WarSclerotic

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.

Israel Tests Hi-Tech Tunnel Detection System

By Inna Lazareva, Jaffa

1:31PM BST 23 Jul 2014

Many bemoan fact that such a large number of tunnels dug by Hamas from Gaza into Israel have gone undetected for so long

Gas deployed by the Israeli army gushes out of a hole in a tunnel which was used by Hamas militants Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Deep in the bowels of Tel Aviv’s underground, engineers and scientists recently conducted trials of a new hi-tech detection system that aims to eradicate the threat posed by Hamas’s underground tunnels.

As international pressure mounts to end the current round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, and the operation in Gaza continues to claim more and more lives, the IDF is racing against time in order to discover as many tunnels as possible.

But once the IDF withdraws from Gaza, there are currently no mechanisms in place to prevent Hamas and others from digging new tunnels into Israel.

In a bid to find a solution, the IDF’s elite Talpiot unit has been working on developing a tunnel detection system which was tested in Tel Aviv. Its costs are estimated to be $59 million.

“The high-tech system, which uses special sensors and transmitters, is still in its R&D phase, and if all goes well, should be operational within a year”, notes a report on Israel’s I-24 news.

The most common type of technology for tracking down tunnels is focused on listening for sounds of digging, notes Inbal Orpaz in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Another Israeli company, Magna, already provides defence systems for the Israel-Egypt border, as well as for the nuclear reactor sites in Japan. It proposes digging a 70-km tunnel along the Israel-Gaza border, equipped with a sensitive alert system.

This “will provide real-time alerts of any tunnel digging that crosses our tunnel, whether above or below it. The IDF will know exactly where the attack tunnel is and how many people are in it, and can monitor the progress of digging it in real time, and decide how to respond to the threat,” the company’s founder and CEO Haim Siboni told Israel’s Globes publication.

While hi-tech solutions are being tested and debated, many in Israel bemoan the fact that such a large number of tunnels dug from Gaza into Israeli territory have gone undetected for so long.

“For 10 years I’ve been crying and screaming to the highest possible levels – to the Defense Ministry, the chief of staff, the commanding officers of southern and northern command,” Dr Joseph Langotsky, an Israeli geologist who has long advocated greater attention to the issue of the tunnels, said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post.

“Although the tunnels are a low-tech option, they might be a strategic threat to our security,” said Dr Langotsky.

The U.S. should push for the disarming of Hamas in Gaza-Israel cease-fire – The Washington Post.

A Palestinian man stands amid the debris following an Israeli air strike on Gaza City. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

THE DISTINGUISHING feature of the latest war between Israel and Hamas is “offensive tunnels,” as the Israeli army calls them. As of early Wednesday, 28 had been uncovered in Gaza, and nearly half extend into Israel, according to Israeli officials.

The tunnels are the reason that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu decided last weekend to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, and they explain why that operation has strong support from Israelis in spite of the relatively heavy casualties it has inflicted. Most significantly, the tunnels show why it has been difficult to reach a cease-fire and why any accord must forge a new political and security order in Gaza.

Hamas’s offensive tunnels should not be confused with the burrows it has dug under Gaza’s border with Egypt to smuggle money, consumer goods and military equipment. The newly discovered structures have only one conceivable purpose: to launch attacks inside Israel. Three times in recent days, Hamas fighters emerged from the tunnels in the vicinity of Israeli civilian communities, which they clearly aimed to attack. The ­concrete-lined structures are stocked with materials, such as handcuffs and tranquilizers, that could be used on hostages. Other tunnels in northern Gaza are designed for the storage and firing of missiles at Israeli cities.

The resources devoted by Hamas to this project are staggering, particularly in view of Gaza’s extreme poverty. By one Israeli account, the typical tunnel cost $1 million to build over the course of several years, using tons of concrete desperately needed for civilian housing. By design, many of the tunnels have entrances in the heavily populated Shijaiyah district, where the Israeli offensive has been concentrated. One was found underneath al-Wafa hospital, where Hamas also located a command post and stored weapons, according to Israeli officials.

The depravity of Hamas’s strategy seems lost on much of the outside world, which — following the terrorists’ script — blames Israel for the civilian casualties it inflicts while attempting to destroy the tunnels. While children die in strikes against the military infrastructure that Hamas’s leaders deliberately placed in and among homes, those leaders remain safe in their own tunnels. There they continue to reject cease-fire proposals, instead outlining a long list of unacceptable demands.

One of those demands is for a full reopening of Gaza’s land and sea borders. While this would allow relief and economic development for the territory’s population, it would also allow Hamas to import more missiles and concrete for new tunnels. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, the Egyptian government and other would-be brokers are right to seek a cease-fire, but they should reject Hamas’s agenda. Instead, any political accord should come after a cease-fire and be negotiated with the Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas. It should link opening of the borders and other economic concessions to the return to Gaza of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, the disarmament of Hamas and elections for a new government.

In setting such conditions, international mediators will likely have the quiet support of most of Gaza’s population. Polls show that they are fed up with Hamas’s rule and with its use of women and children as cannon fodder in unwinnable wars with Israel. The next government of Gaza should be one that invests in schools, health clinics and houses, not in tunnels.

FAA, reviewing Israeli measures, lifts flight ban | Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Israel denounces UNHRC as ‘kangaroo court’ Jerusalem Post,  Tovah Lazaroff, July 24, 2014

(The UNHRC claims to be four-square in favor of “proportionality.” Shouldn’t it lead the way by showing at least a smidgen of proportionality itself? — DM)

Council to probe Israeli “war crimes” after holding a special emergency session in Geneva on the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza; US was the only one of 47-member states to oppose the probe.

OVERVIEW OF the Human Rights Council at the UNHRC Photo: Reuters

Israel attacked as a “travesty” a UN decision on Wednesday to probe its actions against Hamas in Gaza on the same day that the terrorist organization launched 80 rockets against it, targeting civilian areas.

“This investigation by a kangaroo court is a foregone conclusion,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council ordered the probe after holding a special emergency session in Geneva on the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The US was the only one of 47-member states to oppose the probe, while 29 countries approved it. Another 17 states abstained, including Israel’s European allies – the UK, Germany and France – who have verbally backed Israel against Hamas.

Among those countries who supported the probe were Russia, China, India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

Prior to the vote, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that Israel could be committing war crimes in Gaza.

“There seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated in a manner that could amount to war crimes,” she told the UNHRC.

The head of the UNHRC is scheduled to appoint an “international commission of inquiry” to look at Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, with a focus on Gaza, but including the West Bank and east Jerusalem, since the June 12 Palestinian kidnapping of three Israeli teens.

The commission is tasked with identifying those responsible for “violations of international humanitarian law,” and with holding the violators accountable and ending their impunity.

Israel said such a probe only emboldens Hamas and encourages its policy of using civilians as human shields.

“Rather than investigate Hamas, which is committing a double war crime by firing rockets at Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians, the UNHRC calls for an investigation of Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

According to the IDF, Hamas has launched 2,249 rockets against Israel over the past 16 days. The UNHRC should be investigating Hamas’s use of hospitals as military command centers, schools as a weapons depots and its placement of missile batteries next to playgrounds, private homes and mosques, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“The UNHRC is sending a message to Hamas and terrorist organizations everywhere that using civilians as human shields is an effective strategy,” it said.

The Prime Minister’s Office equated this probe to the infamous UNHRC Goldstone Report on Israel’s military incursion into Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead.

“The predictable result will be the libeling of Israel and even greater use of human shields in the future by Hamas,” said the Prime Minister’s Office. “Those who will pay the price will be not only Israelis but also Palestinians who Hamas will redouble its efforts to use as human shields in the future.”

But Pillay told the council that the loss of life in Gaza was disproportionate to the threat facing Israel. Since July 7, Israel has bombed Gaza from the land, sea and air, resulting in the deaths of 600 Palestinians including 147 children and 74 women, she said.

“As we saw during the two previous crises in 2009 and 2012, it is innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, including children, women, the elderly and persons with disabilities, who are suffering the most,” Pillay said.

Preliminary UN figures show that 74% of those killed by IDF attacks in Gaza have been civilians, she said.

“Hundreds of homes and other civilian buildings, such as schools, have been destroyed or severely damaged in Gaza, and more than 140,000 Palestinians have been displaced as a result,” Pillay said. She condemned Hamas’s indiscriminate launching of rockets against Israel that endangers Israelis, killing three civilians in the past 16 days.

“I further emphasize that it is unacceptable [for Hamas] to locate military assets in densely populated areas or to launch attacks from such areas. However, international law is clear: The actions of one party do not absolve the other party of the need to respect its obligations under international law.

“Even where a home is identified as being used for military purposes, any attack must be proportionate, offer a definite military advantage in the prevailing circumstances at the time, and precautions must be taken,” she said.

In the wake of Pillay’s comments and approval of the probe, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman labeled the UNHRC as the “council for the rights of terrorists.”

Let Israel Decide, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2014

Nations must be militarily strong and determined enough to ensure their own survival. Israelis have long understood this harsh reality of global politics, and it has never been clearer than this week as the world browbeats Israel and the terror group Hamas for a “cease-fire” in Gaza.

President Obama and John Kerry have adopted this ostensibly even-handed trope, and on Tuesday the European Union went further and deplored Israel and Hamas as if they were equal perpetrators. Hamas should stop its “criminal and unjustifiable acts,” the EU said, but it added that it was “particularly appalled” at the human cost of the Israel ground offensive. Particularly?

This all may be intended as fine impartiality, but the reality is that a cease-fire now would help Hamas. The terror group rejected Egypt’s offer of a cease-fire last week after Israel had accepted it, perhaps figuring that Israel wouldn’t risk a ground invasion. Or perhaps it wanted such an invasion figuring the world would condemn Israel for civilian casualties and Hamas would win the propaganda war.

In any case now that it has moved on the ground, Israel will lose if it stops before it achieves its main military objectives. This means blowing up the entire network of tunnels that Hamas uses to infiltrate into Israel and to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt. It also means destroying the stockpiles of rockets and storage sites.

The Israelis are best positioned to judge their progress, and the U.S. should publicly support its military response in a war it didn’t start. This is what will bring the most rapid end to the violence.