Please, If You Want to Help Israel, Stop Using the Word "Conflict" - by Varda Meyers Epstein

In a conflict, there's no question of guilt or blame or innocence. There are just two rivals lashing out at each other in perfect equality, both fighting for the same thing. Which is so much nicer, after all, than thinking about the men who kill Jewish babies in their strollers and cribs, solely on the basis of their religion.

Varda Meyers Epstein..
Judean Rose/Elder of Ziyon..
17 July '19..

If you really want to help Israel, please lose the word “conflict” from your vocabulary. There is no such thing as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A conflict is two sides attacking each other. This is simply not the case when it comes to Israel and the Arabs. The Arabs attack, the Israelis defend.

People like the notion of a “conflict.” It’s the American way. It’s tidy.

Americans like to think, “It takes two to tango,” which really means “It takes two parties to have a conflict and we prefer a conflict to one party attacking the other so let’s call it that."

It's not only Americans, of course. Progressives, in general, like to say things like, “There’s bloodshed on both sides,” as if the cause of blood being shed has no import, no weight. A dead murderer is equal in death to his victim, therefore the cause of death must be also be equal. One fact creates the other, in spite of the truth.

So if you have a home invasion and the cops come and shoot someone who just killed your family member, is that also "bloodshed on both sides?" https://t.co/6kdbEZxTqQ

— (((Varda Epstein))) (@epavard) July 16, 2019

Because people have this need for parity, for fairness. But this situation does not satisfy the necessary conditions that define conflict.

A conflict must have two parties at odds with each other. You don’t have that here. In the case of Israel, you have one side minding its own business and interests.


The losers, meanwhile, can’t cope with reality. They won’t make the best of a situation and you can’t make them. They prefer to maim, kill, and destroy: an adult version of the two-year-old tantrum, albeit an evil version. Because two-year-olds aren’t responsible in any moral sense for their choices. But adults, are.

In this case, the adults, who happen to be Arabs, know just how bad it is to, for instance, kill a ten-month-old infant in her stroller by sniper fire. This makes the act evil, which means that in no sense is such an attack at all like a two-year-old’s tantrum. It is, instead, a willful act of ugly violence. A deed of the Devil.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A Palestinian Terrorist Too Brutal for Fatah? No Go, Guys. You Own Arafat Irfaiya. - by Shoshana Bryen

Everyone is a soldier; every day is a battle. No exception for Arafat Ifaiya -- a product of his culture and his education and owned by the people who raised him.

Shoshana Bryen..
American Thinker..
17 February '19..
Link: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/a_palestinian_terrorist_too_brutal_for_fatah.html

The Palestinian Authority (PA) finally found a terrorist act committed by a Palestinian against an Israeli from which it wishes to disassociate. The horrific rape and knife murder of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher prompted Qadura Fares, head of the PA-affiliated Prisoner's Club to say, “From our perspective, this (rape) becomes a criminal case. We’re against the idea that anyone who commits a criminal act can then try to cloak themselves in the nationalist flag.”

A senior Fatah official said, “Even if there was no rape, a murder like this is unacceptable. The victim wasn’t a soldier, and this wasn’t wartime. If you want to be a hero, you don’t go and murder an innocent woman who went into the woods to read a book.”

No go, guys. In the world of the PA, everyone is a soldier and every day is wartime. You own this and you own Arafat Irfaiya.

Irfaiya is 27 years old, just about the same age as the Oslo Accords. In 2006, when Irfaiya was just a boy, the PA, aware that it could not field an army to go to war against Israel’s army, adopted a strategy of "popular resistance" (i.e., popular terrorism) at the 6th Fatah Conference. Seemingly unplanned low-tech attacks (car ramming or stabbing) against Israelis and Jews were described after the fact by Palestinian leadership as "heroic actions" and "the natural response to Israel's crimes."

In 2015, Mahmoud Abbas, PA strongman, instigated the “ramming and stabbing intifada” by calling on Palestinians to “defend” the al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

“Al-Aksa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. [Jews] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem. Each drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every shahid [martyr] will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will.”

There are earthly rewards as well, codified in “Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19, which predates the 2015 violence. The law mandates free tuition, health insurance, and professional training for Palestinians released from Israeli jail. It talks about salaries “linked to a cost-of-living index.” In 2013, the law was amended to give released prisoners “priority in annual job placements in all State institutions.”

Although the Taylor Force Act cuts American money to the PA for such salaries, Hassan Abed Rabbo, PLO head of the Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs, disapproved, “It is the right of all of the prisoners and martyrs who have struggled and sacrificed for Palestine to receive their full salaries from the PA.” Palestinian prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, said inmates are “prisoners of war” and that “their cause is the cause of all of us.”

No exclusion for rape. No exclusion for Irfaiya.

Everyone is a soldier; every day is a battle.

Ari Fuld and the Truth About Palestinians Terror is a Choice. - by Sohrab Ahmari

It is up to Palestinian leaders to decide whether they want to be terrorists or statesmen. Pretending that they can be both at once was the height of Western folly, as Ari Fuld no doubt recognized.

AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed

Sohrab Ahmari..
Commentary Magazine..
17 September '18..

Ari Fuld described himself on Twitter as a marketer and social media consultant “when not defending Israel by exposing the lies and strengthening the truth.” On Sunday, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed Fuld at a shopping mall in Gush Etzion, a settlement south of Jerusalem. The Queens-born father of four died from his wounds, but not before he chased down his assailant and neutralized the threat to other civilians. Fuld thus gave the full measure of devotion to the Jewish people he loved. He was 45.

The episode is a grim reminder of the wisdom and essential justice of the Trump administration’s tough stance on the Palestinians.

Start with the Taylor Force Act. The act, named for another U.S. citizen felled by Palestinian terror, stanched the flow of American taxpayer fund to the Palestinian Authority’s civilian programs. Though it is small consolation to Fuld’s family, Americans can breathe a sigh of relief that they are no longer underwriting the PA slush fund used to pay stipends to the family members of dead, imprisoned, or injured terrorists, like the one who murdered Ari Fuld.

No principle of justice or sound statesmanship requires Washington to spend $200 million—the amount of PA aid funding slashed by the Trump administration last month—on an agency that financially induces the Palestinian people to commit acts of terror. The PA’s terrorism-incentive budget—“pay-to-slay,” as Douglas Feith called it—ranges from $50 million to $350 million annually. Footing even a fraction of that bill is tantamount to the American government subsidizing terrorism against its citizens.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Truth be told, we know the Palestinian Authority sponsors terror - by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser

Israel claims it does everything to protect its citizens, but won't call the PA out as a 'terror-sponsoring entity' or change tactics accordingly

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser..
Times of Israel/Blog..
27 August '18..
Link: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/yossi-kuperwasser/

Recent moves of the US administration on the Palestinian arena (deducting $200 million from US aid and probably adopting a new approach on Palestinian refugees) are signs that as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords (signed on September 13 1993) there are finally international players that are ready to call a spade a spade. In this spirit, it is high time to admit that the Palestinian Authority, the main product of the agreements, is a “terror-sponsoring entity,” committed to the Palestinian struggle aimed at completely fixing the injustice it sees in Zionism. It was like that from the day it was established and it promises to stick to this identity in the future. Yet, until recently we were willfully blind to it.

The PA, repeatedly declares that it is determined to keep paying salaries to terrorists arrested in Israeli prisons or released from them, as well as to the families of terrorists who died while performing their terror attacks. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated that “even if we are left with one penny, we are going to use it to pay the salaries to the (terrorist) prisoners.” This came in response to the American and Israeli awakening to the reality about the PA, as represented in the “Taylor Force Act” that denies the PA American aid until it stops paying those salaries and revokes the law according to which they are paid, and the Israeli equivalent law that deducts from the taxes collected by Israel for the PA and transferred to it the sum it pays to the terrorists (both laws were recently enacted but were not yet implemented. According to a press report American officials explained that the cut in US aid was intended to avoid the need to activate the Taylor Force Act).

In the PA 2018 budget, salaries to incarcerated and released terrorists will amount to NIS 550 million ($153 million). The amount allocated for the families of those killed or wounded in the struggle against Zionism is set at NIS 687 million ($190 million). Altogether, the expenditures for supporting terror in the 2018 Palestinian Authority budget is NIS 1.278 billion ($355 million). This sum constitutes 7 percent of the total budget, similar to the last several years, and amounts to 45.8% of foreign aid to the PA expected in 2018.

The budget for real welfare support is NIS 841 million ($233 million). In 2017, it was NIS 826 million ($229.4 million) and was used for paying 118,000 families under the poverty line NIS 750 -1,800 ($208 – $500), compared with NIS 1,400 to 12,000 ($388-$3,333) a month that is paid to an imprisoned terrorist,

These details are especially problematic as the Palestinian terror continues. Among the recipients of the salaries are the families of the terrorists who murdered Hadas Malka, a policewoman stabbed to death at the Damascus Gate on June 16, 2017, the families of the Israeli Arabs from Umm-Al-Fahm who murdered two Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount on July 14, 2017, the terrorist who murdered three members of the Solomon family on July 19, 2017, the family of the terrorist who murdered Yotam Ovadia on July 27, 2018, and many more.

Israel, Kites and the Limits of Technological Superiority - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

There is no technological solution to the problem of kite/balloon terrorism. However decisive it may be, technology in and of itself does not guarantee victory.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 883..
05 July '18..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/technological-superiority/

Even against a simple and creative threat like kite/balloon terrorism, the Israeli defense establishment is aiming for a technological deliverance. To be sure, technological superiority on the battlefield should be exploited whenever possible (for example Israel’s Iron Dome system, which provides an effective solution to the rocket threat). But the phenomenon of war, like World Cup football games for that matter, shows that physical factors ultimately depend on the human spirit. As Yigal Allon, one of the architects of Israel’s 1948 victory, put it: “Without downplaying the value of arms, the Palmah learned to view the human spirit as the main source of strength in the war.”

The Greek victory in the Trojan War, after ten years of fighting, was achieved via the famous ruse of the Trojan horse. Modern screening technology might have exposed the ploy. Yet according to the story, the problem lay not in the absence of adequate technology but in disastrously flawed judgment. The king’s daughter, Cassandra, repeatedly warned against the danger posed by the wooden horse, but in the general euphoria attending the seeming end of the war, her warnings fell on deaf ears.

Technology has a calming effect in that it ostensibly eliminates the need for personal vigilance, resourcefulness, and responsibility. It seems to allow us to overcome the uncontrollable randomness of the human spirit, which has always been difficult to gauge in times of crisis and war. Soldiers, like athletes and artists, have always been aware of the critical dependence on inspiration and “a hidden power” that brings them to the peak of achievement in critical moments. Those who have experienced the blessing of inspiration are more aware than others of the painful deprivation that accompanies its disappearance. In the words of King David’s lamentation in the Psalms, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Technological support, on the other hand, is not capricious. It is stable in its operational mode and subject to control. When something goes wrong, it is nothing more than a technical failure that can be investigated and fixed. Technology thus mitigates our dependence on the vicissitudes of the human spirit. The machine has no self-doubts or panic attacks and no need for the power of faith. As a result, dependence on technological solutions has increased over the years and gained control of fundamental military and civilian operational modes. But this has come at a high cost. For the lower dependence on faith and the human spirit in times of crisis has diminished the individual and reduced him/her to a cog in a machine.

The continuing Gaza arson isn't a matter of operational failure. It is a moral, ethical failure. - by Uri Heitner

...This isn't a matter of operational failure. It is a moral, ethical failure. This is a government betraying its fundamental pact with its citizens – to assure their safety and security. Were the government to order the IDF to put an end to the arson campaign, and were that to fail – that would be an operational failure. An operational failure is legitimate because lessons can be learned from mistakes; you fix things and improve. The moral failure is unforgivable.

Uri Heitner..
Israel Hayom..
03 July '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/arson-response-is-a-moral-failure/

Our crops and fields have been burning for three months now. The western Negev is ablaze. For many long weeks, the people living there have been covered in smoke, breathing it. And the Israeli government is coming to terms with the situation, swallowing the heinous terrorist campaign.

The government has accepted the new equation on the Gaza border. It's okay to burn our fields, and if the IDF "responds" with warning shots near the terrorists – heaven forbid not at the terrorists themselves – they fire rockets at our communities at night.

To grasp the magnitude of the failure, we need to go back to the last "round" of fighting on the Gaza border, on May 29. Dozens of rockets and mortars were fired at our communities, and the IDF retaliated with airstrikes and artillery shelling. The "round" ended in a disgraceful Israeli defeat.

I'm not one of these overzealous types calling to "topple Hamas," "conquer the Gaza Strip," and "eliminate terror once and for all." These are populistic slogans. I don't believe in a "knockout punch" but in long-term deterrence. A low-intensity war doesn't provide a clear, unambiguous "victory image." Victory is measured over time. In this case, the result was immediately obvious – and dire.

The round ended in a cease-fire. In principle, a cease-fire is a positive result in that it means people stop shooting at one another. However, a cease-fire is a sham when dozens of fields and groves are being burned daily along the Gaza border.

The round concluded in a cease-fire that only addressed the rocket fire, not the incendiary kites. This means Israel is legitimizing this terrorist arson campaign so that if Israel responds to these attacks, it will have supposedly violated the cease-fire! This is an intolerable equation. A sovereign country cannot accept the burning of its fields and the scorching of an entire region, and it cannot "swallow" it. Those who launch incendiary kites deserve the same fate as those who launch rockets.

Sovereignty and the need for a decisive response - by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gershon Hacohen

Although the kites are portrayed as harmless, their scope amplifies their impact. Does a country have the right to safeguard its assets and its sovereignty only in life-threatening situations?

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gershon Hacohen..
Israel Hayom..
19 June '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/needed-a-clear-military-response/

The enemy that has been setting our fields ablaze with incendiary kites has created a clear challenge for Israeli policymakers. The cumulative damage inflicted by the kites has turned the Gaza-Israel border area into barren land and has challenged the notion that the Israeli government can provide security for its citizens.

The kibbutzim in the area are right in demanding that the government put an end to this. Yes, the Israel Defense Forces' rules of engagement are decided by the chief of general staff, and should not be formulated by a public debate. That said, in pleading with the government, the kibbutzim are true to their historical pioneering role. This further underscores the fact that the struggle we are facing is a struggle over sovereignty, especially in that area. Nothing is stronger than civilians who refuse to give up and stay on their land.

In 1951, Israel forfeited an area it had sovereignty over, the El Hama area east of the Sea of Galilee. This happened after an IDF force that had been patrolling the area was ambushed, killing seven. Had there been a civilian presence there, this decision may very well have been met with widespread protest by Israelis who would have demanded a more forceful response.

Hamas has been creative and adept at waging this campaign against Israel on the border. On the one hand, it seeks to avoid a full-fledged war, as this would not serve its interests, but on the other hand, it feels compelled to keep the struggle alive. The "kite terrorism" fits perfectly with its strategic rationale.

The kites are a form of attrition that overwhelms the troops and first responders. Moreover, by sending teens to do its bidding, Hamas has forced Israel to deal with a PR challenge and a legal headache.

Will There Be A Serious Response To Fire-Kites Only After Israeli Deaths? - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

...Poorly run communities only install a traffic light after a kid gets run over and killed at the intersection. We apparently won't stop the fire-kite launchers until someone gets killed.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
13 June '18..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73293

There have been huge Israeli losses caused by the Gaza fire-kites.

Losses that go beyond lost income to farmers due to burned crops and fire damage to other property.

Trees planted by the founders of communities have been burned down and recreational areas will take many years to be restored.

But since, as of this writing, no one has been burned to death as a result of the fire-kites, the IDF declines to act to stop the fire-kite launchers.

In other words, for most of the morning, he was “unarmed.” - by Stephen M. Flatow

...So here we go. Only one of the two was definitively proven to have an axe, so for starters, 50% of these “protesters” were “unarmed.” But let’s take it a step further. The axe-wielder wasn’t carrying the axe around all day. When he woke up in the morning, he wasn’t carrying it. He wasn’t holding the axe when he brushed his teeth, said his prayers, or ate breakfast. 

Stephen M. Flatow..
israelnationalnews.com..
11 June '18..
Link: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22289

The constant refrain heard in the American news media about the Gaza firebomb-throwing mobs is that they have been “mostly unarmed.”

Nobody ever gets to ask journalists about their choice of language. They demand the right to ask questions, but we seldom have the opportunity to question them, so it’s hard to know precisely how they justify that term.

My perception is that what they are saying is that since there are thousands of “demonstrators,” and only a few hundred of them throw the Molotov cocktails, that means that “most” of them are “unarmed.”

Obviously that distinction is absurd and irrelevant, because Israeli soldiers don’t aim at the unarmed ones—so who cares whether or not there are a lot of unarmed ones in the vicinity of the armed ones?

But, of course, this is all a game of semantics, the purpose of which is to make Israel look bad. So, no matter how illogical or unreasonable, journalists will say that the “protesters” are “mostly unarmed” because then Israel seems cruel.

All of which leads me to a thought. In the news today, we learned that two Arab terrorists tried to break through the Gaza fence. One escaped, one was shot dead. The dead one was carrying a large axe.

So here we go. Only one of the two was definitively proven to have an axe, so for starters, 50% of these “protesters” were “unarmed.”

But let’s take it a step further. The axe-wielder wasn’t carrying the axe around all day. When he woke up in the morning, he wasn’t carrying it. He wasn’t holding the axe when he brushed his teeth, said his prayers, or ate breakfast. In other words, for most of the morning, he was “unarmed.”

You can see from the photos that the Israeli Army released that it was quite a large axe. We can assume he didn’t pick it up—he didn’t “arm” himself—until shortly before he met his terrorist buddy and set out for the border with Israel.

The question shouldn’t be “how can we stop incendiary kites?” - by Vic Rosenthal

...As a result of our restraint, demands are placed on us to restrain ourselves further. And as a result of the message of “understanding” that we send to our enemies, they keep devising and trying out new ways to kill us. Why shouldn’t they? In the Middle East, being good to your enemies is perceived as weakness, which invites attack. The final answer to the kites won’t come from technology, because if we could push a button and bring them all down, Hamas would just come up with a new weapon, a new delivery system for their boundless hate.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
07 June '18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/06/what-to-do-about-the-kites/

As you probably know, Gaza Arabs have been launching kites and helium balloons across the border with fiery payloads, and they have set huge blazes in nearby agricultural fields, nature reserves, and even the campus of Sapir College (just south of Sderot and 4.5 km from the border of the Gaza strip). Large areas have already burned, and new fires are being started all the time. Farmers have lost millions, and plant and animal life in the region will not recover for years. Nobody has died in the fires yet, but firefighters imperil themselves regularly trying to put them out.

There is a debate about how to stop these attacks. Shoot them, some say. Well, it seems that there is a legal problem. You can’t just shoot civilians for possession of a kite or a balloon. And after it is in the air, the terrorist that released it is a criminal that has to be apprehended, not summarily executed. So the only way you can shoot them is to catch them precisely at the moment that they are about to launch the incendiary device, so as to stop them from doing it. And best shoot at their legs. Good luck with this.

So the talk turns to technology. Drones to cut the kite strings and similar ideas. Some model airplane hobbyists already took down a few of them with fishhooks attached to their planes. But hundreds have still gotten through.

Recently Israel sent a shipment of Tamir interceptors, the projectiles used by the Iron Dome system, south to the Gaza envelope area. The Iron Dome not only intercepts the Hamas-produced Qassam rockets, but it can even take out a tiny mortar shell. The Tamirs are expensive (though it can be argued that the true marginal cost of a Tamir, after spreading the development costs over a large number of units, is more like $5,000 than the oft-quoted $50,000) and usually two are fired to intercept a Qassam, which costs Hamas a few hundred dollars to build. Mortar shells can be had for as little as $6 each!

All this has a familiar ring. As Bret Stephens said, “Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?”

We have built a multi-tiered missile defense system which includes Iron Dome, but also several other components designed to intercept medium and long-range missiles. The complete system is fabulously expensive, but will provide a level of defense that no other country in the world can match. Of course we need this. Israel’s small size and concentrated population make it vulnerable to missile attacks, and our enemies know it and have invested heavily in this area.

That doesn’t mean that we can sit back and let our enemies throw everything they have at us. None of these systems promises 100% success, any defensive system that doesn’t involve science-fiction technology can be overwhelmed by a massive enough attack, and the economic imbalance inherent in using a Tamir – no matter how low we make the marginal cost – to kill a $6 mortar round becomes painful.

The Pyromaniacs of Gaza - by Judith Bergman

Knowing how PLO terror inventions of the past traveled the globe and ended up being used by other Muslim terrorists in both the US and Europe, the arson tactic may yet become a Gaza export.

Judith Bergman..
MiDA..
07 June '18..
Link: https://en.mida.org.il/2018/06/07/the-pyromaniacs-of-gaza/

The Arabs of Gaza have set over 250 fires, burning nearly seven square miles of land (4,300 acres), more than half of it in nature reserves, in what has turned out to be the latest piece of Arab terrorist innovation: Environmental terrorism perpetrated through the release of kites – decorated with swastikas – and helium balloons on fire. It has become known as “kite terror”. The fires, specifically those in nature reserves, have also wreaked havoc on local wildlife, so that not only humans pay the price for the Gazan Arabs’ unceasing rage, but also animals.

Just as the Arabs of the PLO invented modern day terrorism – airplane hijackings, airport massacres, school and school bus massacres, athlete massacres, suicide bombings, especially of buses, restaurants and nightclubs, car ramming attacks (also known as vehicular jihad) – the Arabs of Hamas in Gaza, have innovated environmental terrorism (in addition to inventing terror tunnels and perfecting the war crime of using civilians as human shields).

Knowing how the rest of the PLO inventions have traveled the globe and ended up being used by other Muslim terrorists in both the US and Europe, the tactic may yet become a Gaza export.

The damage done by the fires is estimated to be at least NIS 5 million ($1.4 million) to farmland alone. It will take years, perhaps even decades, to return the afflicted areas to their prior state.

The fires wrought by the Arabs of Gaza serve as a crucial, if extremely painful, lesson in what they would do to the rest of the land of Israel, if they were ever to receive more of it.

Would anyone like to guess what happens when Israel bans helium to Gaza? - by Elder of Ziyon

...imagine what would happen if and when Israel bans helium imports into Gaza to protect itself from massive forest fires.

Elder of Ziyon..
03 June '18..

From TOI:

Hadashot television news reports that the fires sparked by Gazans in southern Israel today are reaching farther into Israel because the Gazans have changed their tactics.

In recent weeks, Gazans have launched firebomb-carrying kites into Israel, where they fell into dry fields and sparked major brushfires.

Today, authorities are battling helium balloons carrying long-burning materials like charcoal. The balloons are capable of flying several kilometers into Israel and sparking fires farther afield.

Firefighters are battling at least four brushfires today sparked by Gazan arsonists.

Why is Israel allowing helium into Gaza to begin with?

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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As expected, BBC’s ‘Dateline London’ airs defamation of Israel but relevant facts concealed - by Hadar Sela

...In those nine minutes viewers did however see two mentions of a “massacre”, two references to “slaughter”, one allegation of “indiscriminate execution” and two references to “murder” – as well as portrayal of Israel’s government as a “barbaric regime” – all of which went completely unchallenged by the BBC presenter and with no right of reply afforded to the country accused of such acts. 

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
22 May '18..

Readers may recall that in July 2017 the BBC responded to a complaint concerning an edition of ‘Dateline London’ in which contributor Nabila Ramdani voiced some vicious, off-topic, anti-Israel slurs by saying that:

“We have spoken to the production team and presenter to remind them of the need to ensure that any contentious remarks are challenged and questioned, at whatever point they are made during the programme.”

In January 2018, the BBC responded to yet another complaint concerning falsehoods and anti-Israel smears promoted by Nabila Ramdani on the same programme by claiming that such calumnies are part of a “legitimate debate”.

“Our aim is simply to provide enough information for viewers to make up their own minds. This may include hearing opinions or accounts which some people may personally disagree with, but which individuals may be fully entitled to present in the context of a legitimate debate.”

Nabila Ramdani of course was not expressing an “opinion” – she was intentionally making false statements (such as the allegation that Palestinians “are routinely murdered in their thousands” and the claim that the intent of US military aid to Israel is “to ruin their [Palestinians’] lives”) which inevitably influenced viewer opinion because they were not challenged by the programme’s presenter.

BBC Watch hence submitted an additional complaint on that issue and in early April we received a response that included the following:

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Gaza, We and the World - by Smadar Bat Adam

...The Kerem Shalom border crossing was also set ablaze, resulting in severe damage to the natural gas and fuel pipelines serving the people of Gaza. But why trouble ourselves with facts? After all, "No one raises his children to sacrifice them to an early death,"

Smadar Bat Adam..
Israel Hayom..
22 May '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/gaza-we-and-the-world/

1. The crop burners. One thing we have learned from the history of our resurrection in our homeland is that people who intentionally set fire to our fields are no "innocent protesters," rather terrorists seeking our destruction. The story in a nutshell: By the sweat of our brow we sow and cultivate, and then they set fire/terrorize/steal out of hatred – the gist of the Israeli-Arab saga for over 80 years. It began with the onset of the Arab Revolt against the British Mandate (1936-1939), which comprised attacks on British government and military institutions, and of course murderous attacks against Jews. The British ultimately came to realize that Jewish communities could not be left unguarded, leading to the creation of the Special Night Squads. By this point, in the eyes of the British as well, setting fire to fields in particular and arson attacks, in general, were perceived as acts of war."Every night we would take up positions in far-off fields to prevent the sabotage of phone lines and train tracks, the arson of crops and the oil pipeline," recounted Yosef Margalit from Kibbutz Sarid, one of the founding members of the Haganah's Field Companies. In a book commemorating Yisrael Sterelovitch, a member of Sarid, it said: "In the evening we received notice that the barley fields at Jaida [today, Ramat Yishai] are on fire, and that it was Sarid's turn to set up an ambush."

2. The naïve among us. "Many of the people who approached the border fence and clashed with soldiers, using only their bare hands, rocks and their desperate sense of righteousness, weren't armed," wrote Ram Cohen in this very paper to describe the rioters on the Gaza border. It was the reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi himself and his white-robed peaceful masses – not a riotous mob shouting "death to Israel." Fact: They approached the fence armed "only" with rocks. Oh, and kites. Yes, these kites were let loose to drop flames on Jewish fields. But they're "just" kites, no? The black smoke people were forced to breathe – the result of setting fire to their tires. The Kerem Shalom border crossing was also set ablaze, resulting in severe damage to the natural gas and fuel pipelines serving the people of Gaza. But why trouble ourselves with facts? After all, "No one raises his children to sacrifice them to an early death," Cohen wrote, elegantly avoiding using the word "shahid" (martyr in Arabic). Cohen is worried our hearts have hardened to our enemies' suffering. No mention of the other side's humane and altruistic nature: "He who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate" (Midrash Tanhuma).

Dear People Who Think Israel is Wrong About Gaza - by Laura Ben-David

...Please tell me. Perhaps if I can understand the situation in the same alternate reality as you see it then I can join you in criticizing my country for doing whatever it can to protect me and my family.

Laura Ben-David..
16 May '18..
TY Laura for reposting permission





Dear People Who Think Israel is Wrong About Gaza,

Many of my own friends are among you; I truly want to know: How are you seeing something so different than what I see? Where does our understanding diverge?

Do you believe that we are wrong to defend our borders?

Or is it that you believe that thousands of people trying to breach the border with explosives, meat cleavers and other weapons and devices are ‘unarmed’?

Or do you not believe Hamas when they pay(!) people to get hurt or even killed in their malicious attempts to attack Israel?

Perhaps you are an expert in International Law and in the specific actions of the IDF so that you can accuse and convict an entire army and people of breaking international laws and conventions in their defensive actions done to protect not only their own lives but the lives of the families living as close as a mile from the mob that has their sights on them?

Or maybe you're a military strategist? What would you suggest be done when thousands of people incited to hate and KILL were trying to breach YOUR border with your own family huddled minutes away on foot? How would you manage to protect them from tens of thousands of violent armed rioters?

"We Are Proud of You. You Killed Jews!" - by Bassam Tawil

...A Palestinian who goes to meet with a Jew is strongly condemned and accused of seeking "normalization" with the enemy. But a Palestinian who carries a knife or rifle and sets out to kill Jews gains the stars of a "martyr" and wins nearly universal Palestinian praise. This is the current mindset in Palestinian society, the fruit of decades of Palestinian incitement and delegitimization of Israel. This is the inevitable result -- as in the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, Rwanda, Darfur, or Nazi Germany -- of the poisoning of a people.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
14 October '16..

The family of Musbah Abu Sbeih say they are "very proud" of what their 40-year-old son did. So are many Palestinians representing all walks of life in Palestinian society. Members of his family, including his parents and daughter, have appeared on too may TV stations to keep track of to commend Abu Sbeih. They have even gone out onto the streets to hand out sweets in jubilation over the terror attack that he carried out in Jerusalem this week, which resulted in the death of a 60-year-old grandmother and a 29-year-old police officer.

Abu Sbeih is now the latest "hero" of many Palestinians, and not only by his family. He is being hailed as a "brave" man and a "hero" because he woke up in the morning, grabbed an M-16 assault rifle and set out to kill as many Jews as possible. His mission was "successful": he managed to shoot and kill two Jews before he himself was eliminated by policemen.

In a video that he left behind, Abu Sbeih claimed that he carried out the terror attack in response to visits to the Temple Mount by Jews. He claimed (falsely) that these visits were part of an Israeli scheme to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

(Continue to Full Post)

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The “terrorist capital” of the West Bank? It is time to act.

...But more needs to be done. Our leadership has allowed Hebron’s terrorist cancer to fester for too long. Efforts must be focused on fighting this plague...

JPost Editorial..
03 July '16..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Hebron-hotbed-459414

The sheer barbarism of the murders has left the nation reeling. On Thursday morning, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, was stabbed to death in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba. The killer, Muhammad Tarayrah, was motivated by a nihilistic strain of Islam. Before he set out to murder, he made his views clear: he posted on Facebook expressing his wish to die in the name of his hateful creed.

He got his wish. In the process he robbed an innocent young girl of the opportunity to live her life.

The terrorist’s mother told a Hebron news channel that her son was “a hero” who made her “proud” since he died “defending Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque,” according Palestinian Media Watch.

Then on Friday, more adherents to a barbaric Islamist ideology opened fire on Rabbi Michael “Miki” Mark, 48, of Otniel while he was driving just 15 kilometers from the Ariel family’s home. Mark was shot dead in front of two of his 10 children in the drive-by attack. His wife, Chava, 40, was seriously wounded, their 13-year-old daughter Tehila was moderately-to-seriously wounded and their 15-yearold son Pedaya was lightly wounded.

In response to the escalation in Islamist terrorist violence, which corresponds with the latter part of Ramadan, our political leaders have been outdoing one another in their strident calls to halt the bloodshed.

Transportation Minister Israel Katz called to declare a national state of emergency. “We must understand that we are in a state of all-out war and act accordingly,” he said. “We must declare a state of emergency.”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett presented a wide-ranging plan that includes imprisonment or expulsion of terrorists’ families; the arrest of Hamas operatives in the West Bank, the destruction of illegally built homes in the West Bank; closure of villages from which terrorists have emerged; preventing of Palestinian vehicles from using Route 60; disabling the Internet in the Hebron area; and resumption of full military activity in the West Bank, including in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security assessments with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Nadav Argaman.

But now is not the time for talk, for lofty statements, for threats. Israelis do not want to see politicians thump their chests and issue declarations.

It is time to act.

We do not need the world's permission to defend ourselves against those who seek our destruction

...Waiting for the world to condemn and pay lip service to Israel's fight against terrorism is a dead end in every sense of the word. It will never happen. It did not happen on 9/11, when the world was most likely to understand what Israel was facing, and it will not happen 15 years later, when political correctness and a jaded sense that this is just the "new normal" has eroded any hopes that might have once been for genuine world solidarity with Israel. Israel must fight the terror as it sees fit in order to end it finally and prevent the killings of Jewish children in their sleep and pedestrians on their way to the supermarket.

Judith Bergman..
Israel Hayom..
01 July '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16571

"Now there is one less of them," a Danish Facebook user wrote gleefully after a 13-year-old Jewish girl was stabbed to death in her sleep in her bedroom by a Palestinian man. He thought that the heinous, cowardly murder of an innocent child in her sleep was simply a part of "the resistance" against the Jews.

What kind of human being seeks to justify the cowardly murder of an innocent child in her sleep? Imagine the outcry, if that child had been an Arab and its murderer a Jew. The news would have caused an uproar on the front pages of all the news outlets in the world. Since the girl was Jewish, needless to say, the latter did not happen.

The Israel-Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, Sari Bashi, could not just do the decent thing and condemn the murder but had to tweet instead that "settlements are illegal, but settlers are NOT legitimate targets." What sickening times we live in, when a human rights organization cannot bring itself to say more than that the murder of a sleeping Jewish child is not legitimate. Bashi had no response to Mark Halawa, who told her, "I was one of those brainwashed Palestinian children. All Jews are our targets. This settler nonsense you speak of is for idiots!" Contrast that with Bashi's tweet from June 27, when she emotionally gushed, "Powerful, chilling research by B'Tselem on boy killed, cousins hurt when Israeli soldiers sprayed car with bullets."

The Palestinian Authority was very quick to honor the terrorist. According to Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah's official Facebook page immediately posted his picture, declaring him a shahid (martyr) -- the highest honor achievable in Islam. WAFA, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency, honored him as well. The murderer's family will immediately start receiving a monthly stipend that the PA pays to the families of all "martyrs."

On Twitter, the EU Embassy in Israel was asked for a response to the fact that the EU funds are used to fund these stipends. Their response was "technical," as always: "We are not claiming that the payments have stopped. However, FYI, technically, they are no longer paid by the PA but by the PLO."

In plain English: The EU is fine with supporting terrorism, and knowingly does so, as long as the support is indirect -- inasmuch as you can tell the PLO and the PA apart, which you cannot.

The daily, when not hourly Palestinian terrorism you don't hear about - by Michael Freund

Remember: just because we don't hear about it does not mean that Palestinian terrorism doesn't exist. And we should not continue to pretend otherwise.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
15 June '16..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/18921/daily-palestinian-terrorism

When two Palestinian terrorists opened fire last week at Tel Aviv's Sarona market and murdered four Israelis, it appeared to catch much of the country off guard. After several months of seemingly sporadic attacks, many people had begun to think that the whirlwind of Palestinian violence had largely subsided.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

The sad fact is that Palestinian terrorism is literally a daily – and sometimes even an hourly – occurrence. It is just that the media doesn't bother to report the overwhelming majority of incidents, thereby providing the public with a distorted view of reality.

Just speak to some of the 700 brave volunteers of Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (www.hatzalah.org.il), a superb emergency first-response organization consisting of professionally trained medics, paramedics and licensed physicians who find themselves working around the clock to assist the victims of Palestinian terrorism. The organization is independent of United Hatzalah of Israel.

According to a spokesman for the group, "there are an average of 10 to 15 reported Palestinian rock and firebomb attacks throughout Judea and Samaria on a daily basis," or approximately one attack every two hours.

And those are just the ones reported to authorities, the spokesman noted, adding that, "There are certainly other incidents in which the terrorists miss their mark, or hit a car but fail to cause damage or injure the occupants, and the motorist doesn't bother to call it in."

Moreover, even the method employed for counting incidents that are reported is imprecise. After all, if terrorists hurl rocks and other projectiles at five or 10 vehicles in one area at any given time, then the security forces count this as one attack rather than several.

And yet, despite the daily Palestinian onslaught against Israelis on the roads of Judea and Samaria, the mainstream media both in Israel and abroad is virtually silent, with nary a peep of coverage finding its way into the press.

Celebrating Terrorism, Palestinian Style - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...The public statements of the Palestinian leaders and groups after the Jerusalem terror attack are yet another sign of how they continue to incite their people against Israel. These are the type of statements that prompt Palestinian men and women to grab a knife (or in this case an explosive device) and set out to kill the first Jew they run into. The major obstacle to peace with Israel remains the absence of education for peace with Israel. In fact, it is safe to say that there never was a real attempt on the part of Palestinian leaders and factions to prepare their people for peace with Israel.

Palestinian cartoonist Omayya Juha celebrated the April 18 terrorist
bombing of a Jerusalem bus by quickly drawing a cartoon featuring
 a Palestinian woman celebrating the terror attack by ululating
 and handing out candies in front of the burned-out bus.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
19 April '16..

Shortly after the Jerusalem bus terror explosion attack on April 18, a number of Palestinian factions rushed to issue statements applauding the "heroic operation" and urging Palestinians to pursue the path of armed struggle against Israel.

The Palestinian jubilation over the terror attack, the first of its kind since the suicide bombings during the Second Intifada more than a decade ago, is yet another reminder of the growing radicalization among Palestinians. This radicalization is mostly attributed to the ongoing anti-Israel incitement and indoctrination by various Palestinian factions and leaders.

Not surprisingly, the first Palestinian group to applaud the Jerusalem bus attack was Hamas.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that his movement "welcomes the Jerusalem operation and considers it a natural response to Israeli crimes, especially extra-judicial executions and the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

The Hamas spokesman was in fact echoing similar charges made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who declared that Palestinians will not allow Jews to be "defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet."

How can anyone blame Hamas for making such accusations against Jews when Abbas, Israel's peace partner, was the first to come out against tours by Jews to the Temple Mount? It is worth mentioning that Abbas's allegations came only a few weeks before the eruption of the "Knife Intifada" in early October.

Another Hamas leader, Hussar Badran, also praised the terror attack. He said his movement was determined to pursue the resistance to "expel the occupation from our Palestinian lands."

When Hamas leaders talk about "expelling the occupation from the Palestinian lands," they mean that Israel should be eliminated and replaced with an Islamist empire.

On Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV, broadcaster Mohamed Hamed was so happy and excited to hear about the Jerusalem terror attack that he decided to salute the perpetrators.