The Sunday media bias post, now with extra hypocrisy!

Posted on 04/10/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel. So of course, the world media are concentrating on how Israel is “pounding” Gaza.

And the Arab League, using the newly-issued R2P (responsibility to protect) hobbyhorse, wants the UN to authorize a no-fly zone over Gaza. Because responding to rockets being fired into your country is just like a dictator forcibly putting down citizen protests calling for his removal. The hypocrisy is just super-duper today, because that very same dictator is a member of the Arab League. He was unavailable for voting, due to the fact that he is currently trying to murder the citizens who want him to step down from his dictatorship. Doubtless, however, Muammar Ghaddafy would vote for the no-fly zone over Gaza.

Oh, and Turkey is condemning the use of excessive force. That’s a good one. Heard any good Kurd jokes lately?

Of course, the media are all blaming Israel for the “violence.” Here’s the new AP boilerplate, which takes the Hamas line that this is all Israel’s fault:

The violence escalated a week ago when an Israeli airstrike killed three Hamas militants who Israel said were planning a cross-border kidnapping. On Thursday, Hamas militants fired a guided anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, wounding the two people on board, including a teenage boy who was critically hurt.

Since Thursday, Palestinians fired more than 120 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, prompting a series of Israeli reprisals that have killed 19 Palestinians, including six civilians, and wounded 65 others. It has been the most intense fighting between Israel and Gaza militants since a major Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory ended in January 2009.

Missing from the story is the fact that Hamas has been firing rockets steadily into Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead, and that less than three weeks before this latest “violence,” Hamas fired fifty mortars in one day. But absolutely, it’s Israel’s fault—for trying to stop terrorists before they get anothr Gilad Shalit to hold in a hole somewhere for years.

Amazingly, Reuters has the right cause-and-effect in its lead.

Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers signaled on Sunday they were looking to end a flare-up in violence that began four days ago with a missile attack on an Israeli school bus and has claimed the lives of 19 Palestinians.

Color me shocked.

The BBC counts the Palestinian casualties as just plain “people.” And they cast doubt on the reasons behind Israel’s response:

At least 18 people have died in Israeli air strikes, which it says have been in response to militant rocket fire.

[…] Several civilians were among those killed in the following Israeli air strikes. Dozens of people have been wounded.

This is the only number I can find in the BBC story.

Although three mortar shells were fired by Palestinian militants overnight this was a sharp drop from previous days

There have been over 120 rockets and mortars fired into Israel since Thursday, including many Grad rockets towards Israel’s cities that are being stopped by the Iron Dome defense system.

The shooting has not stopped, in spite of Hamas now saying that they’re really ready for a truce. Ehud Barak says that 750,000 citizens in bomb shelters is unacceptable. So this current round may not be over. And if the IDF does go into Gaza, those evil Israelis are going in with new maps that show them sensitive areas like schools and UN buildings that should not be attacked.

The list included hospitals, United Nations facilities, schools, power grids, flour mills, food storage centers and various homes and office buildings.

Senior IDF officers have told The Jerusalem Post that new maps being drafted by the Gaza Division in the Southern Command ahead of a possible future operation in Gaza now include more than 3,000 sites that are off-limits to attacks.

The most moral army in the world? You bet your ass they are. The difference between Hamas and Israel can be counted in those two paragraphs. Hamas deliberately targets school buses. Israel marks civilian sites as off-limits. Which one got the brunt of the Goldstone Report? Why, of course the one that tries to prevent civilian casualties. That’s Israeli Double Standard Time, defined.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Iron Dome missile defense in action

Posted on 04/09/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Ynet caught Iron Dome on video.

And their embed code isn’t working. Click the link.

Posted in Israel | 1 Comment

Targeting Jews in America

Posted on 04/09/2011 by Meryl Yourish

The explosion that was a bomb, then was a “freak accident” is now a bomb again—and the FBI has a suspect. And he seems to be Jewish. Wonderful.

The FBI said evidence found near the scene of an explosion Thursday next to a Santa Monica synagogue was linked to an “extremely dangerous” suspect now being sought in the blast.

The explosion was first believed to be an accident. But “technicians and detectives conducted further forensic analysis at the scene and, after unearthing much of the large portion of the cement found, uncovered materials indicating that the device appeared to have been deliberately constructed,” the FBI said in a statement. “Investigation has determined that items found in and around the mechanism are linked to an individual by the name of Ron Hirsch, identified as a transient.”

Law enforcement sources told The Times that gun powder was among the items found in the explosive device. Officials have not said exactly how they linked the evidence inside the explosive device to the suspect.

Hirsch, 60, also known as Israel Fisher, is thought to be behind Thursday morning’s blast outside Chabad House on 17th Street between Broadway Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. Police described Hirsch as a transient.

Posted in Jews, Terrorism | Comments Off on Targeting Jews in America

Hamas doubling down on civilian rocket attacks

Posted on 04/09/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Iron Dome did its job again, but Hamas and its fellow terrorists are shelling Israel on a constant basis. But the war crimes of the terrorists continue:

Meanwhile, the IDF continues to hunt down rocket -aunching cells, which military officials say are operating out of civilian population centers and taking cover in densely crowded areas.

“When Palestinian civilians are killed in these kinds of strikes, the population should only complain to Hamas, which continues to turn its own citizens into a protective vest,” a military official said earlier.

Hamas is claiming it wants a truce. It doesn’t seem to want it that badly, however:

Since Thursday, terror groups in Gaza fired more than 70 rockets, mortar shells and missiles at southern Israel communities. Several rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system.

Hiding among civilians is their favorite tactic. They’re making triply sure there will be civilian casualties now.

The army said that terrorists in Gaza are making use of public buildings in their attacks and are operating in crowded population centers. A video published by the IDF Spokesman’s Office documented a strike on a rocket launcher hidden in a Gaza cemetery. Several Palestinian civilians were hurt in the attack.

The AP tried for objectivity. Truly, they did. I can tell that they’ve been working harder these days. They even changed their Gaza War boilerplate, which no longer says “at least half civilians” when discussing casualties. The lead of the story is almost objective.

Palestinian militants fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel on Saturday and Israeli warplanes killed four militants in the Gaza Strip in the most intense fighting since Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The escalating series of strikes and counterstrikes has killed 18 Gazans since it began on Thursday and the continuing clashes are increasing the probability of a full-scale military confrontation.

Israeli officials said the airstrikes would continue as long as the rocket attacks persist. Hamas officials insisted they were trying to restore quiet, but said they were prepared to fight.

They failed.

The AP story includes three named spokesmen for Hamas, and none for Israel, although it does quote an Israeli analyst on why Israel retaliates for the rocket attacks. Yes, really. Because that’s the kind of reporting that only a professional can do!

The biggest failure, however, is the description of the last two years of attacks by Hamas.

After two years of relative calm, the situation began to escalate last weekend when an airstrike killed three Palestinian militants who Israel said were plotting to carry out a cross-border kidnapping. On Thursday, Hamas militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli schoolbus, wounding two people on board, including a teenage boy.

“Relative calm” includes hundreds of rockets fired into Israel, including over 50 rockets on one day last month. The weak response to that is probably part of the reason Hamas thought it could get away with murdering schoolchildren. By the way, in case you were unaware of this, if the attack had taken place a few minutes earlier, thirty children would have been on that bus.

The AP tallies the rocket attacks which will, doubtless, be ignored in next year’s end of the “relative calm” report:

Gaza militants fired 17 Grad-style Katyusha rockets and seven mortar shells into Israel Saturday in what Israeli police said was the biggest single-day bombardment since the Gaza war.

Several missiles fell in uninhabited areas near the southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba, while seven were intercepted by Israel’s new missile shield, Iron Dome. There were no reports of injuries.

Oh, by the way—Hamas is now saying it didn’t mean to target a school bus.

Liars.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Hamas doubling down on civilian rocket attacks

When a war crime is not a war crime

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Meryl Yourish

The charge of “war crime” is thrown endlessly at Israel, to the point that the Goldstone Report was commissioned and issued by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. It dealt with supposed war crimes by Israel, yet did not once accuse Hamas of war crimes.

The media put forward all charges of Israel committing war crimes. Take the Mavi Marmara incident. How many articles did you read about whether or not Israel committed war crimes against the passengers (those beacons of peaceful protest that only recently repeated their commitment to destroying Israel)?

Take a look at what Britain’s foreign minister had to say about the deliberate targeting of a school bus.

Earlier, British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the anti-tank missile attack on a childrens’ school bus in the Negev, calling it a “despicable” and “cowardly” act.

“I unreservedly condemn today’s attack from Gaza on a bus carrying school children in southern Israel. The initial reports we have received suggest the bus was deliberately targeted and that a 16-year-old boy has been critically injured,” Hague said.

“This is a despicable and cowardly act that stands in stark contrast to people’s desire for peaceful reform across the region. Violence will never deliver peace,” Hague continued.

Only a week ago, Hague’s office released a report on the world’s 26 worst human rights violators. Israel was in the report, along with 25 actual human rights abusers. If, as Hague says above, he has reports that Hamas deliberately targeted the school bus (which it did), then this is not a “despicable and cowardly act.” It is a human rights violation. It is a war crime. And yet, Hague doesn’t use that language to describe it. Why is that? Why is it that his office can slander Israel as a violator of Palestinian human rights, but it can’t call a war crime a war crime? The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime. Hamas deliberately targeted a school bus full of children (it hoped).

Don’t hold your breath waiting to hear Hague condemn Hamas war crimes. He’s too busy accusing Israel of them. As for the EU, well, there isn’t even a mention of Hamas in Catherine Ashton’s rote condemnation of “violence.” It’s as if the rockets launched themselves. And mention of a school bus? Surely you jest.

“I strongly condemn yesterday’s mortar and rocket attacks out of the Gaza strip, which once again hit the innocent civilian population and which must stop immediately,” she said.

“I am deeply concerned by the current escalation of violence,” the 27-nation EU’s foreign policy chief said in a statement.

“I also deplore the loss of civilian life in Gaza and call on Israel to show restraint.

No, the label of war crimes is never attached to actual war crimes perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis. That label is reserved for Israel only, especially when Israel is doing no such thing.

We must once again call on a refrain we got too tired to use recently. What time is it? That’s right, it’s Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry. It only occurs on days that end with a “y.”

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israeli Double Standard Time, World | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Casus belli: Deliberately targeting school buses

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Two years ago, I wrote about Hamas terrorists deliberately targeting Israeli schoolchildren, and the lack of response from the world. Today, history repeats itself. Hamas terrorists deliberately targeted a schoolbus yesterday, using a laser-guided anti-tank missile to make sure of the hit. Hamas is taking full responsibility for it, calling it “self-defense.” Self-defense—sending a laser-guided missile capable of blowing up a tank or a cement bunker—at a bus filled with children. Or so they had hoped. It was their bad luck (and his) that only one child remained on the bus.

The school bus was traveling in southern Israel near the Gaza border when it was hit by a type of anti-tank missile known as a Kornet, said Israeli military spokesman Capt. Barak Raz. The Kornet is a Russian-made anti-tank guided missile system that is thought to have a maximum range of 5 1/2 kilometers (3 1/2 miles).

The Kornet anti-tank missile was supplied by Iran to Hizbollah and used to great effect in the 2006 Lebanon war. It is now obviously being supplied to Hamas. Israel has developed and used successfully a defense system for its tanks, but nobody ever thought that a schoolbus needed anti-tank missile defenses. Nobody outside of the subhumans that make up the terrorists groups trying to destroy Israel, anyway.

Israeli aircraft and ground forces struck Gaza on Friday, killing three Hamas militants and three civilians in a surge of fighting sparked by a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli school bus the day before.

Even the AP is pointing out that it wasn’t a directionless mortar, but a laser-guided anti-tank missile that terrorists used to make a sure hit on the bus. The Washington Post and CNN have also highlighted that fact, although the CNN update has since dropped the important factor that this was a deliberate, laser-guided anti-tank missile attack on a bus presumably filled with schoolchildren. That’s a pretty important fact to drop, considering the deliberate targeting of children is the reason the IDF is still bombing Gaza as I write this post.

In Thursday’s attack, Gaza militants hit an Israeli school bus near the border with a guided anti-tank missile, injuring the driver and badly wounding a 16-year-old boy. Most of the schoolchildren on the bus got off shortly before the attack.

You can see pictures of the bus at most of the links.  It’s quite clearly a yellow schoolbus, of the kind used throughout the world to denote “This bus is filled with children on their way to and from school.” There is no way the terrorists could have mistaken it for any other vehicle. A bus is a bus is a bus. Below is a video of the missile that Hamas used to hit the bus. Watch the video. See what kind of damage that missile can do. See how easy it is to assemble and disassemble the missile launcher. Note the ease and clarity of the targeting scope. The terrorists knew full well what they were aiming for, and Iranian dollars supplied them with the weapon. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is smiling today.

Alex Fishman, writing in Ynet, has captured the reasons behind Israel’s furious response perfectly.

Every American or European mother fully understands the meaning of firing at a yellow bus. A yellow bus is an international warning signing that means “these are children.” Those who fire at a yellow bus with the intention of murdering children are war criminals of the worst kind and a partner for nothing.

He also points out that Israel’s vapid response last month to the barrage of dozens of mortars emboldened Hamas to push even further. And push they did, almost committing a goal they have tried to reach for years: The murder of dozens of Israeli children. The anti-Israel left has no sympathy for murdered Israelis. They see no difference between the deliberate targeting of a schoolbus with a missile designed to penetrate solid, reinforced steel and the accidental death of civilians. If Hamas had hit the bus when it was full, the anti-Israel left would still be calling for both sides to exercise “restraint.” Because the world simply does not have a problem with more dead Jews.

The thing is, Israel does. Jews do. And this time, Israel has a clear casus belli—even though the anti-Israel forces will not admit it. The reason for this attack will soon be lost in the last paragraphs of the news reports. But not here. Here, you will know why the IDF is bombing Gaza: Because terrorists deliberately tried to murder dozens of children riding home from school.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias, Terrorism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Laser Guided War Crime

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Rabbi Kaufman

There are no few arguing this morning about whether or not Hamas should have known that the yellow bus that it fired upon yesterday was a school bus. Yellow is the color of school buses in the United States and thus this question may result in an immediate “Of Course.” In Israel, school buses are not always yellow. But think about what we are debating here! What is the question for which the answer of whether or not Hamas should have known the bus was a school bus matters?

Seems to me that deliberately firing on any civilian bus is a war crime. It does not matter whether it is a bus of seniors going to gamble in Jericho, a city bus, a tour bus or a school bus. WAR CRIME.

The weapon used by Hamas for the bus attack was a Kornet anti-tank rocket, laser guided directly to the target. It was not a mortar blindly lobbed over the border that happened to hit the bus. Even then, the likelihood that it would hit a civilian target, if it hit anything, would make it a war crime. All of the mortar and rocket attacks coming from Gaza are war crimes. In this case, however, a member of Hamas decided to fire upon the civilian bus and guided the weapon to the target. WAR CRIME.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. They did not apologize for wrongly attacking a school bus, if you were wondering. They did not say that charges will be filed against the people responsible either, in case you were wondering. Hamas policy is to commit war crimes against Israel, to attack civilians deliberately. WAR CRIME.

I wonder when the UN will look into Hamas’ war crimes. I’m not holding my breath.

Posted in Hamas, Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

My Reaction to Goldstone and Rosenberg

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Rabbi Kaufman

I have been more than a bit infuriated by the left’s reaction to Richard Goldstone’s statement that Israel did not intentionally target civilians during Operation Cast Lead. In fact, I wrote two articles about it for We Are For Israel. The first, dealt with the implication of Goldstone’s retraction, namely that the major charge against Israel that the commission investigated, namely that Israel as a matter of policy intentionally targeted civilians, should be withdrawn. You can find that article here.

However, I became so infuriated when I read MJ Rosenberg’s piece in response to Goldstone’s change of heart, that I had to respond and so I wrote an article that I believe you would enjoy reading about Jew-hatred and criticism of Israel and the line between them that I believe Rosenberg and Goldstone both crossed. In it, I note ways in which criticism of Israel mirrors traditional anti-Judaism.

I believe that most Jews living today have no concept of what Jew-hatred really is. For individuals such as MJ Rosenberg to say what he does about Israel without realizing that he is simply substituting “Israel” and “Israelis” for “Jews” in age old anti-Jewish canards boggles the mind.

Rosenberg accused Israel of not caring whether or not civilians were killed because they were not Jews. The worst Jew haters in history could not have said it better. Just sick.

If you’re interested, take a look at my article.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on My Reaction to Goldstone and Rosenberg

Beating a dead horse: The anti-Israel meme continues

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Meryl Yourish

In today’s updates on Israel’s attacks on Hamas terrorists, who fired 45 missiles into Israel yesterday, we learn that Israel is now attacking Hamas during a truce. This is the AFP, which is a wire service used throughout Europe:

Israel kills two Hamas militants hours after truce

Two Hamas militants were killed on Friday in a new air strike on Gaza just hours after the movement called a truce, following a day of confrontations with Israel.

We also learn that Israel responded “immediately” to the attack on a bus, which wounded [only] two people, with the killing and wounding of many. This is the “disproportionate” meme. (Also the “round of violence” meme, but that’s practically a given now.)

The latest violence was sparked Thursday afternoon when Hamas militants fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, critically wounding a teenager and lightly injuring the driver.

Israel responded immediately, launching more than a dozen strikes on targets across the enclave which by the evening had killed four and injured more than 30, prompting Gaza’s Hamas leaders to hurriedly announce a fresh truce.

[…] The bus attack sparked a chain of Israeli attacks across the territory, which initially killed four people and wounded 37, with medics pulling a fifth body pulled from the rubble in the southern city of Rafah early on Friday.

What we do not learn is that immediately after the bus was shelled, Hamas fired 44 more missiles, including a Grad attack on Ashkelon. Well, not until we’ve read all of the above, a tally of dead and wounded, and the number of times Israel has attacked Gaza. Then we discover this fact:

Aside from the anti-tank missile, militants had lobbed around 50 mortars at Israel, one of which hit a house, a military spokeswoman said.

The BBC is even worse. They use the “military wing” fig leaf to pretend that Hamas has two arms which have nothing to do with another. The BBC story does not mention yesterday’s bombardment by Hamas except for the mortar that hit the bus. It makes it look like Israel is responding only to that, not to some 50 rockets and mortars—as well as the hundreds fired in March.

At least six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza, including two women, doctors say.

The Israeli strikes come hours after Islamist group Hamas said it had brokered a deal for Gaza’s militant groups to stop firing on Israel.

On Thursday, members of its military wing hit an Israeli school bus with an anti-tank shell, injuring two people.

The BBC report mentions “fresh violence,” but clearly puts the responsibility on Israel and whitewashes the attacks of the Palestinians:

Israeli artillery fire and air strikes have been heard across Gaza throughout much of the day, our correspondent says, and at least six rockets were fired into Israel, hitting an area north of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli police.

It is not clear whether the fresh violence signals an end to the truce, or whether the firing of rockets was carried out by a Palestinian splinter group that had not signed up to the ceasefire.

CNN has a mostly fair account. It has an accurate headline, mentions the 15 mortars shot into Israel today, and seems perfectly fine. Except for the fact that it, too, neglects to mention that the Israeli reprisals are not just for the mortar that hit the bus. There is no word of the barrage that followed immediately after, causing the first responders to wait to bring the boy to the hospital.

What is missing from all of these articles? Any cogent analysis of why Israel is bombing the crap out of Hamas as a response to yesterday’s attack. Here’s why Israel is going full-out after the terrorists:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on an official visit to Prague, commented on the escalating tensions in southern Israel, saying: “The attack on the children’s bus was crossing a red line.

“The IDF reacted immediately overnight and will continue to act with resolve. Heaven help those who try to hurt and murder children,” he added.

More on that later.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Beating a dead horse: The anti-Israel meme continues

Hamas wants war with Israel; media wants to whitewash Hamas

Posted on 04/08/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Yesterday, Hamas declared their pretend unilateral cease-fire, after lobbing 45 missiles—including a Grad rocket shot down by the Iron Dome defense system before it could hit Ashdod—into southern Israel. The reason for the cease-fire? Well, this time, Netanyahu unleashed the IAF and sent them to hit Hamas strongholds in Gaza.

Barry Rubin says Hamas is heading towards war with Israel. One point he did not cover is that the Hamas leadership no doubt thinks that if it does come to war with Israel, it can get the same kind of Western help against Israel as the Libyan rebels are getting against Ghadaffi. This is wishful thinking, but can you blame them for thinking that the anti-Israel tide is swinging in their favor? Just read this BBC piece and you will learn that it is Israel doing all the damage to civilians. Or read the articles I posted yesterday. Or the AP update. Note that the AP neglects to mention the 45 missiles that rained down on southern Israel, including a Grad rocket heading towards Ashkelon, in the lede.

An anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck a school bus in southern Israel Thursday, wounding two people, one of them critically, and prompting fierce Israeli retaliation that killed five Palestinians.

Israel unleashed airstrikes and tank fire against Hamas targets across the border in the heaviest assault on the coastal territory since a broad military offensive two years ago. Besides the dead, more than 30 Palestinians were wounded, said Palestinian health official Adham Abu Salmiya.

Where can you find the information on the Hamas missile barrage? In paragraph 23 of a 27-paragraph story. And yet, you get the information on Israeli assaults, and the damage they caused, in the lede. And of course, you have Hamas spokesmen named and labeled, whereas Israeli spokespeople? They’re faceless, nameless “The military.”

The military said that after the missile attack, about 45 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza toward Israel, including one that struck a home, causing damage but no injuries.

Hamas wants the war. Israel does not. But that’s not what the media are telling us.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Hamas wants war with Israel; media wants to whitewash Hamas

Bias? What anti-Israel bias?

Posted on 04/07/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Get a load of this headline from AFP:

     Israel pounds Gaza, kills 3 after missile hits bus

And here’s the lede:

Gaza militants on Thursday fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, critically injuring a teenager, prompting the army to pound the Strip, killing three and wounding more than 30.

After the missile slammed into the bus, the Palestinians lobbed at least 45 mortar rounds into southern Israel, hitting a house, and the army responded by staging multiple raids across the enclave, one of which hit an ambulance, Palestinian medics said.

So naturally, the headline is all about the Israelis pounding the Palestinians. The article goes on to detail the attacks by the Palestinians:

Immediately after the bus was hit, militants in Gaza fired at least seven mortar rounds at the area, complicating efforts to evacuate the teenager and the bus driver, an AFP correspondent said.

By early evening, the army said at least 45 mortar rounds and rockets had slammed into southern Israel, one of which scored a direct hit on a house.

So the Palestinians hit a bus, shot more rockets to make sure they hit the first responders, and then shot even more mortars into Israel, and the headline is—Israel pounds Gaza. Note the language used to denote the pounding of Israel by Palestinians. Then note the language used to describe the Israeli counterattack.

Following the surge in violence, the Israeli military hit back immediately, shelling an area in eastern Gaza City and killing a 50-year-old man and wounding another five people, including a small child.

Air strikes hit two Hamas positions in and around Gaza city, and other raids hit targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis, killing another two people and wounding tens more, eight of whom were injured when shell fragments hit an ambulance, Palestinian medical sources said.

In total, some 34 people were wounded across the Gaza Strip.

A spokeswoman for the military confirmed troops had launched multiple attacks on targets in Gaza, saying it “fired at places from which mortars are fired at Israel.”

You know, it’s gotten to the point where I expect anti-Israel bias in every single non-Israeli or non-Jewish media outlet. I am almost never disappointed.

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Media Bias, Terrorism | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Terrorists up the ante; media bias still the same

Posted on 04/07/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Terrorists from Gaza have been deliberately firing rockets and missiles during the times when children are going to and from school. It’s been a miracle that so far, a major catastrophe has not occurred. Today, they hit a schoolbus minutes after it had been loaded with some thirty children. A 16-year-old boy is gravely wounded with a head injury. After that attack, terrorists launched dozens of mortar shells and rockets. Once again, note the AP headline:

     Missile from Gaza hits Israeli school bus; 2 hurt

It was a missile that did the damage, not Palestinian terrorists. The AP did not cite the airstrike as the killer in this article from three days ago:

     Israeli Airstrike Kills Militants In Gaza

Quite a difference. You also have to dig down near the end of the story to discover these extremely relevant facts:

Police said that within an hour of the initial missile attack about 15 mortar shells fired from Gaza landed in Israel, including one that directly struck a home, causing damage but no injuries.

That’s the 16th paragraph in a 23-paragraph story. This is the second:

Israel unleashed airstrikes against Hamas targets across the border as well as tank fire that killed a 50-year-old civilian outside his home and wounded nine other people, Palestinian medics said.

The IDF struck after the barrage of missiles. You would think that would be relevant to the writers and editors of the AP piece. But you would be wrong.

The only good news in this whole horrible afternoon in Israel is this: Iron Dome shot down a Grad rocket.

Residents in Ashkelon reported Thursday seeing Israel’s new Iron Dome defense system intercept a Grad rocket fired towards the southern city from the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses told Ynet they saw the rocket explode in midair and realized that the system had intercepted its first rocket.

If Iron Dome is deployed along the entire southern border, it’s a game-changer. And the Palestinians know it. Doubtless, they’re testing to see what does and does not get shot down.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Bias, Terrorism | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Thursday news

Posted on 04/07/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Awww…. it’s Tripoli Tulip: Boy, she must be into the Ghaddafis for her life.

In her 30s, with long dark hair, heavy makeup and often decked out in gaudy outfits, she often gives long monologues crusading against Libya’s rebels, the NATO-led alliance bombing Gadhafi troops from the air and anyone perceived of sympathizing with them or fueling the campaign against Gadhafi. That includes Western media and, particularly, the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, which she refers to as “the pig channel” in a rhyming play on words — the Arabic word for pig is “khanzeera.”

Okay, I do like her opinion of Al-Jazeeera, but if the Ghaddafis go, she’s dog meat. Thus proving that it isn’t only the Ghaddafis who are the nutcases in Libya.

The Gaza Flotilla—it’s ba-aaaack: So let me understand something. The flotilla alledgedly wanted to break the blockade of Gaza. Israel now ships in pretty much everything the Gazans want, and Gazans even export goods. But there’s another flotilla, a bigger one, and this one is also run by the IHH with its useful idiots from many countries on the left. About the only thing that’s being blockaded is weapons. So exactly what are the flotilla fools trying to accomplish, exactly? Help the terrorists get weapons to Gaza?

Of course that’s their goal.

By the way, AP guy who reads my blog to see what I’m saying about you—THIS is the way to write a boilerplate on the Mavi Marmara incident:

In May 31, 2010 a Navy force raided the Marmara ship which had broken the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. On board the vessel were terrorists from the IHH organization who ambushed the soldiers ahead of time. The ship also carried peace activists who apparently were not aware of the Turkish group’s intentions.

Several of the Navy commandos were attacked and kidnapped to the lower deck. The soldiers were then forced to use live ammunition and killed nine of the passengers. A week after the incident the Turkish press distributed photos of bleeding IDF soldiers captured by the activists.

Israel to enemies: Wherever you go, there we’ll bomb. Whoa. Israel attacked a car in Sudan carrying a top Hamas arms merchant. Unfortunately, the bastard survived. Expect the denunciation from the UNHRC any day now. Also: Abu Sisi, the so-called innocent man who is simply the chief engineer of the Gaza power plant, allegedly gave up the information that caused Israel to bomb Sudan.

Even more quickly: Hamas Jerusalem bomb cell caught, Hamas fires anti-tank missile into Negev, injures two, women arrested in Itamar slaying.

Posted in Gaza, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Middle East, Terrorism | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Wednesday news roundup

Posted on 04/06/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Richard Goldstone is giving me whiplash: Now Goldstone is recanting the recantation of his op-ed? Not exactly, but he is saying that he won’t work to have the report nullified, which contradicts what he told Israeli ministers only a day or two ago. Really, does this guy even have a spine? I’m starting to think he’s related to Mr. Loopner, who was born without a spine. On the other hand, the significance of the op-ed remains: Goldstone said that evidence proves that Israel did not deliberately target civilians. That’s the spin you’re not going to see in the MSM pieces, however. Watch them all say that Goldstone is recanting the recant, when he clearly is not.

Gee, civilians complicate war? Who knew? France is finding out that it’s not so easy to bomb the bad guys when they hide among civilians. Libya, Gaza, gee, what are the commonalities? Let’s think. Hm… (Hint: Ruthless disregard for civilian life from only one side of the conflict.)

And the Keen Grasp of the Obvious Award goes to: The Associated Press, for this gem: It’s a gasoline world: Fuel connections everywhere. Oh, so that’s why prices are going up. Duh.

Oblahma: Peres meets Obama, blah blah blah, construction in Gilo is “disappointing,” blah blah blah, peace with Palestinians more urgent than ever, blah, blah, blah. Check out the body language in the picture. Obama is not a happy man around Israelis, unless they’re named Rahm Emanuel, apparently.

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Media Bias, World | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Windy Tuesday briefs

Posted on 04/05/2011 by Meryl Yourish

Last night I’m pretty sure I saw a witch riding on her broomstick, thumbing for a hitch.

UNHRC to Goldstone: Nyah nyah nyah, it is too true! The execrable United Nations Human Rights Council says that Goldstone’s op-ed, where he pointed out the bias and lies of the commission report named after him, is not binding. Also that the only way to undo the report is by unanimous vote of all the countries in the UNHRC. In other words: Pound sand, Jewboy. We got what we wanted out of you: A veneer of respectability from a Jewish, South African judge. And if anyone thinks I’m exaggerating what they used him for, well, I have this bridge to sell you. Cheap. It’s in New York. Been in my family for generations.

The Goldstone Repentance Tour begins: He’s going to visit Sderot. As well he should. And if his repentance is sincere, we are commanded to forgive him.

What the media leave out: The AP carried a short piece on the Israeli-Arab actor murdered in Jenin. They missed a significant motive, however.

Residents of the refugee camp disseminated fliers in 2009 calling the actor a fifth column. “If words don’t help we will have to speak in bullets,” the fliers said.

What was it that angered the Arabs of Jenin? This:

However, the actor added, he was taking precautions. Of those behind the fliers he said, “It makes them crazy that a man who is half-Jewish is at the head of one of the most important projects in the Palestinian West Bank and it is just hypocritical racism.”

Stop for a moment and realize that every single time an Arab is wounded or killed and blames Israeli Jews, the AP runs wild with it (as does the rest of the world media). When Arabs murder Jews because they are Jews, the media ignore it.

Reuters missed it in the first article, but noted the anti-Jewish threats in the current one. The AFP missed it. There are most of the European news media outlets right there. And there is a primary example of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian bias of the major media. The man was murdered because he was Jewish. Not publishing that fact is tantamount to covering it up.

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias, United Nations | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments