07/23 Links Pt2: Anti-Israel Protests Make the Case for Israel; Democrats losing moral clarity on Israel
From Ian:
Anti-Israel Protests Make the Case for Israel
The case for Israel is now playing out on the streets of Paris.
Over the weekend, pro-Palestinian rioters marched into a Jewish suburb in the French capital to break Jewish things. They torched cars, lobbed firebombs into a synagogue, and burnt Jewish-owned stores to the ground. One group of men reportedly spoke loudly of "hunting Jews and killing them." That followed last weekend's attempt to storm two other Parisian synagogues to a chorus of "Death to Jews!" and "Hitler was right!" They were only held in check by Jewish vigilantes who took up arms to defend those trapped inside.
The case for Israel is now unfolding in the heart of Berlin.
This past Friday, an imam was filmed delivering a Friday sermon beseeching Allah to destroy the Zionist Jews. "Count them and kill them to the very last one," he prayed. A day before, an angry mob gathered to demand the same thing. "Jude, Jude feiges Schwein! Komm heraus und kampf allein!" it bellowed in unison—"Jew, Jew, cowardly swine, come out and fight on your own!"
The case for Israel is now parading through London.
British Jews have experienced a doubling of anti-Semitic incidents over the last several weeks, from verbal abuse to attacks on buildings and people. One woman was reportedly assaulted by a breakaway group of 50 pro-Palestinian protesters who heard her discussing the Gaza conflict on her cell phone. They cried out "get her" and surrounded her, pushing and calling her a Jew, Zionist, murderer, and thief.
Poll: 73% say Israel more successful than Hamas in Gaza op
When asked if they supported or opposed Israel's ground incursion into Gaza, 80 percent of respondents replied that they supported it, 12 percent said they opposed it and 8 percent said they didn't know. When asked if Israel should expand its current ground operation, 71 percent of respondents said yes, 17 percent said no and 12 percent were undecided.
An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the Israel Defense Forces' performance thus far into the operation, with only 3 percent saying they were dissatisfied with how the army was handing the mission.
To the question "Should Israel make toppling the Hamas regime in Gaza a goal of Operation Protective Edge?" 65 percent of people polled replied yes, 22 percent said no and 13 percent said they didn't know. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Democrats losing moral clarity on Israel
The Pew Research Center last week released a new survey of American attitudes in the Middle East. The results weren't surprising. In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, 51 percent of Americans say they sympathize more with Israel. Only 14 percent feel greater affinity for the Palestinians.
Pew's findings demonstrate the strength of pro-Israel feeling in the United States. The poll was conducted amid the current fighting with Hamas, but the bottom line hardly changed from Pew's last survey in April, when it reported that in the 36 years it has been sampling public opinion, "sympathy toward Israel has never been higher."
But below the surface, America's Israel-friendly consensus is splitting along the same left-vs.-right fault line that has polarized so many other issues. While support for Israel is overwhelming among Republicans and conservatives, it has been shrinking among Democrats and liberals. "The partisan gap in Mideast sympathies has never been wider," reports Pew, with 73 percent of Republicans sympathetic to Israel in the ongoing conflict, but just 44 percent of Democrats. Respondents identifying as liberal Democrats were five times as likely as conservative Republicans to sympathize more with the Palestinians.
Thus is the Democratic Party losing its way on one of the great moral issues of our time.
Thousands of care packages sent to soldiers serving in Gaza
Thousands of Israelis on Tuesday rushed to purchase packages of snacks and personal care products for Israeli soldiers serving in Operation Protective Edge, while companies across the country worked together to support the soldiers and residents under constant rocket fire in the south.
Israel Hayom teamed up with the Rami Levy chain of supermarkets to offer kits to be sent to the soldiers, enabling shoppers to buy a package for a soldier while they shop for groceries.
For less than $3, a care package including body wash, a toothbrush, toothpaste, wet wipes, sweets and pretzels will be sent to a soldier. For $7, shoppers can purchase a kit including an undershirt, two pairs of underwear and socks.
A Twitter-spurred care package
Neuberger said he saw Ben's tweet while helping produce the Daily Kickoff email for Jewish Insider, a content curation service that focuses on Jewish political and business news.
From the early morning tweet and reply, a complicated chain of events was set in motion that eventually led to the delivery of "20 kilos of hummus, tons of drinks, and snacks… all thanks to (CORE18) and Twitter," said Lang.
There's a shortage of hot food at many IDF bases due to logistical challenges following the massive deployment of troops and reservists for Operation Protective Edge.
Help Israel Today (No Donation Required)
Having spent the last few hours with the parents of boys serving near Gaza, and then coming home to a siren that forced me to rush into our bomb shelter with my children, and knowing that I will be headed out to the funeral of a lone soldier in a few hours, it is safe to say that my emotions are running high. And I am not alone – everyone is grappling with intense emotions here in Israel at the moment.
Like many of you, one of the few things that is helping me cope with this situation is knowing that I can contribute in some way, and I am doing everything I can to support our nation through our troops, delivering supplies and treats to those on the front lines. But there are several other things that we can all do (or not do) to help at this difficult time – and none of them necessitate a reach for your wallet.
Mark Steyn: Fields of Blood
The two big international headlines of the moment are the downing of the Malaysian jet over Ukraine and Israel's incursion into Gaza. On the face of it, these two stories don't have much in common, but they are in fact part of the same story. To know Israel it helps to know Ukraine, and to know Ukraine it helps to know Israel.
~This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the day the Soviets re-took the city of Lviv (or Lvov, according to taste) in the western Ukraine, and ended a three-year German occupation. Before the Germans arrived, there were well over 100,000 Jews in the city and just shy of 50 synagogues. On July 26th 1944, when the Soviets returned, there were a couple of hundred Jews left.
Why? Why would you do this? Why, having "accidentally" shot down a passenger jet, would you then deliberately desecrate and dishonor the dead?
Well, here's Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, in his first international interview since the atrocity:
"Those armed in eastern Ukraine should not be referred to as "separatists," he insisted. "There are no separatists there. They are terrorists."
He's right. The word "separatists" conjures something like the Parti Québécois or East Timor or southern Sudan. But these guys have no interest in running a state. They're Putin's goons acting on direct orders from Moscow: It was, for example, almost certainly a Russian dispatched by the Kremlin who actually shot down the Malaysian jet since firing these missiles requires a degree of skill the locals don't have. The purpose of this "separatist" movement is not to build a country but to use the territory they hold to harass and terrorize and weaken the Ukrainian state.
Now who does that sound like? The "Palestinian Authority" is not a fully sovereign nation but it holds roughly the powers the Irish Free State had in 1922. Many aspects of that settlement were obnoxious to southern Ireland's "separatists" - the oath of allegiance to the King, the viceroy, their status as British subjects, the Royal Navy ports - but they nevertheless got on with building an Irish nation. Which is to say, boring stuff like fiscal policy and the education ministry and the department of public works.
Shock jock defends Jewish homeland
When baited by Hanzi about the current situation in Gaza, Stern, who is Jewish, cut him off.
"I don't change my f%$#ing tune [about Israel]; Israel's at no fault," he said.
He continued speaking about the situation for another five minutes, covering his version of Israeli history — "it was a little s#$%hole, it was a desert" — calling out musician Roger Waters for his boycott of Israel — and discussing Israelis' and Palestinians' median incomes.
The video has already racked up more than 21,000 views. Stern has some 12 million listeners each week.
NGOs and the next 'Goldstone' fiasco
While Israel faces massive terrorist attacks from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, there is another, parallel war being waged against it. However, in this "soft power" war, Israel's enemies do not use bullets, missiles or bombs.
Instead, Israel is being bombarded by a powerful and hostile network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are mass-producing hundreds of "cut and paste" condemnations of Israel. For groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and their Israeli and Palestinian NGO allies, the most destructive weapons are false claims of "war crimes" and the rhetoric of international law. On this crucial battlefield, success is determined by the number of times NGO allegations are uncritically repeated by journalists, diplomats and government officials.
As in previous conflicts – Jenin in 2002, the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Gaza in 2008-2009 – a major NGO objective is a formal, "independent" United Nations inquiry into Israel's military conduct.
Despite lacking any real investigatory capacity to draw meaningful conclusions, Amnesty, HRW and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) have called for the UN to form a "fact-finding mission" into alleged "violations" during the fighting.
The Holes in Brian Lurie's Defense of NIF-Funded Political NGOs
On July 20, 2014, Brian Lurie, president of New Israel Fund (NIF), published an op-ed article in Ha'aretz ("Under fire, Israel must still stand up for human rights"), defending Israeli human rights organizations and their recent statements condemning IDF responses to terror attacks from Gaza.
There are points in the article that are incomplete and require further clarification:
1) The article presumes that Israeli human rights organizations operate responsibly as "an independent voice reporting on government activity" and that their reports credibly "implicate or criticize military behavior.
NGOs and UN Arab Bloc Team-Up for Next "Goldstone" Mission
Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 23, the UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to hold a special session on the conflict in Gaza. The Council, in partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), will meet and vote to create another immoral "Goldstone" pseudo-investigation, warned Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor.
"The Arab bloc and allied dictatorial regimes that control the UN Human Rights Council are poised to adopt the agenda of the NGO network in forming a 'fact-finding' inquiry into Israel's response to terror from Gaza," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. "As with Goldstone in 2009 and other UN 'investigations,' all indications point to another NGO-UN kangaroo court."
Thousands Internationally Demonstrate Support for Israel
On Friday, hundreds convened in Washington, D.C.'s Farragut Square where speakers condemned and "rejected equating Hamas and Israel in the current conflict, saying that Israel goes out of its way to warn Palestinians while Hamas places its arms among its civilians," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).
One of the speakers praised the unity of the crowd in its support for Israel, but also made certain to draw attention to the fact that civilians are suffering on both sides of the conflict. "We are gathered here as one people... Never before in history has a nation taken the steps Israel has to avoid civilian killing."
On Sunday, hundreds gathered peacefully from both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian side in San Diego, California's beachfront La Jolla neighborhood in a show of support. A local law enforcement official addressed the crowds. She said, "It is critically important that all of us come together, not just in San Diego, but throughout the entire world," according to local CBS affiliate in San Diego.
Medea Benjamin at her finest
Gotta love this photo of Zach Hanover and Medea Benjamin, taken as Medea attempted to crash a pro Israel rally in Washington D.C.
From Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals:
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage."
Medea Benjamin, the millionaire populist 1% er and leader of the BDS movement while investing in BDS stock is certainly ripe for ridicule.
Thanks for the laugh, Zach.
Violence Against Jews Grows in Canada
With violent undercurrents festering among anti-Israel protesters recently coming to the fore, B'nai Brith Canada is expressing its concern regarding the upcoming "Al-Quds Day" rally scheduled for this Saturday, July 26th at Queen's Park in Toronto. The Jewish human rights organization is calling on Government and Police officials not to sanction these rallies, pointing to the fact that demonstrations across Europe, and now Calgary and Mississauga, have often turned into violent antisemitic outbursts and attacks on Jewish communal institutions.
Israel Supporters Attacked by Crowd Shouting 'Kill Jews' in Canada
A group of Canadian Israel supporters who were violently beaten last week by a crowd shouting anti-Semitic slurs said they continue to be bullied on the Internet and in the media by those who claim that they were looking for a fight.
A family of six pro-Israel supporters demonstrating in downtown Calgary was assaulted late Friday by a crowd of around 100 protestors who were demonstrating against Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip.
The victims said they were just trying to express their support for Israel when an angry mob of pro-Palestinian demonstrators surrounded them, began shouting anti-Semitic slogans, and then proceeded to aggressively beat the family, which included a 22-year-old girl and a 52-year-old woman who had recently had stomach surgery.
Pro-Palestinian group to apologize for violence at Calgary rally
One of the organizers of a Gaza peace rally that erupted in violence last week says the group is planning to apologize.
But a Jewish family that was attacked when they showed up at Calgary City Hall to show support for Israel say they're too afraid to take in another scheduled demonstration on Friday.
"I'm afraid for myself now," said Samantha Hamilton, 22, who went with five family members to last Friday's rally with Israeli flags and peaceful signs to show solidarity with their homeland.
"We just wanted to go and be peaceful."
No rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza says local Muslima genius
A Gaza 'peace' rally in Toronto saw protestors allege that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and that rocket fire agaisnt Israel isn't happening.
Paris Allows Anti-Israel Protests to Resume Despite Violence
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has blamed extremist groups for violent pro-Palestinian protests that took place last week in and near Paris.
He said certain unspecified "networks and extremist groups are trying to capitalize on this by riding on sentiments of anti-Semitism and hatred" and using it "to foment disorder".
However, Valls also said the large majority of the demonstrators were spurred by "legitimate motives - to display their indignation at the atrocities of the war."
The self-defense operation has stirred up passions in France - home to the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in western Europe with around five million Muslims and half a million Jews.
More video from Paris anti-Jewish Pogrom
Australian Jews' safety at 'high warning level'
Thousands came together Sunday in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as the Australian Jewish community held rallies and solidarity gatherings in a show of support to Israel.
The events came only a week after a member of the Jewish community was assaulted for wearing an IDF shirt — and at the same time that anti-Israel protests were also staged across the country.
Though the country is largely peaceful, Jewish community security services have raised the danger level to a high warning for Australian Jews.
Flags burned during anti-Israel protest
Student protesters have been arrested after burning an Australian flag they had stolen from a government office
'Save The Children' Ignores Hamas' Use of Human Shields
The group's statement lacked any acknowledgment of Hamas' use of civilians, especially children, as human shields.
In the course of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has returned fire against terrorists hiding in private houses.
Most damning is the boast of a Hamas official that the terrorist organization calls on civilians to enter military targets, in contravention of international law.
Save the Children's appeal would be much more convincing if it properly placed the blame for endangering children – and all civilians – squarely on the shoulders of Hamas, in accordance with the principles of international law.
Nine Arrested in NYC at Jewish Protest of Gaza Operation
Nine people were arrested this morning during an act of civil disobedience at the offices of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a non-profit committed to the education and wellbeing of the IDF. A total of 14 people, ranging in age from 20s to 70s, participated. It was part of a larger protest against the war in Gaza, organized jointly by two Jewish groups that advocate for Palestinian human rights: Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No!
Virginia Tech Professor Likens Israel to ISIS
Virginia Tech professor Steven Salaita, who according to his VT faculty page, "writes and teaches in the areas of American literature, ethnic studies, Indigenous Studies, and critical theory," took to Twitter on Tuesday to liken Israel to the radical Islamist terror group ISIS:
#Israel and #ISIS are but two prongs of the same violent ethnonationalism.
Salaita has a checkered history with regards to anti-Semitism and is a staunch supporter of the anti-Semitism Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. His interests include "Palestine. Native America. BDS. Decolonization. Indigenous Studies," according to his Twitter profile.
Israeli Spokesman: What Would Your Government Do If Faced With Armed Terrorists and Rockets 'Raining Down At Your Cities?'
Regev said he did agree with Albright's comment that Israel had, in fact, accepted a ceasefire earlier in the conflict, but he then pointed out that the conflict continued because Hamas had rejected that agreement.
"Hamas wants this conflict to continue and they are paying a price because of that," Regev said. "If anyone says Israel's overreacting, I'd say what would you do? What would your government do with more than 2,000 rockets raining down at your cities fired by terrorists? What would your government do if terrorists were coming across the frontier in these tunnels with explosives and automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades to kill and maim people? What would your government do if these missiles attacks were threatening to close down your main transport facilities? If you look at our response, it's been measured and it's been proportionate."
Regev to Albright: What would your country do in this situation?
Hamas likens Netanyahu to Hitler on CNN
A Hamas spokesperson spoke to CNN Tuesday evening and likened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler. He compared the current Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi campaign to eradicate the Jewish people.
Speaking to Wolf Blitzer from Doha, Qatar, about the FAA's decision to cancel US flights to Israel after a rocket fired from Gaza exploded near Ben Gurion International Airport, spokesperson Osama Hamdan told the American news anchor that Netanyahu "lost his morals" and is "reflecting a new image for Hitler and the Nazist army."
Israeli troops, he charged, "are acting in the same way [as the Nazis], killing the Palestinians just because they are Palestinians, like what Hitler was doing in the last century."
Independent posts op-ed about Gaza by extremist who supported Al Qaeda attacks on 9/11
Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian doctor, commentator and "radical Maoist politician" who openly supported the "moral right" of Al Qaeda to murder thousands of Americans on 9/11, and who, argued that the world's oppressed have an inherent "moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with".
He visited Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the 2008-09 war in Gaza and, according to NGO monitor, "repeatedly and falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians" while making "no mention of evidence that Al-Shifa hospital has been used for military purposes".
Well, Dr. Gilbert has returned to Shifa Hospital, and has published an open letter at the Independent about his experiences:
Framing Israel for the War
Both Thrall and Siegman insist that Hamas was willing to live up to international conditions to renounce violence, recognize Israel, and accede to past agreements. But there is no basis for their supreme confidence in Hamas. In fact, there was no act of disarming and no statements of recognizing Israel.
Had Hamas been sincere in seeking "a peaceful handover of responsibilities," they could have made a grand show of removing their missiles. It would have built confidence and forced Israel's hand.
Instead, three Israeli teens were brutally murdered by Palestinians associated with Hamas. And after the shocking reprisal murder of an Arab boy in Israel, when Israel's operations in the West Bank were coming to an end and public support was shifting away from an operation in Gaza, Hamas dramatically increased the number of rockets fired at Israel, forcing the IDF to take action.
Free Speech in Gaza?
Stand with Us: Who is responsible for the suffering in Gaza?
StandWithUs Passport Campaign on Israel's morning talk show
Did Newsweek Promote Fake Atrocity Video? Will ISM Produce Video for Inspection?
The International Solidarity Movement, a radical anti-Israel organization that has condoned acts of terror against the Jewish state, is alleging that an Israeli sniper killed a young man in Gaza during the recent fighting between the IDF and Hamas. The ISM posted a video of the alleged sniper attack on its website on July 21, 2014.
Later that day, Newsweek posted an article about the video on its website and quoted ISM activist Joe Catron.
Catron, who declared an unknown Israeli soldier guilty of murder, is not a disinterested observer, but a radical anti-Israel activist who has appeared a number of times on PressTV, which the ADL describes as "the Iranian government's primary propaganda tool to promote a wide range of pernicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in English to a worldwide audience." This ADL report provides extensive background about the hateful antisemitic conspiracy theories that have been broadcast on this network.
HURRAH for 'blood-stained' SHIRTS!: Daily Mail leads with ISM propaganda
You really have to question the judgment of Daily Mail editors in not only publishing the following selectively edited anti-Israel propaganda video released by the pro-terror group, International Solidarity Movement (ISM), but in featuring it in a story on their home page yesterday:
Here's the ISM film which represents the sole piece of evidence supporting the wild claim that an Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian civilian during recent fighting between the IDF and Hamas.
As Dexter Van Zile of CAMERA noted, ISM has refused requests to release the full (unedited) video.
Though there is much to fisk, we received permission to post the following superb analysis of the ISM clip by the blogger Thomas Wictor
More Anti-Israel Bias from The New York Times' Jodi Rudoren
An analysis of Palestinian and Israeli societal attitudes, published on the front page of The New York Times and written by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, provides an exemplar of how the newspaper inverts the truth, cherry-picks citations, omits relevant and crucial information to stack the deck against Israel and portray it as the primary culprit in the conflict.
The article appeared in the print edition under the headline "In the Battleground of Words, Hatred and Muddied Reality" and online under the headline "In Gaza, Epithets Are Fired and Euphemisms Give Shelter." It might more aptly have been titled, "Hamas and Israeli are equally bad—but Israel is worse."
Quantitative Disproportion
While print and online headlines suggest a moral equation between both sides on the "battleground of words," the article spends far more space endeavoring to implicate Israel than the Hamas. More than three times as much space is focused on Israel allegedly demonizing and inciting against Hamas (509 words) than on Hamas engaged in PR efforts , boasts or threats to Israel (149 words). Furthermore, Rudoren sought out three sources to criticize Israeli speech and attitudes, but not a single source to criticize Palestinian rhetoric.
Is international support for Israel's Gaza campaign waning?
Indeed, certainly the Western world understands that Israel is under attack by an Islamic terrorist organizations and needs to defend itself, and that local protest will not convince them otherwise, a senior Israeli official said. "They know that the people who take to the street are the usual suspects: Muslims, marginals, and people from the far left," he said. "The mainstream doesn't demonstrate against Israel."
So how come more and more governments denounce the rising death toll and call on Jerusalem to exercise restraint? According to the senior official, even countries that support Israel are — and have always been — reluctant to face the actual results of real military action.
"They would like everything to happen in a sterile world. They say Israel has the right to defend itself, but want nobody to get hurt in the process. You can defend yourself, but don't make any mess." Therefore, even world leaders who understand why Israel needs to fight will eventually condemn Operation Protective Edge, especially as the body counts continues to climb, the official said. "We've seen this before. After a while, these things go on autopilot."
Al-Jazeera shutters Gaza office after coming under fire
The channel "holds Israel responsible for the safety of its team in Gaza after its bureau came under fire," Al-Jazeera Arabic-language channel said.
Ynet news website quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as saying on Monday that Al-Jazeera "stands at the heart of the propaganda of terrorist organizations."
Al-Jazeera accused Liberman of "direct incitement" against it.
Al-Jazeera TV Host Ali Al-Zafiri Mocks Moderate Arabs: We Apologize for the Pain "Terrorist" Hamas Causes Them
Guardian cartoon depicts Bibi with suicide vest of dead Palestinians
Like any good Guardian Left contributor, Cartoonist Steve Bell seems to share the philosophy of his colleague Martin Rowson, who believes his 'progressive mission is to 'afflict the powerful, and comfort the afflicted'. Within this facile moral paradigm, Jews represent the former and Palestinians the latter.
In addition to the fact that some of his cartoons have evoked antisemitic narratives (or mock the very idea of antisemitic tropes), as far as we can tell Bell has never used his skills as an artist to demonize Palestinian suicide bombers – as they, it seems, even as they are igniting their murderous device, represent the 'afflicted'. Though in at least one cartoon he mocked – as hypocritical – Israeli condemnation of said bombers.
BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts inaccurate claim on shortage of medicines in Gaza
In the two weeks since then, nothing has changed. Humanitarian aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip as daily reports show, despite terrorist attacks on the crossings themselves. The video below was filmed this last Saturday – July 19th.
Nevertheless, on July 23rd BBC Radio 5 live promoted that same inaccurate claim yet again in an interview it broadcast with a doctor from Medecins du Monde at the Nasser hospital in the Gaza Strip. The same interview was also promoted on the BBC News website's Middle East page under the title "Gaza doctor claims there's a 'lack of basic drug needs'
BBC's Chris Morris misquotes the Israeli prime minister
Clearly then Morris' claim that PM Netanyahu "accused Palestinians of using telegenically dead civilians for propaganda purposes" is inaccurate. In fact, Netanyahu said that Hamas – not Palestinians in general – has an interest in creating high numbers of civilian casualties for propaganda purposes. But like the rest of his colleagues, Chris Morris does not seem to be interested in informing BBC audiences about the reality of Hamas' use of human shields.
Of course contrary to Morris' insinuation, that statement does not in any way contradict Netanyahu's expression of regret for civilian casualties.
BBC's Simpson admires Hamas engineering 'feat' and ignores its intended victims
Simpson makes no attempt to inform viewers of what the aim of that infiltration was, ridiculously downplaying its lethal intention with his flippant "they didn't stand a chance" quip. Having apparently decided that the intended civilian victims of that infiltration are of no interest, he goes on to admire Hamas' engineering skills, but fails to inform audiences of the schools, housing and hospitals Hamas fails to construct for its population instead or of where the materials and money for these "feats" comes from.
"These tunnels are impressive: a real feat of engineering. The BBC was allowed to film inside this one recently after it was discovered. The Israelis afterwards make sure the tunnels can't be used again.
BBC (sort of) gets round to telling audiences about Hamas tunnels
The BBC knows full well that numerous infiltrations have taken place in recent days and has even (briefly) reported some of them, so clearly the use of the term "Israel says" here is nothing less than ridiculous.
"This Israel Defense Forces footage shows suspected Hamas fighters in bushes, firing on Israeli troops".
The BBC's use of the word "suspected" is equally ridiculous considering that Hamas took responsibility for the incident.
"Hamas' armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said it had carried out "an operation behind enemy lines in response to the massacre in Shejaiya [Shaja'iya]" "
Notably, no attempt is made to inform viewers that the real target of those Hamas terrorists shown in the footage was the civilian population of Kibbutz Nir Am.
Zbigniew Brzezinski Spews Anti-Israel Hatred on Morning Joe
Sometime during his life Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must have dealt a major affront to Zbigniew Brzezinski, because today on Morning Joe Jimmy Carter's National Security Director (and host Mika's father) not only blamed Israel for the present Middle East conflict but also launched into a venomous attack on the Israeli prime minister.
Discussing the present conflict between Israel and Hamas with the Morning Joe panel were former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Brzezinski. Albright was questioned first being asked about a Netanyahu interview in which the prime minister explained he had to protect his people, using the phrase, "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
Sally Kohn: How can Israel supporters argue the IDF's violence is justified, but Hamas' isn't?
"How can same people who believe Hamas violence justifies Israeli violence then disagree that Israeli violence justifies Hamas violence?"
Her rebuttal, as of this writing? Crickets. Maybe she'll eventually enlighten us with additional insights into the moral pillars of her faith. And maybe those who read the above conversation will consider the state of Ms. Kohn's moral compass when judging her counsel on other matters.
Director Jonathan Demme Blasts Israel, Says Not an Anti-Semite
Director Jonathan Demme felt the need to dismiss potential charges of anti-semitism this week before echoing the thoughts of many Hollywood liberals.
"I think more than anything, first and foremost, all of these innocent children being killed. It makes me think about — please withdraw the settlements; please tear down the wall; please let's work for peace," Demme said. "Every new iteration of the violence that comes up feels like you're starting all over again and I just can't imagine how unbearable it must be to be a Palestinian living in Gaza being invaded like this and seeing the children of your community lying dead in the sand."
'Television Protest' for Gaza in Lebanon
All of Lebanon's main television channels are to broadcast simultaneously on Monday, in a "television protest" in "solidarity" with Hamas in Gaza, according to AFP.
The unusual protest named "Palestine... You are not alone" brings together networks with radically different views, including the official TeleLiban, Hezbollah's Al-Manar, LBC, MTV and NBN.
They will broadcast at 8:10 pm (1710 GMT) an identical report on the humanitarian dimension of Israel's two-week assault on the Gaza Strip, which has cost the lives of more than 500 Palestinians - most of whom are either Hamas terrorists, or participants in Hamas's cries to become human shields.
'We've had more immigrants than missiles,' says Sharansky
After greeting 250 new immigrants to Israel from the United States and Canada Tuesday morning, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky told The Times of Israel that not only aren't there any postponements or cancellations, "We've had more new immigrants than missiles."
While Sharansky may have slightly exaggerated — approximately 2,050 rockets have been fired at Israel since Operation Protective Edge began while 1,500 Diaspora Jews immigrated during the same time period — he said interest in information on aliya, or immigration to Israel, has only increased in the past two weeks of conflict.
Alaskan immigrants trade grizzlies for Gaza rockets
Rebecca Scoggin lived in a lot of places growing up: Juneau, Nome, Fairbanks, Homer, Anchorage. But except for the two years she lived in Seattle after high school, she never lived outside Alaska. At least she hadn't until a few months ago. Inspired by a Birthright trip she took at age 19, Scoggin decided to pick up and move to Tel Aviv.
"It was kind of a random decision. There was no real reason for it," Scoggin, 23, told JTA in a recent phone interview from Anchorage, where she was back visiting family. "I fell in love with Tel Aviv and sun. It's become more home to me than any other place."
Scoggin is not your typical immigrant to Israel, and not just because she hails from the 49th state. Scoggin has no family in the Holy Land, hasn't had much Judaism in her life and has a Christian father. But something drew her to Israel.
Lone soldiers follow long Diaspora tradition
The two Americans killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip followed in the footsteps of scores of Jews from around the world who have volunteered to fight for Israel.
Israel calls them the lone soldiers: They are men and women in the prime of their lives who have left their parents and often comfortable lives behind in places like Sydney, London, Los Angeles and elsewhere to join the Israel Defense Forces, marching in the desert and taking up arms to defend the Jewish state.
There are about 2,000 lone soldiers currently serving in the military, said Marina Rozhansky, spokeswoman at the Israel Consul General in Los Angeles. Groups for families of lone soldiers have recently started in Los Angeles and other cities, providing a support network as the fighting intensifies.
Did Birthright kill Max?
Birthright Israel killed Max Steinberg. That is the premise of an article by Slate senior editor Allison Benedikt.
The sub-headline argues that "a Birthright trip convinced an American with shaky Hebrew that he was ready to die for another country," but by the second paragraph we learn that Birthright is simply part of the causal chain of Max's death that can be traced back at least to a 1917 letter from British foreign secretary Lord Balfour. (Of course, the causal chain is equally dependent on the dinosaurs dying so that humans could emerge and start fighting each other, or perhaps on the quantum fluctuations in the Big Bang that allowed matter to clump together into human beings in the first place. But back to Birthright.)
From this auspicious start, Benedikt goes on to ask how many Birthright kids actually join the IDF. There had better be a lot, since her argument rather depends on being able to show that Birthright leads to IDF enlistment. Otherwise she's pinning a dramatic claim about an experience shared by 400,000 young adults on the evidence of a single teenager's decision.
'Miracle' Recovery for Samaria Attack Victim
23-year-old David Rast has made a "miraculous" recovery after being shot in a terrorist attack late on Monday night.
Rast, a yeshiva student and former soldier, was returning to his family's home in the Samaria town of Yakir when he was shot by a terrorist seated in a passing car.
Rast was seriously injured in the attack. However, he is now conscious and in stable condition following surgery.
U.S. Firefighters in Israel to Help with Rocket-Induced Fires
An American delegation of 13 senior firefighters and officers are in Israel as part of the Emergency Volunteer Project assisting their Israeli counterparts in extinguishing fires caused by Hamas rocket explosions.
The firefighters from Los Angeles, Texas and Washington DC, have been working around the clock in Israel's south in extinguishing blazes and helping to find the rockets that land in open areas.
"We were all part of the massive tragedy that was 9/11. There we undertook search and rescue missions. When we heard that hundreds of rockets are falling on Israel, we decided to join forces and come and help," firefighter 51-year-old Billy Hearst of Texas was quoted as saying in Yediot Ahronoth. "We cannot ignore this reality, when Israeli firefighters work hour after hour to save human life."
When the sirens wail, the Holocaust survivors stay put
As the sirens blare in an endless loop in the small southern town of Mavki'im, 90-year-old Magda Feldmar makes no move toward shelter, because the Hungarian-born Auschwitz survivor has nowhere to go.
With the nearest shelter an 8-10 minute walk away, and only a fleeting 15-second window from when the sirens sound until the rockets fall, Feldmar sits alone in her house located just 7.2 kilometers (4.4 miles) from the border of the volatile coastal enclave, fearfully waiting for yet another barrage to end.
No stranger to the front lines, Feldmar immigrated to Israel in 1948 after losing her family in the war and settled down in a town on the northern border with her late husband — but relocated eight years later when the incessant fire from Syria grew unbearable.
Snippy Twitter exchange exposes tech tension over Gaza
High-tech can claim its first "victim" in the war between Israel and Gaza terrorists. A heated exchange on Twitter between venture capitalist giant Paul Graham and supporters of Israel, could delay plans by Graham's Y Combinator's accelerator to recruit in Israel.
Tweets posted by Graham that described the destruction wrought by the IDF in Gaza, but without any citations of Hamas attacks on Israel. That led heavyweight Israeli venture capital figure Roi Carthy to announce he was withdrawing an offer to help Y Combinator (YC) recruit potential participants in Israel.
Israeli Islamist Leader: Gaza Will Rub Israel's Nose in the Mud
In midst of Israel-Hamas conflict, Fatah glorifies 9 female terrorists
As Hamas continues to launch missiles into Israel, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement expresses its support for the murder of Israelis by posting a video praising nine female terrorists, among them eight suicide bombers.
The nine murderers whom Fatah chose to glorify killed 75 and wounded over 350 people in total. They were:
Dalal Mughrabi, bus hijacker (37 killed)
Hanadi Jaradat, suicide bomber (21 killed)
Andalib Takatka, suicide bomber (6 killed)
Hiba Daraghmeh, suicide bomber (3 killed)
Ayyat Al-Akhras, suicide bomber (2 killed)
Zainab Abu Salem, suicide bomber (2 killed)
Wafa Idris, suicide bomber (1 killed)
Mirfat Mas'oud suicide bomber (1 wounded)
Darin Abu Aisheh, suicide bomber (3 wounded)
A raging antisemite will be Hungary's ambassador to Rome
There were commentators whose "breath was taken away" when they heard the news of Szentmihályi Szabó's imminent ambassadorial appointment. A blogger expressed himself more strongly: "Viktor Orbán happened to appoint a rat to be ambassador to Rome." One thing is sure: Szentmihályi Szabó is an inveterate anti-Semite. Pure and simple. So, it is a rather ironic Orbánite gesture to appoint such a man to an important post in the Memorial Year of the Holocaust.
Hungary Puts Up Controversial Monument Despite Protests
Critics of the monument - which depicts Hungary as an angel being attacked by a German eagle - say it absolves the Hungarian state and Hungarians of their active role in sending some 450,000 Jews to their deaths after the occupation.
Hungary fought alongside Nazi Germany during the war as a member of the Axis, but Hitler invaded on March 19, 1944, when he discovered Budapest had started secret peace talks with the Soviet Union.
Organizers of daily protests at the construction site said the cancellation of the inauguration was "a kind of result, if not a success".
The re-emergence of Hitler's terrible book
What poorly written and turgid 700-page book has sold more than 15 million copies in the past and has recently become a bestseller in Croatia, India, Turkey, Russia, and Qatar? As a result of a recent decision in Bavaria, Germany, even a schoolchild will know that it is Mein Kampf (My Struggle), written by Adolf Hitler in his prison cell in Landsberg am Lech and signed on October 16, 1924.
Though the publication of the book was never technically illegal in Germany, the state of Bavaria that held the copyright refused to allow its republication. However, that copyright will expire in December 2015, and plans to publish an "annotated" edition are underway. This version is the result of critical editing of the book by five scholars attached to the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich.
Understandable emotion has been aroused by the announcement of republication of the book, a work that can be considered the original blueprint for the Holocaust and a fulsome expression of hatred of Jews. The difficult question is whether to oppose the publication of this hateful book, even when accompanied by appropriate comment and annotation.
The issues are not simply the nature of the book and the career of Hitler, one of history's worst mass murderers, but also whether it can still be a weapon for anti-Semitic and even anti-Israeli agitators today.
'Invisibility' tech builds safer antenna for IDF
Off in the future, IDF soldiers may get the ultimate battlefield armor — a Harry Potter-style "invisibility cloak" that could let them cross a battlefield right under the noses of their enemies – without being detected. In the meantime, the goals for using technology like that are a bit lower – but still important.
Until those cloaks are ready for action, Professor Michael Bank of the Jerusalem College of Technology is using the "metamaterials" that could be used to build those invisible uniforms to protect soldiers in the field from electromagnetic radiation emitted by communications equipment. "It's true that metamaterials can be used for invisibility cloaks, and that's a project we may work on one day," Bank told The Times of Israel. "But for now, we are using it to keep radiation away from soldiers' heads and upper body."
An Israeli cure for Rx errors
When a nine-year-old Israeli boy died because his primary-care physician accidentally prescribed the wrong drug, internist Dr. Gidi Stein resolved to invent a way to prevent prescription errors – a frighteningly common occurrence estimated to cause injuries and deaths of more than 200,000 patients every year in the United States alone.
Three years after that tragedy, a live test version of MedAware's Prescription Analysis and Alert System – as envisioned by Stein, Tuvik Beker and Prof. Eytan Ruppin — is to be installed in Sheba Medical Center, Israel's largest hospital, in addition to pilot studies at Boston's world-renowned Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Using big-data analytics of electronic medical records data, MedAware's technology learns prescription patterns used by actual physicians, and identifies potential prescription errors in real time.
Israeli Officer, Called Up for Operation Protective Edge, Proposes to Girlfriend in Front of His Troops (VIDEO)
An Israeli Defense Forces reserves officer called up for Operation Protective Edge, on Tuesday gave his visiting girlfriend the surprise of her life when he asked for her hand in marriage – in front of his own platoon, Israel's Ma'ariv daily reported.
Lihi and her friends, employees of well-known chef and restaurateur, Haim Cohen, together with a mobile kitchen, all arrived in the area where her boyfriend, Lt. Shai, was deployed with his troops.
Little did she know, however, that Shai, and her boss, had arranged the event behind the scenes under the ruse of bringing some gourmet cuisine to soldiers used to eating field rations, and canned army chow.
He popped the question, as per tradition, on bended knee, and Cohen broke open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion.
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One of those dead "civilians"
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The essential EoZ articles from the war so far
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