Look Up, Rockets Are Falling

Well, probably not where you are.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired at least eight rockets, grads and mortars into Southern Israel today, landing in Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod - the furthest so far. This month's tally has reached about 100.

The woman who was killed in the Jerusalem bombing yesterday was Mary Gardner, a British Christian in her late 50s who was in Israel studying Hebrew for her work translating the Bible. Very, very sad. RIP.

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

Nu, Goldstone?

Terror Attack In Jerusalem (Not "Terror Attack")

One woman has been killed and 40 injured in a bombing in central Jerusalem today. The bomb was reportedly left in a bag on the street just outside the bus station.

When the shock began to wear off, I wondered how the media would try and twist this to belittle and justify Palestinian attacks on Israelis. After all, if "illegal settlers" aren't the victims, you'd have to be very creative to find another way to blame Israel for this.

Two patterns have emerged in the coverage. The first, predictably, is to avoid the word "terror" and even "attack". Most likely as well as other media outlets, The Independent, Reuters, and CNN all had this to say: "Police described the explosion as a 'terrorist attack' - Israel's term for a Palestinian strike", as though it was a military exercise.

Which is a funny thing to say considering that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's statement on the bombing was "I harshly condemn this act of terror".

The second pattern is to portray the bombing as part of a "cycle of violence", and I'm pretty sure most of the media have done this. For example the Guardian completely twisted the events of the last few days, not explaining that the reason civilians died in Israel's strikes on Gaza was because they were used as human shields by terrorists; and calling Hamas' firing of 50 rockets into Israel in the space of a couple of hours "sporadic".

A BBC interviewer asked Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief David Horowitz if the bombing would have been a response to the strikes on Gaza. Horowitz had to explain that the murder of the Fogels was followed by rocket attacks on Israel which was followed by Israel striking legitimate terror targets, unintentionally killing some civilians who were on the site where rockets had been fired from.

Melanie Phillips points out that with this huge upsurge in violence from the Palestinians,

"It therefore takes a particular degree of bone-headed malevolence to view this latest attack instead as a ‘tit-for-tat' response to Israeli violence. But then, the BBC and other British and western media have all but ignored the rocket attacks, and minimised the Fogel massacre. As usual, Israeli victimisation is thus denied in an obscene moral equivalence – which invariably turns Israel from a victim attempting to defend itself into the aggressor."

Incidentally, only two weeks ago there was another explosion in Jerusalem in which one Israeli was wounded.

Shortly after today's bomb, terrorists in Gaza fired another barrage of rockets into Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel sent into Gaza over 200 trucks of aid.

I pray for the speedy recovery of all the victims.

Terrorists Fire 70 Rockets Into Israel In Less Than A Week

Gaza terrorists fired 10 mortars and 2-3 grads into Southern Israel today including Be'er Sheva and Ashkelon. One man was wounded by shrapnel, several others were treated for shock.

On Saturday alone 50 mortars were fired into Israel. When the IDF responded with airstrikes on terrorist targets, Hamas accused Israel of "escalating against our people", and asked for a ceasefire. Five terrorists were killed as well as, sadly, four civilians who had been used as human shields by the terrorists - rockets were fired from right behind their house. A Palestinian boy who was injured was transferred to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

Elder of Ziyon provides a calendar of all the rockets that have been fired into Israel so far this month.

Hamas seem set on starting another war with Israel.

IDF Soldier's Music Video

I was sent this video by an American musician called Hayim Ani who recently made Aliya and is now in the Egoz unit in the IDF.

Although he had to leave his band behind in America, Hayim is continuing as a solo musician, and made this very creative music video before he enlisted in the army.



Perhaps people who see it might realise that IDF soldiers are not the monsters they are portrayed as in the media, but are actually humans with different talents and interests and backgrounds, united by their pride of Jews and Israel, and a sense of responsibility to protect its citizens.

They Kill, We Build

Th reaction of most Jews and Israelis' to the terror attack in Itamar probably will have been a deep, sickened feeling of grief and horror followed by defiance and determination to carry on.

Some reacted differently though - condemning settlers through their crocodile tears. Yitzchak Laor writes in Haaretz that the brother of Udi Fogel, murdered in the terror attack in Itamar “sought to remove the murder from any context other than the pain over his brother's death... [but] No one allowed for the murder to be rescued from the sole context in which the right wing placed it.”

But the right have placed the death and the world’s reaction exactly in context – because the brother wouldn’t feel the pain of Udi Fogel’s death if it weren’t for the incitement to murder Jews that takes place in Palestinian society – and the rest of the world that ignores – if not encourages - antisemitism. It’s not about revenge and anger, but to move forward from these things it helps a little to try and understand them. To the surviving family it might feel like the end of the world, but viewed in context it is part of the Jews’ long timeline of persecution and suffering – and our reaction to this is “Am Yisrael Chai”. They have tried again and again to stamp us out but with G-d’s help we still survive. 12 year old Tamar Fogel, who saw the bodies of her parents and three siblings, has shown amazing strength and understanding of this:

But Laor just views this as the right as ‘exploiting’ “its 15 minutes of media exposure to impose its version of ‘history’." On the decision to publish photos of the bodies – the decision which was actively encouraged by the surviving family – Laor calls it “so explicit it is practically pornographic” – yet it is only when Israelis are the victims that the media are so hesitant to give details, in case people might actually feel sympathy.

Laor accused the right of displaying “joy in pouring salt on our wounds, all in the name of Israel's hasbara. But this isn't hasbara; it's a desperate need to impose ‘our’ version of events, under cover of the horror.”

What he just said is Hasbara. Giving the real version of events because the world constantly ignores our side of the story. In the days following the attack, the media has made it very clear what they view as the “obstacle to peace” – and it is not the murder of sleeping Jewish babies. “Israel approves more settlements”, the headlines read – adding, as an afterthought “oh and by the way this might have something to do with the mysterious deaths of hardline extremist Jewish settlers who asked for it”.

As I have already demonstrated here, the settlements are irrelevant. Someone who murders babies, and those who celebrate this act, are not looking for peace or negotiations. There are no excuses. Daniel Greenfield wrote a great piece on this for Arutz Sheva.

Meanwhile in Itamar in the week of the Shiva, a Palestinian woman went into labour. IDF soldiers together with settler paramedics delivered the baby, taking care of her and the mother. You would never read this sort of thing in the Western media, because there the IDF and settlers are constantly dehumanised. But IDF decency to Palestinians is not at all an unusual occurence in Israel.

Incitement And Violence

The BBC and Guardian reported that many Palestinians were "shocked" by the Itamar attack, with no evidence for this, and conveniently forgetting about the handing out of sweets in Gaza, and Hamas spoksman Samu Abu Zuhri saying they "completely support the resistance against settlers".

Abbas did condemn the attack, but his words are meaningless whilst his government continues to incite hatred and violence against Jews and Israelis, glorify terrorists and spread antisemitic propaganda in Palestinian schools, media, mosques and on the streets.

Here are just a few examples of this incitement from recent weeks:

- On the day that the Fogels were buried, Fatah members named a town square after the female terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led a bus hijacking in 1978 that killed 37 Israelis – including 13 children. Summer camps in 2008 and this past summer have also been named after her.

- Two days before the Fogels were murdered, Abbas’ advisor Sabri Saidam said in a speech that Palestinian weapons must be turned towards Israel.

- The day before that, the PA announced a youth football tournament named after Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber. Among other things, a student group and a UNICEF-funded summer camp have also been named after her.

- On March 4th, Fatah held a procession commemorating suicide bombers including Muhammad Daraghmeh who killed nine Israelis in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and Ayyat Al-Akhras, the youngest female suicide bombing at 17, who killed two Israelis.

- Three weeks ago, Palestinian Authority TV (under control of Abbas’ office) broadcast a video tribute to “martyrs” – including Habash Hanani, who in May 2002 entered Itamar (where the Fogels were killed), and murdered three Israeli students at the local high school.

- In December, Abbas awarded $2000 to the family of a terrorist who tried to attack Israeli soldiers with pipe bombs.

Details on more similar incidents here.

The Palestinian leadership are raising another generation of children to believe that their religion calls for the murder of Jews and that this will bring wealth and honour for them and their families.

For too long the world has been ignoring this, focusing incessantly on Israel building houses – but suicide bombings and rockets aren't aimed solely at settlers - and there is absolutely nothing that makes it ok to slash the throat of a three month old sleeping baby, killing her, her 4 and 11 year old brothers, and their parents.

The issue of settlements is irrelevant until the Palestinians stop teaching their children to hate and murder, and teach peace instead.

Meanwhile yesterday the IDF discovered tonnes of Iranian-made weapons on a ship that was headed from Turkey to Egypt, with Hamas being the intended recipient.

Also yesterday, Egyptian security forces intercepted five vehicles loaded with weapons that were headed from Sudan to Gaza.

Palestinians Murder Jewish Family And Children In Their Beds

Palestinian terrorists have stabbed to death five Jews of the same family as they slept in their beds. The victims are Udi Fogel (36), his wife Ruth (35) and three of their children: Yoav (11), Elad (4) and Hadas (3 months old).

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigade claimed responsibility; Hamas handed out sweets in Gaza to celebrate the murder.

The Fogel family lived in the West Bank town of Itamar, with sick irony after having been forced out of their home in Gush Katif in the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Giving up land brings peace? Really?

The Guardian does not once mention that Palestinians committed this terrorist attack, but calls the town "home to some of the West Bank's most fervent settlers" and "intensely naiontalist-religious" as though that makes it ok for Palestinians (who The Guardian do not refer to as hard-line or intensely naionalist-religious) to stab a three-month old baby to death while she sleeps.

Meanwhile the BBC claims that the attack "has shocked many Palestinians", ignoring the fact that actually the Palestinians' reaction was default: handing out sweets in Gaza, calling it "heroic and courageous", and justifying their joy as "a natural response".

Netanyahu has observed: "I noticed that some of the states who rushed to the Security Council to condemn Israel, the Jewish State, for planning to build a home somewhere are slow in issuing a harsh condemnation over the murder of Jewish babies."

Slow is an understatement. If all the people that ever criticised the settlements had an ounce of compassion and morality in their bones, they would unequivocally condemn this sickening murder and the incitement of violence and hatred towards Jews that takes place in the Palestinian schools and mosques, bringing up a new generation of Jew-hating terrorists.

The Promise: "Die, Evil Jews!"

The fourth and final part of The Promise, if possible, was even worse than the previous three put together in it’s demonisation of the Jews.

Anyone who defends the programme as “balanced” and really believes that all Jews are as evil as they are portrayed in it, must either be a. ignorant, or b. antisemitic.

This is just beyond anti-Zionism and any defence of it as such, as opposed to antisemitic, is just laughable.

I am not at all saying that some of what the Israelis and Jews did in The Promise didn’t happen; it did, and I would not defend the actions of the Irgun, some of what they did was disgusting.

But looking at The Promise from the perspective of someone who has no knowledge of Israel now or then, what they would think is that the Jews are totally evil.

In modern-day Israel, the Israeli brother tells Erin that “you can do anything you want to the Palestinians” with no consequences, and we see Israeli soldiers stand by as Jews scream abuse and throw glass and rocks at defenceless Palestinians - and this is portrayed as the norm – whilst the Palestinians in The Promise never do anything like this.

The reality is very different, not least because much as people like to pretend it isn’t, Israel is a democracy and Jews, just like Arabs will face the consequences if they are involved in violent behaviour. And that includes Israeli soldiers who are punished if they act against the IDF's strict code of conduct.

Meanwhile in The Promise’s version of the late 1940s the Jews are not only murderers but traitors as well – Clara, the Jewish woman who Erin’s grandfather was involved with, and his British-Jewish soldier friend both betrayed him leading to the deaths of British soldiers and Arabs.

The Promise completely ignores the other side to all this: that a. the majority of the Jews condemned these attacks – and not only condemned, but the Haganah, the original Israeli Defence Forces who worked alongside the British, captured and turned in Irgun members to the British; and b. at that time the Arabs attacked and killed hundreds of unarmed Jewish civilians.

The Promise fails to mention that the UN proposed the partition plan to create a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, and that the Jews accepted this but the Arabs rejected it.

It also throws in a large dose of sympathy to a Palestinian family whose daughter was a suicide bomber, and whose brother, a member of Hamas “says it’s his job to protect the family” – as though that’s in their charter and not to kill all the Jews or anything like that.

Finally, at the end of the programme, the director dictates to the viewers exactly what he aimed for them to think:

- About the creation of the state of Israel, Erin’s grandfather: “embarrassed and ashamed”.

- About present day Israel, Erin on the idea of returning: “Why, what’s the point?”

I have never seen such an obvious attack of delegitimisation of Israel on every level like this. With it's sympathy of Palestinian terrorists, and deliberate distortions and omissions of Israelis' and Jews' actions, The Promise is against both Israel’s right to existence and it’s right to self-defence, without both of which all the Jews would die. If that’s not antisemitism I don’t know what is.

The Promise: The Ultimate Defence Of Antisemitism

Amir Ofek of the Israeli embassy said that with regards to the anti-Israel Western media, The Promise is "worse than anything I've seen" and has "created a new category of hostility towards Israel".

I would go further, and say that of anything I've ever read or seen, The Promise is the most antisemitic and antisemitic-inducing of all. Whatever comes out of the Arab media is only to be expected and I haven't seen any Nazi propaganda films, but for Western media standards, The Promise is pretty shocking, and I am not easily shocked.

We meet a lot of Jews and Israelis in The Promise, and pretty much all of them are evil or portrayed as evil, barring the self-hating lefty Israeli brother, whose Christian-Arab terrorist-turned-"peace"-activist friend is, for a Christian, surprisingly hostile to Israel. Also I didn't know that the Al Aqsa Martyrs employed Christians, I thought it was just an Islamic thing.

Anyway Channel 4 defended The Promise saying that the characters

"'consistently and sympathetically present a contemporary Israeli perspective' and the Holocaust was 'powerfully evoked' to explain the longing for a Jewish homeland... 'Nobody escapes scrutiny in this film; different parts of the story reflect well and badly on the Palestinians, the Israelis and the British'."

Uh, really? Let's first count the ways the Israelis are reflected well:

1. Jews died and suffered in the Holocaust.

A round of applause for The Promise and Channel 4 for not being Holocaust deniers (even though Channel 4 have given a platform to Ahmadinejad The Holocaust Denier).

2. Some Israelis (namely Lefty Israeli Brother) hate Israel, which makes them good and peace loving, even though they think Israeli civilians deserve to be blown up by Palestinian suicide bombers.

Ok, now let's count the way the Palestinians are reflected badly (because the ways they're reflected well are too many to count):

1.

Yeah, there are none. There was a Palestinian suicide bombing which was just because, according to the self-hating brother "they can't make their point any other way" - but it definitely wasn't animalistic, as the 'Racist' Israeli Mother called it - and even though suicide bombings decreased by over 90% after the security fence was built, this fact is ignored in The Promise, and the fence is cited as having nothing to do with preventing terrorism; instead it is just to humiliate the Palestinians, so really the suicide bombings are the Israelis' own fault.

Despite this, Christina Patterson of the Independent (who has an issue with Jews) calls The Promise "extremely balanced".

The programme according to which typical Israeli children scream and throw stones at Palestinian girls whilst Israeli soldiers watch. In The Promise, Palestinians don't do these things, but they are "held and humiliated for the hell of it" by the IDF, not because Palestinians have ever been known to be violent towards Israelis or anything like that.

Patterson of course ignores Jewish history and links to Israel and sees the Holocaust as the only reason Jews wanted Israel as a homeland. She then ignores all the Palestinian persecution of Jews and pogroms against them before the Holocaust and claims that "you can see why their [the Palestinians'] sympathy for their newish neighbours might have worn a bit thin". Sympathy 'worn a bit thin' possibly being the biggest understatement ever made on Palestinian terrorism.

Patterson then seems to equate Palestinian terrorists with settlers and thinks that all that needs to be done for peace is for Israel to acknowledge "what Arabs around the world are reminding us: that there comes a time when bullying backfires."

Can Christina Patterson do simple maths?

If security fence = 90% decrease in suicide bombings

and giving away land (i.e. Gaza) = increased rockets on Israeli towns,

then what the hell is she talking about?

The Promise: Demonising Jews And Israel Since The 1940s

Most people reading this will be aware of Channel 4’s 4-part drama The Promise, of which two episodes have been aired so far. The programme is set in two eras: it follows a British teen who spends the summer in Israel in 2005, whilst reading her grandfather’s diary who was a soldier in the Palestinian Mandate in the 1940s.

As a drama, it’s effective, yet it will be hard for some people to remember that although it is based on true events, it’s actually fiction – and of course, biased against Israel and full of distortions and omissions.

And I’m not going to not say that just because there’s a risk I might be told I’m imagining it, there is no anti-Israel bias, Israel really is all-evil.

Which seems to be the view of the New Statesman’s Laurie Penny, who mocks Julie Burchill’s criticism of The Promise as “bonkers”, exaggerating and at the same time condensing her concerns as accusing the programme of “foaming anti-Semitism, borne out of Gentile resentment that Jewish people are good at science”.

There is no known reason for antisemitism but now that Burchill mentions it, it’s hardly implausible that antisemites would feel resentment that the Jews as “such a small, persecuted tribe can keep surviving, thriving and achieving”.

Penny throws in an “as a Jew I’m offended” remark, calls the programme “a reflective and excruciatingly well-researched series”, and then gives her laughable defence of why this is the case and it can’t possibly be biased: because it “opens with five gruelling minutes set in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, cutting in segments of real footage from the mass graves”.

Done with the Jews-as-victims part, Penny finally reveals her true agenda as she turns to the Palestinians and describes the IDF “penning your family behind gun-bristling checkpoints, cramming your friends and neighbors behind apartheid walls, bombing your home, machine-gunning your grandchildren.”

Because Israel does that all the time of course, and all just for fun with no reason. Because even though the Jews were victims in the Holocaust, now they’re not allowed to defend themselves.

And that pretty much sums up the message of The Promise. Jews are no longer victims, in fact Jews are the oppressors, and any time you might think a Jew is a victim, it’s their own fault.

For example, at the end of Part 1, Lefty-Israeli-Brother tells impressionable British girl Erin that the fence is not to prevent terrorism; it’s just to humiliate the Palestinians. Two minutes later there is a suicide bombing, the implication being that the brother is right. But there is no counter-argument that suicide bombings decreased by over 90% after the fence was built.

In Part 2 the brother (who was injured in the bombing) discovers that Erin’s grandfather was in the 1946 bombing of the King David hotel by the Irgun. He states that the two cases are “exactly the same; people blowing up buildings because they can’t make their point any other way”. It’s amazing that he can call it exactly the same, yet on the one hand the programme seems to defend suicide bombings and blame them on Israel; and at the same time leave out all the context of the King David hotel bombing – such as that the Irgun gave three warnings for the hotel to be evacuated, which were ignored, and that Jewish groups condemned the Irgun, Ben Gurion calling them “the enemy of the Jewish people”. Suicide bombers, on the other hand, don’t give warnings because their aim is to cause maximum civilian casualties, and in the Arab world, rather than condemnation, people who kill Israeli civilians are usually considered heroes.

It is made clear in The Promise by the exaggerations and lack of context of the Irgun that it is not just what they did but also why they did it that is the director’s problem. As the Israeli grandfather explained, after the horrors of the Holocaust in which his whole family had been killed, the Irgun aimed to ensure nothing like that would ever happen again by securing Israel as the Jewish homeland. The means were wrong, but that does not take away the right of Jews and Israel to self-defence.

BBC Airs Documentary “Normal Israelis”

The BBC has aired a new documentary called “Normal Israelis”. It looks into a group of people living in Israel called the Normal Israelis, who although previously unheard-of actually make up the majority of Israel’s population.

The documentary follows the lives of these mostly-Jewish people, as they go to school or work, play and bring up children, go to the cinema, cook, sleep, and celebrate things such as birthdays and weddings.

As well as occupying houses in cities from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, some of the Normal Israelis even live in areas in the West Bank, despite international criticism that Jews shouldn’t live where Palestinians don’t want them. These Normal Israelis are of the ideological view that them being Jewish and alive isn’t really a good enough reason for them not to own and live in houses in those areas.

But the one place in Israel you won’t find any Normal Israelis living is in the Gaza Strip. There everyone appears to be Palestinian for some reason, with not a Jew in sight.

The Normal Israelis hold an unusual and unique stance towards peace, compared with most of the rest of the world. They say they want peace, but strangely they also don’t want to be attacked by those who want to attack them – and they even support measures taken to prevent this! When they do come under attack, usually by rockets from Gaza, they will complain about this, claiming it goes against their ideology of not wanting to come under rocket attacks.

But the Normal Israelis are also quite similar to Normal Palestinians in some ways, for example they’re both forbidden to murder and stab people and stuff – even people they know - , and both are frequently questioned and checked by the Israeli army when they go through checkpoints, to ensure they don’t do these things.

Despite their normalness, perhaps the strangest thing about the Normal Israelis is that they say they don’t hate the Normal Palestinians, but at the same time they also claim not to hate Israel, some of them even going so far as to confess that they like some things about their homelandl!

A BBC spokesperson said of the documentary:

“We wanted to be fair and balanced, and to give an insight into all parts of Israeli society, as we hadn’t previously looked into the Normal Israelis. We’ve discovered they’re actually quite boring people though, so we probably won’t mention any of them ever again.”

Divisions Among The Arab Protestors

Alan Dershowitz observes how the world has been so busy condemning Israel for it’s “oppression” of the Palestinians that there have been no protests or calls for boycott against the Arab dictators and their countries’ routine violation of human rights – until now, when the Arabs themselves are starting to protest. Dershowitz points out that “Radical leftists and campus demonstrators, by giving a pass to the worst forms of tyranny, encouraged their perpetuation”, only now deciding to care a bit about people other than the Palestinians.

Whilst the spreading protests in the Middle East are an encouraging sign of Arab citizens’ desire for moderation and democracy, it is also a cause for great concern, particularly in Egypt where extremists are waiting in the wings to seize power.

The danger now is that not all those protestors know what they want, or what democracy even is. If they knew what democracy is, they wouldn’t be saying that they hate Mubarak because he’s “Zionist”, and because they want a leader whose pledge is to destroy Israel. They would say they want to be like Israel. But they’re not saying that.

If this sounds patronizing to those Arabs… I haven’t finished. I only half-blame them for their confused mindset, their primitive antisemitism fuelled by misinterpretation of their own religion, and brainwashing by their leaders. But they wouldn’t be able to keep it up for so long on their own. For that, the leftists in the West are to thank.

With all the turmoil in the region at the moment, many references to Israel are accusatory, calling it “the main stumbling block”, and suggesting that the creation of a Palestinian state would solve all the misery of the millions of Arabs ruled under oppressive regimes. And it is these ridiculous accusations that are prolonging the problems in the Middle East. The protestors need to choose, which do they want more? Freedom and democracy? Or the destruction of Israel? At this particular crossroads in Egypt, the two can’t go together and the protestors don’t seem to understand that.

As Dershowitz puts it:

“Unless we restore human rights to its proper role as a neutral and universal standard of human conduct, the kind of tyranny and despotism that stimulated the current protests will continue.”

Instead of promoting the idea that Israel is to blame for all the world’s problems, the pro-democracy protestors need to be encouraged to unite together, rather than divided between those who know what kind of revolution they want and those who are struggling with the incompatibility of their antisemitic beliefs with the idea of a free and democratic society.

Perhaps this would be overcome if, as David Suissa suggests, the Israel bashers would tell the Arab world:

“Why don't you try to emulate the Jews?

Why don't you give equal rights to your women and gays, just like Israel does?

Why don't you give your people the same freedom of speech and freedom to vote that Israel does? And offer them the economic opportunities they would get in Israel? Why don't you treat your Jewish and Christian citizens the same way Israel treats its Arab and Christian citizens?

Why don't you study how Israel has struggled to balance religion with democracy - a very difficult but not insurmountable task?

Why don't you teach your people that Jews are not the sons of dogs but a noble, ancient people with a 3,000-year connection to the land of Israel?”

Maybe once the protestors reform and get rid of their racist prejudices against other religions, then reform might follow in other areas.

The Guardian’s Amazing Suicide-Resurrection Show

Last Sunday, the Guardian editorial criticised the Palestinian leaders as "weak" and "craven" for being willing to negotiate on issues such as the settlements, Jerusalem, and Palestinian refugees' "right of return". The Guardian spelled out their idea for a solution, which is for the Palestinians to reject any sort of concessions on those issues, and for acceptance of Hamas (who, for those who don't remember, call for Israel's destruction).

This was reinforced in a Guardian column written that day by Palestinian Hamas supporter Karma Nabulsi, disgusted at the Palestinian leaders, practically spitting as she rejects the idea of concessions and states that "had such deals eventually come to light, Palestinians would have rejected them comprehensively". Her solution? The restoration of the "Palestinian revolution", a barely hidden reference to the intifada.

Two days after it's amazing scoop, the Guardian, red-faced, looked around and saw that strangely, the other newspapers didn't seem to agree that the Palestinians and Hamas should be able to do whatever-the-hell they want. The other newspapers seemed to think it was a good thing that the Palestinians were actually considering negotiating! That it might be a sign that at some point there could be peace!

So the Guardian backtracked and wrote an editorial to clarify, in case people somehow got the idea that it is anti-Israel and more terrorist than Hamas:

"Let there be no doubt. A two-state solution remains the only show in town... But such a deal requires both sides to make difficult concessions; in other conflicts we always praise those who do so."

The next day, though, they published an article by Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, who blathers on about repression, betrayal and treason, before offering his idea on how to solve - sorry, I mean prolong - the conflict:

"As an immediate response to these revelations, we in Hamas have begun a series of communications and meetings with Palestinian factions and prominent personalities to discuss practical measures. It is our responsibility to regain the initiative in order to protect our cause and isolate those who have betrayed it."

This isn't so far off what the Guardian said in their first editorial: like Hamas they view Fatah as traitors and incompetent in their approach to negotiations, (and, needless to say, Israel as well); and they place their trust in Hamas by calling for their legitimisation and acceptance.

In case Hamdan wasn't clear in his article, by "cause" he means the destruction of Israel, and the "practical measures" he refers to are terror attacks on Israeli civilians. The day after that article, the Guardian published a reader's letter that abandons all pretence and euphemisms, claiming that the leaks show that:

"the Palestinians have a moral right to their terrorism within historic Palestine against neo-Zionism... Terrorism, as in this case, can as exactly be self-defence, a freedom struggle, martyrdom, the conclusion of an argument based on true humanity".

The Guardian defended this letter as not going against their policy "not to publish letters advocating violence against others", claiming that the letter is "about the way language is used... he [the letter-writer Ted Honderich] is not advocating suicide bombing."

I think Honderich would beg to differ, seeing as he's made it quite clear that by stating that suicide bombing is a moral right, he means just that.

I can think of no better definition for the phrase 'epic fail' than - n. The Guardian.

Palestine Papers: Negotiations, Lies, And The Guardian's Relief

The Guardian, in conjunction with Al Jazeera have leaked papers relating to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations from the last 10 years. Strangely, even with their exclusive access, the Guardian can't actually seem to comprehend the meaning and significance of the documents. One of their headlines claims "Palestinian negotiators accept Jewish state, papers reveal", leaving out what PA negotiator Saeb Erakat actually said in the memos, which was "call it what you want... this is their issue, not mine". In response to the leaks, JPost reports that Erakat denied that the PA has ever offered to give away any of East Jerusalem, and "denied that the PA had agreed to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He said that when asked by Israel to accept this demand, he replied that it was tantamount to asking a Palestinian to join the Zionist movement." Erakat has also reinforced that the position has always been that the

"Palestinian Authority would never give up any of our rights. If we did indeed offer Israel the Jewish and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem, and the biggest Yerushalayim as they claim, then why did Israel not sign a final status agreement?... Is it not strange that we would offer all these concessions which Israel demands, yet there is still no peace deal?"

Meanwhile PA president Mahmoud Abbas claims that it has been distorted so that the position of dividing the Old City, taking in 100,000 Palestinian refugees, and recognising Israel as the Jewish state is portrayed as the Palestinian position by Al Jazeera and the Guardian, when actually this is what is widely known as the Israeli position: "What is intended is a mix-up. I have seen them yesterday present things as Palestinian but they were Israeli... this is therefore intentional". So Abbas is now using Israel's transparency in these matters to defend himself.

In Hamas' view, this shows the "ugly face of the [Palestinian] authority, and the level of its co-operation with the occupation... and involvement in attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, particularly on the issue of Jerusalem and refugees, and its involvement against the resistance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip".

Unsurprisingly, but sickening all the same, is that this is the Guardian's take on it as well. Robin Shepherd observes that it shows that the political establishments, NGOs and media, particularly the Guardian, "have been adopting a position which was significantly more uncompromising on 'settlements'... more hardline against Israel than the Palestinian leadership itself."

CifWatch point out how, even worse, the Guardian's editorial in scorning the Palestinians' flexibility as "weakness" has actively

"egged on the Palestinians to reject even the slightest territorial compromise, encouraged them to accept nothing less than new maximalist demands, and, most dangerously, legitimized and empowered the most radical movement in their society: Hamas".

"Not content to merely cheer lead for the Palestinian side, and demonize Israel, they now seem to view their role as inciting the Palestinians to reject moderation and accommodation... in framing the compromises which may have been considered by the Palestinian leadership, as a cowardly surrender to the cause, Guardian editors have now emboldened Hamas, and have abandoned even the pretense of advocating for peace."

In stark contrast to the Guardian - who, originally shocked and dismayed at the Palestinians' apparent willingness to talk, are at the same time relishing their role in how the leaks will prolong the conflict* - the Times take an optimistic view of hopes for peace in the future:

"At last, Palestinian leaders appear to acknowledge that peace requires giving up things that they would otherwise wish to keep. They have provoked denunciation from theocratic absolutists [like the Guardian!] for whom compromise is betrayal. And that is reason enough to be hopeful."

We can be hopeful, but should also be realistic. Elder of Ziyon points out that whilst the documents do seem to be true, the Palestinian leaders' reactions to it are what is most telling about the difficulties in solving the conflict. The fact that they kept it all so secret, never explaining to their people their efforts to make peace, and now the way in which they're denying the truth of the documents, indicates that peace is not their priority. They have demonstrated they they are fully aware that the majority of the Palestinian people would not accept any of the suggested concessions, and they have done nothing to try and educate their people to change this stance.

*Excellent article on 'How The Guardian Helped Kill The Peace Process'.

Terrorists Attack; Terrorists Arrested

Yesterday IDF soldiers found Hamas terrorists planting explosives near the Gaza security fence. In the fighting that followed, four Israeli soldiers were wounded and one killed.

Today a Palestinian armed with two pipe bombs and a knife was shot and killed at a checkpoint as he approached IDF soldiers, shouting "Allahu Akbar".

Terrorists in Gaza fired a barrage of mortars into Southern Israel today, injuring three Thai kibbutz workers, one seriously.

Last week Israeli soldiers accidentally killed a Palestinian man in a raid to re-arrest six Palestinian terrorists that had been released by Abbas. One of them, released just four months after his arrest, was involved in the shooting and murder of four Israeli civilians last August, and a 2008 suicide bombing that killed one Israeli and wounded 10. The accidental killing of the innocent Palestinian is tragic, but there is a bigger picture that the media most likely ignore: the corruption of the Palestinian "justice" system, the fact that the murderer of four Israeli civilians was released four months after his crime, and the obligation of the IDF to re-arrest these terrorists before they murder even more Jews. Not something Israel haters are really bothered by.

Still Relevant...

A few months before I started this blog, I did a couple of pieces that were featured on Elder of Ziyon. Now that I do have this blog, I thought I may as well add them to my collection here. Even though they're from February 2009, they are still relevant as Israel is continuously, disproportionately blamed for that winter's war (and pretty much the whole Middle East conflict in general).

• The first piece is a spoof news story:

"UN: It's OK To Be Antisemitic... But Not Anti-Zionist

After many months of debate the UN has finally announced that it is acceptable to be openly antisemitic, but at the cost of being openly anti-Zionist.

A poll showed the majority of voters were in favour of sacrificing the ability to insult Israel for the sake of being to say what they really feel with regards to Jews.

"It was really tiring venting all my Jew-hate on Israel" one voter said. "Always having to say some sh** about Israel putting 10 million Palestinians in phosphorous chambers and causing a holocaust."

The ruling means that it is permissible, upon seeing a Jew, to shout insults such as "big nose" or "greedy f***er", and in some cases violence may also be acceptable, for example when the nose is extra large or the Jew is dressed very religiously.

However none of that applies to Israeli Jews, and the UN has warned of harsh consequences for those who say anything negative and untruthful about Israel, such as that Israel made up that it is fighting terrorists, Israelis are ugly, or that Israelis didn't invent falafel and hummus.

A UN spokesman said:

"For too long people have been holding the urge to express their disgust at the Jews' ugly conks and the fact that they're the ones who caused the recession, and that they control the media. We feel this is a positive move in giving people the freedom to express themselves in a healthy, honest way instead of always hiding behind the 'I'm not antisemitic, I'm anti-Zionist' defence.""

• My second item was a satirical poster for the now infamous antisemitic play, Seven Jewish Children (view large version here, thanks to EoZ).

The Forgotten Refugees

There is always lot of talk about Palestinian refugees, who are referenced in over 120 UN resolutions, but finally Israel is trying to do something about the forgotten refugees: 900,000 Jews who, after the creation of the state of Israel, were forced to flee persecution in Arab countries - most of them to Israel. The issue of these Jewish refugees is now something that will be addressed in any future peace negotiations. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has said that bringing the issue to public awareness is "a matter of justice, closure and righting a wrong."

The creation of the state of Israel was a necessary reaction to the Holocaust, for the survival of the Jewish nation. Ayalon writes on CiF how this almost resulted in a second Holocaust of the Jews in the Middle East, where the reaction of the Arab countries was persecution and potential mass murder of the Jews residing there. Meanwhile Israel absorbed all it's refugees, whilst the Arab countries refuse citizenship to the Palestinians who live there are second-rate citizens with few rights.

However, in another article on CiF, none of those points are addressed. Just Journalism observe how Rachel Shabi doesn't mention the Arabs' mistreatment of Palestinian refugees, and almost completely ignores the violent persecution of Jews by Arabs, instead implying that most of them moved to Israel out of choice. But not only does she downplay the Jews' suffering, she also accuses Israel of exploiting it as "political point-scoring". CifWatch points out the obvious: "It is the Palestinians penned in camps who are the hostages to political point-scoring." Shabi advises that instead of focusing on the Jewish refugees, we should "celebrate" and "commemorate" "the long, vibrant experience of Jewish life in the Arab world". In other words, that the forgotten Jewish refugees should remain forgotten.

Read more about the Jewish refugees at 'Justice For Jews From Arab Countries', or the 'Point of no return' blog. It links to a film on the subject that you can watch online, created by the educational organisation The David Project.

Arabs Stab Two Non-Israelis, Killing One

Arabs and Palestinians are frequently caught at checkpoints in Israel in possession of knives, but yesterday two managed to carry out an attack on two women hiking in the Bet Shemesh / Jerusalem forest, killing one of them.

The British national, Kaye Wilson, told how the Arabs approached them asking for water, then removed her Star of David chain and stabbed her and her American friend Christine Logan multiple times. Wilson probably saved herself by faking death, but Logan was murdered.

People are wondering what on earth would possess the Arabs to attack two non-Israeli women, and not even in the West Bank (as though that would be a good enough reason). Arabs stabbing someone wearing the Jewish symbol? Unheard of...

UPDATE: Statement from the British government to the Arab terrorists: "Why would you do that? After all the times we've condemned Israel..."

(They didn't actually say that. But they're probably thinking it.)

Israel Eases Gaza Blockade; Welcomes Rocketfire Into Negev In Return

Israel has announced that it will ease restrictions on Gaza and allow exports into the West Bank and abroad, to help improve the economic situation in Gaza.

Israel reassured the Palestinians and international community that this would have no effect on Hamas' booming business venture, of firing rockets into Israel.

A statement affirmed "Israel concurs that Hamas can and should continue to smuggle in weapons from Egypt and then fire them into the Negev, where they are welcomed with open arms."

"If the Palestinians keep up this behaviour, we may soon legalise other uses of violence against the State. We only want to make things easier for you."

Hamas replied in a statement: "Thank you".

They then fired four mortars into Southern Israel, wounding one man with shrapnel in the neck.

Israel's response was swift: "Let us know if you need anything else."

Devastating Fires In Israel: Some Help, Some Celebrate

Since yesterday morning fire has been raging through the North of Israel in the Haifa area.

9800 acres (40,000 dunams) of land has been destroyed, including residential areas and forests.

17,000 people have been evacuated.

At least 40 people have been killed - prison guards whose coach got caught in the flames as they travelled to evacuate prisoners to a safe area - most likely Palestinian prisoners, who were not harmed.

Meanwhile, many Palestinians and Arabs celebrate this tragedy.

There are numerous indications that this is an arson attack as a wig and bicycle were found near the centre of one fire, two arsonists were caught trying to start a new fire, and several fires have started in other locations, these incidents all extremely likely connected.

Help has arrived from Bulgaria, France, Jordan, Russia, Turkey, Spain, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Holland, Canada, America and Britain. My faith has been restored a little by the fact that these countries were able to overlook their attitudes towards Israel in the I-P conflict, and to know that not everyone believes Israel deserves to burn.

Most amazingly, the Palestinian Authority has also sent help, 21 firefighters and three trucks. This is extremely generous of them, despite the fact that, whatever they say about Israel, they for sure know that if anything like this happened in Gaza or the West Bank, Israel would be there to help.

Please pray for all those affected and for the rain that Israel desperately needs.