UNRWA GOES TO WAR - How the UN agency tasked with caring for Palestinians is staffed by jihadis and used as a tool for war and hatred against Israel

In a new documentary video entitled UNRWA Goes to War, journalist David Bedein builds a seemingly incontestable case against UNRWA, showing the close symbiotic relations between it and the terror group Hamas.

UNRWA GOES GO WAR

 

In English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaaslaZk6mw

 

The video shows that not only did UNRWA schools serve as repositories for rockets in the last Gaza war, and not only were rockets launched from places adjacent to UNRWA institutions – the students at the schools are themselves educated to hate Israel and aspire to destroy it.

PALESTINIANS EXPOSE HAMAS AGENDA OF DELIBERATELY HAVING THEM KILLED BY ISRAEL TO WIN MEDIA WAR AGAINST ISRAEL - Palestinian journalist from Jordan tells the world what Gazans are saying about Hamas violent and corrupt regime.

By Mudar Zahran -

Gatestone Institute 

 

Palestinian journalist from Jordan interviewed Gazans for their opinion on the Hamas regime and the recent war with Israel.

 

What emerges is quite different from what the mainstream media have been reporting to the public.

 

• "If Hamas does not like you for any reason all they have to do now is say you are a Mossad agent and kill you." — A., a Fatah member in Gaza.
• "Hamas wanted us butchered so it could win the media war against Israel showing our dead children on TV and then get money from Qatar." — T., former Hamas Ministry officer.
• "They would fire rockets and then run away quickly, leaving us to face Israeli bombs for what they did." — D., Gazan journalist.
• "Hamas imposed a curfew: anyone walking out in the street was shot. That way people had to stay in their homes, even if they were about to get bombed. Hamas held the whole Gazan population as a human shield." — K., graduate student
• "The Israeli army allows supplies to come in and Hamas steals them. It seems even the Israelis care for us more than Hamas." — E., first-aid volunteer.
• "We are under Hamas occupation, and if you ask most of us, we would rather be under Israeli occupation… We miss the days when we were able to work inside Israel and make good money. We miss the security and calm Israel provided when it was here." — S., graduate of an American university, former Hamas sympathizer.

While the world's media has been blaming Israel for the death of Gazan civilians during Operation Protective Edge, this correspondent decided to speak with Gazans themselves to hear what they had to say.

 

They spoke of Hamas atrocities and war crimes implicating Hamas in the civilian deaths of its own people.

 

Although Gazans, fearful of Hamas's revenge against them, were afraid to speak to the media, friends in the West Bank offered introductions to relatives in Gaza.

One, a renowned Gazan academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as soon as someone talked to a Western journalist, he was immediately questioned by Hamas and accused of "communicating with the Mossad".

 

"Hamas makes sure that the average Gazan will not talk to Western journalists -- or actually any journalists at all," he said, continuing:

 

"Hamas does not want the truth about Gaza to come out. Hamas terrorizes and kills us just like Daesh [ISIS] terrorizes kills Iraqis. Hamas is a dictatorship that kills us. The Gazans you see praising Hamas on TV are either Hamas members or too afraid to speak against Hamas. Few foreign [Western] journalists were probably able to report what Gazans think of Hamas."

PALESTINIAN HAMAS ADMITS USING HUMAN SHIELDS AND FIRING ROCKETS FROM RESIDENTIAL AREAS - Just a mistake, they say - Previously a UN official had ADMITTED that Hamas was using their facilities to launch rockets.

The main point is that while Israel made extraordinary efforts to avoid harming civilians - even to the extreme of warning by cellphone and other means those close to rocket launching areas to clear out prior to hitting them with missiles - Hamas DELIBERATELY aims its rockets with the purpose of killing Israelis. 

 

This very important point is rarely presented on media reports.

 

Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.

 

In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.

 

But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.

 

Two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, there is growing evidence that Hamas operatives used residential areas as cover for launching rockets at Israel, at least several times. Even Hamas now admits “mistakes” were made. 

 

But Hamas says it had little choice in Gaza’s crowded urban landscape, took safeguards to keep people away from the fighting, and that a heavy handed Israeli response is to blame for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians. 
 

Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.

“The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when, in fact, they were fired from 200-300 meters [220-328 yards] away.

 

"Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,” Hamad told

 

The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, operatives fired rockets from, or near, residential areas or civilian facilities.

 

Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.

 

Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.

 

These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.

 

'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.

The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?

The answers could help determine whether Israel, or Hamas, or both, are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.

 

PHOTO - Evidence: This photo, provided by the Israel Defense Forces, shows the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan where it says Hamas used four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and nearby residences
 

A black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.

 

Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes.

 

However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.

 

A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.

 

The sites are mostly concealed from street view by barriers made of corrugated iron, but one bore the sign of Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, while another bore the sign of the Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas. The bases were deserted. Visible from the outside were human cutout figures and what appeared to be exercise hurdles.

 

There were no overt signs of rocket launchers or craters in the ground outside, though dirt appeared to have been disturbed either by some sort of blast or the work of heavy military-type trucks. There were pieces of mangled concrete scattered on the ground. The school buildings appeared untouched.

 

Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.

THE EMPTY SPACES IN GAZA
Debunking the myth of there not being anywhere but crowded cities from where to launch rockets against Israel.

 Map source - The ultra-left pro-Palestinian "Peace Now" - via Gatestone Institute
 

Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.

 

Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.

 

The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.

 

During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.

 

There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.

 

'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'

The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

 

'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate.'

 

The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

 

The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.

 

Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.

 

Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.

 

Israellycool chart of male/female Gaza victims and ages 

 

Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.

 

Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.

 

The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March. 

 

 

Sources for the above report: 

 

Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2753176/Hamas-DID-use-schools-hospitals-Gaza-Strip-human-shields-launch-rocket-attacks-Israel-admits-says-mistake.html

 

Times of Israel - http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-admits-to-rocket-fire-from-residential-areas/

 

Charts - http://www.israellycool.com/2014/07/26/latest-analysis-of-gazan-casualties-in-operation-protective-edge-as-of-july-25th/

 

Photos - Official IDF blog - http://www.idfblog.com/

Empty Spaces of Gaza - http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4580/gaza-population-density

Also interesting, with aerial photos:  AP notices that Hamas fired rockets from civilian areas as NGOs find excuses - http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2014/09/ap-notices-that-hamas-fired-rockets.html#.VBRFpMotCM8

 

Senior U.N. Official Admits Hamas Using Their Gaza Facilites To Launch Rockets  

 

"Yes, the armed groups are firing their rockets into Israel from the vicinity of UN facilities and residential areas, absolutely."

 

Interviewed on CBC, Canadian National Radio John Ging Director of the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Hamas terrorists "are firing their rockets into Israel from the vicinity of UN facilities and residential areas."

This statement by a senior UN official confirms what the Israel has said repeatedly since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, that Hamas uses Gaza's civilian population as a human shield.

 

Read more and watch interview - http://www.truthrevolt.org/israel-revolt/senior-un-official-admits-hamas-using-their-gaza-facilites-launch-rockets

 

 

Male:female ratio of deaths in Ukraine similar to Gaza, but UN comes to different conclusions!

 

The proportion of civilian men over 18 killed in Gaza seems high.

To help understand this conundrum, the BBC asked the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights if they had any clue:

Matthias Behnk, from OHCHR, told BBC News that the organisation would not want to speculate about why there had been so many adult male casualties, adding that because they were having to deal with a lot of casualties in a short time, they had "focused primarily on recording the casualties".

"As such, we have not at this stage conducted a detailed analysis of trends of civilian casualties, for example in relation to the reasons why different groups are affected and the types of incidents, but hope to carry this out at some point in the coming future," he said.

And what did the UNHRC say about that in the Ukraine?

Reports of medical establishments from the areas under the control of the armed groups do not distinguish between civilian and military casualties. A gender imbalance of casualties reported by these establishments (as of 11 August, women comprised 11% of killed and 13% of wounded in the Donetsk region) may indicate that members of the armed groups who are predominantly male constitute a considerable part of these casualties.

Read more - http://elderofziyon.blogspot.ca/2014/08/malefemale-ratio-of-deaths-in-ukraine.html#.VBQ5JsotCM8

Analysis of Gazan civilian casualties in Operation Protective Edge - as of July 25, 2014

See more Gaza casualties charts - http://www.israellycool.com/2014/07/26/latest-analysis-of-gazan-casualties-in-operation-protective-edge-as-of-july-25th/

 

 

HOW CROWDED IS GAZA - COMPARED TO OTHER PLACES?

 

 

 

 

 

DISPROPORTIONALITY IN WORLD HUMANITARIAN DONATIONS PER CAPITA TO PALESTINIANS

 

 

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/

 

Distinctions without a difference

Hamas, ISIS and Al Qaeda

 

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/

 

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HAMAS USING ACCURATE GPS-GUIDED MISSILES FROM RUSSIA

By Aaron Klein

Precision weapon deployed with devastating effect before cease-fire. 

 

August 29, 2014 - In the week leading up to Tuesday’s cease-fire announcement, Hamas deployed an alarming new weapon: Russian-manufactured mortars with accurate GPS capabilities.

 

Senior Egyptian security officials say Hamas purchased the precision mortars from rebels who looted Muammar Gadhafi’s reserves after the Libyan strongman was toppled by a U.S.-NATO campaign in 2011.

 

The rebels also reportedly acquired thousands of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, or MANPADS, said to be capable of downing passenger jets.

 

The security officials said the mortars, believed to number in the hundreds, were smuggled into Gaza during the administration of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who served as Egyptian president until being deposed in July 2013.

 

The GPS-driven mortars defy Israel’s Iron Dome and proved to be devastating in the last week, said the officials. On Tuesday alone, 12 mortars were fired at the Eshkol region outside of Gaza, scoring direct hits and killing one civilian while injuring seven, two of whom were critically wounded. Two days earlier, mortars scores direct hits at the Erez Crossing area, injuring four civilians.

 

Tuesday, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a broad longer-term cease-fire. The truce calls for an end to Hamas attacks and Israel Defense Force strikes and the opening of Israel’s border with Gaza to more humanitarian goods.

 

The Gaza-Egypt border is to be gradually reopened under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority, which will take responsibility for ensuring against weapons smuggling. Also, Israel agreed to extend a so-called fishing zone off Gaza’s coast to six miles from three miles.

 

The truce calls for the discussion of broader issues in the near future, including the release in Israel of hundreds of Hamas prisoners and Hamas requests for an airport and seaport. Israel is demanding the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, possibly under an international mechanism. 

 

Source -  http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2014/08/29/hamas-using-gps-guided-mortars-from-russia-precision-weapon-deployed-with-devastating-effect-before-cease-fire/ 

 

RELATED

 

ISRAEL AND RUSSIA

 

Although the above mentioned Russian missiles were acquired by Hamas from other Arab groups, relations between Russia and Israel have been affected by Russia's long-time support for Arab terrorists, including Palestinians.  This went on during the Soviet years, and after the breakup of the Soviet empire as well.

 

Israel and Russia have been at war in the past. Russian forces were prepared to attack Israel during the 1967 war, when Arab countries almost destroyed Israel.   During the Yom Kippur war of 1973, Israel captured Russian pilots.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Russians Were Coming:

The Soviet Military Threat to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War

 

Editor’s Summary: New evidence reveals that during the 1967 Six-Day War the Soviet Union set in motion military operations to assist Egypt and especially Syria, first in seeking to overcome Israel and then in response to Israel's pre-emptive attack.

 

These potential steps included a naval landing, airborne reinforcement and air support for ground operations. Action was aborted at the last minute due, among other factors, to a firm US response and dissension among Soviet leaders in Moscow.

 

Read more - http://www.gloria-center.org/2000/12/ginor-2000-12-05/ 

 

 

The Soviets nurtured and armed Muslim terrorists

Read more - http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/soviet-jihad-connection-interview-pavel-stroilov

 

April 2014 - Putin defies Obama in Syria as Russian arms flow lifts Assad

Read more - http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/putin-syria-assad-arms/2014/04/03/id/563417/

 

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FORTY LESSONS OF THE ARAB WAR AGAINST THE JEWS - One is that Israeli land withdrawals bring in more terror. Another is that concessions encourage more terror, as they are regarded as weakness

By Professor Steven Plaut

 

No matter how many concessions Israel makes, the world will always justify Arab terrorism because there will always be still one more capitulation Israel failed to make.

 

1.      Nice fences do not stop missiles, rockets, and mortars.

2.      Complete removal of Israeli forces and Jewish settlers from an area merely signals Israeli weakness and invites escalated Arab terror and aggression.

3.      Hamas (and Hezb’Allah and ISIS) cannot be defeated with air strikes.  There is no effective alternative to ground invasion and ongoing military control of the ground retaken.

4.      Unless the Israeli military controls the ground on the other side of fences, those fences achieve nothing.

5.      Goodwill gestures by Israel increase terror.

6.      Goodwill gestures by Israel never produce moderation of Arab goals and demands.  They also do not win Israel friends in the West but rather encourage outbursts of anti-Semitism.

7.      Terror is not caused by Israeli settlements but by the removal of Israeli settlements.

8.      Terror is not caused by Israeli military occupation but by the removal of Israeli military occupation.

SIMCHA JACOBOVICI: THE COUNTDOWN TO ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION - The Israeli government does not have a clue on how to defend the country. It is using artillery while neglecting the modern media war aimed at Israel's destruction.

Simcha Jacobovici

SUMMARY followed by entire column.

 

• If you count bodies and destroyed homes, Israel won the Gaza war round. But if you look at the overall strategic situation, what you see is a steady deterioration in Israel’s position, both militarily and diplomatically.   Israel has lost. 
• Arabs have a highly successful three-pronged strategy:  low level terror, arming themselves, and the isolation of Israel through an international demonization campaign. 
• Economically, there is not just the billions of dollars in the campaign military cost.  A few unsophisticated mortars paralyzed all activity at Ben Gurion Airport. 
• Israel's neo-Primitivism.  It has done NOTHING against the media campaign to demonize Israel, whose ultimate aim is the destruction of the country.  Israel is fighting last century’s war. Its enemies are fighting the war of tomorrow, often with the low-tech, media-friendly tools of yesterday.  
• Israel's strategic thinking is bankrupt.  Basically, Israel’s leaders haven’t figured out that what is depicted on CNN and BBC is more important than what happens on the streets of Gaza. If you win the latter and lose the former, you are the big loser.   Israel's response is to explain. 
• No country surrounded by Hezbollah, Al-Qaida, Hamas and ISIS would have to engage in a media war to “explain” to the world that it lives in a tough neighborhood, except Israel.
• Israel has no true friends - except for Canadian PM Stephen Harper.  Once he goes, Canada's support for Israel goes with him.
• As for the United States, the so-called “Jewish lobby”, namely America’s Jewish population, is disintegrating before our eyes. America’s Jews are assimilating and intermarrying. Even if they identify as Jews, for most of them Israel is not a priority. In fact, many go out of their way to prove that they are Americans first by beating up on the Jewish state.
• One of the few reasons for America’s continued support – such as it is – is not the power of the Jewish constituency, but of the Evangelical Christian community. This, too, shall pass. The anti-Israel forces in the American Evangelical community – old-school Jimmy Carter types – are gaining strength.
• Netanyahu’s world – where anti-Semitism is not a factor, where America has Israel’s back and where Hamas is really a loser despite the mass celebrations on Gaza’s streets – is a figment of his imagination.
•  Put simply, if it doesn’t start fighting this war, Israel will become more vulnerable than ever before. And this will happen in the next few months – just as Iran becomes a nuclear power.
• So here’s my message to Israel’s leaders and supporters: it’s not too late. Start fighting the media war or we will go down in defeat – soon.

 

NOTE:  This Otters Blog thinks that there is more to the government's apparent cluelessness.  There has been a deliberate string of government policies - over several decades already - that have disempowered the Jewish hold on Israel, while empowering the Arabs.  This is an extremely serious matter that deserves a more detailed explanation. 

 

In the meantime, please take a look at this blog's articles on the left, with links at the end of this article. 

 

Understanding the left and its nefarious influence on Israeli politics is key to making sense of this and past Israeli governments' policies that run contrary to Israel's interests and viability. 

 

Just ask yourselves, why, with the country clamoring for an end to Hamas terror, the government settles for concessions to Gaza, a flawed ceasefire, and defeat.  What else is going on?

 

 

Countdown to Israel's destruction

 

By Simcha Jacobovici, a Canadian-Israeli filmmaker and journalist. He is a three-time Emmy winner for “Outstanding Investigative Journalism” and a … [More] New York Times best selling author. He’s also an adjunct professor in the Department of Religion at Huntington University, Ontario.

 

The round of fighting with Hamas is one more stage in Israel’s strategic downward spiral. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory. At the same time, Gaza’s Hamas rulers are dancing in the street. Ahmed Barakat, senior member of Hezbollah, has stated that the “countdown to the disappearance of the Zionist entity [Israel] in the region has begun.” Unfortunately, Netanyahu is wrong and Barakat is right.  

 

If you count bodies and destroyed homes, Israel won the round. But if you look at the overall strategic situation, what you see is a steady deterioration in Israel’s position, both militarily and diplomatically.

 

After the last Intifada, Israel’s enemies realized that suicide bombing alone cannot achieve their desired goal – the destruction of the Jewish state.

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S PRECIPITOUS FALL IN POPULARITY FOR MISHANDLING THE WAR - From 82% approval to 38% in only seven weeks - EVACUATION of Israelis living near the Gaza border

Israel Matzav reports:

 

No, it's not Barack Hussein Obama whose popularity dropped from 82% to 38% in seven weeks.  It's Binyamin Netanyahu whose popularity has dropped... because the war is still going and Israel has not decisively defeated Hamas.

 

PM Netanyahu (photo Flash90)

A new poll released by the Hebrew-language Channel 2 news site on Monday reveals that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's approval rating has fallen as a "casualty" in the faltering Operation Protective Edge.

 

The poll, conducted by Shiluv Millward Brown and iPanel for the news source, found in the last four days Netanyahu's support has taken a sharp nose-dive.

 

A mere 38% of Israelis responded that they are satisfied with Netanyahu, as opposed to 50% who are dissatisfied. Just four days earlier, Netanyahu's support stood at 55%.

 

The sudden dive corresponds to a period during which four-year-old Daniel Tragerman hy''d was murdered by mortar fire in his Kibbutz Nahal Oz home last Friday, possibly contributing to a feeling of government neglect in providing security to its citizens.

UNFIT TO GOVERN? - Martin Sherman's analysis of Israeli government blunders during the war on Gaza

Martin Sherman

Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic policy.  – Henry Kissinger

He who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate. – Midrash Rabba, Ecclesiastes 7:16

A cease-fire is no solution to ending a war. Unconditional surrender seems to always work. – John D. Stoller, Jerusalem Post talk-backer 

BY MARTIN SHERMAN, Jerusalem Post

 

Yes, I know. The title of this column will ruffle many feathers, especially while the cannons are still roaring.

But what is a concerned journalist to do when he sees the elected government of his country lurching from one predictable blunder to another? Show solidarity with a “policy” – for want of a better word – that has led to an unbroken succession of foreseen failure and fiasco? Pretend that policies leading inexorably to disastrous debacle actually reflect considered and circumspect statesmanship?

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT VALUES ARAB LIVES MORE THAN JEWISH LIVES - It knew where mortars that killed Jewish child were coming from, but refrained from acting out of fear of injuring Arabs - And how government sacrifices Israeli soldiers to spare Arab lives

4-Year-Old Daniel Tragerman could have lived, had the IDF acted against KNOWN Palestinian mortar barrels aiming at his kibbutz

 

Daniel Tragerman, killed by Hamas

Kibbutz Nahal Oz residents say five mortars have been trained on them since start of operation, but IDF refused to act. (Kibbutz is a communal farm.) 

By Ari Yashar, Gil Ronen, Israel National News 



A new revelation suggests that the tragic murder of four-year-old Daniel Tragerman hy''d, who was killed by terrorist mortar fire last Friday in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, may have been completely avoidable - if only the IDF was given a free hand against Hamas terrorists.

 

Israeli TV's Channel 10 on Monday reported that residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz have said five mortar barrels have been aimed directly at their community by Gaza terrorists since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge on July 8.

 

The residents claim the IDF told them that three of the barrels are embedded adjacent to schools where displaced Gaza Arab residents are taking shelter, and therefore the IDF did not strike them to eliminate the threat.

HOW SOON WE FORGET - ONLY NINE YEARS AGO ISRAEL LEFT GAZA SO THAT ARABS COULD BUILD THEIR STATE - No occupation. No blockade. But then Arabs elected Hamas and unleashed a war of terror against Israel

By Charles Krauthammer

 

Israel accepts an Egyptian-proposed Gaza cease-fire; Hamas keeps firing. Hamas deliberately aims rockets at civilians; Israel painstakingly tries to avoid them, actually telephoning civilians in the area and dropping warning charges, so-called roof knocking. 

“Here’s the difference between us,” explains the Israeli prime minister. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.” 

Rarely does international politics present a moment of such moral clarity. Yet we’ve routinely heard the Israel-Gaza fighting described as a morally equivalent “cycle of violence.” This is absurd. What possible interest can Israel have in cross-border fighting? Everyone knows Hamas set off this most recent mini-war. And everyone knows the proudly self-declared raison d’etre of Hamas: the eradication of Israel and its Jews.

Apologists for Hamas attribute the blood lust to the Israeli occupation and blockade.  

Occupation? Does no one remember anything?   

It was less than 10 years ago that worldwide television showed the Israeli army pulling die-hard settlers off synagogue roofs in Gaza as Israel uprooted its settlements, expelled its citizens, withdrew its military and turned every inch of Gaza over to the Palestinians.

There was not a soldier, not a settler, not a single Israeli left in Gaza.

And there was no blockade.   

On the contrary. Israel wanted this new Palestinian state to succeed. To help the Gaza economy, Israel gave the Palestinians its 3,000 greenhouses that had produced fruit and flowers for export. It opened border crossings and encouraged commerce. 

The whole idea was to establish the model for two states living peacefully and productively side by side. No one seems to remember that, simultaneous with the Gaza withdrawal, Israel dismantled four smaller settlements in the northern West Bank as a clear signal of Israel’s desire to leave the West Bank as well and thus achieve an amicable two-state solution. 

This is not ancient history. This was nine years ago. 

And how did the Gaza Palestinians react to being granted by the Israelis what no previous ruler, neither Egyptian, nor British, nor Turkish, had ever given them — an independent territory?

First, they demolished the greenhouses. Then they elected Hamas.

Then, instead of building a state with its attendant political and economic institutions, they spent the better part of a decade turning Gaza into a massive military base, brimming with terror weapons, to make ceaseless war on Israel. 

Where are the roads and rail, the industry and infrastructure of the new Palestinian state? Nowhere. Instead, they built mile upon mile of underground tunnels to hide their weapons and, when the going gets tough, their military commanders. 

They spent millions importing and producing rockets, launchers, mortars, small arms, even drones. They deliberately placed them in schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes to better expose their own civilians. And from which they fire rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Why? The rockets can’t even inflict serious damage, being almost uniformly intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. Even West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked: “What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?”

It makes no sense. Unless you understand that the whole point is to draw Israeli counter-fire. This produces dead Palestinians for international television. Which is why Hamas perversely urges its own people not to seek safety when Israel drops leaflets warning of an imminent attack. 

To deliberately wage war so that your own people can be telegenically killed is indeed moral and tactical insanity.   

But it rests on a very rational premise: Given the Orwellian state of the world’s treatment of Israel (see: the UN’s grotesque Human Rights Council), fueled by a mix of classic anti-Semitism, near-total historical ignorance and reflexive sympathy for the ostensible Third World underdog, these eruptions featuring Palestinian casualties ultimately undermine support for Israel’s legitimacy and right to self-defense.

About the Author: Charles Krauthammer is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Fox News commentator, and bestselling author. His most recent book, “Things That Matter” (Crown Forum, 2013), spent several months at the top of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.

 

Source - http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/israel-and-hamas-does-no-one-remember-anything/2014/08/13/

RELATED

GAZA TUNNELS WERE BUILT WITH CHILD LABOR

Up to 2012, 160 Gaza children died while building tunnels (more since)

 

 PALESTINIAN CORRUPTION

How the Hamas leadership got very rich through tunnel smuggling while the population suffers in poverty

 

 

There were 160 child worker victims in tunnel construction when the report was released in mid-2012.  The count must have risen into the hundreds since then, due to accelerated construction.

It should be emphasized that this report denouncing child fatalities in the construction of the terror tunnels came from a Palestinian source, the Institute for Palestine Studies.

THE GRUESOME PRACTICES OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS - They wanted to trade body parts of murdered Israeli soldiers for incarcerated terrorists

UPDATE -  PALESTINIANS SAY THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFERS 25 TERRORISTS FOR SOLDIERS BODY PARTS

 

Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin 

(Let's hope this is just a rumor.)  A source in the Palestinian delegation to Cairo said that Israel offered to hand over 25 terrorists that it arrested during Operation Protective Edge and 18 bodies of terrorists who were killed, in exchange for the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and First Sgt. Oron Shaul hy”d.

According to report in Al Masry Al-Youm, Israel demanded that the bodies of its soldiers be returned as a condition for the negotiations to proceed. The report was not confirmed by any official Israeli sources.  Egyptian mediators met a Palestinian delegation again Friday evening and were waiting to hear back from the Israelis after the Jewish Shabbat ended at sundown Saturday.

GAZA ARCHBISHOP TELLS MEDIA THAT HAMAS USED HIS CHURCH TO FIRE ROCKETS AT ISRAEL - That is a war crime.

Archbishop Alexios, the Greek Orthodox Christian leader of Gaza, told CBN News on Wednesday that Hamas had used the church to fire rockets at Israeli civilians prior to the 72-hour ceasefire.

The church was also being used at the time as a shelter for Palestinian civilians of all faiths who were fleeing the war's bombs and rockets.

Hamas used the church and the civilians as human shields--a war crime under international law -- in order to deter Israel from striking the rocket launchers, and to cause Israel maximum public relations and diplomatic damage if it did return fire. At least two United Nations facilities housing civilians were struck in that fashion.

Though the White House called Israel's actions in those instances "indefensible," and other world powers rushed to condemn Israel, few bothered to consider that they were playing directly into Hamas's hands, and creating an incentive for Hamas and other terror groups to continue to use the same deadly tactics in future.

The outrage that might have ensued if Israel had struck a church--instead of merely a UN facility--would have been formidable, and could have greatly complicated efforts to rally support for Israel among Christians in the U.S.

Hamas violated the 72-hour ceasefire Friday morning and launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli civilians.

Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP
Source - http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/08/Gaza-Archbishop-Hamas-Fired-Rockets-from-Church-Shelter

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AWASH IN MORAL RELATIVISM, GREEN PARTY OF CANADA MEMBERS 'OFFENDED' AND 'CONFUSED' BY PRO-ISRAEL COLUMN BY ITS PRESIDENT PAUL ESTRIN - He has now resigned - Read the 'offending and confusing' column

PAUL ESTRIN

National Post - One week after the Green Party of Canada president wrote a blog expressing support for Israel, which he signed and then posted on the party’s website, Paul Estrin is stepping down.

 

The post led to confusion among party supporters and prompted party leader Elizabeth May to distance herself from Mr. Estrin. It was subsequently removed from the party’s website.

 

In the post, titled “Why Gaza makes me sad,” Mr. Estrin wrote Israel is threatened now more than ever. He called the Hamas government hateful and said it harbours a “desire to obliterate.”  “Gaza is giving children grenades … and asking their citizens to be sheep to the slaughter,” he wrote.

 

Some supporters threatened to quit the party, while others applauded Mr. Estrin’s views.

 

In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Estrin announced his resignation, effective immediately.  “I never intended to create confusion or have any of my actions negatively impact the party,” Mr. Estrin’s statement read.

 

Julian Morelli, director of communications for the party, said Mr. Estrin made his decision based on the confusion his post caused.  “It was nothing to do with his opinion or beliefs. It has to do with his role as the party president,” said Mr. Morelli. “There’s separation … between the political and the actual organization. He doesn’t have a role in policy.”  Mr. Morelli said the party has an obligation to make sure its position on Israel is clear.

 

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

Last week, party leader Elizabeth May said that while she and the Greens condemn Hamas for firing rockets into Israel, they do not adopt an unquestioning attitude toward the Jewish state.

 

Mr. Morelli stressed that Mr. Estrin made the decision of his own accord.  “Elizabeth May didn’t order anything, nor can she as leader,” he said.

Source - http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/08/05/green-party-president-steps-down-one-week-after-posting-pro-israel-statement/

Photo Elizabeth May - Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press
Photo Paul Estrin - Facebook

 

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Why Gaza makes me sad

By Paul Estrin (Now former President of the Green Party of Canada)      

        
I am sure that many people I know will be upset for my having the gall to write these words.  I am simply sick and tired of having to hear such hypocrisy and twisted logic.

 

The history of the people who live in Gaza is something that should infuriate.

 

We could delve into their history of the Egyptian rule over Gaza, or further back during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, or we could even go as far back as biblical histories of the people that lived in that same region, for which some of the place names have stayed unchanged for millennia. 

 

Instead, we can just look at what has happened since Israel left Gaza.