More Iranian-made Grad rockets are raining down on Ashkelon, causing damage and injuries.

At least 3 Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon landed in Ashkelon, marking the first time the large southern city was hit today. An Israeli girl sustained light shrapnel wounds in the attack and was taken to hospital. One rocket hit a home and caused great damage while several people suffered from anxiety as a result of the latest barrage.

More world condemnation on Israel for her “disproportionate” response, but still, there was no real outrage over Hamas launching rocket after rocket after rocket. No, the condemnation comes only when Israel acts to stop the rockets from falling.

The European Union on Sunday condemned what it called “disproportionate use of force” by the Israeli military in Gaza after dozens of Palestinians were killed in the highest single day toll since fighting erupted in 2000.

In a statement, the EU urged Israel to halt activities that endanger civilians saying they were “contrary to international law.”

I don’t recall the EU urging Hamas to stop sending rockets into Israel after Roni Yechiah was killed by one.

And of course, the wire services bias remains unchanged.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace negotiations with Israel on Sunday, demanding it end an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 100 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

The United States, sponsor of the recently revived peace process, said talks must continue. It also called for an end to violence between Israel and Abbas’s Palestinian rivals in Gaza.

But Israel’s defence minister said the assault would go on.

Eight people died on Sunday, a day after 61 were killed in the bloodiest day for Palestinians since their 1980s uprising.

Israel says it is acting in self-defence to curb rocket attacks by the Hamas Islamists who run the enclave. It shrugged off a U.N. accusation that it had used “excessive force.”

Let’s take a quick look at the reason for both “excessive force” and civilian casualties: Rockets launched from the heart of Gaza city, a Palestinian war crime.

The AP has dropped this from their articles. It’s apparently no longer important to explain why the IDF is firing on civilian areas.

The army said it was targeting rocket squads, and blamed militants for operating in populated areas. AP photos showed rockets being launched from densely populated areas in northern Gaza.

This is just the preliminary round. Ehud Barak is sending in a larger force in the next few weeks.

And the IDF is doing a lot of damage to terrorist infrastructure.

It’s a start.

Michelle Malkin has an item today about demands from the Gulf to pass laws forbidding the insulting of Islam.

Combined with the recent re-publication of the Danish Mo cartoons, these unacceptable acts of free speech have Muslim “scholars” demanding that heads roll.

About two years ago I saw a similar idea proposed by: A Jewish professor at an American university (under Jewish auspices)! Robert O. Freedman of the Baltimore Hebrew University recommended an International Religious Court of enforce civility among religions. LGF quoted from the article and wrote

It takes a lot to make my jaw drop these days, but here’s an op-ed in Baltimore’s Jewish Times that achieved this near-impossible feat.

The Volokh Conspiracy also quoted from the article, but was more clinical.

As you might gather, my reaction to this is much the same as my reaction to the “Defamation of Religions” argument I criticized below. Interestingly, unlike Prof. Ali Khan’s work, Dr. Friedman’s argument doesn’t even mention the possibility that the nation in which he lives might be constitutionally barred from going along with the orders of any such court.

My own problem with Dr. Freedman’s suggestion was whether this court could be a forum to take action against Muslims who destroyed shrines of other religions or if it was only meant to address Muslim sensitivities. And if it was the latter, would Muslims be able to take action against a country that allowed an apostate to live in its borders?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Last week, Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai made some waves. Here’s the NY Times:

The Israeli deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, told army radio that Israel would respond to escalation and that “we will not shy away from any action” to halt the rocket fire on Israeli civilians. He called Hamas leaders irresponsible, and said they knew that “by intensifying the rocket fire and extending their reach they are bringing onto themselves a worse catastrophe, as we will use all means to defend ourselves,” including a major ground operation.Mr. Vilnai used the Hebrew word “shoah,” meaning catastrophe or holocaust, and rarely used for anything other than the Nazi extermination of the Jews.

A spokesman for Mr. Vilnai said he did not mean to make any allusion to the genocide.

The AP actually gave a fuller account of Vilnai’s statement.

“As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases … they are bringing upon themselves a greater ’shoah’ because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground,” Vilnai said.The Hebrew word “shoah” most often refers to the Holocaust but Israelis use it to describe all sorts of disasters. A spokesman for Vilnai, Eitan Ginzburg, said the deputy defense minister never intended it as a reference to the Holocaust but used the word “shoah” to denote a disaster.

However incautious Vilnai was in his choice of words it hardly compares to what Mahmoud Abbas said last week.

In an interview to the Jordanian newspaper al-Dustur, Abbas said that he is against an armed conflict at this time, but things may differ in the future.Abbas, a leading figure of the Palestine Liberation organization, was quoted as boasting about the fact that he was the one to “fire the first bullet of the resistance” back in 1965, adding it was the PLO that taught many around the world “how to resist, when resistance is most effective and when it is not.”

“I had the honor to lead… we taught everyone, including the Hizbullah, the ways of resistance. They were all educated in our training camps.”

(h/t Daled Amos)Now how did the Times report this?

The fighting brought harsh criticism from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who reportedly threatened to call off negotiations with Israel over a peace treaty. “We tell the world: watch and judge what’s happening, and judge who is committing international terrorism,” Mr. Abbas said in Ramallah, on the West Bank.Mr. Abbas, who has referred to the rocket firing as useless provocation, said last week that armed conflict remained an option if negotiations failed.

Note that Abbas’s comment about “armed conflict” is presented without remark. It’s presented as if it’s a normal statement reflecting Abbas’s frustration.

But it’s more than that. First of all, it rejects the premise of the “peace process.” The so-called “moderate” is rejecting the tradeoff of legitimacy the PLO was granted in exchange for halting the “armed struggle” against Israel. If “armed conflict” remains an option, Abbas has never accepted the very premise of the “peace process.”

Second of all, to read the statement in its entirety, it isn’t simply an expression of intent. It’s a general statement of support of terror against Israel; specifically in support of Hezbollah.

And he is expressing his pride in having been a terrorist. (Daled Amos noted that the statement proved that the 6 Day War had nothing to with causing PLO terror.)

I don’t believe that there’s much new to Abbas’s statement. The PA - including the “moderates” of Fatah - have treated the Oslo Accords as a nuisance that inconveniences its terror war against Israel. But Fatah never truly accepted the “peace” part of “peace process.” Still, in his statements Abbas has pretty clearly confirmed what the “peace process” skeptics have been saying for years. It’s a big deal, that has been largely ignored.

Of course that isn’t all Abbas said. The New York Times intentionally ignored the more hysterical part of the statement:

“It’s very regrettable that what is happening is more than a holocaust. We tell the world to see with its own eyes and judge for itself what is happening and who is carrying out international terrorism,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.He appeared to be referring to remarks made by Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, who used the Hebrew word “shoah” — generally used only for the Nazi Holocaust — in remarks to army radio on Friday.

I’m not convinced that Abbas was referring to Vilnai’s statement. Comparing Israeli operations in self-defense to the holocaust is pretty typical Palestinian hyperbole. (Israel Matzav notes the irony of a holocaust denier claiming that Israel’s actions are worse than the holocaust.)

The AFP also reports on another howler uttered by Abbas.

“It is unthinkable that Israel’s reaction to Palestinian rocket attacks — which we condemn — can be so terrible and frightening,” Abbas said, adding that the attacks were targeting “innocent women, children and old people.”

Despite the many failings of the NY Times article, it notes his condemnation of the qassams, hasn’t been on the morality of targeting Jewish innocents, but rather as a “useless provocation.”

It’s interesting the way the media treats Israeli and Arab rhetoric. The most outrageous statements by the Palestinians are scarcely noted. In contrast, the impolitic expressions of Israelis are gleaned for sinister meaning.

More at memeorandum.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

There was something odd about this article in the Washington Post, In Search for Peace, a Shrinking White House Role. It starts:

When Palestinians broke through the barrier dividing the Gaza Strip and Egypt in January and streamed across the border by the tens of thousands, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak faced a moment of crisis. His phone soon rang, but the world leader offering help on the other end was not President Bush — it was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mubarak took the call, resulting in the first such contact between leaders of the two nations since relations were severed nearly three decades ago.

It looks more and more as if Egypt and the rest of the Arab world are looking for war, not for peace.

The breach in the Gaza-Egypt border fence, appeared to be a continuation of an effort by Hamas aided by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and probably coordinated with Iran to upgrade Hamas’s offensive capabilities.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the hajj. Israeli had coordinated with the PA to allow a select group of pilgrims cross through Erez into Israel and continue on to the hajj. Egypt had other ideas as Ha’aretz reported at the time.

The news from the Rafah border crossing earlier this week astounded the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. They had arranged with Israel to allow some 2,000 Palestinians from Gaza to go to Saudi Arabia via the Kerem Shalom and Allenby Bridge border crossings for the hajj celebrations.But Cairo apparently had different plans. The Egyptians allowed 700 Palestinians on Monday and 1,300 on Tuesday to cross the border into Sinai, where buses were waiting to take them to Saudi Arabia.

at the end, the report observed:

Indeed, it seems that despite Egypt’s repeated assertions of its uncompromising war on Hamas and Gaza terror organizations, Cairo and especially Egyptian intelligence officials prefer to keep normal relations with Hamas, even at Abbas’ expense.

The first grad (a modified katyusha with longer range than a qassam) rocket was fired at Ashkelon shortly after the return of the Gazans from hajj. This confirmed Israeli fears that the hajj ploy was used to bring terrorists and materiel into Gaza.

Once that worked, Hamas successfully breached the border fence with Egypt. (The efforts to breach the border fence had been going on for a while.) This allowed a transfer of arms and terrorists into Gaza again. (I was incorrect in my speculation that the terrorists who committed the Dimona terror attack came from Egypt.)

The increased rocket attacks aimed at Ashkelon demonstrate the effectiveness of Hamas’s border breaches. Israel, for too long, tolerated the attacks on Sderot. But with a much greater number of people at risk, Israel has had no choice but to act.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Just some quick observations about the recent violence in Gaza.Backspin has helpfully provided some numbers that illustrate the threat to Israel, focusing on Ashkelon.

Note especially, the budget of Izzedine al Kassam’s estimated budget. Given the poverty of Gaza one would expect butter to have priority over guns.

If you wish to find out what’s been shot at Israel, there’s a new website PTWatch that has created a searchable database of rocket and mortar attackes. PTWatch was inspired by Elder of Ziyon’s Qassam calendar. This is an example of how good ideas in blogging can take hold. Since Palestinian attacks on Israel are underreported, PTWatch looks to be a valuable resource.

Did I say that attacks on Israel are underreported, Crusader Rabbit noticed something missing from his survey of headlines. Meryl wonders the same thing.

And may I point out that nearly every report has been scrupulously counting the number of civilians killed in Gaza. The New York Times reported on an incident:

Hamas said that one girl, Malak Karfaneh, 6, died Friday night from an Israeli strike on Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, but residents said that a Palestinian rocket had fallen short and landed near the house. , killing her and wounding three siblings.Israeli officials say that up to half of Palestinian rockets — mostly crude, inaccurate Qassams — fall inside Gaza. But when Hamas broke open the border with Egypt, Israeli officials say, the militants were able to bring in more of the manufactured Katyusha-style rockets as well as antitank missiles and concrete, for building fortifications.

If half the Qassams actually fall inside Gaza, I wonder how many civilian casualties might actually be attributed to Qassams falling short of their targets.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.