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Palestinians to demand UN set timeline for ‘end of occupation’

September 26, 2014

Palestinians to demand UN set timeline for ‘end of occupation’

Palestinian President Abbas to lobby UN to set a timeframe for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank ahead of the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of UN General Assembly.

Ynetnews Published: 09.26.14, 13:10 / Israel News

via Palestinians to demand UN set timeline for ‘end of occupation’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Nice now canceling the  Oslo agreements ?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he will launch a bid at the United Nations on Friday to set a timeline for the “end of the Israeli occupation,” Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

Abbas is set to address the UN at 7 pm (noon EST) amid growing anger within the Palestinian street that the Palestinian Authority which he leads has failed to make substantial gains regarding the Palestinian’s national ambitions; anger further exacerbated by Operation Protective Edge and ongoing security cooperation with Israel.

 

Is Abbas’s UN trip Israel’s last hope for peace? (Photo: EPA)
 

According to Ma’an, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, said that Palestinian leadership have lost faith in the US-led talks, the last round of which ended uneventfully in April, and despite US Secretary of State John Kerry’s disapproval have decided to go ahead with the UN bid.

According to Israel Radio, Abbas met with Kerry last week and told him about the plan. Kerry expressed his disapproval, to which Abbas responded that if the US uses its veto power in the Security Council to shoot down the initiative, then the Palestinians would move to join over 500 international bodies, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The US has urged Abbas not to turn to the Security Council, but has not offered an alternative, a Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss internal deliberations with the media said last week.

Erekat confirmed for Ma’an that the Palestinians – whom currently enjoy the status of observer non-member state in the UN – will propose the resolution on Friday to end the occupation and implement all previous international decisions regarding Israel and Palestine.

Erekat said that Riyadh Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, expects that the application would take 2-3 weeks until it reaches the “blueprint” stage..

Abbas adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh has said in the past that the Palestinian leader would present a new strategy in his UN speech. In recent weeks, Abbas and his aides have hinted at the content of the proposal, according to which Abbas would ask the UN Security Council to issue a binding resolution, with a three-year deadline for ending Israel’s occupation.

‘End occupation, make peace’

“Prime Minister Netanyahu: End the occupation, make peace,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday ahead of the UN General Assembly, AFP reported.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is also set to travel to the UN as well, where he will deliver a speech in the general assembly, and then meet with US President Obama to discuss the Islamic State terror group. Israeli officials say the Palestinian issue will play a peripheral role in this year’s UN meet, in light of the chaos in Syria and Iraq.

Nonetheless, speaking at the Cooper Union hall, Abbas said: “The international community has the responsibility to protect our people, living under the terror of settlers, an occupying army,” AFP reported.

“We cannot understand how the Israeli government can be so misguided as to fail to understand that the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that killed thousands of women and children only sowed more hate,” Abbas reportedly said, according to AFP.

“This week I will propose to the United Nations a new timetable for peace talks,” Abbas said, AFP reported.

In an interview with Palestinian TV last month, Abbas said it should only take “half an hour or an hour” to delineate the borders of a Palestinian state, since the United States agreed they should be based on the 1967 borders that existed before the war in which Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures

September 25, 2014

UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures

Special UN Security Council meeting chaired by Obama sees international support rise for anti-Islamic State airstrikes in Syria;

EU warns against possible attacks by al-Qaeda in bid to regain spotlight

Yitzhak Benhorin

Published: 09.25.14, 09:12 / Israel News

via UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures – Israel News, Ynetnews.

 

The UN Security Council unified behind the international attempt to fight the Islamic State group and demanded on Wednesday that all states make it a serious criminal offense for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militant groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so.

UHHHHH, hamas , qatar and so on ??? who can believe this ? what about arming terrorist, sory freedom fighters, oposition forces so you want, by who ??

 

At a meeting chaired by US President Barack Obama, the 15-member council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that compels countries to “prevent and suppress” the recruitment and travel of militant fighters to foreign conflicts.

The resolution will be penned by over 100 nations and de facto removed legal hurdles for US airstrikes in Syria, which unlike Iraq, did not invite the US’ intervention.

Not for Isareli aistrikes on the hamas terorist ??

“The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama told the General Assembly of the United Nations. “Today I ask the world to join in this effort.”

So now can Israel dismantle hams ?

“We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL,” he declared, using an alternative acronym for the group.

 

UN Security Council (Photo: AFP)

After his address, Obama chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council which unanimously approved a binding resolution on stemming the flow of foreign jihadists to Iraq and Syria.

The resolution requires all countries to adopt laws that would make it a serious crime for their nationals to join jihadist groups such as ISIS and the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

And what about hamas ?

Obama described the resolution as “historic” at the special session of the Council, only the sixth time in UN history that the council was convening at the level of heads of state.

 

US President Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)

The UN action reflects mounting international concern over rising numbers of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State militant group and the threat they pose when returning home. Some 12,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, experts say.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the Security Council that the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker by a fighter with an apparent British accent “underlines the sinister, direct nature of this threat.”

The council resolution is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding for the 193 UN member states and gives the Security Council authority to enforce decisions with economic sanctions or force.

It targets fighters traveling to conflicts anywhere in the world, but does not mandate military force.

Obama is building a global coalition against Islamic State, which has captured swaths of Syria and Iraq and urged its followers to attack citizens of various countries. The United States has led air strikes against the group in Iraq and Syria.

“The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action,” Obama told the Security Council after the adoption of the resolution. “For if there was ever a challenge in our interconnected world that cannot be met by one nation alone, it is this – terrorists crossing borders and threatening to unleash unspeakable violence.”

Obama chaired the Security Council because the United States is president of the body for September.

The UN resolution expresses concern that “foreign terrorist fighters increase the intensity, duration and intractability of conflicts, and also may pose a serious threat to their states of origin, the states they transit and the states to which they travel.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the council that the passports of more than 60 Australians had been suspended to stop them from joining extremist groups in the Middle East. Both Abbott and Cameron outlined their efforts to strengthen laws.

Terror target: Israel

The European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove said al-Qaeda may try to show its relevance by carrying out attacks in Europe, the United States or Israel, the European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator said on Wednesday.

De Kerchove warned of the risk of competition between Islamic State and al-Qaeda, which has renounced its offshoot as too brutal.

“It is possible that Al-Qaida may want to mount attacks to show that the organization is still relevant, they are still in the game,” De Kerchove told a European Parliament committee.

He said some militants had moved from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria, where they formed part of the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.

He added that it appeared they planned to recruit Europeans who had travelled to Syria to fight and persuade them to use their passports to return and mount attacks in Europe, Israel and the United States.

While Islamic State was the main target of a US-led air assault in Syria this week, American officials said they also targeted the Khorasan Group, with the aim of disrupting a plot against US or European targets that the Pentagon said was “nearing the execution phase.”

De Kerchove estimated that more than 3,000 Europeans were in Syria, had been there or planned to go there to fight, and that there was a real risk some of them could return and bring violence back to Europe.

“We have seen that in Brussels with the killing of four persons at the Jewish Museum. It raises their level of tolerance of violence to such a level that there is a risk when they come back that killing is something normal,” he said.

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CURL: Obama’s breathtaking naivete at the United Nations

September 25, 2014

CURL: Obama’s breathtaking naivete at the United Nations, Washington Times, Joe Curl, September 24, 2014

Obama's ToastPhoto by: Pablo Martinez Monsivais. President Barack Obama raises his glass to toast during a luncheon hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, at the United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Simply believing something doesn’t make it so. The president’s desire for a world in which nations talk openly about their true feelings, perhaps share a good cry together, and sing kumbaya around the campfire, is the height of naivete.

So is this passage of his speech: “… the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them, there is only us.”

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ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Obama on Wednesday delivered a speech at the United Nations filled with his usual soaring rhetoric of global collectivism and the importance of “international norms.” But the president also displayed a shocking naivete about global affairs, religion, Islam — a Pollyannaish interpretation on the state of the world and America’s role in it.

Although Mr. Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize just eight months into office, the president made his annual trip to the ineffectual world council to deliver a call to war. “Ladies and gentlemen, we come together at a crossroads between war and peace, between disorder and integration, between fear and hope.”

Of course he waxed poetic about “climate change” and the promise of “the children,” but the president was forced to devote the bulk of his speech to what he called the “heart of darkness” and the “cancer of violent extremism.”

He said upon opening his remarks that “the shadow of world war that existed at the founding of this institution has been lifted.” He couldn’t be more wrong. A true man of peace worthy of the Nobel Prize, Pope Francis, said just the opposite this month in remarkably astute comments to commemorate the anniversary of World War I.

“Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction,” the pope said, summing up the conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Gaza and much of northern Africa, including Libya and Tunisia, not to mention Somalia.

To Mr. Obama, there’s no global conflict of ideology, just “pervasive unease in our world.” To him, the strife is merely the “failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world.” And to him, “it is one of the tasks of all great religions to accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world.”

He asked delegates from nations across the world to mull this “central question of our global age: Whether we will solve our problems together, in a spirit of mutual interest and mutual respect, or whether we descend into the destructive rivalries of the past.”

His answer? “It’s time for a broader negotiation in the region in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies.”

Simply believing something doesn’t make it so. The president’s desire for a world in which nations talk openly about their true feelings, perhaps share a good cry together, and sing kumbaya around the campfire, is the height of naivete.

So is this passage of his speech: ” … the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them, there is only us.”

But Islam and the holy Koran on which Muslim militant groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State base their actions do call for the extermination of all who do not follow Islam, do demand that followers kill anyone who leaves the religion, do subjugate women. For the record, the Koran contains more than 100 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers.

Mr. Obama said in his speech that “all people of faith have a responsibility to lift up the value at the heart of all great religions: Do unto thy neighbor as you would do — you would have done unto yourself.” But that is not a cornerstone of Islam. Militant Muslims have a very different belief: “Fight in the name of your religion with those who disagree with you.” And that edict comes straight from their holiest book.

To the president, that ideology “will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed and confronted and refuted in the light of day.” Again, the callowness is astounding. While he urged the world, “especially Muslim communities,” to reject the ideology that underlies al Qaeda and the Islamic State, nothing will change the fact that cold-blooded killers are determined to destroy the West, wipe all infidels from the face of the earth and build a new caliphate based on strict adherence to Shariah law (which leans heavily toward beheadings, lashings, stonings).

The president let loose some passing platitudes — “right makes might,” “the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force” — but in the end Mr. Obama still labors under the delusion that the Islamic State group and its ilk have “perverted one of the world’s great religions.” He still rejects “any suggestion of a clash of civilizations” — despite al Qaeda’s and Islamic State’s express declaration of war against western civilization (and anyone who is not Muslim).

In the end, Mr. Obama said: “No external power can bring about a transformation of hearts and minds,” which means America is powerless. The only solution in this multicultural world is sharing our true feelings honestly with those who not only fundamentally disagree with us, but vow to do us harm.

Exactly a year ago, Mr. Obama said this at the U.N.: “Together, we’ve also worked to end a decade of war.” But the worldwide war on terrorism does not end when the U.S. president decides it is so, it ends when the enemy is defeated.

While he says “peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of a better life,” he really should say only this: “We didn’t start this war, but we will end it.”

Categories: Iraq war, Islam, Islamic State, Jihad, Syria war
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Obama Praises Muslim Cleric Who Backed Fatwa on Killing of U.S. Soldiers

September 24, 2014

Obama Praises Muslim Cleric Who Backed Fatwa on Killing of U.S. Soldiers, Washington Free Beacon, , September 14, 2014

Barack ObamaPresident Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly / AP

Patrick Poole, a reporter and terrorism analyst who has long tracked Bin Bayyah, expressed shock that the Obama administration would endorse the cleric on the world stage.

“It is simply amazing that just a few months ago the State Department had to publicly apologize for tweeting out it’s support for Bin Bayyah, only to have Barack Obama go before the leaders of the entire world and publicly endorse Bin Bayyah’s efforts,” Poole said.

“It seems that nothing can stop this administration’s determination to rehabilitate Bin Bayyah’s image, transforming him from the Islamic cleric who issued the fatwa to kill Americans in Iraq and calling for the death of Jews to the de facto White House Islamic mufti,” he said.

This type of mentality has contributed to the administration’s foreign policy failures in the region,” Poole said.

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

President Barack Obama favorably quoted and praised on Wednesday in his speech before the United Nations a controversial Muslim cleric whose organization has reportedly endorsed the terror group Hamas and supported a fatwa condoning the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Obama in his remarks offered praise to controversial cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah and referred to him as a moderate Muslim leader who can help combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL or ISIS) radical ideology.

However, Bin Bayyah himself has long been engulfed in controversy for many of his views, including the reported backing of a 2004 fatwa that advocated violent resistance against Americans fighting in Iraq.

This is not the first time that the Obama administration has extoled Bin Bayyah, who also has served as the vice president of a Muslim scholars group founded by a radical Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans,” according to Fox News and other reports.

The State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau (CT) was forced to issue multiple apologies earlier this year after the Washington Free Beacon reported on its promotion of Bin Bayyah on Twitter.

“This should not have been tweeted and has since been deleted,” the CT Bureau tweeted at the time after many expressed anger over the original endorsement of Bin Bayyah.

However, it appears that Obama and the White House are still supportive of Bin Bayyah, who, despite his past statements, is still hailed by some as a moderate alternative to ISIL and al Qaeda.

“The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day,” Obama said before the U.N., according to a White House transcript of his remarks.

“Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies—Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: ‘We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace,’” Obama said, quoting the controversial cleric.

Concern over the administration’s relationship with Bin Bayyah started as early as 2013, when outrage ensued after he was reported to have met with Obama’s National Security Council staff at the White House.

While Bin Bayyah has condemned the actions of groups such as Boko Haram and ISIL, he also has taken controversial positions against Israel.

He issued in 2009 a fatwa “barring ‘all forms of normalization’ with Israel,” according to a Fox report on the White House meeting.

Additionally, the notorious 2004 fatwa permitting armed resistance against U.S. military personnel in Iraq reportedly stated that “resisting occupation troops” is a “duty” for all Muslims, according to reports about the edict.

Patrick Poole, a reporter and terrorism analyst who has long tracked Bin Bayyah, expressed shock that the Obama administration would endorse the cleric on the world stage.

“It is simply amazing that just a few months ago the State Department had to publicly apologize for tweeting out it’s support for Bin Bayyah, only to have Barack Obama go before the leaders of the entire world and publicly endorse Bin Bayyah’s efforts,” Poole said.

“It seems that nothing can stop this administration’s determination to rehabilitate Bin Bayyah’s image, transforming him from the Islamic cleric who issued the fatwa to kill Americans in Iraq and calling for the death of Jews to the de facto White House Islamic mufti,” he said.

This type of mentality has contributed to the administration’s foreign policy failures in the region,” Poole said.

“This is a snapshot of why this administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East is a complete catastrophe,” he said. “The keystone of their policy has been that so-called ‘moderate Islamists’ were going to be the great counter to al Qaeda. But if you take less than 30 seconds to do a Google search on any of these ‘moderate Islamists,’ you immediately find they are just a degree or two from the most hardcore jihadis and have little to no difference when it comes to condoning violence.”

A White House official said that the president’s remarks speak for themselves and declined to add anything further.

Categories: Iraq war, Islam, Islamic State, Jihad, Obama, Syria war
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Hamas Sinks to Child Sacrifice in Thirst for Jewish Blood

August 23, 2014

Hamas terrorists are so callous that their thirst for blood means more than the lives of their own children.

By: Rachel LevyPublished: August 23rd, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Hamas Sinks to Child Sacrifice in Thirst for Jewish Blood.

 

Terror rockets fired at Israeli civilians from a United Nations (UNRWA) girls school in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, on August 23, 2014.
Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit / satellite imagery
 

A new IDF intelligence report declassified last week has made it clear that Hamas terrorists have sunk to a new low — child sacrifice — in its thirst for Jewish blood.

Human shields, and particularly those who are most vulnerable (read: children) make the best headlines when they are photographed by horrified international reporters after they are bloodied and dead following a firefight or an IDF air strike.

How can that best be staged?

Of the more than 3,600 rockets and missiles fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, 1,600 were fired from civilian areas, according to the report.

Video footage of attacks fired from civilian areas were included.

he Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiyya, as well as the areas of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun were found to be the most densely populated terrorist strongholds in the enclave.

There were rocket launches from within the El Azhar Islamic College as well, specifically at 2:45 a.m. on July 8, and three rockets launched from the Abu Nur School, also video taped.

Numerous other schools were also found to be terrorist bases — including several belonging to the ‘neutral’ United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

On August 1, 2014, rockets were launched at 7:23 pm from the UNWRA elementary school for girls in Beit Lahiya. Photographic evidence is available in an IDF aerial snapshot.

The next day, rockets were launched next to the UNRWA Shahada Al-Manara elementary school for boys in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City.

Beyond that, Gaza terrorists have also hidden behind the institutional “neutrality” of the United Nations, taking advantage of the international agency to fire rockets from inside an UNRWA distribution center and and UNWRA health center in Jabalya on August 2, 2014.

The terrorists also fired rockets from an UNWRA facility in a residential neighborhood in Gaza City.

Nor was the International Committee of the Red Cross, another “neutral” international aid organization, immune.

Rockets were fired at Israel just five meters away from a Red Cross Ambulance Station in Gaza; the launch was photographed by satellite.

Patients in hospitals, also made convenient shields for terrorists, who set up rocket launchers next to the Wafa Hospital in Shujaiyya and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

In addition, clinics and mosques were found to be favored spots for terrorist activity as well. One mosque was used as a weapons storage facility in Nuseirat. In Gaza City, another house of worship concealed the entrance to an attack tunnel. Rocket launchers were also placed around mosques.

Even the dead were not respected, or safe: terrorists have launched rockets from within cemeteries in the enclave.

Curiously, terrorists also fired rockets from within a hotel where journalists were staying: on August 1, 2014, rockets were fired at Israel from the Al-Mashtal Hotel in Al Shati. Due to intimidation and threats, no journalist reported it: but satellite imagery caught the launch. Likewise, Hamas terrorists have prepared and launched rockets next to a hotel used by international media — but none have reported it. Their lives are at stake if they do.

Only after leaving the enclave have some had the courage to “tell.”

Perhaps the most self-destructive of all: on July 30, 2014, Gaza terrorists fired rockets at Israeli civilians from within the Gaza power plant itself, at 8:39 am, either believing the launch would not be seen or documented (it was, by satellite photography).

The tactics of Hamas and other Gaza terrorists are a flagrant violation of international law. Essentially, the terrorists have dropped to the level of child sacrifice not seen since the days of the pagan worship of the false god Ba’al Peor.

The responsibility for “collateral damage” that occurs during IDF attacks on terrorists as Israeli soldiers return fire in defense of civilians living in the Jewish State lies solely with Hamas, which controls Gaza.

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FRIEDMAN: As The Middle East Burns, The UN Simply Blames Jews

August 14, 2014

FRIEDMAN: As The Middle East Burns, The UN Simply Blames JewsBoth the media and the United Nations are willing to legitimize Hamas while reprimanding Israel for defending herself against an existential threat

.8.14.2014 Israel Revolt Truth Revolt

via FRIEDMAN: As The Middle East Burns, The UN Simply Blames Jews | Truth Revolt.

 

Yesterday, Hamas broke yet another cease-fire, only hours after Israel had agreed to extend the lull in the fighting. On Monday, the United Nations announced the creation of a special three-person Human Rights Council panel that will review allegations of human rights and international law violations occurring in the current Israel-Gaza conflict. One of the members of this panel has openly stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be his favorite person to have tried in the International Criminal Court. This council is supposed to be unbiased and impartial. While the United Nations was busy focusing all its energy on these allegations, they forgot to discuss a few other crises occurring in the Middle East.

In Iraq:

Over the last year and a half, the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an Al-Qaeda splinter cell, has taken control of large swaths of territory via violent means. At a glance:

Over 13,300: is the number of civilians killed by ISIS since the beginning of 2013

6,000: is the number of Iraqi civilians butchered by ISIS this year

500: is the number of Yazidis (a Kurdish Iraqi minority) killed by ISIS, some of which were buried alive

0: is the number of practicing Christians left in Mosul, a city that is now controlled by ISIS; ISIS has made Christianity punishable by death, thus forcing all Christians to either convert or flee.

As ISIS is carrying out targeted killings against minority groups and Iraqi Christians, it is safe to say that they are successfully carrying out genocide in Iraq. Unlike the Israel-Gaza conflict, this crisis has gone almost unmentioned for the last year and a half, even though scores of more people have been killed in Iraq than in the current Israel-Gaza conflict.

In Syria:

More than 170,000: is the number of people killed since start of the civil war

More than 54,000: is a conservative estimate of the number of civilians killed in the Syrian Civil War

More than 14,100: is the number of women and children killed in the Syrian Civil War

More than 1800: is the number of Palestinian-Arabs killed in the Syrian Civil War

The media scarcely reports on the ongoing civil war that is still raging in Syria; this past July was one of the deadliest months of the conflict thus far. It is of note that the United Nations has stopped updating its count of the Syrian death toll; it claims it cannot verify the sources behind the numbers. Essentially, they refuse to take the time to verify the sources and keep track of the death toll.

Last but not least, for the sake of comparison, Israel:

Approximately 87,000: is the number of Palestinian-Arabs killed in the Israeli-Arab conflict since 1948. More people have died in the last three years alone in the Syrian Civil War, but these victims have largely been forgotten by the international community.

More than 3500: is the number of rockets launched at Israel since the start of Protective Edge, each one of which constitutes an attempt to murder Israeli civilians. This is a war crime.

Approximately 1900: is the number of Palestinian Arabs killed since the start of Protective Edge.

Approximately 900-1300: is the estimated number of Palestinian-Arabs civilians killed amongst the 1900 total. The lower number is that estimated by the IDF, while the higher number is that estimated by Palestinian sources, many of which are run by Hamas. There are varying other estimates that fall between these numbers.

Recently, reports have surfaced that disprove the claim that the majority of the people killed in this conflict have been Palestinian civilians. In fact, research done by both the BBC as well as an Israeli research group indicates that the numbers of civilians and militants killed may be closer to equal. This is not a means to justify the number of civilians killed, because loss of innocent life is terrible. However, it is unfair and unjust to inflate figures merely to claim that one party’s response is disproportionate to the other’s actions. If the validity of war were judged based on the number of casualties on each side, then the Allies would bear the blame for World War II.

As for the allegations Israel of committing war crimes, indiscriminately ordering strikes within Gaza and violating human rights:

4,762: is the number of terror targets the IDF struck between July 8 and August 5. Again, without trying to justify loss of civilian life and using the larger estimates for the number of civilian casualties, this works out to one civilian killed for every 3.6 strikes. If Israel were truly indiscriminately targeting Palestinian civilians, the number of civilians killed in each strike would be much higher.

Additionally, the mainstream media often states that the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, and Hamas only fires from civilian areas because of this fact. This is a distortion of the truth.

Here is the salient point:

Information recently released by the Gatestone Institute indicates that while the city centers of Gaza are very densely populated, there are many emptier areas of Gaza. Mainstream media outlets never show these areas because there is scarcely fighting there. Additionally, maps that show the origin of rocket attacks show that almost none of the attacks originate in these empty areas. This begs the question, if Hamas were concerned with Gaza’s civilians, why not fire rockets from these emptier areas? Why fire them from some of the most populated areas in the world? The answer is that as a terrorist organization, Hamas has no regard for civilians of any kind.

Up to this point I have refrained from addressing the claim that Hamas uses the civilians of Gaza as human shields. There is real and jarring evidence to support this claim. Hamas hides behind the civilians of Gaza by choosing to launch rocket attacks from densely populated areas and leaves the IDF no choice but to carry out strikes in these areas. Hamas does this knowing that images of deceased civilians will flood TV screens throughout the world, and that the international community will cry out in rage against Israel. Hamas has the option to set up their headquarters in empty areas of Gaza instead of in hospitals and homes, but has repeatedly choose the latter. By making this choice, Hamas bears the blame for the loss of civilian life and is committing war crimes.

Lastly, during Operation Protective Edge, Israel provided the following supplies to Gaza:

40,550: is the number of tons of supplies transferred to Gaza

37,178: is the number of tons of food transferred to Gaza

1,694: is the number of tons of humanitarian goods transferred to Gaza

1,029: is the number of tons of medicine and medical supplies transferred to Gaza

1,856: is the number of trucks needed to carry these supplies

Many of these supplies were delivered via the Kerem Shalom crossing, which has been repeatedly attacked with barrages of Hamas rockets in order to prevent these aid shipments from entering the Gaza Strip. So even though Israel has been more than willing to give assistance to the people of Gaza, Hamas will not allow them to have it.

Given the force with which the United States carried out its strikes against terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no doubt that they would have responded in the same manner to a barrage of rockets raining down on the United States homeland. Additionally, the United States has renewed airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and is being credited not only with further securing the homeland, but with saving the lives of civilians in Northern Iraq. These airstrikes serve the same purpose to the people of the Iraq as Operation Protective Edge does to the people of Israel: to protect the lives of civilians against terrorist attacks. Throughout history, there have been numerous cases of countries striking back at terrorists in order to secure the safety of their people. In the larger majority of these instances, civilians have died, as war is mayhem. No other country in the world is forced to live under the constant fear that Israel lives with day in and day out, and yet no other country in the world has faced the amount of backlash that Israel continues to receive in the name of self-defense.

When the mainstream media reports on ISIS, they waste no time calling them a dangerous terrorist organization that must be stopped. ISIS and Hamas are incredibly similar; they are both extremist groups perverting the beliefs of a peace-loving religion to further their cause. It is truly mind-boggling that the mainstream media is willing to ignore this fact, as is the United Nations. Both the media and the United Nations are willing to legitimize Hamas while reprimanding Israel for defending herself against an existential threat. At the end of the day, all Israel wants is to live in peace with her neighbors; this operation must continue so that Israel is able to do just that.

Ashley Friedman is a 2014 graduate of the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. She is a proud Zionist and dual Israeli-American citizen.

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