30-Jun-10: Scenes from this ongoing but unreported war

Yet another Qassam rocket - one of the thousands reportedly stockpiled by the Hamas regime and its jihadist co-conspirators in the Gaza Strip - was fired off in the general direction of Israel in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday). To say that it was deliberately aimed at civilians is both true and untrue. Terrorists in possession of crude but lethal weaponry are completely indifferent about what damage their attacks cause. Indifferent - because anything they hit is an achievement. There is no strategic goal of trying to cripple the enemy's military forces. Never has been, not in the 1990's or 1950's or 1920's - never. On the contrary, the jihadists have demonstrated for decades a preference for hiding from the Israeli military and striking kindergartens, little children and the like. This is one of the many reasons they are accurately described as terrorists.

The operators of today's Qassam unfortunately got lucky. It struck and damaged a packaging factory (see "Kassam destroys factory in Negev" in today's Jerusalem Post) in an un-named community in the Sdot Negev area (un-named because Israeli security policy says we don't want to provide any operational knowledge to the terrorists, ever), on the Israeli side of the boundary fence abutting Gaza and its thuggish warriors. The JPost quotes police saying no one was injured in the attack. But as we keep pointing out, that is not the outcome that the barbarians intended. The damage to the plant was considerable.

Israel's retaliation was not slow in coming. Starting a few hours after the attack, the quantity of goods permitted by Israel to enter the Gaza Strip was increased by 50%. The number of trucks entering via the Kerem Shalom crossing point at the southern end of Gaza (temporarily shut down this morning because of actual intelligence warnings of a pending terror attack on the crossing and its stressed-out Israeli staff) will increase to 250 within weeks. An additional 120 trucks will be permitted entry into the Hamas-controlled mini-state through the Karni terminal at the northern end of the Strip.

That should teach them.

25-Jun-10: If a dozen missiles are fired into Israel in a single day and no one reports it...

There's a Zen koan that asks us to think about reality: if a tree falls in the forest, it says, and no one is there to hear it, did the falling of the tree make a sound.

We don't blog here to plumb the philosophical depths. But as events spin more and more in the direction of chaos and terror, and as the violent ambitions of the jihadists grow both more open and less understood by many people, it seems very important for us to report here what's happening and what it might mean. That much we can do. And we can ask: does terrorism happen if there's no one willing to report on it? And if the people who are the targets of the terror fight back, is this fighting back or is it some kind of aggression? Sadly, these are not philosophical musings but real and contemporary political challenges.

A total of nine mortar shells and one rocket were fired into Israel yesterday (Thursday). Thankfully, the terrorists did not succeed in causing injuries or serious damage. But, as we keep pointing out here, that's not their intention and never was.

Did you hear about these missile attacks? Thought so.

But you might have seen syndicated stories today like this one from CNN: "Israel bombs targets in Gaza". Or this from Agence France Press: "Israeli warplanes raid Gaza". If you can get past the helpful headline, you would see, buried deep down (so deep most people won't get to it) the reason why the raid and the bombs happened: "A dozen mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with seven of them hitting Israel but none causing any casualties or damage, an Israeli army spokeswoman said earlier."

The most serious of yesterday's attacks (see YNet's report) was yet another Qassam rocket exploding near one of the kibbutzim (not named in the media reports for reasons of security) just north of the Gaza Strip. This came very shortly after two mortar shells exploded south of a kibbutz in the area called Shaar Hanegev, a stone's throw (so to speak) from the fence with Gaza.

Israel radio news reported last night that at least one of the jihadist rockets failed to get as far as the fence and crashed into some unknown part of the Hamas-controlled area. No one else has reported on that, and past experience tells us no one cares when the Gazan Palestinian Arabs have jihadist missiles accidentally falling onto them from the thugs on their side.

Once again, IDF planes carefully targeted a weapons warehouse last night somewhere in Gaza (one of the many delineated on IDF intelligence maps), as well as two of the hundreds of smuggling tunnels running between the Gaza Strip and either Egypt or Israel. No injuries are reported. The weapons will be replaced within hours.

24-Jun-10: How the opportunities to free Gilad Schalit were squandered

One of this site's two bloggers has an op-ed article in today's Jerusalem Post, both the paper and on-line editions.

The squandered opportunities to free Gilad Schalit

By FRIMET ROTH

The Gaza blockade provided a potentially effective negotiating tool. But when was it used as serious leverage for the captured soldier’s return? Oddly, never.

By now you shouldn’t be left wondering. When the Israeli media and politicians promise that Gilad Schalit will be freed “at any cost,” it is crystal clear what they mean. They should not be taken literally.

Instead, they are asserting that the release of convicted murderers must not be allowed to impede Schalit’s return home. Other safer, saner options for rescuing him are not even up for discussion. The Gaza blockade, for example, provides a potentially effective negotiating tool. But when has it been used as serious leverage for Schalit’s return? Oddly, never.

And why not? True, the blockade has brought censure and isolation in large doses. But all that pales beside the damage we will surely suffer if we release hordes of unrepentant imprisoned terrorists.

After the intense international outrage over the flotilla attack two weeks ago, the blockade is fast disintegrating.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, under pressure from our allies, has already decided to relaxed it and appears poised to open our land border with Gaza entirely.

The only halfhearted use that has been made of the blockade in relation to Schalit has been to request that most basic right due to captives but still withheld by Hamas: Red Cross visits.

Last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman assumed a tough tone on that point: “The minimal condition for lifting the blockade is for the Red Cross to be allowed to regularly visit Gilad Schalit,” he stated. “As long as this condition is not fulfilled, there is no reason to change the situation.”

But after four years of captivity, Red Cross visits are a pathetically mousy request. Freedom, and nothing less, is what we should be demanding.

THERE IS another tactic with a proven track record that seems to have been ignored. It has succeeded when European, Australian and American citizens were held hostage by Somali, Afghan and Iraqi kidnappers.

It is ransom.

In February 2009, following Operation Cast Lead, the US government pledged $900 million toward reconstruction in Gaza and the West Bank. However, as The Los Angeles Times reported last week, US officials “acknowledged the difficulty of distributing the funds, especially because Hamas controls Gaza and is considered a terrorist organization.”

Earlier this month, when the subject of that pledge arose at a State Department press briefing, the assistant secretary’s response was ambiguous. Given these facts, it is probably safe to infer that the money has not been transferred.

Subsequently, after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas two weeks ago, US President Barack Obama committed to an additional infusion of $400 million in aid to Gaza. His stated aim is to subsidize housing, school construction and business development. To bypass Hamas, State Department officials explained that the funds may be distributed through relief organizations. But will that solve anything? It is no secret that Hamas maintains a network of tunnels which are being used for weapons smuggling.

And it is obvious that even if the specific dollar bills donated by the US do not reach Hamas hands, they are fungible.

Other Hamas funds will be freed up to enlarge its arsenal even more.

Israel can and must urge the US to link its pledges to Schalit’s return.

ON THE day in 2004 that my daughter Malki’s murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, a Hamas operative, was sentenced to 16 life sentences, I vowed to do everything in my power to keep her incarcerated until she draws her last breath.

She left 15 Israelis dead, eight of them children, in the terror attack she engineered at a Jerusalem restaurant. She was videotaped smiling with satisfaction on learning precisely how many victims were children. She has told reporters she expects to be freed soon. She has never expressed a shred of remorse.

We who believe that mass murderers like Tamimi must not walk free after six years – or ever – are duty bound to raise our voices. But we must act not only when we fear their release is imminent. We should compel our leaders to tackle this challenge by every available means and at every opportunity.

To mark the fourth anniversary of Gilad Schalit’s captivity, on June 25, his tortured family has launched a fresh campaign to galvanize the public.

This is an appropriate time to eradicate the misconception with which Israelis have been indoctrinated: that Schalit will be freed only by the release of hundreds of terrorists.

Time is running out.

The writer is a Jerusalem-based freelancer. She cofounded the Malki Foundation in her daughter’s memory. It provides support for Israeli families of all faiths who care at home for a special-needs child.

21-Jun-10: In case you forgot why we call these suits terrorists

  
In today's Haaretz, there's an article entitled Hamas Official: Palestinians Should Fire at Israel from West Bank. Though we don't personally feel the need, it creates yet another opportunity to remind ourselves about who and what motivate the terrorists on the other side of the fence.

"Palestinians should initiate rocket attacks on Israel from the West Bank, Israel Radio quoted Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar as saying in an interview on Sunday. Zahar told the east Jerusalem newspaper Al Quds that the fact that "such launches should happen in the West Bank as well [as Gaza] is inevitable." He also stressed that Hamas would never change its policy, saying that the solution lies in "resistance"...  The Hamas leader also stressed that Hamas would never change its policy, even if it won the next elections, saying that the solution lies in "resistance.""If we had been interested in forfeiting our rights, I would have been in Washington by now," Zahar told Al Quds." (21-Jun-10)

Elsewhere he is quoted asking: "Why should this fire come only from the Strip?" Meaning: why don't other people fire into the concentrations of Jews inside Israel? How come it's always left to us, here in Gaza, with our meagre resources? Why are our Fatah brethren in the West Bank not playing a larger role in this holy attempt at massacre?

Mahmoud al-Zahar is one of the innumerable "official" spokesmen of Hamas. He has served as foreign minister in the jihadist regime of Ismail Haniyeh and is frequently quoted and photographed in the international media, usually being described as a founder of Hamas, and - rather redundantly - as one of its militant hardliners. In yesterday's New York Times, he is said to be "perhaps the most influential Hamas leader in Gaza".

Question (22-Jun-07): "The militant wings of Fatah and Hamas have been fully armed over the last few months. Are these weapons still in circulation?

Mahmoud Zahar: There are naturally very many weapons around now. Two years ago, one bullet in Gaza cost around €3.50 -- now it would cost 35 cents. The American aid money has been translated into weapons. Thank you, America!"

Source: Spiegel Online

Fox News correspondent Reena Ninan published an interview with Zahar in December 2007. A brief excerpt:

By I thought now might be a good time to ask about his perfectly tailored outfit. I found it hard to believe he bought it in Gaza. "It's a nice suit you're wearing...where'd you get it from...Syria?"
At first he laughed but then got serious. "No. Hezbollah."
"So this is part of the Hassan Nasrallah's '07 fall collection?" I asked, referring to the group's leader.
Zahar let out a deep laugh along with his security staff. "Yes. We get support from more places than Iran and Syria."

Al-Zahar is regarded as one of the chief architects of the putsch/massacre that resulted in Fatah being eliminated politically and literally from the public life of Gaza in mid-2007 (including parenthetically the deaths of at least 150 people, mainly from the Fatah ranks, and mainly via extreme violence). On the other hand, he is rather confusingly said at various times to have called for Fatah-Hamas unity. On the third hand, he is quoted in one of the Arab world's most prominent newspapers a week ago, in an article entitled "Did Abbas ask for siege of Gaza to be kept in place?" stating this: "What we have been saying all along [is that] Abbas and Ramallah are part of the siege [of Gaza]." In other words, he knows his enemies and he does not forget.

In March this year, another Arab publication came to al-Zahar's defence, pointing out that he's actually quite opposed to the firing of rockets at innocents:

"A few days ago, al Zahar openly attacked the rockets fired from Gaza to Israel on the Iranian Al Alam television station and described them as “suspicious [action].” Al Zahar said, “some elements are firing rockets (towards Israel) that do not have warheads in order to take advantage of this in the media,” adding that the Gazan government is following up on this matter on the security level in order to reveal the truth behind it. He further stated that Hamas knows the real motives [behind the firing of rockets]."

Confused? Perhaps that's the plan. 

So what to make of a man who openly (at least some of the time) calls for towns and communities to be rocketed and innocent people to be murdered so long as they belong to a different religion?  

Perhaps we can allow Ahmed Al-Jarallah to provide some perspective. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the influential Arab Times, and here is what he published yesterday:

"How can the world believe the people, who talk about the poverty in Gaza, if they wear clothes designed by Yves Saint Laurent and Versace or smoke Cuban cigars? These people include Khalid Meshaal, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub and numerous other Hamas and Fatah leaders. They have been trading in Palestinian blood, so they are happy every time Israel attacks the innocent people in Palestine... Will the Arabs ever learn from their experiences?"

Suits. The world is full of them, but very few of them have quite the capacity for mayhem that Zahar does.

18-Jun-10: Some comments from other places

Why Do the Peace Activists Ignore the Violence of Hamas?
Lindy McDowell (Belfast Telegraph-UK)

Gaza, where the flotilla boats were headed, is under the control of the terrorist grouping Hamas which has been responsible for pounding Israeli towns (and Israeli civilians) with increasingly sophisticated missiles for years. It was to protect Israeli families from Hamas suicide bombers that Israel began erecting its security fence in 2002.
    In 2005 Israel (in the interests of peace) moved out of Gaza. The thanks it got were even more rockets (often supplied by Iran) raining down on its civilian population courtesy of Hamas, which charmingly declares itself dedicated to wiping the Israeli people off the face of the earth. Israel, understandably, has insisted on monitoring what materials go into Gaza and, thus, what (potentially lethal) materials Hamas could have access to. All of us in the West live in countries which maintain a similar right to ensure the safety of their own civilian populations. Most countries have reasons why they would not be confident to leave this role up to the international community. Israel has at least six million extra reasons.

Hamas: A Terrorist Thug Group, Through and Through
Anath Hartmann (Washington Times)

"I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization," Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan told a June 4 rally. In fact, Hamas has perpetrated bombings and other violence that have killed hundreds of people inside Israel and wounded more than 1,300. Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, saying Israel "will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors" and vowing to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine."
    But Hamas tyranny is not limited to Jews. Hamas has long had a practice of lynching, maiming and executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel or the rival Palestinian political party Fatah. After winning the 2006 Gaza elections on a platform of change and an end to corruption, Hamas forcibly took control of the Strip and blew up Fatah headquarters. The U.S., Canada, Israel, Japan and EU all classify Hamas as a terrorist entity.

Hamas Is to Blame for Gaza Tragedy
Eamon Delaney (Irish Independent)

In a Guardian interview, published on the very day of the flotilla-storming, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal almost jauntily looked forward to the next round of "fighting with Israel." Meanwhile, Hamas continues to be funded by the Syrians and Iranians, anxious to stoke bloodshed, but suitably far away enough not to suffer the consequences. The reality is that Hamas should be blamed for bringing ruin and destruction to the people of Gaza. Hamas now enforces an authoritarian regime and has imposed a repressive Islamic culture. Hamas has cancelled elections and forcibly and bloodily evicted its rivals in the Fatah movement.

Gaza Activists Were Pawns in a Much Bigger Turkish Power Game
Stephen King (Irish Examiner)

For a generation to whom Vietnam and South Africa are either faint memories or battles only read about in history books, Palestine is the most perfect cause. For rebels looking for a cause, Israel makes a classic enemy. Being a Jewish state makes it racist, right? Aren't its most vociferous supporters in the U.S.? What more is there to know? Only the Holocaust prevents even respectable opinion in Ireland from labeling Israel a fascist state. And it helps that Gaza seems so much more winnable than the Tibetan fight for autonomy.
    These individuals who joined 400 Turkish Islamists on a voyage to break the Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza came, they said, on a genuine, if misguided, attempt to relieve Gaza's suffering. But for the Turkish activists who drove the mission, the flotilla was all part of a much bigger game - a premeditated provocation by a gang of wannabe martyrs bent on violent confrontation and on realigning Turkey away from the West. The impression that Israel/Palestine is the root of all the Middle East's problems is as misguided as it is pervasive. The conflict with Israel merely serves as an effective cover for the region's collective failure to build stable, just and prosperous societies.

15-Jun-10: Yet another drive-by killing from the Palestinian Arab terror machine

In a reminder of how our neighbours view co-existence, a man was killed and four others wounded by gunfire in an ambush on a quiet road in the hills near Beit Haggai. The Israeli victims, all of them police officers, were being driven yesterday (Monday) morning from Beersheba to take up their posts in the Hebron area.

Sgt.-Maj Yehoshua Sofer, 39, who had been serving in the Hebron region for 14 years, was shot in the stomach and died.  He was due to marry his fiancee in about three months.

Haaretz quotes Israeli security sources saying the terrorists drove to the site on the road connecting Otniel to Beit Hagai. They walked to the ambush location where they took up positions and opened fire on the vehicle. Searches of the area after the attack resulted in the finding of a car that had been abandoned set alight. The nearby village of Dir Ibzah was placed under curfew because evidence suggests the shooters escaped through the area. In the nearby town of Dura, a force of Palestinian security is based; the exit roads from that town have also been shut down while searches go on.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned yesterday's attack saying variously (according to Haaretz) he is "opposed to violence" and (this source) it "harms the Palestinian cause". Maan quotes him saying such acts might bring back a "cycle of violence" that would only serve the "perpetuation of the Israeli settlement scheme."

Credit for the ambush and murder was claimed Monday evening by the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the terror group that answers to Palestinian Authority prime minister Fayyad's boss, Mahmoud Abbas. Maan, a Fatah-connected news service, says the underlying cause was a need to exact retribution for the shooting deaths of nine Turkish nationals aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. A competing claim was put in (according to the Jerusalem Post) by an unknown group calling itself, absurdly, the Flotilla Martyrs. They released a statement saying they refuse to recognize any cease-fire and they vow to continue their attacks. [As if there has ever been peace during this ongoing war.]

We have mentioned the al-Aqsa Martyrs before. For the record, the predecssor of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, left little room for doubt about the affiliation when he said this six years ago: "We have clearly declared that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah. We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group... The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Fatah movement will not be dissolved and Fatah will never relinquish its military wing."

The Israeli assessment, according to IDF sources, is that the shooter is likely a lone operator or a local cell operating on its own, without direction or backing from a larger group. Terrorism in this area in recent years has trended towards attacks by individuals, but keep in mind this was the fifth major shooting assult in the West Bank, and Sofer is the first Israeli killed, so far this year.

In 2009, four Israelis were killed in attacks in the West Bank. In March 2009, two Judea and Samaria police officers, Yehezkel Ramazreger and David Rabinovitch, were shot dead in the Jordan Valley in a terrorist ambush. The policemen had stopped to provide assistance to a Palestinian terrorist who pretended that his car had broken down. An NCO in the Kfir Brigade was stabbed to death by a PA police officer as he sat in his car. And Rabbi Meir Hai, a resident of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, who was shot to death  in December.

Beit Haggai is a religious Jewish community in the historically-rich Hebron hills area. The name is an acronym of the given names of Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman, three students in the Nir Yeshiva in nearby Kiryat Arba. They were murdered in a Palestinian Arab terror attack on Shabbat eve, 2 May 1980. Beit Haggai is home to a youth village which has provided a home, education, and services for dozens of special-needs children. During the First Intifada, several residents of Beit Haggai were killed in shooting attacks near the village. Three residents were killed on the roads leading into and out of Beit Hagai during the far-more-deadly period of the Arafat War, misleadingly called the Second Intifada, that started on Jewish New Year in the year 2000. The population of the village doubled, and today it has some 95 families.

14-Jun-10: Humanitarian aid, tunnels and dogs

John Lyons of The Australian, based in Jerusalem, is visiting Gaza and has some insights, most of them uncomfortable to read no matter what your political viewpoint (unless you identify with the Hamas Islamist-Jihadists for whom misery is a blessing and a tool, whether your enemy's or your daughter's).

This edited excerpt - the whole piece is certainly worth your time - offers some comments about the Gazan Palestinian Arab tunnel operators that we have not seen anywhere else.

AS Israeli Air Force jets roar overhead, our fixer suggests we do our interviews quickly, as some of the owners of Gaza's tunnels are becoming agitated. They don't like questions about profit and insist they are developing this huge network of tunnels from Egypt into Gaza because of the blockade that has hermetically sealed this small strip of land. Israel and Egypt are concerned the tunnels are used not just for goods but to smuggle into Gaza weapons that are then used against Israel. Israel periodically bombs the tunnel system -- craters are clearly visible -- and while 100 or so are estimated to have been destroyed, hundreds of others continue or have been built as a response. Egypt has also begun building a wall near the tunnels -- about 10km long and up to 30m deep -- to try to cut off the system.
When I ask one owner about profits he begins shouting: "My children need food. Dogs in other parts of the world eat better than our children!"
The tunnel operators have a vested interest in maintaining the blockade; they stand to lose tens of millions of dollars should it end. A European official who knows Gaza as well as anyone tells me what he says is one of the great unwritten stories about Gaza: that it is the tunnel operators firing the rockets... There's a strong logic to the argument of the European that the tunnel operators, many of whom have their licences only because they have paid Hamas, would be the biggest losers should the embargo be lifted. And a pattern of behaviour certainly fits with the theory; almost every time Israel begins talking about a period of calm with Gaza or every time Israel comes under pressure to lift the blockade, rockets are fired.
As news emerged last week of the nine killed on the flotilla and international reaction called on Israel to lift the blockade, suddenly there were rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. Tunnel owner Abu Ali rejects the notion it could be the tunnel owners firing the rockets: "No one can fire rockets unless Hamas and the factions of Hamas approve," he says. But that's not really a no. The 1,000 or so tunnels are estimated to amount to a $100 million economy. Hamas approves, monitors and taxes each tunnel, which costs on average about $200,000 to build.

From where we sit, it's a tough call trying to figure who, from among the rocket firers, the tunnel-making entrepreneurs, the operators of the tunnels and their financiers, and the tunnel-taxers are the biggest dogs. We like dogs and certainly don't mean to disrespect them with the comparison.

13-Jun-10: Blockade on Gaza? Leave it there say Palestinian Authority and Egypt

Contrary to what most people seem to think, the government of Egypt and the Mahmoud Abbas regime both believe the blockade of Gaza is best left in place.

From today's Haaretz:

Published 13.06.10
Abbas to Obama: I'm against lifting the Gaza naval blockade
The Palestinian president reportedly told Obama that lifting the naval blockade of Gaza would bolster Hamas, a move that shouldn't be done at this stage.
By Barak Ravid

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas, according to what he told United States President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House Wednesday. Egypt also supports this position... European diplomats updated by the White House on the talks said that Abbas had stressed to Obama the need of opening the border crossings into the Gaza Strip and the easing of the siege, but only in ways that do not bolster Hamas.

One of the points that Abbas raised is that the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Strip should not be lifted at this stage. The European diplomats said Egypt has made it clear to Israel, the U.S and the European Union that it is also opposes the lifting of the naval blockade because of the difficulty in inspecting the ships that would enter and leave the Gaza port.

Abbas told Obama that actions easing the blockage should be done with care and undertaken gradually so it will not be construed as a victory for Hamas. The Palestinian leader also stressed that the population in the Gaza Strip must be supported, and that pressure should be brought to bear on Israel to allow more goods, humanitarian assistance and building materials for reconstruction. Abbas, however, said this added aid can be done by opening land crossings and other steps that do not include the lifting of the naval blockade.

On Friday, Netanyahu met with Quartet representative Tony Blair in his office. This was the third meeting between the two during the last eight days, and centered on ways of easing the blockade on the Strip.

We wonder whether this makes the Egyptians and the Palestinians anti-humanitarian? And if so, what the humanitarians of Europe and the Arab world are planning to do about it?

The rest of the article is here.

11-Jun-10: Terrorism by vehicle

An incident in East Jerusalem today - two reports, two realities

Israeli border guards kill Palestinian after car hits them [AFP]
(AFP) JERUSALEM — Israeli border guards shot dead a Palestinian man on Friday after he struck two of them with his car in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, police and Palestinian medics said. "The man struck two members of the border guard with his car, lightly wounding one of them and more seriously wounding the other," Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi said. He said the border guards then shot him "after he fled on foot and did not heed warning shots," without saying whether the man had died or not. Dr Amin Abu Ghazaleh of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said one man was killed and two others were wounded in the incident. Israeli police had earlier gone on high alert in and around the Old City in east Jerusalem, fearing violent protests in the wake of the deadly seizure of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla by naval commandos that sparked international outrage. They also limited access to the city's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound to men over the age of 40 and women and children ahead of Friday prayers. It was not immediately clear if Friday's violence had any political motive. The mosque compound, located in the Old City, is the third most sacred site in Islam. It was there that Arab anger over a visit by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon sparked a Palestinian uprising in 2000. Clashes erupted across mostly Arab east Jerusalem in March over the reopening of a 17th century synagogue a few hundred metres (yards) from the mosque and rumours that Jewish extremists planned to destroy the compound. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it to its capital in a move not recognised by the international community. The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.
On May 31, Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship that was part of an aid flotilla seeking to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Ensuing clashes left nine Turkish activists dead.

Palestinian runs over policemen in Jerusalem [YNet]
Four Border Guard officers lightly injured after being hit by pickup truck in Wadi Joz neighborhood. Assailant attempts to escape by foot before being shot to death by Border Guard force. Police believe incident a terror attack
Shmulik Grossman
Latest Update:     06.11.10, 18:04 / YNet Israel News
Four Border Guard officers were lightly injured Friday after being run over by a Palestinian driving a pickup truck in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz. The driver was shot, and quickly died of his wounds. His body was later snatched from the hospital and he was buried at a cemetery near the Temple Mount.
After the incident, the assailant attempted to escape by foot and was shot by a Border Guard force stationed in the area. He was critically wounded and died shortly afterwards. Police suspect the incident was nationalistically motivated.
According to an initial investigation, the Palestinian spotted the Border Guard officers arriving at the neighborhood following warnings of upcoming riots. Soldiers belonging to a Border Guard training base were walking single file when the driver began speeding and driving towards them. Some of the policemen managed to jump to the side, but four of them were hit by the vehicle and evacuated to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital. The company commander began chasing the assailant, who tried to flee the scene. According to the police, he was shot after failing to obey the police's call to stop.
The driver was evacuated by the Red Crescent to the al-Maqasid Hospital in east Jerusalem. Another passenger who was in the car with him was apparently injured by stones hurled at the road earlier and was evacuated to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital. The police are looking into his version that the driver who run over the officers was trying to evacuate him to receive medical treatment. Later Friday, the driver's body was snatched from the hospital, and he was laid to rest at a cemetery near the Temple Mount.
Following the incident, thousands of Police and Border Guard officers were deployed throughout the capital, particularly in its east, for fear of riots and additional attempted attacks. They set up temporary road blocks to inspect vehicles entering the city.
Corporal Shai Hazan, one of the officers injured in the incident, said from his hospital bed: "We were walking single-file towards the exit from Wadi Joz, and we saw a Toyota pickup truck slowly approaching us. He suddenly stepped on the gas pedal and sped up his car, flinging me and my comrades to the side." Hazan was wearing a bullet-proof vest and a helmet at the time of the incident. He said he barely remembers what happened after being hit. "He rammed into us, I flew from the force of the blow, and afterwards, everything was blurry," he said.
Palestinians have attempted to run over members of the security forces several times in the past. In April 2009, two policemen were lightly hurt after being hit by a Palestinian car near the Hizme checkpoint, north of Jerusalem. The driver was arrested and taken in for questioning by the Shin Bet. A week earlier, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher tried to run over members of the security forces during the sealing of the home of a terrorist who murdered three people in the first bulldozer attack in Jerusalem. Three Border Guard officers were lightly injured, and the assailant was shot and died of his wounds shortly afterwards.

7-Jun-10: Just diving

We haven't checked but the Melbourne Age is almost certainly not the only news medium that keeps spinning the report of Israel eliminating several Palestinian terrorists this morning as if it were about some innocent recreational skindivers getting unfairly caught up in the uncontrolled rage of a badly behaved neighourhood bully.

The Age article itself, written by Jerusalem-based Jason Koutsoukis, is basically accurate:

"THE naval commando unit involved in last week's bloody showdown with a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last night shot dead four Gaza militants it claimed were trying to slip into Israel by sea to mount a terror attack... An Israel Defence Forces statement said the latest attack occurred before dawn in waters near the centre of the Gaza Strip. "An Israel Navy force in the area of Nuseirat identified a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to perpetrate a terrorist attack,'' the statement said. ''The force fired and hit the terrorists.'' Israeli military sources said it was unclear what the men were planning to do, but intelligence indicated that the men had been working on an attack from the sea ''for quite a while''. An unnamed military official later told Israel Army radio that the attack was a morale boost for the elite Shayetet (Flotilla) 13 unit involved in last week's disastrous interception of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara. 'This will be a shot in the arm for the commandos after the hard week they have been through,'' the official said. Palestinian news agencies reported that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed wing of the Fatah movement, had confirmed that four members had been killed, with a fifth person missing. Al-Aqsa Brigades spokesman Abu al-Walid Jabri said the gunmen were on a training exercise near the Gaza coast when Israeli navy boats opened fire without warning."

As we said, Jason seems to have it down pretty right.

So then why does the Age's headlines editor describe the former-Martyrs-and-now-actual-martyrs as "divers"? That's the headline that appears on the cover of the paper as well [you can see it on the left of this column]. As editors and most other people know, lots of readers skim; it's headlines that they take away with them.

Given the sensitivities and tensions of the situation on Israel's coast, with Iranian vessels now threatening to raise the stakes by mounting another attack on Israel's defensive blockade of the Gaza port, and with huge crowds of whipped-up Moslems, Arabs and other aggrieved parties throughout the world accusing Israelis of being a "genocidal", "cursed terrorist and murderous state" and of other unspeakable crimes and atrocities, why would a responsible publication want to unnecessarily raise the temperature?

Why sow confusion on something as crucial as terrorism? Do the Age's editors know something they're not telling? Were the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade members shot while practising their breaststroke? What exactly is it that intending martyrs do when they're training?

7-Jun-10: Some call them fishermen

An update on this morning's report about militant activist skin-diving fishermen out for a stroll on the Mediterranean Sea:

In a message sent to media in Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, said the four dead were part of a marine unit training in Gaza's waters. Palestinian naval police said two people are missing. The Israeli unit responsible for intercepting the boat is the same naval commando group involved in last week's raid on a flotilla of aid that attempted to break the Israeli blockade against Gaza.

The rest of it is here
Worth noting that the Aqsa thugs are not Hamas. Their alliegance is pledged to Mahmoud Abbas, the political head of the Palestinian Authority and of Fatah.

If, as it appears, this is a sign of a power struggle among several contenders to see who - from among the PA, IHH, Hamas, Iran, Hizbollah, Turkey and other peaceloving humanitarians - can cause the greatest mischief to the Israelis, then it's a very unwelcome development.

7-Jun-10: More humanitarians!

As if we needed reminding of what really goes on in Gaza behind the smokescreen of the contrived "humanitarian crisis", "lost hope" and "hunger"...

The IDF is reporting this (Monday) morning that Israeli naval forces spotted a cluster of men in diving suits off the coast of Gaza in the area we know as Nahal Aza, near Nuseirat. Palestinian sources are reported to have confirmed that four of them were killed. Al Jazeera says they were fishermen. The Jerusalem Post has a different version:

"Israeli Navy commando killed five armed Palestinian frogmen early Monday morning in the Nahal Aza area. The terrorists were wearing diving suits and were heavily armed, IDF spokesperson said. The terrorists were trying to swim to an Israeli city along the Mediterranean coast, when they were detected by the commandos and a firefight erupted. Five terrorists were killed and no commandos were hurt. The boat was making its way from Gaza, north to Israel.  According to the IDF Spokesperson, the members of the terrorist cell had intended to carry out a terror attack in Israel."

A Reuters report seems to back the not-fishing version: "An Israeli naval patrol has killed at least four Palestinian militants in diving gear off the Gaza coast, Hamas security officials and the Israeli army say. "An Israeli naval patrol spotted a boat with four men in diving suits on their way to carry out a terror attack and fired at them ... hitting them," an Israeli army spokesman said." Hamas security sources confirmed finding four bodies and said a fifth man was missing, presumed dead.

The BBC, with a powerful reputation to live up to, made its customary contribution: reporting from Ramallah, tens of kilometers inland from the coast and far from any of the evidence, the BBC's Jon Donnison, in Ramallah in the West Bank, wrote that "it is not yet clear exactly what has happened. But it is not uncommon for the Israeli navy to open fire on fishing boats it feels are too far out at sea."  Bravo, Jon. Never let ignorance of the facts get in the way of a good dig.

Israel's naval nervousness stems from a long list of factors, including the recent launch of freedom-loving, exploding barrels despatched from Gaza by Islamic Jihad-ists (their claim for credit is here) and stopped just in time off the Ashkelon and Ashdod coasts several months ago. Some managed to get as far as the Netanya beach, north of Tel Aviv.

6-Jun-10: It's not that complicated: Is IHH a humanitarian group or a terrorist group?

The thug-enhanced flotilla that sought to break through the Israeli embargo on the port of Gaza was backed by a Turkish organization called IHH (Islan Haklary Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi in Turkish). Are they pure as the driven snow? Or is this an organization compromised by deep connection to terrorism?

It's worrying and infuriating to see how this straightforward matter is being manipulated so that the credibility of the answer depends on how much you hate Israel.

First, the relatively uncontroversial aspects... IHH was founded in 1992. The CIA began tracking them in 1996 because of a perception of radical Islamist leanings. As one study has observed: "Like many other Islamist charities, the IHH has a record of providing relief to areas where disaster has struck in the Muslim world. However, the organization is not a force for good."

That study explains:

"That's because the Turkish nonprofit belongs to a Saudi-based umbrella organization known to finance terrorism called the Union of Good (Ittilaf al-Kheir in Arabic). Notably, the Union is chaired by Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who is known best for his religious ruling that encourages suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.  According to one report, Qardawi personally transferred millions of dollars to the Union in an effort to provide financial support to Hamas"

Their activities caught the attention of Evan Kohlmann, an investigator of terrorist groups. He published a little-noticed essay titled "Shooting the Messenger: A Look at the Facts on the Turkish Aid Group IHH" a few days ago. It's worth a few moments' reading.

When I first published a research paper four years ago with the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) on the Turkish Muslim charitable group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), I didn't imagine it would get much of a response outside the academic conference in which it was presented in Copenhagen. However, as a result of this weekend's tragic Israeli raid on an IHH-sponsored flotilla of vessels attempting to break the ongoing blockade on Gaza, the group has suddenly jumped into the headlines, and has become a focus of intense debate over the intentions of the flotilla organizers and the controversial killing of at least 9 would-be participants by Israeli commandos.
...I'm rather mystified why the flotilla killings--whether right or wrong--would have any bearing on the factual question of whether the IHH has engaged in illicit financing and episodic support to extremist groups. The evidence in this regard is fairly weighty, and much of it comes directly from the Turkish government -- not the United States, nor the Israelis.

He describes how Turkish police raided IHH headquarters in Istanbul at the end of 1997 and had its leaders arrested. Five months later, they faced formal legal charges connected with explosives, bomb making and jihad. Evidence was presented from a French source that IHH's true goals were

"overthrowing democratic, secular, and constitutional order present in Turkey and replacing it with an Islamic state founded on the Shariah."

A second line of connection to jihad: IHH was connected to the attempt by a a jihadist, Ahmed Ressam, the so-called Millenium bomber. Ressam was convicted of attempting to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on New Year's Eve 1999. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but in February 2010 an appellate court held the sentence to be too lenient, and ordered that it be extended. In that prosecution, the noted French counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere took the stand and testified that IHH had played what he called "an important role" in the LAX plot:

"The IHH is an NGO (a non-governmental organization) but it was kind of a type of cover-up… in order to obtain forged documents and also to obtain different forms of infiltration for Mujahideen in combat. And also to go and gather[recruit] these Mujahideens. And finally, one of the last responsibilities that they had was also to be implicated or involved in weapons trafficking."

As Evan Kohlmann writes, none of this information is sensitive or secret.

"Nor is it particularly difficult to come by. Turkish government officials have openly acknowledged as much in major Western media outlets."

The French judge was interviewed in the last few days by Associated Press.

The Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, had "clear, long-standing ties to terrorism and Jihad," former investigating judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

This information is freely available on the web. You don't need to be a terrorism specialist to see and be troubled by it. So why are otherwise credible sources raising snakey questions that undermine the allegations against IHH as if they were part of an Israeli conspiracy? For instance:

• "The IHH has been accused by Israel of funneling support to militant organizations across the Muslim world, a charge the group denies."[Christian Science Monitor]
•  "'Terror' smear against IHH springs from a familiar source" [Mondoweiss - and no prizes for figuring out where that familiar source resides]
• "Israel starts smear campaign in EU against Turkish charity" [World Bulletin]
• "The Islamic charity which largely funded the aid flotilla... Its inspiration is unapologetically religious but the IHH insists its mission is purely humanitarian, despite Israeli claims that it supports the armed activities of Hamas. It is certainly rich. ...It bought a 15-year-old ferry, the Mavi Marmara, for more than $1m (£686,000). It also has some powerful backers in the governing party, the AKP." [BBC]

You don't need to buy Israel's case to see that, being generous, IHH has a murky past and a highly compromised standpoint when it comes to jihad and acts of terror.

6-Jun-10: So while the world is obsessed with flotillas, who's REALLY firing missiles into Israel

On the BBC in the early hours of this morning, we heard an interview with Dr Ahmed Yousef speaking from Gaza.

The BBC's reporter asked the authoritative-sounding Dr. Yousef  (described in various places on the web as "Deputy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs", "the Hamas government's deputy foreign minister", and "a senior adviser to Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniya") why Hamas would choose now, of all times, with so much concern about humanitarian flotillas and the human rights of the desperate, starving hordes of Gaza, to fire still more Qassam rockets into Israel.

The smooth-talking Hamas official did not hesitate for a second; this is not Hamas at all, he asserted. It's the work of collaborators in the service of Israel, firing into Israel without causing any REAL damage just so as to blacken the reputation of Hamas.

Nonplussed, the BBC's man said "C'mon, it's clearly the work of Islamic Jihad or one of your resistance groups." No, said the cool Dr Yousef, there is no indication at all that Islamic Jihad is connected to the rocket firings. Why would you ever think such a thing? [These are not direct quotes, but reproduced from our memory of the broadcast.]

Memo to Dr Yousef: If you get a free moment between media interviews, give a call to the Associated Press office in Gaza City. They published a claim this past week made by the Gazan terrorists of Islamic Jihad, seeking credit for this week's Qassam rocket attacks on Israel.

If we can locate a voice recording of the BBC interview, we will post it here.

In 2007, Yousef scored a triple-header, with op-eds published in the New York Times, Washington Post and International Herald Tribune in the same week. His thesis then, not so different from now, was that the respectable, sober and serious Hamas regime was abiding by a ceasefire agreement and was not allowing Qassam missiles to be fired into Israel from Gaza. At the time,  Dr. Alex Safian from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), pointing out that missiles were indeed being fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza, wrote: "It's nonsensical for the Washington Post and the New York Times to open up their pages to what is just pure propaganda."

Some highlights from Dr Yousef's remarkable background: For years, he was director of the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), an Islamic think tank based in Fairfax County, Virginia in the United States. One source says the UASR promotes the ideology of the Palestinian-based terrorist organization Hamas, and frequently hosts terrorist-related radicals at its events. Yousef, who attributes America’s anti-terror policy to a wide-ranging Zionist conspiracy, succeeded Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook [indicted for terrorism when he lived in the US and who now serves Hamas from Gaza] in the UASR position. In December 2004, speaking on the Hezbollah television station Al-Manar, he said the Zionists are behind the events of 9/11. The American portion of his career ended in 2005 when, according to this report, he left the United States and moved to Gaza, becoming close advisor to Hamas' Haniyeh. It has been reported that his departure was related to the possibility of being prosecuted in the Fawaz Damra terrorism trial.

This is not meant to be a light-hearted dig at either the BBC or Hamas. The issue is deadly serious. Telling bald-faced lies to journalists is a tactic that has enabled the jihadists and their useful-idiot friends to create confusion in the minds of ordinary citizens. That their outrageous distortions are treated by analysts, journalists, editors and public figures with entirely undue respect is part of the price we in Western societies pay for subscribing to democratic principles. ["He/she would never tell lies in public like that..."]

It's also a reflection of the fact that most people don't know enough about complicated issues like the rise of jihadism, and the ongoing war of the Arabs against Israel to be able to distinguish fact from shallow hatred-based self-serving fantasy.

4-Jun-10: Beating up on Israel means we have a problem [Daniel Henninger, WSJ]

This op-ed article by Daniel Henninger is reproduced in full from the Wall Street Journal of Thursday June 3, 2010.

Beating Up on Israel

The world's powers find it easier to denounce small nations like Israel than take on large and difficult problems like Iran or North Korea.

Wall Street Journal | June 3, 2010

The ease with which the world's governments condemned Israel over the flotilla incident has been something to behold. The Jerusalem-based correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail could not help but notice: "The speed and intensity with which governments around the world condemned the Israeli behavior appear unprecedented." Why?

For starters, denouncing Israel for something like this is convenient for leaders who have failed repeatedly to do anything about more important and difficult problems such as Iran, North Korea or sovereign debt. Also, lesser nations learn by example: The Obama administration's unrestrained criticism of the Israeli government in March over East Jerusalem settlements lowered the threshold for teeing off on Israel.

Still, I can't think of any other nation, no matter how scummy and uncivilized its practices, that produces this response. Or any other event, such as testing a nuclear bomb.

Fast out of the gate was France's nimble President Nicolas Sarkozy, who criticized the "disproportionate use of force." But somehow it is only Israel that seems to elicit the disproportionate use of language.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called the incident "state terrorism." His foreign minister described it as "piracy," "banditry" and "barbarism." Also invoking "barbarism" were Saudi Arabia ("inhuman"), Syria ("blatant defiance of . . . civilized values") and Morocco.

Italy's foreign undersecretary, Stefania Craxi: "the massacre of Gaza." Russia, always light on irony, condemned "the use of force against civilians." The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists: "an open attack on civil society" and the "true face of barbarism." U.N . Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was "shocked."

Denmark, Spain, Greece and Sweden summoned their Israeli ambassadors for an explanation. British Foreign Secretary William Hague extended his sympathy to the families of the victims. The Vatican voiced concern. The president of Bosnia likened the Gaza blockade to the 1992-96 siege of Sarajevo (at least 10,000 dead). The president of the European Parliament drew attention to a breach of the "fourth Geneva Convention." All of this on Monday.

Turning on the evening news in New York City, one saw that a pro-Palestinian demonstration of a 1,000 or so had materialized in Times Square. Identical demonstrations mushroomed on the Champs Élysées, and in the streets of Washington, London, Rome, Cyprus, Oslo, Stockholm and Athens.

Catherine Ashton, the EU's "high representative" for foreign affairs, demanded "an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening" of the Gaza blockade. This is especially noteworthy. Until High Representative Ashton's demand to end the blockade, the EU had been party to a clear, explicit policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Since 2002, a group known as the Quartet—consisting of the EU, Russia, the U.S. and the U.N., with Tony Blair as its current special envoy—has said that no one could deal with Hamas, the occupier of Gaza, until Hamas fulfilled three conditions: Recognize Israel's right to exist. Renounce violence. Accept agreements already made by previous Palestinian negotiators.

Hamas hasn't met any of those conditions. After Ms. Ashton's outburst, it knows it doesn't have to.

The world's peoples may pay soon for their leaders' display of such a disproportionate double standard. Recall that the other, recent instance when the world's governments deployed their collective authority and wrath was last June, against Lilliputian Honduras. The conclusion is inescapable: The smaller the problem, the larger the world powers' output of hot air. But if a problem is large or difficult—especially if the problem is nuclear—they blink and deflate, and will do so repeatedly.

Example: It emerged this week that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes Iran is pursuing higher-enriched uranium and "the development of a nuclear payload for a missile." The world yawns. Or hides.

In any of the places where men discuss truly monstrous and dangerous plans, in Kim Jong Il's Pyongyang or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Tehran, watching this hyperventilated criticism of Israel for a shoot-out on a boat must strike them as laughable. If one's opponents save their collective status and authority for something like this, then the world is ultimately not serious about who must comply with its rules of behavior. With this unbalanced double standard, the world increases the odds that a truly irresponsible regime will miscalculate.

To its credit, the U.S. delegation on duty at the U.N. Monday managed to dilute the language that a somewhat unhinged Turkey demanded from the Security Council. (Amusingly, what the Turks called the U.S.'s "delays" caused the negotiations to slip past midnight into Tuesday morning when, like Cinderella's pumpkin, Lebanon's presidency of the Security Council expired and passed to less invested Mexico.) Germany's Angela Merkel was also circumspect in her remarks. An adult or two is still on duty.

Set aside the troubling fact that the Jewish state alone gets this routine treatment. Israel should not be immune from criticism. But if the world's powers unload like this only on relatively small, isolated nations like Israel, then clearly the keepers of the world order find it easier to be blowhards than statesmen. And that means we have a problem.

4-Jun-10: Memo to Gaza-focused journalists: Just how complicit are you?

In a thoughtful piece, Yossi Klein Halevy writing in the Wall Street Journal yesterday asks what many of us here are thinking: "Has the world lost its mind?"

The outcry in Israel over the operation against the Gaza flotilla has cut across political lines. Yet unlike the outrage being expressed abroad, the concern here is over tactics, not morality... The assumption that Israel was right to stop the flotilla—and right to maintain its siege on Hamas-led Gaza—is largely a given here... How, Israelis wonder, can pro-Hamas activists wielding knives be confused for peace activists? What is pro-peace about strengthening Hamas's grip on Gaza and thereby reducing the likelihood of a two-state solution? For that matter, what is pro-Palestinian about condemning the people of Gaza to jihadist rule?

It's here.

Shraga Simmons illustrates articulately what it means when the practitioners of the news media lose their minds.



And before we leave all this gloom, a reminder from the estimable Khaled Abu Toameh of what the terrorists of Hamas do when everyone is looking the other way (and even when they're not):

Hamas’s security forces on Monday and Tuesday raided the offices of several non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip and confiscated equipment and furniture... and other items, including computers, faxes, cameras, documents and reports, in addition to the keys to their doors. The security agents informed the directors that their organizations were closed. They did not provide any reasons behind this decision. The raids were carried out by agents belonging to Hamas’s Internal Security apparatus...

The rest of his report is here. If you can find this reported anywhere else in the world other than in the Jerusalem Post, please let us know.Given the incredibly passionate interest that currently exists for the rights and freedoms of the Gazans, how can we possibly explain this lack of coverage and outrage?

As depressing as the public demonstrations of hypocrisy and journalistic agenda-following are, there are still some bright spots in the darkness. Check out this bitter-sweet satirical glance at the Turkish hate-boat flotilla jamboree. (And if your language skills are up to it, the Hebrew version is even better.)

UPDATE 13-Jun-10: Now that YouTube has disgracefully removed the satirical Flotilla video clip ("We con the world"), here's a new link that works.

4-Jun-10: With the world's media eyes on Gaza, why don't they face eastwards for a moment and cover this?

Yet more lethal Qassam rockets were fired into Israel last night (Thursday) from the jihadist-controlled Gaza Strip. Four missiles, and fortunately no injuries on the Israeli side. But that was not the intention of the cowardly thugs who fire these explosives off on an almost daily basis in the general direction of Israeli towns, farms and homes. They have absolutely no interest in where these land, even if this means they land on the heads of their own people - as happened this week (yet again).

One of yesterday's Qassams (according to YNet) crashed to earth near the beleagured Israeli community of Sderot; fortunately it struck open area near the town. Another rocket landed in the Ashkelon Beach region, near a kibbutz. Another exploded in an open area near one of the kibbutzim in the Sha'ar Hanegev region. [Israeli news reports routinely refrain from being too precise in describing where the thousands of incoming missiles from Gaza land, to minimize the intelligence reaching the jihadists.] And it appears a fourth crashed short of the Gaza border without reaching Israeli territory.

The two rockets that landed near Ashkelon exploded around 9 pm Thursday night in an open area south of the city. Civil defence alert sirens were sounded in facilities and factories in the city's southern industrial zone, prompting terrified employees to take cover. The municipal authorities in the area, about 55 minutes drive south of where we live, say they have been asked to "maintain full alert ahead of the possible firing of Qassams and Grad missiles", yet another "dividend" for Israelis from the "peace-seeking", "humanitarian" Gaza-bound flotilla.

There are many hundreds of foreign journalists and photographers covering Gaza and the abysmally-misnamed Freedom Flotilla at this very moment. So what does it tell you when you check Google News and see that the only news channels that trouble themselves to report four missiles being fired at Israeli civilians are all Israeli?

What is it about terrorism that causes reporters, photographers, editors and analysts to lose their moral compass, journalistic pride and common sense?

3-Jun-10: So how urgent was the need for humanitarian aid for the Gazans?

How urgent was the humanitarian aid that the cynically misnamed Freedom Flotilla tried to force through Israel's naval blockade of Gaza? We can get some idea of the answer by considering a little-noticed report put out yesterday by the spokesperson's office at the IDF. That report is online here. under the plain-spoken headline "Hamas Refuses to Allow Flotilla Aid into Gaza Strip".

The essence of it is this: 25 Israeli trucks, laden with the so-called aid found onboard the flotilla vessels, are standing by idlely this morning (Thursday) while the Hamas regime that rules the Gazan Arabs plays its eternal game, honed by years of experience, of political-point-scoring while shafting its own population.

The "aid", if that's an accurate term, that arrived on those boats includes large quantities of expired medications, along with clothing, blankets, some medical equipment and toys. Hamas, according to the IDF, "is unwilling to accept the cargo and the trucks filled with humanitarian aid have not been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip. It appears that Hamas is in fact stopping the transfer of the humanitarian aid. Hamas did not explain his opposition to the transfer of the aid." Meanwhile there are reports of additional boatloads of allegedly urgent aid on the way, along with additional boatloads of the same kind of thugs and provocateurs we witnessed in the past few days. A great pity.

Israeli interests have always been to give the Palestinian Arabs, including the Gazans, something to value, something to protect, in their lives. This may be driven by self-interest but it's a legitimate standpoint nevertheless. These interests are served by ensuring a steady stream of goods and equipment into Gaza. Though a good proportion of the world's news media avoid reporting this, the reality is that deliveries from Israel are routine and frequent. So are the two-way transfers of people for for medical, religious, welfare, business or diplomatic reasons.

The September 2009 video above from the Sderot Media Center shows a fairly typical - but largely unreported - scenario: heavily-laden trucks making their way into Gaza from Israel. Keeping the world in the dark about this steady stream of food, fuel and supplies is critical to the success of the Hamas regime in presenting a bogus picture of an oppressed and starving populace yearning for its national rights.

The IDF, which has the data to prove this, says about a hundred trucks deliver aid into Gaza every day, under the watchful supervision of the IDF. During January, February and March 2010, this translated into 95,000 tons of supplies and 1068 tons of medicines and medical equipment on some 4,000 trucks.

Meanwhile the enforced Israeli embargo of Gaza's port is as close as a unilateral action ever gets to being a genuine act of life and death. Hamas, behind all the ridiculous camouflage, is a terrorist organization with a radical theological foundation, whose principal motivation is to bring about the destruction of Israel and us Israelis. If any embargo in history ever made plain sense (and there have been many), it's this one.  

But because Israeli policy towards those who wish war and loss on us has always been somewhat optimistic and explicitly humanitarian, Israel's actions have skewed towards trying to bring more good than bad into the lives of the ordinary people who live on the other side of the fence in this neighbourhood. So for example the Israeli lifeline into Gaza - from where lethal rockets by the thousands have been fired indiscriminately over the past decade -has included these little-noticed components:

• Well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies were sent into Gaza from Israel during the past 18 months. That's nearly a ton for every man, woman and child.
• Essential food items including baby formula, wheat, meat, dairy products and other perishables are shipped in daily and weekly.
• There is no food shortage in Gaza. Food and supplies are shipped from Israel six days a week, year round. 
• Fertilizers, other than those considered to be suited for making explosives, are shipped into Gaza regularly.
• During 2009, while missiles were raining down on southern Israel from the jihadist thugs of Gaza, we sent them 738,000 tons of food and supplies.
• During the three months of January to March of this year, 94,500 tons of supplies were shipped in via 3,676 truckloads. This included 48,000 tons of food products; 40,000 tons of wheat; 2,760 tons of rice; 1,987 tons of clothes and footwear; 553 tons of milk powder and baby food.
• Every week through the year, a typical report of activities co-ordinated bt the IDF include hundreds of trucks and about 15,000 tons of supplies. During the week of May 18, 2010 there were more than 100 truckloads of animal food, 65 trucks of fruit and vegetables; 22 truckloads of sugar, some 27 truckloads of meat, poultry and fish; and 40 trucks of dairy products. 
• At holiday times, the rate of transfers increases because Israel thinks this makes sense.
• During the Muslim holy days of Ramadhan and Eid al-Adha last year, Israel shipped some 11,000 heads of cattle into the Strip.
• During 2009, 10,544 Gazan patients along with their companions left the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Israel. 
• Again in 2009, 382 emergency evacuations from Gaza for medical purposes were facilitated by Israel.
• Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem donates $3 million in aid annually to treat Palestinians in Israel. 
• Keren Malki, which the authors of this blog founded and lead, has provided especially resilient wheelchairs for Gazan children with special needs. Other sources have provided heart-monitors, baby feeding tubes, dental equipment, medical books, ambulance emergency equipment, artificial limbs and infant sleeping bags.
• And let's not forget that Palestinian Arabs, inspired by who knows what unfathomable depths of religiously or politically inspired jihadist hatred, have cynically exploited Israeli medical care privileges to carry out more than 20 terrorism attacks on Israelis and on Israeli medical facilities. 
• Medical equipment and drugs amounting to some 4,883 tons were transferred from Israel to the Gazans in 2009.
• In the first quarter of 2010, Israel shipped 152 trucks of medical supplies and equipment into Gaza. 
• In a typical week (May 2010), 37 truckloads of hygiene products were shipped to Gaza through the land crossings. A CAT scan machine was shipped to Gaza in the same month.
• Cement and iron imports into Gaza have been and continue to be restricted by Israel because of the propensity of the Hamas regime and its hordes of jihadist fanatics to turn them into rockets and bunkers. Still, imports of truckloads of cement, iron, and building supplies like wood and windows are regularly shipped into Gaza, supervised by the IDF and coordinated with NGOs. During the first ninety days of this year, 23 tons of iron and 25 tons of cement arrived via that channel. 
• On May 13th, 2010, Israel admitted some 39 tons of building material to help rebuild a damaged Gazan hospital. [Let's not even mention what the jihadist fanatics of Hamas do with their hospitals.] 
• On May 24th, 2010, Israel admitted 97 truckloads of aid and goods via the Kerem Shalom crossing [which has been repeatedly rocketed and attacked by Gazan jihad groups]. These included six trucks with 250 tons of cement, and one truck loaded with five tons of iron for projects executed and operated by UNRWA.
• A UN report (May 2010) says 120 megawatts (over 70%) of the Strip's electricity supply comes from the Israeli electric grid.
• 17 MWs of Gaza's electricity comes from Egypt. 30 MWs are produced by the Gaza city power station. 
• The supply of electricity to Gaza has suffered considerably since January because of the Hamas tactic of declining to purchase fuel to allow their plant to be operated. According to the IDF, "Israel facilitates the transfer of fuel through the border, and maintains that the diversion of fuel from domestic power generators to other uses is wholly a Hamas decision." 
• 133 million liters of fuel entered Gaza from Israel during the past 18 months.
• The advent of the Hamas regime has been an economic disaster for the Gazans. The United States, Israel, Canada, and the European Union have frozen funds to the Palestinian Hamas government since 2006 by reason of it being categorized as a terrorist organization. Despite this, Israel has done certain things to support trade and commerce, the banking system and the financial market in Gaza. The IDF says: "Gazans produce much of their own food products including olives, citrus, vegetables, Halal beef, and dairy products. Primary exports from Gaza are cut flowers and citrus, with trade partners being Israel, Egypt and the West Bank. During 2009, 7.5 million tons of flowers and 54 tons of strawberries were exported from Gaza with Israeli cooperation."
• Life expectancy in the Gaza Strip (2010) is 73.86. This is better than Estonia, Malaysia, Jamaica and Bulgaria.
• Infant mortality in Gaza is 17.71 per 1000. This is lower than China, Jordan, Lebanon and Thailand.

We plan to post some snapshots here of how Gaza-behind-humanitarian-disaster really looks.

2-Jun-10: Khaybar and humanitarians

Dr Mark Durie, an Australian theologian, a human rights activist and an Anglican church pastor, sent this note earlier today.

The Khaybar Chant and the Gaza flotilla
In these days, the Israel Defense Force's fatal engagement with Islamists on the Marmara has been drawing intense criticism from far and wide. However of particular interest to me was an Al-Jazeera report on the flotilla, showing interviews with an international collection of Muslim radicals on one of the boats. The report includes a scene of a group of Muslim men sitting around on board and cheerfully punching their fists in the air as they recite the popular Arabic chant:

Khaybar, Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish Muhammad sa ya ‘ud [Remember Khaybar, O Jews, Muhammad’s army will return!]

This same chant was also recited during a Muslim demonstration outside the Danish embassy in London [scroll down to the words "Danish Embassy"] on February 3, 2006. One of the protestors shouted to the embassy:

You have declared war against Allah and his prophet. Take lesson of Theo Van Gogh! Take lesson of the Jews of Khaybar! Take lessons from the examples that you can see! For you will pay with your blood!

Likewise, when Amrozi, the smiling Bali bomber, entered the courtroom on August 7, 2003, the day of his sentencing, he invoked this same chant, crying out:

Jews, remember Khaybar. The armies of Muhammad are coming back to defeat you.

It is indeed good to remember Khaybar. In my Quadrant article Remembering Khaybar [a 2003 article archived here], I described the significance of this reference to Muhammad's second victory over the People of the Book (the first was the genocide of the Quraiza Jews in Medina), when the forces of Islam defeated the Jews living at the oasis of Khaybar, enslaving many and subjecting the rest to a dhimma pact of surrender. At Khaybar, the first dhimmis were created, and institution of the dhimma was inaugurated, which came to determine the fate of millions of non-Muslims who have lived under Muslim rule.

The Khaybar chant celebrates the goal of reducing the Jews to the status of dhimmis living under Sharia rule. It is a war cry which summarizes the stated intention of Palestinian radical Muslims.

This was no humanitarian mission devoted to helping the people of Gaza, but the 'army of Muhammad' reciting chants as it psyched itself for jihad against the Jews.

2-Jun-10: "Why do they blockade us?"

Michael Ramirez, an editorial cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and 200. He has won almost every journalism award in addition to the prestigious UCI Medal from the University of California, Irvine and the 2005 National Journalism Award, the 2008 Fischetti Award and The H. L. Mencken Award.

1-Jun-10: Heating up down there... again

Islamic Jihad, which operates under Hamas sponsorship from the Gaza Strip, fired off two more Qassam rockets today. Other than being pointed in the general direction of Israel where there is some chance they will kill, maim or destory something Jewish, the rockets had no strategic target. Being terrorists, their operators care not one bit for the outcome, as we repeatedly point out in this blog.

Fortunately the outcome today was that the Qassam rockets landed in open areas, according to the Jerusalem Post quoting the IDF. And an immediate and substantial response by Israeli forces - an airstrike on a certain spot in the northern part of the Gaza Strip - brought an immediate and permanent end to three jihadist careers.

As we pointed out a few hours ago, today was already not a good day for Israelis trying to go about their ordinary lives in the towns and communities near the border with Gaza. Fortunately this country possesses a disciplined and alert military presence to offset the barbaric adventurism of the jihadists.

1-Jun-10: Barbarians from closer up

The intensity of the storm of criticism and condemnation against the state of Israel arising from yesterday's clash with the "peace" activists of the Turkish flotilla demands that open-minded people see and understand what the Israeli navy encountered.

This film, originating with the IDF, was shot from a naval vessel close to the Mavi Marmara, the largest of the ships in the flotilla. The vicious, thuggish nature of the attack on IDF soldiers attempting to board the ship after they made repeated requests for it to change course speaks loudly - for anyone wanting to see and hear, that is. [This version has sound and English-language subtitles.]

It shows a large number of the vessel's humanitarians surrounding the soldiers, attacking and beating them with metal pipes and furniture, lynch mob style. A soldier is seen being flung over the side of the ship. Pistols were grabbed from the IDF soldiers and the peace activists "humanely" opened fire. There are reports of an axe being used to attack a serviceman's skull. Seven IDF soldiers were injured yesterday, some critically. Nine (the updated number) of the embargo-breakers died.

So much of the analysis we are reading is based on claims that the Flotillers were unarmed and non-violent. In reality, they were prepared for what they had specifically invited and engineered: a full blown and bloody clash. To ensure it got to the level of ferocity they needed, these people, most of them Turks, had knives, metal bars and pipes, firebombs and other items of weaponry set aside and ready for use.



Earlier today (Tuesday), IDF General Staff Operations Commander Col. Itzik Turjeman told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that two more humanitarian peaceloving flotilla vessels are sailing to Gaza. He said they will be stopped as well.

Meanwhile theIDF spokesperson's office has posted this eyewitness account

IDF Soldier Describes Attack by Mob
Amnon Ben-Dror (Israel Defense Forces)

"Each soldier who descended was taken by three or four men and they simply exploded, beating him up. They lynched us. They had metal clubs, knives, slingshots, glass bottles... At one point there was also live fire. I was among the last to descend, and I saw that the group was dispersed, everyone in his own corner, surrounded by 3 or 4 men, I saw a soldier on the floor with two men beating him. I peeled them off him and they came at me and began beating me with the clubs. That's how I broke my arm. At that moment, I had no weapon in my hands, like everyone else who descended on the cables empty-handed. My paintball gun was behind me. They came and attacked me. I brought them down to the floor. I took a few steps back. I took out my paintball gun, they came at me, and I shot at their legs. One of the clubs destroyed my paint gun. From the opening of the corridor, they were shooting at us the entire time with live fire... We did not come with the weapons we usually have, we came for something entirely different."

Peace activists.