WarSclerotic

Israel’s Morally Impossible Self-Defense, Front Page Magazine, Richard L. Cravatts, July 24, 2014

Seeming to give credence to Orwell’s observation that “Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence,” the world’s attention has turned once again to the clash between Hamas and Israel, as the Jewish state launches its ground incursion into Gaza in what is being called Operation Protective Edge. And predictably, as the body count rises on the Palestinian side, the moral arbiters of acceptable political behavior have begun condemning the Jewish state for its perceived abuses in executing its national self-defense.

Forgetting that Israel’s current campaign was necessitated by ceaseless rocket and mortar assaults on its southern towns from Hamas-controlled Gaza, international leaders and diplomats have initiated their moral hectoring of Israel as it attempts to shield its citizens from harm. Britain’s deputy Prime Minister, Nicolas Clegg, was adamant that Israel cease its self-defense. “I really would now call on the Israeli government to stop,” he said. “They have proved their point,” and had done so, in his opinion, through a deliberately “disproportionate form of collective punishment.”

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who presides over a morally bankrupt group comprised largely of despotic, authoritarian regimes, was quick to decide that “Too many” Palestinian civilians have been killed, and that he “feels a sense of responsibility for the Palestinians who, especially in the Gaza Strip, have long been denied the sense of freedom and dignity that they deserve,” presumably overlooking those same human rights being denied to Israelis who have lived under a rain of rockets since 2005.

But the most insidious refrain, one uttered only when Israel’s enemies are killed (certainly not when Jews are murdered), is that Israel’s military response is too aggressive, that the force and effect of the excursion into Gaza are beyond what is permitted under human rights law and the rules of war. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for instance, brushed aside any talk of justifiable self-defense, asserting that “. . . Israel is not defending itself, it is defending settlements, its main project.” Moreover, the deaths so far of some 200 Palestinians in the latest incursion is, according to Mr. Abbas, tantamount to “. . . genocide—the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people,” indicating both an ignorance of what that term actually signifies and a blindness to actual genocides occurring presently at the hand of his co-religionists elsewhere in the world.

The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, James Rawley, had thoughts only for the Palestinian victims of the conflict, sanctimoniously announcing that the Israeli response must be “proportionate” to the threats posed by Hamas attacks, and that “Our thoughts must first be with those many [Palestinian] civilians who have already lost their lives, and the even greater number of who have suffered physical or psychological injuries.”

The remonstrations of its many and far-flung critics aside, Israel is not the international outlaw here, but a victim now involved in a defensive countermeasure to terrorism against its citizenry. In fact, in a 2008 report, Justus Reid Weiner and Dr. Avi Bell, two legal scholars at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, noted that Hamas’s shelling of civilian targets within Israel’s borders—the direct cause of the current conflict—clearly violates international law and requires a military response from Israel, even though world observers have been oddly silent on the Palestinian incitement that is the cause of the present clashes.

“The Palestinian attacks,” they wrote, “violate one of the most basic rules of international humanitarian law, the rule of distinction, which requires combatants to aim all their attacks at legitimate targets – enemy combatants or objects that contribute to enemy military actions. Violations of the rule of distinction – attacks deliberately aimed at civilians or protected objects as such – are war crimes,” exactly what Hamas has been committing with its relentless rocket assaults. Hamas militants not only commit a war crime each time they lob a rocket or mortar into Israel from Gaza by virtue of the fact that the targets of those attacks are specifically and purposely civilian, not military, assets—a violation of the “distinction” rule—but also, in not wearing military uniforms and often posing as civilians, Hamas terrorists are also committing another crime, that of perfidy.

Article 48 of Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 is very clear about this prohibited behavior of combatants, stating that “[i]n order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” Since the rockets Hamas aims at southern Israeli towns are launched randomly into civilian enclaves, and lack the technical sophistication to reliably be aimed at military targets even if that was Hamas’s actual intention, each of the 12,000 or so rockets that have come into Israel from Gaza since 2005 (including over 1000 this month alone) represents both ancausis belli and a war crime.

“It is a central principle of just war theory,” observed Dr. Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, “that the self-defense of a people or a country cannot be made morally impossible.” Israel faces that precise dilemma every time it is forced to suppress Palestinian aggression and protect its populace from unending rocket assaults, particularly since its actions are widely and almost immediately denounced as excessive, disproportionate, and in violation of international law. Perceived as having unjustly dispossessed the Palestinians and accused of still occupying both the West Bank but also Gaza (and holding the latter under siege), and collectively punishing the Palestinian Arabs living there, Israel has been stripped of its moral standing in the community of nations and so its attempts at self-defense are at best tolerated.

Rather than serving as a deterrent against attacks of terrorists, Israel’s military strength and capabilities are instead looked at as an unfair advantage in the asymmetrical war in which it finds itself. Few leaders in the West and none in the Arab world ever condemn Hamas for its chronic, unlawful terroristic behavior toward Israel, but the moment Israel undertakes military action it receives strict warnings for restraint, censure for its success in neutralizing Hamas strongholds, and eventual condemnation for the inevitable deaths of civilians—the collateral damage that is the tragic byproduct of conflicts fought in neighborhoods rather than battlefields.

Israel, which is promiscuously condemned for committing “crimes against humanity” and human rights violations, not only waited years before responding to Palestinian terrorism, but then, in one of the most populous areas on earth, scrupulously followed the rule of distinction by precisely targeting Hamas terrorists and infrastructure, with minimal, though still unfortunate, collateral damage to the Gaza civilian population – a feat made all the more difficult by Hamas’s insidious tactic of embedding rocket launchers and armament stores within homes, apartment buildings, schools, and mosques in residential neighborhoods.

Combat in the crowded streets and alleys of Gaza obviously makes warfare more difficult for Israel, especially in its attempt to minimize civilian casualties while maximizing the suppression of enemy fire and attempting to neutralize Hamas’s ability to continue to pose a threat in the future. Since, as mentioned, Hamas militants do not wear identifying uniforms, and embed themselves within civilian environments, Israel’s effort to maintain “distinction”— that is, scrupulously determining who is a legitimate military target and who is a civilian— is normally challenging and dangerous. And, knowing that the world community is apt to be harsh about any civilian deaths that result from Israel’s offensive—even though it Hamas who has created the circumstances by which those civilians will and have perished—Israel has resorted to extraordinary measures to avoid the death of non-combatants, including “knocking” on roofs to warm of imminent bombardment, distributing flyers, and using other warning techniques, all of which compromise Israel’s strategic advantage while helping to minimize civilian deaths. Even so, when the inevitable Palestinian civilian deaths occur (which seem to be a welcomed part of Hamas’s cognitive war against Israel), Israel is accused of violating the rule of “proportionality,” the other aspect of warfare which international law requires that prohibits a military response that causes more civilian deaths than would be considered necessary in achieving a set military objective.

In fact, collateral damage – the accidental killing of civilians during military conflicts – is itself allowed by international law, provided the actions that caused the civilian deaths are not, according to Weiner and Bell, excessive in relation to the military need. But the fact that deaths occur in civilian populations – even what might be perceived as excessive deaths – are not in and of themselves indicative of violations of international law, and, says Weiner and Bell, “if a state, like Israel, is facing aggression, then proportionality addresses whether force was specifically used by Israel to bring an end to the armed attack against it.”

The practice of Hamas of using human shields, as well as storing munitions and weaponry in civilian neighborhoods and non-military buildings, also absolves Israel from some of the proportionality requirements, since the use of human shields and the perfidy of Hamas in the first place puts the fault for civilian deaths on it, rather than Israel. Israel indiscriminately pummeling Gaza with bombardment from the air—with many resulting civilian deaths—would violate the rule of proportionality and could be considered a war crime; Israel responding to rocket fire from an apartment building and, in the process, killing civilians (even a large number of them) who were in the building with Hamas combatants is allowed, as long as Israel’s intent was to achieve a military objective and not just to exact revenge or capriciously murder civilians. Even errors which lead to the death of civilians are acceptable, as long as the military purpose was the motivating factor in the assault, since, as Jonathan F. Keiler,former captain in the Army’s Judge-Advocate General Corps, noted,“we do not determine criminality based on outcome, but intent.”

Proportionality also does not require that the number of deaths—either of Hamas militants or Palestinian civilians—be equal to the number of deaths suffered by Israel, or to damage done to Israeli infrastructure or military targets. One moral challenge in asymmetrical war is that observers in the world community intuitively feel that Israel’s disproportionate military strength makes the conflict fundamentally “unfair,” that because it is technologically and logistically able to exact more harm on the Palestinians, Israel should restrain itself to minimize enemy casualties. That may be a compelling emotional response, but it is, of course, not a legal or moral argument with any weight. In fact, it is precisely because of Israel’s military superiority that a rational adversary would have been deterred from attacking in the first place.

The fact that Hamas chose to challenge an adversary with disproportionate military capability indicates that the decision was either irrational or some type of collective death wish; in either instance, the Palestinians, and the world at large, cannot now expect Israel not to use every means possible to protect its citizenry from both immediate and future assaults by genocidal terrorists who wish to murder Jews and destroy the Jewish state. No nation is required to enter a suicide pact with its enemies, and no nation can be expected to wait until enemy rockets successfully reach an apartment building or school, forcing Israel to play, in the words of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, “Russian roulette with its children.”

The Terrorists of Gaza, Front Page Magazine, Amanda Botfeld, July 24, 2014

Hamas is firing rockets. Islamic Jihad is firing rockets. Even factions of Fatah are firing rockets. With the attacks all happening at the same time, it is getting harder to tell one terrorist organization from the next.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the name of the organization that governs the Gaza strip. It is a violent group that conducts suicide bombings and launches rockets at Israel. It distributes anti-Semitic propaganda and denies Israel’s right to exist. In 1997, the U.S. officially recognized the group as a terrorist organization.

Like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in the Palestinian-controlled areas is a splinter organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. It made a name for itself in 1987 during the first intifada – a time of violent uprising against Israel. It has carried out bombings and suicide attacks. It has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, and Israel.

Hamas is firing rockets. Islamic Jihad is firing rockets. Even factions of Fatah are firing rockets. With the attacks all happening at the same time, it is getting harder to tell one terrorist organization from the next.

Yet there is one actor that seems to be slipping under the radar: Iran.

Iran is asserting itself as a major financier. According to the Economist, “Iran now seems to be providing Islamic Jihad with dollops of aid, plus weaponry,” allowing it to amass “at least 20,000 fighters under its command.”[1]

That does not mean Hamas is out of the picture. While the Hamas-Iran alliance has been strained due to differences over the conflict in Syria, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has taken strides to rekindle their friendship.

I conducted a phone interview with terrorism expert and Fox News analyst Ryan Mauro, who thinks Iran’s dual involvement is no coincidence. “The idea that the Islamic Jihad – which is tied to Iran – is working with Hamas [that] is now getting closer to Iran completely makes sense.”

It all comes back to Iran.

But Islamist groups are known competitors. Can Iran really puppeteer dueling terrorist organizations?

It doesn’t have to. For the Islamic Jihad to gain ground, Hamas needs to be in some sort of cahoots. Hamas governs Gaza with an “iron fist” – brutally cracking down on any opposing groups.

“If you wanted to hold an anti-Hamas demonstration,” says Mauro, “within a second Hamas would come and throw you in jail, violently disperse you, and make you pay a price.”

“I think that it would be foolish to believe that Islamic jihad or any other terrorist group could now [hold] operations from the Gaza strip without at least Hamas knowing about it and allowing it,” he adds.

Is Hamas’s tolerance of outside Islamists an endorsement? It’s very likely. But on whether they actually cooperate together or not, Mauro insists that the West is missing the big picture: shared ideology.

“They have the same core issue,” he says. “They follow a version of radical Islam that says it’s okay to kill civilians for the sake of implementing Sharia law[2] and defeating Western influence.”

As a matter of fact, Mauro reveals that “the root problem [in Gaza] isn’t Hamas. You can wipe out all of Hamas and another will take its place … Groups like Hamas and their associated terrorists are products of an ideology, and until that ideology – and everything that sustains it – is dismantled, you’re just going to keep dealing with one group after another.”

That does not mean Mauro believes military action is ineffective – far from it. While he acknowledges that it is a short-term fix rather than a long-term solution, he asserts that military action provides both relief and protection.

He even thinks military action against Hamas helps Palestinian Arabs in general. This is because Hamas rockets misfire and injure Palestinian Arabs. More broadly, Hamas has created a terrorism economy: taxing underground tunnels, paying salaries to imprisoned murderers, and stealing aid money that should be going to the Palestinian people.

Only 35% of Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza strip view Hamas favorably.[3]

So actions that hurt Hamas help both the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs. Admittedly, it is a band-aid over a cancerous ideology.

But the true fault of the West is not a matter of short or long-term solutions. It is the failure to recognize the problems in the first place.

The West has consistently ignored the behavior of the Palestinian Authority – dominated by its leading party Fatah – pretending not to notice when its President Mahmoud Abbas double-speaks to the English and Arabic media. In English he wants peace. In Arabic he wants martyrs.

This is what Mauro calls the West’s “core problem.” The West focuses on the tactics – the actual events that happen – rather than the culture one implements. “So the argument goes, ‘well, if Fatah supposedly isn’t killing civilians, well then they’re moderates,’” he laments. “But they’re still contributing to the environment that results in terrorism by doing things like glorifying martyrs and promoting anti-Semitism.”

The Palestinian Authority cultivates terrorism – goading its people into murder – yet it is somehow exempt of any consequences. Where is the line? At what point does the Palestinian Authority get branded as a terrorist organization?

“That would require a flashy attack against Israeli civilians that no one can deny,” Mauro answers. “As long as Fatah can claim – by some stretch of the imagination – that they’re not responsible for attacks on civilians, then there are going to be those in the West that are willing to go along with that because they view Fatah as their great hope for some kind of breakout for peace.”

This is dangerous logic. It allows violent ideology to spread and takes advantage of the goodwill of the West. Ultimately, Mauro calls for a “broader, more grand strategy” that addresses the real issue: terrorism culture.

Otherwise, he warns, we will continue to make the same mistakes.

[1] http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21599826-decline-hamas-may-result-new-wave-chaos-whos-charge

[2] Islamic law. Some of the mandates include: criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by death; thieves have their hands chopped off; women must be circumcised and her testimony in court is only half as much as a man’s

[3] http://www.timesofisrael.com/pew-support-for-hamas-hezbollah-collapsing-in-region/

Egyptian army thwarts two attacks against Israel, Jerusalem Post, Ariel Ben Solomon, July 24, 2014

Egyptian military sources stated that the army shot and killed a suicide bomber on his way to Israel, destroyed vehicle carrying rocket launcher.

Egyptian soldiers keep guard in Sinai Photo: REUTERS

The sources also said that the army destroyed a vehicle loaded with Grad rockets before they were fired at Israel.

The Egyptian army thwarted an attack against Israel on Wednesday night, killing a suicide bomber who ran towards the border near Kerem Shalom, Egyptian military sources said.

The Egyptian sources told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency in a report published Thursday that the suicide bomber carried an explosive device in addition to wearing an explosive belt on his body.

The sources also said that the army destroyed a vehicle loaded with Grad rockets before they were fired at Israel.

The attack on the vehicle killed two individuals, taking place in the north Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid near the border with the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, in tandem with Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza, the Egyptian army continued its ongoing operations against terrorist elements in Sinai. The army killed three terrorists, injured two others, and arrested 16 on Wednesday night, the army spokesman announced on Facebook.

Anti-Tank Missiles Deflected by New Israeli Defense System, Washington Free Beacon, Abraham Rabinovich, July 24, 2014

Gaza tunnels remain major threat to Israeli security.

An Israeli tank moves through the morning mist near the Israel and Gaza border / AP

Installed on Israel’s most-advanced tank, the Merkava 1V, the system’s sensors instantly identify a rocket or RPG heading toward it. Without intervention of the crew, the system fires pellets that detonate the rocket at a safe distance from the tank. It also informs the crew of the location from which the incoming rocket was launched, permitting counter-fire.

JERUSALEM–At least five times in the past week in Gaza, Israeli tanks equipped with a revolutionary defense system have deflected anti-tank missiles fired at them by Hamas fighters, according to the Israeli army.

The success of the Windbreaker system, as it is called in Israel, augments on the ground the technological achievement in the air of the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system which Israel credits with neutralizing the intensive rocketing from Gaza of the past two weeks.

An urgent need for yet another technological breakthrough—this one underground—emerged last week when Israeli troops entering the Gaza Strip uncovered dozens of attack tunnels leading to, or under, the border fence separating Gaza from Israel. Even Israeli security personnel who were aware of the existence of tunnels were astonished at their numbers, their proximity (in one case, only 200 yards from a kibbutz), and their sophistication, with ventilation, lighting, and communication systems.

Israelis living near Gaza are demanding assurances from the government that Hamas commandos will not be able to emerge in the future from under the ground in their back yard. Officials say that no technology exists at present to detect the excavation, or existence, of tunnels at the depth Hamas is digging them—more than 60 feet below the surface. The only action that can be taken now is the destruction of existing tunnels, which the army is currently carrying out. New tunnels would take a year or two to build.

Intensive research, much of it top secret, is already underway in Israel to find a technological solution. One proposal was publicly aired this week by Haim Siboni, founder of Magna BSP, which he describes as “a security provider company, which specializes in automatic detection systems”. Siboni toldGlobes, an Israeli business newspaper, that existing technology, with some software and hardware adjustments, could provide the answer.

He proposed that Israel dig a 45-mile-long tunnel—the length of the border with Gaza—on the Israeli side of the line, and install in it every half mile an underground radar station, at a cost of $150,000 for each site. “It would provide real-time alerts of any tunnel, whether above or below,” he says. “The army will know exactly where the attack tunnel is, how many people are in it, and can monitor the progress of digging.”

Officials, who presumably are aware of Siboni’s proposal, say that research is continuing.

The Windbreaker system (known abroad as Trophy), which became operational in 2009, has since been successfully tested by live fire twice when Israeli tank patrols on the periphery of Gaza were fired on two years ago. The current Gaza campaign is the first time the system is being tested in a face-to-face war against advanced Russian anti-tank rockets. In the 2006 Lebanon War against Hezbollah, missiles penetrated 22 Israeli tanks, destroying several.

Installed on Israel’s most-advanced tank, the Merkava 1V, the system’s sensors instantly identify a rocket or RPG heading toward it. Without intervention of the crew, the system fires pellets that detonate the rocket at a safe distance from the tank. It also informs the crew of the location from which the incoming rocket was launched, permitting counter-fire.

The system has also been mounted on Israel’s more advanced personnel carriers built on the frame of the Merkava 1V. Unfortunately for the Israelis, an older personnel carrier was hit and destroyed last week in Gaza, killing the seven infantrymen inside.

US gives weapons to Israel to attack Gaza: Iran

Thursday Jul 24, 2014 02:52 PM GMT

​(Of course, Iran would never do such a thing with Hamas. – LS)

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Israeli regime is using the US weapons to attack innocent Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

“We know that all the weapons that are used by Israel in order to attack civilians in Gaza have been provided by the United States,” Zarif said in an interview with NBC’S Meet that Press.

However, the United Nations has not taken any action to condemn the US move and to use the Security Council in order to put an end to it, he added.

He called for an “immediate end” to the Israeli regime’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

“The United States and the rest of the members of the Security Council have a moral and legal responsibility to put an end to this,” Zarif pointed out.

“We call for an immediate end to all of these activities,” he added.

Asked if he condemns Hamas for launching rockets into Israel, Zarif said, “We do not condemn people who are defending themselves.”

“We believe that actions that are putting civilians in jeopardy in Gaza, that have placed restrictions on civilians to get access to medicine and to food…need to be vehemently condemned by the international community ,” he added.

The death toll from the five days of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 125.

More than 800 people were injured in the latest round of Israeli attacks on Gaza since July 8. Most of the victims have been women and children.

Shalom, motherf****r.

by: Eitan Chitayat
July 23, 2014, 1:32 pm

​(“Know this: when someone tries to end my life, IT IS PERSONAL.”

Kind of gets to the heart of the matter. – LS)

I don’t know how to write this without sounding like the kind of person I’m about to sound like, but sometimes you’ve just got to write it like you feel it. And I feel this. I un-friended a ‘friend’ from Facebook the other day.

To be honest, he wasn’t really a friend. He was a professional aquaintance and one whose talent I respect. But that’s it.

I un-friended him because he crossed a line.

I don’t mind that he didn’t write to ask how we’re doing here in Israel. People have their lives and we’re not the center of the world.

No. He started posting videos and images that reek of anti-semitism and an anti-Israel bias the likes of which are posted by people who clearly hate my country.

And i saw these posts.

A video by an English elected official who spewed such anti-Israel rhetoric that it was borderline hatred.

And a post that apparently Robert De Niro made claiming we’re an apartheid state. (we’re not – and that was another spreading of an untruth).

He crossed a line on a day – the other day – that 13 regular Israeli fathers, sons or brothers here were killed defending my country. Men drawn into a war they did not want to fight, but fought to protect their families, friends, and country – and to protect ME. A war others will continue to fight because to not fight it means we will perish. I don’t mean that we will lose our country, but as you can see by the turmoil around us in the Middle East (that has nothing to do with us) we will lose our lives.

He crossed a line following 10 days in which we, the citizens of Israel, have been bombarded the length of the 10 hour drive north to south of our country, and two our drive east to west of our country (that’s the size of Israel) with missiles intended to murder Israelis, no matter what gender, what age, what profession and what religion they follow. (We have over a million Israeli-Arabs living here within our borders as citizens with full rights).

And as I write, coming home from a day of work and having put my son to bed in his crib, we are still being bombarded.

He crossed another line after he saw that I unfriended him when he wrote an email to me saying that it’s ‘…funny to be de-friended for posting a statement from an elected official. As a Jew you should realize that mass murder is never justified’. (His identity will remain hidden, of course).

First of all, don’t give me that ‘as a Jew’ crap. I don’t need to be a Jew to realise that mass murder isn’t justified. I need to be a decent human being.

Secondly, I don’t give a damn that he was an elected official – he said some preposterous, disgusting and very untrue things – and history is full of misguided elected officals.

And third, we’re mass murderers? My country accepts an Egyptian-proposed Gaza cease-fire twice and Hamas keeps firing away. They aim rockets at civilians while we go at great lengths to avoid civilians actually calling them in their areas and dropping warning charges, to give innocents a chance to escape. That’s unprecedented in warfare history. We leave Gaza for a chance at peace 9 years ago and for 9 years we got rockets, hate education, underground tunnels built with the purpose of entering Israeli territory so radicals can murder and kidnap Jews? This is what we get for leaving Gaza unilaterally 9 years ago. And we’re mass murderers?

No – fool. Ours is not the behavior of mass murderers.

I’m tired of the argument lobbed against us where I read people saying it’s ‘not fair’ because more Palestinians have died than Israelis. Of people asking ‘why are we complaining when we’re the stronger ones?’
My heart bleeds for every innocent killed no matter what side they’re on. Palestinain or Israeli innocents – it matters not.

But I will not apologise for surviving.

For surviving missiles intended to kill me. The fact they didn’t kill me doesn’t mean they weren’t sent with the intention to murder. We have a defence system, shelters, evacuation procedures and governments who take care of us – I will not apologise for living and surviving thanks to being prepared because we have a culture that celebrates our lives and cherishes them instead of sending 10-year old children to be fighters and bombers. I will not apologise for having a business, a home, a family and friends here who want normal lives and to live in peace with our neighbors. I will not apologise for existing and I want nothing more than to co-exist quietly with neighbors who accept me here.

But this is not what Hamas wants.

Let me be very clear. Hamas is trying to kill ME. My family. My baby son. All of us here. That is their purpose. Get it through your heads – that is what is happening. And it’s VERY personal. For all of us here.

Our Israeli civilians – people like me – are being targeted to die. Palestinian innocents on the other side are dying because my army is trying to protect us from thugs operating in those areas who are launching rockets at my populated cities. If Palestinian innocents are dying it’s because of jihadists and terrorists (other names for thugs), but NOT because of the State of Israel that is trying to protect its citizens as any sovereign country would do. People are going to die. Innocents will die and it’s awful and it’s ugly. But we have to do what we have to do now. That is not a tone of justification. It’s me telling you the way it is – and believe me, we’re already paying the price with the blood of our people…of families who will never sit together again. Play together again. Hold eachother again.

This is not a game.

I was speaking to my father this evening and he advised me, like a good father does bless him, to not speak my mind on Facebook. Why go to the trouble? But he’s looking out for his son knowing I’ll face backlash.

Look, we remained silent in the 30′s and look where it got us. We hoped rational people would see sense and refused to believe that people were capable of evil. And where did that get us? Trainrides straight to the gas chambers by REAL mass murderers. And there are those today who follow directly in the footsteps of the Nazis and who state proudly that they want to see all Jews dead, all of israel wiped off the face of the earth. (It is in Hamas’ offical charter – I’m serious – look). And why? Not because of ‘stolen land’ and politics but because they’re misguided, pitiful, hateful people who hate Jews and don’t give a damn about their people. Because anyone who gives a damn about their people would try giving them a future and not use them as pawns in a sick game of death and 72 virgins.

No, I will not remain silent while lies are spread about my country, my people, my culture, my values. I will be the FIRST in line to condemn my leaders and countrymen and women when they do wrong – as we do.
(And we do). But we are in the right here and I will not be quiet.

If anyone doesn’t understand any of the above; if anyone doesn’t get it; if any of my friends are going to post anti-Israel messages in a time where over 500 Palestinians have tragically died in this current conflict yet you remained silent while almost 200,000 Arabs were murdered by Arabs these past few years; if you’re not writing about Assad using chemical weapons against his people; if you’re not writing about ISIS who crucified 8 christians the other day and who are telling Iraqi Christians ‘convert, pay tax, or die’; if you only have criticism for the State of Israel that is doing EVERYTHING in its power to avoid civilian losses to Palestinians during a war; if you’re going to do nothing but sit wherever you’re sitting and just dish out your anti-Israel dirt while rockets are being aimed at my house, family and friends as our boys are fighting to protect us – and you’re going to dish it out simply because we’re living in this land and you haven’t got a clue as to our connection to it; if you’re going to join the anti-semitic and anti-Israel demonstrations flaring up in the world like we’re seeing in France, Turkey, Berlin, most Arab states and even in the US that have nothing to do with this conflict but are really just expressions of hatred directed at Jews and Israelis (and these expressions will be directed at the host countries soon); if you’re going to stay quiet and just accept, then go ahead and unfriend me from Facebook now because you’re probably no friend of mine.

Know this: when someone tries to end my life, IT IS PERSONAL.
And if you’re adding fuel to the fire by posting crap that in some small way will contribute to my demise, then again – un-friend me now.

Because you can have the hatred, the twisted, the sick and evil and be a part of that – or you can have me. But you can’t have both.

Shalom, motherf****r.

Israel Hayom | Israel, the beautiful and strong.

Boaz Bismuth

Why Abbas Endorsed Hamas Demands, Gatestone Institute, Khaled Abu Toameh, July 24, 2014

Evidently Abbas has reached the conclusion that unless he hurries up and declares his support for the Palestinian “resistance” in the Gaza Strip, his people will march on his office and force him to quit. Abbas’s fear of a revolt has driven him into the open arms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Another reason for the unexpected change in Abbas’s policy might be the promise of financial aid he received from Qatar — an enemy of Egypt’s al-Sisi, but the largest funder of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Abbas know that if he wants to survive, he will have to be on the side of the radicals.

Until recently, Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas was very critical of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their refusal to accept the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Israel.

But now Abbas appears to have made a 180-degree turn and has even endorsed the conditions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for a cease-fire.

The shift in Abbas’s position became evident after he visited Doha, Qatar, where he held separate talks with Emir Tamim bin Thani al-Hamad and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

Prior to his visit to Doha, Abbas was in Cairo, where he met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and discussed with him ways of ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

During his visit to Cairo, Abbas repeated his call for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to accept the Egyptian cease-fire plan. However, the visit to Qatar appears to have changed Abbas, who has now openly endorsed the conditions of the two groups and is no longer talking about the Egyptian proposal as the only plan on the table.

Mahmoud Abbas (r) meets with the Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal in Qatar, July 20, 2014. (Image source: Handout from the Palestinian Authority President’s Office/Thaer Ghanem)

As late as last week, Abbas announced had that the cease-fire conditions set by Hamas and Islamic Jihad were “unnecessary.” Abbas then launched an indirect attack on the two terror groups, dubbing their leaders “merchants of blood.”

In a televised speech broadcast on Palestine TV this week, Abbas also openly held Hamas responsible for the continued war in the Gaza Strip. He noted that while Israel had accepted the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, Hamas “unfortunately turned it down.”

Abbas’s statements drew sharp condemnations not only from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but from many other Palestinians as well.

As of Wednesday, however, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have suddenly begun praising Abbas for his policies and remarks about the war in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal went on the record toheap praise on Abbas for his “brilliant political performance.”

Mashaal told a Russian TV station that Abbas was a “man of difficult missions” and that the unity agreement between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah faction would remain intact.

On Wednesday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri welcomed a statement from Abbas and the PLO leadership that effectively endorsed the conditions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for a cease-fire. Abu Zuhri said that the statement contributes to Palestinian unity and blocks the way to attempts to sabotage the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation.

Islamic Jihad’s senior official, Sheikh Khaled al-Batsh, has also shifted from criticizing Abbas to praising him. Al-Batsh said he was particularly satisfied with Abbas’s recent rhetorical attacks on Israel, including threats to brand Israelis in international forums as “war criminals.”

The PLO statement endorsing the demands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad came two weeks after the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip. It was issued after an emergency meeting of the PLO leadership in Ramallah under the chairmanship of Abbas.

Referring to the conditions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for a cease-fire, the statement read: “The demands of the Gaza Strip for halting the [Israeli] aggression and lifting the siege in all its forms are the demands of the entire Palestinian people. The Palestinian leadership is devoting all its efforts to achieve this goal.”

This statement contradicts Abbas’s earlier assertion that the conditions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are “unnecessary.”

So what brought about the sudden shift in Abbas’s stance toward the war in the Gaza Strip?

One reason could be growing resentment among Palestinians of Abbas and his top officials in the West Bank for their failure to “side with their people” against the Israeli “aggression.”

For the first time since the eruption of the war, Palestinians in the West Bank have taken to the streets to condemn Abbas strongly as a “traitor” and demand his removal from power. In some Palestinian cities, Palestinian policemen used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse Palestinians demonstrating against both Israel and the PA leadership.

Evidently, Abbas has reached the conclusion that unless he hurries up and declares his support for the Palestinian “resistance” groups in the Gaza Strip, his people will march on his office and force him to quit.

That prospect is probably why Abbas decided this week to send his wife and grandchildren to stay at the family’s residence in Amman, Jordan. According to various reports, members of Abbas’s families left Ramallah “secretly” and headed for Jordan amid increased criticism of the Palestinian Authority president.

Witnesses said that security has been intensified around the home and office of Abbas in Ramallah out of concern for his safety.

Abbas’s fear of a Palestinian revolt against his regime has driven him into the open arms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Another reason for the unexpected change in Abbas’s policy could be related to a promise he received from Qatar to provide the Palestinian Authority with financial aid. If true, this would strain relations between Abbas and al-Sisi, who is despised by Qatar — the largest funder of Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Abbas has chosen to be on the side of the Palestinian “resistance” against Israel. He is now even repeating the Hamas charge that the Israeli military operation is primarily aimed at “thwarting” the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah.

Abbas knows that if he wants to survive, he will have to be on the side of the radicals. Moderate statements and policies have only gotten him into trouble.

Israel Accuses Al Jazeera Media Org of Supporting Terror

by Jordan Schachtel
23 Jul 2014

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not mince words when it came to how he felt about Al Jazeera: “Al Jazeera has abandoned even the semblance of a credible media outlet, and it broadcasts – both within Gaza and outside it, to the world – anti-Semitic incitement, lies, provocation and encouragement to terrorists,” he said.

The Foreign Minister pointed a finger at the government of Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera, for financing the media backing of jihadi groups through the news outlet. “Qatar constitutes the economic spine of the most radical terrorist groups, which are undermining the stability of the world in general and the Middle East in particular,” he said. “Qatar is a key player in our current conflict with Hamas in Gaza, since among other things, it finances Hamas and gives asylum to Khaled Meshaal (Hamas Chairman living in Doha, Qatar).”

Lieberman pointed out that Israel allows for many alternative media outlets, many of which hold anti-Israel biases, but Al Jazeera had crossed the line. Lieberman noted that many media outlets “don’t exactly broadcast Zionist propaganda – even the opposite. But as a democratic country, we’re obligated to allow this,” he continued. “In Al Jazeera’s case, however, this isn’t a media issue, but an issue relating to the operation of a branch of a terrorist organization that is currently fighting against the State of Israel. The U.S. wouldn’t let an Al-Qaida channel broadcast from New York.”

Al Jazeera accused Israeli forces Tuesday of fired at their offices in Gaza. “Two very precise shots were fired straight into our building,” said an Al Jazeera reporter. The two shots, although described as precise, appeared to cause no harm. Al Jazeera said it has evacuated its Gaza offices. The left wing anti-Israel Guardian newspaper ran with Al Jazeera’s independent account, writing, “Al Jazeera Gaza offices evacuated after direct hit by Israeli fire.”

On Tuesday, an Al Jazeera contributor referred to IDF lone soldiers (volunteers from other countries) as Jewish foreigners who were “fighting jihad” on behalf of Israel, calling the Jewish state’s operation into Gaza a “genocidal campaign.”

In July, 2013, 22 members of Al Jazeera’s staff in Egypt abruptly resigned, accusing the network of forcing its employees to adhere to the network’s pro-Muslim Brotherhood bias in its reporting. One journalist called Al Jazeera a “propaganda channel” for the Brotherhood. Another said that “Al Jazeera has turned itself into a channel for the Muslim Brotherhood… They are far from being professional.”

The US-designated Hamas terror group, currently in a self-declared war with Israel in perpetuity, describes itself in its charter as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A “humanitarian” ceasefire would give Hamas time to find answers for Israeli Chariot-4’s Windbreaker armor

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 24, 2014, 1:16 PM (IDT)

Thursday, July 24, the 17th day of the IDF’s Gaza operation, Israeli ministers were discussing a possible “humanitarian ceasefire” in IDF-Hamas hostilities, which could last up to five days. According to debkafile’s military sources, it is Hamas which, behind its tough stance, is keen on a pause – and not just out of sudden concern for Gaza’s civilians. Its tacticians are desperate to find a chink in the Chariot-4 tank’s Armored Shield Protection-Active Trophy missile defense system, known as the Windbreaker. The 401st armored brigade is the only IDF unit with this armor.

Hamas has tried to stop these tanks with two kinds of advanced guided anti-tank missiles, the Russian Kornet-E, and the 9M113 Konkurs. But Windbreaker repels them and blows them all up.
Wednesday July 23 the IDF deliberately placed brigade commander Col. Sa’ar Tzur, one of the outstanding commanders in Operation Protective Edge, before TV cameras, while standing in front of a Chariot-4 tank.

He spoke at length about the brigade’s unstoppable performance under anti-tank missile fire. Those missiles are blown up without penetrating the tanks’ armor, he said, and are powerless to slow their advance.

Hamas has found no answer for the Active Trophy defense system, any more than it has for the Iron Dome anti-missile defense batteries, which keep Israeli civilian populations safe from its rockets. Both systems are home-made, developed by Rafael advanced armed systems industries.
Hamas is not giving up, which is why it is holding out against a long ceasefire, but aiming for just enough time to come up with new stratagems, debkafile’s military sources say.
This was the message conveyed in the statement Hamas leader Khaled Meshal made Wednesday July 23 in Qatar: He rejected a long-term ceasefire, but left the door open for a “humanitarian” pause.
While its forces have taken serious punishment, most of Hamas’ underground command and military infrastructure is still far from knocked out. But if the Israeli military decides to go for a decisive coup against those core facilities – defined by the Israeli security cabinet’s euphemism of “expanding the operation” – Hamas chiefs expect it to be spearheaded by a fleet of Chariot-4 tanks hurtling towards them behind the protection of their impenetrable “Windbreakers.”

To maintain any kind of draw with the IDF, Hamas stands in urgent need of two resources: 1) Technology for neutralizing the Windbreaker; and 2) Missiles able to pierce it.
While Khaled Meshal haggles with ceasefire brokers in Qatar, his agents are known to have appealed urgently to Tehran to find the weapons they need and deliver them at top speed to the Gaza Strip – possibly from Libya by the Iranian-terrorists’ arms smuggling route through Egypt.
A reference to this appeal was made in a comment by a senior military intelligence official Wednesday, when he disclosed that Iran had promised to rebuild Hamas’ military machine, including its rocket production and launch systems. Hamas and Tehran also broached the problem of the Chariot-4 armor. Both fully understood that unless it can be solved, Hamas may have no way of defending its high command and arsenal in their elaborately furnished underground bunkers.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has all these facts to hand, fed by a steady stream of intelligence from US informants in and over the battlefield. His efforts for a ceasefire are based on his perception that Israel has so far not managed to inflict a clear defeat on Hamas and needs to expand its operation to tip the scales.

He calculates that if Israel launches its final thrust, which has not yet been approved, it will not accept a ceasefire before achieving its goal, and this may take at least a week to ten days.

But if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon hold off on Israel’s decisive attack, then negotiations can start for a truce of some kind, while both sides size up their respective situations and decide whether or not it is to their advantage.