UN’s Ban condemns rocket fire, Hamas use of civilian sites; IDF soldier killed | The Times of Israel.

UPDATE

The Terrorists’ Reality Show Who Has the “More Romantic Story”? Gatestone Institute, Pierre Rehov, July 22, 2014

For terrorists, the death of innocent children is irrelevant. In a society that promotes martyrdom as the ultimate sign of success, the death of innocent children can sometimes even be seen as a public relations blessing.

In every action, intent is paramount. There should never be a moral equivalence painted between the deliberate killing of civilians, and a retaliation that tragically leads to casualties among civilians.

There is, however, one small difference: in the Middle East, reporters are threatened, except in Israel. Their choice becomes a simple one: promote the Palestinian point of view or stop working in the West Bank. Keep the eye of the camera dirty or lose your job. This show should not go on.

“This whole conflict,” the foreign journalist said over coffee, “is a prime time show; the Palestinians provide us with the more romantic story.”

Terrorism is a show; it needs a producer and a distributor. Without a certain complicity from the international media, terrorism would not be so effective and might even disappear altogether.

While Hamas is raining rockets and missiles on the Israeli civilian population, and in return, is suffering a high level of destruction and hundreds of casualties as a result of collateral damage, one might ask: “What is the purpose?” The same question is also true of suicide terrorism. The genuine aim seems to be to gather sympathy while terrorizing the enemy, with an audience on an unlimited number of channels.

Casualties, in this show, whether Arab or Israeli, always play for the same side of the conflict: the one they hope will gain the most sympathy for the victims. These are usually Hamas and other terror organizations. In this round, they are mostly of Muslim origin, originate in the Palestinian territories and are funded by Iran and other countries with oil revenues

If a rocket succeeds in going through Israel’s anti-missile defense and causing damage to Israel, Hamas is “showing its strength,” by hitting the Jewish state. If a retaliation by Israel sadly results in the death of Arab civilians, Hamas is “showing how inhuman Israel is,” and therefore how much Israel deserves the world’s opprobrium. For Hamas and similar terror groups, therefore, the “show” is always a win-win.

Why is the dirty eye of the camera always playing for the same actors? Let us forget antisemitism, which obviously plays a role in this current equation. Many media outlets even belong to Jews, but they use the same images, often from the same point of view.

The reality is that terrorists, activists, Palestinian fighters or whatever you want to call them, long ago learned the weakness of democracies. In societies where the distribution of power is the key to freedom, freedom of speech is a solid counter-power, capable of revealing corruption, denouncing a policy, and reshaping a system. The media are the real leaders of the free world.

The Second Intifada that began in 2000, for instance, had been prepared a long time before. It took on a religious name, referring to a mosque built on the ruins of the Jewish temple. It was ready to be launched immediately after Yasser Arafat rejected Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer of 98% of the Palestinian territorial demands in exchange for a lasting peace. The Intifada needed only a “marketing gimmick” before it exploded in the face of the world and led to thousands of casualties on both sides. Arafat found its gimmick: the (innocent?) help and complicity of a French television channel, France 2. Nothing was easier than to post a Palestinian cameraman between an Israeli base and two unfortunate actors, then eventually plant close by a shooter armed with an AK47, and be ready for a big scoop: Lights, Camera… Action!

The image of the supposed shooting of young Mohammed al-Dura, cowering against his father and then falling under fire — with no blood! — had more success than any video on YouTube. Never mind that the footage of him lifting his arm to look out after he had allegedly been killed was later shown in French court, and that several minutes of footage are still “missing.”

The event was sold as the best of all reality shows. Israel, of course, was the villain, and even the grisly lynching of two Israeli reserve soldiers in Ramallah a few days later did not have the same impact on the world’s opinion: they were grown men, not boys, and soldiers who had lost their way, not civilians.

Thanks to the al-Dura show, the Palestinians were able to promote their cause as a fair one, despite a simple and basic principle of philosophy and law: in every action, intent is paramount. There should never be a moral equivalence painted between the deliberate killing of civilians, and a retaliation that tragically leads to casualties among civilians. Yet, in the eye of the camera, there is. A dead child covered with blood is the strong moment of the show. It is no wonder that Hamas is asking the population of Gaza to stay in their homes, while Israel is asking the civilians in Gaza to run away from places it might bomb. I imagine the leaders of Hamas, who are running the show, hiding in the basement of schools, mosques, hospitals, and tunnels, making comments on the latest developments: “More blood. We need more blood.”

The media who are pro-Palestinian, when they do not find enough horrific images from inside Gaza, recycle old pictures, Photoshop them, or use footage from other conflicts, mostly from Iraq and Syria. In the current conflict, they are already doing just that.

Pictures and footage from other conflicts, mostly from Iraq and Syria, are being used in the media to depict Israeli “atrocities” in Gaza.

Even though YouTube, Facebook and other social media are useful in building a larger audience for the show, reporters and journalists play their role. Sadly, they do not have a choice. As the journalist went on to explain, “Palestinians have written the scenario of this prime-time piece. As the editors say, ‘If it bleeds, it leads.'” On the field, they are urged to send back a “juicy” story that might even make the front page.

Israel also is a democracy, where freedom of speech is absolute, whereas the Palestinian territories are run by a “moderate” dictator at best, and by Islamist tyrants at worst. A reporter is a professional, making a living with by writing up what he sees and hears, his comments, his images. In Egypt, three journalists were recently sentenced, in a politically-motivated sham-trial, to seven years in prison for simply doing their job — because unfortunately they happened to work for Al Jazeera in Qatar, which is the primary supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, just ousted from Egypt by the current government. Even the “moderate ” Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has been arresting journalists who dare to question his government. Were is the outcry about those violations of human rights?

Which has more telegenic value: the amazing innovations and discoveries by Israeli scientists that lead to better lives for the rest of the world, or the image of a a boy throwing rocks at a tank? Is it even possible to work inside the West Bank or Gaza — or many of the Arab and Muslim states, and even much of Europe — and yet promote a contrarian point of view such Israel’s, or even a balanced view? Regrettably, the answer is no.

Reporters risk theirs lives. In the West Bank, they are taken in hand by Palestinian “translators,” fixers trained to escort journalists the same way that in the Soviet era, sputniks, or “minders,” were trained to promote communism, and to make sure that the tourists and journalists saw only what the government wanted them to see, and, even more, that thy did not see what the government did not want them to see. It is shocking to see illegal immigrant children penned in cages near the southern border of the U.S., but that there is no access allowed or freedom to speak to them. There is, however, one small difference: in the Middle East, reporters arethreatened, except in Israel. Their choice becomes a simple one: promote the Palestinian point of view (or whichever), or stop working in the West Bank (or wherever). Keep the eye of the camera dirty, or lose your job.

When making one of my documentaries, the Palestinian who was leading my crew offered me a scoop. As I was French, he trusted me to be on the Palestinians’ side. “You know,” he said, “what pays well? When an Israeli soldier kills a child. Are you interested?” he continued. “We can arrange that. For $10,000, I can organize everything.” Was he talking of a staging, or the real killing of a child? I did not dare to ask. I still nurture hope, despite the facts, that people would not willingly sacrifice children just to promote a show.

But as the foreign journalist concluded, “All the editors tell you: they are not interested unless it has an anti-Israeli angle.”

Everything in Palestinian society is designed to promote martyrdom. If the program were not so effective — if the media were not making money from the most horrifying scenes, and if reporters were really free to do their work in the Palestinian territories honestly — such savagery would not exist. If the journalists did not know that they could count on the complicity, forced or not, of freelancers, providing international agencies with valuable “scoops,” terrorism on the mass scale it has grown to of late, might not even happen.

If freedom of speech existed in Palestinian territories — or any Muslim country around the world — facts would be promoted, rather than erotically violent images. While wishing all the best for the Palestinian people — a transparent and accountable government that will improve the lives of its people — it is probably safe to say that the “Palestinian cause” would have lost most of it support a long time ago. They would have had no other choice but to pursue peace. This show should not go on. How can it be stopped?

Israel’s new 24-hour English, French, and Arabic news television station, 1389 Blog – Counterjihad, July 21, 2014

Please spread the word.

Israel has a new 24 hour internet news channel broadcasting in English (also French and Arabic) from Tel Aviv.

This is the link: http://www.i24news.tv/en/tv/live

It is a 24-hour news feed from the Israeli perspective, and is intended to rival CNN, Fox, Al-Jazeera, BBC, etc. It covers world news but also has a specific Israel news section.

Egypt will not amend ceasefire proposal to end Gaza conflict: FM | Cairo Post.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo over Gaza situtaion – Screen shot from YouTube

The Noose Around Israel’s Neck.

Channel 2 news: watching Israel drop bunker buster bombs on Hamas tunnels…

BREAKING: Israel marks today 1,000th successful Rocket interception by its Iron Dome, since first interception April 7, 2011.

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( The most accurate (if horrific) description of Israel’s position that I’ve read.  God bless Daniel Greenfield for telling it like it is.  Please forward this as far and wide as possible, – JW )

By Daniel Greenfield  July 22, 2014

This is not a peace process, and it has never been one. It is a public lynching

Israel is being hanged on a public gallows erected on the grounds of the United Nations with yards of rope gleefully supplied by the Muslim world. But the hangmen are mostly Westerners who still think that the Muslim lynch mob at their doorstep can be pacified with the death of a single victim.

There are three things you can do when you are about to be hanged. You can walk proudly, recite a glorious line or two to embed your martyrdom in historical memory, and then allow yourself to be hanged. Jews have an extensive body of experience with that brand of martyrdom.

Alternatively you can plead your case all the way to the gallows, arguing that a mistake has been made, that your case has been improperly reviewed, begging for someone to listen and do something. This way also ends in a hanging. But it’s the hanging of a slave without even a shred of dignity attached to it. A man that dies pleading with his murderers, and puts his fate in the honesty of the liars and hypocrites whose own crimes makes the worst of his look like virtues, is a craven fool.

Because there is really only one thing you can do when the noose is being placed around your neck. Resist. A noose works by tightening around your neck and cutting off your air or breaking your neck. If you resist the tightening of the noose, you may actually survive. On the other hand if you follow through all the procedures, if you allow your hands to be tied behind your back, and the noose to be fastened around your neck while trusting in the system to do right by you—your death is inevitable.

Every concession Israel has made, has further restricted not only its ability to defend itself

For two decades Israel has been walking toward the gallows. Its leaders have led it there by empty international assurances. Its people have been led there by refusing to see what is waiting ahead for them, even while the blood was being cleaned off the streets.

Every attempt to reach a peaceful solution, every concession and show of good faith, has only tightened the bonds around its hands and the noose around its neck.

Every concession Israel has made, has further restricted not only its ability to defend itself, but even its ability to do basic things such as build residential housing in the capital of its own nation. Every gesture and agreement Israel has signed has bound it to ever more restrictive terms. And none of them have brought any peace. All they have ever done is set the bar higher for the next round of concessions demanded by the enemy and its aiders and abettors in the next phase of negotiations.

This is not a peace process, and it has never been one. It is a public lynching

This is not a peace process, and it has never been one. It is a public lynching. It is the lynching of a country whose only real crime is that its existence offends the religious fanaticism and prejudices of a billion Muslims, who control much of the world’s oil, and whose followers are willing to riot and kill in the streets of nearly every major city in the world at the slightest offense.

The lynching began as a trial where the murderer wore a fine suit and his victim sat in an orange jumpsuit in the dock. Every day during the trial, the murderer would be allowed to leave the courtroom to kill again. And every afternoon he would return to the courtroom with bloody hands that the judge and jurors would pretend not to see.

If the victim called attention to those bloody hands, he would be told that those murders were also his fault because he had provoked the murderer into committing them.

The endgame is all too clear. The undoing of that “mistake” which allowed the oldest and most persecuted minority in the Middle East to briefly reclaim their homeland from the tyranny of Muslim Caliphs and Sultans as a homeland for their persecuted brethren from the east and the west.

Every time Israel tries to be accommodating, it instead takes a step closer to the gallows. It allows the noose to be tightened around its neck. And every time that happens, it has to fight harder for air.

Eventually there will be no air at all. Only a sad forlorn figure swinging in the hot eastern wind from the desert.

And cries of Ibtach al Yahood among the rubble of cities and gardens of Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Ariel.

Israel cannot survive by accommodating a lynch mob. Only by having the courage to defy it

Israel cannot survive by accommodating a lynch mob. Only by having the courage to defy it. When the international community at the behest of the Muslim lynch mob dictates the parameters of Israel’s survival, it must expand those parameters by pushing through them to the other side. If they want to recognize terrorists, then kill those terrorists. If they want to unilaterally create a Palestinian state, then annex those territories. Accommodation is a noose. Defiance is the air of freedom. Every time Israel retreats, it is condemned for it. When it advances, it is condemned for it also, but its freedom of action expands.

The world will always condemn Israel regardless of its intentions. But like any form of name-calling, those condemnations only gain power when Israel allows its actions to be dictated by them. Israel is not condemned because of what Israel does. It is condemned because of Islamic bigotry, left wing radicalism and international dhimmism converging in one place.

This is a pattern that cannot be undone. It can only be ignored.

When you listen to the threats and taunts of those who hate you, you give them power over yourself. If you try to accommodate your behavior to gain their favor, their outpouring of hate for you will only grow. It is not your behavior they hate, it is you. By showing weakness, you invite attack. By giving your enemies power over you, all that you accomplish is to drive them into a feeding frenzy at your vulnerability.

If you go on this way, you will either be a slave or a corpse. A slave if they have any use for you alive. A corpse if they don’t. Either way you have put your head into the noose they made for you.

Israel cannot go on this way. No country could for long. Yet it does, marching on toward the gallows, protesting that there has been a terrible mistake here. But there is no mistake here. None at all. The executioners nod sympathetically and promise to look into it, as they bind his hands behind his back. It’s a farce and everyone, except the dumbest among the lynch mob and the condemned, knows it.

Israel keeps being warned not to make trouble. Go quietly. Breathe deeply. Soon it will all be over

But like the condemned man refusing a blindfold in the anecdote who’s scheduled to be executed, Israel keeps being warned not to make trouble. Go quietly. Breathe deeply. Soon it will all be over. What will the world say, if Israel resists? Exactly what the world says now.  The troublemakers that are the cause of all the troubles of the otherwise peaceful nations of the Middle East. The worm in the lovely healthy apple otherwise covered with Muslim tyrannies.

Every threat that has been made has come about when Israel made concessions, not because it refused to. Every time Israel has chosen the high road, its enemies have ambushed it from the low road. It’s past time to wake up and start learning some lessons. The noose is drawn. And the nation is gasping for air. That breath of air was Jerusalem. The next one will be the Galilee. And then what? How many more breaths are left after that?

Before Oslo, Israel was threatened with terror if it did not comply. It complied and the terror increased manifold. And if did not negotiate further, it was threatened with international isolation. It negotiated. It gave. And it was isolated anyway. It was threatened with boycotts, and it gave, and the boycotts came anyway. Now they threaten the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Followed by a One State Solution. Followed by international intervention. Noose, gallows and all.

And does anyone think that all these will not come about anyway if Israel gives Abbas and his terrorist cronies their own official state with a capital in Jerusalem?

No compromise has worked until now. Which means no compromise will work. A process in which one side repeatedly compromises and the other side repeatedly threatens and takes, is not a process, but a holdup. If a man threatens you with a gun, then you might think that you can buy him off. Until he returns again and again. And then it is no longer a threat, it is a process. Israel is in that process, or rather it is being processed. At the end of the process is death. If you pay attention only to the gun, and not the pattern of threats, you may keep giving in, until you have given up your home, your wife and your children, and you have nothing left but your life. And then you will lose that as well. That is the nature of the process. To survive, you must not see the gun alone, but the process it is part of.

When Israel withdrew from Gaza, allowed Hamas to control it, and did nothing but prevent Hamas from having outside access, the world howled as if Israel had filled the country with graves from end to end, as Sudan or Iran or some of the other members and former members of the UN Human Rights Commission have. Now that Israel sacrifices the lives of its soldiers to minimize Muslim civilian casualties while Hamas does everything to increase those casualties, the howling has become a din.

That is not justice. That is a lynch mob.

We are no longer talking about negotiations. Or any serious discussion of a state. We are talking about the world rising up in one voice to defend the rights of a genocidal organization whose charter includes the words; “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

The pretense is over and done with. This is not about anything resembling peace. This is about death. This is a lynch mob. Some come willingly. Others think that they have no choice. That a single murder will buy them the tolerance of the Dar Al Islam.

Only by resisting the noose, can it survive. Only by fighting to free its hands, can it resist.

This is what a noose looks like. These are the gallows. As its hands are bound, Israel loses the ability to defend itself. As the noose tightens, Israel dies. Only by resisting the noose, can it survive. Only by fighting to free its hands, can it resist.

The way of surrender is the way of death. And after Israel dies, its own hangmen will be next.

The lynch mob has only begun. Its appetite is whetted by death. Its hunger will only be sharpened, not sated, by blood. And it will cover the world in blood, if it is not stopped. But now the noose draws tight. Only a little more air is left.

What will Israel do with that air? Appeal for justice, or fight with all its strength to rip the noose away. For now the choice is still hers. When the noose has done it work, it no longer will be

The Jewish Press » » Wanted: Ally for Israel in Cairo Talks.

Israel needs an ally as it faces an array of representatives who hope to bring about a premature cease fire with Hamas terrorists intent on wiping out the Jewish State.

Hamas has no qualms about using any form of human or other innnocent creature as a shield for its weapons in attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers. Nor has its ability to launch a constant barrage of short and medium-range rocket and missile fire been significantly impaired thus far — a lethal threat to the millions of Israeli men, women and children who are spending more time in their bomb shelters than outside of them this summer.

Nevertheless, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived Monday in Cairo with the announced intent to help world leaders re-establish the November 2012 truce between Israel and Hamas terrorists.

Noah Pollack’s Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) explained the issue: “Israel does not need a mediator. Israel needs an ally. Pressuring Israel to agree to a cease fire that rescues Hamas from defeat and leaves it in possession of its missiles, tunnels, and terror infrastructure is foolish and wrong. If President [Barack] Obama and Secretary [John} Kerry want to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East, they should support Israel and its campaign to end the terror threat from Gaza.”

But instead, shortly after heading into a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Kerry announced the U.S. will send $47 million in ‘humanitarian aid’ to Gaza.

Kerry’s aides added a statement warning that it would be “difficult” to achieve an immediate and lasting cease fire – but that he hopes to make progress in the next few days to reach a temporary pause.

Israel agreed to two humanitarian cease fires since the start of Operation Protective Edge, including one requested by the International Committee for the Red Cross on behalf of Hamas itself. Hamas violated them both, firing mortar shells and rockets at Israeli civilians during the “pause” each time. Israel held its fire nevertheless; but should it now?

What kind of ally aids an enemy to reach a cease fire in which it can attack a friend?

Meanwhile, Hamas is insisting that Qatar and Turkey be allowed at the table to represent its interests in talks with Egypt, which is mediating the negotiations.

Qatar – a generous fiscal patron of Hamas — recently purchased $11 billion in military weapons and hardware from the Obama administration. In whose hands will those weapons eventually land?

In the first week of June, Qatar pledged $60 million to help pay the salaries of Gaza workers in the Palestinian Authority unity government. The money was to be transferred to the PUG offices in Ramallah in three monthly payments of $20 million each, according to Qatari government spokesperson Ihab Bseiso. The Qatari government has sent funds to Hamas before, even via charitable organizations in the United States. The Al Jazeera television network has also been described in a February 2006 State Department cable leaked by Wiki Leaks as a “big friend of Hamas.” Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal maintains an office in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Turkey is also no friend of Israel at this point and appears to be coordinating its moves with Qatar, and possibly with Iran as well, with whom it has strong ties.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself a sympathizer with radical Islamists, is closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and a longtime supporter of Hamas in Gaza. He has brought Turkey much closer to Tehran and successfully sabotaged diplomatic ties with Israel in the years he has served as prime minister, but now faces a fight to stay in his job. Turkey goes to the polls on August 10 to elect a president who will lead the nation alone, instead of the current dual ‘prime minister-president’ system. Erdogan needs a reason to ‘wow’ his constituents and firm up his AKP electoral base, comprised of Islamist voters. There are two competitors for the presidency; one a secularist, the other a moderate Muslim.

Livni: ‘No real option for cease-fire now’ | JPost | Israel News.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, LAHAV HARKOV, REUTERS

07/22/2014 13:10

Left-wing justice minister says IDF operation in Gaza is “unavoidable”; Kerry meets Egyptian leaders in Cairo in attempt to forge resolution to conflict between Israel, Hamas.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni dismissed on Tuesday the possibility of an imminent halt in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, adding that the IDF ground incursion in the Strip was impossible to avoid.

“There is no real option for a cease-fire now. This operation is unavoidable,” the left-wing minister told Army Radio.

“Hamas is not close to a cease-fire in terms of its conditions,” she added. “Its [Hamas’s] conditions are not conditions that are accepted – not by us, not by the Egyptians, not by the Americans, not by the Palestinian Authority and I’m certain that Israel will not agree.”

Palestinian media earlier on Tuesday reported on a rumored five-hour humanitarian cease-fire to take effect in the morning that apparently held no ground as rocket fire from Gaza continued to target Israel after a purported 10 a.m. start time.

Israeli officials rejected reports of the temporary halt in fighting, while the radio station reported that Israel, due to security considerations, rejected a UN request for a temporary, humanitarian halt in fighting.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri in Cairo for talks aimed at ending the 15-day-old Gaza crisis.

Dispatched by US President Barack Obama to the Middle East to seek a cease-fire, Kerry thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Shukri for an Egyptian truce proposal between Israel and Hamas.

“And I look forward to a good conversation to talk about how we can build on it and hopefully find, not only a way to a cease-fire, but a way to deal with the underlying issues which are very complicated, so I’m very grateful to my friend for his efforts,” Kerry said on Tuesday.

Shukri said that he appreciated the efforts of the United States and its decision to send Kerry to Cairo to try and help resolve the crisis.

“We are hopeful that this visit will result in a cease-fire that provides the necessary security for the Palestinian people and we can commence to address the medium and long-term issues related to Gaza,” the Egyptian FM added.

Egypt was key to securing an end to a previous bout of Gaza fighting in 2012, but the country’s new leadership is openly hostile to Hamas, potentially complicating the negotiations.

According to Gaza health officials almost 550 Palestinians have died in Gaza fighting, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, as Israel has pursued an air and ground operation to stop rocket attacks on its territory from the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip.

Israel’s casualties also mounted, with the military announcing the deaths of two more soldiers, bringing the number of army fatalities to 27 – almost three times as many as were killed in the last ground invasion of Gaza in a 2008-2009 war.

Two Israeli civilians have also been killed by Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.

Kerry arrived in Cairo on Monday and, during talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the United States would provide $47 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza.

20,000 Israelis attend lone soldier’s funeral – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( This is what I try to explain to people who ask why I choose to live here.  Israel is the only country in the world that feels like it’s one big family.   Where else would an ordinary soldier merit 20,000 “strangers” showing their love and respect?  Here those 20,000 are all “family.”  Sean died protecting his family.  May his memory be blessed. – JW )

Many arrive with flags of Israel to pay their last respects to Golani fighter Sgt. Sean Carmeli from the United States, who was killed in the Gaza Strip.
Ahiya Raved

Police estimate that more than 20,000 people on Monday attended the funeral of Sgt. Sean Carmeli from the United States, a Golani fighter who was killed in the Gaza Strip earlier this week.

Many of those who came to pay their last respects to the lone soldier arrived at the Haifa military cemetery with flags of Israel. The thousands of Israelis who accepted the call to escort Carmeli to his final resting place created heavy traffic jams in the area leading to the cemetery.

The American killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, followed in the footsteps of scores of Jews from around the world who have volunteered to fight for Israel.

Israel calls them the lone soldiers: They are men and women in the prime of their lives who have left their parents and often comfortable lives behind in places like Sydney, London, Los Angeles and elsewhere to join the Israel Defense Forces, marching in the desert and taking up arms to defend the Jewish state.

There are about 2,000 lone soldiers currently serving in the military, said Marina Rozhansky, spokeswoman at the Israel Consul General in Los Angeles. Groups for families of lone soldiers have recently started in Los Angeles and other cities, providing a support network as the fighting intensifies.

Carmeli had been a fan of the Maccabi Haifa soccer club, and the team’s Internet forums issued an emotional call to all fans to attend the funeral. “This is a huge request from us to you, Maccabi Haifa fans, and this is your opportunity to make a big mitzvah,” the statement read.

“Sean Carmeli was a lone soldier and we don’t want his funeral to be empty. Come and pay your last respects to a hero who was killed so that we could live. This is the least we can do for him and for our nation.”

Crowd gathered outside Sean Carmeli’s funeral (Photo: Oz Mualem)

Photo: Oz Mualem

Sgt. Sean Carmeli

Sgt. Sean Carmeli

Raphael Kabessa, one of the team’s supporters, said the call to the fan’s was made after the Carmeli family had expressed its concern that only few people would attend the funeral.

“I knew him as a fan. In the morning I posted the obituary with his picture. It’s very painful and sad to lose such a guy. Several hours later, distant relatives contacted me and said they were afraid that because he had served as a lone soldier, not many people would come to the funeral and it would be disrespectful.”

That did not happen. The fans, and many others, accepted the call and flocked to the funeral. The Scout Movement also sent 200 members from the Haifa leadership to express its solidarity with the soldier’s family.

“It was very crowded,” says Shlomi Feder, a volunteer in the United Hatzalah emergency organization. “We treated several people who began feeling unwell and weak and some who fainted. It was an impressive sight, seeing masses of the people of Israel paying their last respects to a hero fighter.”

‘Our national pride’

Haifa police chief Avi Edri estimated that there were close to 20,000 people at the cemetery and its surroundings during the funeral.

“The public was very patient and behaved remarkably during the arrival and departure and at the cemetery itself. I felt very proud and grateful to see the number of people who arrived to pay their last respects,” he said, adding that he didn’t think so many citizens would come.

Sean Carmeli divided his life between Texas and the Israeli city of Ra’anana, where he studied at an immigrants’ class at a local high school. The family members spend most of the year in Israel apart from the spring and summer months, during which the parents travel to the US to promote their business.

“Sean was a gentle kind boy,” says Rabbi Asher Hecht, co-director of Chabad of the Rio Grande Valley. “We are very sad. We lost a dear boy.”

Three days before he was killed fighting for Israel in Gaza, Carmeli sprained his ankle, and a doctor asked the Texan if he wanted to heal before going into action. He refused, according to Maya Kadosh, Israel’s deputy consul for the US Southwest.

“He said no. He said he wanted to go into combat with his friends,” Kadosh told Reuters on Monday.

Sapir Hillel of Kibbutz Neve Yam arrived at the funeral with a friend. His wife, Ayelet, who stayed home with their children, said she had also wanted to come.

“We were very moved by his story, and we wanted to contribute wherever we could, because in our daily life we can only follow stories and identify with them, but here we actually had the opportunity to do something,” she said.

Adam, one of the funeral goers who arrived with a flag of Israel, explained that “it’s our national pride to come and support a family and a lone soldier. A person who made a decision, against all conventions and with Zionist motives, to join the best combat unit although he could have chosen a more comfortable life. I am here to salute him.”

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Israeli forces are fighting hard to win their first battle against Hamas, a savage and tenacious enemy.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 22, 2014, 12:34 PM (IDT)

The battle for Shejaiya, the Hamas stronghold on Gaza City’s outskirts, was still unresolved Tuesday, July 22, indicating that the Islamists were not giving up. Indeed, fresh Hamas reinforcements appeared to have taken up new positions in the battle zone during the night. They may have arrived through Hamas’ many-branched tunnel system.

Every few hours, the IDF spokesman releases two sets of figures: Israeli casualty statistics and the number of IDF strikes against Hamas. He has little to say about Israel’s military movements. Neither Israeli nor foreign correspondents have been permitted to accompany IDF troops fighting in the Gaza Strip – a policy the IDF has pursued since the second Lebanon war of 2006. Military leaders are therefore free to manage the data, human and electronic, coming out of the war, including images from the various fronts, without independent coverage. The public sees the same IDF surveillance footage day after day.

This policy reduces the hazards faced by Israeli forces and keeps their scale and identities secret from the enemy – and that is good for Israel’s war effort.
On the other hand, it creates a widening gap between the “official version” and the real state of affairs on the battlefield. Since most people have access to relatives on the front – not to mention prolific rumor mills powered by the social media – the credibility of national war leaders suffers.

Official communiqués are studded with impressive figures. Tuesday morning, the IDF was reported to have struck 3,200 Hamas targets since the start of the operation. In the last four days, the soldiers located 23 secret tunnels and 36 shafts leading into Hamas’ subterranean complex, and killed 186 Hamas operatives in combat. Israel lost 27 officers and men in the same period.

Those figures are telling in that they illustrate the hardships confronting the IDF from a ferocious enemy which refuses to crack under air or ground assault.

Because the Golani Brigades’ losses in Shejaiya were so heavy, IDF chiefs had no choice but to disclose information about the combatants on this front. But no one, aside from the combatants and their officers, knows what is going on in the other arenas to which the five special IDF task forces have been assigned. There is no news for instance from the southern sector of Rafah and Khan Younes. or the northern towns of Shati and Zeitun. No one knows how many Hamas tunnels are left to be destroyed – and where – before the IDF claims to have completed this critical part of its counter-terror mission

By any military standard, the IDF has the edge over Hamas. But the battle still needs to be won.

This situation has stiffened Hamas’ resistance to any of the ceasefire proposals taking shape in various parts of the region in the last couple of days. Its leaders feel strong enough to carry on fighting and holding out for better terms than those on offer at present.

Hostilities are therefore likely to drag out for an indeterminate period.
For Israel, the diplomatic clock is ticking too fast. As the warfare stretches out without a decisive battle on at least one Gaza front, the rising casualty toll threatens to undermine Israel’s ability to stand up to the pressures of international truce diplomacy.

Americans Fight for Israel as ‘Lone Soldiers’ in Gaza Strip – NBC News.com.

Joseph Wouk – “Lone Soldier” – 1983

First published July 22nd 2014, 5:59 am

Erin McClam

Erin McClam is a senior writer for NBC News, responsible for reporting, writing and editing general news… Expand Bio