A 70-year-old woman was murdered by a PIJ kassam rocket, aided and abetted by the terrorist government of the Palestinians.

There is almost no notice of it in the major media outlets.

The AP barely mentions it in the lede of a story about Egypt’s intelligence chief coming to Israel to badger Israel to bow to Hamas’ demands. (More on that later. Here’s all the AP has to say:

Egypt dispatched its powerful intelligence chief to Israel on Monday in an attempt to mediate an end to months of violence in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli leaders said there would be no truce unless Gaza militants release an Israeli soldier they have held captive for nearly two years.

As mediator Omar Suleiman completed his talks, militants fired a rocket from Gaza that struck a house in an Israeli village, killing a 75-year-old woman, the military and rescue services said. Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets at the time of the fatal attack.

The rocket hit a house in the village of Yesha, 9 miles from Gaza, farther away than the usual targets of rockets fired by Gaza militants.

It’s buried in Reuters’ fourth paragraph about Suleiman’s trip. And blamed the Israelis for the lack of urgency regarding the death.

Shortly after Suleiman met Israeli leaders, Islamic Jihad militants launched a rocket which killed a 70-year-old Israeli woman at an agricultural community close to the border with the Gaza Strip, security and emergency services said.

But Israeli officials focused on Shalit’s fate — a hot domestic issue for an embattled Olmert as he fights for his political survival in the face of bribery accusations — in summing up the prime minister’s meeting with Suleiman.

You have to go to the U.K. to find the death of an old woman by rocket fire as the main angle of a story:

A 75 year old Israeli woman was killed yesterday by a rocket fired from Gaza as Israel suggested any truce in the Strip depended on the release of the Army corporal seized almost two years ago.

The woman died after the rocket struck a house in Yesha, nine miles from Gaza’s eastern border and further than the usual targets of Qassam rockets. Islamic Jihad said it had fired rockets at the time of the fatal attack.

Reuters finally focused on the killing, but nobody’s picking it up. And gee, look at the headline. Then look at the bolded line above from the Independent.

Rocket kills Israeli woman near Gaza border
MOSHAV YESHA, Israel, May 12 (Reuters) - A rocket launched by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip killed an Israeli woman on Monday as she walked towards her house, Israeli emergency services and the army said.

The woman was the second Israeli to be killed by rocket and mortar fire from the Hamas-controlled territory in less than a week. Medics said the woman was hit by a fragment and died instantly.

Really? Nine miles is “near the border”? Really? And the range of the kassam, according to Wikipedia, is 10-12 kilometers. But Reuters is busy whitewashing the attack by minimizing where the rocket fell. And oh, of course Reuters has to add this boilerplate to the end of the story:

Such rocket attacks rarely cause death or injury but sow panic in border towns. An Israeli army spokeswoman said militants had launched seven rockets on Monday and a total of 2000 missiles since the start of the year.

Two deaths in the last week, plus multiple injuries, but they “rarely” cause death or injury.” All they do is panic the inhabitants. In this case, to death. Along with metal shrapnel tearing into her body.

Gotta love the objective, unbiased media, whose only job is to tell the truth and inform the public. Right? Right? Right?

Riiiiiight.

The “crude, homemade” kassam rockets murdered another Israeli, a 70-year-old woman.

A 70-year-old Israeli woman was killed early Monday evening from a Palestinian Qassam rocket which crashed into the backyard of a residential home in Yesha – a small community belonging to the Eshkol Regional Council.

The woman sustained critical injuries from the impact and MDA paramedics alerted to the scene fought to resuscitate for some time before ultimately calling the time of death. Medics also treated a 50-year-old man for shock.

The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

And the rockets keep on coming.

Earlier in the afternoon two Qassams were fired from northern Gaza towards the Erez border crossing. No injuries or damage were caused.

Hamas is now threatening to kill more Israelis if they don’t accept the Hamas surrender truce terms.

“If Israel rejects the agreement it will carry the burden of compromising its citizens’ security,” said a senior Hamas official to Ynet, referring to the message relayed to the Egyptian Chief of Intelligence Omar Suleiman in Israel.

Gaza is threatening that if Israel rejects the agreement presented by the factions for a calm an escalation in the clashes will be unavoidable.

That’s funny. I thought Jimmy Carter said we needed to Hamas’ point of view. It seems their point of view is one of murder and more murder, on top of threats, rockets, and terror. Oh. And more kidnappings.

According to him, Hamas demands that each agreement will include the opening of crossings: “An agreement that doesn’t contend with this issue is not an agreement and as far as we are concerned will not be carried out at all or in part. The significance is that we are able to use all our cards, or part of the ones at our disposal. Rejection of the initiative will bring Shalit a lot of playmates from the ‘army of occupation’.”

Think Jimmy Carter will have something to say about this?

Yeah, me neither.

May her name be remembered.

Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who organized the rescue of some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis and was later honored by Yad Vashem memorial, has died.

Sendler’s daughter, Janina Zgrzembska, told The Associated Press her mother died at a Warsaw hospital Monday morning. She was 98.

Records show Sendler’s team of some 20 people saved almost 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.

In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem honored for wartime heroics. Poland’s communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel, and she collected the award only in 1983.

Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler largely remained forgotten in her homeland. Only in her final years, confined to a nursing home, did she finally become one of Poland’s most respected figures, with President Lech Kaczynski and other politicians backing a campaign that put her name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Funny, isn’t it, how the Nobel Peace Prize goes to thugs like Arafat and smugs like Carter, but not to true heroes of humanity like Irena Sendler?

The earliest reference I can find to the term “Nakba” (or “Naqba”) in the New York Times is this article, from Israel’s 50th birthday, a decade ago.

So for 50 years, the NYT didn’t see fit to use the term to describe the Arab reaction to Israel’s independence. It’s only recently that the terms has come into widespread use.

My problem though is why is “Nakba” commemorated at the same time as Israel’s Independence Day? Palestinians are largely Muslim, so why doesn’t Nakba follow the Islamic calendar. By my estimation, the 60th anniversary of Nakba would have occurred in 2006 and this year’s celebration would be about a month and a half away. (A strictly lunar calendar loses eleven days a year with respect to a solar calendar.)

So the recent introduction of naqba as a significant Palestinian day, is a PR move. It’s a way of casting a shadow on Israel’s celebration. If it were a true Palestinian observance it would be observed in another 40 days. Of course if the nakba was observed all around the year, as a regular Muslim observance would, it wouldn’t have the same propaganda value than if it was always observed at the same time of the year for the rest of the world.

(Similarly, Abbas - and Arafat before him - would celebrate the first Fatah terror attack January 1, in honor of the event that occurred January 1, 1965. It’s much better propaganda for those outside the Middle East if the observances are in familiar times.)

In the end, the absurdity of the situation shows the degree to which the Palestinians identify themselves with Israel, instead of aspiring to their own nationalism.

Stephen Plaut recently discovered that the term naqba, was originally used to denote the Palestinians loss of dependence, not their loss of (nonexistant) independence. (h/t Elder of Ziyon)

The authoritative source on the origin of “nakba” is none other than George Antonius, supposedly the first “official historian of Palestinian nationalism.” Like so many “Palestinians,” he actually wasn’t – Palestinian, that is. He was a Christian Lebanese-Egyptian who lived for a while in Jerusalem, where he composed his official advocacy/history of Arab nationalism. The Arab Awakening, a highly biased book, was published in 1938 and for years afterward was the official text used at British universities….

On page 312 of The Arab Awakening, Antonius writes, “The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-Nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq.”

Yes, the answer to our little quiz is 1920, not 1948. That’s 1920 – when there was no Zionist state, no Jewish sovereignty, no “settlements” in “occupied territories,” no Israel Defense Forces, no Israeli missiles and choppers targeting terror leaders, and no Jewish control over Jerusalem (which had a Jewish demographic majority going back at least to 1850).

The original “nakba” had nothing to do with Jews, and nothing to do with demands by Palestinian Arabs for self-determination, independence and statehood. To the contrary, it had everything to do with the fact that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians. They rioted at this nakba – at this catastrophe– because they found deeply offensive the very idea that they should be independent from Syria and Syrians.

Naqba then is less a commemoration of a vanished past than a ploy for sympathy. No doubt the Arabs of Palestine suffered as a result of Israel’s War of Independence. But had their Arab brothers not sought to maintain a grievance against Israel, the Palestinian refugee problem would have been solved long ago.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

I’m disappointed that Charles Krauthammer hasn’t acknowledged Israel’s 60th anniversary. 10 years ago, he produced one of the best articles on the meaning of Zionism and its importance, At last Zion.

Two columnists recently have celebrated Israel’s 60th. First there’s Jeff Jacoby who’s scheduled to speak at my synagogue tomorrow night, who wrote the Triumph of Life and Hope.

THE BIRTH of the state of Israel 60 years ago this week was an astonishment. It is not unheard of for a nation to vanish from the map and later reappear. Poland, for example, was partitioned out of existence in 1795 and regained its independence in 1918. But the restoration of Israel was unlike anything the world had ever seen.
more stories like thisJews had been deprived of their homeland for nearly 2,000 years, ever since the Roman devastation of Judea in the first and second centuries A.D. That upheaval had been cataclysmic. By the time the fighting ended in 135, half of Judea’s population was dead. Of those who survived, hundreds of thousands were sold into slavery or expelled. Not until the Holocaust 18 centuries later would the Jewish people experience a more shattering catastrophe.

Yet through all the generations of dispersion that followed, the Jews never lost their self-awareness as a nation or their connection to the land of Israel. They expressed their longing for it in daily prayer and turned toward it when they worshiped. They collected charity to support the minority of Jews who had never left the land; and over the years others made their way back as well, often in response to Christian or Muslim persecution. By the 1860s, a majority of Jerusalem’s population was Jewish once more. Zionism - an organized movement to renew Jewish independence in the Jewish homeland - was formally launched in 1897. Five decades later, against steep odds and every historical precedent, Israel was reborn.

Despite all this Jacoby acknowledges the irony:

Under siege since the day it was born, Israel has never known a day of true peace. It is the only nation in the world whose legitimacy is routinely called into question. It still has enemies who want it wiped off the map. Uniquely, the Jewish state came into being with the imprimatur of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. Yet time and again it is told it has no right to exist. Of course that is fatuous; few nations can present a birth certificate as storied as Israel’s. Nonetheless, Israel’s fundamental right to exist doesn’t derive from UN votes, or promises in the Bible, or its own Declaration of Independence.

It’s ironic too, that though the sympathy accrued to the Jewish people due to the Holocaust was one of the factors that enabled the acceptance of the new Jewish state, the ones whose leaders allied themselves with the Nazis now claim that the founding of Israel is a catastrophe rivaling that of the Holocaust. Of course they choose to stake their claim to the land not by building a parallel state but by trying to destroy the Jewish one. (Unfortunately, many, in the name of peace, see parallelism between the two aspirations.)

Bill Kristol weighs in with The Jewish State at 60. Though the essay revolves around a number of wonderful quotes, Kristol’s conclusion is simply:

Still, even though the security of Israel is very much at risk, the good news is that, unlike in the 1930s, the Jews are able to defend themselves, and the United States is willing to fight for freedom. Americans grasp that Israel’s very existence to some degree embodies the defeat and repudiation of the genocidal totalitarianism of the 20th century. They understand that its defense today is the front line of resistance to the jihadist terror, and the suicidal nihilism, that threaten to deform the 21st.

via memeorandum

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Yesterday, Hamas nearly hit a schoolbus.

Three children suffered shock and were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics. The bus’ windows were shattered and a fire broke out nearby

Today, they just missed a kindergarten—in Ashkelon.

One rocket hit a southern neighborhood in the seaside city and another in the Ashkelon National Park south of the city. The first rocket landed near an elementary school in an area where several schools and kindergartens are located. One woman suffered from shock and several houses sustained damage.

Haim Asokar, who lives nearby, told Ynet, “I was just making coffee on my way to leave the house. We heard the siren, but we have no fortification here and our bomb shelter is closed. I then heard a very loud explosion. The entire house shook.

“My mother, who looked out the window, noticed something flying right in front of her and falling near the building. A great miracle occurred here, although had the rocket landed several minutes later, children would have already arrived in the area and many people would have been walking around here.”

The rockets struck at 7 a.m. It was sent there at that time to try to hit children on their way to school, and people on their way to work. Let me repeat, this is not Sderot. This is Ashkelon. But then, the terrorist have been getting away with it so far, so why not fire into more Israeli cities? In the meantime, what does Condi Rice say? That Israel needs to “show progress” in peace talks.

The Bush administration has told Israeli and Palestinian leaders they will need to show progress in their secret talks soon, or risk a potentially fatal erosion in public support for a process now in its sixth month without any obvious successes.

[...] Rice mentioned borders prominently, suggesting she thinks it is the best chance for progress in the near term. Twice during her most recent trip, Rice urged that the sides draw a final map soon, in part because it would help settle other disputes.

Yes, because knowing that Hamas is firing rockets over legitimate borders is so important for peace.

Meantime, Olmert says he’s doing everything he can. No, really.

“I am doing everything so this country will be able to defend itself against its enemies and so that our children and grandchildren won’t live their lives filled with the suffering prevalent here,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday evening during a Jewish National Fund (JNF) conference held at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum.

Addressing the incessant Qassam rocket fire emanating from Gaza and the internal crisis in Lebanon, Olmert said, “We must deal with enemies from the north and the south that are looking to wipe us off the map, but we will always be prepared. You can count on it.”

And the Israeli public believes him so much, 59% of them say he should resign as Prime Minister. Unfortunately, they also indicate they will continue to vote for Kadima.

The prime minister is also perceived by the public as paralyzed in his ability to lead. Sixty percent of the public state that he is incapable of leading diplomatic moves due to the investigation against him.

[...] The survey shows that it is too early to pronounce Kadima dead. Should Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni head the party, she would defeat the Likud headed by Benjamin Netanyahu with 27 Knesset seats, compared to 23 Likud seats and 15 seats for the Labor Party.

And the Egyptian who has been trying to broker a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel met with Ehud Barak today with Hamas’s demands.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that “Israel views (kidnapped soldier) Gilad Shalit’s release and the progress made in the talks for his release as having a key role in resolving the security situation in the Gaza Strip.”

Speaking during a meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Barak said, “Israel cannot continue exercising restraint over the ongoing terror from the Gaza Strip.”

Suleiman said before the meeting that he had “high expectations” that the outline of a truce between Israel, Hamas and the armed organizations in the Gaza Strip would be implemented.

The only positive news I get out of that is that I’m positive that Hamas will not release Gilad Shalit, because they’ll demand the release of convicted murderers. Olmert hasn’t the political capital to make such a deal, and even he has said he won’t release the murderers Hamas is asking for.

The soldiers want to go in and take care of the terrorists. Perhaps Olmert should let them. Because the terrorists are deliberately firing mortars because they think that the IDF won’t retaliate, as the mortars are “less effective” than kassams. And yet, a mortar killed Jimmy Kdoshim on Friday.

The longer Israel lets rocket fire on her citizens remain unanswered, the more rockets will be fired on her citizens. It’s as simple as that. Terrorists have sworn to make Sderot a “ghost town.” They are succeeding. Unless Israel acts, more Israelis will die in this latest version of the War of Attrition.

The world will stand up and howl when Israel responds to these attacks on her people and on her soveriegnty. So what? But this time, Israel should have a PR campaign ready to respond. This time, the IDF should release pictures and video of terrorists hiding in mosques and schoolyards and firing from among civilians. Not that I think they will. Israeli PR is made up of morons who couldn’t sell blankets to an Eskimo. I had an argument with the Israeli ambassador to Washington years ago. A member of my synagogue and I were asking him why Israel doesn’t respond to the horrible anti-Israel publicity in the press, and he told us, over and over again, that polls show Americans believe Israel is the good guy in this battle. That may be true, but the bad publicity is scoring many, many hits. Witness the number of anti-Israel articles on her sixtieth anniversary, even in the American press.

Well. President Bush is due in Israel next week. The last of the so-called truce offers is being made as I write this. Things should start moving along soon. God help the Israelis, and save them from the inevitable rocket barrage that will happen when the IDF moves in. (Although if they do it fast, Hezbullah will be too busy fighting the Lebanese to help.)