WarSclerotic

US official: Kerry won’t remain in region indefinitely, Ynet News, Elior Levy, July 24, 2014

(Is that a threat or a promise? — DM)

Chances of ceasefire seem slim: In speech, Hamas leader Mashal remains adamant in demands while US officials warn efforts for ceasefire are not open-ended.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will not stay in the Middle East indefinitely trying to broker a ceasefire to halt the Gaza conflict and will decide soon whether the parties are willing to come to an agreement, a senior US official said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s Qatar-based political leader Khaled Mashal reiterated the terrorists groups demands for a lull in fighting, saying that without international assurances Israel will lift the blockade on Gaza no ceasefire can take place.

“Gaps remain between the parties, so his focus is on finding a formula that both sides can accept,” said the senior US official.

“But he isn’t here for an indefinite amount of time and in the near future he will determine whether there is a willingness to come to an agreement on a ceasefire.”

“Secretary Kerry will stay in Egypt through at least tomorrow morning to continue working on achieving a ceasefire,” the US official said, adding he had spoken by telephone in the last 24 hours with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with the foreign ministers of Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine.

He also spoke to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and was due to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo later in the evening, the US official added.

“The focus of his conversations is on determining whether there is a way to stop the fighting and commence negotiations necessary to achieving a sustainable ceasefire and enduring resolution to the crisis in Gaza,” the US official said.

Mashal: Death is better Gaza life

Meanwhile, speaking to CNN, Mashal said “Nobody can break the will of the resistance and no one can get rid of its weapons.

“Only two conditions can get rid of the weapons of the resistance – firstly the ending of the occupation and second the demilitarization of Israel.”

As CNN noted, obviously these are impossible demands, but Hamas’ position is that “We would rather be dead than live this life,” Mashal reportedly said, adding that “We will not accept any proposal that does not lift the blockade.”

Nonetheless, speaking to the BBC, Mashal blamed Israel for the situation and said Gazans were “being punished with a slow death in the world’s biggest prison”.

“We are eager that the bloodshed should end in Gaza,” the political leader said, claiming the demand was “parrell to lifting the siege on Gaza.”

UK backs Israel

Mideast trip Thursday that Hamas must agree to a humanitarian ceasefire without conditions in Gaza, to bring to an end more than two weeks of fighting. After that, Hammond said, said Israel and Palestinian Authority could come together to hold talks.

“Hamas must agree to a humanitarian ceasefire without preconditions for the sake of the people in Gaza,” Hammond said during a news conference after meetings with Egyptian officials. “We are greatly concerned by ongoing heavy humanitarian crisis and the loss of lives.”

Hammond was speaking in Cairo, his latest stop on a emergency Mideast trip as part of ongoing international pressure for the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to end. US Secretary of State met Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after talks in Cairo. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also paid a visit to the region in recent days.

Speaking earlier Thursday after meeting with Hammond in Jerusalem, Netanyahu slammed the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to open an investigation into Israel’s alleged human rights violations in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s a travesty of justice; it’s a travesty of fairness; it’s a travesty of common sense; it’s a travesty of truth,” the prime minister told Hammond.

Netanyahu told the recently-appointed British foreign secretary how Hamas terrorists were firing rockets from schools, mosques, hospitals and heavily civilian populations, calling it a “double war crime.”

“This use of human shields is extraordinarily cynical. It’s grotesque. It’s inhuman. But what is equally grotesque is that Israel was condemned in the Human Rights Council,” he said.

Israel and Hamas blame each other for attack on UN shelter, Times of Israel, Mitch Ginsburg, July 24, 2014

More than a dozen Palestinians killed when UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun hit by a projectile.

Palestinians at an UNRWA school after fleeing their homes following an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on July 18, 2014. (Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

“We can confirm that [Palestinian] terror rockets that were fired from that area landed in the neighborhood of the UN facility,” said Cap. Eytan Buchman of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, asserting that the death and destruction may have been caused by errant rockets fired by Hamas or another militant organization.>

The veteran Arab affairs analyst on Israeli Channel 2 news went one step further. There were nine mortar shells fired from the area of the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun, Ehud Ya’ari said, “and one hit the school.”

In what could prove a turning point in the war in Gaza, 15 civilians were killed and as many as 200 more were wounded Thursday afternoon in the bombardment of a UN school – an assault that both sides claim might well be the fault of the other.

“We can confirm that [Palestinian] terror rockets that were fired from that area landed in the neighborhood of the UN facility,” said Cap. Eytan Buchman of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, asserting that the death and destruction may have been caused by errant rockets fired by Hamas or another militant organization.

The veteran Arab affairs analyst on Israeli Channel 2 news went one step further. There were nine mortar shells fired from the area of the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun, Ehud Ya’ari said, “and one hit the school.”

UNRWA Spokesman Chris Gunness seemed to confirm that Hamas projectiles were fired in the area, writing on twitter that it’s “being reported there were Hamas rockets falling in Beit Hanoun today.”

A Hamas statement in a Ma’an news article called the attack on the school an “ugly crime” for which the Israelis “will pay.”

Robert Turner, the director for UNRWA, told Al Jazeera that the location of the facility “was conveyed to the Israelis,” and that the school was “monitored [to ensure] that our neutrality was maintained.”

Last week in Gaza, 20 rockets belonging to one of the terror groups were found in an UNRWA school, a development that the organization said in a statement was a “flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law.”

A Palestinian man pushes his bicycle amidst debris following an Israeli military strike in Gaza city, on July 23, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/ MAHMUD HAMS)

UN facilities on enemy territory have played a significant role in Israel’s asymmetric conflicts over the past two decades. The April 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath, meant to quell Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel, was brought to a halt shortly after four artillery rounds hit a UN facility in the village of Kana, killing 102 people, including four UN personnel. The Israeli artillery strike came as a response to Hezbollah fire from nearby and in order to assist a force, under the command of now-Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, that had been ambushed in the field.

During the Second Lebanon War, on July 30, 2006, an Israel Air Force plane bombed a building hiding Hezbollah rocket launchers, resulting in the deaths of 28 people and hastening the onset of a ceasefire agreement.

Gaza Division commander Brig. Gen. Miki Edelstein said in a conference call with reporters that he was not yet familiar with the details of the incident, but that “we do not act against NGO facilities with no warning.”

“If,” he said, “if something happened, it is by mistake and not any other issue.”

A senior intelligence officer later confirmed that there had been Palestinian rocket fire from the area “very close to the school.” He added that “Israel could attack 10 times more Hamas activists” than it has thus far. But the reason it has held back, he said, striking “only one out of 10, is because they are hiding below, or very, very near, civilians.”

Leader Condemns Arrogant Powers’ Support for Israeli Crimes
July 24, 2014 – 12:13

(Tehran is definitely stoking the fires of war, as long as they are not directly involved. I’m beginning to think they fear direct engagement with Israel, no matter how small, because to do so could result in a defeat making them look weak and encourage those working to collapse their regime. – LS)

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution strongly condemned the “shameless” support of the arrogant powers for the continued Israeli atrocities against the defenseless people of the Gaza Strip, reiterating that armed resistance is the only way to confront the “savage” regime.

“A number of Western countries including the US, and UK blatantly support the atrocities which no clear conscience can tolerate and the US president, in the face of the massacre of children, destruction, plight and torture of the people in Gaza, uses a ridiculous logic (to justify the Israeli crimes) saying that Israel has the right to defend itself! Are Palestinians not entitled to safeguard their security and lives? ”, asked Imam Khamenei.

Imam Khamenei made the comments in an address to a gathering of Iranian students in Tehran on Wednesday night.

The Leader also underscored that armed resistance is the only way to confront the “destructive regime” of Israel.

“Nobody should assume that if Palestinians did not fire rockets from Gaza into Israel, the Zionist regime would have fallen short (of massacring people in Gaza), because there are no arms or rockets in the West Bank and the only weapon people have is stone, all the same the Zionist regime still humiliates and slaughters people there,” the Supreme Leader further noted.

Imam Khamenei further referred to Israel’s efforts to broker a ceasefire with Palestinian fighters, saying the regime “which commits crimes beyond human imagination has become desperate” after facing strong resistance from Palestinians.

“This proves that the Zionists only understand the language of force,” the Leader emphasized.

“Based on these realities, we believe that the West Bank should also be armed like Gaza and those who are interested in Palestine’s destiny should act in this regard in order to relieve Palestinians’ distress.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini’s historic statement saying Israeli regime must be destroyed, reiterating that the destruction of Israel does not mean obliteration of Jewish people in the region.

Iran has already presented a practical solution to tackle the problem, the Leader noted.

“Based on the solution accepted by nations, all the people who live in and come from the region, will vote in a referendum, to choose their desired government and through such referendum, the usurping fake regime of Israel will be eliminated,” said Ayatollah Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Imam Khamenei described political support for the people of Gaza as a duty for all Muslim and non-Muslim nations and called for massive demonstrations to express solidarity with Palestinian people on the International Quds Day.

The International Quds Day is an annual event during which demonstrators express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime of Israel.

The day is also seen as the legacy of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who officially declared the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as International Quds Day back in 1979. This year’s rallies come against the backdrop of a massive Israeli onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Eilat, my home, was just struck by at least two rockets.  Sirens followed by explosions.

Security forbids my reporting the location of the hits.

Iron Dome shoots down rocket headed for port city Eilat

By JPOST.COM STAFF

07/24/2014 22:23

( I don’t know about that.  Nobody saw the Iron Dome shoot… – JW )

Daniel Nisman ‏@DannyNis 2m
@DannyNis 1 rocket intercepted, three landed in open areas in the city.

–

Metaphors for Israel and Islam, Dan Miller’s Blog, July 24, 2014
The media, which have favorites and enemies, report accordingly. The UN Human Rights Council is much the same.

Introduction

This is a re-posting of a satirical article from May 23, 2012. It mocked media coverage of the death of Trayvon Martin (the Religion of Peace personified) at the hands of George Zimmerman (Zionism personified). It also mocked and compared media coverage of Israel and “Palestine” as of that date. With few exceptions, the media coverage of Israel, particularly in connection with her current operations in Gaza, has not substantially improved since then.

Mr. Zimmerman was tried and convicted in the media. However, when relevant and admissible evidence was presented in a court of law (even with a judge biased against him), he was properly acquitted of all charges. Unfortunately, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which is about to “investigate” Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza, is not a court of law. It is, instead, as PM Netanyahu characterized it, a “kangaroo court.” Perhaps it is also an extension of the media. According to this article, it’s even worse than that, if possible:

The UN Human Rights Council held a special session in Geneva on July 23, 2014 to declare effectively that Israelis do not have human rights.  The vote was 29 in favor, 1 against and 17 abstentions.

The Obama administration voted against – after joining and legitimizing the virulently anti-Jewish Council for the past five years, and now feigning disappointment for American cameras.

The Europeans abstained because they did not want to upset their violent Muslim minorities, and because their sordid past didn’t leave the resolution’s message too foreign in any case.  A few cowardly countries that Israelis have magnanimously befriended over the years also abstained.

But the majority of the UN world cheered – literally.  Speakers during the procession of hatemongers at the Council were greeted with applause.

As is their wont, CNN, The New York Times and company derived from this spectacle the lesson that Israel is pathetic, isolated and doomed.

For those might no longer remember much about the Zimmerman – Martin affair, here’s a Bill Whittle video about it.

*************

The 2012 article

Warning: attempted media satire below.

Zimmerman is a blood thirsty White racist who murdered a defenseless little Black child who would not relinquish his Skittles. He should have avoided conflict by staying at home and minding his own business. Israelis murder defenseless little Palestinian children who lack even Skittles, daily.  They should also go home (where ever that is) and mind their own business.

Racist red-neck Zimmerman

All should have learned from the principled media early on that George Zimmerman is a violent neerdowell White racist from a gated fat cat townhouse community in Florida and that justice can be had only by promptly convicting him of murder.  These facts should have been, and it is to be hoped were, burned into our very souls well before extreme right-wing racists descended, locust like, to interfere (they continue to do so remorselessly) by scrounging up shreds of irrelevant and falsified information to sully the sterling reputation of little Trayvon Martin. Here is a brief restatement for anyone who was paying insufficient attention.

A self-appointed community organizer watch Kapitän (his name even sounds German), Herr Zimmerman goose-stepped in cowardly fashion from his mansion on February 26th to seek a non-threatening little person of color to murder.  He chanced upon Mr. Martin, a skinny seventy-eight pound weakling who looked a lot like the son our enlightened post-racial President Obama needs.  Because Herr Zimmerman is a right wing nut who hates President Obama and was offended by Mr. Martin’s skin pigmentation, Herr Zimmerman chased him like a rabid dog. In an absurd effort to prepare an alibi, he called a police dispatcher on 911. Unfortunately for his alibi, he was ordered in no uncertain terms to cease molesting the harmless little child and to leave the scene. Overwhelmed with anger and yelling racist epithets, Herr Zimmerman disobeyed the police order and continued to follow little Mr. Martin — not just to steal his Skittles but to murder him.

Mr. Martin refused to give up his Skittles and Herr Zimmerman attacked him brutally. Soon he was lying on the ground beneath Mr. Martin. Humiliated, Herr Zimmerman pulled out his pistol and murdered the defenseless little child as he had always intended.  Despite specious claims that Herr Zimmerman suffered a bloody nose and minor scratches to the back of his head, he was in no danger of significant bodily harm as claimed. Instead, he did it simply because he was humiliated by being pinned on the ground by a weak and harmless little Black child.

Herr Zimmerman should have remained calm and stayed where he lay to reflect upon the monstrous harms he and others before him did over thousands of years to little Black children who probably looked a lot like Mr. Martin.  Had he known how to read, Herr. Zimmerman might have learned that a disgraceful half of our murders have been of Blacks; they are victims rather than criminals. Between 1976 and 2011, only ninety-four percent of all Blacks killed in the United States were killed by other Blacks. Yet as is typical of our primitive racist society, the percentage of Blacks in prison is far out of proportion to the percentage of Blacks in the population as a whole. If only we had stringent gun control laws like civilized countries, all would now be well and there would be one less racist right wing nut. the world would be a better place for all.

True, extremist right wing racists may have met with minor undeserved success in trashing the memory of Mr. Martin in their demented quests to rehabilitate their Fuhrer, Kapitän Zimmerman. Their temporary success does not detract in the least from the brave and unselfish efforts of The Reverend Mr. Sharpton and his stalwart colleagues to put the travesty into proper perspective. They, along with all right thinking people everywhere, know full well what caused it: years of hatred against persons of color and associated fears that, due to the exemplary moral fortitude and work ethic of all, they will rise from poverty to surpass red-neck right wing White racists who still cling to their pitiful little guns and Bibles.  Such hatred is not only despicable, it is pernicious. Because of that hatred, Trayvon’s™ Trail of Tears must continue its expensively benign fund raising educational work, despite vile racist opposition, to enlighten us all.

Murdering Racist Israelis

Israelis are senseless, brutal Zimmermans writ large. Like Herr Zimmerman, rich and powerful but morally depraved, Israelis with neither legal nor moral justification occupy lands not rightfully theirs as they deprive peaceful Palestinians children of their human rights out of sheer meanness and to drive them from their only homeland. They even hoard for themselves, and block entry into the rest of Palestine of, the bare necessities little Palestinian children need to shore up the senses of self-worth of which the Israelis have for so long deprived them.

Last week, from May 13-19, the IDF coordinated the transfer of [a patently inadequate] 1,147 trucks with 31,736 tons of goods and gas into the Gaza Strip. (Bracketed insert added.)

So what if a few errant missiles from Gaza may occasionally land in occupied Palestine (sometimes referred to by the unenlightened as Israel)? The number is insignificant: there have been only about three hundred so far this year, and even those few were obviously intended as peaceful fireworks displays to demonstrate the deep but sadly unrequited Palestinian love for the occupying Israelis. All attempts to report alleged Islamic violence, as well as alleged Black violence, are wicked because that just makes them look bad and further diminished their already atrophied self esteem. As noted in this rightly respected blog,

Israeli and Jewish hypocrisy is so brazen that it probably has no match under the sun. Jewish and Zionist circles never stop accusing other countries of harboring “hate” against Jews.

. . . .

Israel is inherently and absolutely unfit to lecture other countries and other peoples on the evils of racism as Israel itself is probably the ugliest and most brazen of embodiment of racism on earth.

The photo on the right shows one of the five Fogel terrorists, humanely sacrificed in accord with sacred Islamic tradition, in a small farming community in the West Bank portion of Palestine.  Rather than heap condemnation upon the virtuous  heroes who bravely performed the heart-warming deed, as Israelis have done, they need to praise them in order to restore their self-images.  As I noted here, the sacrifices were way cool.

Israeli terrorist

That’s what heroes do when fighting against oppression, for freedom, democracy and other humanitarian good stuff.  The surviving [Fogel] family members deserve to be taunted. And for all we know, the heroes who dealt with them did not urinate on their corpses as would have savages from the U.S. who deserve to be tarred, feathered and convicted of war crimes at the very least.  Since the Palestinian heroes apparently did not desecrate the bodies, they are our kind of guys!  Three cheers for Palestine and three yucks for the wicked Israelis who irritate them so maliciously. Peace is at hand, if only Israelis would negotiate in good faith. (Bracketed insert added.)

Whatever they may falsely claim happened to them in the past, Israelis should forget it because now it is up to them finally to submit and yield their own love to their unjustly maligned neighbors who desire only peace.  As noted here,

We are informed that after ethnically cleansing Jews from Jerusalem in 1948, Arab East Jerusalem was magically created for all time.

Times Magazine informs us that with his new coalition, it is now up to Netanyahu to make peace–an odd statement only because the media has always assumed that it is Israel’s obligation to make unilateral concessions for peace.

Now McClatchy’s Frida Ghitis writes Netanyahu’s move changes landscape, and that (once again) the ball is in Israel’s court because Israel’s national unity coalition “creates a world of tantalizing opportunities” for peace with the Palestinians–and heaven forbid that Abbas have to take a stand for peace without another Israeli concession

Israelis have nothing to fear from the Religion of Peace and it is beyond rational dispute that the Israelis are incorrigible. Perhaps they, like all non-Muslims, are demented. Although they have nothing to fear but themselves, they even bark belligerently that they may attack peaceful little Iran, a state that continues to lead the way for human rights and hopes merely to refine small quantities of Uranium to provide modest amounts of clean green energy so that all of her free peoples — men, women and even blood sucking Jews — can live in modest comfort. Because of their desperation, obvious penchant for deception and their lack of reliable evidence, Israelis have attempted to rely upon the antics of a few insignificant Iranian clerics comedians and others to bring naive sympathizers to their warmongering side. Those who have joked that Israelis must be wiped from the face of the earth clearly did not mean it. Israelis combine their hatred with their very atrophied senses of humor.  They should be wiped off the earth the sooner the better; but that’s beside the point.

Despite the consistently honorable efforts of our principled media to convince us of Israeli treachery, Zionist right wing fanatics (the few racist apostate Muslims who have attempted to mislead us about the non-existent evils of Islam must be allied with them) have tried in vain to show that Arabs are the aggressors while “humanitarian” Israelis peacefully attempt to deal with them in ways finely honed to promote regional harmony. As Herr Zimmerman should have done, the Israelis must now lie calmly on the ground to reflect maturely on the harm Jews have done to everyone over thousands of years and thereby submit to peace loving Islam; then there will be peace in the valley and all will be well. The Israelis and all of their neighbors will then live with perpetual happiness in a prosperous unified land of limitless milk and honey.

The time has finally come. We must have, in our time, peace on earth and good will for all. Self-criticism and reflection on their own evils by aggressors such as the Israelis and Herr Zimmerman are the proven keys that have stood the test of time. Only if the racist Israelis promptly cease their unprovoked hate-filled retaliations against the peaceful Palestinians, Iranians and other neighbors and reciprocate their valiant efforts to achieve peace can a viable peace process continue. Otherwise, there will never be peace until all Israelis vanish. Racist White people like Herr Zimmerman (the name even sounds Jewish) must do the same. It is the will of Allah, may his Holy Name be praised by all throughout eternity.  Bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم).

****************

Depravity at the UN Human Rights Council | JPost | Israel News.

( “The UN is lost. It is not too late for America.” – JW )

By ANNE BAYEFSKY

 07/24/2014 20:42

The light years between the UN “human rights” machinery and genuine human rights is pretty obvious.

The UN Human Rights Council held a special session in Geneva on July 23, 2014 to declare effectively that Israelis do not have human rights.  The vote was 29 in favor, 1 against and 17 abstentions.

The Obama administration voted against – after joining and legitimizing the virulently anti-Jewish Council for the past five years, and now feigning disappointment for American cameras.

The Europeans abstained because they did not want to upset their violent Muslim minorities, and because their sordid past didn’t leave the resolution’s message too foreign in any case.  A few cowardly countries that Israelis have magnanimously befriended over the years also abstained.

But the majority of the UN world cheered – literally.  Speakers during the procession of hatemongers at the Council were greeted with applause.

As is their wont, CNN, The New York Times and company derived from this spectacle the lesson that Israel is pathetic, isolated and doomed.

But the real takeaway is the polar opposite.

Israel really is a light unto the nations.

The light years between the UN “human rights” machinery and genuine human rights is actually pretty obvious. At least to folks without years of foreign policy wonking, diplomatic double-talk language schooling, or blinkered war correspondence training.

Here is how it went down.

The “Human Rights” Council session on Gaza was presided over by President Baudelaire Ndong Ella of Gabon, a member of the Islamic bloc of states (OIC), and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

Pillay retires in August after six years dedicated to the demonization of Israel. A native of Durban, South Africa, Pillay spent her time in office championing the racist anti-racism conference that took place in her hometown in 2001 (after Durban’s mayor requested that she resurrect the city’s good name).  She choreographed the second and third UN Durban conferences in 2009 and 2011 that “reaffirmed” the Israel-is-racist canard.

Pillay also initiated, and subsequently became the lead spokesperson for, the 2009 slanderous UN Goldstone report.  Though Goldstone himself later recanted the charge, the report accused Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians the last time Israel had the audacity to mount a sustained response to the Hamas killing machine in Gaza.

In short, Pillay was bent on leaving office with a bang. Along with Durban II and III, Goldstone I and II would be her anti-human rights legacy.

Pillay opened the Council session on July 23, 2014. For her, “suffering” was a description applicable only to Palestinians. She carefully presented the charge of “crimes against humanity” – knowing full well that the image projected was one of Israelis as the new Nazis. She simultaneously called for an investigation to discern the facts and recounted a list of supposed Israeli-driven horrors, like killing little children while their pious parents prepared for Muslim rituals. She summed up Israeli operations in Gaza as having “inflicted” “unimaginable death, destruction, terror and life-long consequences.”

The feeding frenzy that followed her at the UN’s highest human rights body was raw unadulterated antisemitism.  It was a verbal blitz timed to coincide with the blitz of Hamas rocket attacks that Israelis were experiencing from the skies. The Council session revealed – for the umpteenth time – that these offensives are a continuation of the rejection of a Jewish state, period. Or in the words of Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Maliki himself at the Council, first came the “Israeli atrocities of 1948.”  Maliki went on to charge Israel with having “exterminated” Palestinians. His language included: “the smell of death is pursuing Palestinian children because of Israel…who have transformed children into shreds…while they tried to escape the machinery of death.”

Over and over again the despicable antisemitic analogy of Israelis to Nazis was repeated, along with maniacal claims from a parade of human rights abusers. Algeria said “Gaza is a concentration camp.” Sudan said Israel had a “policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide.” Iran claimed Israel was engaged in “massacres and crimes against humanity.” Venezuela said “Israel seeks to exterminate the Palestinian people.”  Tunisia said “Israel was born out of Jewish terrorism and is acting in Gaza like the Nazis.” And then there were charges of “barbaric, inhuman acts,” “heinous massacres,” and “crimes unparalleled in recent history.”

In the end, the Human Rights Council’s resolution “deplores” and “condemns in the strongest terms” Israel’s “grave,” “widespread, systematic, and gross” “violations of human rights.” The word “Hamas” is never mentioned.

And the UN launched what might be  called Goldstone II – another so-called “human rights” investigation into “violations of law in the occupied Palestinian territory” – not Israeli territory of course.

Goldstone II joins the voluminous UN anti-Israel mechanisms already in operation, such as: the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People; the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories; the UN Division for Palestinian Rights, and the UN Information System on the Question of Palestine.

On top of that, Goldstone I is still alive and kicking.  It generates annual reports by the UN human rights commissioner, produced as recently as January 13, 2014.  And it spawns annual resolutions by the Human Rights Council calling for its implementation, adopted as recently as March 28, 2014.

Before the vote on the resolution, the UN staff announced that the initial price tag for Goldstone II will be $2,321,500 – twenty-two percent of which will come from the American taxpayer, thanks to Obama’s ownership of the Council. Just on June 19, 2014, Keith Harper, U.S. Ambassador to the Council gushed: “The Obama Administration decided to seek membership because the United States believes the Council can make a difference.  And on July 3, 2014 he claimed: “the most powerful tool we wield at the Human Rights Council is information – the ability to bring into stark focus the realities of injustice and abuse in the world…[T]he United Nations Human Rights Council is making a difference.”

What difference is it making?

There have been twice as many urgent debates and special sessions of the Council on Israel in its entire eight-year lifespan than there have been on Syria with upwards of 200,000 dead.

There has never been a single special session on a place like Iran or China or Russia.

One-third of all the resolutions and decisions critical of a single state – for all 193 UN members – have been directed at Israel alone.

There has never been a single resolution on a place like Saudi Arabia or Cuba.

So the difference the UN’s top human rights body is making is the perversion and defeat of human rights – the human rights of Israelis and the human rights of the Jewish people.

We are witnessing a terrible acquiescence to the suffering of the nation of Israel, a nation dedicated to life, freedom and equality. A nation committed to profound spirituality and compassion for all humankind.

Abandon Israel at the peril of all human decency.

The UN is lost. It is not too late for America.

Iran Supreme Leader: The Only Solution For Crisis Is Israel’s Destruction
Reza Kahlili
9:52 PM 07/23/2014

(Iran claims to have a solution to save the Middle East through it’s alleged superiority and sheer will.-LS)

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated on Wednesday that the only solution for the region is the destruction of Israel, and that the armed confrontation must expand beyond Gaza.

Meanwhile, revolutionary guards announced new missiles which could destroy Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

Fars News Agency, a media outlet run by the Iranian state, reported today that Khamenei addressed the conflict in Gaza in a meeting with Iranian college students.

“These crimes which are beyond imagination and show the true nature of the wolfish and child killer regime, which the only solution is its destruction,” the ayatollah declared to his audience. “However, until that time, the expansion of the armed resistance of the Palestinians of the West Bank is the only way to confront this wild regime.”

Khamenei then criticized America, claiming its defense of Israel is “shameful,” and suggested that its support affects Iran’s behavior towards America.

“The anti-American and anti-West view in Iran is a logical view based on experience and a righteous calculation,” he said.

Referring to Israel, Khamenei added, “This event is a sample of the ‘violent policies with iron fist’ which the fake and illegitimate regime [Israel] in its 66 years of existence has repeatedly and proudly conducted.”

He then emphasized, “As said by Imam Khomeini [the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran] Israel must be destroyed…However, until that time with the help of God for this cruel and murderous regime to be destroyed, strong confrontation with steadfast armed resistance is the only solution against this destructive regime.”

Khamenei then mocked Israel for looking for a ceasefire agreement, stating that Israel is powerless against the resistance of Hamas, and once again, strongly attacked America for supporting Israel.

“We believe that the West Bank needs to be armed just like Gaza and those interested in the future of Palestine must become active in this field [guerrilla warfare] so that the suffering of the Palestinian people through their strength and their weakness due to the Zionist regime is reduced,” he said. “Some Western countries including America and filthy England defend with clarity the crimes that no ordinary person would. The President of America in the face of these child killings, destruction, torture and suffering of the people in Gaza, with a comical logic states that Israel has the right to defend itself! Don’t the Palestinians have the right to defend their lives and security?”

The Islamic regime has long trained and armed Hezbollah and Palestinian forces for attacks against Israel. In reference to further arming Palestinians, the speaker of the regime’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, said in a statement Wednesday, “The clear need of Palestine is its need to weapons and basic necessities and Iran plays an important role in meeting the clear needs of the Palestinian people.”

In related news, the revolutionary guard revealed that they have made missiles capable of penetrating Israel’s Iron Dome.

The missile, named “Hormoz 1,” is claimed to be the first anti-radar ballistic missile to be able to penetrate and destroy missile defense systems such as the Iron Dome and America’s Patriot missile system. The missile has a speed of Mach 5 and can pinpoint a target from a very long-distance. The guards claim the missile can now destroy the Iron Dome, as well as any patriot missile defense system, and that the missile could be used to attack the radar systems of U.S. vessels and carriers in the Persian Gulf.

In continuation of negotiations in Geneva between the P5+1 and Iran, a four month extension to the original agreement was agreed upon to find a peaceful solution to Iran’s nuclear program. In return for the agreement on the extension, the Islamic regime will receive $2.8 Billion dollars in six installments. The Islamic regime had received $7 Billion after the negotiated agreement in November 2013 with a six month deadline to finalize the agreement, but has so far refused to back down from its demand to continue developing its nuclear program.

A recent report suggests that the Islamic Republic has yet to address the concerns of the International Atomic Agency on work developing detonators used as an explosive device for atomic bombs. The regime, which originally denied such work, has stated the experiment as for civilian purposes.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI)

Netanyahu: Gaza Operation to Continue ‘At Full Strength’, Israel National News, Ari Soffer and Shlomo Pitriokovski, July 24, 2014

(Was his statement that the “operation” is presently at “full strength” intended to suggest that no further strengthening is contemplated?  — DM)

Prime Minister says IDF has struck a ‘significant blow’ to Hamas; more than 30 ‘terror tunnels’ located since ground op. began.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened a special cabinet meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem Thursday by vowing that the IDF’s defensive operation in Gaza would continue “at full strength”.

“The IDF has struck a significant blow to Hamas,” the prime minister said, adding that “we will continue at full strength in both the air campaign and land campaign.”

Netanyahu said that the main emphasis of the IDF operation was to locate and destroy the vast network of “terror tunnels” dug by Hamas from Gaza into Israel in order to facilitate attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians.

Since the start of the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces have located 31 such tunnels, 11 of which were in active use at the time. Terrorists have attempted to utilize the tunnels to attack Israeli communities near Gaza since the ground operation began, but were intercepted each time by IDF soldiers.

Last night, soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade apprehended two terrorists as they emerged from one such tunnel inside Gaza. The two were detained and handed over for interrogation.

In another incident, soldiers opened fire on a terrorist wearing an explosives belt. After identifying that he had been hit, forces closed in on the target – and discovered two separate tunnels in the vicinity.

In all, IDF forces hit 90 terrorist targets overnight, including tunnels, concealed rocket launchers, observation posts and command centers. Soldiers identified hits on several terrorists during exchanges of fire.

Netanyahu also addressed the decision by the US Federal Administration Agency to lift its two-day flight ban to Israel, as well as similar decisions by European airlines, saying Israel’s efforts to convince them intoreversing their decisions had “borne fruit”.

The prime minister also thanked the Defense Minister, IDF Chief of Staff and soldiers on the ground for the ongoing operation to protect Israeli civilians from Gazan terrorists, and paid tribute to those who had lost their lives in the operation.

“In the name of the entire nation I wish to convey my condolences to the… bereaved families; to the fathers and mothers of our mighty soldiers who gave up their lives for the protection of the people of Israel,” he said.

“I want to thank the citizens of Israel who revealed so much support and love for the soldiers of the IDF. Our strength is in our unity.”