Fatah Join Hamas

Hamas and Fatah have agreed a reconciliation to be followed by elections. Hamas' position regarding Israel, of course, remains the same. An official confirmed: "Our plan does not involve negotiations with Israel or recognizing it. It will be impossible for an interim government to take part in the peace process with Israel." In short, Fatah have joined the terrorist group. This could only lead to disaster for both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Netanyahu has said: “Peace with both is impossible, because Hamas aims to destroy the State of Israel and says that openly. I hope that the Palestinian Authority will make the right choice – that it will choose peace with Israel. The choice is in its hands."

Jew Murdered In Terror Attack By Palestinian "Policeman"

A 24 year old Jewish father of four from Jerusalem, Ben Yosef Livnat was murdered this morning, and four others injured, when they were shot in their car after visiting Joseph's Tomb to pray, by Palestinian terrorists (who were also policemen), screaming "Allahu Akbar". 

Baruch Dayan HaEmet, may his loved ones be comforted.

Following the terror attack, Palestinians set fire to Joseph's Tomb. 

Chas Newkey-Burden writes:

"Contrast the situation there with the Old City of Jerusalem, where the Israeli authorities painstakingly protect the rights of all faiths to visit and pray at their places of worship in dignity and comfort...

Israel deserves enormous credit for the way it governs the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing all faiths to enjoy their holy sites. Were Israel to behave how the Palestinians did in Nablus today, one can only imagine the global outrage. Imagine for a moment that some Arabs were shot by Israelis as they left the site of the Dome of the Rock. Imagine that following this, some Israeli youths set fire to the Dome of the Rock. We would be talking about global outrage, possibly even talk of World War Three breaking out.

Yet when that chain of events happened in Nablus this morning it merited little coverage, condemnation or even reflection...

I hope that one day, Israel is given due credit for the way it so beautifully governs the Old City of Jerusalem, proving itself once more a moral example to the world."

And people wonder why Israel is reluctant to give the Palestinians control over land where the lives of Jews, if they dared visit, would be in the hands of Palestinians with guns.

Boy In Hamas Schoolbus Attack Dies Of Wounds

The Israeli boy injured in the Hamas rocket attack on his schoolbus has died of his wounds.
May his loved ones be comforted. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.

Meanwhile two of the Palestinians arrested over the murder of the Fogels have been found guilty.

Anti-Israel Activist Murdered In Gaza

Islamic fanatics kidnapped and then murdered yesterday an Italian journalist and anti-Israel activist in Gaza.

Bizarrely, before they killed Vittorio Arrigoni, they tried to negotiate a prisoner swap with Hamas for his release; Hamas have condemned the murder.

Just Journalism highlight that the BBC claims that "Hamas had been credited with eliminating the threat of kidnapping in Gaza until his abduction", and the Financial Times claims that "Gaza has been widely regarded as a safe destination for foreign journalists, aid workers and diplomats since then." But JJ point out instances of Hamas violence against journalists in Gaza, including only last month when they stormed Reuters' office, threatened the journalists with guns, attacked one with a metal bar and threatened to throw another out the window. JJ also point out that the media are also ignoring that Israeli intelligence is frequently warning Israelis against kidnap threats, and, of course, that Hamas have been holding Gilad Shalit hostage in Gaza, his condition unknown, for the last four years.

Arrigoni was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, an extremely anti-Israel group. Incidentally Rachel Corrie, killed while standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer from which the driver couldn't see her, was also a member of ISM, but the fact that Arrigoni was killed by Palestinians and not by Israelis means he won't become an icon like Corrie did.

EoZ explains why Arrigoni was not a peact activist, or human rights activist, or even a pro-Palestinian activist, as the media have referred to him. None of his actions reflect love or care for the Palestinians, only hate for Israel: "He never had anything bad to say about Hamas. He never campaigned for Arab countries to stop their discrimination against Palestinian Arabs. He never spoke a word demanding that 'refugee camps' in Gaza be dismantled and real homes built."

Just as is evident from the murder of the Israeil anti-Israel activist and actor Juliano Mer-Khamis a couple of weeks ago, "The anti-Israel left might consider themselves 'Palestinian', but clearly some Palestinian Arabs don't."

And despite this, these murders, "done by the people they supposedly love - will not make a dent in far leftist 'support' for PalArabs, because they don't support them in any real way."

All the confirmation you need for this is the nonsensical Tweet by ISM that, just like the world did in their mourning for Mer-Khamis, completely ignores who is responsible for the murder as they refuse to address that the Palestinians' own worst enemy is themselves and not Israel: "While we mourn Vittorio, let’s remember that he died resisting the Israel Occupation."




UPDATE: Hamas have blamed the murder on Israel (of course), claiming that it was to dissuade other foreign activists from heading to Gaza on another flotilla. I didn't even think of it from that angle!

Hamas Fire 80 Rockets Into Israel in 24 Hours

Hamas fired 80 rockets into Israel over Shabbat, with residents of Southern Israel having to spend Friday night in their bomb shelters.

One of the terrorists killed by Israel's retaliation was physically involved in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Hamas have, absurdly, defended their attack on an Israeli schoolbus, saying "It was not known that the bus targeted on the outskirts of Gaza carried schoolchildren". Oh, so they only meant to target a regular bus. And there I was thinking they had no morals! 

George Galloway's Lunacy

Just in case anyone was in any doubt...

Hamas Breaks "Ceasefire" After 12 Hours: New Record?

Hamas fired 16 shells into Israel this morning, breaking their own ceasefire which they called for yesterday, after they deliberately targetted a schoolbus, injuring one child, and then fired 50 rockets into Israel.


UPDATE: A few days ago one of the candidates for Egyptian presidency has said that if Israel attacks Gaza he will open the Egypt-Gaza border. Israel Matzav suggests that Hamas are now looking to start a war with Israel so that they can fight alongside Egypt.

Hamas Strike Israeli School Bus, Fire 50 Rockets, Then Call For Ceasefire

Today Hamas fired an anti-tank guided missile deliberately at an Israeli school-bus - minutes after most of the children had got off. A 13 year old boy was critically injured, who Hamas called a 'settler'. People are asked to pray for Daniel Aryah ben Tamar.

After the attack, Hamas fired 50 rockets into Israel, and then called for a ceasefire, like they did a couple of weeks ago after they fired rockets, and before they fired some more.

On Monday, an Israeli actor and pro-Palestinian activist was shot dead in the West Bank by Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinian charged with the murder is Hamas but was previously in Fatah's terrorist group Al Aqsa Martyrs.

Meanwhile, it turns out Hamas were responsible for the pipe bomb in Jerusalem that injured one Israeli, two weeks before the bus-station bomb.

This is the boy injured today:

 

Goldstone should be feeling particularly uncomfortable with all this, considering his retraction of his retraction - that despite his confession that the report on Cast Lead is full of lies against Israel that have no basis in fact, he doesn't want it nullified.

So Hamas can continue to fire rockets onto Israeli schoolchildren safe in the knowledge that there will be no Goldstone report into their war crimes, that only Israel's response will be condemned.

Judge Goldstone's Guilt

Two years after the Goldstone report accused Israel of committing war crimes in a “deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population”, Goldstone has confessed that his conclusions were wrong.

Of course, all of his accusations against Israel were disproved both at that time and even before his investigation, by research undertaken by Israel supporters and truth-seekers all over.

The report was widely accepted, and used to further delegitimise Israel and deny its right to self-defence. I look forward to Robert Fisk’s reaction to this, as at the time he referred to Goldstone as “the eminent lawyer who so bravely… inspires…” etc. The self-hating Jews will also be quite upset about Goldstone’s retraction.

Significantly, The Times had observed that it was imbalanced for equating Israel and Hamas and not acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defence, and that the UN, who facilitated the investigation, is undeniably biased against Israel.

As Michael Weiss points out in the Telegraph, the report didn’t acknowledge Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, and storage of weapons in schools, mosques and hospitals, when even last week the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights criticised Hamas for violating international law by continuing to “store explosives or to treat such explosives in locations close to populated areas” (not for firing them at Israeli civilians though).

Now Goldstone acknowledges that: “The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion”, and that Israel’s investigations into 400 alleged incidents of misconduct “indicate[s] that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy”.

He admits, “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document”, but then blames this on Israel’s “lack of cooperation”. Bizarrely, he expresses disappointment that Hamas never investigated their own war crimes, even though he acknowledges that it is their “policy to destroy the state of Israel”.

Goldstone’s admission is brave but he demonstrates cowardice as well because instead of taking responsibility, he is blaming Israel for withholding information. But that evidence was available at the time for anyone who looked for it – either Goldstone is very stupid, or he deliberately chose to ignore the evidence and has only now realized how absurdly untruthful and damaging his report is.

It was not very difficult for supporters of Israel to learn the truth about everything that happened, so it is beyond me why so-called “amateur” bloggers like the great Elder of Ziyon and others are seen as irrelevant, whilst people like Goldstone who choose to ignore the facts receive worldwide recognition for their work. We are not detectives, but I and ever other pro-Israel blogger out there are more qualified than Goldstone to comment on the truth about Cast Lead and the general situation in Israel and the territories.

The reason why Goldstone wrote his retraction is evident from this quote: “the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.”

Recently Interior minister Eli Yishai wrote to Goldstone telling him to condemn Palestinian attacks on Israelis, because his report on Cast Lead legitimises the attacks by not holding the terrorists accountable and instead condemning Israel for acting in self-defence.

When Goldstone sees all the attacks on Israelis, and the absurd restraint Israel shows in its retaliations, and then hears and sees how the world still demonizes Israel, it would be impossible for him not to feel guilty. Yishai’s letter would merely have been the trigger for the article, written out of the guilt that Goldstone already feels.

Ex-Muslim Feminist Is A Real Liberal

There was a very interesting interview in The Times yesterday, with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an ex-Muslim Dutch feminist, politician and writer.

Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia and had a strict Muslim upbringing. She underwent female "circumcision", was beaten and locked up by her mother for trying to work, and only evaded being forced into marriage when she was a child because her father was living abroad.

The article mentions that Hirsi Ali is "particularly harsh on Western feminists such as Germaine Greer, who once wrote that genital mutilation must be seen 'within its cultural context'". Just one of many examples where the extreme left abandon all their principles when it comes to certain aspects of Islam.

The interviewer Janice Turner suggests to Hirsi Ali that if a white person would echo her opinions that Islam is inferior to Western society, they would be labelled a racist. Hirsi Ali responds:

"To me, it's not racist to demand, as a white woman or a white man, 'I will not accept little girls in my country to be forced into marriage, or their genitals to be cut, for them to be pulled out of school, for them to be condemned to a life of submission or violence or death through an honour killing.' If you protest, that doesn't make you into a racist. In my view it makes you a humanist or universalist."

In her new book, she "calls on Western feminists to make common cause with their Muslim sisters. She points to the 13.5 million Saudi women objectively under house arrest, the 34 million Iranian women able to be married at age 9 or stoned for adultery, the women of 26 Arab, African and Asian nations who have their genitals excised."

I am always very interested when I read about liberal or ex-Muslims to see what their views are on Israel, because I believe this says a lot about just how liberal they really are. In general, "liberals" who are anti-Israel will turn a blind eye to Arab oppression, to the extent that they even defend it, and instead accuse Israel of being non-democratic. Meanwhile in the current Arab protests there are a lot of people who call for freedom but at the same time would have no qualms about Israel being wiped off the map. Those people evidently aren't even aware of what true democracy actually is.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is different. First of all, she not only has an issue with Islamic extremism, but says that Israel "has a problem with the ultra-Orthodox". However, she has observed that Israel is a liberal democracy where men and women are equal. A Palestinian confessed to her that economic problems are partly their own fault because of "money sent from abroad to build Palestine being stolen by corrupt leaders". When she tries to give talks on Palestinian corruption though, Hirsi Ali says:

"I do not get a large audience. Often one is talking to a wall. Many people reply that Israel first has to withdraw from the territories, and then all will be well with Palestine."

She observes,

"Most outsiders remain silent on all the problems in their territories. That helps the Palestinians become even more corrupt than they already are. Those who live in the territories are not allowed to say anything about this because they risk being murdered by their own people."

As Elder of Ziyon illustrates so brilliantly, Real Liberals Love Israel.

Recent Antisemitism In London

Two weeks ago there was a "Celebrate Palestine" event at SOAS university, as part of "Israel Apartheid Week". Four pro-Israel activists attended to try to educate those misguided lefties on why Israel actually isn't apartheid, with some help from Elder of Ziyon posters.

The civilised discussions ended when one pro-Palestinian activist said that "the best thing that Jews have ever done was to go into the gas chambers. It was the best thing to happen to Germany to have been cleaned of Jews. The same thing needs to happen in the Middle East." He had no objection to being filmed, saying that "these things should be heard".

When asked by an activist if he could be filmed, the antisemite said yes, and that "these things should be heard". Another man came up and told him he didn't have to be filmed or interviewed, then "launched himself at the activist, grabbing his camera, punching him and then biting him on the cheek".

It's not surprising that people who seem so intent on denying Israel it's legitimacy and right to self-defence are capable of such disgusting words and violence, but they usually do make a bit more of an effort to hide their antisemitism. One of the pro-Israel activists who was there said "I didn't think I would ever get to a stage in which I would feel like a Jew in Nazi Germany, and I don't say it lightly".

Unfortunately, an even more recent incident has given me and a lot of other people that exact feeling. Every week there are aggressive demonstrations in front of the Ahava dead-sea products shop in Central London. Because of complaints by other shops on the street, Ahava's lease will not be renewed and they will be forced to leave when it expires in September. Colin George who manages the clothes shop The Loft next door, said:

"I'm pleased Ahava is leaving. It's brought the street down. I've complained to the landlords, as has everyone here. Everyone would like them to leave. I wish they had left two years ago. Protesters are just going to follow them around, wherever they go. Maybe the should be an online business instead."