Conflict Promotion Team (CPT) member given 10 year timeout from Israel

...At this point we bid John adieu, but do wholeheartedly wish to all those who truly believe that peace can yet be achieved, that the Johns, Codys and Kathleens of the world find other greener pastures to do their business in.

LOTL..
10 May '15..

John Bergen of the Conflict Promotion Team (AKA Christian Peacemaker Teams), announced on May 8th via his posting on the CPT site, that he will not be visiting Hevron, or Israel for that matter for the next 10 years. A big thumbs up to Passport Control who duly identified John, and his illustrious multi-month history as a CPT member in Hevron, enabler and promoter of conflict and violence on a daily basis. While John will surely not be missed, a number of his friends do remain, insuring that the level of tension, stone-throwing, and stabbings will unfortunately still remain as a daily possibility, endangering the Jewish residents, men, women and children, as well as guaranteeing that the CPT's local following of innocent rock throwers will likely have a very bleak future.

John, on May 7th, the day prior to his announced time-out had just posted the following piece, From Hebron to Baltimore—who is accountable?, and gives a bit of insight into a CPT member's less than creative presentation of an attempted murder, which cost the assailant his life.

On 25 April, Israeli Border Police shot and killed Assad al-Salayma, a 20-year-old Palestinian man, just outside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Soldiers said that Assad attacked them with a knife.

On 12 April, Baltimore police chased down Freddie Gray after he made eye contact with an officer and ran. Officers claim they found a switchblade on him before they assaulted him and dragged him into police van. During that van ride, his spine was nearly severed. Freddie died a week later.

By all means, read the entire piece, but from the "Soldiers said that Assad attacked them with a knife" followed by "Baltimore police chased down Freddie Gray after he made eye contact with an officer and ran", Officers claim... you get the gist of what he hopes the reader will conclude.

On the other hand, Ma'an News Agency titled it Palestinian shot dead after stabbing Israeli soldier in Hebron, and evidently harboring less of an agenda presented the attack as:

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian man was shot dead after stabbing an Israeli soldier at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

The mosque's director Munther Abu al-Failat told Ma'an he had been told by witnesses that the soldier was stabbed about three times before he shot back at the Palestinian.

The Ma'an account doesn't really leave much room for John's diatribe, but then again those of us closer to CPT's area of impact would not expect otherwise.

A Goal of Breaking the Silence? No, Breaking Israel

...The Breaking the Silence report is false because it is completely decontextualized. It fails to mention his form of a new and unbalanced war between a democracy and terrorist organizations, a state of law against cynical and unscrupulous barbarians, an army that protects its civilians against terrorists who protect themselves using their civilians....Its goal is not Breaking the Silence, but Breaking Israel.

Shraga Blum..
i24 News..
07 May '15..

For a few days we vainly hoped that the international media would cover the Israeli military’s disproportionate response to the earthquake in Nepal. No other country of Israel's size contributed as much to help the victims. But the Israeli military teams on the ground did not interest the hordes of journalists.

But then Breaking the Silence put us back on the media stage, as if its 240-page report was timed to coincide with the return of the Israel Defense Forces humanitarian teams from Nepal. The IDF once again found itself cast as the villain, a cruel army that indiscriminately shoots at everything that moves.

Hamas is using its civilian population as a human shield? Terrorists are firing from populated areas? "It's not our problem," the numerous international media outlets have been saying since the daily Haaretz graciously served up the "explosive report" of Breaking the Silence.

The report, consisting of "testimonies" of soldiers and officers who fought in Operation Protective Edge, loses its credibility from the word go since it was commissioned and funded to the tune of $300,000 by a Palestinian Arab organization based in Ramallah, the Arab Human Rights Fund (AHRF). The Palestinian Authority uses the organization to put together "strong cases" against Israel for presentation to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ramallah has no problem lying, and if some Israeli soldiers collaborate in the task, why refuse that gift.

The Israeli student organization Im Tirzu, which revealed the perverse link, said that Breaking the Silence is a political NGO funded by anti-Zionist circles based in Europe, and that the AHRF is in direct contact with terrorist groups such as the Global Jihad or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The "testimonies" of those soldiers are presented, without verification, as evidence of a general decline in the ethics of the Israeli army. The upper echelons of the IDF are accused of having left the choice to open fire and the choice of targets to the discretion of field officers. Some soldiers denounce the principle of "minimum loss to the IDF even at the cost of civilian enemy deaths." Others are shocked by the extent of destruction of houses in Gaza and accuse the IDF of not respecting the distinction between gunmen and innocent civilians.

There is no worse lie than a half-truth, as the saying goes.

Siding with the victims of aggression by Caroline Glick

...The rise and spread of anti-Semitism in elite circles in the US of course also threatens Israel. What can the government of Israel do to combat the rise of anti-Semitism in America? How can the object of the demonization defeat those who demonize it?....Israel cannot fight the this fight when government ministers participate in J Street conferences. It cannot defend its defenders when members of the government say that Israel is only legitimate if it works actively to cede its capital city to terrorist groups that seek its annihilation. The government’s response to this onslaught must be clear and uncompromising: The freedom of American Jewry to be Jewish, like the ability of the US to remain a liberal democracy is dependent on restoring the ability of Jewish Americans and American elites to distinguish between victims and aggressors and on their willingness to side with the victims.

Caroline Glick..
CarolineGlick.com..
08 May '15..

The notion that a rape victim deserved to be raped because she was wearing a tight outfit lights up all our red lights.

This is the case first and foremost because it absolves the rapist of responsibility for his crime.

We are also disgusted by attempts to blame the victim for her victimization because they are substantively false. If men are more likely to rape women in tight clothing then rape should be all but non-existent in traditional Islamic societies. Yet the opposite is the case. Rape and sexual abuse are endemic to such societies. According to the UN, a whopping 99.3 percent of Egyptian women report having suffered sexual abuse.

There is a third, more general reason that we recoil from the thought of blaming rape victims for their suffering. One of the foundations of liberal societies has always been that victims of aggression are not to blame for their attackers’ behavior.

Over the past few days, we have witnessed a dangerous erosion of this principle among American elites.

Last Sunday two Islamic terrorists armed with assault rifles tried to massacre participants at a Muhammed cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas.

The goal of the contest was self-evident. The organizers wished to defend the freedom of speech – and the right to life – of critics of Islamic totalitarianism.

Rather than standing with the contest’s organizers and participants, the US media from MSNBC to Fox News attacked Pamela Geller, the event’s main organizer and accused her of responsibility for the attack.

For its part, the White House has refused to condemn the attack.

The White House failed to condemn the terror attack, and the media continued their offensive against Geller even after ISIS claimed credit for the assault, promised to “slaughter” Geller and anyone who shelters her or gives her a microphone, and announced it has a formidable infrastructure across the US it will use to launch more attacks against Americans.

To a degree, the White House’s refusal to condemn the attack, like the media’s pile-on against Geller is understandable. Most Americans ascribe to the overarching notion of “Live and let live.” And it is a good thing they do. It is impossible to maintain a liberal society without a basic tolerance of differences between its members.

But there are groups that a liberal society cannot tolerate without ceasing to be liberal.

When a group says that society as a whole must constrain its freedoms so its members can feel comfortable, it crosses a boundary that cannot be crossed. So too, when a group demands that society choose between it and another group that is not issuing a similar ultimatum, it is crossing the line. In other words, any group that demands a limit on liberty and rights of others is harming the foundations of liberal society. If a society wishes to remain liberal, it must constrain such groups.

Champions of totalitarian Islam test the strength of liberal societies because they force them to choose. Distressingly, as we see with the refusal of the White House and media elites to recognize that like the rape victim with tight clothes, Geller isn’t responsible for the jihadists’ decision to kill her and the participants at her event, elite American society is failing this test.

Geller and her colleagues aren’t the only victims that America’s elites refuse to side with against aggressors. In recent years, on college campuses across America, university authorities have failed to distinguish between tolerant and intolerant groups and so have effectively sided with the intolerant against their victims.

The primary victims of this abdication of moral responsibility on the part of administrators have not been counter-jihad activists like Geller and her colleagues. The primary victims have been Jews.

Making use of a straw man to attack Israeli Supreme Court reform

...Judicial independence is indisputably essential; a country where courts merely obey government dictates is a dictatorship, not a democracy. Hence by claiming that Netanyahu’s proposals would undermine judicial independence, his critics seek to tar them as something no democracy could countenance. But what these critics are really trying to protect isn’t the court’s independence, but its excessive power – a power without parallel in any other democracy, in which justices first choose their own successors to create an ideologically-uniform court, then seek to impose this ideology on the country by asserting a right to overturn government decisions and/or legislation on virtually every important policy issue

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
08 May '15..

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his new government aspires to enact legislation to restrain the Supreme Court. But this weekend, his spokesman said Netanyahu “consistently championed the independence of Israel’s judiciary” for three terms and will “do so vigorously during his fourth term as well.”

So one of those two statements is clearly a lie – at least according to former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, current Supreme Court President Miriam Naor, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and President Reuven Rivlin, all of whom last week assailed the Likud party’s proposals as undermining the court’s independence and even democracy itself.

Yet in reality, both of Netanyahu’s statements are true. The only lie is his critics’ claim that the bills would undermine either judicial independence or democracy.

The first bill would alter the way Supreme Court justices are chosen. Currently, Israel’s system is unique in the Western world. Justices are chosen by a nine-member committee on which the legal establishment, rather than elected officials, constitutes the majority. It consists of two ministers, two MKs, two Bar Association representatives and three sitting justices.

Moreover, sitting justices have veto power over the choice of their successors. Supreme Court appointments need at least seven votes, so anyone the three sitting justices oppose has no chance.

No other Western democracy gives sitting justices any role in choosing their own successors, much less veto power. Indeed, most entrust Supreme Court appointments solely to the people’s elected representatives. In America, the president appoints justices and the Senate confirms them; in Germany, parliament’s upper and lower houses each select half the justices; in France, the president appoints nine of 15 justices while the head of each parliamentary house appoints three; in Switzerland, parliament selects the justices; in Sweden, the cabinet does; in Australia, Canada, Belgium and Norway, justices are appointed by the monarch but either nominated or approved by the cabinet.

Yet nobody accuses those countries of being undemocratic, or their courts of lacking independence. And for good reason: Once chosen, justices serve for life or until mandatory retirement; they can neither be dismissed nor reappointed. Hence they’re free to rule as they see fit without fear of consequences.

In Israel, justices similarly serve until age 70 and can’t be dismissed, making them completely independent. And the proposed reform wouldn’t change this.

What it would do is reduce the justices’ power to choose their own successors, by boosting the appointment committee to 11 members, with six politicians instead of four. The legal establishment would retain five seats, so it would still have more influence over Supreme Court appointments than other democracies allow. But politicians would constitute a narrow majority of the panel rather than a minority, and the justices would lose their veto, since seven votes would be obtainable without them.

This would not only bring Israel’s system more into line with Western norms, but would also reduce the court’s stultifying lack of ideological diversity. Currently, because justices essentially select their own successors, candidates who don’t share the majority’s views are rarely appointed. This has generated growing distrust of the court among Israelis who don’t share its dominant worldview: Only 56 percent of Israeli Jews voiced confidence in the court in 2013, down from 80% in 2000. And since few things are more corrosive to democracy than lack of trust in the judicial system, increasing the court’s ideological diversity would actually bolster democracy.

Carter's Call For Palestinian Elections Can Be Seen As Timely

...Keeping people in a perpetual state of silence by denying them any say in their future is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. When people vote – they bear the consequences of the Government they elect. Carter the Elder has spoken. What says Obama the Younger?

Daphne Anson..
08 May '15..

Here, entitled "Carter causes consternation with election call for Palestinian Arabs," is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international offairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Former US president Jimmy Carter has created a stir with his call for Palestinian Arabs to hold elections to end the internecine struggle between Hamas and the PLO in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza.

Speaking at a joint news conference with PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah – after cancelling his stop in Gaza where he was supposed to meet Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh – Carter – now a member of the independent Elders Group of global leaders – declared:

"We hope that sometime we'll see elections all over the Palestinian area and east Jerusalem and Gaza and also in the West Bank"

No Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections have been held in over a decade – even though Abbas's te)rm in office as President expired in January 2009 – a position he continues to fill without any constitutional authority to do so.

In 2006 – a year after Abbas was elected as President – Hamas overwhelmingly won the one and only election ever held in Judea and Samaria. The PLO refused to accept its electoral defeat and a year afterwards Hamas violently ousted Abbas's Fatah faction from Gaza and seized control there.

Carter’s call can be seen as timely – given the current stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and the PLO and the distinct likelihood they will not be resumed.

Indeed one could see Carter’s election call as the most constructive contribution he has made to peace in the Middle East since his following statement in Time magazine on 11 October 1982 [cover above] concerning Jordan and Jordan’s late monarch, King Hussein:

(Continue Reading)

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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Salami slices some salami by Sarah Honig

...To be sure, salami-slicing isn’t a ploy invented by the Iranians, Arabs or any other cunning Mideastern players, although salami-slicing is an established local specialty. This familiar, if infamous practice has long been a favorite of assorted shysters – whether in business, party politics or geopolitical machinations. The essence of salami-slicing in the figurative sense involves small, occasionally innocuous and disconnected actions which, taken in isolation from each other, look inconsequential. Embezzlers, thieves and con-artists, for instance, are adept at paring off apparently paltry amounts in regularly repeated transactions. Initially nobody notices the minor losses. Over time, however, these accumulate to considerable sums.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami: “They
will not even be permitted to inspect the
most normal military site in their dreams.”

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
07 May '15..

Who says history has no sense of humor? Just as US President Barack Obama seeks to hide away the salami slices shaved off his deal with Iran, an Iranian named Salami exposes an extra-thick and very telling slice.

Without much ado, the Deputy Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, gave the lie to one of Obama’s most significant contentions about the deal that America’s Commander in Chief is cooking up with the nuke-craving ayatollah regime.

Significantly, Salami didn’t whisper off the record. He didn’t speculate about hearsay in a back room. He didn’t impart hints given to conflicting interpretations. Salami said his piece openly on state TV. He announced out loud that, contrary to American claims, there would be no foreign inspections of Iranian military sites. Period. End of. No quibbling.

Inspections, railed Salami, would be “selling out.” To hear him, “a tour of military facilities by foreign inspectors is to be equated with the occupation of a country. Iran will not become a paradise for spies. We will not roll out the red carpet for the enemy… They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams.”

Another prime salami slice was thereby confidently and contemptuously chopped off by Salami. Was official America taken aback? Embarrassed? Heck no. In her characteristically convoluted way, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf disposed of a query about Salami’s salami-slicing:

“We are still negotiating over all of the people and places where the IAEA will have access required when it comes to possible military dimensions [PMD]. We have a path forward here, an agreement that Iran will undertake a PMD access list process to form out that list when it comes to potential military sites. That’s part of what will be negotiated over the next three months, but in principle, we have agreement that that is a process they will undertake.”

Need a translation? Basically Harf told badgering reporters to buzz off because there’s still work to be done on the final details. Dismissing pesky skeptics for supposedly being out of the loop is one time-tested method to avoid salami-slicing angst – for a while at least.

To be sure, salami-slicing isn’t a ploy invented by the Iranians, Arabs or any other cunning Mideastern players, although salami-slicing is an established local specialty. This familiar, if infamous practice has long been a favorite of assorted shysters – whether in business, party politics or geopolitical machinations.

The essence of salami-slicing in the figurative sense involves small, occasionally innocuous and disconnected actions which, taken in isolation from each other, look inconsequential. Embezzlers, thieves and con-artists, for instance, are adept at paring off apparently paltry amounts in regularly repeated transactions. Initially nobody notices the minor losses. Over time, however, these accumulate to considerable sums.

Victory Day - A Jewish Perspective

...Ultimately, the Second World War erupted because Western democracies did not have the will to confront Germany even as they had the power to do so. The Jewish people became one of the main victims of this unfolding tragedy. Winston Churchill had much sympathy and admiration for the Jews, and the war against Hitler would never have been won without him. But he lost the 1945 election at the height of his glory. The new Labor government of Clement Attlee did all it could to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state, even as the horrors of the Holocaust were being revealed and as Jewish survivors were trying to reach the Promised Land. Today, Jews are no longer at the mercy of world powers, but Israel’s fate is influenced by international politics, as it always will be. There is still a price to be paid for the cowardice and blindness of others, but sovereignty and power make that price affordable.

Dr. Emmanuel Navon..
i24 News..
06 May '15..

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany. Such a historical date provides an opportunity to ponder the past and to contemplate the future. “Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!” proclaimed Winston Churchill, the ultimate hero of the war, on the 7th of May 1945. Back in January 1942, Churchill declared in front of the US Congress: “If we had kept together after the last war, if we had taken common measures for our safety, this renewal of the curse would never have fallen upon us. Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children, to all of mankind, to make sure that these catastrophes do not engulf us for a third time?”

Seventy years later, can we confidently say that the renewal of the curse will never fall upon us? The victors of 1945 are nearly as divided today as they were after the surrender of their common foe. The leaders of America, Britain and France will pointedly be absent from Russia’s victory celebrations on May 9. Russia and the West are at odds over Ukraine and Iran, and Russia’s celebrations will turn into a show of might and defiance. Britain has become a marginal international player, France is struggling with economic paralysis, and America is wary of military confrontation.

Critics of the emerging agreement over Iran’s nuclear program often compare it to the 1938 Munich accords. The 1925 Locarno Treaties are probably more accurate an analogy. In those treaties, Britain and France agreed to “reintegrate” Germany into the international community in exchange for a German commitment to stop challenging the borders imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. In truth, however, Germany was only asked to recognize its western borders but not its eastern ones. As Polish diplomat Józef Beck declared at the time: “Germany was officially asked to attack the east, in return for peace in the west.”

Surprised? The Troubling Historical Context of European funded Breaking the Silence

...As has been noted in this blog many times before, the Palestinians in the West Bank and even in Gaza are not anywhere near the most deprived or suffering group in the Middle East. With unmitigated atrocities occurring all over the region, the unchanging focus by these so-called humanitarian groups on alleged Israeli actions, backed up by vast funds handed over to groups that engage in overt political agitation against the region's only functioning democracy, is morally indefensible.

Steven Stotsky..
CAMERA Snapshots..
06 May '15..

The release of a United Nations [UN] report on the deaths of Gazan civilians in UN shelters during the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas has served as the launching pad for another campaign to smear Israel. Breaking the Silence, a group that travels the world undermining Israel's moral standing by presenting alleged testimonies of Israeli soldiers committing unconscionable acts against Palestinian civilians, is saturating news outlets with articles promoting its 240-page report consisting of testimonials alleging Israeli cruelty and reckless disregard for the safety of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Breaking the Silence is funded by a roster of organizations that seek to undermine Israel's moral standing and force it into making concessions that would leave it vulnerable. Among the major donors are the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the European Union, several European Catholic organizations, including the German-based Miseroer and Flemish-based Broederlijk Delen, George Soros's Open Society, and a number of organizations funded by the far-left New Israel Fund. These organizations fund a bevy of groups dedicated to defaming and undermining the Jewish state. A Swiss organization, Pro Victimis claims that its special emphasis is addressing violence against women. But somehow it found 273,000 NIS to donate to Breaking the Silence.

The Obama Double Standard on Civilian Casualties

...I don’t expect anything of people who think U.S. drone strikes are no less evil than Israel’s actions in Gaza. But the Obama Administration routinely defends its own civilian casualties as honest mistakes that occurred despite the strictest precautions. And to do that while simultaneously insisting that Israel’s can’t possibly be the same is the height of hypocrisy.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
06 May '15..

I know it’s been a busy two weeks, but I’m still waiting for that apology. I’ve been waiting for it ever since the U.S. admitted on April 23 to accidentally killing two Western hostages in Pakistan, and doubly so after a U.S. airstrike allegedly killed 52 civilians in Syria last Friday. Clearly, I don’t expect an apology for the fact that American forces are composed of men rather than angels, and therefore sometimes makes mistakes. But I certainly do expect an apology for the Obama Administration’s refusal to acknowledge that so are Israel’s forces. In the administration’s view, Israel never makes honest mistakes. If Israel inadvertently kills civilians in wartime, then it wasn’t trying hard enough not to do so.

We don’t yet know what happened in Syria, but the drone strike on an al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan is instructive. Administration officials told the New York Times that the CIA had “no idea that the hostages were being held there despite hundreds of hours of surveillance.” Yet they apparently can’t conceive of Israel — in the midst of a shooting war where decisions on whether to return fire must be made instantly, rather than with the benefit of hundreds of hours of surveillance — being similarly unaware that civilians were present at various sites it targeted during last summer’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

Needless to say, American military professionals don’t share the administration’s view. The day after the White House announced the hostages’ deaths; Michael Schmitt and John Merriam published a summary of their detailed investigation into Israel’s targeting practices during that war. Schmitt, a professor of international law, heads the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College and is considered a leading expert on the laws of armed conflict (LOAC). Merriam is a U.S. Army Judge Advocate and associate director of the Stockton Center. They were given unusual access to information, like targeting procedures that the Israel Defense Forces usually keeps secret; they were also allowed to observe IDF targeting cells at work and examine combat footage that hasn’t been publicly released. And here’s their conclusion:

Broadly speaking, we concluded that IDF positions on targeting law largely track those of the United States military. Moreover, even when they differ, the Israeli approach remains within the ambit of generally acceptable State practice … we found that their approach to targeting is consistent with the law and, in many cases, worthy of emulation.

They also pointed out that “the nuances of the Israeli approach … can only be understood in the context of the specific operational and strategic environment in which the IDF must fight.” And the complexities of that environment, which Israel’s critics largely ignore, go beyond such simple facts as Hamas’s penchant for launching rockets from civilian homes.

Perhaps It's Time to Apply 'Physicians Heal Thyself" and End Your Anti-Israeli Hysteria

...The Hands off the Lancet group asked for determination of who was responsible in Gaza for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. They need look no further. The United Nations report of April 27, 2015 makes clear that the violations were committed by Palestinians, specifically by Hamas that used UN buildings and schools as launching sites to fire rockets at Israeli civilians during the Gaza operation.

Dr. Michael Curtis..
American Thinker..
05 May '15..

Dr. Seuss, the world’s favorite physician, once explained “I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.” Unfortunately, their own nonsensical behavior did not awaken a number of doctors and medical practitioners, mostly in Britain, when they published an immoderate and fallacious political diatribe against Israel in the British medical journal, The Lancet.

To the contrary, they have dishonored their professional code of conduct, betrayed the norms of medical science, and the understood ethics of impartial analysis. Dr. Richard Horton, editor in chief since 1995 of The Lancet, also ignored the code of conduct and the responsibilities of journal editors in publishing the diatribe.

What a difference a day makes! Dr. Horton, confessed his critical opinions of Israel had been shaped by pro-Palestinian friends and by the Western media, but after his one-day tour of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa on September 29, 2014, he said he had completely changed his view of Israel.

Nevertheless despite his new enlightenment, Horton refused to retract or to apologize for the controversial “Open Letter for the People in Gaza” he had published on July 23, 2014 that rebuked Israel in inflammatory language for its “ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity” on Gaza in the summer conflict in 2014 in the Gaza Strip. The letter concluded, “we as scientists and doctors cannot keep silent while this crime against humanity continues.” They did, however, keep silent about the crimes against humanity, crimes that the United Nations has recently publicly revealed, committed by Palestinians during the conflict in Gaza.

The Open Letter asserted that Israel’s IDF reaction to the incessant rocket attacks by Hamas in Gaza in summer of 2014 was in fact “the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre.” The authors charged that only 5% of Israeli academics appealed to the Israel government to stop the military operation. The Open Letter was almost completely devoid of any reference to medical issues, the supposed concern of the practitioners of the medical profession.

Horton considered that the letter, condemning Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, was a cry of anguish, but also that it did not convey the highly complex reality of Israel’s situation that he now understands, or pretends to understand, is the reality in Israel. He also expressed his realization that what he witnessed during his visit to Israel contradicted some of the claims of the Open Letter. However, he did not retract the letter, as critics suggested, or disparage its extreme egregious nature.

UN complicity in Palestinian war crimes: A troubling picture

...There is no doubt that UN officials and employees turned a blind eye to these blatant violations as they were taking place, and possibly were involved in facilitating such attacks. It is apparent that several UN officials were more interested in disseminating propaganda during the war than acknowledging the reality of what was taking place on the ground. If the UN wishes to secure its installations and avoid future death and injury, the onus is on the institution to enforce the law it preaches to others and end its highly damaging role in enabling Palestinian war crimes.

UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun. 'It is
apparent that several UN officials were
 more interested in disseminating propaganda
during the war than acknowledging the
reality of what was taking place on
the ground' (Photo: AP)

Anne Herzberg..
Ynet/Israel Opinion..
04 May '15..

Last week, the United Nations Office of the Secretary General issued a summary of its long-awaited Board of Inquiry (BOI) report on the 2014 Gaza War. The BOI was tasked with investigating incidents affecting UN premises during the two-month conflict.

The BOI’s mandate was generally even-handed, did not declare Israel guilty in advance, and was comprised of individuals who appeared to be free of bias. As a result, the Israeli government fully cooperated with the mission.

The BOI’s formation and origins stand in marked contrast to the UN Human Rights Council inquiry currently underway. The HRC mission has been tarred by a biased mandate, pre-determined conclusions of Israeli violations, and highly prejudiced staffing. Moreover, it is conducted within the HRC framework, controlled by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and many of the other world’s worst human rights abusers.

While we are still awaiting the results of the HRC’s Gaza inquiry, based on past experience, it is highly likely that it will not address in any serious way how Palestinians exploit UN facilities as part of their human shielding combat strategy.

The BOI summary, on the other hand, paints a picture of intense urban combat between Israel and Palestinian terror groups, use of UN facilities by Palestinians to launch attacks and to store weapons, and uncertainty as to whether buildings were hit by IDF or Hamas. It also reveals, at best, gross incompetence by UNRWA, which apparently had no policies in place aimed at preventing these illegal activities.

According to the report, the organization essentially handed over rockets found hidden in UNRWA schools to unknown local authorities during the war, with no apparent concern for Hamas’ involvement.

There are other troubling details regarding the BOI primarily relating to the lack of transparency and methodology of work.

The main report itself is secret, so it is generally unknown what material was used by the BOI in drawing its conclusions. The public summary, however, indicates that the BOI relied heavily on witness interviews with UNRWA and other UN personnel.

Lunacy and Turkey's Obsessive Fantasy

...The idea that there are crypto-Jews or secret friends of Israel is increasingly popular with Muslims who are waging political, ideological and sectarian wars among themselves.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

Burak Bekdil..
Gatestone Institute..
05 May '15..

In his 2007 bestseller book, "The Children of Moses," quirky Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz claimed that then Prime Minister [now President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a crypto-Jew.

The book's cover depicted Erdogan and his wife in a Star of David, and portrayed Erdogan as a secret agent of "international Jewry."

Only six years after the publication of "The Children of Moses," in 2013, Erdogan, along with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and UN official Richard Falk was on top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual list of the top 10 anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs. If one asked Poyraz, the author of the book, he would most likely explain Erdogan's deep anti-Semitism with another conspiracy theory: his public anti-Semitism is a perfect "disguise" for him to serve the Jews.

Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz (pictured at left being taken to court by counterterrorism police) wrote the 2007 bestseller "The Children of Moses," which claimed that then Prime Minister [now President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured at right) was a crypto-Jew. Poyraz was arrested later that year and eventually sentenced to 29 years in prison for "conspiring" against the government.

Erdogan's ideologically inherent anti-Semitism, often expressed in a blend with his anti-Zionism, is only too well-known internationally. In 2013, the year he "won the award" for his anti-Semitism, he said that Zionism was a crime against humanity.

The Middle East has never been short of conspiracy theories. But the idea that there are crypto-Jews or secret friends of Israel is increasingly popular with Muslims who are waging political, ideological and sectarian wars among themselves.

Recently, a top Iranian military commander accused Saudi Arabia of following the footsteps of Israel. "Saudi rulers follow Israel as a role model," said Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards.

Only a few days earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had appeared on television with his own version of conspiracy theories, this time pointing to Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of Turkey's regional nemeses, as Israel's "secret ally." Davutoglu said: "A [invisible] hand wants Assad to survive. Just like Sisi ... Neither Assad nor his family has done any harm to Israel. ... Sisi continues with the siege of Gaza. Because for Sisi, Israel's security is more important than human dignity in Egypt."

Davutoglu illustrated a stereotypical Islamist's judgment: When I have ideological, political or sectarian cold wars with my co-religionists and they refuse to convert to my worldview, it must be because they are the secret allies of Israel.

So what does the Jewish Nakba mean to you?

...Had the Arabs won the 1948 war, members of Zochrot, along with all the Jews of Israel, would surely have ended up at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea. And what did Zochrot think about the Jewish Nakba, I asked — the 870,000 Jewish refugees driven and dispossessed from Arab countries?

Lyn Julius..
Times of Israel..
04 May '15..

The merry month of May is upon us, and thoughts on the anti-Zionist lunatic fringe turn to Nakba Day on May 14. Time for the Zochrot organization to plan their annual stunt in memory of the ‘catastrophe’ or Nakba, of the flight of 600,000 Palestinian Arabs and the creation of Israel 67 years ago.

This year activists are organizing a ‘Public Apology Ceremony‘, funded by EU money and the lucre of earnest but misguided churches and NGOs, to commemorate the Nakba at the former site of the village of Lubya, near Tiberias. The organization says that the ceremony is to apologize for Israel planting trees in the area.

Last year they held a conference at Tel Aviv University, the putative site of the ruined Arab village of Sheikh Munis. There Zochrot laid out their ugly vision of what ‘the right of return’ for Palestinian Arabs to what is now Israel would mean. It was, in anybody’s book, a recipe for bloodshed and mayhem.

Zochrot have produced a short video clip to promote their mission: “So wait a moment, what is the Nakba?” Unsuspecting Israelis strolling on the Tel Aviv tayelet are quizzed on what the Nakba means to them.

I don’t know what is more worrying. The appalling ignorance of the Israeli public in this video — or the fact that Zochrot are asking the question in the first place.

Rules that protect Hamas killers while placing in danger Jewish children

...You can count on Israel continuing to uphold high standards of conduct in which every effort will be made to spare innocent lives. But so long as terrorists are using UN buildings as launching pads for attacks on Jewish children, the IDF will have no choice but to shoot back. If that generates more UN reports and unfair criticism, so be it. No rule that gives a terrorist impunity to shoot at children should be treated as sacrosanct.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
04 May '15..

Last week the United Nations issued a report on Israel’s attacks on UN facilities in Gaza during last summer’s war. As I noted at the time, that even though the purpose of the exercise was to attack Israel and undermine its right to self-defense, even the UN report admitted that Hamas was storing weapons at schools run by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) and that Hamas fighters were firing rockets and other weapons at Israeli targets from the vicinity of these places. Though there were examples of Israeli fire hitting civilians taking cover in UN shelters at the height of the fighting, these damning admissions raised questions about how the rules of war can possibly apply to a situation where armed killers who are themselves firing at Israeli civilians are using Palestinian civilians as human shields. This point was made today at a conference in Israel by the former head of the Israel Defense Forces. To make this point clear, retired General Benny Gantz recalled one incident that didn’t make it into the UN report in which a Palestinian mortar killed a four-year-old Israeli boy. According to Gantz the shell that took his life was fired from a United Nations building. The question the general raised is of what use are such rules if they serve to protect Hamas killers while placing in danger Jewish children?

The UN report gave Israel credit for the fact that incidents in which the Israel Defense Forces’ fire was deemed to be unjustified or wrongful due to the impact on civilians resulted in investigations and/or prosecutions of those involved. But it what failed to grasp was that two factors undermined most of the criticisms of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. One is that widespread infiltration of UNRWA by Hamas personnel who use UN facilities as storage depots. The other is the fact that the Hamas government of Gaza systematically exploits civilian buildings that are treated as off limits to Israeli fire for military purposes.

As Gantz detailed, it was well known, even during the war, that the Hamas leaders who were directing the rocket attacks on Israel were doing from the safety of hospital buildings. It was also clear throughout the campaign that Hamas was firing the thousands of rockets that were shot at Israeli cities from the immediate environs of shelters, schools and hospitals.

The IDF did its best to avoid hitting civilian targets and though there were casualties, the chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey later noted that the conduct of the Israelis was exemplary, undermining much of the unfair criticisms of the war put forward by both the Obama White House and the State Department. But while the Israelis were subjected to a double standard not applied to any other modern combatant, it’s worth asking whether we need to think again about a code of military conduct that says a sovereign nation is obligated to let terrorists shoot at children so long as they are around a building that is designated as off-limits.

Were the world prepared to let Israel go into Gaza and capture these terrorists and the government in whose name they operate, it might be possible to say that there is no need to think about rules. But we know this isn’t so. The leaders of Gaza were able to sit out the war inside hospitals secure in the knowledge that the Israelis wouldn’t shoot at their hideouts or attempt to root out this criminal conspiracy. Indeed, the Hamas-run independent Palestinian state in all but name knows that operates with impunity and need never fear that the Israelis will seek to destroy it.

Dear BBC, “Might Have Been Better Worded” Doesn't Really Cut It

...We commend all those who wrote to the BBC and filed complaints and even though the appeals committee has turned them down this time, it is important to keep up the pressure. News organization should never settle for reports seen by millions that “might have been better worded.” And neither should you.

Yarden Frankl..
Honest Reporting..
04 May '15..

During the Gaza conflict last Summer, the BBC’s Orla Guerin filed a video report from Gaza. We were shocked that in the report, broadcast on BBC One’s “News at Ten” and on the BBC Website, she declared that despite Israeli allegations that Hamas had been using human shields, there had been “no evidence” of such a practice.

We published our own video (“Shocking Claim by Biased and Clueless BBC Journalist“) showing that there was, in fact, massive evidence of Hamas using this tactic. We urged viewers to submit formal complaints to the BBC that Guerin had misled viewers by her statement.

Well the BBC Trust has reviewed the complaints. They did agree that her statement about “no evidence of human shields” was inaccurate. Here is what they said:

“To refer to the ‘evidence’ put forward by one side would not necessarily endorse their version of events and to that extent I would agree that this might have been better worded.”

But this is as far as they would go. The BBC Trust claims that during the piece, she did refer to the firing of rockets in close proximity to residential neighborhoods. They claim that viewers should have been able to figure out that Hamas had indeed been using human shields.

Sorry but “Might have been better worded” is just not good enough.

Where were we in 1984 and where are we today?

...Ever since the Israelites made their way out of Egypt, the Jews have tended to complain, and we always will -- but let us take a look at the numbers • Where were we in 1984 and where are we today? Guess what, we have a lot to be proud of.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
01 April '15..
H/T Martin Sherman..

1.

In honor of Israel's 67th birthday, here are a few remarkable facts about the economic wonder that is the State of Israel. Our sages taught us that it is important to give thanks for what we have. On Independence Day, my Facebook friend, the gifted writer Galit Distal Atbaryan, mentioned Louis C.K., who spoke about the way people complain about flying. People "soar through the clouds, impossibly; partake in the miracle of human flight. Sitting in a chair in the sky like a Greek god" and complain about the chair not reclining far enough. That is exactly our attitude toward the state in which we live. "Israel is nothing short of a miracle, like a plane that slices through the sky," she wrote.

Indeed, the complaining and desperation over the "situation" began with Israel's birth, when the Israelites were led out of Egypt. Masses of slaves who were just recently freed yelled at Moses: "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?" (Exodus 14:11).

They didn't stop at that. They continued to accuse him of destroying their relationship with the Egyptian empire and the pharaohs. "Is not this the word that we spoke unto thee in Egypt, saying: Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.'" (Exodus 14:12). After that came the crossing of the Red Sea, but even the miracle that Moses performed -- splitting the sea and ushering the Israelites through it on dry land -- was not enough to stop the complaints. Since then and to this day we enjoy complaining.

So for us complainers, here are a few reasons for optimism. Of course there is plenty to improve on, but it would serve us well to take a look at where we were 30 years ago and where we are today. The following data was compiled by Dr. Adam Reuter and his company Financial Immunities Ltd.

2.

Well, in 1984, the population of Israel was 4.1 million. Thirty years later, the population doubled to stand at 8.2 million. The average number of rooms per person increased by 37% during that time. In 1984, the number of vehicles per 1,000 people was 157. Last year there were 364 vehicles per 1,000 people. Today, the gross national product is $307 billion, but 30 years ago it was a mere $30 billion. That is an increase of more than 900%! In 1984, the GNP per capita was $7,000, and in 2014 it climbed to $36,000 -- an increase of more than 400%.

In 1984, Israel's foreign currency reserves amounted to $3 billion. Thirty years later, our reserves skyrocketed to $90 billion -- an indication of financial stability. The national debt was 280% of the GNP in 1984, but by 2014 it had dropped to 66% of the GNP.

Security expenditure comprised 20% of the GNP then, and only 5% today, and it stands to be even less in the future. The tax burden was 45% and has gone down to 32%. American aid was 10% of the GNP and is now only 1%!

In 1984 Israel's exports were valued at $10 billion, and 30 years later they are valued at $96 billion -- that's an 860% increase. In 1984 high-tech exports were valued at $1 billion, and at $37 billion in 2014 -- a 3,600% increase. Not bad. The national deficit made up 17% of the GNP in 1984 and today only 3% -- an 82% decrease.

In 1984, the public sector employed 75% of the working public, while today that figure is only 43%. Employment of women was 34% and by 2014 it had risen to 54%.

Government regulation of capital markets declined from 85% then to 27% today. Annual interest was 770% and inflation was 450% in 1984, but in 2014 the annual interest rate settled at 5% and annual inflation at a mere 1%. Incidentally, national expenditure on research and development has risen by more than 220% over the last 30 years.

In 1984 we did not have independent sources of energy, but today, 38% of our energy comes from our own sources, and we are on our way to complete energy independence. We did not have desalinated water in 1984 and today more than 40% of our water consumption comes from the desalination plants that we built.

Point of No Return: The two faces of the Nakba

...The tragedy of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries remained almost only in the memories of the refugee families, it has been forgotten in public discourse and is missing from the history books. Jews from Arab countries were not financed like Palestinian Arab organizations by foreign governments to tell their tragedy and to support their claims for compensation for the property they left. The time has come for Israel to mark the legacy of our refugees, to get internationally recognized the human tragedy which the Palestinian Arabs, with the active assistance of the Arab countries, have caused.

Supporters of the Arab Nakba protest

Bataween..
Point of No Return..
04 May '15..

As 14 May approaches - the date which Arabs mark their Nakba Day 67 years since Israel declared its independence, Zvi Gabay writing in News 1 draws attention to the other Nakba - the Jewish flight and dispossession from Arab countries. Whereas EU governments and churches are happy to fund organisations which promote awareness of the Arab Nakba (and the Israeli public purse even funds the Nakba agitation by Arab MKs) no such finance is forthcoming for those groups representing Jews displaced from Arab countries.

While many Israelis celebrated the 67th year of independence of the country, which was bought with much blood, hundreds of Israeli Arabs, led by their leaders, came out to protest against the celebrations, namely to demonstrate against Israel. Including the Arab MKs' Joint List, they carried the slogan "your independence day (the Jews) is our Nakba (catastrophe)." NGOs such as Balada, Zochrot and Adalah financed by foreign governments, have adopted the Palestinian narrative that includes the "right of return" - that is, the destruction of Israel. It was amazing to hear the demonstrators crying out: "Nakba" - a disaster. The disaster was in 1948. Arabs, but also many Jews, paid with their lives. The two sides fought each other until they reached an impasse.

But who brought this disaster on the world?

Apparently, with the passage of time we have to go back and remind them that the sole culprits of the Palestinian Nakba are the predecessors of the current Arab leaders. They, who in 1947 rejected the UN proposal to divide the land of Israel, which was under British mandate into two states - Jewish and Arab. This is in contrast to the leaders of the Yishuv, who were willing to compromise and accept the division. Not only the Arab leaders rejected the proposed partition, they also misled their people into a bloody war against the Jewish community, in order to obtain all of Palestine. They harnessed the Arab states to the chariot of war, spread a conflagration throughout the Middle East, and eventually led to the permanent Arab refugee problem we see today.

United Nations Premises and Hamas War Crimes

...The hypocrisy, or deliberate ignorance, of officials of UNRWA, whose premises were the subject of the inquiry, remains unabated. In spite of the clear evidence to the contrary, Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNRWA, said that its schools had been hit by the IDF though no weapons were discovered or fired from their premises. He stated that if militants did fire rockets from the schools, he would condemn them. The reality, as found by the Board of Inquiry, was that three UNRWA schools were used by Palestinians to store weapons and that firing by a Palestinian armed group from them “probably” occurred in two of the schools.

Dr. Michael Curtis..
American Thinker..
02 May '15..

On April 27, 2015, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon transmitted to the U.N. Security Council his public summary of a 207-page report, which apparently is not to be made public, of the Board of Inquiry regarding the incidents in Gaza between July 8 and August 24, 2014. This was the second U.N. report to be issued about incidents involving U.N. premises, personnel, and operations during the course of conflicts in Gaza.

Indeed, it is essential that there be a clear and objective record of the facts of these incidents and identification of how and why casualties occurred, and what persons or entities committed war crimes. The inquiry was conducted by General Patrick Cammaert, former Dutch commander of U.N. forces in the Congo and military adviser to Ban; Maria Vicien-Milburn, Argentinian former legal adviser to UNESCO; Pierre Lemelin, Canadian professor of international law; K.C. Reddy, Indian former U.N. security official; and, for a time, Lee O’Brien, United States diplomat.

Secretary Ban appreciated Israel for cooperating with the inquiry and also for conducting its own investigations into the incidents. In contrast, he criticized the Palestinian Authority for not having investigated allegations of Palestinian violations and crimes. He hoped the PA would probe, in accordance with international standards, these possible Palestinian war crimes and criminal activity.

The 2015 inquiry was concerned with ten specific incidents. Seven concerned the loss of 44 Palestinian lives and at least 227 injured on U.N. premises. Three dealt with weapons found in U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East schools, including instances of alleged use by Palestinian armed groups of those school premises, as well as other civilian sites, to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.

In his attempt at balanced remarks, Mr. Ban noted the “agony of Palestinian civilians in Gaza” and the result of Israeli actions in causing casualties, while pointing out that Israeli civilians in southern Israel continue to face the threat of rocket and terrorist attacks by Hamas and other militant groups. Palestinian groups had fired more than 3,600 rockets since July 8, 2014, of which 1,600 came from civilian areas in Gaza.

The hypocrisy, or deliberate ignorance, of officials of UNRWA, whose premises were the subject of the inquiry, remains unabated. In spite of the clear evidence to the contrary, Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNRWA, said that its schools had been hit by the IDF though no weapons were discovered or fired from their premises. He stated that if militants did fire rockets from the schools, he would condemn them.

The reality, as found by the Board of Inquiry, was that three UNRWA schools were used by Palestinians to store weapons and that firing by a Palestinian armed group from them “probably” occurred in two of the schools. A number of schools used by Palestinian fighters were mentioned. Among them are the Maghazi Preparatory Girls School, the Deir El Balah School, the Beit Hanoun Elementary, the Zaitoun Girls School, El Azhar Islamic College, the Abu Nur School, the Jabalia Elementary Girls School, and Rafah Boys School.

An Appropriate Israeli Response to Young Arabs Loving Israel on Facebook

...“There are a lot of young people here who think like me,” the Iraqi man said. “Everything that is happening to us here in Iraq — the killings, the terrorism, the veritable bloodbath — showed us that Israel has nothing to do with it.” In other words, his recognition that Israel wasn’t the cause of the Arab world’s problems is what enabled him to start seeing it as it actually is.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
02 May '15..

Responding to last week’s post about a poll showing that young Arabs no longer see Israel as the Mideast’s biggest problem, a reader pointed out that this doesn’t mean they’ve stopped hating Israel or wanting it to disappear. That’s unarguable; recognizing that Israel isn’t the source of all the region’s ills is merely the first step on a long road toward accepting its existence. But as one of the most remarkable stories I’ve read in years makes clear, it’s a very significant step. And how Israel responds to it will matter greatly.

The story, reported by Shlomi Eldar in Al-Monitor, began with a Muslim Arab veteran of the Israel Defense Forces–a rarity in itself, since few Israeli Arabs enlist. Outraged at hearing his own community’s leaders vilifying the IDF, M. made a Facebook page aimed at convincing other Israeli Arabs that the IDF isn’t evil and more of them should enlist.

What he got instead was an outpouring of love for Israel from across the Arab world. A young Saudi woman, for instance, posted a video clip saying, “I’d like to send a message of peace and love to Israel and its dear citizens … I hope the Arabs will be sensible like me and recognize the fact that Israel also has rights to the lands of Palestine.” A young Iraqi man posted a clip saying, “I want to send a message of peace and love to the dear Israeli people … I believe that the number of people who support Israel here will grow consistently.”

Stunned by these messages–and there were “lots of them,” Eldar reported–M. began asking their authors what prompted them to support Israel. Some had personal reasons, like a Jordanian lesbian envious of Israel’s gay rights. But others cited the crucial realization of that poll data.

“There are a lot of young people here who think like me,” the Iraqi man said. “Everything that is happening to us here in Iraq — the killings, the terrorism, the veritable bloodbath — showed us that Israel has nothing to do with it.” In other words, his recognition that Israel wasn’t the cause of the Arab world’s problems is what enabled him to start seeing it as it actually is.

Or take the Egyptian police officer who wrote, “We love, love, love Israel and its army,” even adding a heart with a Star of David inside. Four years ago, that would have been unthinkable. But today, Egyptian policemen are on the front lines against the brutal terrorism of homegrown Islamic extremists, and the IDF is one of Egypt’s closest allies in this fight. So instead of seeing Israel as the problem, some Egyptians now see it as part of the solution.

None of this means a New Middle East will break out tomorrow; these young Arabs remain a minority. Moreover, the ones who still hate Israel passionately are often the ones with the guns and bombs and missiles, which means they’re the ones who will take over any territory up for grabs.

No Surprise. The Mulish Media and Civilian Casualties in Gaza

...The unwillingness of the media to invest the time to scrutinize and incorporate newer information and then self-correct is a persistent problem that underscores CAMERA's mission to hold it accountable.

Steven Stotsky..
CAMERA Snapshots..
01 May '15..

Each and every time, without fail, when escalating Palestinian violence provokes a large-scale Israeli response, the media and "human rights" activists portray Israeli military actions as indiscriminate and reckless, mainly harming Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. It is remarkable how intractable the media and its acolytes are in the face of emerging evidence refuting their favored motif that Palestinian civilians account for the bulk of the victims.

During the Cast Lead operation (Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009) and Protective Edge, the 50 day conflict between Israel and Hamas during the Summer of 2014, the media accepted without hesitation the fatality tallies provided by the U.N., even though the UN relies on the information provided by a terrorist entity, Hamas, that is a party to the conflict and has an obvious interest in misrepresenting the make-up of these fatalities. It is a curious thing, that so much credence is given to figures provided by a terrorist organization with a poor record of accountability, while contradictory figures from Israel, a country with a proven record of conducting independent investigations, are dismissed.

What Gaza's oppressed know that reporters don't, and why it matters

...Might this be connected to the way Gaza's misery is a function of what Gaza's powerful insiders (most of whom live far from Gaza) decide to approve and to refuse? Gazans know (and are prepared to get beaten in the streets for it), even if the news people don't.

Anti-Hamas protest in Gaza yesterday
 [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
30 April '15..







Little reported news from Gaza today via Agence France Presse

Hamas police beat, arrest protesters at Gaza rally | GAZA CITY (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES) (AFP) - Police in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip beat and arrested protesters on Wednesday at a youth rally in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory, an AFP correspondent said. More than 400 demonstrators gathered in Shejaiya, a neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City that was razed during a July-August war between Hamas and Israel, urging reconstruction and calling for an end to intra-Palestinian division. Plainclothes police officers entered the crowd, beating a number of protesters without causing serious injury, the AFP correspondent said. They then arrested at least seven people, according to witnesses. The Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement that the crowd had grown violent, forcing police to intervene "to protect the lives of those participating, after which calm prevailed"... With Hamas continuing to control Gaza, Israel has left in place its eight-year blockade, which has largely banned the import of building materials, fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons... Reconstruction of homes has barely begun...

There's a similar report in the New York Times today [here], with a similar degree of superficiality and spin.

We don't claim to have any direct sources in Gaza where a miserable population struggles to keep families together under the Islamist jackboot of the Hamas regime. But it does appear we know more than the AFP editors and their reporters. Or maybe we are just more honest. For instance:

(Continue Reading)

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 as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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The Marshall Islands’ cautionary tale by Caroline Glick

...Three days after a ship sailing under their flag was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, citizens of the Marshall Islands discovered that their decision to place their security in America’s hands is no longer the safe bet they thought it was 29 years ago. Anyone who entertains the belief that Israel will gain diplomatic acceptance or even a respite from American pressure if it makes concessions to the Palestinians is similarly making a high risk gamble.

Caroline Glick..
CarolineGlick.com..
30 April '15..

On Tuesday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forcibly commandeered the Maersk Tigris as navigated its way through the Straits of Hormuz. Iran controls the strategic waterway through which 40 percent of seaborne oil and a quarter of seaborne gas transits to global markets.

The Maersk Tigris is flagged to the Marshall Islands. The South Pacific archipelago gained its independence from the US in 1986 after signing a treaty conceding its right to self-defense in exchange for US protection. According to the treaty, the US has “full authority and responsibility for security and defense of the Marshall Islands.”

Given the US’s formal, binding obligation to the Marshall Islands, the Iranian seizure of the ship was in effect an act of war against America.

In comments to Bloomberg hours after the ship was seized, Junior Aini, chargé d’affairs at the Marshall Islands Embassy in Washington, indicated that his government’s only recourse is to rely on the US to free its ship.

Immediately after the incident began, the US Navy deployed a destroyer to the area. But that didn’t seem to make much of an impression on the Iranians. More significant than the naval movement was the fact that the Obama administration failed to condemn their unlawful action.

If the administration continues to stand by in the face of Iran’s aggression, the strategic implications will radiate far beyond the US’s bilateral ties with the Marshall Islands. If the US allows Iran to get away with unlawfully seizing a Marshall Islands flagged ship it is treaty bound to protect, it will reinforce the growing assessment of its Middle Eastern allies that its security guarantees are worthless.

As the Israel Project’s Omri Ceren put it in an email briefing to journalists, “the US would be using security assurances not to shield allies from Iran but to shield Iran from allies.”

But President Barack Obama apparently won’t allow a bit of Iranian naval piracy to rain on his parade. This week Obama indicated that he feels very good about where his policy on Iran now stands. And he has every reason to be satisfied.

With each day that passes, the chance diminishes that his nuclear deal with the mullahs will be scuppered.

On the one hand, the Iranians are signaling that they are willing to sign a deal with the Great Satan. And this makes sense. For them the deal has no downside.

First there’s the money. Last week the State Department indicated that it won’t rule out paying Iran a $50 billion “signing bonus.”

Two Demonstrations, the Two State Solution and a Poor Grasp of the Reality

...These parallel demonstrations are a reminder of the contrast between the conduct of a free society, even though it remains under siege from foreign foes, and a terrorist state. But they also illustrate the absurdity of a call to repeat the Gaza experiment in the West Bank. A two state solution might be ideal but not under the current circumstances. That Obama continues to expect Israel to do such a mad thing speaks volumes about his lack of concern for the Jewish state’s security as well as of his poor grasp of the realities of the Middle East even after more than six years in the White House.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
30 April '15

Yesterday, a small left-wing fringe group organized demonstrations in three Israeli cities to protest the ongoing blockade of Hamas-run Gaza. In Jerusalem, the protest brought out a few dozen persons in front of the prime minister’s residence where they freely paraded with signs and apparently held forth in front of a rapt press corps eager, as always, to find Jews willing to criticize their country’s government. No one interfered with them and when they were done spouting off about the supposed injustices being done to a terrorist government that had rained down thousands of missiles on Israeli cities and used tunnels to try and conduct murder raids on civilians, they went home having encountered no interference from Israeli authorities. But a group in Gaza that tried to hold a protest earlier that day about the Hamas regime’s lack of interest in rebuilding the strip after the war they launched last summer wasn’t so lucky. And therein hangs a tale of why the push for a two-state solution that remains a priority of the Obama administration is based more on fantasy than reality.

The Gaza demonstration involved 400 persons and took place in a neighborhood that was destroyed in last summer’s fighting. Its purpose appeared to be to promote more reconstruction of homes in the strip as well as to call for the ever-elusive Palestinian unity at a time when Gaza is ruled by Hamas while the West Bank remains under the thumb of Fatah. It also must be understood in the context of what’s been going on in Gaza as Hamas has been reportedly rapidly rebuilding their terror tunnel infrastructure on the border with Israel while also replenishing their rocket arsenal. Both of these endeavors are being conducted with the material and financial help of Iran and are clearly the priority of the Gaza government over the rebuilding of homes wrecked in Hamas’s unnecessary war.

But rather than merely let the 400 demonstrators have their say, Hamas acted in characteristic fashion for a tyrannical terrorist regime and brutally suppressed the protest. Hamas police entered the crowd and severely beat several demonstrators while arresting others in the guise of keeping the peace.

What have these two events to do with the two-state solution, support for which U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said today was the measure of the next Israeli government? Everything.