[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Videos of Gaza reporters as human shields

From France24:



And what looks like a different view of the same rocket launch, from Al Jazeera:



The Al Jazeera woman appears to be the same person as the one seen in the background of Gallagher's France24 report.

This means that there were multiple reporters at the area, doing their dispatches from the exact same place as they like to do. If there are two, there are usually a dozen.

So the terrorists who shot the rockets were using rhe reporters as human shields, assuming that Israel won't strike back where international reporters are.

And yet none of these reporters are saying this obvious fact on the air - even when it is on video.




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 09:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 07/31 Links Pt2: B-H Levy: The ugly tide washing across Europe; Obama's Walter Cronkite Moment

From Ian:

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Bernard-Henri Levy: The ugly tide washing across Europe - WSJ

The double standard is odious. And it has become increasingly evident across Europe in the past month. Bluntly anti-Semitic slogans have marred most European demonstrations "in support of the people of Gaza." Residents of Frankfurt and Dortmund were horrified in mid-July to see neo-Nazi groups join hands with left-wing Islamists in a grim chant: "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas." The center of London was blocked on July 19 by thousands who gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in Kensington to shout their hatred for Jews.
Not to mention Amsterdam, the city of Spinoza, Europe's capital of tolerance, where in certain neighborhoods it has become practically impossible to wear a yarmulke in public without running the risk of being insulted or assaulted.
For someone who has advocated, as I have, for nearly half a century the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a fully recognized Israel, this is truly discouraging. That there are sincere men and women among the demonstrators I do not doubt. But I would urge them to think twice before letting themselves be manipulated by those whose motive is not solidarity but hate, and whose true agenda is not peace in Palestine but death to Israel—and, as often as not, alas, death to Jews.

The Left Hate Israel Because It Is Everything They Despise: Capitalist, Conservative and Patriotic

Israel is a distillation of everything leftists hate about Western nations: capitalist, conservative and fiercely patriotic. It is a projection of their own prejudices about the supposed injustices of societies that cherish the ‘wrong’ values and the ‘wrong’ people. They don't share the Palestinians' spiritual beliefs, but they share a common enemy. Indeed, if Israel was removed from the equation, its critics would have little good to say about Gaza or Hamas. Theirs is a marriage of convenience.
The Left’s use of the Israeli-Arab situation as a platform for moral preening, and as a metaphor for its own hang-ups, blinds it to the evils of Hamas and the rest of the Muslim Brotherhood. It seems oblivious to the ideological conflict between Islamic fundamentalists and Western progressives, because it persists in regarding the former as pet victims of the latter. It may discover the hard way that it is giving comfort to an enemy that makes no distinction between liberal hand-wringers and any other infidels.

Hey, Liberals Who Oppose Israel: You’re All Right-Wingers Now

These, dear liberals, are the values you claim to espouse. Before you say one more thing about this conflict, ask yourself which side is fighting for a society most like the one in which you’re likely to want to live, and then support that side passionately and vigorously. And understand, please, that we’re at war, and that philosophical inquiries, existential ponderings, and musings about identity are all welcomed and valued in free societies, but that to entertain such soulful pursuits said free societies must first survive the attacks of their enemies. Unless you’re willing to embrace everything you claim to despise, we’d love to see you joining us in this war; Lord knows we could use all the help we can get.

The combat ethos is alive and well

An outsider observing the Israel Defense Forces' fighting during Operation Protective Edge will notice right away that brigade, battalion and company commanders make up a large proportion of the wounded and casualties. The Golani Brigade alone has lost a deputy battalion commander, and among its wounded are three platoon commanders and a brigade commander. Three officers are now vying to succeed the fallen commander. This is true not only in the regular army, but also -- maybe even more so in light of their stronger connection to civilian life -- among the reservists.
Even those who oppose the scope of the operation cannot ignore the obvious "IDF spirit" of it. This is the spirit that leads the IDF in its best moments. The battles of the 1948 War of Independence established the norm of "Corporals, retreat -- the commanders will cover you!" During reprisal operations carried out by the paratroopers in the 1950s, the officers' command "After me!" became the guide for IDF fighters and commanders. For the first time, general ideas like professionalism, personal example, confronting obstacles, and the rule that "We don't go back until we get it done" became iron-clad rules of thumb.

The curious case of a dual-identity BBC interviewee in Gaza

Unless, several decades ago, Mrs Al Ashi gave birth to identical twin boys and named them Nasman and Basman, it would appear that Chris Morris’ “defiant citizen” – whom he implies in his introduction is one of the people in Gaza who “don’t support Hamas” – is actually none other than the man who allowed Hamas to spend years digging a tunnel from the hospital under his authority and to turn it into a military facility – and who is now busy giving interviews in an effort to cover up that blatant use of helpless patients as human shields.
If that is the case, then obviously the BBC has some serious questions to answer regarding the misrepresentation of Dr Al Ashi as an ordinary man in the street. It would also be interesting to know how Morris met Mr Al Ashi in the first place. Were his interview services provided to the BBC by a local stringer or by Hamas itself? Why did the BBC not notice that it had interviewed the same man under a different name and description only eleven days earlier? Or – if the BBC was aware of Al Ashi’s identity – why did Morris not take the opportunity to tell BBC audiences what really happened at Wafa hospital and to correct at long last the obviously inaccurate and misleading report put out by Paul Adams? And why did Morris not question Al Ashi about his distinctly unprofessional collaboration with Hamas in turning his severely disabled patients into human shields?
Finally, of course, there is the not insignificant matter of the now repeated failure to edit out antisemitic remarks in BBC interviews; an issue which also clearly requires some very urgent answers.

Gaza Fighting Proves J Street’s Irrelevance

Pity poor J Street. As Israelis seek to defend themselves against Hamas rockets and terrorist tunnels, the left-wing lobby finds itself in a tough spot. Its flagging bid for mainstream support has caused it to try and craft a low-key position of support for Israeli self-defense. But that nuanced stance is causing many of J Street’s supporters to abandon the organization for those groups that take sides against Israel.
As the Forward noted today, J Street has tried not to repeat the mistake it made in 2008 when the group publicly opposed Israel’s efforts to suppress Hamas rocket fire during Operation Cast Lead. The position was very much in character with J Street’s ideology that sees Israel as the obstacle to peace rather than the Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish state no matter where its borders would be drawn. But the group that at that time harbored an ambition to replace AIPAC as the voice of the pro-Israel community learned its lesson after it was condemned for this outrageous decision by a wide spectrum of American Jews, including many liberal leaders. During subsequent crises J Street has avoided open condemnations of Israeli actions while still failing to play the sort of role in mobilizing support for an embattled Jewish state that other more mainstream groups take as a matter of course.

Medical Journal The Lancet Infected with Anti-Israel Bias

On July 23rd, the medical journal The Lancet published “An open letter for the people in Gaza.” In so doing, the journal betrayed what it calls its “prestigious heritage as one of the world's leading medical journals [which] continues to inspire our authors and editors today as they strive for medical excellence in all that they publish.” There is neither medical nor journalistic excellence in the piece. Instead, it is little more than an anti-Israel screed replete with mischaracterizations, important omissions, flat out falsehoods and unsubstantiated accusations.
This is not surprising coming from The Lancet which has a sad history of publishing anti-Israel pieces, some by the very same authors who wrote this one. CAMERA has documented a number of these in the past. Richard Horton, the journal's editor, has also exhibited an anti-Israel bias in other publications.

Michael Lumish Join the American Red Cross!

Nancy Pelosi's office is telling us that Qatar might use its influence with Hamas to encourage them not to bomb Israel and to dismantle the terror tunnels.
Are we honestly supposed to believe that this is a credible position for the leading Democrat in the United States House of Representatives?
Given the fact that Qatar funds Hamas' efforts to murder Jews it is rather unlikely that it would use its influence to encourage Hamas not to murder Jews. In fact, I feel reasonably comfortable in asserting that the very reason Qatar funds Hamas is precisely because Hamas is in The Jew Killing Industry. The very point of Hamas' existence is to harass and murder the Jews of the Middle East, for the purpose of demoralizing them, while crying to the western-left that ZioNazi Imperial Colonialists are being mean to the bunny-like "indigenous" population.
I do not believe that Pelosi is malicious.
I suppose that what we are left with is either "shockingly naive" or "not really very intelligent."
I'll go with the former.

JPost Editorial: Cold Turkey

Ordinary Israelis should give up on Turkey, at least while it is under Erdogan’s sway. Tourists should stay away and understand that any Israelis who choose Turkey as their vacation destination should not count on another rescue mission.
Israeli generosity in granting Turkish Airlines landing rights is not reciprocated. Turkish Airlines is Ben-Gurion’s most active foreign carrier and this too ought to lead to a grassroots rethink. Given the hostility of the administration in Ankara, average Israelis have only their pride to gain by standing firm and reevaluating the purchase of Turkish products.
We can do what our government perhaps cannot.
Fawning will not earn us friendship.
Ankara’s Tel Aviv embassy lowered its flag to halfmast for three days to “mourn the innocents slain by Israel in Gaza.” This is nothing less than diplomatic provocation. That Turkey’s provocateur-in-chief aims to garner glory by parading as an honest broker demonstrates colossal gall.

The hidden picture in Gaza

In recent days, Hamas members seized UN food coupons and prevented Gazan civilians from receiving the aid, in order to try and keep field cell members fed. The Islamist regime refuses to publish most of the names of its members who were killed fighting the IDF, and disposes of their bodies quickly, to avoid harming morale. It has tried to ban Gazan civilians from giving interviews to the foreign press during humanitarian truces.
The IDF has seen Hamas tunnel fighters surrender because they have run out of food. To be sure, this does not mean Hamas is near the breaking point.
Its terrorist army is composed of 15,000 trained members, and Hamas is mobilizing battalions from across Gaza to replace the hundreds of guerrillas killed in combat.

Hamas' UN schools

That rocket launchers were found at U.N. facilities is hardly surprising. Fifteen years ago, the Gaza-based employees of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency held elections to determine its union leaders. Hamas took advantage of the campaign and took over the entire school system. By 2012, more the 90 percent of UNRWA employees had become Hamas supporters.
As a result of the takeover, Hamas created an entire apparatus whose mission was to maintain its grip on all the Gaza-based UNRWA schools. The organization, Al-Kutla Al-Islamiya (the Islamic Bloc), changed the school curriculum and introduced new textbooks. Anyone looking at the subject matter would see an organization that is bent on disseminating its ideology to young Gazans.
The takeover of UNRWA was an inside job, carried out by the Hamas representatives who were assigned to each school and whose job was to recruit students to the Islamic Bloc. This ensured the schools had programs that prepared the pupils for the armed struggle against Israel. This includes their grooming as "would-be shaheeds [martyrs]" and brainwashing them on the "right of return." To get a an idea of the indoctrination that is taking place in Gaza, it would suffice to look at the Islamic Bloc's YouTube clips, which allegedly feature UNRWA instructors doing Hamas' bidding.

Opinion: How the UNRWA is Blocking Peace and a ‘Marshall Plan for Gaza’

Peri’s Marshall Plan for Gaza sounds great – except for one hurdle: UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has operated the Arab refugee camps since 1948.
As a matter of policy, UNRWA will not allow any discussion of any permanent resettlement of Arab refugees from 1948 – not even for their descendants. Instead, UNRWA insists that Arab refugees from 1948 remain refugees until there is a political resolution to the Arab-Israeli war – a development that is not at all imminent.
The UN policy is not new.
In 1983, at the initiative of Israeli government minister Mordecai Ben Porat, Israel embarked on a program to relocate Arab refugees to camps in the vicinity of their “temporary” Arab refugee camps – an initiative overruled by a 1985 UN resolution that declared that the resettlement of Arab refugees from 1948 would violate their “inalienable” right of return to villages that they left in 1948.

The UN’s Tunnel Vision

With or without terrorist intent involved, those routes of ingress into Israel exist in violation of international law. They violate the borders of a sovereign state. Even only as such, they must be destroyed, and legitimate international organizations are obliged to demand and support that process. The UN General Assembly, rendered worse than useless – overtly destructive – by misguided sympathy and the coordinated efforts of the 57 member Organization of Islamic Cooperation that openly pursues injustice, will not acknowledge that fact.
Israel must demand conformation with international law. The UN is morally obliged to help. Not only has UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees,which is charged with helping Gazans – failed to realize that Hamas was storing rockets in at least three of its locations, but a booby trapped Hamas tunnel has just been discovered on UNRWA’s premises. That discovery will lead to its destruction, but already it has cost three Israeli lives. It is the obligation of the United Nations to obey and administer international law. It must help Israel destroy those murderous and illegal tunnels, eating up the roots of a possible settlement between Israel and the Palestinians like gophers in an assailed backyard.

Mordechai Kedar: Op-Ed: Why Hamas is Still Holding Out

Before the start of Operation Protective Edge, an entire bevy of so-called "experts" appeared on Israeli media informing us of the weak state of Hamas, how its oxygen supply is cut off because the smuggling tunnels from the Sinai are closed and Egypt has turned against it, as has Saudi Arabia; it cannot pay salaries, it wants to preserve the state it has created in Gaza at all costs - and so on and so forth.
Because of that, they concluded, its power of resistance is limited and since we have the Iron Dome to protect us, our decision makers can act judiciously, using our military power – particularly from the air – which is immeasurably more massive than that of Hamas. Even the world is on our side, they said, and surprisingly, supports us.
Unfortunately, our mistakes result from continuing to look at the enemy through our own cultural lenses: we need money, a strong army, protection from rockets, friends in the region and international approval, and we think that if Hamas has none of these, it will be as weak as we would be if we lacked them. There is no greater error than that line of thought, because Hamas is the product of a vastly different culture where the strength and weakness factors are totally different from ours.

Gaza’s Present is 'West Bank' Prologue

With these points in mind, it’s easy to understand why Binyamin Netanyahu was recently quoted as stating:
“But at the same time, Israel had to ensure that “we don’t get another Gaza in Judea and Samaria” — aka as the "West Bank".
Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan” — a reference to the Jordan Valley as well — as Kerry had urged during a US-led peace effort that collapsed in April.
Citing by name both Kerry and the US security adviser Gen. John Allen, who was charged by the secretary of state to draw up security proposals that the US argued could enable Israel to withdraw from most of Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu said passionately, “I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert: We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.”” (h/t Canadian Otter)

Obama's Walter Cronkite Moment

Barack Obama's Walter Cronkite Moment has been provided by the Washington Post, the “nerve center” of the nation’s capital.
In two remarkable lead editorials, less than a week apart, the Post has come down squarely for the policies of Israel’s prime minister, and against the Obama administration, in the Gaza war.
On July 18, the lead, unsigned editorial in the Post focused on Hamas's vast network of tunnels, which it noted "have only one conceivable purpose: to launch attacks inside Israel." It condemned "the outside world" (implicitly including much of the news media) for wrongly "blam[ing] Israel for the civilian casualties it inflicts while attempting to destroy the tunnels," pointing out that Hamas deliberately built the tunnels under homes, mosques, schools and hospitals.

John Kerry Has Hamas’ Back: So, Who Has Israel’s?

You know there’s something going on when Haaretz, the flagship of the Israeli left, reads like it’s being edited by Dick Cheney. Last Friday Secretary of State John Kerry presented the Israeli cabinet with a draft of a ceasefire agreement that, in the words of Haaretz columnist Barak Ravid, “could have been penned by Khaled Meshal. It was everything Hamas could have hoped for.” The draft, Ravid explained, “recognized Hamas’ position in the Gaza Strip, promised the organization billions in donation funds and demanded no dismantling of rockets, tunnels or other heavy weaponry at Hamas’ disposal.” Accordingly, wrote another Haaretz columnist, Ari Shavit: “The Obama Administration proved once again that it is the best friend of its enemies, and the biggest enemy of its friends.”
The fact is that Haaretz is simply in step with Israeli public opinion. One poll, conducted by Israel’s Channel 10, showed that 87 percent of Israelis were in favor continuing the operation in Gaza, with another 69 percent in favor of toppling the organization that the White House wants to save. Another poll showed that 86.5 percent are against a ceasefire right now because “Hamas continues firing missiles on Israel, not all the tunnels have been found, and Hamas has not surrendered.” Therefore, explained one pollster, Netanyahu would be confronting the vast majority of Israel if he accepted, as Obama reportedly demanded in a phone call Sunday, an immediate ceasefire.

Asymmetries and proportionalities

For both legal and practical reasons, therefore, conflating asymmetry and proportionality is both inaccurate and harmful to the law of war's core purposes. Disproportionate does not mean asymmetric, nor does it mean "more than." And asymmetrical does not mean disproportionate, nor does it mean criminal. They are simply wholly different concepts: one a factual game of numbers and one a comprehensive legal analysis.
Indeed, widely different numbers of civilian casualties between two sides in a conflict says nothing about the proportionality of particular attacks on specific targets. News reports of civilians killed or wounded in the course of combat in Gaza tell us of tragedy and loss. They tell us of the horrors of urban warfare and the challenges of fighting against a terrorist group bent on using the civilian population as a shield for its operatives, rocket launchers and weapons caches. They tell us that we must be more vigilant in condemning and holding accountable those who exploit civilians for tactical and strategic advantage. They tell us that commanders launching attacks must fulfill all obligations to minimize civilian harm and be held accountable when they do not. But numbers of casualties alone do not provide answers about proportionality or legality — you need both law and all the facts, not just numbers, to do that.

Britain's Hammond: Perfect Example of Hypocrisy Towards Israel

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today, Hammond suggested--without evidence--that Israel might have committed war crimes by using force that is disproportionate to its military objectives.
Hammond added: "Israelis have to understand that while they are defending their security in seeking to root out these rocket launchers and deal with the attack tunnels, they are also undermining the support for Israel that exists in the west."
In other words: Israel has the right to defend itself, but in doing so it undermines its own political legitimacy.
The unspoken corollary--that a defenseless Israel is better--demonstrates the absurdity of Hammond's position.

Paul Flynn Could Learn a Lot from a Trip to Israel... I'll Pay

Labour Member of Parliament Paul Flynn has criticised Conservative MPs for taking a trip to Israel and visiting military facilities.
According to the Guardian, Flynn claims:
"It is insensitive when people are being slaughtered in such numbers and going out there is giving tacit support to one side. It does seem to be unwise to put it mildly to be there at the moment because the only possible way out is an agreement between the two sides and I don't think you should go there without going to both sides".
Yes, Mr. Flynn. You're absolutely right. What representatives of the British Parliament should do instead is sit on their comfortable sofas in their constituencies and sound off on Twitter about what the BBC tells them is going on in Gaza, right?
I can't help but wonder if all the pro-Cannabis campaigning (not that there's anything wrong with that) is finally taking its toll on the scarcely unbiased member for Newport West.

40 questions for the international media in Gaza

1. Have you or any of your colleagues been intimidated by Hamas?
2. Do you feel restricted in your ability to ‘say what you see’ in Gaza?
3. How do you feel about the Spanish journalist who said Hamas would kill any journalist if they filmed rocket fire?
4. Has Hamas pressured you to delete anything you have published?
5. Has Hamas ever threatened to take your phone, laptop or camera?

Edgar Davidson: What the main stream media is NOT telling you about Israel/Gaza: Links to videos and articles

To support this article here is a set of links to send to friends who rely on the main stream media for their news and views of the Gaza conflict.

Wall Street Journal's 'Purported' Caption on Rocket

A The Wall Street Journal photo caption today suggests that perhaps an Israeli woman has faked a rocket attack on her home in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. The page A5 caption reads:
"A resident of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha inspects the damage purportedly caused by rocket fire from Gaza"

Chuck Todd Ignores Israeli Ambassador’s Request To Correct False Story

Part of the way through a live interview, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer asked NBC’s Chuck Todd if the network would correct a false accusation made by Gaza-based reporter and Hamas sympathizer, Ayman Mohyeldin.
Mohyeldin claimed on Twitter and in a report for NBC News that an Israeli drone had attacked a United Nations facility, killing more than a dozen civilians. The claim led to widespread condemnation of Israel. Yet an investigation proved that the cause of the explosion was a rocket from Islamic Jihad that fell short of its target in Israel, landing in Gaza.
After Dermer asked Todd to correct the story, Todd changed the subject and then ended the interview.

Where’s the Syrian Death Count?

As we said two weeks ago, “While the daily articles that contain the graphics may provide some of the necessary context for any given day, the cumulative graphic reduces the conflict to just two bits of information – rockets (or targets) and deaths. It places an emphasis on those two figures as central to understanding what is taking place.”
As we have written many times, with Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields and with the Israeli investments in defensive systems, it is not surprising that there are more Palestinian casualties.
Despite this, the Times believes that an ongoing body count is essential to understanding the conflict. So day after day, readers around the world can glance down at the graphic and see how many Palestinians have died.
But if the New York Times believes this is the most accurate way to report on a conflict, why haven’t they employed the feature in other areas. For example:

Jon Snow to Hamas: You Endanger Your Civilians With Your Rockets

At the same time, Snow maintains the anti-Israel tone that has earned him criticism for bias. He demonstrates little empathy for the millions of Israelis forced into bomb shelters repeatedly for more than three weeks. “Your attacks on them have virtually no effect other than causing hysteria,” Snow tells Hamdan at one point.
Actually, three Israeli civilians have been killed by Hamas rockets since the fighting began. And only Israel’s incredible efforts to protect civilians have kept the numbers from being higher.
Snow also seems to scorn all of Israel’s efforts to limit civilian casualties, presenting Israel as though it is firing indiscriminately at Palestinian civilians.

In LA Times Gaza-Israel Photo Slideshow, Hamas Not in Picture

In The Los Angeles Times' online photography slideshow about the Israel-Gaza conflict, Hamas is literally not in the picture. As of this writing, the collection of 75 photographs, including many by Times photographer Carolyn Cole, does not include a single photograph of anyone identified as a Hamas fighter, dead or alive. According to Times photo editors, the Israeli army and Gaza's civilians are the only players in this conflict. Hamas literally does not have a role. (The collection is constantly being expanded.)
And it's not just the pictures. Not a single one of the 75 captions includes any mention whatsoever of the word "Hamas." And just once do the captions mention the word "rocket."

Hamas expel Russia Today’s Harry Fear from Gaza for tweeting about Hamas rocket fire from civilian area

Palestinian photo-journalist Fadi Arouri announces on Facebook:
#RT Correspondent Harry Fear Asked officially to leave #Gaza After a recent tweet that refers to the location of Fired rockets Towards Occupied Palestinian lands Which is Called “Israel”

Media Looking for a Tragedy Big Enough to Stop Gaza War

The mainstream media know their role in the Gaza conflict: to find--or create--a disaster big enough to create an international outcry that will stop the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). First, they tried using the deaths of four boys on the beach in Gaza. Then, they tried using the attack on Al-Shifa hospital--which turned out to have been hit by Palestinian rocket fire. Now they have a new candidate: an attack on a UN school in northern Gaza.
NPR reported the attack as if it was immediately clear that Israel had shelled the facility. When Israel reported that it had no knowledge of any of its forces attacking the building, NPR said that Israel "did not know" what happened--suggesting that Israel was actually admitting culpability, rather than the opposite. And of course NPR neglected the recent reports of Hamas using UN schools to store and launch rockets were not mentioned.
The pattern has been the same at other outlets throughout the conflict. Earlier in the week, the Los Angeles Times reported the Al-Shifa attack as if it was Israel's fault, basing its assessment only on Palestinian reports and "eyewitness" accounts among individuals living in Hamas's totalitarian media bubble. When even the New York Times felt compelled to include IDF protests that it was not responsible, the L.A. Times updated its story.

Guardian journos Tweet their ‘liberal’ views on the Jewish State

Much like the Guardian’s egregiously one-sided coverage of the war, many tweets by Guardian journalists about the conflict have demonized Israel, and completely ignored the role played by Hamas – the antisemitic terrorist group ruling Gaza.
Here’s are just a few recent Tweets by ‘professional’ journalists affiliated with a media institution which fancies itself the world’s leading liberal voice:

Guardian publishes letters legitimizing terrorism & evoking Israel-Nazi analogy

Before posting two of the letters that Guardian editors decided to publish, on July 30, first let’s look at the headline.
Again, remember that these are not simply comments below the line, but letters to the editor that Guardian editors believed had merit, and provided “historical context” to help understand the conflict.

Why has the ‘impartial’ BBC adopted Hamas terminology?

In the past few days, however, we have seen a shift in the BBC’s approach to the topic. No longer content with ‘merely’ providing context-free advertisement for the demands of a proscribed terror organisation, the BBC has now adopted that organisation’s terminology, ditching its former use of the phrase “economic blockade” for the inaccurate and partial term “siege”.

BBC smokescreen for terrorists’ use of human shields reaches new low

n other words, the BBC would have audiences believe that it cannot possibly tell them which is more reliable: the evidence provided by a sophisticated system of radars and trackers which are part of a technologically advanced early warning system, or the unverified word of ‘health officials’ belonging to a terrorist organization which, if it did not fire the specific missiles itself, is collaborating with the terrorist organization that did.
Notably, the BBC’s journalists on the ground apparently had no inclination to carry out their own investigations into the incident.

AP Claim: Israeli Unity Means Dissent is 'Silenced'

The Associated Press, noting the overwhelming support among Israelis for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war effort in Gaza, concludes that the minority of Israelis who dissent are being "silenced."
It is a tired, false charge often made by Israeli and Jewish leftists even during peacetime--a canard that confuses losing an argument on the merits with being suppressed, and which is often calculated to damage Israel's reputation.
The AP quotes--without irony--an op-ed published by a left-wing writer in one of the country's most widely read newspapers, complaining that those who oppose war are being cast as traitors.
Publishing an opinion is an odd way of "silencing" it.

Daily Beast Columnist: Conservatives 'Love Seeing Arabs Get Killed'

Daily Beast columnist Dean Obeidallah believes conservatives "love seeing Arabs get killed." Using his Twitter account late last week, Obeidallah asked and answered his own question in the affirmative:
Do conservatives defend Netanyahu bc they share same values or because they love seeing Arabs get killed? Trick question: It's both
— Dean Obeidallah July 25, 2014
Obeidallah is best known for taking part in an MSNBC segment last December where Mitt Romney's infant grandson Kieran was ridiculed for being black.

Facebook says calling for death to Israel isn't hate speech because it's a country

On Monday, I reported that Facebook users complaining about a page calling for death to Jews were told that it didn't violate the social network's “community standards.” That page was subsequently removed, but readers have passed along links to additional Facebook pages calling for some variation of death to Israel or Zionists.
Matt Steinfeld, a spokesman for Facebook, explained that pages calling for death to Israel do not automatically cross over into what is considered hate speech under the social network’s media standards.
“Language attacking a country is not considered hate speech in our community standards,” Steinfeld wrote in an email.

John “I’m with Assad” Wight on Israeli “barbarity”

In a “Letter to an Israeli Soldier” published at RT and Socialist Unity, John Wight presumes to lecture the IDF about their supposed “barbarity” and asks:
"[W]hen will your thirst for Palestinian blood be sated?"
Jews thirsting for Gentile blood? That sounds vaguely familiar.
This, recall, is the same John Wight who proudly stands with the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad– who, unlike the IDF, deliberately targets, terrorizes and starves civilians (including of course Palestinians).

Amsterdam home flying Israeli flag targeted by firebomb

A Jewish woman who displayed an Israeli flag from her balcony in Amsterdam was targeted with a firebomb and death threats.
The firebomb landed on the balcony of neighbors of Leah Rabinovitch, a Mexico-born Jewish woman who flew the Israeli flag on Amsterdam’s Kruger Square, located in an eastern neighborhood heavily populated with Moroccan immigrants, the Het Parool daily reported Wednesday.

Pro-Israel Rally in Milan Fights Misconceptions Over War

The protest - spearheaded by youth groups, Amici di Israele (Friends of Israel) and the President of the Jewish Community of Milan, Walker Meghnagi - also included a landmark speech from President of Lombardy, Roberto Maroni.
"We want to encourage that Israel is for peace, that Jews worldwide should not be scared to speak up against anti-Semitism," Rebecca, one of the protesters stated to Arutz Sheva.
The protest did not proceed without opposition, however.

Thousands Rally in Rome: 'Israeli Flag is the Pledge of Freedom'

Last night, it was a great night in Rome. My newspaper, Il Foglio, rallied for Israel, its right to exist and to defend itself.
More than 1,000 people came to the demonstration. We met along the Tiber river.
In a Europe where barbarians are burning the flags with the star of David again and are calling to “kill the Jews”, some of the river's lights were for us.
There was lots of security, but courage ultimately prevailed and there was not one incident.

Dutch arrest 2 for ‘anti-Semitic’ chants at rally

The Hague mayor Jozias van Aartsen has been hit by a wave of criticism for failing to act against alleged anti-Semitism at two pro-Gaza demonstrations earlier this month amid Israel’s withering offensive on the enclave, launched to counter rocket attacks on Israeli cities and a vast network of cross-border tunnels used to launch attacks on Israeli soil.
The arrests came in connection with the second demonstration on July 24, during which some protesters carried black flags associated with Islamist militants, including the Islamic State that has proclaimed a “caliphate” encompassing parts of Syria and Iraq.

French JDL head: Reported ban on group is still rumor

A leader of France’s Jewish Defense League dismissed as rumors reports that officials were considering banning his far-right group.
The reports began after Muslim community leaders earlier this week called on authorities to ban the group, which is ideologically close to the American and Israeli branches of the Jewish Defense League, or JDL.

Quebec Muslims want to ban the JDL

The Muslims want to ban the JDL? Hahahahaha!

Cowell slammed for IDF donation

Celebrity music impresario Simon Cowell is getting criticism for a $150,000 donation to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
Cowell’s donation, made at a Beverly Hills gala last October, has recently drawn more public attention, and with it some harsh online criticism for Cowell.
According to Ynet, critics of Israel have been posting images of Palestinian children killed in Gaza to Cowell’s Twitter account. Other tweets accused Cowell of having “blood on your hands” and of acting on orders from his “masters in Tel Aviv.”

AUJS. Imagine rocket attacks on Australian Universities

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students has launched a new campaign to put Israel in context for university students.
The campaign focuses on imagery of university campuses under rocket fire with the text ‘what would you do?’.
“This intentionally provocative campaign puts students into the shoes of innocent Israeli civilians who are faced with a barrage of rocket fire every day of their lives” AUJS Political Affairs Director Matthew Lesh said.

Being a Jew in the UK: how the media's false narrative on Israel is opening up a tsunami of anti-semitism

Typical of this 'average British person' was a 'friend' on facebook who, having never in her life previously expressed a political view on any subject at all, suddenly started broadcasting passionate pleas about how we had to "stop Israel's genocide against the children of Gaza". Her view was that this was one of the worst tragedies in the history of the world. When challenged about her views she said she was especially moved by a documentary she had seen by Jon Snow (Channel 4).
Obviously she was not aware that Jon Snow (in common with many BBC reporters) has an obsessive anti-Israel agenda (and judging by this report is also a genuine anti-semite). My reaction was to tell her what the media is NOT telling the public. I said the media is not telling you anything about:

Over 800 People Call on Preston Council to Fly Israeli Flag after Pro-Hamas Group Fundraiser

Over 800 people have joined a Facebook group calling on Preston Council to fly the Israeli flag just days after Breitbart London revealed that the British local government body worked with a pro-Hamas group to hoist the Palestinian flag over a public building.
The group, called '500 Plus Names for Preston Council to Fly the Israeli Flag' was formed this weekend and has already surpassed the number of people who called for the Palestinian flag to be raised, which ended in a four minute ceremony, as well as £1500 raised for a pro-Hamas campaigning group.

Casual Antisemitism Gone Wild

An invaluable new site called The EveryDay Antisemitism project, which documents the casual antisemitism we are seeing more and more of each day, has come to my attention.
Here are some “highlights”:
This “anti-Zionist-not-antisemitic” freak on a leash:

Woman confronts bystanders at Gaza Protest in London - 19 July 2014


Al-Qaeda Has Received $125 Million In Ransom From Europe Since 2008

The New York Times reports that al-Qaeda has raised at least $125 million from European governments in ransom payments. The Treasury Department thinks the number is even higher, closer to $165 million.
France was the country that paid the most money to al-Qaeda groups, with $58.1 million. Qatar and Oman were second at $20.4 million, followed by Switzerland, Spain and Austria. The United States and Britain are countries that refuse to pay ransom to terrorists.

Boko Haram Caught with 10 Year-Old Girl Wired with Suicide Bomb

The Nigerian government reported that security forces arrested two suspected Boko Haram members traveling with a 10 year-old girl with explosives strapped to her.
Government spokesman Mike Omeri said the suspects had been intercepted in a Honda CRV car traveling along a road in the north's Katsina state.

While Global Anti-Semitism Surges, Don’t Forget U.S. Campuses

In light of the alarming rise in global anti-Semitism and the unwillingness of university or government officials to protect Jewish students from campus-based anti-Semitic activity, it is fair to say that when Jewish students return to school in the fall, they will be the single-most vulnerable students on campus.
The Jewish community must act now. As university stakeholders—students, parents, alumni, donors, and taxpayers—members of the Jewish community and their supporters have every right to use their influence as consumers and funders to demand that Jewish students are protected from the growing scourge of Jew-hatred on U.S. college campuses.

Disney Heiress Takes Code Pink Line, Withdraws Investment from Israeli Company over 'Occupation'

Abigail Disney, Walt’s great-niece and heiress, has just withdrawn her 12 million dollar investment in the Israeli Company Ahava because, she says, it is “stealing minerals” from an “Occupied West Bank.” Ms. Disney believes this violates both the 1970 Hague Convention and the Geneva Convention “by exploiting natural resources in occupied territories.”
Well—not exactly, and not so fast.
Disney is not actually withdrawing a penny for “complicated financial reasons.” She has decided to “donate the profits, as well as funds equal to the value of her shares in the Dead Sea minerals cosmetics firm Ahava, to groups working to end this illegal exploitation."
Serious Israeli (and non-Israeli) legal experts view the territories as “disputed” not “occupied”—but let’s not quibble.

32 nations back making Yom Kippur a UN holiday

Thirty-two countries have written to a U.N. General Assembly committee asking the United Nations to recognize Judaism's holiest day, Yom Kippur, as an official holiday.
The letter to the assembly's Committee on Conferences, circulated on Wednesday, says the U.N. "recognizes the major festivals of many of the world's main religions, yet Judaism is not represented."
"We believe that the United Nations calendar should reflect the organization's founding principles of coexistence, justice and mutual respect," the letter said. "We urge the United Nations to correct this inequity and recognize the holiest day of the Jewish faith."

Amid fighting, Europeans told to visit scenic, peaceful Israel

In between watching Tour de France riders cruise through the countryside and up and down steep mountains, European viewers this summer have also been treated to panoramic and peaceful views of Israel, the product of an ill-timed Tourism Ministry ad blitz.
The Eurosport deal, including commercials during the high viewership period of the Tour de France bike race, was a push to get affluent, active people to consider visiting Israel. But coming amid intense fighting with Gaza and high tensions with West Bank Palestinians, the attempt to portray Israel as a beautiful and safe destination may not be able to compete with pictures of rockets and airstrikes on the evening news.
“If we had the option to push it off we probably would have,” said Pini Shani, the deputy director of marketing at the Tourism Ministry. He said the ministry’s contract with Eurosport, which Ynet reported to be at least $1 million for a year of commercials and special emphasis on events such as the Tour de France, prohibited it from making changes once the campaign was underway. The commercials ended on Sunday, the last day of the Tour de France.

Culture Ministry wants money back from ‘Palestinian’ film

The Culture Ministry, together with other public organizations, may seek to retrieve over NIS 2 million ($580,000) that it provided for a film by an Israeli-Arab director after the finished movie was billed at the Venice Film Festival as produced in Palestine.
The film “Villa Touma” by director and writer Suha Arraf was featured at the International Critics’ Week of the prestigious festival without any mention of Israel despite the funding that made the work possible, Walla reported on Thursday.

Calls to Stop Destruction of Community Honoring Murdered Teens

The High Court is set to consider whether or not to order the removal of caravans near the Gush Etzion town of Tekoa that had been set up to honor the memories of murdered Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Sha'ar.
Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Ze'ev Elkin appealed on Thursday to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon not to order the demolition of the caravans.
“I demand that the Defense Minister immediately put a halt to the process of demolition of these caravans,” said Elkin, himself a resident of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. “Especially now, when so many residents are on the front lines fighting in Gaza, demolishing homes in Tekoa that were build on state land – and were built in memory of the three teens who were murdered by Hamas terrorists not far from the site – is a perversion of justice and common sense,” he said.

Gaza War Does Not Stop Palestinian Efforts to Scam Translators

One sector of the world economy that is unlikely to side with Gaza in Operation Protective Edge is the translation community. Translation of foreign languages is an industry that has mushroomed since computerization and globalization, and is now worth billions of dollars. As with every other business sector that relies heavily on electronic communication, the translation business is vulnerable to scams and identity theft – and the Gazans are the Olympic gold medalists in this field. One expert who runs a site identifying scammers estimates that 98% of the fake translation agencies who steal translators’ identities and rip off clients and translators alike, are based in the Arab world and mainly in Gaza.
It works like this: a translation agency finds a professional translator through the Internet. It approaches the translator and tells him/her if the translator sends them his/her resume, it will market their services. In fact, the scammer uses the resume in order to steal the translator’s identity. It then changes the translator’s email address on the c.v. to one it invents for itself, and markets this c.v., sometimes pretending to be the translator in question but more often under a fake identity. The technique has been very successful, but now scammers just steal the identities of genuine translators without their knowledge or permission, and market the translator’s services as their own.

Syrian Refugees Are No Longer Welcome in Istanbul

You can see them all over the city, sitting cross-legged on blankets along posh streets near Taksim Square or staring out of crumbling buildings in the nearby slums. Some sleep in parks or outside local mosques. Others rest on benches, dreaming under the stars or the metal awnings hanging over bus stops.
syrians_refugees_01
Over the past three years, up to 100,000 Syrian refugees have poured into Istanbul, fleeing war and famine. Nearly a million more have crossed the border and settled into other parts of Turkey.

Warsaw Uprising exhibit opens at center of Nazi power

The Polish and German presidents have opened an exhibition on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising at what was once a center of Nazi power in Berlin.
Photos, documents and films on the uprising will be on show until Oct. 26 at the Topography of Terror, a site that once housed the Gestapo secret police and the SS leadership. The exhibition was put together with Poland’s Warsaw Rising Museum.
The rising against Warsaw’s German occupiers began Aug. 1, 1944 and ended 63 days later with the insurgents surrendering, following the deaths of some 200,000 rebels and residents.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said Tuesday Poland appreciates that Germans increasingly “understand how important this chapter was not only for Polish history but also for German history, the history of Europe and the entire world.”

IPOs, investments thrive despite war

When TV’s talking heads ask serial entrepreneur and investment guru Jon Medved whether the current conflict with Hamas is harming Israel’s high-tech sector, he points out some surprising facts:
Investors poured $920 million into Israeli startups in the second quarter of 2014. Mobileye, ReWalk Robotics, MapiPharma and three other Israeli companies are moving ahead with major IPOs. On July 29 Mobileye increased the amount of money it plans raising in its NYSE IPO by 22 percent, to more than $600 million.
And, believe it or not, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is up since the start of hostilities less than a month ago.

Israeli Biotech Macrocure Sets Terms for $75 million IPO

Macrocure, a late-stage Israeli biotech developing white blood cell injections to treat hard-to-heal and chronic wounds, has announced terms for its $75 million IPO.
CureXcell has been approved as a medical device in Israel and has been used in more than 5,000 patients in commercial or clinical study settings with consistent results, according to Macrocure data. (via Israel21c)

Promoters hold out hope for some culture this summer

ProStage said it didn’t expect a cancellation from heavy metal band MegaDeath, due to perform on August 6 in Tel Aviv.
“We’re getting organized for the band that isn’t scared of anything,” announced the company.
The concert promoter will also host The Manhattan Transfer on September 1.
Concert promoter Udi Appelboim says he’s also still expecting Lana Del Rey on August 20, and recently announced that local singer Marina Maximilian Blumin will be Del Rey’s warm-up act.
“No news is good news, right?” said Appelboim.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 06:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Flemish doctor refuses to treat 90-year old Jewish woman: "Go to Gaza"

From Joods Actueel:

A Flemish doctor, who was manning the telephones Wednesday night for a group of physicians, refused to provide a 90-year-old Jewish woman who had suffered a rib fracture with medical help. "I will not! Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she will not feel pain anymore," was his reply.

The son of the 90-year-old Bertha Klein called the doctor hotline around 11:00 PM yesterday. His mother was in agonizing pain after she had suffered a rib fracture. The doctor knew very quickly that it was a Jewish patient, her name and address in Antwerp betrayed all that, as well as the accent (Klein is American).

When the family asked if the doctor could come to help with her terrible pain, he replied bluntly, "I will not," and hung up the phone. The family called back immediately, and the doctor said, "Send her to the Gaza Strip for several hours, she will not feel pain then."

The family was in shock and meanwhile phoned a friend, Samuel Markowitz, a district councilor in Antwerp for the Open VLD. Markowitz is also an EMT and knows that a physician should never refuse a patient. He called th hotline himself and confronted the doctor with his statements (the conversation was also recorded for later proof).

The doctor admitted the facts and said that he said this in "a fit of emotion." Markowitz complained to the head of the Department of Health for the Antwerp region, while the grandson of the 90-year-old woman, Hershy Taffel, registered a complaint with the police for racism and xenophobia.

Mr. Taffel tells how his grandmother burst into tears. "This reminds me of what we underwent in Europe 70 years ago, I never thought that day would ever be repeated."

There have been a series of antisemitic incidents in Belgium lately:

Michael Freilich, the editor-in-chief of Joods Actueel, said the incident is particularly alarming because it comes amid a string of incidents that have occurred since the start of Israel’s attack on Hamas in Gaza on July 8 and that involve boycotts against Jews in Belgium.

Among the other incidents: an Orthodox Jewish woman was refused service at a clothes store in Antwerp, and police removed a sign in French and Turkish from a café near Liege that said dogs were allowed but Zionists and Jews were not.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 04:20:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] A little about Hamas' RPG-29

Times of Israel reports:

Very little face-to-face fighting is taking place in Gaza. Mimicking the tactics used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas heavily relies on two types of weaponry: anti-tank missiles and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The anti-tank weapon of choice is the Russian shoulder-launched RPG-29, and is used against infantry troops and armored vehicles.

If the RPG-29 is Hamas' main method of targeting IDF troops, what sort of damage does it do if it hits a building?

The Strategy Page says:

The RPG-29 is the most common recent development of the RPG line. It entered production just before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It is available through legitimate, or black market, arms dealers and is more expensive than the RPG-7 (which is manufactured by many countries.) RPG-29 launchers cost over $500 each, and the rockets go for about $300 each.

With a ten pound launcher firing a 14.7 pound 105mm rocket, the RPG-29 warhead is designed to get past some forms of reactive armor (ERA). The larger weapon (3.3 feet long when carried out, six feet long when ready to fire and 65 percent heavier than the 85mm RPG-7) is more difficult to carry around and fire, but has an effective range of 500 meters. The warhead can also penetrate five feet of reinforced concrete.

This is amplified bythe World Guns website in Russia:

When used against buildings or entrenchments, the PG-29V can penetrate more than 1,5 meter(5ft) of concrete or brick wall and then cause significant damage to troops beyond the wall.

If this weapon can pulverize 1.5 meters of reinforced concrete, imagine what it can do to civilian houses and buildings in Gaza - and the people inside them - when their walls are probably less than one tenth that thickness.

Oh, sorry, I forgot. Only IDF weapons cause damage and casualties in Gaza. Hamas weapons magically only hit Jews.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 03:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Book Review: Making David into Goliath

Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel by Joshua Muravchik is a wonderful overview of the history of how Israel went from being the darling of the left in 1967 to becoming the victim of the UN's infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution in 1975.

Muravchik expertly identifies, and dissects, the factors that turned the Left against Israel in such a short time.

It isn't pretty.

Muravchik identifies a number of key factors that caused this stunning public relations victory for the anti-Israel crowd. The first is Yasir Arafat, who brilliantly modeled the PLO after the anti-colonialist movement of Algeria and then cultivated, and took advantage, of relations with communist China and the Soviet Union, which crucially provided the PLO with extensive propaganda support that started bleeding into Western leftist journalist writings. Suddenly, the Arab cause turned from one explicitly geared towards destroying Israel into a "Palestinian" struggle against colonialism and imperialism. These "progressive" codewords wee eagerly taken up by Western socialists and leftists, especially in Europe.

The second factor in giving the PLO legitimacy was, ironically, terrorism. Muravchik enumerates every airline hijacking and airport attack in the late 1960s and early 1970s, exposing how easily European leaders caved to the hijackers' demands, in the hope that they would be left alone next time.

The twin to that strategy was the Arab oil embargo that started in 1973. The EEC (precursor to the EU) responded with a pro-Arab position  on the Middle East: calling on unconditional full Israeli withdrawal from lands gained in 1967 without negotiations or border adjustments envisioned in UNSC 242 and did not call on Arabs to make peace with Israel.

In other words, during these two crucial tests of European nations to either stick to their principles or to cave to blackmail, the European nations caved.

Psychologically, one does not want to think of oneself as a craven hypocrite who knuckles under to threats.So the only way to not fall into self-loathing is to find "human rights" justifications for cowardice.

Muravchik also details how the Non-Aligned Movement took over the UN, and brought the Palestinian issue as the single biggest agenda item in that body. He also highlights how Jewish born antisemite Bruno Kreisky, chancellor of Austria and vice president of the Socialist International, singlehandedly turned that body from pro-Israel to anti-Israel.

Finally, Muravchik details how the academic Left fell under the spell of a fraud: Edward Said. Said managed with his one work, Orientalism, to seduce generations of students into the romantic ideal of the East as being ruthlessly exploited and subjugated by the West. Said later admitted was really meant specifically to help Palestinian nationalism.

The remaining favor that the Left held towards Israel disappeared when it elected its first non-Labor government, led by Menachem Begin, a figure that most on the Left disliked viscerally. Even after the peace agreement with Egypt they didn't warm up to him, and the Lebanon war solidified the direction that they were already going in.

The book then goes on to describe how Israeli post-Zionism started to affect both Israeli and international views of the Jewish state. he goes into detail on how B'Tselem was founded and how it tried to be both a human rights organization and an political advocacy group - which is contradictory. Muravchik describes the importance of Israel's "New Historians" on Israel's self-image as well as how the world looked at the state. And he shows how Ha'aretz is complicit in demonizing Israel from the inside.

The author then masterfully takes apart the hypocrisy of the new Left's organizations that have taken on their anti-Israel cause. He dismantles the ISM, exposes HRW's insane anti-Israel stance (pointing out how their MENA head Sarah Leah Whitson went out of her way to praise Moammar Qaddafi,) and destroys Walt and Mearsheimer and their ideological cousins from Richard Falk to J-Street.

The remarkable penultimate chapter lays out the best liberal pro-Israel arguments against its critics, going from the outbreak of the second Intifada through the building of the separation barrier (and the bias of the ICJ,) the Lebanon war, Operation Cast Lead, Goldstone and beyond. The very arguments raging today against Israel in Gaza are all discussed and masterfully defeated.

Making David into Goliath is one of the best liberal defenses of Israel ever written.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 02:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 07/31 Links P1: Richard Kemp: Double standards, moral cowardice; Joan Rivers Strikes Again

From Ian:

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Richard Kemp: Double standards, moral cowardice

Protecting his people, U.S. President Barack Obama sends drones to kill Islamist terrorists in Pakistan, causing civilian casualties, while castigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for defending his own people. The failure of EU nations to reject last week's UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel for war crimes was shameful.
Such double standards and moral cowardice validate Hamas' use of human shields, encourage other terrorist groups to follow suit and incite anti-Israel violence and the sort of vile anti-Semitic protests we see in European capitals.
If Western leaders will not support Israel's fight against terror, how will they fight the same terrorists when they reach their own shores?

Col. Richard Kemp: Israeli Pilot Aborted Gaza Strike 17 Times to Protect Civilians; Jewish People Should be Proud of the State of Israel (INTERVIEW)

DD: Finally, do you have a message to the Jewish People?
RK: I would say that the Jewish people should be extremely proud of the state of Israel, they should try their best to disregard the terrible anti-Israeli propaganda that is designed solely to contribute to the conspiracy to exterminate the state of Israel – I myself, am personally outraged by the shocking anti-Semitic violence and verbal attacks that have been triggered by this conflict against Jews, especially in Paris and Germany, but also in Britain and other countries – it's absolutely despicable and should be fought by authorities as vigorously as possible.
Israel is the one country in the western world today that is standing up for its morality and for its values against the onslaught of international jihad.

Andrew Bolt: Trapped in Gaza How Hamas punishes reporters for the truth

HAMAS is not just targeting Israel­i civilians, threatening Gaz­ans and using them as humans shields.
It has another terror tactic: intim­idating foreign journalists…
Reporter Peter Stefanovic, of the Nine Network's news, stationed in Gaza, received a surge of abuse and threats when he tweeted that he had seen rockets fired into Israel from near his hotel, in a civilian area…
John Reed, a reporter for Britain's Financial Times, tweeted about seeing "two rockets fired toward Israel from near al-Shifa hospital (the largest in Gaza), even as more bombing victims were brought in". He was also subject to threats and abuse.
The Wall Street Journal's reporter Nick Casey fell foul of Hamas by reporting that Shifa hospital was Hamas's control centre. On July 21, Casey posted a photo on Twitter of a chief Hamas spokesman being interviewed from a room in Shifa hospital in front of a makeshift backdrop of a photo of a destroyed house… Almost immediately, Casey received a flood of online threats. Two days later, the tweet was deleted…

Melanie Phillips: What our leaders would say if they really cared about defending Britain's Jews

Even more appalling is the silence in the face of all this of the political class.
Sure, the occasional Lib Dem is slapped down for blurting out some ripe anti-Jewish canard. But no politician has addressed this for what it is: a fundamental crisis of decency, which is a knife through the moral heart of Britain.
Anti-Semitism singles out Jews for treatment applied to no other people: the application of double standards, false claims they are committing crimes of which they are instead the victims, and demonic conspiratorial powers. This is precisely the treatment applied to Israel.
Anti-Semitism can never be eradicated. Yet much could be done to push it back under its stone if both the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition were to display moral leadership and state a number of home truths. This is what David Cameron should say: 'I am utterly appalled by the attacks on the Jewish people on the streets of Britain and in our public discourse. This hatred and bigotry is being fuelled by warped and distorted reporting about the Gaza war.

Douglas Murray - Anti-Semitism and Israel

In this week's Spectator, Melanie Phillips suggests that anti-Semitism is on the rise, fueled by the events in the Middle East. Douglas Murray and Ben Soffa, Secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, discuss whether this is the case...

Joan Rivers Defends Israel Again: Hamas Should Get Nose Jobs; Rihanna and Selena Should Shut Up and Get Off the Drugs

In an interview with Israel's Channel 10 on Wednesday, comedian Joan Rivers, as she is wont to do, lambasted a whole host of fellow celebrities. Except this time it wasn't the Fashion Police that Rivers was summoning, it was the Public Relations Police. She began by critiquing Israel for its hasbara efforts and claimed that Hamas are beating Israel in the PR stakes.
"We are doing something very wrong in Israel and we are not doing public relations work," said Rivers. "Hamas is so smart, they are using old pictures of dead children every time we hit a spot that happens to be – yes, a school, but underneath it there are weapons and they say 'school!' and it's killing me because the wrong people, the dumb people are buying into it."

Joan Rivers Epic Interview for Channel 10 Israel


Khaled Abu Toameh: Kerry Trying To Save Hamas, Restore Muslim Brotherhood

There is growing concern in Ramallah, Cairo, Riyadh and Dubai that the U.S. Administration is working to prevent the collapse of Hamas.
"The Americans mistakenly think that moderate political Islam, which is represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, will be able to combat radical Islam. The Americans are trying to bring the Muslim Brotherhood back to the region." — Palestinian official, Ramallah.
The Iranians, with whom the U.S. is now negotiating on nuclear weapons -- amid fears in the Middle East that the U.S. will capitulate to Tehran's demands if it has not effectively capitulated to them already -- have now joined Qatar and Turkey in opposing any attempt to confiscate Hamas's weapons.
The Paris conference was actually a spit in the face to the anti-Hamas forces in the Arab world. By failing to invite the Palestinian Authority to the conference, Kerry indicated that he does not see any role for Abbas and his loyalists in a post-Hamas Gaza Strip.

NYT: So many Arab states are 'effectively' allied with Israel that Kerry had to turn to the lunatics of Turkey and Qatar for mediators

Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.
Not this time.
After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.
"The Arab states' loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu," the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents. "I have never seen a situation like it, where you have so many Arab states acquiescing in the death and destruction in Gaza and the pummeling of Hamas. The silence is deafening."

Times of Israel Live Blog: Netanyahu says tunnels will be destroyed with or without ceasefire

Rockets cause damage in Sderot; security cabinet resolves to intensify strikes on Hamas; Israeli delegation in brief trip to Cairo for truce talks; Gaza officials say death toll is 1,364; IDF fatalities at 56

How Gaza perverts the army's rules of engagement

Rosen seemed genuinely awestruck by the extent of the military infrastructure embedded in civilian and humanitarian complexes in Gaza. He used the words "unfathomable" and "insane" on several occasions. He described Al Wafa Hospital, which Israel bombed after it had been finally emptied, as the central command post from which Hamas directed the bloody battle in Shejaiya. "It was a hospital held hostage by Hamas," he said.
The realities of Gaza, when looking at it from above, are clear, he said. The complexity, proximity, and density of population are all evident.
But the pilots operate amid largely impenetrable skies. Their lives are rarely at risk. On the ground, amid the density he described, and even with the close support of the air force, the risks for the infantry and armored corps are ever-present and, crucially, quite haunting.

Hamas Launches Rockets on Civilians in Gaza

Hamas' indiscriminate firing of rockets endangers millions of Israeli and Palestinian lives. While the IDF strikes terrorist targets in Gaza with precision, Hamas launches rockets with one aim: hitting civilians.
On the afternoon of July 28, a squad of Gaza terrorists fired a barrage of four rockets from a densely populated area, aiming to kill Israelis. Instead, one hit al-Shifa hospital and another the Shati refugee camp, both inside Gaza. A third was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system above Ashdod. While Israel invests in keeping its citizens safe, Hamas invests in terrorist infrastructure. And the people of Gaza suffer.

Watch: 12 Examples of Hamas Firing Rockets from Civilian Areas

The IDF Spokesperson's Office has released video footage illustrating how Hamas fires rockets from populated areas, in twelve distinct aerial examples.
Hamas has stored and fired rockets from within densely-populated civilian areas, making Israeli attempts to stop them without causing collateral damage virtually impossible.

12 Examples of Hamas Firing Rockets from Civilian Areas


IDF Soldier Helps Chained & Starving Palestinian Man In Gaza

Well, if you thought the stories about the Hamas were not true regarding the forcing of Palestinian civilians to stay in the locations where the IDF will strike, think again…actually in this case you don't need to think, just look.
This is a Palestinian civilian of Gaza who apparently has a mental disorder and who was found by an IDF soldier, bound, gagged and staved. This is a tactic of the Hamas. He would have eventually died from either starvation or an IDF strike on this location if it contained terrorists or weapons, which is what the Hamas wanted to happen.
Luckily there was no strike and this humane IDF soldier found him and freed him, then gave him water

IDF Footage Shows Special Forces Storming Booby-Trapped House in Gaza‏ (VIDEO)

The Israeli Army on Wednesday released a video clip of a what they said was a "special forces" unit "storming a terrorist building in Shuja'iya," in northern Gaza.
The troops uncovered an opening to a tunnel, and seized what the army said was "a stockpile of weapons."

POV Footage of Special Forces Storming Building in Gaza


WATCH: IDF infantry forces come face to face with Hamas terrorist - and kill him

Soldiers from the Givati Brigade are operating in the Gaza Strip in a bid to root out terror tunnels.
Soldiers from the Givati Brigade engaged a Hamas terrorist in close combat in the Gaza Strip on Thursday before killing him, a new video reveals.
The army is currently in the second week of its ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Forces Find & Destroy Terror Tunnel In Gaza Mosque


WATCH: IDF soldiers uncover tunnel shaft in mosque

The IDF released video footage Thursday of a tunnel shaft in the basement of a mosque in the Gaza Strip. The tunnel, which is situated next to the mosque's prayer room, extends in various directions and is connected to a larger tunnel network.
Weapons were also found at the site, according to the IDF.

IDF Soldiers Find Mosque with Weapons and Tunnel Openings


Nahal Brigade Detonates A Hamas Tunnel


IDF: 'Cowardly' tunnel attack shows why Gaza op must go on

A video showing Hamas gunmen emerging from a tunnel, infiltrating an Israeli army base and killing five soldiers, demonstrates that Israel is faced with a cruel and unforgiving enemy and must continue Operation Protective Edge until all remaining tunnels are destroyed, Israeli officials said Wednesday.
The video, filmed by one of the Hamas gunmen who participated in Monday evening's attack on an army post south of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, was widely broadcast by Arab and Palestinian media outlets.
"These are the people we're dealing with on a daily basis – cowardly terrorists who don't care about human lives. They're on an ongoing mission to kill and maim, and to abduct Israeli soldiers and civilians," Maj. Arye Shalicar, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, told The Times of Israel. "We have to be prepared for this to recur again and again around the Gaza Strip. Until we find and destroy each and every tunnel they have dug over the last few years, such attacks can happen anytime, anywhere."

Israel Debuts Tunnel Robot, Tactical Radar System to Fight Hamas in Gaza

The Israeli Defense Forces have introduced new robot technology to help aid in excavating Hamas's vast tunnel network and a mobile radar system designed to warn against short-range mortar shelling.
Defense News featured the Micro Tactical Ground Robot, developed by Roboteam, a Tel Aviv-based start-up that beat more established U.S. and Israeli companies in a rush tender for up to 110 shoulder-carried robots, according to its defense and industry sources.
"Several systems are already operating with combat engineering units and specialized infantry against the dozens of tunnels and multiple access points concealed in homes and civilian structures throughout the Gaza Strip," its sources said.

Calls Grow to Upgrade Operation Protective Edge to 'War' Status

MK Nachman Shai on Thursday urged the Prime Minister to officially "upgrade" the status Operation Protective Edge from an IDF operation to a "war." The government has been under pressure to do so, political and economic experts say, but has been reluctant to do so, because it will require greater outlays in compensation for those damaged by the war - precisely the reason why many are calling for the change in status.
With the fighting moving into its third week, an additional 16,000 soldiers are being called up for reserve duty, bringing the total of active reservists to over 85,000. The reservists, mostly of working age, are having their salaries covered by the National Insurance Institute, while individuals and businesses suffering from property damage due to rocket attacks are being compensated by the Mas Rechush (Property Tax) division of the Finance Ministry.

8 Wounded in Hamas Shelling Attack on Eshkol Region

Eight Israelis were wounded at midday Thursday when Hamas terrorists shelled the Eshkol Regional Council district.
The area is also a staging area for thousands of IDF troops who are on standby waiting for their orders prior to entering Gaza.
Most of those injured are listed in good condition, according to the report, which was broadcast on Army Radio. It is not clear whether they were civilians or soldiers.

Amid the tunnels and the traps of Hamas's militarized Gaza

The APC came to a halt, and its ramp deployed. In front of us we saw a one-story house, with a paratrooper unit surrounding it. Just a few hours earlier, we were told, the soldiers had uncovered an attack tunnel here, stretching into Israel. The brigade commander, Col. Eliezer Toledano, stood among his soldiers, looking calm, almost indifferent, despite the sounds of clashes — constant explosions and bullet fire — between his troops and Hamas gunmen just a few hundred meters away. Several battalion commanders stood nearby, slightly amused by our presence.
Toledano, 40, explained that the tunnel was about 2 kilometers long (slightly more than a mile). Presumably acting on intelligence information of some kind, his brigade had begun moving into the area 12 hours ago to find and destroy it. He pointed to the building, which was punched all over with bullet holes. The tunnel shaft was discovered in the backyard, Toledano said.
In the yard, a giant D9 bulldozer had exposed one of the tunnel entrances. It only took a glimpse into the shaft to recognize that Hamas had spent a considerable amount of time, effort and money on its construction. The walls were lined with concrete, and the shaft went down far into the depths of the earth.
The house belonged to a Hamas member, and a large amount of weaponry, including an RPG launcher and ammunition, as well as various propaganda booklets, were found here, we were told.

Turkish 'Humanitarian Aid' to Gaza: Ball-Bearings, Cement Mixers

While both items have civilian uses, both have played a central role building Hamas's rocket arsenal and its vast network of "terror tunnels" into Israel.
Terrorists in Gaza regularly use ball-bearings to maximize the lethality of locally-made, short-range Qassam rockets. Unlike other, more powerful long-range rockets and military-grade mortar shells smuggled into Gaza from state-sponsors such as Iran, Qassam rockets have a relatively small warhead. But while the explosion itself may be relatively "small", the rockets are also packed with shrapnel - including nails, razors and, most commonly, ball-bearings - which are scattered throughout a relatively wide radius upon impact, maiming or killing anyone in the vicinity.

Netanyahu: Israel won't agree to a truce that doesn't allow IDF to destroy all Gaza tunnels

Speaking prior to a security cabinet meeting, the prime minister stated that IDF soldiers are currently finishing off the job of destroying tunnels.
"We have destroyed dozens of tunnels and we will finish the rest with or without a cease-fire," Netanyahu vowed.
Netanyahu stated that thousands of terror sites had been destroyed and hundreds of terrorists had been killed.
"Hamas has taken hard hits," Netanyahu said. He continued and stressed that the operation has a planned course of action and the completion of the mission is on track.

Regev: Ceasefires Apply to Hamas As Well

Israeli spokesman Mark Regev explained to CNN that the reason fighting had resumed in Gaza Wednesday was Hamas had openly rejected a humanitarian ceasefire request and resumed firing at Israel.
"The truth is we announced earlier today a humanitarian ceasefire," Regev said. "We did that in coordination with the United Nations at their request. The trouble is Hamas rejected it and then continued to shoot. A ceasefire means not just [an] Israel ceasefire. A ceasefire means that Hamas must cease fire too, and if rockets continue to be shot at our cities and so forth, of course, that means the ceasefire has become null and void and so we have restarted operations."

Regev: Ceasefires apply to Hamas too


Israelis to file human rights violation complaints against Hamas

Israelis can send complaints to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that Hamas is violating their human rights, and NGO Im Tirzu encouraged them to do so at a conference in the Knesset Wednesday evening.
The NGO that describes itself as working "to strengthen and advance the values of Zionism in Israel" disseminated complaint forms at an emergency meeting of the Knesset Caucus Against Delegitimization of Israel, which can also be found on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' website.
Bar Ilan University Law Professor Avi Bell, an expert on international law, said Israelis can complain that their most basic human right, the right to live, is being violated.

Jewish Group Calls on UN Human Rights Council to Investigate Hamas Responsibility for 160 Gazan Children Who Died Building Terror Tunnels

Jewish human rights group The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday called for the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the deaths of the 160 Gazan children who died building Hamas's terror tunnels into Israel. The call comes a week after the same UNHRC condemned Israel, with a majority of its members voting to open an investigation into "human rights abuses" by the Israel Defense Forces as it struck back at Hamas, whose installations are hidden among civilian infrastructure, including its de-facto headquarters, inside of the Al Shifa Hospital.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said, "Hamas officials openly admitted that children were used to help build their terror tunnels and that at least 160 Palestinian kids died during so-called work accidents."

IAI refutes claim that Iron Dome makers were hacked

Israel Aerospace Industries disproved reports by a US-based computer forensics expert that said three Israeli defense contractors behind the Iron Dome rocket-defense system and related systems were robbed of hundreds of documents by hackers linked to the Chinese government starting in 2011.
"The information reported regarding the leakage of sensitive information is incorrect. The publications refer to an attempt to penetrate the company's civilian non-classified Internet network, which allegedly occurred several years ago. IAI's cyber security systems operate in accordance with the most rigorous requirements and also, in this case, they were proven to be effective," the aerospace and aviation manufacturer said Tuesday.

In Memoriam: The 56 IDF soldiers who gave their lives to protect Israel

Israel mourns the deaths of the 56 soldiers and officers killed in action in Operation Protective Edge

Wounded Soldier Becomes Iconic Symbol of Israel's War With Gaza

A candid image of a wounded soldier covering his face with the Israeli flag has quickly turned into a symbol for the current conflict between Israel and Gaza based terror group Hamas, Israel's Channel 2 reported.
On Monday evening, Omri Michaeli, a reserve soldier in an elite unit, was evacuated to hospital by helicopter after being shot in the leg. Monday evening was among the deadliest so far for Israel, with ten soldiers killed, 9 of whom lost their lives either in a mortar attack that day in Eshkol or in a Hamas infiltration into Nachal Oz.

Outpouring of Love Too Much for Wounded Soldiers

Spokespeople for the Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said Wednesday that the four wounded IDF soldiers who are hospitalized have been overwhelmed with visitors. According to a statement released by the hospital, doctors and family members have asked well-meaning Israelis to refrain from visiting wounded soldiers without coordinating those visits with the families.
More than 150 IDF soldiers are hospitalized around Israel as a result of Operation Protective Edge.

Military dog killed in Gaza blast saved handler's life

A dog from the IDF's Oketz K9 unit who was killed last week when a booby-trapped house in Gaza exploded saved her handler's life.
Last Wednesday, Tamara and her handler, Staff Sgt. T. of the Oketz Unit, went into action in Gaza. The pair were inside an explosives-rigged house when it blew up. Tamara was killed on the spot, and T. was hit by shrapnel. He is currently hospitalized in the Rehabilitation Hospital at Sheba Medical Center.

Wounded Israeli Soldier, Israeli Pop Star in Live Hospital Ward Duet

An IDF soldier wounded in Israel's three-week-old Operation Protective Edge in Gaza joined one of the country's biggest pop stars in a live radio gig on Wednesday.
Idan Raichel, best known for his crossover Middle East, pop and electronic fusion "Idan Raichel Project" visited troops at Beersheba's Soroka Medical Center, located some 45 kilometers east of the coastal enclave.
"I was walking through the wards here at he hospital, and came across this soldier…" Reichel told the afternoon program host.
Together with a soldier, called "Y" to protect his identity, the two informally collaborated on a live radio performance of pop hit "If you Go."

Photo Of The Day: Proud Israeli Muslim Mom & 2 IDF Sons

What a wonderful site to see…a proud Israeli Muslim Arab mom and her 2 IDF soldier sons, protecting the beautiful democratic country we all live in.

'Let IDF complete Gaza mission, 14 years of terror are enough'

The mayors of Israel's southern communities, which have come under heavy terrorist fire over the past three weeks, expressed a growing sense of frustration Wednesday over what they called the government's indecisiveness on the future of Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.
The mayors are demanding that the Israel Defense Forces be allowed to continue the Gaza campaign until the threats posed by both rocket fire and terror tunnels are fully eliminated.
The government "can't continue with this zigzag policy. It hurts us and it undermines the soldiers, who need to know that actual decisions are being made," said one council head, who asked to remain anonymous.
"The military should be allowed to see the operation in Gaza through, for as long as it takes. We don't want to have to deal with rocket fire anymore, and we don't want to have to deal the judgment day weapon of the tunnels. Fourteen years of terror are enough," he said.

Residents of Nahal Oz Respond to Video of Hamas Attack – 'How Can Children Continue to Live Here?' (VIDEO)

Kibbutz Nahal Oz irrigation specialist Danny Rahamim was supposed to have harvested his sunflower crop alongside Gaza, in another two weeks.
But Wednesday morning, he watched the Hamas-made video showing terrorists pouring out of a tunnel opening in his fields, headed for soldiers manning a watchtower.
"I really can't understand why no lookout spotted them earlier; that area is really closely watched," Danny questioned, in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 News.
"I know that tower and am often in the vicinity – it's a f*** up – there's no other word," he said.

Lessons From the South: The Bravery of Jewish Women

Last week, the Gush Katif Committee decided NOT to postpone the Kissufim Institute's long-planned and eagerly awaited annual Torah Seminar (Yom Iyun at Kissufim Midrasha). It took place as planned, and I can tell you, it was quite an event.
Granted, the location was changed. It couldn't take place in Nitzan (originally meant to be a temporary housing solution in flimsy "caravillas" for hundreds of expelled Katif Bloc families), which is within the 40 km zone from Gaza and has frequent red-alerts, so that the Civil Defense does not allow large gatherings.
This was especially necessary, since the building in Nitzan where the seminar is usually held doesn't have a protected room. Instead, the day took place at the Yad Benyamin Cultural Center which has a protected room and is a bit farther north.

At Galilee resort, southerners seek escape from life under rockets

The first time was in 2006, when Dadya, a mother of two from Sderot, watched a Kassam rocket impact next to her car. A year later, another rocket hit while she was walking outside. Her shoulders, left leg and back were injured, said Dadya, who still lives in Sderot with her family.
"Since the rocket barrage hasn't stopped over last month, I haven't left the safe room in my house," she said. "We even eat there. It's been very hard."
Dadya sat with her 5-year-old daughter in the lobby of the Bali Hotel in Tiberias near the Sea of Galilee, gluing tiny sequins on a hand-shaped piece of cardboard called a hamsa. They were in the northern city for a three-day retreat organized by OneFamily Together, a nonprofit organization that helps rehabilitate and reintegrate Israel's victims of terror.

'Big Bang Theory' Actress Donates Bulletproof Vests to the IDF

The outspoken actress, Mayim Bialik has not been afraid to voice her opinions in regards to the war raging in Israel. Now she has not only voiced her support but has also put her money where her mouth is by sending bulletproof vests to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Bialik posted her three reasons in "Why I Donated Money to Send Bulletproof Vests to the IDF" on Kveller, a site devoted to "A Jewish Twist On Parenting":
1. I need to feel like I'm doing something.
2. No matter what your politics are, soldiers sent into war zones deserve to be protected from enemy fire.
3. Every soldier is someone's son or daughter. Every single one.

Eldad to Israeli Students: Boycott Leftist Professors

Former MK Professor Aryeh Eldad, head of the Professors for a Strong Israel organization, called on Israeli students to "vote with their feet" and reject leftist professors who have come out against the IDF's mission in Gaza. In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Eldad suggested that students check the names of professors before signing up for courses, and boycott the courses taught by leftist professors.
"They must be rejected and ejected from the family of academia," Eldad said. "If I could, I would paper the land with posters and take out ads listing the names of the professors and teachers who advocate for Hamas."

Israeli-Arab Christians Protest Against Hamas

A group of Israeli-Arab Christians marched in Haifa last night against the persecution of Christian Arabs in the world, against radical Islamic organizations such as Hamas, and in favor of Israel's military operation. TLV1′s Lissy Kaufmann was there.

Peres Calls to End Gaza Campaign, Evokes OutrageI

MK Miri Regev (Likud) brushed aside the comments, telling Channel 1 News, "In light of the sayings of former President Peres that the Gaza campaign has run its course, I say that Peres has run his course. With all due respect to Peres, Israel must strive to a military victory against Hamas."
She added, "Only a ceasefire after a military victory will at last give quiet to the communities in the south and stop the rocket fire into Israel. These humanitarian ceasefires only give Hamas time to regroup, attack IDF soldiers and continue to fire rockets at Israel."
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) also attacked Peres's comments and told Army Radio that they are "very serious".
"The man did not understand this back when he signed the Oslo Accords and coined the term 'New Middle East' - and he does not understand this today. Peres's comments are unacceptable and could harm the morale of the fighters," added Ariel.

'Big Brother Israel' Continues To Film Despite Falling Rockets

The show must go on…despite rockets falling.
"Big Brother Israel" has continued filming its latest season despite bombs falling. TMZ reports that the "house guests" who have "MUCH more to worry about than eviction" have had to run into a bomb shelter twice:
The show has not stopped production since fighting escalated earlier this month, and has actually installed alarms in the house that alert house guests to seek shelter. They sounded twice during the first week of use.

Harper: Hamas is Responsible for Loss of Life in Gaza

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday blamed Hamas for the heavy loss of civilian life in Gaza, according to AFP.
"Obviously, no one likes to see the suffering and loss of life that has occurred," Harper said in televised remarks.
"That said, we hold the terrorist organization Hamas responsible for this. They have initiated and continue this conflict, and continue to seek the destruction of the state of Israel," he added.
Canada's conservative government has long supported the Jewish state and stressed its recognition of Israel's right to defend itself.

Senate Passes Resolution Supporting Israel

The resolution, passed Tuesday, was passed through a unanimous consent agreement. It also condemns a United Nations Human Rights Council report that stated Israel had committed human rights violations against Palestinian Arabs.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that UN report was "disgusting" and failed to recognize that Israel is defending itself from attacks started by Hamas, a terrorist organization.
"I've always been a supporter of the UN but what I saw last week disgusted me," Reid was quoted as having said of the report. "It was so one-sided."

AP/WAPO Poll: Americans Unhappy With Obama's Handling Of Gaza War

Americans are not happy with the way President Obama is handling the Gaza War. In an ABC/Washington Post poll released today, 52% disapprove of his handing of the crisis; only 39% approve.
Obama has the support of his own party but less than the usual 75%+ numbers most polls show for Democratic support for the president on any topic. As would be expected, Republican disapproval is strong. The surprise is the strength of the Independent voter's disapproval: 59%.

CUFI to Kerry: Stop Bolstering Hamas and Support Israel

Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a nearly two million member strong movement, has bought full page ads in the New York Times and other top publications calling on the White House to "stand with Israel" and not "hand Hamas a victory," according to both the ad and letter to Kerry.
The substantial media buy comes as the Obama administration is facing criticism in Israel and stateside for efforts to push the Jewish state into accepting a ceasefire deal that has been described as giving in to Hamas' demands.

Christians and Jews in Alabama Stand with Israel

Marking the fifth rally supporting Israel in the Southeast according to WVTM Birmingham, Christians and Jews gathered Tuesday in Alabama at the Levite Jewish Community Center for Rally for Israel.
Putting their money where their mouth is, the Birmingham area raised almost $400,000 for the Jewish Federation's "Israel Emergency Fund," a national fundraising effort offering aide to Israel.
CBN.com reports that among the hundreds gathered, a brother of an Israeli soldier was in attendance. He said, "They're in Northern Gaza. They're out securing the border area, ensuring that terrorist don't infiltrate Israel and kill civilians... It's hard. It's hard. It's very emotional."

How "shameful" were the fatalities at the UN school in Gaza?

From what I've seen in this war thus far, Israel has investigated each situation involving multiple deaths and has sought to reduce civilian casualties. I'm sure it's far from perfect, but, it seems, well within what we would expect from a liberal democracy fighting in self-defense. Unfortunately, even when Israeli soldiers take the utmost precautions, fighting a terrorist group in an urban environment bent on killing Israelis and martyring its own people is going to cause loss of civilian life.
The horror we feel when people die in war must not arrest our moral reasoning. We can—we must—both feel and think. Did the Secretary General think, as well as feel, when he leveled those hard-hitting allegations against Israel?

UN Secretary General Accuses Israel of 'Attacking Sleeping Children'

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon spoke Wednesday at a summit in Costa Rica where he placed blame on Israel for an attack at a UN school in Gaza.
Not once mentioning Hamas in his speech, Ban said:
"This morning, yet another United Nations school sheltering thousands of Palestinian families suffered a reprehensible attack. All available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause."

Head of Human Rights Watch Endorses Terror Attacks on Israel

Roth appears ignorant of one of the basic tenets of the Geneva Conventions, the distinction between lawful and unlawful combatants. Terrorists are unlawful combatants under the Geneva Conventions because they do not wear uniforms and are not fighting on behalf of a sovereign state.
Roth also appears ignorant of the Fourth Geneva Convention's explicit prohibition on the taking of hostages. Article 34 reads, in its entirety: "The taking of hostages is prohibited." Hamas uses tunnels to attempt to take Israelis hostage.
In 2009, the founder and former chairman of Human Rights Watch, Robert Bernstein, publicly disowned the organization over what he said were its double standards and hostility to the Jewish State.

UN Official admits Hamas firing rockets "from the vicinity of UN facilities"

What we already knew, but some UNRWA officials have pretended doesn't happen.
Puts in context how some UN facilities and civilians are hit either by misfired Hamas or Islamic Jihad rockets or Israeli return fire.
Via Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, here's the description of the video clip:

Former top UNRWA official admits Hamas shoots rockets from near UN facilities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvaZ1a9wW3Y
The UNRWA-Terror Connection

About a year ago, when I started digging into more and more material covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, I've been exposed, for the first time, to the term 'UNRWA' – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. It has been the first time that I've been exposed to the UN's work in the territories and neighboring Arab countries, which aims, on paper, to assist the Palestinian refugees in their daily hardships and provide them with humanitarian aid. Sounds moral and awesome.
Yet I very quickly realized that my expectations from the organization were in vain. I've watched a 20-minute movie called 'Camp Jihad' (produced by The Center For Near East Policy Research), which I add along with this article, that follows one of UNRWA's summer camps for kids. It shows interviews of teachers and students from the camp and exposes the viewers to the camp's rather disturbing educational material. I was in shock to see that this governmental organization, which derives from the UN, and funded consistently by the world community with extremely high figures (a budget of 1.003 billion USD, to be exact), most notably by the US and the EU, would actually be funded at all. Why you ask? Because the educational material of the camp includes a systematic brainwashing of kids to the myth of 'Right of return', demonization of Jews (Jews are wolves, Jews are terrorists, Jews are infidels etc') and glorifications of the ways of Jihad. Don't believe me?

Penelope Cruz Backpedals, Admits Not an 'Expert' on Middle East

Penelope Cruz is worried her recent comments on the Israeli/Hamas conflict might be "misunderstood."
So the Oscar winner issued an updated statement, according to Deadline.com, further explaining why she thought the Israeli government was committing "genocide" against the Palestinians.
The actress admits she isn't an expert on Middle Eastern affairs.

John Legend to John Kerry: Stop Groveling to Israel

Most political observers are giving Secretary of State John Kerry poor marks for his unsuccessful attempt to hammer out a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Singer John Legend is criticizing Kerry, too, but not for any political miscalculation. The ardent supporter of President Barack Obama thinks Kerry should stop trying to please Israel.

Israel: Diplomacy Wins As Turkey Halts 'Freedom Flotilla' To Gaza

Turkey has agreed to cancel a second "freedom flotilla" which was set to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. In exchange for Ankara's cancellation, Jerusalem allowed for the Turks to send planes of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Earlier this week, Turkey's "humanitarian relief" organization known as IHH announced it was going to attempt a "rerun" of the 2010 incident that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish nationals. Israel considers IHH to be a terrorist group.

Bolivia Declares Israel a 'Terrorist State'

On Wednesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales declared Israel a "terrorist state" because of the current fighting in Gaza and Israel.
Israeli citizens will now be required to obtain a visa before traveling to Bolivia. Previously, under a 1972 agreement, which Morales denounced for being "signed under a dictatorial regime," Israelis could travel freely into Bolivia without having to obtain a visa, according to La Razón.
Visa applications to travel to Bolivia will now require review by the National Migration Administration. Página Siete reported President Morales as saying, "In other words we are declaring (Israel) a terrorist state.Israel does not respect the principles or purposes of the United Nations charter nor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Israel Says Latin American Countries Pulling Ambassadors Over Gaza is 'Encouragement for Hamas, a Recognized Terror Organization Around the World'

The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the recalling of a group of Latin American ambassadors from their posts in the Jewish State in protest of the Israel Defense Force's Operation Protective Edge to stop the rocket and tunnel attacks from Gaza "constitutes encouragement for Hamas, a group recognized as a terror organization by many countries around the world."
On Wednesday, El Salvador, Peru and Chile announced they would recall their ambassadors for consultations, a diplomatic face-slap that could be interpreted as being one step away from breaking diplomatic ties. The three countries follow similar announcements by Ecuador and Brazil.
In a statement, Israel said the Latin American countries would have been "better advised to promote the international move intended to assist Israel in its efforts to defend innocent civilians and instate a durable ceasefire with the demilitarization of Gaza."

US Embassy in Tel Aviv Severely Restricts Visas for Israelis
U.S. Embassy In Israel Cancels All Tourist Visa Applications
The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv has canceled all tourist visa applications for Israelis.
According to a statement on the official website, the embassy is operating with a limited staff and has stopped processing "routine visa applications":
Due to the current security situation in Tel Aviv, U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv remains open but is operating at reduced staffing until further notice, and has canceled routine visa application processing and American Citizen services.
That's not all. If you are an American in Israel and have an emergency, it's possible you will be turned down:
Emergencies involving an American citizen and visa applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
Krauthammer: Kerry Acting 'Essentially As The Lawyer For Hamas'

On Fox News Monday, Charles Krauthammer blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for creating "wreckage" in the Israeli-Gaza operation by intervening against both Israel's and Egypt's wishes and accused Kerry of acting "essentially as the lawyer for Hamas."
Krauthammer began by addressing Kerry's unwanted and ultimately counterproductive interventions, proving so disruptive that one Israeli paper described him as digging a tunnel under Egypt's peace plan

From tunnels to R-160s, a primer on Hamas and its deadly capabilities

In the interim period between Operation Pillar of Defense in late 2012 — the previous military operation in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the threat of rockets launched into Israel — and the current Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has focused on its capacity building, procuring and manufacturing long-range missiles and investing millions in the construction of tunnels into Israel to enable the kidnapping of soldiers and civilians.
Here are answers to some basic questions regarding Hamas's capabilities, as revealed throughout Operation Protective Edge which began on July 8.

Gaza Heights: High living and low-lifes


'Moderate' PA Leader: Jews Brought the Holocaust on Themselves

Former Palestinian Authority security chief Jibril Rajoub, often touted as a "Palestinian moderate", has accused Israel of inflicting a "holocaust" on Gaza - while saying that Jews deserved the genocide inflicted on them by the Nazis.
In an interview with Palestinian Authority TV, translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), Rajoub - who is a senior member of the Fatah party's Central Committee - labeled Israeli society as "a fascist society", adding that "the racism of this fascist society is unparalleled throughout history."
One parallel that Rajoub could find, however, was with Nazi Germany, claiming that Israelis were "the new Nazis", and that "Israel, (especially) the Israeli right wing, constitutes a replica of Hitler, Eichmann and Goebbels."

Hamas leaders: We love death like Israelis love life


Osama Hamdan: Ceasefire Should Include Inte'l Forces on June 4, 1967 Borders


Shin Bet investigation uncovers Hamas paragliding terror plot

Israel's Shin Bet discovered the existence of a Hamas air commando unit. In 2010, ten Hamas commandos were sent to Malaysia to participate in paragliding training, with the end goal being to use it to carry out terror attacks on Israel.
This information came to light during the investigation of a Hamas fighter arrested by the IDF a few days ago and investigated by the Shin Bet. According to the Shin Bet, overnight on July 20th, the IDF arrested a Hamas military man apparently in charge of a terror cell in the area of Karara in Kahn Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
During the man's investigation, his involvement in the paragliding training came to light as well as the intention of Hamas to use this training to kidnap Israeli soldiers. In addition, the suspect revealed preparatory plans for an anti-tank ambush and revealed a sniper position on the tenth floor of the Palestinian Red Crescent building in Kahn Yunis.

Hamas' Homicidal Chicken Dies in Israeli Air Strike

Hamas's Al Aqsa TV is the sort of thing you expect a serial killer to put on in his basement.
Including its children's programming. Especially Tomorrow's Pioneers which features adults dressed as giant cartoon animals telling little kids to kill people.
Its version of Mickey Mouse teaches kids to kill people. Its version of Bugs Bunny teaches kids to kill Jews… and hate the Danes. And before that there was a giant bumblebee who encouraged little kids to shoot Jews.

Rouhani: 'This Festering Zionist Tumor Has Opened Once Again'

Rouhani, who has been championed by Western media as a moderate reformer who could change Iran's extremist ways, appears to be adopting a violent tone similar to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has advocated for the complete destruction of Israel in recent days.
"Today, this festering Zionist tumor has opened once again and has turned the land of olives into destruction and blood and littered the land with the body parts of Palestinian children," Rouhani was quoted as saying in a statement that was translated by the Brookings Institution.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Commander: "The Palestinian Resistance Movement Will Make the Sea, the Land, and Skies into Hell for the Zionists"

Commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF), Major General Qassem Suleimani, sent a rare message to the "Palestinian resistance movements'" military wings – Ezzeddin Al-Qassam (Hamas), Saraya Al-Quds (Palestine Islamic Jihad), Abu Ali Mostafa (PFLP), Nasser Salaheddin (Popular Resistance Committees), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah), and other forces fighting in Gaza – hailing them for their operations against Israel.The full version of the message was published in alMayadeen, affiliated with Hizbullah and Iran. 1 2
Suleimani masterminded the transfer of rockets and know-how to Hamas and the PIJ during operation "Pillar of Defense" and the ongoing operation, "Protective Edge." Soleimani is Iran's top behind-the-scenes strategist and coordinator of special and subversion activities throughout the Middle East and beyond (Africa, South America). He is also the man tasked with Assad's survival and Iran's deadly special ops in Iraq.

Iranian 'Qods Force' General Scoffs at Calls to Disarm Hamas

Major General Qassem Suleimani's message to terrorist factions fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip while firing rockets on Israeli civilians was published late Wednesday by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
Suleimani "underlined that confronting the Zionist enemy is a necessity and the Palestinian resistance movement will turn the land and skies into hell for the Zionists."
"Disarmament of resistance is a daydream that will only come true in the graveyard" for Israel, said the rarely-quoted senior figure.

Hamas TV broadcasts call to "exterminate" all the Jews

Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV has issued a broadcast featuring a Hamas cleric openly calling for the genocide of the Jewish people, watchdog group, Palestinian Media Watch reports on Friday.
The broadcast will cause consternation among anti-Israel groups who portray Hamas as a resistance movement, despite the group's long-standing charter which also calls for death to the Jews.
The broadcast, which can be viewed here with English subtitles, said:
"Our belief about fighting you [Jews] is that we will exterminate you, until the last one, and we will not leave of you, even one. For you are the usurpers of the land, foreigners, mercenaries of the present and of all times.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Video Showcases Subterranean Rocket Launching Capabilities


Chicago Imam Encourages Jihad against Israel


Soccer fans go Gaza for Gazza

As the online debate over Israel's ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip continues, Twitter users have been tagging their posts with the #freeGaza hashtag in a show of support for Palestinians.
However, some soccer fans, whether in error or humor, have been tweeting messages calling for Gascoigne to be set free from whatever trouble it is that he has gotten into, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.
The former England national team midfield player has in the past made headlines as he struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse.
"Shame about Paul Cascoigne being arrested again," one user posted.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/31/2014 12:00:00 PM

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