The disingenuous Gaza numbers game

...Zero – The number of civilians in this and future conflicts that will be protected as a result of the immoral and tendentious statements issued by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OHCHR, Oxfam, Gisha and other NGOs.

Anne Herzberg..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
14 July '14..

Five days into Operation Protective Edge, the out-going UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, issued a statement that the number of casualties in Gaza raises “serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

In a similar vein, UNWRA Spokesperson Chris Gunness has a running commentary of casualties on his Twitter feed, including the plea to “Imagine being a 5 year old in #Gaza This is the 3rd terrifying bombardment in your short life. Where else have 5 year olds suffered thus?” These numbers and emotional appeals, however, are seriously misplaced.

If many civilians are being killed in Gaza, it is because Hamas is storing and launching deadly missiles from within populated areas and exploiting the population there as a human shield. Conversely, if even one civilian were to be illegitimately targeted, that single killing would be illegal.

Thus, the UN officials’ emotive statements are entirely disconnected from the legal and moral implications of Israel’s actions.

Similarly, many highly politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued overwrought statements on Gaza casualties, making unverifiable claims that the vast majority are civilians and blaming Israel again. These comments stand in stark contrast to the sterile, pro-forma and brief mentions of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, to the extent they are mentioned at all.

Amnesty International, for example, stated, “Since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in the early morning of 8 July, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians who were not directly participating in hostilities.”

Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted, “My daughter’s head here, my son’s arm there: Life for a #Gaza family under #Israel attack. Six children killed,” linking to a tendentious article out of the UAE.

Oxfam’s statement highlighted “civilians in Gaza, who are already impoverished by the ongoing Israeli blockade and account for the vast majority of those injured and killed in the violence.”

As in the past, media outlets have uncritically adopted these memes, focusing extensive coverage on the Gaza casualties, as if the real-time consequences of war were simply points in a video game.

Seeing increasing casualties, undoubtedly with women and children hurt alongside the Hamas fighters, pulls at heartstrings and makes for good headlines.

It is also an effective way for NGOs to maximize anguish and drive up influence and thus, donations.

A Blackout That Was Just Waiting to Happen

...Surely the disingenuous humanist outcry anticipated in case of a power cut from the Israeli side cannot arise when Gazans cause their own comeuppance. It would be too much even for skewed foreign opinion molders and political pontificators to expect Israeli technicians to put their lives on the line for the sake of their would-be killers. It shouldn’t be too much to presume that there’s a limit to how unreasonable the international community can be.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
14 July '14..

It was almost poetic justice – a rocket which Hamas fired at Israel Sunday night knocked out a high-voltage line that supplies electricity to some 70,000 Gazans. This was a blackout waiting to happen. Literally biting the hand that feeds it, Hamas persistently aims at the very Ashkelon power plant upon which Gaza depends for its electricity. Israel has refrained from switching the power off lest it incur censure from abroad.

Neither Gaza nor the Ramallah half of the Palestinian Authority pays for the power consumed. Gaza alone, it’s estimated, owes the Israel Electric Corporation NIS 220m (out of the staggering NIS1.5bil unpaid Palestinian debts).

The downed electricity line is one of a dozen high-tension lines with 120 megawatts per hour transmission capacity. Its loss means that the entire area between Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah has been plunged into darkness.

The damage is reparable but there’s no quick fix. In the best of times this job could take a long time. As things stand, with more rockets flying out of Gaza, no IEC employees would be willing to risk life and limb and expose themselves to Gazan predations just in order to restore electricity to Gazans. Moreover, no one asks them to.

The IEC states that attempts to mend the severed line wouldn’t be made before full calm is restored and workers could assume they were operating in uncompromised safety. This has received unstinting government backing. Indeed, it’s reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom had both personally instructed IEC chairman Yiftah Ron-Tal to abstain from endangering the lives of IEC personnel for the Gazans’ sake.

Israel’s electricity supplies to Gaza are part of a larger anomaly.

Even though it is no larger than the smallest postage stamp

“...I do not know why you Westerners cannot comprehend that the basic issue is not the size of Israel. It is not the boundaries of Israel. It is not the policies of Israel. It is not about the status of Jerusalem. It is not about the Palestinian Right of Return. It is not about a one- or a two-state solution. And it is certainly not about how the Israelis treat or mistreat their Arab minority.

Edward Bernard Glick..
American Thinker..
13 July '14..

The current confrontation between Hamas and Israel reminds me of an event that occurred in 1978 at England’s Oxford University where I delivered a paper on the role of terror and retaliation in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

My paper had nothing to do with the history of Tel Aviv. Nevertheless, the first two comments during the Q and A session dealt with the city, now under rocket attack, that eventually became Israel's commercial and cultural capital.

I told the first questioner, an Englishman, that the city, unlike nearby Yaffo, is not mentioned in the Bible because it is relatively new. It dates back only to 1909.

I also told him that the Jews of Yaffo, tired of Arab anti-Semitism and needing more land for their growing families, petitioned the governor of Palestine, then ruled by Ottoman Turkey, for permission to build a Jewish suburb in the neighboring sand. The governor considered the request such a hot potato that he sent it to Constantinople for the Sultan to decide. The Sultan said yes.

The second questioner, a Palestinian teaching at a British university, complimented me for the accuracy of my brief answer to an unexpected question. "But," he said, “you committed a sin of omission. You failed to tell our British and European colleagues that the Jews built Tel Aviv on my sand. I know the area. I was born there. I speak Hebrew. I and most other Palestinians want our sand, and everything that the Jews put on it, back. And we shall continue to fight until we get our sand back.”

Missing my 'Color Red' kids

...In a little while I'll go to another security briefing in the municipality situation room, and for a few hours I'll do my job to the best of my ability. And then all of a sudden my phone will ring and the word "Dad" will appear on the screen, and I will whisper, "I can't talk, I'm in the middle of something," and instead of a deep adult voice I'll hear a little voice asking "Mom?" and that's it -- all of the edge and all of the protection will come crashing down, my throat will catch and my eyes will fill with tears. I miss you, my children.

Oshra Segel..
Israel Hayom..
13 July '14..

I miss my kids. It's been four days since they were "exiled" to grandma and grandpa up north, our standard procedure every time things start heating up there. Every night on my way to bed, exhausted and perturbed, I make a quick round of their rooms, trying to breathe in their smell and heading into another night of beepers, Whatsapp messages and sirens.

Ask me if I'm scared, and the answer is no. That's not because I'm some big hero and not because I think I'm protected. It seems to be because this has just become a kind of habit.

But this time it's a little different. This time I have a job that doesn't allow me to pack up half the house (mainly things we really don't need -- sneakers? Come on) and take them away for a week or two of escapism. This time, they are traveling on their own and I miss them. I miss them a lot.

My oldest was born during the Second Intifada, the one that began 14 years ago. The Color Red siren (or as it was first called, Red Dawn -- remember?) was either her lullaby or the crow of the rooster for her. Her brother might have been born seven years later, but he also saved us a lot of trouble and got used to the situation very quickly. As the years went by they managed to make peace with "the situation" (how awful that sounds), as we call it. Every time a siren went off they didn't even lift their eyes from the game they were busy with (don't worry, our house is concrete-fortified, this isn't parental neglect) and the only one who took care to go into the safe room every time was Kessler, the family dog.

As Continuing Palestinian Delusions Fuel Conflict

...They genuinely think of their war with Israel as an anti-colonial struggle in which the “colonists”—the Jews—will someday be forced to leave or die, as Hamas’s charter promises. Indeed, the conceit of that piece in Al-Akhbar is that even if bomb shelters were available to Palestinians (and as I wrote last night, they exist but they’re used for Hamas and their bombs, not civilians), they wouldn’t use them because they see their spilled blood as a contribution to the cause of reversing the verdict of 1948, i.e. the “Palestine” that the Gaza man is talking about.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
13 July '14..

As the current round of fighting between Hamas and Israel concludes its first week today, no resolution is in sight. Israel’s government has made it clear that its goal is nothing more than “sustainable quiet” from Gaza but Hamas sees no reason to stop since the suffering they have created on both sides of the border has worked to their advantage. The reason for this has nothing to do with military technology and everything to do with the peculiar culture of Palestinian politics.

To an objective observer this makes no sense. Hamas set events in motion last month when some of its operatives kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers and then escalated the conflict by shooting several hundred rockets into the Jewish state from its Gaza stronghold. The result of these actions would all seem to undermine Hamas’s credibility vis-à-vis its Fatah rivals.

The rocket offensive has clearly failed on a military level. To shoot hundreds of rockets at cities for a week and to fail to score one hit or kill a single person—and killing civilians is exactly the goal of Hamas’s effort—can’t be represented as anything but a flop. At the same time, Hamas has not demonstrated any ability to deter or defend against Israeli precision attacks on Hamas targets.

All this would seem to add up to a perfect formula for a quick cease-fire. The Israelis want to end the attacks from Gaza and its government has no appetite for a ground invasion. Hamas could just declare a victory of sorts and preserve what is left of their arsenal since replacing their stocks of Iranian rockets won’t be so easy this time due to the closure of the border with Egypt. But there appears to be no sign of the “sustainable quiet” Israel craves of even a temporary cease-fire. The reason for that is that Hamas believes it is winning.

How so? The answer comes from the people of Gaza. They have born the brunt of Israeli counterattacks while the leaders and fighters of Hamas and their weapons stockpile remains safe in shelters underneath the strip. But the sight of rockets being launched into Israel by the hundreds has bolstered the Islamist group’s political stock. They know that Hamas TV claims of Israeli casualties are lies. But nonetheless, the idea that Jews in Tel Aviv are being forced to take shelter even if the rockets never find their targets is a big boost to their morale.

Scratch beneath the surface and actually read or listen to the comments of Gazans and you see why Hamas’s popularity always goes up whenever there is fighting.

(Video) Not the anticipated answer from the Palestinian envoy to the UNHRC

"The missiles that are now being launched against Israel - each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity,...

LOTL..
13 July '14..
H/T Honest Reporting..

MEMRI comes through once again with this short interview of Ibrahim Khreisheh, Palestinian Representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council, broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV, 09 July '14.


MEMRITVVideos

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjzS27ylCZ8

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Ever wonder how Gaza came to be run by Hamas terrorists? by Sultan Knish

...And Rabin's speech which warned the West of what was to come, was ignored. Today Rabin is remembered as the man who compromised with terrorism. It is the only thing he is remembered for .But compromising with terrorism did not bring peace. Not in Somalia, where US troops were brutally murdered next year. Not in Afghanistan, where the Taliban slaughtered aid convoys. Not in Indonesia or New York or Paris or Egypt. And certainly not in Gaza.

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
13 July '14..

As Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas targets and Hamas rockets fall on Israeli towns, some wonder how did Gaza come to run by Hamas terrorists. The answer is that the world forced Israel to let them in.

In the early 90s, Nissim Toledano, a border police sergeant, was kidnapped by terrorists on the way to work. After an extended search, he was found dead in a roadside ditch.

In response to that attack and numerous other atrocities committed by Hamas, including a planned massive car bombing, Israel made the decision to deport 400 Hamas terrorists. Among them were the past and present day leaders of Hamas.

You might assume that the story ends there. And you would be wrong.

The United Nations issued a unanimous resolution condemning Israel's deportation of "civilians" and demanding that Israel immediately bring them back, or face sanctions. The United States voted for that resolution, along with three others condemning Israel. Thomas R. Pickering, the American delegate warned that the deportations of Hamas terrorists "do not contribute to current efforts for peace."

Lebanon refused to officially accept the terrorists. The Red Cross brought them tents and blankets and the media swarmed to take photos of them "shivering from the cold" while drinking coffee outside their tents. Newsweek accused Israel of "Deporting the Hope for Peace". The LA Times ran a tearful interview with the wife of Mohammed Taamari, a future member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who was terribly lonely without her husband. Much as after the flotilla raid, the Israeli media condemned the clumsy mishandling of the deportations.

Finally after enough browbeating by James Baker and Warren Christopher, Rabin agreed to take the Hamas terrorists back. In a bizarre charade that would serve as a tragic foretelling of events to come, Rabin agreed to return 100 terrorists immediately, and to take the remainder back in a year.. Now the Hamas terrorists that Rabin took back control all of Gaza, and have been responsible for an untold number of murders.

The terrorists that Israel was forced to accept included current Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh and Hamas' religious figurehead, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

They included Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas, who last year proclaimed; "They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people". They included Mohammed Taha, another co-founder of Hamas. They also included Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, another Hamas co-founder, who was responsible for numerous murders of Israelis, who would proclaim, "By Allah, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine".

They included his son Ayman Taha, who commanded the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which carried out numerous attacks on Israel, including the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Surprise? Egyptians Hoping Israel Will Destroy Hamas

..."Thank you Netanyahu and may God give us more [people] like you to destroy Hamas!" — Azza Sami of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram....Hamas is paying a heavy price for meddling in the internal affairs of Egypt and some other Arab countries. But the Palestinians living under Hamas in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavier price, largely due to their failure to rise up against the Islamist movement and demand the right to live better lives.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
13 July '14..

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi has thus far turned down appeals from Palestinians and other Arabs to work toward achieving a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Sisi and urged him to intervene to achieve an "immediate ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas. Abbas later admitted that his appeal to Sisi and (other Arab leaders) had fallen on deaf ears.

Sisi's decision not to intervene in the current crisis did not come as a surprise. In fact, Sisi and many Egyptians seem to be delighted that Hamas is being badly hurt.

Some Egyptians are even openly expressing hope that Israel will completely destroy Hamas, which they regard as the "armed branch of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization."

Sisi's Egypt has not forgiven Hamas for its alliance with Muslim Brotherhood and its involvement in terrorist attacks against Egyptian civilians and soldiers over the past year.

The Egyptians today understand that Hamas and other radical Islamist groups pose a serious threat to their national security. That is why the Egyptian authorities have, over the past year, been taking tough security measures not only against Hamas, but also the entire population of the Gaza Strip.

These measures include the destruction of dozens of smuggling tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

True, there are still many Egyptians and Arabs who sympathize with Hamas, mainly because it is being targeted by Israel. But over the past week, there are also different voices coming out of Egypt and some other Arab countries -- voices that publicly support the Israeli military operation against the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.

This is perhaps because a growing number of Arabs and Muslims are fed up with the Islamist terrorists who are imposing a reign of terror and intimidation in the Arab world, particularly in Iraq and Syria. They see the atrocities and massacres committed by Islamists on a daily basis in Iraq and Syria and are beginning to ask themselves if these serve the interests of the Arabs and Muslims.

Sisi and other Arab leaders are now sitting on the fence and hoping that this time Israel will complete the job and get rid of Hamas once and for all. Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah are certainly not going to shed a tear if Hamas is crushed and removed from power in the Gaza Strip.

Anyone Asking Why Gaza Doesn't Have Bomb Shelters?

...Gaza’s tyrants have plenty of money and material to build shelters. And they have built plenty of them. They’re just not for the people of Gaza...Hamas’ leaders and fighters are kept safe in a warren of shelters build deep underneath Gaza. There is also plenty of room there for its supply of thousands of rockets and other armaments. Moreover, they are also connected by tunnels that crisscross the length of that independent Palestinian state in all but name ruled by Hamas. Indeed, when you consider the vast square footage devoted to these structures, there may well be far more shelter space per square mile in Gaza than anyplace in Israel.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
13 July '14..

One of the key talking points by apologists for Hamas in the current conflict is that it isn’t fair that Israelis under fire have bomb shelters while Palestinians in Gaza don’t have any. Among other factors, he lack of shelters accounts in part for the differences in casualty figures between the two peoples. But somehow none of the talking heads on TV ever ask why there are no bomb shelters in Gaza.

There’s no question that Hamas is outgunned by Israel. The Islamist terror group that still rules over Gaza has thousands of rockets but Palestinians eager to cheer news of Israeli casualties have been disappointed as the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has knocked down most of the rockets shot over the border from Gaza at Israeli cities in the hope that carnage will result. But even though Israel has gone to unprecedented lengths to avoid killing Palestinian civilians as it attacks the missile launch sites and Hamas command centers and ammunition storage areas that are embedded in packed neighborhood and especially in or around schools, mosques and clinics, some civilians have died. Given that the Israelis have pounded the Islamists with nearly a thousand strikes this week, the approximately 150 Palestinian fatalities is actually pretty low. But still, fewer Palestinians would have died had there been places for them to seek refuge during the fighting.

The assumption is that the Hamas-run strip is too poor to afford building shelters and safe rooms for its civilians, a point that adds to the impression that the Palestinians are helpless victims who deserve the sympathy if not the help of the world in fending off Israel’s assault on Hamas’ arsenal.

But the assumption is utterly false. Gaza’s tyrants have plenty of money and material to build shelters. And they have built plenty of them. They’re just not for the people of Gaza.

As is well known, Gaza is honeycombed with underground structures from one end of the strip to the other. This doesn’t only refer to the more than 1,400 tunnels that have connected Gaza to Egypt through which all sorts of things — including rockets, ammunition, building materials as well as consumer goods came into the strip until the military government in Cairo stopped the traffic. The chief problem facing the Israeli Defense Forces in this campaign is the same one they faced in 2008 and 2012 when they previously tried to temporarily silence the rocket fire. Hamas’ leaders and fighters are kept safe in a warren of shelters build deep underneath Gaza. There is also plenty of room there for its supply of thousands of rockets and other armaments. Moreover, they are also connected by tunnels that crisscross the length of that independent Palestinian state in all but name ruled by Hamas. Indeed, when you consider the vast square footage devoted to these structures, there may well be far more shelter space per square mile in Gaza than anyplace in Israel.

The Israel-Hamas conflict - The obligation of getting the law right

...Using human shields is not a romanticized effort at neighborhood defense — it is a war crime. Using hospitals as munitions depots or sites for rocket launchers endangers every civilian who needs medical treatment, because once the hospital is used for military purposes, it loses its protection from attack. Using houses for all manner of military activity amounts to using the civilian population as a shield and risks the life of every civilian in the neighborhood. This conduct demonstrates that Hamas not only views every civilian and every city in Israel as a target — which is wholly illegal — but that it also views every civilian and every neighborhood in Gaza as an expendable pawn in a propaganda war, a tragic and equally illegal approach.

Laurie R. Blank..
thehill.com..
11 July '14..
H/T This Ongoing War..

International law has quite a lot to say about the latest violence that has flared up between Israel and Hamas. So do the media. Unfortunately, they rarely match, leading to unfortunate — and sometimes egregious — misrepresentations. In an age when both real and perceived violations of international law have a substantial effect on the legitimacy of state action, getting it wrong is way more than just bad journalism.

The core purpose of the law of war — a centuries-old framework regulating conduct during wartime — is to protect civilians and minimize suffering during wartime. In any conflict, all parties — states, rebel groups, terrorist organizations — have obligations to minimize harm to civilians. For each party, these obligations take two primary forms: protecting civilians in the areas where it is attacking, and protecting its own civilians from the consequences of attacks by the enemy party. Attacking parties must 1) attack only enemy personnel and objects; 2) refrain from any indiscriminate attacks; 3) refrain from attacks in which the expected civilian casualties will be excessive in light of the military value of the target; and 4) provide warnings for civilians of attacks where feasible. In their own territory, militaries and armed groups must refrain from locating military objectives in densely populated areas and take other steps to keep civilians out of harm's way. Specifically, the law also criminalizes the use of civilians as human shields.

It is particularly disheartening, therefore, when perversions of this law, through biased or faulty media coverage, effectively promote the very opposite result. Consider media coverage of Israeli strikes on targets in Gaza, of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's rocket attacks on Israel, and of Hamas's actions in Gaza.
First, reports have described Israel's comprehensive system of warnings to civilians before launching strikes in Gaza as "contentious" and suggest that it is motivated solely by the desire to evade potential war crimes charges. Under the law of war, warnings are designed to protect civilians by giving them the opportunity to leave an area of hostilities and seek safety. Examples of such warnings include radio announcements, leaflets, or other generalized communications. Israel's use of individualized, specific warnings by phone and text goes far beyond what the law requires — it is hard to imagine how they could possibly be described as "contentious," instead of unprecedented or protective.

At the same time, the law of war does not require warnings before targeting enemy personnel — indeed, the law authorizes the use of lethal force as a first resort against enemy fighters and military objects. Imagine the absurdity of a system that required soldiers to give the enemy a chance to hide or plan an ambush by giving a warning before attacking: The United States did not warn German or Japanese soldiers before attacking them in World War II, nor should it have. Hamas militants are fighters, not civilians, and therefore are not entitled to protection from attack, just as Israeli soldiers are not protected from attack during conflict. It is the civilians of Gaza and Israel and every other conflict zone that the law seeks to protect, through a comprehensive web of protections and obligations.

Eerily Déjà Vu by Sarah Honig

...Unlike our own, Arab society is unbothered by the pluralistic niceties of moral-relativism. Allah is exclusively on their side and they are the only interpreters of his will. The murder of Jews is divinely decreed and this isn’t only Hamas ideology. By this precept, Jews must die and have no right to resist. That’s their lot. Not only do they possess no right to avenge, they posses no right to self-defense, to at all fight. Their very existence is a provocation, a casus belli.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
10 July '14..







Directly below is an op-ed I wrote in 1990, right after the murder in Rishon Lezion of seven Arab itinerant laborers by Ami Popper (who’s still doing life and who unlike homicidal Arabs hasn’t been released to ransom hostages or to win a presumed peace-partner’s goodwill).

Have a read:

Listening to the mournful tones and tunes on Israel Radio in the wake of the Rishon Lezion murder of Arab workers, I have a very heretical confession to make: I am not guilty! I feel no shame whatever! I’ve never taken the life of any creature larger than an insect.

I am not unlike millions of Americans who didn’t beat their personal breasts when a gunman recently mowed down diners at a hamburger joint or when another fired his weapon in a schoolyard. If my memory doesn’t fail me, those incidents made no waves in the U.N. Security Council. Neither did the Ras Burka massacre in Sinai and the slaughter only a few months back of Israeli tourists in Egypt.

They are all gone with the wind. Dead and forgotten – as are the bus passengers overturned into a ravine between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; Ofra Moses, her unborn baby and her five-year-old son, Tal; Rachel Weiss and her three tots; or the two oldsters stabbed on a Jerusalem bus stop bench by a hero of the glorious intifada.

The stabbing of Ein Kerem restaurant owner Ya’acov Shalom, only a few hours after the Rishon bloodshed, failed to so much as flick our public eyelash. We were too busy mourning the Arab victims of a madman to devote much attention to the Jewish victim of a cold, calculated execution, an act of deliberate hate.

The double standard is undeniable. Jewish blood is cheap, and even we Jews have a far cooler reaction to our dead than the Arabs have to theirs. It is almost natural for Jews to be slain; it doesn’t disturb the order of things. And so our own self-appointed guardians of Jewish morality don’t get overly outraged when Jewish blood is spilled. At most, there is the obligatory lip service about “regrettable violence in the absence of political compromise.”

It’s all really our fault, anyway. If Jewish deaths spark any passion in the Left, it’s because “the incident plays into the hands of the extremist Right.”

I don’t blame the Arabs for rioting. They don’t love us. Their parents’ generation rioted and murdered before we had a state or occupied any territories. We are enemies. Any pretext will do to fuel hatred. Remember the mass hysteria of pre-intifada tales about Arab schoolgirls poisoned by a mysterious Jewish gas?

But our own leftwing ought to know better. They know full well that the Rishon killer wasn’t sent by anyone, that – legally insane or not – he acted as an individual and not as the agent of a group, much less of the government of the nation. The talk about “an atmosphere” conducive to the murder of Arabs is reckless demagogy that could in some eyes justify the murder of Jews.

The fact is that we are the tamest people on earth. After 2½ years of stone-throwing and murder, other nations, including the US, would have gone on a vengeful rampage.

Besides, can anyone guarantee that after the achievement of the idyllic, blissful peace (which the Left envisions after we rid ourselves of all our territorial possessions), no individual gunman would ever run wild? Perhaps the assumption is that after peace comes, only Jews will be mowed down by a hail of bullets.

A Washington Post Headline That Reeks

...Even Human Rights Watch, quick to criticize Israel, has condemned Hamas for deliberate attacks on civilians – the opposite of what the Post headline intimates. It’s Hamas that is committing war crimes by targeting civilians in Israel and turning Gaza civilians into human shields. The anti-Israel bias in this front-page headline couldn’t be more odious.

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
11 July '14..





It’s the biggest, boldest headline on the front page of the July 10 edition of the Washington Post. In huge type, it proclaims: “Israel hits Gaza homes”

Below the headline are two smaller-type sub-heads. One, just below the top head, reads: “CHILDREN AND WOMEN KILLED.” The other subhead, in even smaller type, reads: “Netanyahu blames tactics of Hamas.”

The clear, lasting impression left with readers is that Israel is deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza by attacking their homes.

It’s an utter libel. The unexplained Hamas tactics in the smallest-type subhead don’t begin to inform readers that Hamas is using civilians as human shields in an attempt to ward off Israeli counter-attacks.

A worthwhile objective to achieve? Target every last terrorist

You cannot run a war with a clock over your head. War has objectives that must be achieved, and only their full realization can dictate its end...That is why the Israeli government must order the IDF to target every last terrorist -- from Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh to the very last man digging a tunnel. When it comes to a terror state, you do not differentiate between the political echelon and the military one. They all seek to destroy us and therefore they all share the same fate.

Tzvika Fogel..
Israel Hayom..
11 July '14..

One thousand airstrikes in three days. Nearly 1,000 tons of explosives have been dropped on various parts of the Gaza Strip, major weapon mills, caches and posts have been destroyed, hundreds of hidden rocket launchers have been rendered useless, and dozens of Hamas terrorists, including several senior operatives, have either been killed or put out of action. But while these all serve as proof of the Israeli Air Force's capabilities, they are not a breaking point, let alone a decision point, for Hamas.

The circumstances of the war into which we have been forced have given the Israeli government the unique, perhaps even one-off, opportunity to deal Hamas a decisive blow. Hamas is more vulnerable and far less ready for confrontation than it once was -- just as since 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense, Hamas has mostly been focused on trying to survive rather than bolstering its capabilities.

Israeli security forces' actions, as well as Egyptian efforts to thwart Hamas' smuggling attempts over the past 18 months, have forced Hamas to reallocate monetary and human resources to improve its "manual" munitions assembly line, which is far less effective than having standard weapons.

Moreover, Hamas' inability to pay government employee wages, due to Israeli sanctions, has, in my opinion, greatly undermined its operatives' motivation. After all, even a terrorist's family needs to buy groceries.

We seem to be scaring ourselves much more than the enemy is trying to scare us. The aerial strikes on Gaza are the precise time to engage in a ground incursion. The threat of fire from above, compounded by ground forces' maneuvers, will make the enemy feel hunted and force it into the open.

What is Hamas doing? Hamas’s (and Iran’s) fail-safe strategy by Caroline Glick

...Peace can only come to Israel and its neighbors when the Muslim world liberates itself from its hatred of Jews. Until that happens, everyone from Hamas to Hezbollah to Fatah to al-Qaida to Iran and beyond will continue to view attacking Israel as the best way to make a name for themselves in the world, and the best way to get the attention – and support – of the West.

Caroline Glick..
carolineglick.com..
10 July '14..





What is Hamas doing?

Hamas isn’t going to defeat Israel.

It isn’t going to gain any territory. Israel isn’t going to withdraw from Ashkelon or Sderot under a hail of rockets.

So if Hamas can’t win, why is it fighting?

Why rain down destruction and misery on millions of Israelis with your Iranian missiles and your Syrian rockets and invite a counter-assault on your headquarters and weapons warehouses, which you have conveniently placed in the middle of the Palestinian people on whose behalf you are allegedly fighting?

Hamas is in a precarious position. When the terror group took over Gaza seven years ago, things were different.

It had a relatively friendly regime in Cairo that was willing to turn a blind eye to all the missiles Iran, Syria and Hezbollah were sending over to Gaza through Sinai.

Hamas’s leaders were comfortably ensconced in Damascus and enjoyed warm relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

International funds flowed freely into Hamas bank accounts from Fatah’s donor-financed Palestinian Authority budget, through the Arab Bank, headquartered in Jordan, through the UN, and when necessary through suitcases of cash transferred to Gaza by couriers from Egypt.

Hamas used these conditions to build up the arsenal of a terror state, and to keep the trains running on time. Schools were open. Government employees were paid. Israel was bombed. All was good.

Today, Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, faces an Egyptian regime that is locked in a life-and-death struggle with the Brotherhood. To harm Hamas, for the past year the Egyptians have been blocking Hamas’s land-based weapons shipments and destroying its smuggling-dependent economy by sealing off the cross-border tunnels.

Syria and Hamas parted ways at the outset of the Syrian civil war when Hamas, a Sunni jihadist group, was unable to openly support Bashar Assad’s massacre of Sunnis.

Fatah has lately been refusing to transfer payments to Hamas due to congressional pressure to cut off the now-illegal flow of aid to the joint Fatah-Hamas unity government.

As for Hamas’s banker, stung by terror victim lawsuits, the Arab Bank now refuses to transfer monies to Hamas from third parties. The UN is also hard-pressed to finance the terror group’s bureaucracy.

In Gaza itself, al-Qaida affiliates including ISIS (now renamed the Islamic State) have seeded themselves along with the Iranian proxy Islamic Jihad. These groups challenge Hamas’s claim to power. Lacking the ability to pay government employee salaries, Hamas is hard-pressed to keep its rivals down.

Given these circumstances, it was just a matter of time before Hamas opened a full-on assault against Israel.

Jew-hatred is endemic in the Muslim world. Going to war against Israel is a tried and true method of garnering sympathy and support from the Muslim world. At a minimum it earns you the forbearance, if not the support of the US and Europe. And you get all of these things whether you win or lose.

When Dealing With a Bloody Endless Peace

...But ignorance is a particular strength of peacemakers. They don't want reasons why it can't happen. Nor do they want to hear that the best kind of peace with people whose religion tells them that they will go to heaven if they die while cutting your throat is the heavily armed peace of cold iron and steel. War is their peace and ignorance is their strength.

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
10 July '14..

"War is peace," entered our cultural vocabulary some sixty-four years ago. Around the same time that Orwell's masterpiece was being printed up, an armistice was being negotiated between Israel and the Arab invading armies. That armistice began the long peaceful war or the warring peace.

The entire charade did not properly enter the realm of the Orwellian until the peace process began. The peace process between Israel and the terrorist militias funded by the countries of those invading armies has gone on for longer than most actual wars. It has also taken more lives than most actual wars.

War has an endpoint. Peace does not. A peace in which you are constantly at war can go on forever because while the enthusiasts of war eventually exhaust their patriotism, the enthusiasts of peace never give up on their peacemaking.

Warmongers may stop after a few thousand dead, but Peacemongers will pirouette over a million corpses.

Two decades later the peace process has failed in every way imaginable and cemeteries on both sides are full of the casualties of peace. Two decades which have created two abortive Palestinian states at war with one another and with Israel.

Two decades later, it's still time for peace.

Peace time means that it’s time to ring up some more Israeli concessions in the hopes of getting the terrorists and their quarreling states back to the negotiating table for another photo op in the glorious album of peacemakers.

And if the photos are properly posed, perhaps there will even be another Nobel Peace Prize in it for all the participants.

It would be nice to think that the peace disease was one of those viruses carried only in the bloodstream of liberals. But it's not.

Every so often I am asked about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab-Muslim conflict and the interrogators are baffled when I tell them that there is no solution.

"No solution at all? But there has to be a solution. What of all the moderate voices of goodwill? What of all the mothers who only want to raise their children to sing happy songs about peace? What about all the old soldiers who are tired of war? What if we get them all in a room to shake hands and pose for photos? Then won't there be peace?"

As society has become more progressive, it has become progressively more difficult to explain even even to intelligent people that the world simply does not work that way.

Grappling With the Hamas Human Shield War

...But the problem with those who draw superficial conclusions from the casualty figures is not just that they don’t understand what Hamas is doing to inflict as much pain on their own people as they can. It’s that these numbers obscure the basic point of the conflict. Hamas is not seeking to end the occupation of Gaza or the West Bank or to force Israel to draw its borders differently. Hamas’ purpose is to destroy Israel and kill its people.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
10 July '14..

Hamas terrorists continued shooting rockets at Israel today as air raid sirens sounded all over the country including in Jerusalem. But the international media’s focus on the conflict continues to be the rising toll of Palestinian civilian casualties. Yet, as with previous conflicts, not much attention is being paid to the way Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.

As I noted yesterday, even the New York Times found it necessary to report that the Israel Defense Forces are issuing warnings to Palestinians living in and around Hamas missile launchers and operations center in Gaza. But having decided to escalate another round of violence by launching hundreds of rockets into Israel, the Islamist group is still hoping to use the presence of Palestinian civilians around legitimate military targets as a weapon against the Jewish state.

In the past, this merely meant putting missile launchers next to schools, hospitals, and mosques as well among civilian homes in the densely populated strip. But as Israel has stepped up its efforts to try and spare civilians even as it seeks to silence the terrorist fire, Hamas has also increased its efforts to ensure that as many inhabitants of Gaza as possible are hurt in the fighting.

As Memri.org reports, speaking on Tuesday on Hamas’s Al Asqua-TV in Gaza, the group’s spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri urged the population of the strip to refuse to heed warnings and to use their bodies to shield Hamas facilities:

This attests to the character of our noble, Jihad-fighting people, who defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood. The policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests in order to protect their homes has proven effective against the occupation. Also, this policy reflects the character of our brave, courageous people. We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy, in order to protect the Palestinian homes.

The talk of defending “Palestinian homes” with “bare chests” is an allusion to the fact that instead of evacuating buildings after IDF warnings, Palestinians have instead surged into them in an effort to either deter the attack or to incur the maximum casualties from the attack.

The cynicism of this tactic is transparent but even though Hamas is making no secret of its intentions, the news reports about the conflict remain centered on the “disproportionate” force used by Israel and the contrast between Palestinian and Israeli casualty figures.

Giving a Whole New Meaning to 'Blind to Reality'

...The peace conference was a kind of Noah's Ark on which the Oslo delusionists and disengagement devotees gathered, surrounded by a rain of missiles, the result of the immoral retreat from Gaza and the Palestinian terror that has ballooned ten-fold since the Oslo Accords. After them, the deluge. We are the ones who will have to clean up after them. Even on the ark the orthodox Left was not safe -- the rockets searched them out. Who said that history has no sense of humor?

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
09 July '14..

And then the rocket was intercepted. That is, the rocket that was fired as a greeting from the besieged Gaza Strip to the peace conference hosted by the Not-Our-Land newspaper Haaretz in Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city. Ah, if only we'd discussed peace, we wouldn't need a sword now. So what have we been doing for the past 20 years? The Palestinian Authority, Camp David, the disengagement from Gaza, and peace proposals by then Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak?

How symbolic that this ridiculous conference was taking place just as half our citizens were heading for shelters because of rocket attacks from Gaza (participants in the conference also had to run for their lives.) When you hear the sirens, think, for example, about these words from Shimon Peres when he was Olmert's deputy prime minister, immediately after the disengagement in mid-2005: "The fact that we left Gaza, was it to bolster Hamas? The opposite." (That is, to strengthen PA President Mahmoud Abbas.) Genius, isn't it? Shortly thereafter Gaza fell to Hamas -- for all intents and purposes a Nazi organization -- whose goal isn't merely to annihilate Israel, but Jews everywhere. Read its charter. Now they want to do the same thing with the Judea and Samaria hills, spitting distance from the center of the country. A walk in the park, right?

How blind to reality can they be? To what remains of the Left: Your real opponents are us, most of the citizens of Israel, who are no longer buying the circus of delusions you sold us. As far as you are concerned, we're all extremists, fascists, warmongers, and the rest of your pet insults. An editorial in Haaretz this week made it sound like a majority of the public wasn't appalled by the horrific murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir by scumbags (Jews, to our shame). Such insolence and condescension.

Reality is a jigsaw puzzle comprised of events and symbols that when put together, create a very clear picture about the Palestinians' perception of the "peace process." They aren't interested. The debate isn't territorial, it's existential. They aren't prepared to share this land with Jews. They shout it at the tops of their voices: They will never be willing to truly sign off on any document that puts an end to the conflict.

Surprise! Hamas commits war crimes, supporters complain about Israeli restraint

...Palestinians think they have a ticket to ride called ‘resisting occupation’. Anything they do is legitimate, and anything the other side does is wrong. Reason, facts, logic and international law are all irrelevant for supporters of the Cause.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abyu Yehuda..
09 July '14..





It’s unbelievable (Adam Taylor, Washington Post):

For years, the Israeli military has been using cellphone calls and small “warning rockets” — usually sent from drones — to tell people which buildings it is targeting and give them time to get out. It’s a time-tested strategy for the Israeli military, and it even has a name: “roof knocking.” Even if its intentions are good, however, it is a controversial tactic. …

Some critics say the tactic amounts to psychological warfare. There are reports of “warnings” that are given but no bombing following. There are also instances in which a bombing is not preceded by a warning, or, worse still, the attack may mistakenly destroy the wrong target or produce wider collateral damage – always a risk in cramped areas such as Khan Younis. Human rights groups have argued that targeting the homes of militia members violates international humanitarian law, whether warnings are made or not.

Let’s come back to earth. Has any other country done anything remotely like this in the course of fighting a war? Is it reasonable that Hamas should fire rockets at civilian targets in Israel with the intent to kill as many Jews as possible, but Israel should be criticized for its attempts to avoid hurting non-combatants?

Compare to the US in Iraq, or the Russians anywhere!

As PM Netanyahu said today, Hamas is committing a “double war crime” by storing weapons in schools and hospitals, and firing rockets at Israeli civilians from heavily populated areas. They don’t try to hide it, and indeed they encourage their people to become human shields. Speaking on Hamas TV, a spokesperson explained that

The policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests in order to protect their homes has proven effective against the occupation … Also, this policy reflects the character of our brave, courageous people. We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy, in order to protect the Palestinian homes.

In parallel with the kinetic war we have the information war. Here Hamas and its supporters — including Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas — are trying to portray Israel’s relatively surgical operation as genocide. All kinds of bloody pictures, some from Syria, Libya, Lebanon, etc. are being posted on social media as ‘evidence’ of Israeli atrocities.

Abbas, who would be happier than a pig in mud to see Hamas wiped out, even went as far as to compare the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir by mentally disturbed football hooligans with “Auschwitz.” This isn’t really surprising from the guy who claimed in his doctoral dissertation that Zionists collaborated with Hitler to create a Holocaust — in order to get the survivors into Palestine!

And Now a Preview of Coming Comments

...In a situation where deadly terrorist kingpins hide behind their human shields, it boils down to them or us. If the human shields are granted immunity, it will be at the cost of Israeli lives. There’s no getting around this underlying reality of the dirty Hamas war. When the Arab world and the oft-biased choir of international pontificators disregard this, they in effect announce that they care less about Israelis than they do about those who deliberately and repeatedly attack Israeli civilians. Disingenuous demands for artificial proportionality are nothing less than clamoring for Israel to cease protecting its citizens.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
09 July '14..

The hardly unexpected reactions to Operation Protective Edge, from those who rarely react when Israel is attacked, may be regarded as a preview of coming comments.

At first hearing, some Israelis took heart from the fact that players like the UN Secretary General and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton at all denounced the missile barrages from Gaza. But the devil is in the further details. It’s instructive to pay heed to the entirety of their messages.

Thus Ban Ki-moon, according to a statement released by his spokesman in NY, “condemns the recent multiple rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. These indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas must stop.” But then comes the clincher: “The Secretary-General is extremely concerned at the dangerous escalation of violence, which has already resulted in multiple Palestinian deaths and injuries as a result of Israeli operations against Gaza.”

It’s noteworthy that Ban mentioned only Islamic Jihad as the wrongdoer and not Hamas, which has gallingly gained respectability from the unity pact struck with Ramallah’s Mahmoud Abbas.

The identical singular focus on Islamic Jihad is evident of Ashton’s statement. Ashton, who was remarkably unperturbed by persistent rocket fire on Israel’s south from Gaza, woke up only after Israel was forced to respond.

Ashton “strongly condemned” the Gazan rocketing of Israel “for which the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is listed by the EU as a terrorist organization, has claimed responsibility.” Hamas isn’t in the picture and its seeming absence appears to absolve it of culpability.

Her statement then continued: “The EU deplores the growing number of civilian casualties, reportedly among them children, caused by Israeli retaliatory fire. The safety and security of all civilians must be of paramount importance.”

Both Ban and Ashton – and others as well – appear to have conveniently lost sight of cause and effect.

An Important Reminder - The IDF was Formed to Protect Israel's Civilians

...As long as the terrorists are embedded in the Gaza civilian population, hide in civilian homes and hospitals, refuse to wear military insignias and launch missiles from heavily populated Gaza neighborhoods, the IDF has a right and a moral obligation to carry out the targeted killings of the terrorist leaders and missile crews without warnings... There is no need to warn the terrorists before the IDF strikes them and no moral reason to give the Palestinian civilian population a preference over the Israeli civilian population's safety and protection. The IDF was formed to protect Israel's civilians and it is to Israelis it owes its first obligations. As the great sage Hillel said: "If I am not for myself, who is for me?"

Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center..
09 July '14





As the the IDF operation against the Hamas and Islamic terrorist regime in Gaza continues, thousands of

Israeli reserve soldiers are being called to their bases in the South of the country. At the same time, rockets fired by the Palestinians in Gaza continue to target Israeli civilian communities all across the Jewish State. The country remains very unified and strong but the constant state of alarm and the warning sirens sounding throughout the day have disrupted the lives of millions of Israelis. Repeatedly throughout the past 24 hours, we in the Shurat HaDin offices in Tel-Aviv have had to take shelter in our building's protective area in response to the sirens and the reports of missiles fired towards the Gush Dan region. It is very startling to hear the alarms go off and then the sounds of the aerial explosions, as the Iron Dome system intercepts the terrorists rockets.

It is shocking that in 2014 no other Jewish community anywhere in the world has faced these sorts unrelenting terrorist attacks attempting to murder their woman and children. And for too long we have been willing to put up with it.

One of the reasons that the Israeli Air Force has had such trouble taking out the terrorist commanders and their rocket crews is because they are deeply embedded within the Gaza civilian population. The terrorist learned from the brutal beating they were administered by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and have changed their tactics. Today, the Hamas leaders operate solely from inside schools, mosques, apartment buildings and hospitals. The rockets and their launchers are also hidden away inside of these civilian centers. It is virtually impossible for the IDF to strike at the launchers without endangering the lives of the Gaza civilians who act as human shields for the terrorist infrastructure. They just cannot get a clear shot. Each alleged civilian causality is widely publicized in the international media to brand the IDF as war criminals. This, at the same time Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately target Israeli civilians!

The IDF has tried to cope with this challenging sirtuation by adopting policies of restraint designed to minimize the Palestinian civilian deaths. Perhaps most troubling is the "knock on the roof" policy enacted by the IDF to warn the terrorists before the Air Force strikes. The IDF has been telephoning the terrorists' homes and warning them to get out before they are bombed. Sometimes the IDF fires a small warning shot before a larger bomb is dropped in order to allow whomever wants to escape to flee. Frequently, the terrorist utilize this Israeli warning to send children up to the roofs of their houses to compel the IDF not to rocket them.

Return Gaza to the Stone Age by Amos Regev

...There are moments in the life of a nation when history is made. This could be such a moment, if we utilize it. This time, the method must be different -- no pinpricks or surgical strikes, but rather a massive concentration of force...The task assigned to our forces must be much more than "returning the quiet." The order must be to eliminate Hamas' ability to threaten us. And when our forces depart Gaza, they must leave Hamas, or what remains of it, back in the Stone Age.

Amos Regev..
Israel hayom..
09 July '14..

The Gaza Strip must be returned to the Stone Age. Not in the sense of destroying every home and all the infrastructure, which would leave Gaza residents wandering among ruins. Rather, Israel should eliminate every rocket, bomb and gun in Gaza. In other words, get rid of the arsenal Hamas has accumulated over the past 10 years. The snake must be defanged, leaving Hamas without rockets. The most it would have left would be stones.

There is only one way to do this -- an extensive ground operation. This must be carried out with determination and clenched lips, with the knowledge that this is a war of no choice.

Over the past decade, intentionally or negligently, Israeli governments have allowed Gaza to turn into a terror base. There have been military operations and targeted assassinations, yet Gaza terror groups, led by Hamas, have nevertheless been able, via both smuggling from outside Gaza and internal production, to build up stockpiles of rockets. This has created a "balance of terror" between Israel, with its large and sophisticated army and air force, and Hamas, armed with several thousand rockets. Israeli deterrence has been eroded by Hamas' ability to strike the central Gush Dan area.

This is an intolerable situation, yet it has become a fact. Given the current circumstances, the time has come to change this reality. Restoring quiet would not be enough. Rather, Israel must return Hamas to a situation in which the most it can do is throw stones. This is how it was when Hamas was founded, in Gaza, during the First Intifada. But since then, particularly over the past 10 years, Hamas equipped itself with long-range rockets. It would take only 10 days to return Hamas to the Stone Age.

The Disingenuous and Misleading Blood Feud Narrative

...the fact remains that Hamas’s goal remains Israel’s destruction. Its ideology is geared not toward the eviction of Jews from the West Bank or the creation of a Palestinian state there, or in Gaza (where it still rules the strip in what is an independent Palestinian state in all but name). What it wants is the end of the Jewish state and the eviction and/or slaughter of its population. That is why its operatives target Jewish children and its missiles are aimed at Israeli cities where, if they get through the country’s defenses, can cause the maximum amount of harm.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
08 July '14..

Today’s escalation of fighting in the Middle East is provoking the usual calls for restraint from the West and the usual talk about cycles of violence from the international media. But as long-range missiles are being launched at Israeli cities to indiscriminately kill or maim the country’s citizens, Americans should be asking themselves why Hamas is doing this.

This is, after all, the same Islamist group that the Obama administration assured us was on its way to being a partner for peace. Though the United States still rightly classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization, the administration refused to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority after its leaders signed a unity pact with the group. The assumption was that Hamas would come under the influence of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and that there was no need for the U.S. to pressure him to cut ties with terrorists.

But Hamas had other ideas. Its members kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers. Since then it has not only sought to mobilize Palestinians to obstruct Israeli forces searching vainly for the youngsters and then exploit the murder of a Palestinian teen by Jews into the excuse for a third intifada. More importantly, it has used this violence as the rationale for breaking a two-year-old cease-fire with Israel along the border with Gaza by beginning a large-scale missile barrage with some of the projectiles aimed at major Israeli cities.

This is represented by much of the media coverage as just another instance of a tit-for-tat exchange in which both sides are equally culpable. That impression is strengthened by President Obama’s demands for Israeli “restraint” and his implicit criticism of the Jewish state’s democratically elected government accompanied by praise for Hamas’s erstwhile partner Abbas.

But lost amid the rush to moral equivalence are some basic facts about Hamas and why it chooses to keep attacking Israel.

The first is that while the Western media and the foreign-policy establishment continues to speak as if Israeli settlements and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s supposed intransigence are the primary obstacles to peace, the fact remains that Hamas’s goal remains Israel’s destruction. Its ideology is geared not toward the eviction of Jews from the West Bank or the creation of a Palestinian state there, or in Gaza (where it still rules the strip in what is an independent Palestinian state in all but name). What it wants is the end of the Jewish state and the eviction and/or slaughter of its population.

That is why its operatives target Jewish children and its missiles are aimed at Israeli cities where, if they get through the country’s defenses, can cause the maximum amount of harm.

Both fighting enemies from within and without by Caroline Glick

Israel faces a difficult, violent period ahead. But there are certain imperatives of freedom that we cannot shirk. Defeating enemies – from within and without – who act to destroy us is one of them.

Caroline Glick..
carolinegick.com..
08 July '14..

Sixteen-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was doing his own thing last Tuesday when he was abducted by Jewish terrorists, who slaughtered him. They killed him because he was an Arab, and they are racist murderers.

The police made solving Abu Khdeir’s murder a top priority. In less than a week, they had six suspects in custody. Three confessed to the murder.

There are dark forces at work in Israeli society. They need to be dealt with.

And they will be dealt with harshly.

They will be dealt with harshly because there is no significant sector in Israeli society that supports terrorism.

There is no Jewish tradition that condones or calls for the murder of innocents. In Jewish tradition, the line between protecting society from its enemies and committing murder is long, wide, unmistakable and unmoving.

This is why, for instance, at the memorial service for 20-year-old Shelly Dadon, who was murdered by an Israeli Arab terrorist from the Galilee in early May, the placards held up by the 2,000 participants called for the police to protect the public.

“Our blood is not worthless,” “Today it’s Shelly, tomorrow it could be you,” and, “Death penalty for murderers,” they read.

Not surprisingly, when on Sunday the police revealed both that they had arrested Abu Khdeir’s Jewish killers and that they had arrested Dadon’s Muslim murderer, public interest in the former story far surpassed interest in the latter.

The story of an Israeli Muslim terrorist murdering an Israeli Jewish woman is a dog bites man story.

The story of Israeli Jewish terrorists murdering an Israeli Muslim teenager is a man bites dog story.

The same goes for violent rioting.

The anti-terror demonstration in Jerusalem scheduled for last Tuesday quickly became a violent anti-Arab riot with rioters assaulting helpless Arab passersby. The police arrested 47 Jewish rioters. And the public as a whole condemned them.

Without public support, such deviant behavior has little longevity. Mob violence, as a general rule, plays to the audience at home. With no public support, the riots were over after one night.

In contrast, Jerusalem Arabs began rioting on Wednesday night. The riots spread to the north and south of the country by the end of the week. And there seems to be no end in sight.

There are several factors prolonging them. The most troubling is the depraved state of Arab society – both Palestinian Arab and Israeli Arab.

Whereas aside from fascist soccer fan clubs there are no significant Israeli Jewish groups that condone terrorism or racial violence, hatred of Israel and support for terrorism and the destruction of the Jewish state are widespread among Israeli Arab leaders and the general Arab public.

As for the Palestinians, there are no significant forces in Palestinian society calling for peaceful coexistence with Israel. The only voices celebrated are those calling for murdering Jews and destroying the Jewish state.

There is also the issue of the unfortunate timing the current violence.

A look back at the day so far

...If there was no rocket fire from this non-disputed enclave, there would be no Israeli response, and nobody would be dying. The sorry fact is that both before and after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, terrorists in the coastal enclave have been firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, gloating when they maim Israelis and crying foul to the international community when Israel hits back and, inadvertently, hurts the Gaza civilians whom the terror groups have placed in harm’s way.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
08 July '14..

Israel's formal counter to the missile war waged against us by the terrorists of Hamas now has a name as of midnight this past night: Operation Tzuk Eitan [Hebrew: מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן] which the IDF is translating as Protective Edge.

It's been a violent and dangerous day, and there's no reason to think the acts of terror from Hamas and the other jihad-minded grouplets in its domain are about to taper off. Quite the contrary.

This evening, there's an indication of how dangerous this can be, with the report an hour ago of a failed infiltration by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the vicinity of Kibbutz Zikim (main outputs: mangos, avocados. dairy products, polyurethane) on the Mediterranean sea shore a few kilometers north of the northwestern end of the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio's news report says they came by sea and were met with fire from an IDF force: an IDF soldier was lightly injured in the exchange. Police, according to Times of Israel

have been deployed in great numbers to the area to prevent additional infiltration attempts from the Gaza Strip into Israel. [Times of Israel tonight]

At Israel National News, they say four infiltrators were killed but the authorities are taking no chances that there might be others as yet undetected. So the roads to and around Zikim are now closed.

Tzeva Adom incoming rocket warning sirens were heard throughout Israel's central metropolis earlier this evening: Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu, Rishon Letzion, Nes Tziona, Beit Shemesh, Rehovot, Gadera, the Gezer region, Yavne and other communities. Israel National News says there was a barrage of "several rockets", and that the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system made one or more mid-flight hits. No damage has yet been reported. That report says these were M75 rockets, "a domestic creation produced by Hamas in Gaza which features a long range", launched from Beit Hanoun in Gaza. At Times of Israel, they say Palestinian Islamic Jihad

has taken responsibility for the rocket fire on Tel Aviv. The rocket was most likely an M-75, which is made in Gaza and based on the Iranian Fajr rocket.

(Continue)

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Dealing With a World of Rocket Diplomacy

...Now let the IDF deal robustly with the people behind the indiscriminate shooting of rockets against Israeli civilians. Without outside interference. So that everyone has a chance for a more peaceful future.

Ilya Meyer..
Times of Israel..
08 July '14..



Fatah to Israel: Prepare your body-bags.

Obama to Israel: Fatah is a partner for peace.

Obama’s words came on the same day as Fatah’s body-bag warning…

Let’s understand the background: Hamas, Jihad Islami and other terrorists in Gaza have been attacking Israeli civilians with rockets, sometimes at a rate of up to one per minute.

But that’s nothing new – since January this year Gaza terrorists from the Hamas unity government have fired more than 450 missiles at exclusively civilian targets in Israel. Of course, that figure doesn’t include the 12,000 missiles that the Gaza terrorists fired at Israeli civilians in the previous 9 years.

Read that again, slowly: one rocket every 60 seconds landing on a school, hospital, apartment building, road. And the world community speaks with one voice: NOT to demand that the terrorists stop their human rights violations, but to demand that Israel behave with restraint.

After more than a week of warnings and a gradual increase in its military response, Israel last night finally went on the offensive with Operation Protective Edge to try and stamp out the constant mortal threat to its citizens from Gaza’s unceasing barrage of rockets.

Mahmoud Abbas leads the Palestinian Arab Fatah government in the Jewish provinces of Judea and Samaria. Fatah demands that Israel make a gift of Judea and Samaria to them so they can create a third Palestinian Arab state there (alongside Jordan and Gaza), but Fatah is too proud to negotiate over it. Fatah just demands. Fatah has now responded to Israel’s measured military actions in Gaza by warning all Israelis everywhere to “prepare body-bags” since “Jewish blood is going to flow in rivers” because Israel has the temerity to try and prevent the ongoing murder of its citizens.

But best of all, today, even as Fatah warns Israeli civilians to prepare large numbers of body-bags for the civilians that the Palestinian Arabs intend to murder, President Obama publishes an op-ed praising Abbas, Fatah and the prospects for peace. Eerily, on the same day that Abbas and his Fatah party warn Israelis to prepare mass body-bags, Obama writes “in President Abbas, Israel has a counterpart committed to a two-state solution and security cooperation with Israel”.

Which begs the question: is Obama as out of touch with reality, as cold to human suffering, as Abbas is?

Or does Obama, like Abbas, believe that human suffering is terrible, but only if it does not involve Jews or Israelis?