WarSclerotic

Bennett: Restraint Against Rocket Fire is ‘Weak’

Jewish Home Chairman pushes ‘zero tolerance’ on rocket fire, slams implication that Negev less important to protect than Tel Aviv

By Tova DvorinFirst Publish: 7/5/2014, 10:48 PM / Last Update: 7/5/2014, 11:16 PM

via Bennett: Restraint Against Rocket Fire is ‘Weak’ – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Jewish Home Chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett blasted Israel’s “weak” policy toward rocket fire from Gaza on Saturday night, in the wake of escalation of the attacks and a near-miss in Be’er Sheva.

“The strategy of ‘we will answer quiet with quiet’ harms Israel’s deterrence and allows Hamas to grow stronger from round to round,” Bennett fired. “Restraint in the face of firing on women and children is not powerful. Restraint in the face of the murder of three children is weak.”

Bennett demanded that defense officials spring into action against the ongoing onslaught of terror.

“From Syria to Wadi Ara – when we see residents of Be’er Sheva to begin running into shelters, they expect a powerful response, and interpret our non-action as concern [over being defeated – ed.],” he said. “A million people living next to shelters is the situation right now, and we cannot continue it.”

“Israel’s residents in the south are not second-class citizens, and we must respond to rocket fire on Be’er Sheva as we would to rocket fire on Tel Aviv,” he continued, adding that Israel “should not wait” for that escalation before responding.

“I do not accept the statement that there is no way to stop the rocket fire,” he affirmed. “The Jewish people has shown a special resilience with every hardship, and the statement should be clear: we will not tolerate missiles on Israeli cities. We have zero tolerance for terrorism. [We have] zero tolerance for incitement from the Palestinian Authority for our blood.”

Bennett vowed to push this deterrence policy through the government.

Bennett’s comments surface just hours after similar statements from Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), who vowed to push his own plan to crack down on Hamas and launch a new operation in Gaza.

“We need to break away from the population in Gaza,” Katz said. “We need to set boundaries and say goodbye to Gaza until their is peace – no fuel, no electricity, no water, no food.”

“Israel should set a clear goal: to dismantle Hamas of its missile stockpile,” he continued. “We should criminalize the Hamas leadership, which is responsible for abduction and murder [of Israelis].”

Hamas rocket fire on Israel has increased dramatically over the past week, with at least fifteen rockets fired on Israel in a 12-hour period on Saturday alone. Two of the rockets were fired on Be’er Sheva, although none hit populated areas.

Meanwhile, there is no information on a possible ceasefire set to be brokered between Israel and Hamas, via Cairo, as a 48-hour ultimatum to stop the rockets comes to a close.

SHAPIRO: Obama White House, Media, Hamas Push New Blood Libel”

A crime reminiscent of their holy matzas that became part of their history of betrayal and murder.”

7.3.2014Israel Revolt Ben Shapiro

via SHAPIRO: Obama White House, Media, Hamas Push New Blood Libel | Truth Revolt.

he world has moved from ignoring kidnapped and murdered Jewish boys directly to blood libels. It wasn’t enough for the world to go silent about the seizure and murders of Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gilad Shaar, 16; and American citizen Naftali Frenkel, 16. It wasn’t enough for the United States to continue sending $400 million worth of funding to their murderers, the Hamas-Palestinian Authority-Islamic Jihad unity government.

Now the Obama administration and the media are determined to establish a moral equivalence between those who murder Jewish boys and the Jews themselves. On Tuesday evening, news outlets across the world screamed that a “revenge killing” had taken place: the body of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 17, had been found in Jerusalem Forest, abducted and murdered.

The State Department rushed to condemn the killing in terms it never used for the killing of the three Jewish boys: “condemns in the strongest possible terms the despicable and senseless abduction and murder…It is sickening…There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people.” (By way of contrast, the State Department response to the kidnapping of the three Jewish boys was restricted to “strongly condemns the kidnapping.”)

But the State Department went further, with Secretary of State Kerry explaining, “Those who undertake acts of vengeance only destabilize an already explosive and emotional situation….The world has too often learned the hard way that violence only leads to more violence.”

Only one problem: there is not a single shred of evidence beyond speculation linking Jews to the murder. And the only evidence that has emerged so far suggests that the boy may have been killed by Arabs. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld stated that the boy’s body was burned, and that police are “investigating previous attempts to kidnap members of Abu Khdeir’s family, stemming from a personal dispute.” An ex-police official told Arutz Sheva that the murdered kid was known by police, as was the family: “it’s a problematic family with internal clashes that have been ongoing for many years.” This morning, Arutz Sheva noted that Channel Two in Israel had reported that the boy’s parents had reported the attempted kidnapping of Khdeir’s brother earlier this week – and that the father had told police that Arabs tried to kidnap the son.

Should it turn out that Jews did perform this disgusting atrocity, the State of Israel will find, prosecute, and give the harshest possible penalty to the perpetrators. That in and of itself destroys any attempted moral equivalence between Israel and her enemies, given that the Hamas-unity government itself stands behind the murder of the three Jewish boys, that the Hamas-unity government propagandized in celebration of their kidnappings and deaths, and that Palestinians celebrated their deaths.

But no matter who performed this act, what we are watching right now is a blood libel. Slandering Jews for the murder of children without evidence is blood libel. The world has performed this atrocity in the recent past with Mohammad Al Dura in 2000, when the entire world condemned Israeli troops for the staged, hoax killing of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy. Khdeir, tragically, was murdered – and whomever did it should pay the ultimate penalty. But to this point, nobody has provided any evidence it was “settlers” or “right-wing Jews” or anything of the sort. And that is certainly not stopping Hamas from directly invoking the blood libel – today, a Hamas-affiliated newspaper stated:

The settlers used the body of 17-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, from Shuafat in northern Jerusalem, to carry out their sacred [act of] vengeance by torturing him and burning him to death, in a crime reminiscent of their holy matzas that became part of their history of betrayal and murder – for the culture of violence and blood grew among the Jews to such an extent that it seeped into their sacred rites and prayers.

It should be no surprise to see the Jew-hating Obama administration backing such monstrosities, both by implication and by signing checks.