Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

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!

The Guardian publishes Hamas lies

Today, The Guardian published an op-ed by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. Setting aside the incongruity of a Western newspaper publishing the words of a terrorist who shares the same murderous ideology as Al Qaeda and whose organization's charter is unapologetically anti-semitic, we are also treated to an article that is filled with real lies - not only the half-truths one would expect. For example:

For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start. Israel was required to open crossings to Gaza, and extend the truce to the West Bank.

Hamas violated the cease-fire agreement from the start by smuggling weapons continuously. This was the major reason why Israel never fully opened the crossings, although it eased the restrictions significantly. In addition, the cease-fire was meant for all terror groups, not just Hamas, and Hamas encouraged rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad and other groups since the beginning of November.

The West Bank was never part of the agreement, period.

It proceeded to tighten its deadly siege of Gaza, repeatedly cutting electricity and water supplies.

Israel did not cut electricity nor water during the six months.

The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated - as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire.

Both false. From the PCHR I count 22 alleged deaths in Gaza during that time period: 4 during the initial shaky couple of weeks when there were still rocket attacks, 6 during the operation in November to destroy the kidnapping tunnel, and the other 8 during the rocket barrages that followed - and nearly all of the 22 were terrorists. As far as the "hundreds of patients" dying, I followed that from the beginning and it was a complete fiction where doctors from Gaza would regularly announce that certain patients died because of the "siege" when pretty much all of them would have died anyway. Israel never blocked sick patients unless they also posed a security risk, and Israel allowed hundreds of patients from Gaza to be treated in Israel during that time, as well as before and after the "truce."

When this broken truce neared its end, we expressed our readiness for a new comprehensive truce in return for lifting the blockade and opening all Gaza border crossings, including Rafah. Our calls fell on deaf ears.

This one is an egregious lie. Hamas explicitly and repeatedly rejected the truce extension, as The Guardian itself reported.

No rockets have ever been fired from the West Bank.

Another lie. They have rarely been fired, but quite a few have been built there.

What is being visited on Gaza today was visited on Yasser Arafat before. When he refused to bow to Israel's dictates, he was imprisoned in his Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by tanks for two years. When this failed to break his resolve, he was murdered by poisoning.

Another Arab fantasy.

Most of the rest of the article is obvious Hamas spin, but that is acceptable for an op-ed (if still reprehensible for a newspaper to allow a terrorist to write on its pages to begin with.)

What is not acceptable is including these lies. A casual reader would understand that the views are slanted but he would expect a major newspaper to vet out clear fabrications. Meshal just managed to spread unabashed falsehoods, which is far worse than just opinion.

This is simply unethical journalism on the part of the Guardian.

Overnight PalArab news roundup

I finally found confirmation that Hamas has been executing "collaborators" during this operation in the Palestinian Arab press, although they do not give any numbers nor do they say that the victims were exclusively Fatah as the earlier Jerusalem Post story indicated.

There is one specific report of Hamas executing a 76-year old Fatah member and injuring his son, a woman and child because the man didn't adhere to his "house arrest."

For the purposes of my counting of Palestinian Arab on Arab deaths (the "self-death count") there is of course no way to know how many civilians are being killed by Hamas during the urban fighting with Israel. It is fair guess that Hamas is not nearly as concerned about Gaza civilian deaths as Israel is, and more than likely that Hamas craves such deaths so it can blame Israel. For example, yesterday's Guardian said that ten children were killed in Hamas-IDF battles - but who actually killed them? Similarly, there were at least three separate instances of Qasssams falling short in Gaza, killing two children and injuring others, in the thre days before Cast Iron started. How many of the hundreds of missiles since then have also fallen short, killed people and then Israel was blamed? One possible example is this story from Maan about a girl who was injured by a "missile" supposedly from an air strike; but how probable was it to have been an errant Qassam? We'll never know for sure, but it seems to me that the chances for Qassams falling short increase dramatically when the people launching them are in a very big rush to shoot it and disappear as quickly as possible. For now, though, I am only adding one to the 2009 self-death count, raising it to 37.

Another Arab source has an intriguing report, that Israel warned Syria that if Hezbollah tried to open a second front against Israel. Israel will hold Syria responsible - and attack the Syrians. Syria typically uses proxies to do its dirty work, but it is deathly afraid of anything that might destabilize the regime, so this makes a lot of sense.

There are reports that Israel arrested an Iranian reporter in Jerusalem for not adhering to Israeli military censorship.

The polls are open!

You can now vote for this blog (or whomever you like) in the 2008 Weblog Awards in the Best Middle East or Africa Blog category.

You are allowed to vote once in 24 hours.

(I know I have no chance of winning, but my ego can use a boost every once in a while! And I certainly appreciate every vote!)

Is Israel winning the media war?

Backspin has solicited bloggers, asking how Israel is doing on the PR front.

The short answer is that Israel is doing a stellar job in the media war, and it is still losing.

For long-time critics of Israel's hasbara, this operation has been huge improvement. The Twitter page, the IDF Spokesperson's blog, the IsraelPolitik blog, the YouTube page, the pro-active sending of articulate spokespeople from across Israel's political spectrum to TV news and talk shows - all of these are way overdue and, more importantly, they have not made mistakes. On the contrary, Israel's PR is now releasing relevant videos the same day, not weeks later; they are answering questions and refuting false allegations in real time and not after the falsehoods have had the chance to dominate for three or five news cycles.

My only criticisms of Israel's PR efforts is relatively minor:

- The Foreign Ministry home page is still very poorly organized and hard to navigate. That should be the central repository of relevant materials, but as it is, it is much less useful.

- I would also love to retire my rocket calendar, and I knowI am undercounting - especially in regard to mortars and Grads. The Israeli government should have a searchable database with accurate information on Qassams, mortars, Grads, and variants like the "rocket mortars," plus all terror attacks, dates, injuries, victim names, pictures, and links. If I could do as much as I have done in minutes a day, they could do it right.

These quibbles notwithstanding, it has been incredible to see things done right. There is no doubt that Israel's current hasbara efforts have been effective and that they help fair-minded people understand what is going on. Personally, they also help free me up from spending time trying to counter basic arguments and going on to more creative ways of helping spread the truth.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that they are "winning," and in fact it is impossible to win at this time. The sheer number of rabidly anti-Israel news and Web 2.0 outlets and anti-Israel protests and letters to the editor - all parroting the same lies to their varied audiences - makes "winning" a most difficult proposition. A simple word search of the word "Zionist" in Google news unleashes a torrent of vitriol, anti-semitism and pure loathing. Nothing that Israel does can combat the sheer amount of hatred that exists.

I have no doubt that most European governments (and a fair number of Arab regimes) are privately very happy that Israel is going after Hamas, and they hope that this will become a great victory against Islamic terror. Yet most of the European heads of state are not going to publicly "take sides." The conditioning from years of ingrained bias makes support of Israel quite unpopular. They are hoping that Israel ignores the media-fueled hate and "international rpessure" and does what has to be done. But they cannot avoid being a part of that same pressure, which feeds the anti-Israel media, and continues the cycle.

That doesn't mean that Israel's hasbara efforts are useless. They are very effective, and admirable. But to say that Israel can "win" the PR war in one battle is very premature. It would take years of Israelis unapologetically stating their case, over and over again, without the dissent that causes such cheer in the Israel-bashing press, before anyone can consider thinking about a "victory."

Only when the environment is changed to where Zionists in major European cities can rally for Israel with no fear of being physically hurt by anti-semites, only when there are just as many passionately pro-Israel people on message boards and talkbacks as Israel-bashers, can we start talking about a PR win in the West.

Why would Israel want civilians to die?

For the many who are claiming either that Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians, or are actively targeting civilians, they are strangely silent on the question of - why?

There are many reasons why Israel would want a minimum of civilian casualties, or, ideally, none at all:

* Simple morality. Israelis never rejoice when enemy civilians are killed.
* Civilian casualties undermine the justness of the battle against terrorists.
* Civilian deaths add untold pressure on Israel to cut the operation short.

The only reasons ever given by Israel's critics to support their contention are easily discarded:

* The most common is the genocidal reason: "Israel wants to destroy all Palestinians so they can re-occupy Palestine/because they hate them/because they hate Goyim/because they want to rule the world." These people are beyond reason, of course, but the simple question they cannot answer is that if Israel wants to kill so many innocents, why is it doing such a poor job? Why did they wait so long? Why are there more Palestinian Arabs alive today then there were a week ago? This argument is most often a projection of the accusers' own feelings towards Jews.

* The "fairness" argument: "There is a 'large' number of Palestinian civilian casualties, which is much higher than the number of Israeli casualties. It is not fair.." This argument implies that Israel should wait until hundreds of Jews are purposefully dead before defending itself in a way that is likely to accidentally kill hundreds of civilians in the quest to stop the attacks, a manifestly stupid argument. A government's highest priority is the safety of its citizens, which is - for any country - a much higher moral priority than the safety of its enemy's citizens. Certainly Israel should do everything necessary to minimize enemy casualties - but not at the expense of its own people's lives. Once we establish the clear facts that Israel does not purposefully target civilians, and that it spends great amounts of time and money to minimize civilian casualties while still effectively trying to defeat the enemy, then that is all one can reasonably expect, and there is no moral concept of "fairness" in war any more than there is in any other field.

* The empirical evidence argument: This is a favorite of human-rights advocates, saying that they have evidence that Israel has a reckless disregard to human life, or uses weapons that are not calibrated to minimize civilian deaths (or are designed to maximize civilian deaths, as the case might be.) The problem here is that the arguers are no more privy to the minds of the generals than anyone else is, nor are they experts in war tactics, intelligence or strategy. Neither am I, but given the first three points mentioned above, and since it is clear that increased civilian casualties is counterproductive to the war effort, this "evidence" doesn't fit any possible motivation. This means that the premise must be false, and that there are some hitherto unknown reasons for that specific form of weapon at that place and at that time. It may be because of intelligence that the observers are not privy to; it may be because the "civilians" are really not civilian, or - very possibly - it could be a mistake, or which there are tragically many in the heat of battle.

The upshot is that unless someone can give a reason for the IDF to target or disregard civilian deaths that makes strategic sense, it is absurd to jump to the conclusion that it was the result of negligence or maliciousness a priori. That thinking does not fit the idea of a disciplined army; it does not fit with published IDF standards; it does not fit the psyche of the Israeli public; it does not fit the philosophy of the government. Beyond that, it is highly counterproductive to the success of any operation. It is, simply put, nonsensical.

It is frustrating, and insulting, for Israelis and admirers of Israel to see that these "human rights" advocates are so glib with accusing Israel of wanton disregard for human life. Anyone who does a modicum of research sees that the IDF and IAF calibrate the size of explosives to be the smallest necessary to take out a target, that they go to extraordinary lengths to inform civilians (via leaflets, phone calls, text messages, sound bombs - and inevitably terrorists) to leave an area that is going to be targeted, that major decisions like bombing places of worship go through an entire bureaucracy before being made. Not only that, when mistakes are made - as they inevitably are, especially when the enemy tries new tactics - the IDF will take that into account and do everything possible to ensure that they are not repeated.

The contrast to the terrorists cannot be starker - Hamas and its supporters are eager to kill as many civilians as possible, by their own tacit or explicit statements. Their motivation is stated daily in TV shows and weekly in mosques - to cleanse Palestine of the Jews (which they are generally careful to translate into English as "Zionists.") To give a small example, a poll last March showed that 84% of Palestinian Arabs, and some 91% of Gazans, supported the terror attack that massacred 8 students at Mercaz Harav.

Numbers like these are inconceivable among Israelis when referring to Palestinian Arab civilians, yet the "human rights" advocates are so even-handed as to assume that both sides have the same motivation to attack innocents.

But none of them can give a reason why.

Threats increase against Yemen Jews

From Reliefweb:

Members of the small Jewish community of some 270 people in Amran Governorate, northern Yemen, say they have been receiving renewed death threats from their Muslim neighbours since the start of the Israeli offensive against Gaza on 27 December.
Harassment and intimidation have been stepped up: On 4 January a number of schoolchildren attacked Jews with sticks and stones in Raydah District during a protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza, local Jews said.
"Zaher Salem, 36, was injured after boys threw stones, hitting him in the head. The boys also attacked Jews in a number of houses, breaking windows and frightening children," Hayeem Yaish, a Jewish activist, told IRIN.
Yaish said Jews had been receiving threats from Muslim extremists since the killing of a Jew on 11 December by a Muslim extremist, but that harassment had increased since the Israeli action in Gaza.
"The protesters told us the state won't protect us and that they would attack us secretly if not openly," he said, adding: "We are intimidated every day and our pain grows constantly. We even receive threats on our mobile phones."
The Interior Ministry's Information Centre said on 4 January that the boys who had attacked the Jews - along with the boys' fathers - had been arrested by the authorities.
Relocation delayed
According to Yaish, the Jews were told by the authorities they would be moved to Sanaa City on 4 January, but that has not yet happened. "The Jews got ready to be relocated to Sanaa but the process of transferring us was delayed. We don't know when we can move," he said.
"The longer we stay here in Raydah, the more the threats against us. We really fear for our lives and the lives of our children."
The Jews, unlike other local people in Amran Governorate, do not carry guns or daggers. Only the state can provide protection for them, said Yaish.
"When a minor problem occurs between a Muslim and a Jew, you can see armed men gather to protect the former. But when we get harassed, no one stands by us," he said, adding that tension had been simmering in Amran since two Jews were killed by Muslims in separate incidents a few years ago.

But I thought that Islam protected the dhimmis?

More details here.

Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops

We are seeing lots of anti-Israel rallies, but the efforts that Zionists and Jews are exerting to support Israel are a bit less visible.

Here is a purely Jewish response to the situation, received from a mailing list:

“Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” Gets Underway

As the members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) battle Hamas terrorists and Palestinian militants in Gaza, leading international Torah scholars have launched a worldwide effort aimed at providing them with spiritual support.

“Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops,” which was launched by Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Israel, and the Bostoner Rebbe (Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz) of Har Nof, Israel, partners people from around the world with soldiers in the IDF. Each person who takes part in “Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” is paired with an Israeli soldier, and is responsible to say tefillot (prayers), learn Torah, and do special acts of chesed (kindness) on behalf of that solider.

Rabbi Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe noted that this concept is one that has been a part of the Jewish people for thousands of years. When Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) led the Jewish people to war with the nation of Midyon, for every person who went to battle, there was a designated person who was responsible for praying and learning for him. Throughout his reign, David HaMelech (King David) utilized this practice as well. During the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, more than 50,000 people worldwide participated in this initiative spearheaded by Rabbi Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe, and facilitated in North America by the National Council of Young Israel.

To participate in “Operation Tefillah, Torah & Troops” and receive the name of an Israeli soldier who needs your prayers, send an e-mail to the office of Rabbi Kook at maortlmo@gmail.com. To request the name of a soldier by phone or fax, call the National Council of Young Israel at 212-929-1525 x100, or send a fax to 212-727-9526. Members of the IDF who wish to have a “partner” praying for them are urged to e-mail the office of Rabbi Kook as well.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, noted that every tefillah that is said on behalf of a soldier will make a difference, regardless of where a person may be in religious observance.

“Each soldier that is putting his or her life on the line to defend the land of Israel and safeguard the Jewish nation deserves to have someone praying for their well being and safe return,” said Rabbi Lerner, “During my conversations with Rabbi Kook, he emphasized that every Jew is encouraged to participate in this critical endeavor and to pray for a soldier in a manner in which they feel comfortable, irrespective of their religious background.”

The Zionist Collaborator Hierarchy

So far during this operation, we have seen:

Hamas accuse Fatah members of being Zionist collaborators
Yemeni parliamentarians accusing Al Arabiya of being Zionist
Hezbollah accusing Egypt of being collaborators with the Zionists
Hamas and others accusing the PA of being collaborators
Jordanian journalists accusing Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera of being collaborators
Free Gaza accusing anyone who focuses on sending aid to Gazans as being "complicit"
The Islamic Brotherhood accusing any Western-friendly Arab countries as "collaborators"

Which means that the current hierarchy of people who hate Israel and love terrorism looks something like this:

1. Free Gaza Movement and Iran
2. The Islamic Brotherhood and assorted jihadist organizations
3. Jordanian journalists and Hezbollah
4. Al Jazeerah and Yemeni parliamentarians
5. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf countries
6. Jordan
7. Egypt
8. Mahmoud Abbas and the PA

Rankings subject to change based on new invective and vitriol.

Another Gaza casualty: Assud the Killer Rabbit

The MEMRI blog gives a heads-up that Assud the Bunny, current star of the famous Hamas TV show "Pioneers of Tomorrow," is dying in a Gaza hospital after being killed by the IDF.

It is a thankless job, as the previous stars of the show have suffered similar fates. Nahoul the Bee died from an illness when he couldn't be treated properly in a Gaza hospital, and Farfour the Mouse - perhaps in fear of being sued by Disney - who was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers.

Given the 100% fatality rate that Hamas cartoon characters have, it is entirely possible that a large percentage of Gaza casualties are, in fact, these mascots of terror. (This is what passes for "statistics" in Gaza, anyway.)

A Jordanian TV host burned an Israeli flag on the air.

Fatah came out with a statement condemning Hamas for targeting Fatah members in Gaza and telling its members to take proper precautions.

A Yemeni member of Parliament praised Al Jazeera's coverage of the Gaza operation, and slammed Al-Arabiya, saying "This Zionist channel is trying to highlight the Zionist and unfaithful voice and trying to find out excuses for the Jews. It represents the alien voice in media and performs the role of the devil in covering and defrauding the facts." Interestingly, Hamas has been using Al Arabiya to announce made-up claims of kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers.

Meanwhile, Jordanian journalists slam both Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya as being too pro-Israel, by interviewing Israeli officials to "promote the Zionist perspective of the aggression and massacres." These journalists for Israel's peace partner helpfully add, "serving the Palestinian cause" during times of crisis is more important than journalistic codes of conduct.

An analysis in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press of European media's reactions to the Gaza operation takes comfort in Tikkun magazine's "Rabbi" Michael Lerner, who wrote for The Times of London that "it breaks my heart to see Israel's stupidity."

Israel resumed sending humanitarian aid through Kerem Shalom, and for the first time since the operation started managed to transfer fuel through the often-mortared Nahal Oz crossing, including aid from Jordan and Egypt.

A Palestinian taxi driver was "accidentally" shot dead in Nablus.

The Islamic Jihad mouthpiece newspaper Palestine Today now claims that 80% of the dead in Gaza are children! The percentage of truthful news in such a paper therefore can be determined to be somewhere around 20%.

There is a discrepancy in the count of victims of Gaza between the "hospital sources" quoted by newspapers worldwide and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which has a flawed but consistent methodology for counting. As of yesterday, when the worldwide media were claiming that there were over 500 people killed so far, the PCHR's count was at 424.

YouTube bans Rachel Corrie song parody

My Rachel Corrie song parody, which as far as I can tell does not violate any of YouTube's Community Guidelines, was removed by YouTube, probably because some moonbats were offended by it and flagged it.

So here is is again, from LiveLeak:

The Islamic Jihad wildcard

An on-line poll at qudsway.com, which is the official Islamic Jihad webpage, asks: Who is responsible for the Gaza massacre?

At the moment, out of 3000 votes, the tally is

The Zionist enemy - 20%
The Hamas government in Gaza - 13%
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank - 45%
Arab silence - 21%

Islamic Jihad is a wildcard that people keep forgetting about. They are just as radical as Hamas but refused to take part in elections so we don't know how popular they are, but they are the second-largest military group in Gaza behinf Hamas itself. They have generally sided with Hamas and stayed out of the Hamas/Fatah battles in 2007. Hamas is coordinating their military plans with Islamic Jihad now, and clearly Hamas gave them carte blanche for terror training and rocket fire before this operation.

It appears that PIJ supporters hate Fatah nearly as much as Hamas does. In the supposed "best case" scenario (which is anything but), where Fatah takes over Gaza again, PIJ will not accept the PA's decisions on Israel. They need to be defeated as much as Hamas does, as do the other terror groups with rockets (PRC, PFLP and DFLP.) Otherwise, any of those will be poised to fill any vacuum that Hamas may leave behind, and perhaps half of Gazans can be expected to side with them.

Indonesian Muslims to the rescue!

From the Jakarta Globe:

Israel’s prolonged strikes against Gaza have prompted Muslims worldwide, including in Indonesia, to seek to help Palestinian citizens.

The Aceh chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, will recruit Muslims to fight in Palestine, chairman Yusuf Al-Qardhany said.

“The recruitment of jihadis to Palestine will start [today],” he said. “At present, 13 applicants wishing to become jihad fighters have already registered.”

Speaking from Banda Aceh, Yusuf said that at least 60 fighters from Aceh would go to Palestine via Egypt.

Prior to their dispatch, they would receive a week-long military training in Aceh, he said.

Registration for potential recruits would be open for two weeks.

All applicants would have to fill out a form which included parental approval for them to go to Palestine, he said.

“As a manifestation of Muslim brotherhood, we are ready to become martyrs to help our Muslim brothers in facing the brutality of the Israeli forces,” he said.

Since Egypt won't let them through Rafah, they might have to go to Plan B - using the newest Free Gaza boat. I have no doubt that they have a much better chance to get to Gaza that way.

Gettin' Mighty Crowded (New EoZ video)

How crowded is Gaza, anyway?

Previous humorous videos:

Save the Gazans!
If the IDF made cheesy Hamas-style videos....
Rachel Corrie: the song parody
Hello martyr, hello Fatah

Free Gaza: "We're not an aid group, we are a resistance group"

A new email from the Free Gaza movement to its mailing list, not published on their website, proves again what the organization's goals are. Here are excerpts:

On Monday, December 29 we sent our small ship, the DIGNITY, to besieged Gaza in an act of civil resistance against Israel's ongoing massacre and blockade....

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.

We do bring medicine, supplies, and doctors to besieged Gaza as we can, but this is utterly insufficient. 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.

The Dignity is currently in Lebanon. It is estimated that it might take between one and two months to repair the Dignity. It looks like the frame is warped, and the blows by the Israeli warship are deeper than we first believed. Repairs to this ship are also going to cost much more than originally expected (over $50,000 USD).

We have located an alternate ship, which we're currently working on procuring. It's probably not the perfect boat for the Free Gaza Movement, but it's the most suitable and affordable one that we could locate in the short amount of time that we're trying to work in. Our new ship will carry about 30 passengers and 10-15 tons of cargo. We intend to leave for Gaza as soon as is possible, sometime within the next two weeks.

We will give priority for places on the boat to doctors, journalists (preference going to major media outlets), and political figures or other high profile people. We will try to take 2 or 3 long-term human rights workers in on this voyage as well.

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.For continued updates from Palestinians and FG and ISM volunteers on the ground in Gaza, please refer to our website: http://www.FreeGaza.org

In solidarity & struggle,
The Free Gaza Movement

We have already seen how "peaceful" the ISM is, as they laughingly pose with armed Palestinian Arab terrorists.

Every time the media refers to the Free Gaza boats as "aid boats" they are buying into the deception that the Free Gaza terror-supporters try to spread.

Not a single word on their website has anything negative to say about Qassams, or Hamas, or the kidnap of Gilad Shalit. The reason is because all of those are part of their goal, and while they claim to be "non-violent" they are more than willing to support the violence of others that are aimed at the same goal.

News roundup

News you might have missed:

The 2009 PalArab self-death count got a huge boost from reports that Hamas has been executing Fatah members, killing 35 of them, worried that they are planning a coup during Israel's invasion. Palestine Press reports on many incidents of Hamas shooting Fatah members in the legs and beating them up, but only a few deaths.

Hamas is claiming very few casualties on their side; that they have killed 10 Israeli soldiers, and that they have kidnapped two of them, and destroyed tanks. All of these claims are, shall we say, dubious.

Here's a good example of PalArab "reporting," in English, from Ma'an:

Israel's air force strikes orphanage in Ar-Ramal; one killed

Israeli air forces struck an orphanage in the Ar-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza city on Saturday night, Ma'an's reporter in Gaza said.

One person was killed in an attack. The apparent target of the attack was a group of Palestinian fighters stationed near a mosque in the same neighborhood.

Residents of the Ar-Rimal neighborhood said that explosions could be seen in the vicinity of the Al-Amal (Hope) orphanage.

The headline implies Israel killing a kid in an orphanage; by the end you can see that it is likely that Israel killed a "fighter" near an orphanage.

Gaza cell phone and Internet service is being severely disrupted.

Just another lying Palestinian Arab "human rights" group

The "Palestinian Center for Human Rights" has been coming out with daily reports of Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza since Operation Cast Lead started.

Typical is this headline from yesterday:

The Number of Palestinians Killed Rises to 372, Mostly Civilians, Including 75 Children and 16 Women, and the Number of House Bombarded Mounts to 73

Yet on Thursday, in their normal weekly report of deaths and injuries in the territories, here was their tally:

334 Palestinians, including 121 civilians, have been killed throughout the Gaza Strip. The victims include 33 children and 11 women.

So, according to the PCHR, between Thursday and Saturday there were 38 deaths. Out of those 38, 42 of them were children and 5 were women!

Not only that, but for the number of civilians dead to rise to a majority, that means that at least 64 civilians must have died during a time that 38 total people died!

I guess that this is the math taught in UNRWA schools.

Save the Gazans (new EoZ video)

The terrible living conditions in Gaza, captured on video.

h/t to Suzanne for finding the original raw video and jhrhv for pushing my mind in this direction...

Quick fisking of Richard Falk

This article by veteran Israel-basher Richard Falk in the Huffington Post is ripe for a full, line-by-line fisking. As it is, I will only show the more egregious falsehoods and bias.

During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.

It would have been nice if Falk would give a date, or a name, to whomever in Hamas supposedly offered a truce extension. Proving a negative is impossible. My recollection is that some noises were made to the Western press from anonymous "Hamas sources" floating ideas of possibly agreeing to not attack Israel for ten years if Israel first withdraws to the exact 1967 borders, and even then not recognizing Israel. To anyone who is the slightest bit even-handed, this is a non-starter.

Beyond that, when the actual chance of extending the then-fictional truce came up in early December, while Israel was more than receptive to the idea, Hamas rejected it outright, in no uncertain terms. Falk is being incredibly dishonest here by blaming Israel.

Israel indeed increased the amount of aid to Gaza during the truce by a huge amount, closing the crossings only in response to attacks (and sometimes for Jewish holidays.) It also increased the types of goods sent to Gaza, including building materials that were then used by Hamas to build underground bunkers for weapons caches, instead of allowing Gazans to build.

The truce also stated that Hamas would not be allowed to smuggle weapons into Gaza, something it ignored completely.

Falk here is cherry picking half truths to paint Israel as being guilty and Hamas as being righteous.

Clearly, prior to the current crisis, Israel used its authority to prevent credible observers from giving accurate and truthful accounts of the dire humanitarian situation that had been already documented as producing severe declines in the physical condition and mental health of the Gazan population, especially noting malnutrition among children and the absence of treatment facilities for those suffering from a variety of diseases.

Even when Gaza was closed to journalists - after Hamas started it volleys of rockets into Israel during the "truce" - it had plenty of people reporting the situation there, from the Free Gaza members to the Reuters and AP stringers in Gaza to the UNRWA. It is laughable that Falk is claiming that no news was allowed out of Gaza when one could see daily wire-service photos. If anything, according to Falk's logic below, Israel was keeping out the "pro-Israeli" Western press!

As always in relation to the underlying conflict, some facts bearing on this latest crisis are murky and contested, although the American public in particular gets 99% of its information filtered through an exceedingly pro-Israeli media lens.

See?

Hamas is blamed for the breakdown of the truce by its supposed unwillingness to renew it, and by the alleged increased incidence of rocket attacks. But the reality is more clouded. There was no substantial rocket fire from Gaza during the ceasefire until Israel launched an attack last November 4th directed at what it claimed were Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing several Palestinians. It was at this point that rocket fire from Gaza intensified.

In the first two months of the "truce" there was still substantial missile fire, although Hamas did appear to try to stop it. Falk purposefully leaves out that Israel's attack was directly towards a tunnel meant to kidnap Israeli soldiers. The IDF didn't know where in Israel the tunnel was leading so it had to bomb the Gaza side, its first major operation in Gaza in months. Hamas' forebearance on missile attacks is something to be congratulated, according to Falk, but Israel's reluctance to act on solid intelligence is taken for granted.

Notice how he refers to the Hamas terrorists killed as "several Palestinians" - even though Hamas brags about its members' martyrdom. Also notice his use of the passive voice, "rocket fire from Gaza intensified," as if rockets have a mind of their own. This is a hallmark of bias.

Also, it was Hamas that on numerous public occasions called for extending the truce, with its calls never acknowledged, much less acted upon, by Israeli officialdom.

When? Where? What were the circumstances and the details? As I wrote above, the proof of this being a lie is what Hamas actually did when the truce timeline was ending.

Beyond this, attributing all the rockets to Hamas is not convincing either. A variety of independent militia groups operate in Gaza, some such as the Fatah-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade are anti-Hamas, and may even be sending rockets to provoke or justify Israeli retaliation. It is well confirmed that when US-supported Fatah controlled Gaza's governing structure it was unable to stop rocket attacks despite a concerted effort to do so.

Here Falk again plays on Western ignorance about Gaza. Every rocket shot from Gaza since November has been claimed by some Palestinian Arab terror group. True, Hamas did not participate in most of the November rockets, but it wasn't Fatah either. It was the Hamas-linked PRC, and Islamic Jihad, with the PFLP and DFLP doing some others. The point is that Hamas managed to control the rockets relatively well during the truce and decided not to from that point on. This "Fatah" theory is purposeful disinformation, nothing less.

What this background suggests strongly is that Israel launched its devastating attacks, starting on December 27, not simply to stop the rockets or in retaliation, but also for a series of unacknowledged reasons.

Here he goes on to the usual conspiracy theories about Israeli elections and the Israeli psyche and so on. Of course, he ignores and obfuscates the basic facts:

* The truce was broken in November.
* When the deadline came up to extend it, Hamas refused.
* Israel waited to see if there would be a "de facto" truce anyway.
* Hamas then intensified its rocket attacks as the truce expired, making the lives of the residents of southern Israel a living hell again.
* Israel decided that enough was enough, after giving weeks of warnings.

These things all happened in the past few weeks, and are well documented. Falk is trying as hard as he can to spin this to support the terrorists that he clearly has an affinity for.

Secondary explosions - another shortcoming of international law

Anyone who has seen the IDF aerial videos of airstrikes in Gaza has seen the initial IDF charge explosion, followed by (often much larger) secondary explosions from the bombs and weapons that were stored in the targeted facilities. Here's one from a terror mosque that was targeted today:

And this one was from an attack at an underground rocket storage facility:

The problem is that it appears that international law would prohibit Israel from targeting these clearly military objectives - because while Israel believes that they house explosives, and the IAF can calibrate their bombing to the minimum amount possible, there is no way to know how large the secondary explosions will be. And the secondary explosions often kill more people than the primary explosions, judging from the relative sizes of the explosions in the video.

Under international law, Israel must be careful when targeting facilities in civilian areas. Geneva Protocol 1 par. 48 states:

In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.

Paragraph 51 includes details of what is not allowed:

4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are: (a) those which are not directed at a specific military objective; (b) those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or (c) those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol;

and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.

5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate: (a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects;

and

(b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

So while the legality of a military target illegally placed in a civilian area is proportional to its importance, its legality as a target seems to be inversely proportional to the size of a resultant secondary explosion affecting the neighboring civilians. And there is no way to know how large the secondary explosion will be, so there is no way to know ahead of time whether a target is going to blow up the entire neighborhood.

Israel is trying to do everything possible to minimize this problem - sending text messages to residents before a bombing raid so they can get out of the way, and now using sound bombs to startle them into leaving. While this is laudable (perhaps to the point of being foolhardy) there will still be some civilian casualties that "impartial" jurists could interpret as being the result of illegal actions under para 51.4(c) - effects that cannot be limited, because of terrorist action.

As we have seen before, international law needs to catch up to the age of terrorism. The blame for casualties caused by secondary explosions in mosques and private homes used as weapons caches must go squarely to the terrorists who placed them there (endangering residents even when not at war.)

UPDATE: Commenter Amy points to an excellent treatment of fighting terrorists in Gaza and international law. My point is not that Israel is in clear violation, but that Geneva can be interpreted against Israeli actions, which would give terrorists an advantage.

Bloggers' block

After a week of seeming non-stop blogging, I cannot find any stories today that aren't being covered well by other pro-Israel blogs. Or maybe I'm just tired.

There are plenty of great things to read out there, at Daled Amos, Meryl Yourish, Soccer Dad, Israel Matzav (possibly the best place to find videos), and now even the IDF Spokesperson Blog. These are besides the liveblogging I've mentioned before from Israellycool and The Muqata and the coverage from Mere Rhetoric.

My "If the IDF made Hamas-style videos..." video is still doing well on YouTube, with over 3000 views. It also is adding interest to my older Hello Martyr, Hello Fatah video. You can see most of my videos, the serious and the funny, on the Elder of Ziyon YouTube channel.

Whether I find a second wind or not, thanks for visiting and have a pleasant and peaceful Shabbat!

A letter from Jerusalem - a spiritual response

EoZ friend Yerushalimey, who should really be enjoying his first week with his new bride rather than emailing me, forwards an email from a friend named Steve in Jerusalem for a proper Jewish response to the impending ground battle.

Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos,

Hi to everyone -- in the name of, towards the zchus [merit] of my son Yitzhak Avrohom Chaim ben Shabtai Moshe and Rena Bracha, (he should live and be well) who is now stationed and ready with his fellow soldiers to defend our land -- to ensure (as much as we can ensure) that we here in Israel are safe, b'ezrat Hashem..in his name i would like to offer this thought.

(the following dvar torah is also in response to the questions from outside - other people - and from inside -- How am I / How are we doing -- with Yitzhak "on the front" so to speak...so, I'm answering that question, as well...)

In times of disaster, hard times, times of stress - times of WAR - It seems natural to ask, What can I do? (or on a community level - what can we do?) What extra can I do to help fix the situation?...and this happens, i think, on both the physical and spiritual planes...and specifically regarding the spiritual plane, the answers that most often come up (in my humble opinion/ experience) are that we often decide to learn more, to undertake an extra stringency of practice, to say extra tehillim [Psalms], or to have group tehillim readings, to pray with more fervor -- and other similar actions. And all of these are holy actions and I am sure they make their mark in Heaven, and bring down extra heavenly goodness, in the proper proportion. I am not going to disagree with any of that.

However, I think i found another answer - another way to answer the question: "what more can I do?" -- another way, which is actually, perhaps, "The Way", all along -- nothing extra, nothing beyond what we are already doing.

It was in davening [prayer] today that a phrase in Tachanun jumped out at me, and I realize that this was an answer -- that saying Shema is the answer -- and that saying Shema is the one thing that as long as we continue saying Shema, we will be zocheh (we will warrant) G-d's protection.

Let me explain:

In Tachanun it says:
"שומר ישראל, שמור שארית ישראל, ואל יאבד ישראל - האומרים שמע ישראל".
O Guardian of Israel, protect the remnant of Israel, let not Israel be destroyed -- those who proclaim - Hear O Israel . (those who say the Shema.)

That's it! We say the Shema, we become one of Israel who says the Shema, one who warrants G-d's protection.

So that's it. Not to suddenly say Shema in order to warrant protection. Just to say shema, as prescribed -- 3 times a day, and to understand that in saying Shema we are taking on the Yoke of Heaven -- we are proclaiming that G-d is our G-d and that G-d is one -Master of the Universe --

and that's what we need to do: Daven it -- take it seriously -- connect with the Creator of the Universe -- and know that this connection and proclaiming G-d is One is what merits our protection.

"שומר ישראל, שמור שארית ישראל, ואל יאבד ישראל - האומרים שמע ישראל".
"Shomer Yisrael, shmor shearis yisrael, v'al yovad yisroel, haomrim. shema yisroel."

May all of Israel be blessed with peace - safety - with the understanding that G-d runs the world and that G-d is One, and that our safety is in His hands.

May Yitzhak be safe.

Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos
steve

Israeli leaflets urging Gazans to cooperate

From Ma'an:

Israeli airplanes dropped leaflets calling for Gazans to inform the Israeli military of the whereabouts of projectile launchers in return for aid and assistance.

The papers were found by the thousands all over Gaza Friday morning, and bear the signature of the Israeli military forces.

The leaflet reads:

Dear people of the Gaza Strip,
Bear the responsibility for your fate!

The Projectile launchers and the terrorist elements pose a threat on you and your families.

If you wish to provide help and assistance to your people in the sector, call the number below to provide us with the needed information.

The future of the massacre is in your hands
Don’t hesitate!

We will be glad to receive any information you have and it is not necessary to give us your personal information.

We will keep it as a secret.
Call us at the following number:
02-5839749
Or e-mail us at:
Helpgaza2008@gmail.com

To provide us with any information on the terrorist factions.

Note: To protect your safety we ask you to be secretive when you call us.

Head of the Israeli Defense Forces.

The line that Ma'an translates as "The future of the massacre is in your hands" seems wrong; the autotranslation from Firas Press is "With a tragedy has become a present to you" which sounds to me that the real translation is more like "You have the opportunity to be part of the solution to this tragedy."

As we have seen, the intelligence from Gaza has been very effective - reports indicate that Israel only destroyed weapons smuggling tunnels and not the ones that were used for consumer goods, and the videos of the air strikes on mosques showed secondary explosions that proved that they were stockpiling weapons, for example. There are plenty of Gazans who do not want to live under Hamas rule.

Egyptian aid compared to Israel's

Yesterday, Egypt allowed 9 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This aid is coming from all over the Arab world (with the exception of Jordan), flying in to the airport at El Arish.

Also yesterday, Israel allowed - while under attack - 60 trucks, with 1360 tons of aid. These came from Jordan and many Western countries, as well as from NGOs.

Sounds like the Arabs don't care as much about Gazans as the West does!

Now is a good time to backup your blog

Since YNet got hacked this morning, it appears to be a prudent time for pro-Israel bloggers to backup their blogs, which is what I've been doing this morning instead of posting.

I was only able to research how to backup Blogger blogs, so here is how:

If you have Windows, simply download the Blogger Backup Utility for free. It quickly downloads your Atom feed posts to your hard drive and it can do incremental backups as well as restores.

Another much uglier way is to simply go to your blog's URL in this way:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/search?max-results=6000

where yourblogname is, um, your blog name and the number at the end is the number of posts you want to see. This will create a huge, single page with all of your posts that you can save. Unfortunately, restore from such an archive would be really time consuming and ugly, but it is better than losing everything.

The late Sheikh Rayyan: political or military?

Was Sheikh Rayyan a "political" leader or a "military" leader?

For some reason the West likes to distinguish between the supposedly hard-line "military" terrorists and the supposedly more peaceful, pragmatic "political" terrorists.

Here's how the media has been reporting his role.

Reuters:

...a 49-year-old cleric regarded as one of Hamas's most hardline political leaders.

RTT News:

Nizar Rayyan, considered a political leader by Hamas, had close ties to the military wing of Hamas.

The National (UAE):

He often served as a spiritual adviser to both the Hamas political and military wings and would often co-ordinate the group’s political and military operations, according to people close to Hamas.

Bloomberg:

Rayyan was a go-between for Hamas’s political and military wings.

Arab News:

The 49-year-old Rayan ranked among Hamas’ top five decision-makers. A professor of Islamic law, he was known for his close ties to the group’s military wing and was respected in Gaza for donning combat fatigues and personally participating in clashes against Israeli forces.

The now-exploded spiritual leader is proof positive that there is no real distinction in Hamas between the "political" and "military" wings.

Hopefully, the media will start understanding this.

While the Hamas alqassam.ps website is down, its message board site called www.almoltaqa.ps (hosted somewhere in France, apparently) is still up and running.

I was just glancing through the site, seeing pictures of today's martyr Sheikh Rayyan , here showing his peaceful, political nature.

What struck my eye was a posting in the English section of the site. It contains an interview with Hamas' English-language spokesman, Abu Obaida, from a year ago. Here's one Q&A:

What is the justification behind the martyrdom operations against the " Israeli" civilians?

There is no justification for targeting civilians. It is against Islam to deliberately kill unarmed civilians during jihad. In addition, our doctrine is to target the enemies army, security services, and support apparatus. But it is known that Zionist society is a militarized society. Service in the army is mandatory; and reserve duty continues past the age of 40. Our determined stance is that unarmed persons on both sides of the conflict should be left out of the fighting. However, we will not accept giving the enemy a free hand against our civilians.

The unarmed residents of Beersheba, Sderot, Netivot, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and Ashkelon can now rest easy - Hamas isn't targeting them!

It is interesting that this interview, which is "sticky" on top of the News and Politics forum in the English message board, is completely absent from the Arabic message board.

Hamas al-Qassam website is down

One of my favorite websites on the Internet has seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.

The alqassam.ps website of Hamas was acting a bit shaky earlier this week, redirecting itself from the Palestine domain to the .cc domain - which is in the Cocos Islands but is pretty much available to anyone. But now, alas, I cannot access the lists of martyrs and the hostile propaganda that I so looked forward to perusing now and again.

At the moment, attempts to get to the site are sometimes making it to a 3Com SuperStack Switch. If you should try to access it and see a Username and Password prompt, try "manager" and "manager" (the default.) If you are lucky you wil get to the switch interface, but so far my connectivity has not let me get past a skeleton of a page for that. A good network professional might have a lot of fun with full access to Hamas' Ethernet switch.

Not that I would advocate anything like that. No, hacking Hamas' web site and domain would be really, really wrong.

UPDATE: It is back up, on a new host.

Help Israel

Standing Together helps cheer up IDF soldiers, bringing them food, music, and even charging their cell phones for them.

PizzaIDF likewise delivers pizza, burgers and other foods to IDF soldiers in the field.

Zaka is the amazing first-response organization that treats many injured citizens from terror attacks.

ARMDI - Israel's equivalent to the Red Cross.

Please comment on your favorite relevant Israeli charities that directly help soldiers and terror victims, along with their URL and what they do.

UPDATES:

Operation Take-a-Break for Sderot families to take day trips up north.

Lemaan Achai, helping families all over Israel, has a program for those under attack.

Hamas spiritual leader forced his kids to die with him

JPost:

Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others on Thursday when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, the IDF said.

Channel 10 reported that Rayyan was the "mufti" of Hamas's military wing and had replaced Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the organization's top clerical authority after Yassin's assassination in 2004.

In addition, the IAF bombed the homes of three senior Gaza terrorists.

One of the homes belonged to Mohammad Baroud, a top Popular Resistance Committees operative. The army said that there were anti-tank missiles, rockets and bombs in the home.

Another of the homes destroyed belonged to Hasim Drili, a northern Gaza Hamas operative. The army said that he had a manufacturing plant in his home for rockets, mortar shells and missiles.

The third home belonged to Tafik Abu Raf, a Hamas terror operative in the central Gaza Strip. The IDF said that he had a weapons laboratory in his house.

Palestine Today says that Sheikh Rayyan knew very well that his house was a target:

Over the past two days, Israeli aircraft bombed a number of the homes of Hamas leadersin the Gaza Strip, but most of the houses were empty

While aware of that, our Sheikh Rayyan refused to come out of his house and remained firm there with a number of his children.

Palestinians have long advocated that the homes threatened by Israeli bombardment should be protected by human shields, and it appears he chose for himself this fate.

Ma'an adds:

Local witnesses told Ma’an that Rayyan had not evacuated his house despite a warning from the Israeli military.

As sickening and twisted as the sheikh was, one can grudgingly admire someone who chooses not to hide from certain death. But when he purposefully sentences his children and (one of) his wives to the same death - or he uses them as human shields to protect himself - he proves himself to be pure, unadulterated evil.

Gaza aid update: The despicable UNRWA

The World Food Programme has informed Israeli authorities that it has a full 2 week supply of food and does not want Israel to send any more food to them in Gaza.

In other humanitarian aid news, Israel allowed some 12 Gazans in yesterday for medical treatment. 2 of them were kids who were injured - by a Qassam rocket that fell short.

The UNRWA, as is to be expected, spins facts to make Israel look as bad as possible:

The power plant shut down on Tuesday because Israel has blocked fuel delivery through the main pipeline since Dec. 26, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said Wednesday. This has forced hospitals to use generators, which have limited fuel supplies, and left many of the 650,000 people in central and northern Gaza with power cuts of 16 hours a day or more, he said.
"The situation remains alarming," Holmes said. "Hospitals are obviously still struggling very much to cope with the number of casualties. We have continued to get some medical supplies in and to help them cope, but this remains difficult and fragile."

Israel has, every day for the past few days, scheduled to open the Nahal Oz crossing for transferring fuel. And every day the Palestinian terrorists that the UNRWA refuses to mention have shot mortars at that very crossing - on Sunday, with fatal results. The despicable UNRWA is blaming Israel for "blocking" fuel shipments and cannot say a single word to their hosts in Gaza about stopping mortar attacks.

The daily Nahal Oz attacks are no longr even mentioned in the media, because mortars are so much more plentiful than Qassams and not as newsworthy as Grads. The Popular Resistance Committees have been the main terrorists to fire at Nahal Oz.

The UNRWA continues its one-sided blame game:

Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees, told reporters by video link from Gaza that the agency has not distributed any food for two weeks because of the shortage of supplies and the Israeli bombardment.
"I think that means that 20,000 people a day have been without food that they expect — and probably is the bulk of what they get," she said. "So people are doing pretty badly. Everyone we know is sharing whatever they have, not just with their families but with their neighbors."
"We haven't seen widespread hunger. We do see for the very first time ... people going through the rubbish dumps looking for things, people begging, which is quite a new phenomenon as well," she said.

Aby Zayd is using anecdotes to do everything she can to blame Israel, but cannot really explain why there is "no widespread hunger" in Gaza.

And the UNRWA had food before the war - but refused to distribute food to Gazans because they didn't have enough flour. They did have rice, cooking oil and other goods. Now they are blaming Israel for their own pride.

Holmes said the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel was open, with 55 trucks of food and medical supplies and five ambulances getting into Gaza on Tuesday, and about 60 trucks on Wednesday. That compares to 125 truckloads a day in October 2008 and 475 truckloads a day in May 2007, just before Hamas took control of Gaza, he said.

The real numbers were 93 trucks each day. He may be referring only to trucks meant for UNRWA.

Obviously, his comparison with October (when there were almost no rockets) and May 2007 (when all the crossings were still under control of the PA and Israel could easily coordinate the logistics) ignore the danger to Israelis put themselves in to send over humanitarian aid.

Some medical supplies, ambulances and generators also got into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, he said.

Yet he pointedly does not ask Egypt to increase its trickle of aid - only Israel. Isn't that interesting.

Abu Zayd stressed that her U.N. agency needs 100 trucks of flour a day to meet the needs of refugees.

And yet, after months of much lower numbers of trucks on the average, there is still "no widespread hunger" in Gaza in her own words. Still no one has starved to death. It is a miracle!

But she 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 wonders? While Israel coordinates with multiple aid agencies and countries, arranges to open crossings as much as possible at the same time as it is being attacked every few minutes with rockets, while her hosts brag about the effectiveness of their "resistance" and the number of fancifully named missiles they shoot towards these very crossings - she "wonders" if Israel is really trying hard enough? She "wonders" if perhaps Israeli lives are worthless and whether Israel should sacrifice a dozen or so people so she can get her aid to people who are not dying for lack of aid? Let's parse her colleague's next sentence:

Holmes said "the major needs, apart from medical supplies, remain ... grain and wheat flour and fuel — also cash would be very helpful to enable people to buy supplies."

Way down in their statements, after most people stop reading or listening, Holmes just happens to mention that, oh yes, they have plenty of medical supplies! [UPDATE: The English is ambiguous; a commenter mentioned that they probably mean that they need medical supplies. - EoZ] And guess what - there is access to other goods in Gaza - another miracle - but they just need money to buy it! I guess that the families that are sharing what they have, as Abu Zayd said, are not being as generous as the UNRWA says? Or perhaps Hamas is hoarding flour and then selling it at inflated prices - something that the UNRWA is silent about?

As usual, the UNRWA is being deceptive and it is spending more time blaming Israel for everything rather than actually trying to solve the root problems. Which is why it should be dismantled and replaced with something more effective and honest.

Happy New Year!

Thanks again to all my readers!

My visitor count in 2008 was more than double that of the previous year, and December was my highest month ever, averaging over a thousand visitors a day for the first time. I really appreciate that so many of you read my posts and come back, and especially those who contribute to the comments and make the blog into an intimate community as well.

Here is to hoping that 2009 is a great year for all of us!