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11/20/2009

The problem with pundits

Filed under: Israel, Media Bias — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:15 am

One thing nearly all [anti-]Israel pundits have in common is the sheer inability to access reality. The only villain in the inability to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians is Israel, generally due to settlements, and as a result of the security fence. Just ask Roger Cohen, for instance.

But the deeper error was strategic: Obama’s assumption that he could resume where Clinton left off in 2000 and pursue the land-for-peace idea at the heart of the two-state solution.

This approach ignored the deep scars inflicted in the past decade: the killing of 992 Israelis and 3,399 Palestinians between the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 and 2006; the Israeli Army’s harsh reoccupation of most of the West Bank; Hamas’ violent rise to power in Gaza and the accompanying resurgence of annihilationist ideology; the spectacular spread of Jewish settlements in the West Bank; and the Israeli construction of over 250 miles of a separation barrier that has protected Israel from suicide bombers even as it has shattered Palestinian lives, grabbed land and become, in the words of Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer, “an integral part of the West Bank settlement plan.”

That’s a pretty awesome list of what went wrong. Think Roger will devote any space in the rest of his column to the Palestinian terror attacks? The rockets from Gaza? Hamas’ constant warring with Israel?

Of course not. The rest of the article is about the fence, and about how Israelis are psychologically scarred and can only see themselves as “victims” of the Palestinians. Victims. Really? I thought they saw the Palestinians for what they are—a people who celebrate the mass murder of Israeli schoolchildren, killed while they were studying Torah in the heart of Jerusalem.

Gaza’s streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed.

In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving.

Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby.

But it’s the settlements. And the fence. Oh, and racism.

As Ron Nachman, the founder of the sprawling Ariel settlement, comments in René Backmann’s superb new book, “A Wall in Palestine,” the wave of Palestinian suicide attacks before work on the barrier began in mid-2002 meant that: “Israelis wanted separation. They did not want to be mixed with the Arabs. They didn’t even want to see them. This may be seen as racist, but that’s how it is.”

Really? Because I’m pretty sure there are well over a million Arab Israelis within Israel’s borders. But those “Palestinians” don’t count in any census except for the one where the rest of the world warns Israel that if they don’t negotiate a peace soon, the one-state solution will be forced upon them because Jews will make up a minority in the land formerly known as Palestine. Oh, and they mention them when they accuse Israelis of racism.

There’s one more bit of fantasy that all [anti-]Israel pundits like to promote. The fantasy that Mahmoud Abbas truly wants peace. (Plus, please… touting the Nobel given for nothing? We really are in Fantasyland here.)

Obama, who has his Nobel already, should ratchet expectations downward. Stop talking about peace. Banish the word. Start talking about détente. That’s what Lieberman wants; that’s what Hamas says it wants; that’s the end point of Netanyahu’s evasions.

It’s not what Abbas wants but he’s powerless. Shlomo Avineri, a political scientist, told me, “A nonviolent status quo is far from satisfactory but it’s not bad. Cyprus is not bad.”

Mahmoud Abbas pays lip service, in English to peace. But when he speaks to his fellow terrorists at the Fatah convention, it’s a whole different story.

“Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law,” Abbas said in a policy speech, using a term that encompasses armed confrontation with Israel and non-violent protests.

“Resistance” also encompasses suicide attacks. And when he’s not talking about “resistance,” he’s sending condolences to the family of dead Hizbullah fighters, and congratulating mass murderers like Samir Kuntar.

But these things never pop up on the radar of the anti-[Israel] pundits. They don’t exist. There is no Palestinian intransigence, only Israeli intransigence, and Palestinian intransigence caused by Israeli settlements—which is Israel’s fault, of course. The [anti-]Israel pundits simply refuse to acknowledge the facts of the matter, unless those facts damn Israel and praise Palestinians.

But if you’re a regular reader of this, or any other pro-Israel blog, well, you’re aware of that. Preaching to the choir here. But sometimes, someone else reads my posts and starts thinking.

I seriously doubt the Roger Cohens of the world will. But hey, he’s great post fodder.

08/28/2009

Friday SNB

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Jew Cooties, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Reap what you sow dept.: A Saudi prince was injured by a terrorist who blew himself up on his way to meet with him. Don’t you just love how the AP talks about the prince spearheading the “aggressive” Saudi anti-terrorism campaign? Because it’s not like Saudi money is funding terrorism anywhere in the world or anything.

Am Yisrael Chai: The Jewish people live. That’s what the Benjamin Netanyahu said in Wannsee yesterday. That’s the place where the Nazis planned the destruction of the world’s Jews.

Ew! Jew cooties! Hamas is denying having participated in European workshops with Israelis. Because, you know, Jew cooties.

Note to self: No more putting purse on the back of chairs in restaurants. Ben Bernanke’s wife’s purse was stolen from the back of her chair at a Starbuck’s, begging the question: Didn’t she feel the thief take it? The media’s making this out to be a major ID theft case, but the details being given out make it seem like, uh, the thief stole her checkbook and tried to cash a check. Unless there’s more to the story, it’s typical media overhype.

Um, what’s the point of an Israeli suing a Swedish paper in a New York court? An Israeli lawyer (not one of the brighter ones if you ask me) is suing the Aftonbladet for libel in a New York court. Why not in Sweden? Am I the only one that thinks this is moronic?

08/17/2009

Palestinian civilians killed in fighting in Gaza, world ignores it

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Gaza, Hamas, palestinian politics — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Did you know there was a big battle in Rafah, near the Egyptian border? Did you also know that it took place in a mosque and a home? Did you further know that civilians were killed in the crossfire?

Of course you didn’t. Because it was Palestinians killing Palestinians (or maybe some foreign Arab fighters). So there’s no outcry from HRW. There’s barely a blip of notice in the wire services’ radar. No statement from the UN, no world outcry—because dead Palestinians don’t count unless they were killed by—or accused of being killed by—Israelis.

The fighting broke out late Friday when Hamas security men surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egyptian border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah were holed up.

[...] The Hamas forces raided the mosque, setting off a fierce gunbattle. Flares lit up the sky and the sound of machine gun fire echoed throughout the night.

Moussa escaped with some bodyguards to his home where another standoff ensued.

Here’s the AP spin:

Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they had restored law and order to the seaside territory Sunday after a bloody weekend of clashes with an al-Qaida-inspired group.

The militant Palestinian group crushed a challenge from Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, one of a number of small, shadowy factions that are even more radical than Hamas.

[...] At least 150 people were wounded in the fighting, which began Friday afternoon after Moussa’s fiery speech and continued throughout the night in two fierce gunbattles outside his mosque and his home.

No mention of the fact that an 11-year-old girl was killed. There were two human rights groups protesting the casualties—Palestinian human rights groups, and props to them for speaking out. The more shame to the UN and HRW.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for HRW to issue a special report condemning this. As I recall, they didn’t condemn the Lebanese for brutally suppressing another al Qaeda splinter group last year, though many civilians were killed. Because, of course, it wasn’t Jews doing the killing.

08/09/2009

The Guardian: First in anti-Israelism

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Hamas, Media Bias, Terrorism — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:20 am

You wouldn’t expect a glowing PR piece about a Hamas film that idealizes the life and death of a terrorist in any mainstream newspaper’s film section. But that would only be if you had never read the British Guardian. (Via reader Neil M.)

The headline and teaser:

First film produced by Hamas screens in Gaza

Imad Aqel is an action-packed movie of the life and violent death of a Hamas militant who topped Israel’s most-wanted list

The lead:

The film’s hero is a young militant, blamed by Israel for the deaths of 13 soldiers and settlers, who was killed at the age of 22 in a firefight in 1993.

Note the language: They are casting doubt in the first sentence on whether or not he murdered thirteen Israelis. And of course, instead of the word “civilians,” “settlers” is used.

The lead graph continues with this sad fact:

Many of the actors are Hamas members and, since the movie was finished, four of them have been killed in an Israeli attack. This is Imad Aqel, the first feature film funded by Hamas.

So does the Reuters

The description of the film:

Shot on the grounds of Gnai Tal, one of the Jewish settlements evacuated in 2005 when Israel withdrew from the territory, it is a two-hour, action-packed thriller celebrating the life and martyrdom of Aqel, a commander of the Hamas military wing who topped Israel’s most-wanted list.

This could be straight out of the Hamas PR release, and I would not be at all surprised to find out that it is.

According to newspaper reports, the line that elicits the biggest cheer from the Gazan audience is when one of the characters declares: “To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God.”The film’s director, Majed Jendeya, says he hopes to screen Imad Aqel at the Cannes film festival.

Despicable. But not as despicable as this last paragraph, in which the writer editorializes as to why Hamas is making movies that honor mass murderers:

The biopic is just the latest effort in Hamas’s media campaign to instil a “culture of resistance” in the territory. It also owns a satellite television station, a radio network and websites, as well as sponsoring art exhibitions, plays and poetry which tell of the harsh conditions in Gaza.

“Resistance” is the word that terrorist groups use to describe suicide bomb attacks and other methods of murdering civilians. It is getting more and more mainstream as more and more of the world reverts to the Jew-hatred it has held over the millennia. The demonization has reached such heights that Phyllis Chesler can’t even bring herself to write about Israel anymore, and I have to admit it has affected me as well. And part of the problem are media outlets like the Guardian, which never hesitates to excoriate Israel, and builds up terrorist murderers with puff pieces on films about their lives.

If you need a palate cleanser, you can read the National Post of Canada, which may be based on the Reuters article, but at least uses the word “terrorist” to describe the subject of the film. But the Post is one of the few voices in the wilderness of anti-Israel media. Yaacov calls them the antisemitic media. I don’t think he’s wrong.

08/04/2009

The Fatah convention: War is peace

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Terrorism, palestinian politics — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:30 am

Mahmoud Abbas, the “moderate” leader of Fatah, declared today that the Palestinians reserve the “right” to “resistance.” But of course, he mouthed enough platitudes so that the anti-Israel media can pretend that he wants peace.

“Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law,” Abbas said in a policy speech, using a term that encompasses armed confrontation with Israel and non-violent protests.

That’s the Ha’aretz definition of “resistance.” When you count the fact that “resistance” and “armed struggle” also means “murdering civilians on buses, in shops, and in their homes,” there’s not a whole lot of peace-making coming out of the convention. And just in case you weren’t quite sure about it:

After a journalist asked Rajoub about a large picture of a young boy armed with a rifle that was displayed at the conference, the former Arafat aide responded that Fatah has not abandoned nor will it abandon the possibility of resuming “armed struggle,” which he says remains a tool at the Palestinians’ disposal.

Here are two versions of the AP spin on the issue. The first, from yesterday, is a piece insisting that the Palestinians have “marginalized” terror. And the article manages to contradict its headline in the very first paragraph.

Fatah commits to Israel peace talks in party draft
The proposed new platform of the Palestinians’ moderate Fatah party marginalizes the once central theme of “armed struggle” against Israel, but demands a complete Israeli settlement freeze before talks for a final peace deal can take place.

An interesting side note: I found this in the Canadian press and nowhere else. Look at the headline.

In party draft, Fatah commits to peace talks but asserts right to resist Israeli occupation
The Palestinian Fatah movement says it will keep pursuing peace talks but reserves the right to resist Israeli occupation.

And the definition of Fatah:

Fatah’s 1989 program called for “armed struggle” against Israel. The new platform, published Monday, is vague on violence but stresses negotiations and civil disobedience.

That’s very different from the larger article:

In Fatah’s 1989 program, a call to “armed struggle” against Israel played a central role. That idea is being pushed to the sidelines in the new draft, without being dropped altogether – a likely nod to Fatah’s hard-line wing, particularly delegates from Lebanon and Syria. Authors of the draft suggested that the party also needs to remain competitive with the populist appeal of the Islamic militant Hamas, which focuses on armed resistance.

And now that the conference is actually occurring, this is the AP spin:

Abbas: Palestinians must stick with peace talks
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched his Fatah movement’s first conference in two decades Tuesday with a call for his people to limit their resistance to Israel to marches and protests and not to abandon peace talks despite years of setbacks.

Note that the lead uses the Palestinian term, “resistance,” and spins it so that it looks like Abbas wants peace talks—yet glosses over the fact that Abbas refuses to sit down with Israel until the Obama settlement freeze is in place. And Israel, of course, is the instransigent player in this game—for refusing to move backwards in agreements that even the Palestinians have managed to live with.

And let’s check on the AP spin a bit more, as the editors buy into the PA pap:

Abbas said the Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation, but said such resistance is best embodied by the weekly marches and protests in Bilin and Naalin, two West Bank villages that have lost hundreds of acres to Israel’s separation barriers.

He said Fatah rejected terrorism when Arafat first unilaterally declared Palestinian independence in 1988. “We are not terrorists, and we reject a description of our legitimate struggle as terrorism,” he said. “This will be our firm and lasting position.”

Ah. There it is. “Resistance” and “armed struggle,” even when it comes in the form of bombs blowing up civilians, is not terrorism. Murdering “settlers” in their homes is not terrorism. It’s all just civil disobedience. Just like in Bi’ilin, where mobs hurl stones at soldiers on a weekly basis. And yet, if you look at this chart, you will see that Fatah has been actively launching terror attacks against Israelis since long before 1988. Let’s not forget that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is also Fatah, but Fatah itself claimed a suicide bombing as recently as 2002. When you erase the fiction that Al-Aqsa is separate from Fatah, the terror attacks have been continuous.

Abbas is also passing along conspiracy theories that blame Israel for causing the events that started the 1982 Lebanon war, and for Arafat’s death. Yes, he’s a moderate—moderately crazy, as evidenced by his master’s thesis in Holocaust denial.

While the world watches, absorbs the b.s. and passes along the lies, the IDF is watching, too. And waiting to see what happens before issuing an opinion about whether the PA is changing.

My money’s on “not.” As if you couldn’t tell.

08/02/2009

Iran plane crash cause: Exploding bomb parts

Filed under: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:45 am

The plane that crashed in Iran two weeks ago that killed everyone on board crashed because it was carrying arms to Hezbollah.

According to the sources, the aircraft was carrying a large number of modern fuses composed of 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives and electrical instrumentation.

The report is in line with testimonies on explosion sounds heard before the crash. According to the sources, the plane was meant to transfer the fuses from Iran to Armenia, and from there to Syria through Turkey, and then on the ground to Lebanon. This route was chosen, according to exiled opposition sources, so as not to draw attention.

Chalk another one up to our terrorist buddies in Lebanon and Syria. And it’s just lovely that the Turks are complicit in this terror track as well. Why on earth shouldn’t we trust them to negotiate between Israel and Syria?

07/29/2009

Wednesday SNB

Filed under: Iran, Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, Terrorism, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

Weapons? What weapons? The man who organized the collection of thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition for Yasser Arafat was finally convicted by an Israeli court. He maintains that he was innocent, of course. He was just the guy who paid the PA salaries, you see. He’s also one of the Palestinian prisoners that the IDF raided out of the prison in Jericho before the PA was going to release him. Sucks to be him today.

Doesn’t matter, the world will still cry war crimes when the buildings go down. The IDF is going to tell Palestinians exactly when the missile strikes will come in order to precipitate fewer civilian casualties. Unbelievable. Is there any other nation in the world that tries so hard not to harm civilians? Of course not. Does this mean that Israel will be commended for these actions? Of course not.

So what if he’s a terrorist? He’s a teacher too, isn’t he? A Canadian university hired a man who is under house arrest on terrorism charges to teach a class at university this summer. Because hey, just because he’s fighting extradition on terrorism charges to France doesn’t mean that he can’t collect a salary teaching young, impressional minds, right? Wrong. After Canada’s B’nai B’rith protested, the university decided that perhaps they should have someone else teach the course.

Peace Now: Always striking the right chord. You know, the group really is full of idiots. On Erev Tisha b’Av, the eve of the commemoration of the destruction of the Temples, Peace Now is going to hang posters all over Jerusalem, saying that settlements are going to destroy the Third Temple. Nice. Because that’s going to really change people’s minds, isn’t it? (Insert Standard Eye Roll #34 here.)

Boy, were we wrong about that disengagement thing! A new poll out says that 68% of Israelis who supported disengagement changed their minds. Yeah, good luck getting Israel out of Ma’ale Adumim, Obama.

Obama to America: Still lying about healthcare reform. Really, does this man ever stop? Now he’s trying to sell his plan as one that will protect consumers. Right. It will protect us by forcing us into a single-payer system, just like his idols in Canada and Europe. Here’s what he wants now:

Insurers would be barred from refusing coverage because of pre-existing conditions, scaling back insurance for people who fall very ill, charging more for services based on gender, and placing caps on coverage.

Oh, that won’t raise prices at all. And on that pre-existing conditions thing: I had to wait six months for a pre-existing condition to be covered by my insurance plan when I went from having none for several years to having insurance again. Anyone out there ever been barred completely—and forever—by insurance companies for a pre-existing condition? Mind you, I’m all for reform of that one. But it can be done without passing ObamaCare.

07/17/2009

Thursday Snark News

Filed under: Gaza, Israeli Double Standard Time, Lebanon, News Briefs, Religion, Terrorism, The One — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Religion of Peace blows up two more hotels: Indonesia again, but don’t worry—it’s just a tiny minority of extremists doing all the kabooms.

Palestinians answer Hillary’s request with a kassam rocket: Looks like Hillary’s plea to the Palestinians to refrain from any actions that would make peace more difficult is working. The Palestinians launched a kassam at Southern Israel, because now they’re going to blame Israel for taking action against it. And considering that Netanyahu has stated that he will not tolerate so much as a dribble, expect some tunnels to go boom.

Israel wants UNIFIL to do what? Israel is asking for UNIFIL’s report on the rocket storage depot in southern Lebanon that blew up this week. UNIFIL doesn’t so much as mention the explosion on its site. Ban Ki-Moon hasn’t said anything about the violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The General Assembly is not calling for an emergency session to vote on a resolution condemning Hezbollah’s overt violation of 1701. And the Security Council is silent. What’s that you say? It’s a day that ends with a “y,” so it’s Israeli Double Standard Time? Well. I can see you’ve been reading this blog for a long time.

Syria to U.S.: We want the entire Golan. Meryl to Syria [singing]: You can’t always get what you want.

Neturei Karta guarantee their place in Dante’s Seventh Circle: Okay, not really, but it’s a good metaphor, because any Jew that works so hard for Israel’s enemies—they’re meeting Haniyeh, now, and bringing him little statues of Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Mosque, how sweet—cannot possibly be on G-d’s good side. Really, I detest these people more than I detest almost anyone else in the world, except pedophiles. And even that one is a close call. I know there’s no hell in Judaism, but for the Nutty Karta, I’d make an exception.

Senate votes big expansion of federal hate crimes—Can we get a Constitutional challenge, please? Then again, forget about it. Sotomayor is going to be approved, no way is the Supreme Court going to find hate crime laws unconstitutional. Add this to the list of things I’ve changed my mind about since moving to Virginia: I no longer believe hate crimes should be legislated, at all. A crime is a crime is a crime.

Jake Tapper, will you marry me? If the man continues to tell the truth about Obama, I’m simply going to have to have him.

At a rally in Holmdel, New Jersey, today, President Obama continued making a promise about health care reform that he has acknowledged isn’t literally true.

Holmdel. Feh. Where was he, in the Garden State Arts Center? Whoops, sorry, they changed its name to the PNC Arts Center. And yes, he was. You know, I saw a much better act last time I was there. Lilith Fair. The Pretenders, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow. All of whom probably voted for Obama, come to think of it (except McLachlan, she’s Canadian). But I digress. Tapper:

“Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you,” the president told residents of the Garden State. “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.”

But last month, as the president acknowledged during a press conference, he doesn’t literally mean that you are guaranteed to be able to keep your health care plan, and your doctor, if and when health care reform passes.

What? Obama lying again? Say it isn’t so! As for the price tag? Go watch Tapper’s report.

Don’t let him succeed. Call your Senator.

01/04/2009

Number of killed and wounded in Israel doubled under cease fire

Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:10 pm

Six months of cease fire did nothing. No, wait. Apparently, it encouraged more attacks.

Shootings, stabbings, rocket and missile fire, and a bulldozer attack by Palestinian and Arab terrorists killed 36 Israelis and tourists in Israel in 2008, compared to 12 in 2007 and 29 in 2006, according to a report by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria released over the weekend.

The organization, which provides rapid response first aid in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza border area, also reported a sharp rise in the number of injuries by Kassam rockets, Grads and mortar fire compared to the past two years.

These attacks on Jewish settlements within firing range of Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, wounded 947 in 2008. A total of 464 were wounded in 2007 and 227 in 2006.

A total of 1,683 Kassam rockets fell in Israel near Gaza and another 108 shot from Gaza fell back into Palestinian areas.

In Israel, eight people were killed in 2008 by rocket attacks, 19 were killed in shootings, one person was stabbed to death, one was killed in a suicide bombing, one in a bulldozer attack, and an additional eight soldiers were killed in battle.

There’s a statistic you’ll never see on the mainstream media sites.

When Israel shows weakness, she is attacked. Let’s see how the Gaza war plays out. If all goes well, there will be a dramatic drop in terror attacks on Israelis. There will certainly be a dramatic drop in rocket attacks from Hamas.

Israeli morale isn’t shaken at all. Listen to the words of one of the soldiers just back from Gaza:

In a smoking area outside the hospital, a Golani private, visibly shaken, said he was a member of the platoon whose men were hit by the mortar shell and that in the aftermath, his mother had revoked her permission for him to go into combat. He was an only son and army protocol required a parent’s signature. His mother, he explained, had had a change of heart.

“But I’m dying to go back in there,” the private said, sucking down the cigarette he had just lit with shaky hands. “I’m not going to tell you that it wasn’t frightening. We went in, it was all quiet, and then boom, the mortar hit and Hamas fighters started coming out. We repelled them, but it was a real balagan.”

12/18/2008

Pretend truce is officially over

Filed under: Gaza, Hamas, Israeli Double Standard Time, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 1:30 pm

The fantasy truce—the one where it’s okay to launch a few hundred rockets, instead of thousands—has been officially declared over by Hamas, and of course, it’s not their fault. It’s Israel’s.

Hamas on Thursday declared the end of a six-month-old Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, raising the prospect of an escalation in cross-border fighting.

“The calm, which was reached with Egyptian sponsorship on June 19 and expires on December 19, is finished because the enemy did not abide by its obligations,” said Hamas member Ayman Taha, who represented the group in talks with other Palestinian factions. “The calm is over.”

The European Union finally noticed the rocket fire and demanded that it stop. But not until it had the chance to tell Israel to stop defending herself, first.

The European Union, in a statement, called Thursday for an “immediate cessation” of both rocket fire and Israeli incursions.

I swear, I don’t really have to write new posts. I can just go back to my archives and reprint posts I wrote years ago. Nothing’s changed. Only a couple of the names of the players.

How is it that the EU can never get up the energy to condemn Hamas rocket fire until after Israel fires back at the terrorists? Really. Let’s think. Why is it that Jewish self-defense causes Europeans such anxiety? Hm.

Sorry, the only reason I can come up with is anti-Semitism, but Europe murdered or drove out most of its Jews sixty years ago, so that can’t be the case. Right? Right?

Right.

The pretend truce is over

Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 6:00 am

The IDF bombed a couple of rocket labs in Gaza.

Israeli aircraft conducted two nighttime air strikes against terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip for the first time in six months, this following rocket fire on the western Negev region.

The raids, conducted during the early hours of Thursday morning, targeted a weapons cache in the north Gaza town of Jabaliya and a metal workshop used to manufacture rockets and mortars in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The strikes caused extensive material damage but no injuries, witnesses and medical sources said.

Unfortunately, no terrorists were harmed during the bombing of their workshops.

Yesterday, the rocket launchers nearly got very lucky.

Three people were wounded Wednesday during a tough day in southern Israel that saw more than 20 rockets fired at Negev communities.

[...] One rocket exploded in the parking lot of a large commercial center in the southern town of Sderot. Two people sustained light wounds in the attack after being hit by shrapnel, while another man suffered damage to his ears. Magen David Adom ambulance service teams treated the wounded, who were later taken to hospital in Ashkelon. Medical teams also treated numerous anxiety victims at the scene.

By the way, the attack on Israeli civilians wasn’t important enough to merit more than a paragraph buried deep in the middle of the current AP piece on how Gaza “militants” are “ready for end of truce with Israel.” Yes, that’s AP’s words. In the headline.

At least 20 rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday, the military said. One exploded in the border town of Sderot, wounding two people and damaging a restaurant, police said.

Paragraph nine. Here’s the lead:

Under the truce, Gaza militants were to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities. Israel was to end raids on Gaza and allow more goods and people through its border crossings, sealed after Hamas overran the territory in June 2007.

While the Egyptian-brokered truce has brought a drop in violence, neither side is entirely happy. Israel notes the rocket fire hasn’t ended, while Palestinians complain the truce didn’t benefit Gaza, mainly because the crossings haven’t been opened, leading to widespread shortages of basic goods.

Note how the AP compares shortages of, say, cooking oil with rockets landing in Sderot shopping center parking lots. Like they’re interchangeable.

The situation is intolerable. But the IDF still isn’t going into Gaza in strength. It’s going to take a change of leadership to see that happen.

Addressing the rocket strikes Wednesday evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the IDF will embark on a Gaza operation once the situation requires such move.

“‘We are not deterred by a broad operation in Gaza, but we do not wish to rush into such operation,” he said. “We will act when the time is right; we will decide what the right time and place are.”

Please hold onto your hats for the response from the Prime Minister of Israel to the rocket fire on Israeli towns.

“The fire just stresses what we have been saying all along, which is that we cannot consent to a situation where there is a supposed lull, but reality is completely different. Of course this requires our attention, and there will be a response,” he said.

That’s telling ‘em, Ehud. Wow. That’ll stop those terrorists from trying to lob rockets at Israel.

Lucky for us, Israel’s elections are only a few weeks away.

12/05/2008

Chabad massacre: They did try to kill the baby

Filed under: Jews, Religion, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:30 am

I have not written about the Mumbai terrorist attack for a variety of reasons. There is a half-finished essay that is waiting for the right words before you can see it. One of the things I wondered was why the terrorists didn’t murder Moshe Holtzberg. They never stopped at murdering children before. Today, I discovered that the reason: They probably thought they had killed him.

Samuel says she emerged early the next afternoon, when she heard Moshe calling for her. She found the child crying as he stood between his parents, who she says appeared unconscious but still alive.

Based on the marks on Moshe’s back, she believes he was struck so hard by a gunman that he fell unconscious at some point as well.

Sandra Samuel is a righteous woman. She stands very high in contrast to the subhumans who killed Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg. And Moshe? Well, he’s been traumatized. He may get over it, but rest assured, he will always know that his parents were murdered by terrorists. As to how this will cause him to react when he is grown, well, only time will tell.

In the aftermath of the attacks, Moshe asked for his mother continuously, Samuel says, and he is learning to play again — though he likes the nanny close by. And while she still has nightmares of the horrific siege that took hold of Mumbai, Samuel, a non-Jew and native of India, said she will stay in Israel for as long as Moshe needs her.

Time, and thoughts like these:

“I vow that we will avenge the deaths of Gabi and Rivki,” announced Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Chabad’s educational arm, from New York, referring to Mumbai emissaries Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka.

“But not with AK-47s, not with grenades and tanks. We will take revenge in a different way,” Kotlarsky said.

“We will add light. We will add good deeds. We will make sure that there is not one Jewish man who does not put on tefillin. We will make sure that there is not one Jewish woman who does not light candles.

Remember that, when you look at this, and then think of the funerals of Palestinians, and the howls for revenge you hear from the crowds there.

Moshe

I don’t always light Shabbat candles. I will make sure to do so tonight, to honor their memories.

12/02/2008

Israel breaks the truce by responding to constant rocket fire

Filed under: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

Hamas continues its war of attrition against southern Israel. Here’s the tally for the last few days:

Several mortar shells landed Tuesday noon near the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza. No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.

A Qassam rocket was fired at Israel on Monday, and landed in an open field near a kibbutz south of Ashkelon. No one was injured in this attack as well.

Regional Council Head Yair Farjun said that the rocket exploded some 200 meters from residents’ houses.

On Sunday, two Qassam rockets were fired at the Western Negev area. One rocket landed in a square in central Sderot, causing a local woman to suffer shock.

The other rocket landed in an open field within the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council area.

Eight IDF soldiers were wounded on Friday, one of them seriously, after several mortar shells hit an IDF base in Nahal Oz.

This is what AP calls a truce. It is only threatened when Israel goes into Gaza to stop the rockets, but it is never threatened when Hamas launches mortars and rockets at Israel. And now that Israel is trying to stop the rocket fire, what do the news services say?

Reuters has the cause—Israeli raids that killed terrorists—backwards. The cause is the terrorists’ firing rockets into Israel. The effect is Israel sending in the IDF to kill the terrorists. But as long as the news media refuse to admit that the true cause of the strife is Hamas’ rocketing of Israel’s civilian population, we’ll continue to see garbage like this:

Militants have fired dozens of rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in the past three weeks after Israeli raids that killed about a dozen gunmen.

The violence has strained a ceasefire in place since June. Saying it was responding to rocket attacks, Israel has tightened its closure of Gaza borders, choking off some food supplies to the territory and raising international concern.

And the AP does pretty much the same, refusing to call the mortar and rockets a violation of the truce:

An Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians Tuesday, dealing a new blow to efforts to restore a fraying cease-fire.

[...] Israel and Hamas have been observing a truce since June. But the cease-fire has begun to unravel over the past month, with Palestinian militants firing rockets and mortar shells at Israel and the Israeli army responding with attacks on militant targets.

The cause of the cease-fire violations? Not the rockets. Not the mortars. BOTH sides are at fault. And the AP hasn’t noticed that the rocket fire has been pretty constant since the so-called truce was begun. The fact that fewer rockets are being sent into southern Israel doesn’t mean there is a truce—only a lessening of the acts of war from Hamas.

Wait for the world condemnation now that Palestinians have been killed, and Hamas is trying to play the civilian card.

11/12/2008

Terror victim needs our help

Filed under: Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 12:00 pm

One of the survivors of the Merkaz HaRav massacre is in America for surgery, and needs some financial assistance.

A month or so after the attack Naftali was sitting up and even playing the violin, but he very nearly didn’t make it. Shaare Tzedek’s chief of surgery, Dr. Yosef Alberton, carefully described the 9th grader’s arrival at the hospital in an interview with Yediot Acharonot.

“You can say that Naftali was already not among the living,” he recalled. “He had no pulse in the main arteries, just weak heart beats. He wasn’t dazed, he was unconscious. At such times, there is no room for sterilization procedures. We put him on the table, poured iodine on his abdomen and opened it. I grabbed the aorta and held it hard with my hand to allow blood flow to the brain. I actually felt like I was holding his life in my fingers, until we saw that the pulse was beginning to return to his veins and his condition was stabilizing.”

Rabbi Billet is assisting other rabbis and communal leaders in a fundraising effort for the family, calling it a chance to “participate in the miracle of Techiyas Hamaisim.”

Here are the money contacts:

If you are in a position to be able to be a part of this mitzvah and you wish to participate, please make out your checks to THE YIW MAYER LEBOWITZ CHARITY FUND and earmark your check for Naftali Sheetrit. Checks should be mailed to the Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Blvd., Woodmere, NY 11598.

For more information, e-mail Dr. Asher Mansdorf, who is coordinating the fundraising effort, at amansdorf-atnospamplease-aol.com.

Give if you can.

10/24/2008

Samir Kuntar, insomniac

Filed under: Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

The child-killing POS that Israel traded alive for the corpses of her soldiers is swearing he won’t rest until Israel is destroyed. Get used to not sleeping, asshole.

Three months after being released from an Israeli jail in a prisoner swap, Lebanese terrorist and child-killer Samir Kuntar said he was more than ever committed to working to wipe the Jewish state off the map, AFP reported on Thursday.

“As long as there is something called Israel in this region, the resistance must continue … and I am totally committed to the resistance,” Kuntar, 46, told AFP. “I am ready to take part in any resistance mission.”

Please, please, PLEASE take a position near the IDF and start shooting at them. Please give Israel the chance to do to you today what she should have done thirty years ago, and end your miserable existence.

In the meantime, get used to disappointment.

10/10/2008

Be careful what you wish for: Intifada 3

Filed under: Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 4:30 pm

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is calling for a third intifada on the heels of the riots in Acre—now in their third night. Please take careful note of the text in bold.

On a third successive night of rioting in Akko, Arabs threw stones at dozens of Jewish youths who formed a crowd in one of the city’s eastern neighborhoods. A man who was walking his dog sustained a mild head injury from a stone flung at him.

Police detained four Jewish protestors and began to disperse the remaining crowd with the help of stun grenades, tear gas, and water hoses. Officers also raided a home from which stones had been flung, detaining the family within. At around 10 pm police reported the incident under control.

Northern District Police stated that altogether 30 people have been arrested in relation to the riots since they first began on Yom Kippur Eve.

The incident commenced at around 9 pm, when dozens of Jewish youths began to crowd two of the neighborhood’s main streets. Police barricaded the eastern entrance to the city, and deployed large SWAT and Border Guard forces armed with anti-protest equipment to the area. Three residents of the city were detained earlier
Friday.

Now read what the terror leaders are asking:

The Islamic Jihad movement called on Friday for Palestinians to take to the streets in solidarity with the Arabs of Akko and Arabs in Israel, in general, “due to the racist aggression and brutality of the occupation and the bullying of the settlers.”

“The extreme Jewish attacks and the crimes of the settlers during recent days are a manifestation of the brutality of the occupation and its racism, in Akko and in other Palestinian villages in occupied Palestine,” said the group’s spokesman Walid Hilam.

He called on Akko’s Arab residents to continue to fight and remain unified in the fact of aggressive behavior and to hold on to their lands in the face of an alleged Zionist plot to relocate them, as occurred in 1948.

This is not your father’s intifada. This is not the Arafat-led intifada of 2000. It is not the rock-throwing intifada of the 1980s. This is a different time, and Jews are feeling very, very differently about Arab mobs. All you have to do is look at what happened in Acre the past three nights. What I have seen from these events is that Jewish Israelis will no longer stand by passively while Arab mobs riot in their neighborhoods. What you will see, if this thing spreads, is more crowds of young Jewish men matching club for club and stone for stone with young Arab men. And while this is not a good thing for either Arabs or Jews, it’s pretty clear that the Arabs will be the losers if this rioting does not stop.

There’s simply no margin of error left. After years of being bombed and rocketed by terrorists, after months of watching Arab Israelis misuse their identification cards to murder Israelis even in the heart of Jerusalem, Israeli Jews are responding to violence with violence.

I am not condoning this. I am simply reporting it, and writing what I think.

And I think that Israeli Arabs had better not listen to the terrorists. A third intifada will be disastrous for them.

10/06/2008

So long, Sami. Won’t see you in Miami!

Filed under: Hamas, Terrorism — Tags: — Meryl Yourish @ 6:00 pm

The Supreme Court refused to hear Sami al-Arian’s appeal. Countdown to expulsion or prison can begin.

The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a former Florida professor once accused of being a top Palestinian terrorist.

The high court’s decision means that Sami Al-Arian, who once taught at the University of South Florida, is a step closer to facing trial in northern Virginia for refusing to testify to a grand jury.

Al-Arian struck a plea bargain in 2005 admitting that he conspired to assist the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He argued that the terms of the deal barred the government from demanding his testimony in other terror cases.

But a federal appeals court disagreed, and now the US Supreme Court is refusing to intervene. A judge in Virginia had wanted the appeal to be resolved before trying Al-Arian for contempt of court.

10/02/2008

Warping your religion

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 5:57 pm

MEMRI’s enemies keeps on accusing the organization of cherry-picking quotes, or pulling them out of context. I’d like to know what MEMRI’s enemies can possibly say to excuse this excrescence, who has managed to both steal and warp one of the best concepts of all of Judaism—which was, of course, copied by Islam. The Jewish concept is that when one takes a life, it is as if a whole world has been destroyed. Islam borrowed that concept. Radical Islam appears to have changed it for the much, much worse:

Hamas Parliament Member Fathi Hammad tells Al-Aqsa TV, the television station of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, that Allah hates the Jews more than anyone and that the 15 million Jews in the world are worse than the 4.5 billion infidels in the world. Hammad adds that killing one Jew is like killing 30 million Jews in the eyes of Allah.

Click on the link to watch.

An exact quote: “Allah has chosen you to fight the people he hates most—the Jews.”

And displaying the murderous math of the jihadi mind, dividing the number of infidels in the world by the number of Jews—and when he says Jews, he doesn’t mean “Zionists”—gives you a jihadi sum on which to base each murder. 30 million.

Disgusting. Depraved. Despicable. These are the people that Jimmy Carter defends as the free-and-fair elected representatives of the Palestinian people, while ignoring the hatred spewed out on a daily basis.

And these are the members of the organization that the EU and the UN seem to think Israel should sit down with and negotiate. Because this is just rhetoric, right?

Wrong.

Olmert joins the Surrender Party

Filed under: Hamas, Israel, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Ehud Olmert, not content with leaving Israel in a near-shambles, manages to make things even worse on his way out by declaring that Israel needs to surrender entirely to the Palestinians, or there will be no peace.

In the farewell interview, published Monday, Olmert also said Israel would have to leave the Golan Heights to make peace with Syria.

In the interview, Olmert said, “We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, one meaning that we will withdraw in practice from nearly all of the territories, if not from all of them,” Olmert said.

Olmert said Israel would keep “a percentage” of the West Bank but would have to give Palestinians the same amount of Israeli territory in exchange, “because without this there will be no peace.”

He also said Israel would have to leave parts of east Jerusalem, saying Israel couldn’t hope to maintain its control of the more than 200,000 Arab residents there.

Did I say “surrender entirely to the Palestinians”? Because what I meant was, “Surrender entirely.” Give up the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. And what, pray tell, will Israel get in return? Peace? You mean like the peace that exists for the residents of the Negev? The peace that exists in Sderot?

Israel will have peace, even thought Nasrallah is saying that there will never be peace with Israel because Israel doesn’t “belong” in that fictional nation known as “Palestine”?

“Jerusalem and Palestine, from the sea to the river, belong to the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone from the holy land,” Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Friday evening.

You mean peace with the Iranians even as they constantly predict the end of Israel?

You mean peace with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that is calling for renewed waves of suicide bombings? The Hamas that’s looking to take over the West Bank, which Olmert says Israel “must” give back to the Palestinians?

It’s simply unbelievable to me that he’s managing to try his best to take the ship of state down with him as he drowns. He’s definitely Israel’s Jimmy Carter—trying to make deals where he has no authority, no mandate, and no business making those deals.

He can’t leave office fast enough for me.

09/24/2008

Vehicles: The new suicide bombs

Filed under: Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:30 am

Looks like the Palestinians are trying to create a new weapon: The automobile and its relatives.

IDF forces thwarted an attempt by Palestinians to run over a group of soldiers on Wednesday, near the West Bank village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident.

Four Palestinians traveling in three vehicles, including a bulldozer, broke through an army roadblock at around 3 pm and attempted to plow the vehicles into the soldiers.

The troops responded in accordance with military suspect apprehension protocol and proceeded to open fire.

The good news is that no soldiers were hurt, and the terrorists were captured.

Expect more of these, as the Palestinians seem to think they’re the new “It” weapon. Thankfully, no one was killed in the last attack, either. But seventeen were wounded. And the media, of course, play down the seriousness and effect of the terror attacks.

Cars may work as a weapon in a crowded street, but not so much at a checkpoint with armed and ready soldiers.

08/31/2008

Palestinians creating a child army

Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:20 am

Despicable. Worse than despicable.

In this framework dozens of children have undergone training in the past few days by gunmen from the Salah al-Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. The training included firing pistols and rifles.

“I am learning how to fight the Jews and kill Jewish children,” 11-year-old Muhammad told Ynet, “the parents of the Jewish children are the soldiers and officers who kill us here. I want these parents to get a taste of what it’s like to have your children killed, just as the Palestinians experience every day.

“I would rather die fighting the occupation than die at home from a missile, which is what happened to hundreds of Palestinian children,” he said.

But of course, it’s anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitism. Religion doesn’t enter into this conflict at all, right?

Plus, it’s been a while since we heard an open-the-gates-of-hell statement, so here you go:

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Saturday threatened to unleash “the fires of hell” on Israel, as it staged a military parade in the south of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.

“We will unleash the fires of hell if the Zionist enemy continues its crimes,” said the group’s military chief Abu Hamzeh after the parade by around 800 Islamic Jihad members, an AFP journalist reported.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the gates of hell will be opened. If those children fight in battle and are killed, watch for the AP to blame the Israelis—not the Palestinians, for putting them in harm’s way to begin with.

08/18/2008

Italy: Playing both sides since WWII

Filed under: Terrorism, World — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

My father used to say that the Italians were the only country in the world that fought on both sides in World War II. Well, they’ve just admitted that they’re also not beneath making deals with terrorists to keep Italy safe from harm—at the expense of the rest of the world, but mostly, of course, Jews.

It’s official: The Italian government allowed Palestinian terror organizations to act freely within its territory in exchange for their commitment to refrain from targeting national and international Italian sites.

In an article written by former Italian President Francesco Cossiga for the national newspaper Corriere della Sera he confesses, “I always knew, though not by official documents and information kept from me, about the existence of an agreement based on ‘don’t harm me and I won’t harm you’ between the Italian Republic and organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the PLO.”

According to Cossiga the agreement was approved and directed by former Italian Premier Aldo Moro, who “was awarded an extraordinary capability for the direction of Italian intelligence agencies and special forces after he received approval for the deal.”

It gets worse.

“According to the deal, the Palestinian organizations could establish bases in Italy, enjoyed freedom of movement when entering and exiting the country, and could move around without undergoing mandatory security checks because they were protected by the secret service,” Cossiga explained.

“During my time as interior minister I learned that PLO people were holding heavy artillery in their homes and protected by diplomatic immunity as representatives of the Arab League. I was told not to worry and I managed to convince them to lay down their heavy artillery and make do with light weaponry.”

This makes the Italians complicit in PLO terror attacks throughout the years, and explains utterly how Abu Abbas, the mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking, managed to slip away after his plane was forced down by US fighters.

The Italian prime minister at the time, Bettino Craxi, persuaded President Ronald Reagan to hand the terrorists over to Italy on the ground that the crimes had been committed on an Italian ship.

The U.S. administration was deeply angered when the Craxi government immediately released the mastermind of the Achille Lauro operation, Abu Abbas, who was later convicted in absentia. The Craxi cabinet fell in the ensuing uproar.

And this also explains how three of the four convicted terrorists just walked away from their prison terms.

Italy’s decision to furlough a Palestinian terrorist who murdered an elderly American passenger aboard the hijacked Achille Lauro cruise liner threatened to chill Italian-U.S. relations Tuesday after the man failed to return from a leave given “for good conduct.”

[...] Privately, U.S. officials appeared to be flabbergasted and trying to figure out what to say and how to say it after learning of his flight — particularly since Mr. Molky was the third of four convicted Achille Lauro terrorists to have walked out of Italian jails in such circumstances.

This was in 1996. I think it’s safe to say that the Italians were still abiding by the agreement they made with the murderers.

So. How do you say “Eff you” in Italian, hm? Because Italy, eff you for making deals with murderers to keep yourselves a tiny bit safer. But it didn’t work all that well now, did it?

But the agreement did not always run smoothly. On August 2, 1980 an explosion shook Bologna’s train station; 85 people were killed and 200 more were injured in the blast. Cossiga believes it is entirely possible that the explosion was due to a “work accident” and that explosive materials handled by the Palestinians were responsible for the incident.

The fable of the frog and the scorpion comes to mind. Only an idiot trusts the scorpion.

07/17/2008

Low and lower

Filed under: Israel Derangement Syndrome — Tags: — SnoopyTheGoon @ 12:23 pm

The recent do on the border with Lebanon couldn’t have passed without the inimitable Fisk checking in with a totally idiotic opus in the captive Indy. Since fisking Fisk is too nineties (simply put – you do not fisk anyone senile to that degree), I shall leave it to you, dear reader. It is quite a sample of gutter-low journalism.

But then there is low and there is low. And no one gets lower than some “assaJew” anti-Zionists. In this case it is the notorious, although much less notorious as he would like to be, Mark Elf. In his latest opus (search for yourself for Jews Sans Frontiers, we here don’t link to such dreck) he is advocating for Kuntar:

Now, if Quntar did what he was accused of, then he is no doubt a monster. But did he? The facts leave ample room for doubts. Quntar maintains he did not kill either of his two alleged victims.

Should I comment? Nah…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

07/15/2008

Tony’s tolerance of terror has limits

Filed under: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time, Media Bias — Tags: , — Soccerdad @ 7:00 pm

The other day the Palestinians condemned two men to death for supposedly “collaborating” with Israel to target terrorists. These men weren’t convicted by Hamas, but by the “moderate” Fatah faction that is in charge of Jenin.

Reacting to this story, Elder of Ziyon observed:

It’s been about three years since a death penalty has been carried out
in the PA, and most of them have been for “collaboration with the enemy” (the list is here.)

In other words, the internationally recognized government of the PA, who is supposedly Israel’s peace partner, actively supports and defends known terrorists (”resistance fighters”) , and rather than punishing the actual terrorists, it punishes those who try to stop them.

To put it bluntly, the PA is the enemy and there is no distinction between the Palestinian Authority and the terrorists whom it actively supports and defends.

So if Israel needs to act against terror threats, who can it depend on? Apparently only itself.

Israeli troops arrested seven Hamas figures Tuesday, including two municipal council members, in a widening crackdown on the Islamic militant group in Nablus, residents said.

The Israeli military confirmed that it arrested seven Palestinians in the city but did not elaborate.

And apparently Tony Blair depends on Israeli security too.

Israel’s Shin Beth domestic intelligence agency warned Blair shortly before his arrival at the Gaza border that a “terror organisation” was planning to attack his motorcade, an agency official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But the Islamist movement Hamas, which had welcomed the visit, said it had made the appropriate security preparations and accused Israel of pressuring Blair into cancelling the trip.

(h/t LGF)

(The headline of this “news” item gives credence to the Hamas claim by enclosing “threat” in scare quotes.)

Tony Blair (the guy pictured doing the Macarena) is someone who has regularly asked Israel to relax its security measures. It absolutely defies belief that he’d heed a warning that he didn’t think was serious. I have no doubt he is concerned about his own welfare; his concern for Israelis is somewhat less certain.

Still Hamas’s claim that Israel was somehow conniving to keep Blair from seeing the utter devastation visited upon Gaza by the Israeli blockade has some credibility with a particular gullible segment of the population: supposedly skeptical reporters.

Plus, we’re talking about Tony Blair here, who even braved untamed Iraq, presumably he doesn’t scare easily..

Noah Pollak comments:

Don’t you see? The Israelis, hoping to cover up their crimes, invented a “security threat” — they lied, in other words — to prevent Blair from going to Gaza and drawing attention to the “catastrophe” for which Israel is responsible. McGirk’s evidence of this? Literally none.

No evidence, but McGirk was parroting the words of Hamas.

“The Israeli occupation exerted great pressure to prevent Tony Blair from visiting the Gaza Strip because they did not want him to see the size of the disaster caused by the unjust blockade,” Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said.

(McGirk’s credibility takes another hit for writing:

Abbas is already playing second banana to Hamas in Gaza and is sulking over the fact that Hamas in large part has managed to keep up its end of the bargain and stop militants from lobbing rockets into southern Israel –upping their credibility among Palestinians and Arab states.

- emphasis mine – Hamas has control of Gaza, other than this week’s ostentatious arrest of three Fatah affiliated rocket launchers, Hamas has taken no action to prevent attacks on southern Israel. Like Sunday.

Palestinians on Sunday fired two mortar shells into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said, in another violation of the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas in the coastal territory.

The shells, which Israel Radio said landed near the security fence, caused neither casualties nor damage. There was no word if Israel would retaliate for the mortar strike.

h/t Rubicon3)

Of course if Gaza’s so badly off how can they afford to maintain horses for racing? What catastrophe is there for Tony Blair to see?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

07/02/2008

Can’t change the narrative

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:30 am

The original AP headline for the Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem?

Driver rams vehicle into Jerusalem bus, killing 3

Like it was an accident, instead of a deliberate, murderous attack.

Defining deviancy

Filed under: Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

Palestinian terrorists are now resorting to using heavy machinery to kill Israelis. Three dead, and 45 wounded*, when an Arab Israeli drove his bulldozer into cars, buses, and crowds.

Three women were killed and at least 30 more people were injured when a bulldozer driven by a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem trampled over pedestrians and vehicles and plowed into two buses in downtown Jerusalem at around noon Wednesday.

[...] The driver, who reportedly had a criminal record and was the holder of an Israeli (blue) identification card, was shot dead by a SWAT officer near the old Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The terrorist was identified as 31-year-old Hossam Dawiath, a father of two from the village of Tzur Baher.

The terrorist continued on his killing spree, but a short while later a soldier and a SWAT officer jumped on top of the vehicle. The officer then shot the terrorist in the chest and leg and killed him.

Jerusalem Police Chief Aharon Franco told Channel 2 “a tractor driven by a terrorist began hitting vehicles and flipped over two buses. Apparently there are casualties at the scene; we don’t have an exact number as of yet. We received no prior warning of a possible attack.”

Hamas is praising the attack.

However, a Hamas spokesman said Wednesday that the Jerusalem attack was “a natural reaction to Israel’s aggression,” adding the group did not know who was behind the attack.

Authorities think it was the act of a lone terrorist.

According to an assessment by the Gaza Strip organizations, as well as by sources in the Palestinian Authority, the Jerusalem attack was an independent act carried out by the driver alone.

But they’re beefing up security in crowded areas.

Regarding the headline to this post: The Palestinians found yet another way to define deviancy. If they can’t use nail bombs to murder innocents, apparently, they’ll grab the nearest bulldozer. There is nothing they will not stoop to.

There’s also almost nothing Israel’s “anti-Zionist” enemies won’t stoop to. Counting down to the anti-Israel crowd cheering the use of a bulldozer to kill Israelis. I’m quite sure they won’t object to this use of Caterpillar equipment (if it was Caterpillar), just as I’m sure some disgusting POS on Indymedia will be crowing over it.

*Toll is up to 66 wounded now.

06/29/2008

Breaking: Samir Kuntar to be freed

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:24 am

Looks like Israel is creating more reasons for Hezbullah, Hamas, and other terrorists to kidnap more Israelis. They’re freeing Samir Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners for what is now declared the corposes of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

The cabinet approved Sunday the prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, which will facilitate the return of IDF captives Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The motion was carried with a majority of 22 ministers.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged his ministers to vote in favor of the deal. “At the end of a long process, I have reached the conclusion that as the Israeli prime minister I must recommend that you approve the proposal which will bring this painful affair to an end – even at the painful price it requires us to pay,” Olmert said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

I’m not an Israeli. I don’t understand why the nation will allow terrorists to hold it hostage this way. But I do understand cause and effect, and incentives. Israel has just guaranteed that Hezbullah will try to kidnap more soldiers. Next up: the Hamas swap for Gilad Shalit.

There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.

Mind you, I have a tendency to see the glass half-full, so this may be entirely wishful thinking. But maybe it isn’t.

06/26/2008

Hamas pwned by Israeli hackers

Filed under: Computers, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 12:30 pm

A group of Israeli teenagers pwned a few terrorist websites.

Izzadin Kassam’s site displayed a blank white screen and Hebrew text notifying of a technical error.

The websites of Arab Israeli political party Balad, and left-wing activist groups ‘Hagada Hasmolanit’ and ‘Occupation’ featured a black background with an Israeli flag, and the emblem of the ‘Extremist Zealots’ group, similar to that of Meir Kahane’s Kach movement.

The lyrics from the Israeli national anthem ‘Hatikva’ were also posted on the sites in Hebrew, as well as pictures of Palestinian babies dressed as suicide bombers with the caption, ‘Murderers from Birth.’

Pictures at the link.

Ynet doesn’t label the kids right-wing, and talked to some of the hackers, who don’t sound nearly as scary as the JPost is making them out. (The JPost is going Ha’aretz on us? WTF?)

“The criteria are defined as anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish sites that support or assist in harming Zionism and the existence of Israel as a Zionistic, Jewish state”.

According to him, the group consists of young adults from 16 to 18 years of age.

In addition to the Hamas military wing’s site, they also broke into the Balad political party site, that of the Hagada Hasmalit (the left bank), the Kibush (occupation) site and more.

[...] Despite the fact that the slogan, “Kahane was right” appears and with it, the symbol of the Kach party, a yellow and black fist, the groups’ members clarified that they are in no way connected to the Kahane Chai party, “except for many common opinions and agreement with Kahane’s ways, out of the understanding that there is no other choice.”

Fanat al-Radical is a new group of hackers whose members were members of another group called Kamikaz Team. “Since we didn’t want to include politics in Kamikaz, we created a parallel group that supports the destruction of Arab sites.

I actually don’t care what their politics are. I wish them success in hacking all the anti-Israel sites they can find.

What ceasefire?

Filed under: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

Rockets hit Israel again today. And from the PA’s very own Fatah terrorists.

A Qassam rocket was fired Thursday afternoon from the Gaza Strip into Israel, exploding in an open area in Sderot’s industrial zone. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, took responsibility for firing the rocket. Sources in the Gaza Strip believe that the firing was meant to embarrass Hamas and to harm the ceasefire efforts.

Meantime, the PA’s own prime minister tells Israel to pay no attention to the rockets raining down on southern Israel, just open the crossings anyway. (What, you expected him to tell terrorists to stop firing the rockets? Please. You must be new here.)

Palestinian authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Thursday called on Israel to reopen border crossing with the Gaza Strip which were shut after Palestinian rocket attacks violated the shaky truce with Hamas.

“We have 1.5 million of our people with a sense of not having much to lose. That situation must end,” Fayyad told a news conference in Prague with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

Yes, it’s because they have “a sense of not having much to lose” that they’re firing rockets on Israel. Not because Hamas and Fatah are in a terror war with Israel. Nope. Pay no attention to the rockets, mortars, shootings, stabbings, and bombings. It’s all because of the “humiliations” suffered by the Palestinians.

And in today’s event being held in Arab/Muslim Bizarro World, Hamas is forming a committee to monitor violations of the truce—by Israel.

Earlier Thursday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that “the occupier’s continued blockade on the Strip constitutes a violation of the truce agreement.”

He spoke following a meeting held Hamas representatives with members of the Islamic Jihad, Popular Front and Democratic Front on Wednesday, in which the sides decided to form a joint committee which would monitor the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement and decided on the response.

Got it? He’s talking to the people who are firing the rockets about monitoring Israel for closing the crossings because those people are firing rockets. Yes, a day in the life of a terrorist in Gaza or the West Bank: It’s just like a day with the Red Queen, and makes even less sense.

06/24/2008

AP: Truce violations a “test”

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Gaza, Israel, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 12:00 pm

And here we go. Buried in the middle of an article about an Israeli guard who committed suicide while Sarkozy was boarding his plane to leave Israel, we have this description of the Palestinians violating the truce:

Earlier, Palestinian militants fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel, the first such attack since a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza militants took effect last week.

Israel condemned the attack as a “gross violation” of the truce, but did not say whether it would retaliate.

The barrage wounded two people and capped a day of violence that presented the truce with its first serious test.

Note how the AP won’t call it a violation of the truce, but insist on using an unnamed Israeli spokesman calling it a violation. The truce wasn’t violated, even though three rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel in the last few hours.

As for whether or not Olmert will declare the cease-fire to be over… still waiting.

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