[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 07/18 Links Pt1: Schumer: No Moral Equivalency Between Israel and Hamas; How to win in Gaza

From Ian:

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Charles Schumer: No Moral Equivalency Between Israel and Hamas

Hamas, which has won elections with the support of the population of Gaza, is a terrorist group that remains bent on the destruction of Israel and its citizens. Without provocation, the Hamas governing authority flings rockets over the border, all over Israel, without regard to civilian lives or public safety. In fact, the terrorists frequently target civilians. Their intent is to terrorize and inflict as much pain as possible.
When Israel reacts, it does so defensively, to prevent rockets from hurting its people. It targets military capabilities or terrorist leaders. What other society gives advanced warnings to those shelling it, by dropping leaflets and making cellphone calls to warn the inhabitants of impending defensive strikes, to minimize the loss of innocent lives?
These proportional steps clearly make it harder to eliminate the terrorists and rockets, and Israel is almost unique in taking them.
Again, to say that both sides are equally to blame in this recent round of violence simply lets Hamas and its leaders off the hook and naturally encourages them to continue the violence, because the condemnation of the world falls equally on Israel's and Hamas' shoulders – a condition they seek as effectively giving permission for future violence.

Melanie Phillips: Under fire in Israel

Every western supporter of the Palestinian war against Israel is also tacitly supporting such anti-Jewish derangement. This psychotic bigotry is the true driver of that war, as well as the Islamist war against the West. Yet astoundingly it is never, ever mentioned. The intractable problem of Gaza has been exacerbated by the meddling incomprehension of a western world that just doesn't grasp how Islamist fanatics play by entirely different rules.
The West insists on moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinians, as if the century-old conflict between the Arabs and the Jews were simply a squabble over the equitable division of land. It is not. It is a war to destroy the Jewish national homeland by people driven into frenzy by forces immune to reason.
Israeli parents are now steeling themselves for the nightmare of their sons in the Israel Defence Force being deployed in a Gazan land war to stop the rockets. Some of those boys will be killed. But it will be the Palestinian casualties, the Hamas war crime, which will be used once again to blame the Jews for their own destruction.

Sarah Honig: Hypocrisy most foul

The bamboozlers who gave us Oslo and its deformed derivative disengagement have never expressed the slightest contrition and never begged the nation's forgiveness – not even now when Gazan rockets threaten Israel's heartland.
The same goes for their craven accomplices, who ran with the pack and derided nonconformist compatriots who dared protest.
But while the promoters of folly bask in self-proclaimed infallibility, they're uncannily quick to blame others for their sins.
This is hypocrisy most foul and it's not limited to territorial surrenders and the chimera of attaining peace and acceptance by rewarding belligerence.

Caroline Glick: How to win in Gaza

While the ground operations continue, Israeli negotiators should be avidly agreeing to every ceasefire offer that denies Hamas any achievements. The IDF must continue to exercise an abundance of caution to prevent Hamas from luring our forces into a situation where we will be accused of massacring Palestinians.
None of this is easy or simple. No result is guaranteed. But in fighting Hamas today, Israel finds itself in a better position than it has faced in past fights with Hamas. For the first time, we face an enemy with a limited shelf life. Without supply lines from Egypt, Hamas cannot fight forever. Its allies at the UN can feed its forces and protect Hamas from an insurrection from a starving population. But the UN cannot rearm Hamas. It cannot reopen the smuggling tunnels from Egypt to enable materiel, money and trainers to enter Gaza.
Hamas is desperate for anything it can call a victory. By denying it one on the one hand, while taking action to force its leaders to prefer organizational humiliation to personal destruction on the other, Israel can win a decisive victory.

Ben-Dror Yemini: Israel bashers, let's talk about proportion

It happened in Belgrade, in central Europe, in the 1999 NATO bombings. About 500 fighters were killed, alongside a much bigger number, 1,500 according to an American general, of innocent civilians, including quite a few children. The Serbs themselves said the death toll had reached more than 5,000.
There were no mass protests in European cities against NATO at the time, but there was criticism. Amnesty Intrnational even accused NATO of committing war crimes. So it did.
NATO's planes, let me remind you, were not forced to deal with rockets fired at London or Paris from civilian population centers. The bombed entity did not threaten to destroy Germany or Holland. The official television channel in that entity did not call for the annihilation of the European, "to the very last one of them."
Among the NATO forces, it should be mentioned, there were zero casualties. Were you looking for proportion? Well, NATO has shown it to us.

Daniel Gordis: Whatever happened to evil?

At this moment, though, I find myself consumed by a different question altogether.
It is, quite simply, this: Where has the word "evil" gone? Why are so many otherwise intelligent people so incapable of calling Hamas what it so obviously is? No matter what one thinks about the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian statehood or occupation, there is something perverse about the implicit critique that this was not a "fair fight." Ben Wedeman, reporting for CNN, remarked on the air more than once this week that Gaza was not protected by an Iron Dome system. That's true, of course, but hints at a perverse worldview. Why note that Gaza has no Iron Dome, unless you're really suggesting that this is a battle between two morally equivalent sides and thus ought to unfold on a level playing field? If only that perversity was limited to CNN, it would be less awful.

JPost Editorial: Fed up with Hamas

Since 2005, when Israel, in a painful move aimed at fostering peace, demolished all Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and evacuated all 8,000 of its Israeli residents, there have been no roadblocks in Gaza and no settlements, nor are there Israeli troops on the ground. Instead of dedicating itself to death and destruction, instead of devoting so much of its energy to smuggling into Gaza rockets, ammunition and explosives, Gaza's Hamas political leadership could have improved the plight of the population after it wrested control of the Strip from Fatah in a bloody coup in 2007.
Arab nations are beginning to realize that not only the Palestinians of Gaza are suffering from the sorts of destructive policies instituted by Hamas, the entire region is, both Muslims and non-Muslims. Will this realization spread and give birth to a Muslim backlash against the violent, reactionary excesses of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State and other Islamist terrorist groups? Only time will tell.

MEMRI Saudi Writer: The Slogans Of Resistance Are Empty; The Only Way To Stop Israel Is To Make Peace With It

In a July 12, 2014 article in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Saudi writer and intellectual 'Abdallah Hamid Al-Din presented an unusual position, stressing that the only viable solution to the Palestinians' conflict with Israel is peace. He criticized the Palestinians' handling of the conflict – for instance their demand to realize the right of return, which he called unrealistic, or their call to boycott Israel, which he called hypocritical – describing all this as part of an ongoing policy of self-destruction and missed opportunities that has characterized the Palestinians' action since the establishment of the state of Israel. He also condemned the policy of perpetuating the refugees' suffering, calling it immoral conduct that sabotages the Palestinians' lives and future.
He concluded that striving for peace is the Palestinians' only way to defeat Israel, and that real resistance is rejecting illusions and false hopes that steadily erode the Palestinian cause. (h/t Bob Knot)

Times of Israel Live Blog: Israel kills 20 Hamas men, captures 13, in first hours of Gaza ground op.

Defiant Hamas fires 80 rockets at Israel; Abbas heads to Turkey for ceasefire talks; Eitan Barak, 20, from Herzliya is first soldier killed; IDF tackling Hamas tunnels, infrastructure

Shmuley Boteach: Obama Pummels Al Qaeda While Calling for Restraint Against Hamas

It begins with President Obama himself taking the highly unusual step on July 8 by publishing an op-ed in Haaretz days before their peace conference where he said, "…at this dangerous moment, all parties must protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not vengeance and retribution." That is a curious thing for the leader of the free world to say about a terrorist organization.
Reasonableness and restraint? Hamas' charter calls for the murder of Jews wherever they are found, including the United States. Would the president call for reasonableness and restraint on the part of Al-Qaeda? Absolutely not. He's blowing them to bits with drone strikes in Pakistan in order to protect innocent American life, which is his job as president.
The president continued in the op-ed, "…All parties must exercise restraint and work together to maintain stability on the ground." Respectfully, this is absurd. The president is showing no restraint against Al-Qaeda and Prime Minister Netanyahu should likewise employ every means to eliminate Hamas' capacity to murder innocent men, women and children.

The tragic self-delusion behind the Hamas war

It is a strange logic, but one that seems to fit this strange sort of conflict, where one must seem weak to be able to use one's power, but also simultaneously powerful to have any hope of influencing the other side's calculations.
In the end, when all is said and done, it is Israel that has the upper hand. This is not because of its economic or military supremacy, which are effectively neutralized as a deterrent by Hamas's sheer willingness to suffer, and to have fellow Palestinians suffer alongside it. Nor is it because Israel has been particularly effective in fighting the global public-relations fight so critical to the conduct of this sort of war. It isn't even because of Israelis' measurable and remarkable psychological resilience in the face of indiscriminate rocket fire.
Rather, Israel's supreme advantage in this war lies in the enemy's own misunderstanding. The entire edifice of Hamas as an organization, together with its affiliates, allies and ideological fellow travelers, is built to fight a particular kind of war with a very specific sort of enemy. The tragic and ongoing catastrophe that is Gaza will not be healed until the Palestinian national movement starts seeing Israelis for what they are, a flawed but rooted people living in its home, rather than what the Palestinians wish they were, sunburned Frenchmen in a land not their own.

IDF soldier killed, 4 injured in Gaza ground offensive

Sergeant Eitan Barak, 20, from Herzliya, was critically wounded during an operation against rocket launchers in the area of Beit Hanoun and died of his wounds before he could be evacuated. Four other soldiers were injured, one moderately and the rest lightly.
There were unconfirmed reports that Barak may have been killed in a friendly-fire incident, but the circumstances behind his death were not immediately clear.
"There were a number of events during the night," military spokesman General Moti Almoz told Army Radio. "The incident in which a soldier was killed, we are checking the circumstances now and when we know them all, we shall release the findings."

Look: Fallen soldier's last words before entering Gaza

Just before Sergeant First Class Eitan Barak, who was killed in the strip around 4 a.m., entered Gaza with his unit on Thursday night, he corresponded with a friend on the messaging service Whatsapp. The friend offered his support and Barak answered hopefully.

Why the Hamas tunnels are first priority in Israel's ground offensive

The first and likely most significant is the subterranean threat. Israel could have woken up Thursday to an entire kibbutz under siege. Haim Yellin, the head of the Eshkol Regional Council recently told the Times of Israel, standing outside a tunnel discovered several months ago, that many residents in the region are so scarred by the prospect of a tunnel attack that they hear the phantom scratching of shovels when they close their eyes at night.
A picture released by the Israeli Defense Forces shows weapons found inside a tunnel near Kibbutz Sufa in the Israeli Gaza border on July 17, 2014 (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson's office/Flash90)
Unlike the current rocket threat, which has been largely defanged by Iron Dome and early warning systems, the ancient threat of tunnels has no technological solution as yet. "We have no advantage in the underground realm," said Brig. Gen. (res) Moshe Sheli, the former commander of the IDF's combat engineering corps. On the ground, in the air, in the sea, he continued, technology offers the Israeli army a distinct edge. Underground, Israel employs a variety of means "but they don't give us a dramatic advantage, and that's why this is such a hard challenge to crack," he said.

Watch: Chief of Staff Briefs Generals on Ground Operation

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz held a security assessment on Thursday evening as the IDF launched a ground offensive in Gaza.
"We are going to strike. It is going to be a combined attack, from the air and the ground," he said.
"Our forces will operate in close coordination, employing their full strength, both along the routes of deployment and within the area itself," said Gantz.
"We are doing everything in our capacity with the appropriate force, as proud Israeli soldiers. Good luck to all of us," he concluded.

IDF Chief of General Staff Briefs Generals on Ground Operation


IDF Forces Enter Gaza Strip Last Night


IDF Forces Operate within Gaza 18/07


1st Day of IDF Ground Operation in Gaza


IDF Targets Terror Tunnel, Rocket Explodes


Soldiers Prepare for Ground Operation in Gaza


Ground Operation in Gaza to Stop Hamas


IDF Apprehends 30 Terrorists as Rockets Continue

The IDF has killed 17 terrorists, it announced Friday afternoon, and taken in an additional 13 - who surrendered - for questioning.
In addition, they have uncovered four terror tunnels and destroyed 21 rocket launchers, it said.
Earlier, Palestinian Arab sources claimed that the IDF is actively working to destroy two terror tunnels Friday, as the ground offensive in Operation Protective Edge progresses.

Iron Dome Creator Says System Protecting Israel from Hamas Rockets Designed for Quick Update to Counter More Advanced Missiles (VIDEO)

Retired Israel Defense Forces Brigadier General Danny Gold, the man behind Israel's Iron Dome that has been shooting down incoming Hamas rockets from Gaza, said the system was designed to be quickly updated to counter more advanced missiles in the future, according to an interview on Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
Gold said the Iron Dome benefits from a "robust design," with system architecture that "can cope with future uncertainty," if Hamas decides to launch more advanced weaponry at Israel, and that "changes will be fast."

Home Front Command Releases Updated Guidelines for Rocket Fire

The Home Front Command has updated its guidelines for Israelis within rocket range on Friday, in light of increasing rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza and anticipated escalation due to the IDF ground offensive.
Within 40 kilometers of Gaza, including the Gaza belt, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be'er Sheva, and the surrounding communities, all meetings or gatherings of 300 people or more have been banned - whether indoors or outdoors. This includes shopping centers and other entertainment venues.
All schools and camps have been suspended until further notice. Workplaces, however, have remained open without restrictions - except for agricultural or other outdoor projects, which have been closed in all areas within 3 kilometers of the Sha'ar HaNegev Region, as per the Regional Council.

Gaza frogmen invaders face Israeli high-tech barrier

Not content with firing more than 1,000 rockets and missiles at Israel in recent days, Hamas has twice dispatched "frogman terrorists" to try to attack Israel. The attempts were foiled, but they brought out the fact that with hundreds of kilometers of shoreline to patrol, catching maritime infiltrators is a major challenge for Israel.
It's difficult enough to find invaders on land, where cameras, sensors, and perimeter detection systems provide security personnel with effective tools to detect terrorists, but for invaders from the sea, those solutions are largely ineffective. An answer might come from Israeli defense technology firm DSIT Solutions, which offers various configurations of below-water sonar and electronic detectors designed to protect bays, harbors, and ocean-based installations (like oil rigs), piers, ports, and energy terminals.

Confirmed: Another Hamas Drone Shot Down

The IDF shot down a Hamas aerial drone Thursday evening. The drone was brought down by Patriot missiles.
The Navy is looking for remains of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
This is the second time a UAV has been shot down this week. An enemy UAV, apparently laden with explosives, was shot down by the IDF near the port city of Ashdod Monday morning.
The interception caused a strong explosion to rock Ashdod and triggered air raid sirens at around 6:30 a.m..

Egypt Slams Hamas for Rejecting Ceasefire, Blames Terror Group for Palestinian Deaths

Egypt's foreign minister slammed Hamas for rejecting an Egyptian cease-fire proposal and laid the blame on the terror group for the recent deaths of Palestinians.
"Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian proposal, it could have saved the lives of at least 40 Palestinians," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said, the Egyptian state-run news outlet MENA reported.
The statement by Egypt's foreign minister comes as Israel has launched a ground invasion into Gaza to destroy Hamas's tunnel system, which the terror group has used to fire rockets at the Jewish state and to infiltrate the country.

After violent protests, Israel to pull some diplomatic staff from Turkey

Israel decided Friday to pull some of its diplomatic staff out of Turkey in the wake of violent protests targeting the buildings of its embassy and consulate in Ankara and Istanbul, an embassy spokesman said, as well as recent statements that accused Israel of attempting a "systematic genocide" on the Palestinian people.
After protests against Operation Protective Edge in front of Israel's missions in Ankara and Istanbul turned violent Thursday night, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman instructed Israeli diplomats stationed in Turkey to return home.
"It was decided to reduce our diplomatic representation in the country to a possible minimum," Liberman said in a statement.
The violent protests broke out after inciteful speeches by Turkish Prime Minister (and currently presidential hopeful) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and because the country's security forces did not properly fulfill their duty to prevent violence during such events, Liberman charged. (h/t Bob Knot)

Rocket Fired from Syria Lands in Syrian Territory

Sirens were heard on Thursday evening in the northern Golan Heights, near the border with Syria.
A rocket was fired from Syria but, according to the IDF Spokesperson, it exploded on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and did not hit Israeli territory.
At the beginning of the week, a mortar shell from Syria was fired towards the Israeli side of the Golan Heights and exploded near the Druze village of Mas'ade.

Zoabi Encourages Uprising Against Israel - on Hamas Website

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) took her campaign against Israel to a whole new level this week, Israel Hayom reports Friday - after she published an article on Hamas's official website encouraging an Islamist uprising against the Jewish state.
Zoabi encouraged all Arab countries to help stoke a "popular uprising" against Israel, halt security coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA) police in Judea and Samaria, and lay siege to the region.
Zoabi - who is a member of the Israeli Knesset - also put the word "Israel" in quotation marks for the entire article. (h/t Bob Knot)

Israel's envoy to US faces harsh criticism in Twitter Q&A

To the last, Dermer argued that "Israel cares more about Pal civilians in Gaza than Hamas. We try to get them out of harm's way. They put them in harm's way."
He also responded to claims of genocide, noting the scale of genocides perpetrated in the past hundred years and contrasting them to the estimated 15,000 people killed in almost 70 years of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Twice in the course of the discussion, he referred readers through a live link to the version of Hamas's charter available on the website of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

U.K. Deputy PM: Israel strikes on Gaza 'deliberately disproportionate'

The U.K.'s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Thursday that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire is "deliberately disproportionate.'"
Speaking on his weekly phone-in to radio station LBC, the Liberal Democrats leader accused Israel of "collective punishment" against the Palestinians, The Guardian reported.
"I have to say though I really do think now the Israeli response appears to be deliberately disproportionate. It is amounting now to a disproportionate form of collective punishment. It is leading to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is just unacceptable," Clegg said. (h/t dabney_c)

Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director Admits UK Supporters Use Social Media, Demonstrations to 'Peddle Hatred and Intolerance' of Jews

Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK, admitted that the group's supporters use social media sites and protest demonstrations to "peddle hatred and intolerance" of Jews, the UK's Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday.
The acknowledgement came after the UK's Community Security Trust this week said that 47 anti- Semitic incidents had been reported in the first two weeks of July, compared to 58 for all of July 2013, representing "almost double what would be expected."

German Soccer Star Donates Bonus To 23 Brazilian Children

As reported by Truth Revolt yesterday, rumors were swirling around the web that German soccer star, Mesut Ozil, would be donating his $405,787.50 to the children of Gaza. Those rumors proved to be false.
The Turkish-born Ozil donated his winnings to 23 Brazilian children who were in the need of surgery in honor of his 23-man roster. His reason is a personal thank you for the country's warm hospitality he received while there for the World Cup.

Dennis Kucinich Takes to Facebook to Express Hatred of Israel

Dennis Kucinich, the former Democratic Congressman from Ohio, expressed his disdain for the Jewish state on Wednesday afternoon. In multiple posts, the former 16-year member of Congress blasted Israel's alleged behavior and mistreatment of Palestinians:
He also blasted "Israel's subversion of Palestinian unity" in a second post before claiming that the US Congress "refuses to recognize" the existence of Palestinians:
The Obama administration is scheduled to deliver $440 million to a Palestinian unity government which includes Hamas.

And Now Bill Clinton Shows He "Gets It" On Israel And Hamas

Following on from Hillary's strong show of support for Israel, it is now hubby Bill's turn.
I should note I don't agree with some of his other comments, and he fails to correct the interviewer's false claim about the number of women and children casualties. But his comments on our right to self-defense – as well as Hamas' dirty tactics – are right on.

Bill Clinton to Indian TV: "Hamas' strategy is to have Gaza civilians killed"


Islamic State to Gazans: 'Be Patient', We're Busy in Iraq

In response to growing Palestinian criticism of its silence over Operation Protective Edge, Islamic State sources on Thursday asked Gazans to be patient while they finished fighting in Iraq and Syria, Israel's Ma'ariv reported.
In parallel, Saudia Arabia boosted its forces on its 850-km long border with Iraq, deploying thousands more troops, according to Ma'ariv.

Watch: Pro, Anti-IDF Protests Erupt in Tel Aviv

Heated protests between leftists and nationalists erupted in Tel Aviv late Thursday night, ahead of the IDF's expansion of Operation Protective Edge into a ground offensive.
Arutz Sheva spoke to representatives of both camps at the demonstration, as the atmosphere in the Tel Aviv streets grew electric with political tension.
Avner, an activist for infamous anti-IDF and anti-Israel group Breaking the Silence, claimed during the interview that Israel was "lying" in the contextual reasons behind the ground offensive, which was launched Thursday night after some 1,350 rockets were lobbed by Hamas terrorists at Israeli civilians and after Hamas rejected several cease-fire deals.

Dutch chief rabbi says his home attacked

Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said the latest attack took place at 5 a.m. Thursday, when two stones were hurled through a window of his home in Amersfoort.
An earlier incident outside his home on July 10 ended without damage, he said. Jacobs' home has been targeted five times in recent years, he told JTA.
"The fact that these attacks are recurrent shows the depth of hatred that exists against Jews," he added.

Neo-Nazis Protest Against 'Protective Edge' in Poland

Dozens of neo-Nazis demonstrated in Warsaw, Poland on Thursday in front of the Israeli embassy, demanding an end to Operation Protective Edge to protect Israeli civilians from Hamas's rocket fire.
The demonstrators called to "bring Israeli flags back into the crematoria chimneys."
The Polish Jewish community staged a counter-protest, along with Chief Rabbi Michael Sodrich and a group of pro-Israel Christians. All bore Israeli flags.

Atlanta Hamas Leader 'Fu-k You Israel'

Today's special show on the war in Israel begins with an angry, out-of-control Hamas leader in downtown Atlanta, nearly attacking a pro-Israel supporter and ends with a Jordan Schachtel report about a group of Jewish college students operating an anti-propaganda media network in Herzliya, Israel.

How many casual antisemitic incidents like this are going unreported in London?

Our local Chemist (who is Indian and definitely not Jewish) has - outside his shop - containers for the various free newspapers. One holds the Jewish News (and has done for many years even though there are not that many Jews in the area). He just told us that earlier in the week a man, who had never been to the shop before, came in screaming and swearing abuse demanding to know why he was stocking the Jewish News. The man then took every single copy of the paper saying he was going to get rid of them. The chemist told us about the incident because he knows we are Jewish, but did not report it to the Police even though he found the incident very intimidating.

UK: Anti-racism campaigner arrested over smashed court windows after Palestine protest

A man who set up a group in Bradford opposing racism and fascism in Britain has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Faizal Nawaz Khan was wanted for questioning about the smashing of windows at the city's magistrates court during a pro-Palestine demonstration on Sunday.
The 27-year-old father-of-three, who set up Anti-Britain First in May, handed himself in to police at 1.40pm yesterday.

Iranian Leader Encourages Hamas in 'Struggle Against Occupation'

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal spoke to Iranian Parliament chairman Ali Larijani Thursday night, shortly after the Israeli government announced it would launch a ground offensive into Gaza.
Mashaal reportedly said that Hamas could deal with every possible scenario, boasting that their main goal is to "break the Occupation and remove the siege on Gaza."
Mashaal also called on Iran and other Arab nations to rally around the "Palestinian cause," and praised Iran's support for the terror organization over the past several years.
Larijani responded that the ground offensive is the result of "miscalculation" on Israel's part and that Iran was "proud" of Hamas's "struggle against the Occupation" and was sure it would bring results.

Nothing Makes Hamas Happier Than Dead Palestinians

Nothing plays better in the mainstream media these days than wailing Gazans, mourning their dead from Israeli missile strikes responding to the unprovoked deluge of Hamas rockets on the Jewish state. As Ben Wedeman (CNN) recently reported from Jabalia, "There is no Iron Dome in Gaza to protect civilians." But Gaza civilians most need protection from Hamas. Its leaders intentionally jeopardize their lives by embedding rocket-launching and ammunition storage sites in schools, mosques and hospitals located in civilian neighborhoods.
In Gaza, recruits for martyrdom in the holy war against Israel are urged to gather on rooftops. They are instructed by their demented leaders to serve as a human shield against Israeli retribution for thousands of rockets that have been fired into the Jewish state during the past week. The designated locations for martyrdom are not random. Beneath the rooftops are Hamas command centers and tunnels, where leaders take refuge and weapons are stored.

What if Hamas Had Military Superiority?

Would Hamas have tailored its air targeting to avoid as much as possible innocents from becoming casualties? Would Hamas have dropped millions of leaflets to warn civilian residents before staging bombing runs? Or made tens of thousands of phone calls telling non-combatants to flee the areas which are to be attacked, or discriminated between combatants and non-combatants in a ground war, or abided by the Geneva Conventions' rules for the treatment of prisoners of war?
Would the group have arrested the Hamas operatives who murderer Israeli civilians, or investigated "mistakes" that resulted in civilian casualties?

Hamas Government Praises, Encourages Human Shields

Hamas's "Public Security Ministry" in Gaza issued a statement praising "martyrs" who have become human shields on Thursday, as part of the ongoing Hamas campaign to undo Israel's humanitarian efforts to save civilian lives.
"Our mighty people presented a unique example of steadfastness and perseverance, and are not affected or fearful from the psychological warfare from the Occupation," Hamas boasted. "They did not respond to calls from the Occupation to leave their homes - they stayed there and did not abandon them."
"We applaud, in particular, the strength of our residents in border areas, and their refusal to leave their homes and their land," they continued. "They converge around our heroes in the Palestinian struggle."

Mashaal: Israeli Operation Doomed to Fail

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal said on Thursday night that Israel's ground operation in Gaza was destined to fail, in remarks to AFP in the Qatari capital.
"What the occupier Israel failed to achieve through its air and sea raids, it will not be able to achieve with a ground offensive. It is bound to fail," Mashaal declared from his exile in Doha.
He further said Hamas has "clear demands", including an end to "the aggression and collective punishment against our people...as well as the lifting of the Gaza siege."

Hamas: In Next Round, We'll Invade Israel

In the course of the meal breaking the daily Ramadan fast, Hamdan said that Hamas can hold on for many months, and that it is manufacturing a new missile for every one that is fired at Israel, and has additional "surprises" in store. All of Hamas's rockets are locally manufactured, he said, except for the Grad Katyushas which were brought from Libya.
Hamdan added that when Israel declared a ceasefire, Hamas's response was to fire 47 missiles at western Jerusalem, Eilat and Tel Aviv. He mocked the Israelis, saying: "The Jew cannot stand to suffer in the shelter for two hours, and the nation in Gaza has gotten used to sleeping to the sound of artillery."
"In the next campaign," he promised, "we plan to manufacture larger missiles, and we will plan the liberation of the land (inside Israel) and its annexation to the liberated territory (in Gaza) and we will attack them by land."

'Killer Drone' Is a Lousy Hamas Fake

No, this isn't the beginning of the Islamic extremists' unmanned air force of death. It's likely a crude drone with some toys that just look like weapons.
Hamas has released a new video on Monday that supposedly shows footage of its new killer drone.
But don't worry: the Islamic extremist robot air force of death is not about to get you. Hamas' use of these so-called "killer drones" is part of a psychological warfare campaign rather than the beginning of new flying killer robot scourge. Their drones are tiny, and couldn't cause much damage even if they were fully armed – which they probably aren't.

The Onion: Understanding The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (satire)

Tensions have quickly escalated in Gaza following the recent collapse of peace talks and the subsequent kidnappings and murders of Israeli and Palestinian teens, with Israeli citizens now threatened by daily rocket fire from Hamas while Gaza residents endure the Israeli military's devastating airstrikes. Here is a primer to help you understand the latest conflict in the region:
1. Palestinian neighborhood/future Israeli neighborhood
2. Beautiful mural of three guys who blew up a bus
3. Vast archives of past ceasefire agreements (h/t Canadian Otter)

The Onion: Everyone In Middle East Given Own Country In 317,000,000-State Solution (satire)

The broad and extensive compromise, which affects more than 3,000,000 square miles formerly occupied by the territories of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan, will reportedly draw over 750,000,000 new borders in what experts claim will help drastically curb sectarian violence.
"Given the incredibly complex and volatile sociopolitical landscape throughout the Middle East, a 317,000,000-state solution is the only realistic means of achieving lasting peace," said U.N. Security Council president Eugène-Richard Gasana, noting that the treaty was reached after lengthy negotiations, which brought together each of the more than 300,000,000 independent factions. "We are pleased to finally come to an agreement that will hopefully stabilize the entire region and adequately satisfy the demands of all parties."
"We are confident that with every man, woman, and child possessing his or her own autonomous area of sovereignty to run as he or she sees fit, we will avoid many of the conflicts that have plagued this part of the world for centuries and left countless dead," Gasana added. "This is a bright new future for the Middle East." (h/t Canadian Otter)

Israel Needs an Irony Dome

It boggles the mind to think that a determined, Jew-hating terror army would fire more than 1,000 rockets at Israel over seven days and inflict so few casualties.
I wonder what must be going through the minds of those Hamas terrorists right now: "We lost half of our arsenal and what do we have to show for it? Where are all the dead Jews? How is this possible?"

As long as this Jew-hatred lives in Palestinian hearts, the weeds of terror will always grow back.
It's time for a new Iron Dome that launches missiles of truth and reconciliation. We can call it the Irony Dome, the irony being that the real enemy of the Palestinians is not Israel but their own leaders.

Palestinians Upset People Paying Attention To Ukraine Now (satire)

"Who would believe that the world needs to pay attention to some far-flung place where people are fighting over a small strip of land?" he challenged. "Why would anyone care about threats to aircraft?" asked Mashal, whose organization has targeted Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport with several of its missile volleys. "People other than Palestinians can never claim genuine suffering, and therefore do not deserve such media coverage."
PLO Chairman and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shared Mashal's suspicions. "We believe Israel engineered this crash to divert the world's attention from its brutality against our people," he told reporters and low-level foreign dignitaries who happened to remember that he ostensibly represents Palestinians. "It seems too convenient for another Malaysian Airlines flight to crash so soon after the first," he added, referring to Flight 370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean earlier this year. "Who is really going to believe that the same airline has been subject to this twice?" continued the leader of several militant factions who have repeatedly fired missiles at the same Israeli communities over the last week and a half.
Separatist leaders expressed surprise that Palestinians still exist. "Didn't they kind of disappear after the Oslo agreements?" said one.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/18/2014 12:00:00 PM