeni Jews are against genocides in Palestine and the harassments we face are just personal," he affirmed.

Saeed bin Israel, another Jewish citizen, says "Jews face several harassments from some Muslims, namely young people. These harassments happen in markets, streets and while in their work.

But Suleiman Yaqoob affirms that Jewish sect has strong and humanitarian relations with Muslims "we share all occasions, wedding parities and Qat sessions."

Over returning Jewish citizen to justice because of harassments he faces, Yaqoob says "we prefer being patients and avoiding any harm as much as we can." He notes that political leadership gives Jewish citizen more care and concern.
Does they sound like a proud, equal members of the Yemen community or more like ....dhimmis?

And notice the Arab mentality - it is only natural for Arabs to "harass" Jews because of what Israel does. One cannot expect them to act as if they had morals. So the harassment that they inevitably will do is Israel's fault!
  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press reports that Hamas immediately found someone to blame for Israel's successful killing of Hamas leader Said Siam and executed him on the spot.

According to the report, Siam drove to his house and kept the engine running while he ran inside. That was when the IAF got him.

Hamas claims that they extracted a confession from the informant, said to be an insider, and then shot him immediately.

The PalArab self-death count therefore goes up...
  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Jerusalem Post has an interview with an international law scholar, who said "The fighting tactics and ideology of Hamas are a 'case study par excellence' of a systematic violation of international humanitarian law."

He lists six war crimes that Hamas is doing regularly and systematically:
"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is in and of itself a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years.

"A second war crime is when Hamas attacks [from within] civilian areas and civilian structures, whether it be an apartment building, a mosque or a hospital, in order to be immune from a response from Israel," he went on. "Civilians are protected persons, and civilian areas are protected areas. Any use of a civilian infrastructure to launch bombs is itself a war crime."

That Hamas bears legal responsibility for the harm to civilians in areas from which it fires is enshrined throughout international law, he said: "In the general principles of customs binding on nations, in the specific international law of armed conflict [also called] international humanitarian law, in the Fourth Geneva Convention, in decisions of the International Court of Justice and the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - it's all set out there."

Third, he explained, "the misuse and abuse of humanitarian symbols for purposes of launching attacks is called the perfidy principle. For example, using an ambulance to transport fighters or weapons or disguising oneself as a doctor in a hospital, or using a UN logo or flag, are war crimes."

The fourth violation, "of which little has been made, is the prohibition in the Fourth Geneva Convention and international jurisprudence against the direct and public incitement to genocide. The Hamas covenant itself is a standing incitement to genocide. [Similarly,] just before this fighting started, I saw Hamas leaders on television referring to Israel and Jews as the sons of apes and pigs."

The fifth crime relates to the scope of the attack on civilians, which upgrades the violation to a crime against humanity. According to Cotler, "when you deliberately hit civilians not infrequently but in a systematic, widespread attack, that's defined in the treaty of the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law as a crime against humanity."

The final war crime for which Hamas is responsible is the recruitment of children into armed conflict.
Beyond these six, I think we can add:

* Combatants must wear uniforms and carry their weapons openly during military operations and during preparation for them.

* Wearing the uniforms of the enemy while engaged in combat is also a clear violation of the rules of war.

* Phosphorus payloads in rockets. (It can be used for smoke and illumination, but it cannot be aimed at civilians.)

* Violating rules for treatment of prisoners of war (not allowing Red Cross to visit, for example.)

* Immediate execution of supposed "collaborators" and others without a trial.

These are just during this operation, one additional one is that Hamas regularly tortured prisoners, sometimes to death.

Any others?
  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Avid Editor in the comments alerts me to a ridiculously biased BBC report quoting those ever-present "eyewitnesses" to the IDF supposedly clinically executing civilians. The most patently absurd claim in the article was perhaps this one:
On Monday morning, he said the family heard an announcement over a loudspeaker.

"The Israeli army was saying: 'This is the Israeli Defence Forces, we are asking all the people to leave their homes and go to the school. Ladies first, then men.'

"We decided to send the women first, two by two," he said.

First to step outside was the wife of his cousin, Rawhiya al-Najar, 48.

"The army was about 15 metres (50 feet) away from the house or less. They shot her in the head," he said.

The woman's daughter was shot in the thigh but crawled back inside the house, he said.

So the IDF, able to destroy the entire building in five seconds, in the middle of battling Hamas terrorists, decided instead to kill the women and children first, in single file?

Apparently, the Palestinian Arabs have discovered that any claims they make can get headlines if they call B'Tselem. B'Tselem, of course, decides that it should act as morally as possible, by maliciously spreading unverifiable and absurdly over-the-top lies:

B'tselem said it had been unable to corroborate the testimony it had received, but felt it should be made public.

So, let's look at the trustworthiness of Palestinian Arab civilians when making such claims in just the past year:

September, 2008: "Eyewitnesses" reported seeing a settler shoot a boy at point blank range 20 times. It turns out he had been killed by a grenade, and no Israelis were involved.

July, 2008: A Hamas work accident levels a house and kills 7. "Eyewitnesses" said it was an Israeli airstrike.

June, 2008: "Eyewitnesses" say that Zionist settlers release wild pigs to destroy their crops.

February, 2008:
"Eyewitnesses" reported that an explosion in the Bureij camp that killed 8 was caused by Israeli airstrikes, but it was an work accident.

Honest Reporting has many more examples of "eyewitnesses" who are found to have made up the entire story.

In all of these cases (besides the wild pigs) the false claims were loudly parroted by the media, and any corrections - if they occurred at all - would be days later.

And just last week we saw a Gazan family start screaming how they "have no food" as soon as they saw a reporter, who saw plenty of food right there with them.

One would think that after years of lie after lie after lie from "eyewitnesses," verified to be false often by Palestinian Arab sources themselves, that they would start to catch on to the fact that PalArabs know the game and play reporters as patsies.

Journalists, of course, have a vested interest in a "good story," especially with a human component. The idea that people would lie to their faces is distasteful and it implies that they cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, so they are reluctant to correct mistakes.

NGOs have a much greater vested interest in furthering their agendas, regardless of facts, as we see from B'tselem here (at least they admit that the stories aren't verified - many other "human rights" organizations have no problem making up the lies themselves.)

What could it take for the media to wake up and start looking at Palestinian Arab claims with the same skepticism that they would give Western politicians?
  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Terrorist lie of the day - The Palestinian Resistance Committees claim to have tunneled into Israel and blown up a tank, killing soldiers. Uh-huh.

What's in a name? - Anti-semitic graffiti was scrawled on a church in England, including profanity. The reason? The church is called the Zion Baptist Church! So, naturally, out of all the explicit anti-semitism that has been seen in the UK since the Gaza op started, this is the first one the Muslim community condemned.

UNRWA terrorists? Shocking! - Fox News has a report on the many terrorist connections that UNRWA has had over the years, as well as their utterly inadequate methods to stop terrorists from being employed there. (Pretty much, they ask their employees nicely not to do anything naughty. And they check them against a list of Al Qaeda members.)

Arab unity - An emergency summit of the Arab League in Qatar over Gaza does not look likely, as they could not get a quorum of countries to attend.

Photo-photo-photo-photo-photo...op - Apparently, an IDF soldier accidentally left a used, single-use rocket launcher behind in Gaza. This huge victory for terrorists is commemorated with no fewer than twenty pictures taken by saraya.ps and shown on the Islamic Jihad news site PalToday.
  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last time the Free Gaza freaks tried to reach Gaza in their worldwide publicity tour, they claimed that they were surrounded by a half-dozen Zionist warships who opened fire at them and then deliberately rammed their boat three times. None of those claims were ever verified by any of the journalists on board and no video was ever produced that corroborated the stories. Their public statements started backing off from the claims of being shot at with machine guns but they never admitted lying.

This time, they took repeated Israeli warnings that they will be stopped by "any means possible" as a threat to kill them. From their website:
The Israeli navy today threatened to kill unarmed civilians aboard a mercy ship on its way to deliver medical supplies and doctors to besieged Gaza.
As before, we can be sure that there will be no audio of these supposed threats ever released by the 17 journalists on board the boat, and that this lie will be quickly spread through the moonbat media outlets.

One more lie: in a recent newsletter, they said:
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.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
In the 2006 elections that swept Hamas into office, a higher percentage of women voted for Hamas than men, 44% to 42%.

Housewives preferred Hamas 47% to 42%.

Hamas: the party of Palestinian Arab soccer moms.
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
We've long ago dismissed the old canard that "Gaza is the most crowded place on Earth."

Well, the ICRC president evidently just went really overboard. From Ma'an:
Kellenberger also said that the ICRC has “no evidence” of the use of white phosphorus, a chemical weapon that causes severe burning used in populated areas. On Tuesday a Red Cross official in Geneva told the Associated Press that it is “pretty clear” that Israel had used the weapon in Gaza, but said there was no evidence that this use violated international law.

Answering a question about the alleged use of white phosphorus, Kellenberger highlighted that Gaza is approximately three times more densely populated than Manhattan, making it more difficult to use certain weapons without harming civilians.
Whoa! Three times the density of Manhattan???

Let's do the math - again.


Population

Area (km2)

Density

Pop/km2

Gaza

1,500,202

360

4,167

Manhattan

1,537,195

58.8

26,143


If Gaza had three times Manhattan's population density - 78,428 people per square kilometer - it would contain over 28 million people!

Let's say that Kellenberger only meant Gaza City, not the larger Gaza Strip. Guess what? Even Gaza City only has a population density of 6,834 per square kilometer, about a quarter of Manhattan's.

The FG moonbats have fixed their generator and started sailing again towards Gaza, where the Israeli navy will probably stop them sometime tomorrow.

According to their press release, they are bringing in "essential parts for ventilators, which will allow the only burn center in the Gaza Strip, at Shifa Hospital, to double its capacity."

Let's assume that the Free Gaza hypocrites really did uniquely identify a pressing need for Shifa Hospital, that the Red Cross and WHO and UNRWA are somehow not aware of or are ignoring.

Let's further assume that the doubling of Shifa's capacity will save tens of lives, especially since we must also assume that certain Norwegian and Arab doctors are accurate in stating categorically that Israel is burning Gazans with white phosphorus munitions, something that the Red Cross says is not happening.

If all these things are true, then the Free Gaza terror-supporters are purposefully putting Gazans in danger, because instead of coordinating with any number of NGOs, or Jordan, or Tunisia, or Brazil or Greece or Qatar or Egypt to bring these much-needed parts into Gaza as quickly as possible, they have consciously decided to deprive Gazans of these ventilators in order to have a showdown at sea with the Israeli navy instead.

How many Gazans will be permanently disfigured or will die because of this decision by the Free Gaza to delay the delivery of these "essential" parts?

Of course, all this is true only if you assume that the Free Gaza movement is telling the truth.
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Jeffrey Goldberg writes a very interesting op-ed in the New York Times today, proving the utter inability of Hamas to ever moderate: (h/t Daily Alert and EBoZ)
In the summer of 2006, Nizar Rayyan, a member of the Hamas ruling elite and an unblushing executioner, who was killed two weeks ago, told this journalist, "First we must deal with the Muslims who speak of a peace process and then we will deal with you." As the Gaza war moves to a cease-fire, a crucial question will inevitably arise: Should Israel (and by extension, the U.S.) try to engage Hamas? But the question is unmoored from certain political and theological realities.

Advocates of negotiation suggest that the hostility toward Jews expressed by Hamas is somehow mutable. But in years of listening, I haven't heard much to suggest that its anti-Semitism is insincere. Like Hizbullah, Hamas believes that God is opposed to a Jewish state in Palestine. I asked Rayyan: Could you agree to anything more than a tactical cease-fire with Israel? I felt slightly ridiculous asking: A man who believes that God every now and again transforms Jews into pigs and apes might not be the most obvious candidate for peace talks at Camp David. Rayyan answered that a long-term cease-fire would be unnecessary, because it will not take long for the forces of Islam to eradicate Israel.
The article is quite good until the conclusion:
There is a fixed idea among some Israeli leaders that Hamas can be bombed into moderation. This is a false and dangerous notion. It is true that Hamas can be deterred militarily for a time, but tanks cannot defeat deeply felt belief.

The reverse is also true: Hamas cannot be cajoled into moderation. Neither position credits Hamas with sincerity, or seriousness.
Goldberg, who is quite knowledgeable on facts, allows his biases to cloud his analysis.

He is engaging in a straw-man argument when he says that some Israelis think that militarily defeating Hamas will somehow moderate the group. No one thinks that Hamas members will suddenly accept Israel; their very existence is founded on the idea of destroying Israel. Goldberg simply doesn't see the true argument for bombing Hamas:

Defeating militarily Hamas would make them irrelevant in the Arab world.

People in general naturally gravitate towards the perceived "winner" in any confrontation. And Arabs tend to associate military might with winning (as opposed to, for example, human rights records or economic power.)

In 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Arab world as a whole embraced Al Qaeda. Al Jazeera put his heroic silhouette on its backdrop of news stories, Arabs throughout the world cheered the attacks, and Arab pride was at the highest it had been since Saladin. Arabs and Muslims voluntarily went to Afghanistan to fight the weak, shamed Westerners.

Today, al-Qaeda is more of an embarrassment. Sure, there are still many Arabs who are ideologically aligned with Al Qaeda's goals, but they have been muted in the mainstream Arab world, and publicly looked down upon. No one volunteers to fight with the mujahadeen nowadays. The reason is because a much more powerful force came in and turned the impression of Al Qaeda from a seemingly invincible and brilliant force into a small group of people who spend more time hiding in caves than attacking the hated West.

As much as the Arab world continues to hate the United States and its allies, they respect and fear them much more now than they did in 2001. Al Qaeda no longer represents the ideal for average Arabs that it did then.

In the Arab world, raw power is the path to respect.

Goldgerg's argument would imply that Al Qaeda is winning because its leaders have not moderated.

Hamas is the same as Al Qaeda. The ideology, methods and goals are identical. And the path to victory is the same as well - a combination of raw power and the resultant "peer pressure" that makes the Arab world turn against them.

Hamas will never be pragmatic, but ordinary Arabs are. They know that aligning with the winning side is smarter than the alternative. Pragmatism as an Arab philosophy is not as attractive as the idea of an ascendant Islamic ummah taking on and defeating the world, but it is a good bit better than being looked upon as a defeated, shamed people. The very name "Hamas" needs to evoke embarrassment when heard by Arabs.

That is how to win.
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost:
The Navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza, the IDF said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the boat docked in Port Said, Egypt, but the Egyptians refused to allow it to unload its cargo. Nevertheless, at midnight Tuesday, the boat left Port Said and tried to go to Gaza.

A Navy Sa'ar 4.5 class ship intercepted the Iranian boat and transmitted a clear message on Channel 16 - the international communication line for ships - that it would not allow it to enter the waters around Gaza.

On Wednesday morning, when it was 30 miles off the Gaza coast, the Iranian boat again tried to move towards the Strip, and the Navy again intercepted it, the army said. It then returned to el-Arish, in Egypt, and two Egyptian boats prevented it from docking there.

Since that time, the boat has been sitting 30 miles off the coast of Gaza and has been closely tracked by the Israeli navy.

Israel has been coordinating all activity regarding the Iranian boat with the Egyptians.
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last week, Iran claimed it was banning "companies in which the Zionists have any shares."

So I humbly suggest to my Israeli readers to buy exactly one share of companies that Iran heavily depends on, and publicize that fact.

Some examples include Linde, BASF, Lurgi, Krupp, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, Mercedes, Volkswagen and MAN.

If the world isn't taking the sanctions against Iran seriously, maybe Iran can be forced to do it itself!
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today quotes those famous "informed sources" that 46 IDF soldiers were killed so far, and helpfully adds that Israel only admits to 24 of them. Does anyone think that the count of Gazan civilians dead might be just as accurate?

There is outrage that Israel bombed a cemetery. Of course, Hamas would never consider shooting rockets from a cemetery, right?

The moderate, Holocaust denying president of the PA stated that Israel intends to "eliminate the Palestinian people from Gaza." Are accusations of genocide more acceptable when a "moderate peace partner" says them?
  • Wednesday, January 14, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From eNews 2.0:
A Palestinian man with an iron bar attacked a guard outside a Berlin synagogue on Tuesday, knocking him to the ground before the assailant could be restrained, German police said.

The other guards outside the synagogue caught the attacker. The assailant and another guard suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, while the guard hit with the bar was taken to hospital for treatment.

The old synagogue in Oranienburger Strasse, a central Berlin street, is a tourist attraction and has guards permanently standing outside and searching visitors because of the danger of attack by neo-Nazis.
Meanwhile, German police apologized for entering a private home and ripping down an Israeli flag from the window in order to appease a mob of some 10,000 Arab protesters. (Video of the incident can be seen here.)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The New York Times writes another decent story about Hamas members in Gaza. Some highlights (h/t EBoZ):
In a different part of town, another young fighter and his wife were getting ready to go see her brother, 20, who had been wounded in southwest Gaza City two nights ago while bringing food to fighters. The fighter, 27, in dark jeans and Timberland-style boots, swaggered with words about Islam and duty to his people. Hamas is doctrinally opposed to Israel’s right to exist.

“It’s either victory while alive, or martyrdom,” he said. “Both ways are victory.”

His wife, in a white head scarf, agreed.

“Two days ago, he was very tired and he didn’t want to leave the house,” she said. “I told him you have to leave, you have a responsibility.”

But the sight of her brother unconscious in the hospital bed seemed to jolt the couple into an alternate reality, one where they were vulnerable and afraid. The man’s eyes glistened with tears as he asked the doctor question after question.

Back outside, the woman regained her composure.

I prefer you as a martyr,” she said to her husband.

“What if I am injured?” he asked.

She repeated her preference for death.
We do need to respect different cultures. You see, in some places, when a woman says she wants her husband to die, that would be considered alarming, but in Gaza it is praiseworthy! Who are we to say that one way is better than another?
He took up the accusation that Hamas fighters hid behind civilians. Fighters, in a way, are both, he argued, and are accepted by many residents as defenders. People bring them food, he said. Sometimes they oppose rockets being launched nearby, but often they do not.

I’m a civilian, and I’m a fighter,” he said.

The fighter who wore glasses argued that the Israeli forces had pressed them into such a small territory that civilians were just about everywhere, so it was hard not to operate near them.

“Where do we go?” he asked. “There are no other places.”

The fact that they had huge caches of weapons in their own homes and in mosques and schools has nothing to do with it, of course. It's all Israel's fault for pushing them into the cities - that they were already in.
Senior fighters are mostly in hiding, the fighters said. Many have not moved for days, staying in basements or bunkers. With limited access to phone networks, in part because of fear that signals will draw missile fire, some have been cut off altogether during the military operation, and sit alone.

Leaving the bravery to the wives of their fighters.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an actually names some of the people who were killed today in Gaza. Out of the 27 people named, 22 were known "militants" and two are ambiguous. All were men.

If we exclude the two who are unclear, this means that 88% of those named were confirmed terrorists.

One in particular is of interest: Muhammad Nader Abu Sha’ban, aged 17. He was fighting at the time he was killed, but there is no doubt that Gazan doctors will count him as a child civilian, not as a "militant."

Over the years, a significant number of the "children" that Israel has killed in various operations have been 16 or 17, far out of proportion to what one would expect in a normal distribution - and a great number of them were engaged in violent actions at the time they were killed.

Over half of the "child" victims in Gaza over the past year have been 15 or older. There is no reason to think that this number is any different now.

Keep that in mind every time someone quotes a statistic on how many children the IDF killed. Many if not most of them are very likely to have hardly been innocent.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
After a week that seemed like it would never end, with some blogs punctuating every posting with "vote for me!" spam, the voting for the 2008 Weblog Awards are finally over.

My category of Best Middle East/Africa Blog got contaminated with thousands of people who voted against "neocon" or "moonbat" blogs rather than for any blogs, which meant that my category had more votes cast than almost every other - some 39,000 votes cast. Not that my ignominious placement of 6th place would have improved any without the outside help!

Anyway, I do thank those who voted for me; my blog received triple the votes it did in 2006.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Gaza operation is hitting one company more than any other: Starbucks.

A campaign has quickly spread throughout the Arab and Muslim world via email and Facebook to boycott certain American companies that are rumored to send profits to Israel:
The rumors circulated via email, on social networking sites like Facebook and conspiracy websites: top American companies are donating profits to Israel in support of the war in Gaza and consumers should boycott them.

The online campaigns call for a boycott of several major U.S.-based companies like McDonalds, the coffee chain Starbucks, Pizza Hut and cigarette maker Phillip Morris, though most of the companies have explicitly denied the rumors on their websites and in interviews.

“Let's stop using American and British products for just one month. The U.S. will lose 8.6 billion daily if we stop using its products for only one month,” read one email being circulated in Arabic. “As a true Muslim do that. Tell your family, friends, and neighbors and stop for one month.”
According to the Saudi Gazette, the campaign is working:
Saudi Gazette visited American restaurants such as Burger King, McDonalds, Hardies, KFC and Starbucks and found them almost deserted. These food outlets were invariably crowded prior to the recent boycott call.

A huge drop in customers at such places is perceptible. “In the last three weeks, the number of customers has dropped by about 25 percent,” said a Starbucks employee requesting anonymity.
“The customers think that buying one cup of coffee will help in killing a Palestinian child,” he said.
This being the Muslim world, of course, such campaigns cannot remain peaceful for long. From This is London:
TRADERS told today how pro-Palestinian demonstrators caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage when they ransacked businesses near the Israeli Embassy.

The policing bill for Saturday's protest has topped more than £1million. Three officers and 20 demonstrators were injured.

An angry mob targeted shops and cafés in Kensington High Street, looting and smashing windows as violence flared during the rally.

Starbucks bore the brunt of the vandalism as masked protesters ripped out fittings and equipment after clashes with riot police.
And it was not an isolated incident. In Lebanon:
About a hundred demonstrators have converged on west Beirut's branch of the Starbucks coffee shop and closed it down in protest over the IDF operation in Gaza.

Protesters are justifying their actions by claiming that the Starbucks corporation' owner donates money to the Israeli military. Protesters raised a Palestinian flag over the shop and wrote on its window "Jewish favorite coffee."
Starbucks was forced to put a statement on their website:
Rumors that Starbucks Coffee Company and its management support Israel are unequivocally false.

Starbucks is a publicly traded company with stores in 49 countries. Though our thousands of partners (employees) and business associates around the globe have diverse views and share many beliefs about a wide range of topics, our primary focus remains to deliver the best customer experience possible. Starbucks is a non-political organization and does not support political causes. Further, the political preferences of a Starbucks partner at any level have absolutely no bearing on Starbucks company policies.
I don't drink coffee, but I hear that Starbucks' iced tea is kosher. Might be a good time to check it out.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Commenter PTWatch points to a video shown on German TV that shows two terrorists in Gaza hiding their weapons. Here are screen shots of one of them:


  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Reading the Islamic Jihad-backed Palestine Today in autotranslated Arabic is always a surreal experience, but now more so than ever. A fantasy war is occurring that has nothing to do with reality, and it is being reported without any fear of contradiction.

From reading Paltoday, one would think that Hamas killed 12 IDF soldiers just today, with six injuries. The number of Hamas and PIJ "martyrs" are pretty much zero - only civilans (which is, of course, routinely described as a "Holocaust." Operation Cast Lead is "melting" into Hamas' Operation Oil Stain. Islamc Jihad is not backing down "one iota" some spokesman said from his underground bunker. A Qassam rocket supposedly killed a woman in Ashkelon yesterday "according to Hebrew sources."

The only problem is that none of it is true.

It is also interesting that they will bend over backwards to find the most obscure critics of Israel, preferably Jewish. Today it was some "honorary professor" at the University of Nice named Andre Nochi who supposedly wrote a letter to the Israel Embassy in Paris describing Israeli actions as being akin to Hitler. This letter took a circuitous route, being translated by a Tunisian professor before being forwarded to "Quds Press" where it was presumably published.

As we saw earlier today, this newspaper harshly criticized the West Bank-based, Fatah-leaning newspapers who dared to publish Israeli news stories.

The terrorist media has decided that their best policy right now is complete and absolute falsehood, apparently because the truth scares the hell out of them.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
I mentioned in this morning's roundup that an Iranian "aid" boat was trying to get to Gaza.

This morning, Reuters quotes Iranian sources that the boat was stopped:
"An Iranian ship that was carrying foodstuff and medicine was stopped by the Zionist regime's navy 20 miles off the coast of Gaza," the Iranian radio station reported, adding that the ship had left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas 13 days earlier.
I wonder whether this ship existed at all, or was just an Iranian PR stunt. I could find no mention of the ship on the PressTV site this morning, although Ma'an quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman about the ship. One would think that at the very least the Iranians would try to publicize this more in order to embarrass Israel.

The supposed Iranian boat and Free Gaza have lots in common, though. They both pretend to be helping Gazans when they in fact do nothing of the sort, they both support Hamas and they both want to see Israel destroyed.

UPDATE: The IDF denied that they stopped any Iranian boat.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
When the anti-Israel and anti-semitic protests start up, you know that the idiots from Neturei Karta will be there. They showed up in New York, they showed up in London, and they are now regular fixtures in the Iranian media. They even ignore questions from Arabs asking about whether they condemn Hamas or Hezbollah atacks against civilians.

What I am writing here is known to everyone who reads this blog; only reason I am posting this is because I get a fair number of hits from Google, and if someone out there is researching Neturei Karta I want them to know:

Every single Jewish organization condemns Neturei Karta, including every Chassidic (Hasidic) group. Even the Satmar Chasidim, who are anti-Zionist themselves, finds Neturei Karta to be a despicable group that represents nobody, and certainly does not represent Judaism.

Here is a press release from 2002:
Umbrella Group of Orthodox Condemn Hareidi PLO-Sympathizers

Condemnation of Hareidi PLO Sympathizers
by Arutz-7 news
April 28, 2002

SATMAR AND OTHERS CONDEMN HAREIDI PLO-SYMPATHIZERS

"It is with shame, sadness and outrage that we publicly condemn the irresponsible and dangerous actions of a small group of individuals [known generally as Neturei Karta] who have taken upon themselves to endanger the interests of the Jewish Nation, and especially our brethren in Zion, by their reprehensible actions in joining the enemies of our people at the rally held last Saturday in Washington." So begins a statement issued last week by an umbrella organization of mostly-hareidi groups in condemnation of several hareidi-appearing individuals who recently demonstrated together with Arabs against Israel.

The umbrella group, comprised of Satmar, Bobov, Belz, Vizhnitz, Munkacz, Kiryas Joel, Monroe, and other communities - many of them openly and sharply critical of Zionism - termed the PLO sympathizers "evil associates of our enemies."

The statement continued:

"...their depiction in the local and international media in religious garb and prayer shawls marching arm-in-arm with Palestinian Jew-haters has besmirched the reputations of hundreds of thousands of decent Orthodox, hareidi and Hassidic Jews worldwide. Unfortunately this despicable minuscule group, who were ejected decades ago from our synagogues and communities for similar activities, do not accept or listen to the rulings of the leaders of our communities... They should under no circumstances,Heaven forbid, be associated with any recognized hareidi or Hassidi community... We hope and pray that these individuals will speedily realize the enormous damage they have caused to our communities and to the Jewish people at large with their evil undertakings, creating a major desecration of G-d's name on such a massive and unprecedented scale and repent for this terrible sin. Until that time they will continue to be unwelcome amongst Torah-observant Jews - who faithfully follow the teachings of their Rabbis - in all aspects of the private and communal lives."
This is as clear cut and united a condemnation that one will ever see from the Chassidic community.
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
I just received this beautiful piece via email from the Shalem Center's president Daniel Polisar. While it is entitled "A Tribute to Dvir Emanuelof" it is really a tribute to all Israelis and Jews who have to fight under impossible contraints and remain caring, amazing people.

We Jews Love Life: A Tribute to Dvir Emanuelof

January 12, 2009

Israel is a small country, but when it goes to war, the front is extraordinarily broad. On Sunday of last week, it reached “Gan Dalia,” the kindergarten my five-year-old son David attends in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem. That morning, officers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) came looking for veteran head teacher Dalia Emanuelof. She was off that day, so they continued searching elsewhere, ultimately waiting outside her home in the nearby suburb of Givat Ze’ev until she returned that afternoon.

The news the officers brought was unbearable: Her 22-year-old son, Dvir, had been killed in Jabalya, making him the first Israeli casualty of the ground campaign in Gaza. Fighting there as a staff sergeant in his infantry unit, the elite Golani brigade, he was felled by Hamas mortar fire. Though Israel has a conscript army, Dvir did not have to be in Gaza, as he had received high marks as instructor of a squad leader course, was asked to go to officer school, and would still have been in training had he accepted; he deferred, however, saying he would not be fit to command until he had first fought alongside his comrades. In fact, Dvir did not have to be in any front-line position: His father Netanel had died of cancer at age 46, shortly before Dvir’s service began; as an only son in a single-parent family, Dvir was exempt under IDF rules from combat duty. Before accepting him to Golani, his commanding officer visited Dalia and asked if she acquiesced in her son’s opting for a dangerous path he was not obligated to choose. Her answer: “If this is how Dvir wants to serve his country, then this is what he will do.” Two days before entering Gaza, Dvir had called home and said: “Mom, I have to fight. I have to be there.” He went, and he fought—and was buried on Sunday night in the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

A few days later, I was thinking about Dvir as I prepared to speak at an Israel solidarity rally at the Ramaz high school in Manhattan. I opened by talking about Dvir’s words to his mother, and then explained why he had to fight—that is, why Israel had no choice but to wage war to stop Hamas from firing missiles at homes and schools in Sderot and other cities in the country’s south. After describing Israel’s war aims, I addressed the issue on the minds of these morally sensitive young people: How we could be sure that, in the pursuit of moral ends, Israel was using moral means? I stressed the lengths to which the IDF goes to protect Palestinian civilians, and contrasted it with Hamas’s systematic strategy of using non-combatants—women, children, even hospital patients—as “human shields,” to prevent the Israeli army from attacking its fighters or to saddle the Jewish state with the blame for the civilians who are killed.

Afterwards, I fielded questions from seniors in one of Ramaz’s honors classes, of which the most difficult was posed by an earnest young woman named Julie. She accepted that Israel was right to launch an offensive and was fighting in accordance with the dictates of morality, but was deeply concerned about the outcome: If Hamas was eager for Palestinian non-combatants to be killed, while the IDF did its best to prevent such casualties, how could Israel hope to win? Either the Israeli army would be deterred from landing the blows needed to defeat Hamas, or Israel would end up killing large numbers of civilians and be forced by international pressure to accept a cease-fire prematurely—which would be perceived as a Hamas victory, on the model of Hizbollah’s “triumph by surviving” in the Second Lebanon War. She offered a chillingly apt understanding of the statement made in 2004 by Hizbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and later echoed by many Hamas leaders: “We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable….We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.” Nasrallah had meant that the Jews loved their own lives while Muslim radicals embraced death in the pursuit of jihad, but in Gaza, it turned out that Jews also cared more for the lives of Arab civilians than did the leaders of Hamas. I answered, haltingly, on the level of tactics, pointing out that the IDF’s detailed intelligence and precise execution enabled it to limit the bulk of Palestinian casualties to Hamas fighters, and that international condemnation of Israel has been kept in check by widespread revulsion at the use of human shields.

The question was still on my mind when I landed at Ben-Gurion Airport the next morning and headed to a shiva visit at the Emanuelofs. The first floor was overflowing with well-wishers, some sitting and most standing, centered around Dalia, her three daughters, and the general in charge of Israel’s ground forces, Avi Mizrahi, who in an extraordinary gesture of respect was making a condolence visit in the midst of war. Due to his rare combination of gentleness and determination, he became, with Dalia, the center of attention, and the two engaged in a dialogue interspersed with occasional comments from Dalia’s eldest daughter, Hadas, who got married less than a year ago and was visibly pregnant with the family’s first grandchild

From this dialogue, an extraordinary portrait emerged of Dvir—a modest, idealistic young man who was a leader in the Bnei Akiva youth movement, delighted in taking his friends on hikes throughout Israel, and could never be found without his trademark smile, which radiated out from his sparkling eyes and lit up everyone around him—a point amply attested to in the photos displayed in the Emanuelofs’ home. He loved life, with a passion, but was willing to risk his own because he felt a sense of mission to protect Israelis living in the country’s south. Dalia, too, was heroic in her own, quiet way. On her face and in her voice one could discern profound sadness, but also pride in her son and the army in which he served, and resolve that Israel must continue to fight until victory. One could also detect a spirit of hope, bordering on faith, that her people would triumph—and that, as Jews traditionally say, Netzach Yisrael lo yishaker, the Eternal One of Israel will not fail us.

Equally extraordinary was the picture Dalia painted of the support her family had received. She spoke of two teenage girls who came to her home, and when asked how they had known Dvir, answered that they had never met him but identified with the family’s tragedy and wanted to give whatever comfort they could; of a middle-aged man who said only, ‘I’m a citizen of Israel, and I came to be with you, as a representative of all of Israel’s citizens;’ of an elderly gentleman who walked in leaning on a cane, and declared: “I heard that a Golanchik (young Golani soldier) in your family was killed; I fought in Golani in the War of Independence in 1948, and have come to offer my condolences.” She described a phone call from a woman she didn’t know, who had just had a grandson and wanted permission to name him Dvir. Dalia assented, but urged that he be given a second name, as Jewish tradition says that in calling someone after a person who has suffered an unfortunate fate, one should make this change to symbolize the hope for better fortune. The grandmother answered that the boy’s name would be Dvir Chai—“Dvir lives.” And Dalia concluded the story: “A few days after my son had been killed, I could already say again, ‘Dvir lives.’”

At one point, Dalia turned to General Mizrahi and asked why Israel could not fight in Gaza the way coalition forces have in Iraq and Afghanistan—bombing aggressively against enemy fighters in populated areas. There was no bitterness in her voice at the IDF for having endangered her son’s life by its regard for Palestinian civilians, nor any desire for revenge—only the concerned tones of an Israeli mother anxious to protect the sons of other Israeli mothers. The general answered thoughtfully, but without hesitation, that the IDF had gone to greater lengths to protect its soldiers in Gaza than in previous conflicts, citing the week-long air campaign that preceded the ground invasion. He added, however, that the IDF’s strength is integrally tied to maintaining its humanity and morality. Soldiers are united in part because they know that regardless of religious or political differences, they share a common moral code. Alluding to the widely-held view that Hamas’s military leadership is hiding under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, he said that he wouldn’t give an order to bomb the hospital from the air, because there are certain things one simply doesn’t do. This is an obligation, he stressed, that the IDF has as a Jewish army. From the reactions in the room, it was clear that while everyone identified with Dalia’s question, they accepted the answer—and were impressed that the officer used this opportunity to reinforce the Jewish values binding all of us together.

As I left to return home before the start of the Sabbath, I understood the answer to the question I had been asked by a young woman 6,000 miles away. Yes, on the tactical level it can be a handicap to love life when your opponent loves death. But in the end, it is that love of life that will enable us to prevail. We will defeat those who love death, because we love life so much that we Israelis—from teenage girls to senior officers in wartime—know how to give comfort to those who have lost a loved one, and to say, “We are with you.” Our love of life enables us to confront tragedy, and emerge with the pride and resolve, the hope and the faith, that Dalia showed.

We love life so much that we educate our children to love life, though surrounded by enemies who hope, pray, and work for our deaths. It is this love of life that enabled the Jews to return to our homeland and rebuild a state after 2,000 years, and it is the sense of mission stemming from this love that will sustain the Zionist dream long into the future. We love life so much that we refuse to have our sense of morality dulled by enemies who seek to force us to kill women and children in order to defend our families. Though our principles limit the IDF’s effectiveness, they provide us with intangibles that more than compensate—the confidence and the strength to pursue our aims secure in the knowledge we are acting justly, and the unity that comes from a society acting in accordance with its most cherished values. And yes, let no one err, we will win because we love life so much we are willing to brave death, if necessary, to ensure that our people can lead free lives in the country we have established against all odds. In the end, it is this love of life that will enable us to prevail—not only in the war in Gaza, but in all the challenges we face in the years and generations to come.

om

Besides the "Free Gaza" ship, Iran is claiming to be sending an "aid" ship to Gaza as well from Egypt. It should have arrived by now, but there are no updates. I couldn't find anything in the Iranian press about this.

The Palestinian Arab press is mentioning Israeli reports that Hamas is hijacking humanitarian aid trucks, confiscating aid and selling it for a profit. One commenter (if I am translating correctly) jokes that Hamas is using the diapers in the shipments for themselves as they are hiding in their tunnels.

It is interesting that neither the UNRWA nor the Red Cross has commented on these reports to confirm or deny them, as far as I can find.

A Saudi citizen, who joined Hamas, has been killed. This article mentions in passing that Palestinian Arabs and Hamas in particular have been very reluctant to mention the names of their dead terrorists.

At least two newspapers are reporting on a supposed Peace Now survey that "nine out of ten Israelis are in favor of the Israeli massacres against children and elderly people in Gaza." Needless to say, no such survey is on the Peace Now site, although they are idiotically calling for a "political" solution with a group of terrorists.

The Islamic Jihad mouthpiece "Palestine Today" calls on the Fatah-leaning PalArabic press to stop reporting on Israeli "rumors" , such as a report that Hamas leaders have fled to hide among Bedouins in the Sinai, with veiled threats: "History will not have mercy on all those who played on the wounds and suffering of our people."
  • Tuesday, January 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the Cyprus Mail:
THE LATEST effort by human rights activists to breach the blockade of Gaza by sea got off to a faulty start yesterday when the boat suffered mechanical failure at sea.

The Free Gaza Movement (FGM) launched the SS Spirit of Humanity from Larnaca port yesterday, carrying boxes of medical aid for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza. With 36 passengers and crew from 17 countries on board, including five MPs, six doctors and 16 journalists, the boat encountered mechanical failure three nautical miles off the coast of Cyprus.

According to reports, the planned mercy mission to Gaza had to be postponed and the boat returned to port for repairs.
Considering the 16 (I counted 17) journalists on board, and the fact that Free Gaza sends out press releases and "alert" emails at the drop of a hat, this is a surprisingly hard story to find this morning. FGM's webpage doesn't say a thing, even though this happened nearly a day ago.

It appears that their planned dramatic televised confrontation with the evil IDF will have to be postponed.

Monday, January 12, 2009

  • Monday, January 12, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
It gets increasingly harder to find "scoops" in the Palestinian Arab press nowadays, because so many of the articles are such clear lies.

There have already been articles about Hamas killing dozens of soldiers, and about Israel covering up all of these soldier deaths. These Hamas press releases get republished even in the Fatah-leaning media without skepticism.

Today's whopper is a Hamas claim that they captured an Israeli soldier. They then took him to a safe house. Then, the evil Zionists decided to deliberately bomb the house and kill the soldier rather than risk another Gilad Shalit.

Of course, Hamas didn't bother to release this fictional soldier's name. Nor did it mention any Hamas members who were killed or injured in this supposed house bombing. Maybe they left him without a guard?

One would think that for a group of accomplished liars, they would be a little better at it by now.
  • Monday, January 12, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Last week, Jimmy Carter called the tunnel that Israel bombed in November at the Gaza border, meant to kidnap Israeli soldiers, a "defensive tunnel."

Well, today they found another one, where the poor defenseless Hamas activists must have been digging a tunnel in order to purchase some cigarettes from Israelis.

How long before Jimmy starts calling Qassams "resistance rockets?"
  • Monday, January 12, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi had some garden-variety genocidal Jew-hatred and incitement at that favorite of moderate Arab TV channels, Al-Jazeera.

Video clip here.

Excerpts from MEMRI:
I address my first message to the aggressor Jews, those arrogant plunderers, who act arrogantly toward the servants of Allah in the land of Allah.

...We wait for the revenge of Allah to descend upon them, and, Allah willing, it will be by our own hands: "Fight them, Allah will torment them by your hands, and bring them to disgrace, and will assist you against them, and will heal the hearts of the believers, and you will still the anger of your hearts." This is my message to the treacherous Jews, who have never adhered to what is right, or been true to their promises, who violate each time the promises them make to you.

...Oh Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. Oh Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, oh our God. Lie in wait for them. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people of Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, and You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale, and You destroyed the Pharaoh and his soldiers – oh Allah, take this oppressive, tyrannical band of people. Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.
There's plenty more, like castigating Arab nations for not destroying Israel and calling on a boycott of the "Zionist" Marks and Spencer and Starbucks locations in Qatar ("Here in Qatar, we have a branch of Marks and Spencer, which regularly dedicates its Saturday revenue to Israel.") But, really, once you see the punch line of destroying all the Jews, what else do you need to know?

The video shows a large and very receptive audience during this entire sermon.

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