Jews Against Israel

As paradox as it may sound, some Jews are actually against Israel.

While most of the Jews are in favor of Zionism (even if not actively), there are Jews who oppose Zionism. A very few of them oppose Zionism for political reasons, and some oppose Zionism for religious matters: these small sects of Hassidic courts believe that settling Israel before the Messianic Days (the fulfillment of the prophecy regarding the Jewish Messiah) will only delay the coming of the Messiah.

And then there is Richard Goldstone.

On September 15, Goldstone submitted his team’s report on human rights violations in the Gaza conflict to the U.N. Human Rights Council. It is a 574-page review — based on 188 individual interviews; 10,000 pages of documents; 1,200 photos, including satellite imagery, and 30 videos — that blisters with specificity. The U.N. is known for its bias against Israel.

The report states that both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group controlling Gaza, committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. It cites the many rockets launched by Hamas against Israeli civilians in the months preceding and during the conflict as war crimes; likewise, an instance of Israeli soldiers shelling a home in which they had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble and seven incidents in which it says Israeli soldiers shot civilians “while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli forces to do so.”

The report also found that despite its claims to have thoroughly investigated human rights allegations made against its military’s conduct, “the Government of Israel had not carried out any credible investigations into alleged violations.” Nor, it found, had Hamas.

Goldstone’s mission recommended that the Security Council require both parties to conduct such investigations and report back within six months on the results, and on any prosecutions they will carry out on the violations identified in its report. If either party fails to do so, Goldstone urged the Security Council to refer the matter to the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Excuse me, there weren’t just a few rocket attacks during the months proceeding, - Israel endured an 8-year-long barrage of 12,000 rockets and having exhausted all other options, Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in Gaza in self-defense.

The report is based on Palestinian propaganda lies. Oh, my goodness.

For instance, the tragic story of Khaled Abed Rabbo and his three young daughters — said to have been shot in cold blood by an Israeli soldier on Jan. 7 in the northern Gaza Strip as the family waved white flags — has been retold in many outlets, including Time Magazine, the Irish Times, the Washington Post, the Independent, BBC, and the Sydney Morning Herald, among others. Indeed, the Irish Times reports that “Each day, journalists and human rights investigators come to interview the grieving father.” And, as reported by McClatchy News, the Abed Rabbos’ allegation “is one of at least five such white flag incidents that human rights investigators are looking into across the Gaza Strip.”

Yet, human rights investigators and journalists overlook the serious inconsistencies in the varying accounts delivered by Khaled and his relatives, as well as an ambulance driver who claimed to try to help the family. Moreover, early Palestinian accounts of the deaths — as well as early reports in the Los Angeles Times and Ha’aretz — tell an entirely different story which involves neither white flags nor cold-blooded executions of small children.

'Operation Cast Lead' was limited to two objectives:

1. To stop the bombardment of Israeli civilians by destroying Hamas' mortar and rocket launching apparatus and infrastructure.

2. To reduce the ability of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza to perpetrate future attacks against the civilian population in Israel.
How can a Jew - any Jew- work against his own people and the Land that G-D himself promised to be a home land for him?

Mr. Goldstone: “Don’t you think you have a responsibility towards HaShem, your own people and His Land?”

Puzzled in Gaza

Mar. 2, 2009

YVONNE GREEN , THE JERUSALEM POST

I'm a poet, an English Jew and a frequent visitor to Israel. Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Operation Cast Lead, I felt I had to see for myself. I flew to Tel Aviv and on Wednesday, January 28, using my press card to cross the Erez checkpoint, I walked across the border into Gaza where I was met by my guide, a Palestinian journalist. He asked if I wanted to meet with Hamas officials. I explained that I'd come to bear witness to the damage and civilian suffering, not to talk politics.

What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas' infrastructure. Does UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticize the surgical destruction of the explosives cache in the Imad Akhel Mosque, of the National Forces compound, of the Shi Jaya police station, of the Ministry of Prisoners? The Gazans I met weren't mourning the police state. Neither were they radicalized. As Hamas blackshirts menaced the street corners, I witnessed how passersby ignored them.

THERE WERE empty beds at Shifa Hospital and a threatening atmosphere. Hamas is reduced to wielding its unchallengeable authority from extensive air raid shelters which, together with the hospital, were built by Israel 30 years ago. Terrorized Gazans used doublespeak when they told me most of the alleged 5,500 wounded were being treated in Egypt and Jordan. They want it known that the figure is a lie, and showed me that the wounded weren't in Gaza. No evidence exists of their presence in foreign hospitals, or of how they might have gotten there.

From the mansions of the Abu Ayida family at Jebala Rayes to Tallel Howa (Gaza City's densest residential area), Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.
Seeing Al-Fakhora made it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that the UNWRA school had been hit by Israeli shells. The school, like most of Gaza, was visibly intact. I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby, and the Israeli missile's marks on the road outside the school were unmistakeable. When I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the 40 people injured running toward Al-Fakhora - rather than inside it as widely and persistently reported - I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area, and that some people had ignored the warning because UNWRA previously told them that the school would be safe. Press reports that fatalities numbered 40 were denied.

I WAS TOLD stories at Samouni Street which contradicted each other, what I saw and later media accounts. Examples of these inconsistencies are that 24, 31, 34 or more members of the Fatah Samouni family had died. That all the deaths occurred when Israel bombed the safe building it had told 160 family members to shelter in; the safe building was pointed out to me but looked externally intact and washing was still hanging on a line on one of its balconies. That some left the safe building and were shot in another house. That one was shot when outside collecting firewood. That there was no resistance - but the top right hand window of the safe building (which appears in a BBC Panorama film Out of the Ruins" aired February 8) has a black mark above it - a sign I was shown all day of weaponry having been fired from inside. That victims were left bleeding for two or three days.

I saw large scoured craters and a buckled container which appeared to have been damaged by an internal impact (its external surfaces were undamaged). Media accounts of Samouni Street don't mention these possible indications of explosive caches (although the container is visible on media footage). The Samouni family's elder told me during a taped interview that he had a CD film of the killings. As far as I'm aware, no such film has been made public. He also told me that there are members of his family who have still not been found.

The media have manufactured and examined allegations that Israel committed a war crime against the Samounis without mentioning that the family are Fatah and that some of its members are still missing. They have not considered what might flow from those facts: that Hamas might have been active not only in the Samouni killings but in the exertion of force on the Samounis to accuse Israel.

THE GAZA I saw was societally intact. There were no homeless, walking wounded, hungry or underdressed people. The streets were busy, shops were hung with embroidered dresses and gigantic cooking pots, the markets were full of fresh meat and beautiful produce - the red radishes were bigger than grapefruits. Mothers accompanied by a 13-year-old boy told me they were bored of leaving home to sit on rubble all day to tell the press how they'd survived. Women graduates I met in Shijaya spoke of education as power as old men watched over them.
No one praised their government as they showed me the sites of tunnels where fighters had melted away. No one declared Hamas victorious for creating a forced civilian front line as they showed me the remains of booby trapped homes and schools.

From what I saw and was told in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead pinpointed a totalitarian regime's power bases and largely neutralized Hamas's plans to make Israel its tool for the sacrifice of civilian life.

Corroboration of my account may be found in tardy and piecemeal retractions of claims concerning the UNWRA school at Al-Fakhora; an isolated acknowledgment that Gaza is substantially intact by The New York Times; Internet media watch corrections; and the unresolved discrepancy between the alleged wounded and their unreported whereabouts.
The writer is a poet and freelance writer who lives in London. Her collection Boukhara was a 2008 Smith/Doorstop prize winner. She also translates the poetry of Semyon Lipkin, the Russian World War II poet.

Israel Attacked. Again. Still.

Sunday, 01 February 2009
Israel Attacked. Again. Still.

JPost
IDF soldiers patrolling the Gaza border near the Kissufim crossing came under fire Sunday morning, shortly after four Kassams were fired at the South from the Strip. Troops returned fire into Gaza, and no casualties or damage were reported in the attack.
In the rocket attacks, one Kassam landed between two kindergartens in the Eshkol region.

Another two rockets hit open areas nearby and a fourth hit the Sdot Negev region. Four mortar shells also landed next to a western Negev neighborhood.
No one was wounded and no damage was reported in the barrage, and the warning siren was sounded before the rockets landed.
Shortly after the incidents, Fatah's military wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, took responsibility for one of the rocket attacks.

Following the attack, Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called for an immediate IDF response. "We need to respond severely and immediately... Hamas must pay for this," he told Army Radio, adding that no one should give the excuse that a smaller faction was responsible for the attack.
MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) urged the government to immediately respond to the attack.
Eight rockets have been fired at southern Israel since both Israel and Hamas declared cease-fires some two weeks ago at the end of Operation Cast Lead.

Posted by Yael at 10:10 AM

The Human Shield

What on earth is a Human Shield?

The Wikipedia tells us: “A human shield is a military and political term describing the presence of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in front of the soldiers”

This is done in the hope that the other party will be reluctant to attack them. Furthermore, if the other party attacks these targets anyway, the resulting civilian casualties have propaganda value.

Hamas militants used the school and hundreds of Palestinian civilians shelters around it as a cover to fire mortars at Israeli towns.

How terrible, civilians are used to cover terrorists? Where? - It’s hard to believe, but Hamas has been hiding in mosques, kindergartens and hospitals! – Don’t they have any respect for human life, especially that of defenseless children and sick people?

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008. Hammad explains that using civilians as a human shield is not an accident on Hamas' part; it is a strategic military and propaganda tactic.

"[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahidin (ed., jihad warriors) and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahidin, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life."’ (www.memritv.org/video.html).

Golda Meir was not a grand orator in any traditional sense of the term. But her words contained a direct and simple eloquence, reflecting her straightforward, no nonsense approach.
Naomi Reagan says: “All of us cry for the death of children. We in Israel recognize that thefastest way to save the lives of the children in Gaza, is for the Israeli army to crush Hamas which is using them as human shields. “

Ralph Peters wrote in the New York Post: “Israel hasn't killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives. But Israeli didn't kill them. Hamas did.”

Not Until Hamas Is Removed From Power

Bold printed headlines in American newspapers read: “Israel rejects truce, attacks Gaza.” - That makes readers think that Israel is the villain, the aggressor. Hidden in small print, a few words simply mention that Gaza militants previously fired rockets into Israel. Most readers will read right over these words. The media fails to make it clear that Hamas has shelled Israel’s civilian population for eight long years before Israel finally decided to do something about it.

Just two weeks ago Hamas refused to extend even that partial cease-fire and began intensive rocketing Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities on the average of 40-50 attacks a day. Why should Israel accept a truce with them now?

Hamas has long threatened to hit major Israeli cities. Their weapon of choice are Katyusha rockets manufactured in China and Iran, packed with screws, bolts and ball bearings to maximize casualties, and topped off with ammonia to increase explosive power.

Hamas fired 52 rockets on strictly civilian targets on Thursday, focusing on Israel's 5th, 6th and 13th biggest cities – Ashdod, Beersheva and Ashkelon. Yesterday our city of Beersheva was hit 8 times by Grad katyushas, while Ashkelon was hit 9 times.

The 122 mm Grad-model has been used recently to hit Sderot, Netivot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gan Yavne, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Rahat, moshavim just outside of Beersheva and now Beersheva itself. These rockets were smuggled through Yemen, Eritrea, and Sudan, and finally brought across the very porous border with Egypt. Hamas demands that these borders (the Philadelphi Corridor) be thrown wide open so they can resupply and continue rocket attacks against Israel. After all, the IDF was able to destroy some of their weapon smuggling tunnels.

Israeli intelligence reported that Hamas terrorists were hiding in hospitals and maternity wards, wearing the clothes of doctors and nurses. They were moving rocket launchers into crowded residential neighborhoods, - thus their success in shooting over 45 rockets into
Israeli towns this morning alone.

A mosque used for storing rockets was destroyed. In Muslim tradition, mosques have sometimes been gathering places for encouraging, stirring up and supporting jihad. They have been used to shelter combatants and as a base from which to attack unbelievers. In recent UAV reconnaissance flights over Gaza, Israeli drones have positively identified terror leaders gathering and using mosques as command and control centers – to brief ground forces and distribute rockets. Though such behavior is not an accepted part of modern Western culture, the Islamist use of houses of worship in jihad or holy war has definite historical precedent in the Middle East.

Though the IAF air attacks have been comprehensive, the military forces of Hamas are still untouched. This terror army is waiting for an Israeli incursion, convinced that they will be able to inflict heavy casualties on the IDF. Roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices), huge explosives concealed under newly paved roads, anti-tank and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles certainly await the IDF.

There is something weird happening. The Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians are all saying that Hamas is the cause of this war. Why do they suddenly all agree on condemning Hamas? After all it is an Islamic Terrorist Group that wants to destroy Israel as much as they do.

I think there is something fishy going on. “Something is rotten in the State of
Denmark”.

Most of us know that Hamas and Hezbollah are puppet groups of Iran. Over the past few years Iran has been able to dominate Lebanon with Hezbollah and Gaza with Hamas. Both groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, are funded by Iran. - While the US and others keep trying to force the two-state-disaster on Israel, the fact that Islamic Terrorists are building strongholds in both Gaza and Lebanon with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea seems to be over looked by the US Administration.

Bush hasn’t given up on his Road Map to Hell, and the two state solution. He also knows that there is no chance of that ever happening as long as Hamas is in charge of Gaza. BUT, if he can remove Hamas from power and the PA takes control, the door is wide open for the so-called “Palestinian” State to become a reality. While the rest of the world is calling for a cease fire, Bush is clearly saying: “Not until Hamas is removed from power.”

Which brings into question what are the Israeli goals? Are they to bring about a two state solution?

In the meantime over 15,000 well trained Hamas fighters are staying underground, waiting on the Israeli ground troops to move in, knowing they will lose their fight, but they are not afraid to die for Allah as long as they can kill some Jews. In fact they don’t care how many Arabs in Gaza are killed because - the higher the number - the better for the media war.

While we wish for an Israeli victory in Gaza, such an outcome could have a dangerous downside, the handover of Gaza to the PLO's Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

Damned, if they do....

Last updated: 1:15 amDecember 29, 2008 Posted: 1:08 amDecember 29, 2008

DEAD Jews aren't news, but killing terrorists outrages global activists. On Saturday, Israel struck back powerfully against its tormentors. Now Israel's the villain. Again.

How long will it be until the UN General Assembly passes a resolution creating an international Holocaust Appreciation Day?

Israel's airstrikes against confirmed Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip were overdue, discriminating and skillful. So far, this retaliatory campaign has been a superb example of how to employ postmodern airpower.

Instead of bombing empty buildings in the dead of night in the hope of convincing bloodthirsty monsters to become peace-loving floral arrangers - the US Air Force version of "Shock and Awe" - the Israeli Defense Force aimed to kill terrorists.

Israel's attack aircraft appear to have accomplished that part of the mission. As I write, some 300 terrorist dead have been reported in Gaza, while the propaganda-savvy information office of Hamas has strug- gled to prove that 20 civilians died.

Given the fact that Hamas adheres to the terrorist practice of locating command sites, arsenals and training facilities in heavily populated areas, the results suggest that the IDF - supported by first-rate intelligence work - may have executed the most accurate wave of airstrikes in history, with a 15-to-1 terrorist-to-civilian kill ratio.

The bad news is that it still won't be enough. While Israel has delivered a painful blow against Hamas, it's still not a paralyzing hit. The only way to neuter such a terror threat - even temporarily - is to go in on the ground and scour every room, basement and underground tunnel in a region.

That would mean high Israeli casualties and, of course, condemnation of Israel's self-defense efforts by every self-righteous, corrupt and bigoted organization and government on earth, from Turtle Bay to Tehran.

What have been Israel's "crimes?" Not "stealing Palestinian land," but making that land productive, while exposing the incompetence and sloth of Arab culture.

Israel's crime isn't striking back at terror, but demonstrating, year after year, that a country in the Middle East can be governed without resort to terror. Israel's crime hasn't been denying Arab rights, but insisting on human rights for women and minorities.

Israel's crime has been making democracy work where tyranny prevailed for 5,000 years. Israel's crime has been survival against overwhelming odds, while legions of Arab nationalists, Islamist extremists and Western leftists want every Jew dead.

But Israel's greatest crime was to expose the global cult of victimhood, to prove that hard work, fortitude and courage could overcome even history's grimmest disaster.

Was it a crime to hand Gaza back to Palestinian authorities, to give peace a chance? Look what Israel received in return for trading land for peace.

Let us never forget the fundamental truth that, while Israel longs to live in peace with its neighbors, those neighbors openly profess the desire to eliminate Israel and exterminate its people.

Indeed, Arab and regional jealousy toward Israel is so all-consuming, so necessary to excuse the Arab art of failure, that even these judicious airstrikes will hardly make a dent in the terrorist threat.

Unless Israel sends in ground forces for the long haul - and thousands of IDF reservists are being mobilized - there will be, at best, a temporary respite from terror attacks. Even a new occupation of Gaza would not fully solve the problem.

A crucial point about interfaith and interethnic conflicts that we sheltered Americans refuse to understand is that, all too often, there's just no good solution - and not even a bad solution, short of acts of barbarism.

It's a rare conflict that results in an enduring peace. Unintended consequences abound. At times, you fight just to buy time, to gain breathing space - or merely to frustrate an enemy's designs for a limited period.

That's the situation Israel faces: No hope of an ultimate victory, but a constant fight to survive. Enemies who believe their god ordains their actions can't be placated. For faith-fueled terrorists, such as the core members of Hamas, the struggle with Israel's a zero-sum game. Compromise is, at most, an expedient tool, never an acceptable end state.

What will we see in the coming days? Much depends on Israel's resolve. The most probable scenario is that Hamas will continue launching terror rockets for a few weeks to salve its wounded vanity and maintain the image of "resistance," but will ultimately reduce its attacks against Israel - while it rebuilds its cadres and restocks its arsenal.

Israel will have bought time, not peace.

What might Israel have done better? It's essential to take out the top terrorist leaders. But Israel's government remains reluctant to target the cowardly Hamas leaders hiding in Damascus - or even the top terrorists remaining in Gaza.

For terrorist bosses, the rank-and-file are disposable and replaceable. You can't just kill the gunmen. You have to kill the names.

We may sympathize with the average Palestinian family, exploited by generations of corrupt leaders and now caught in yet another round of violence. But let us never forget that Israel hasn't fired thousands of blind rockets into Palestinian cities, that Israeli suicide bombers don't attack Arab restaurants and bus stops, and that Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians - while Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as possible.

In a world where there are no good answers, Israel just answered as best it could. The world's response? "How dare Jews defend themselves."

Humanity doesn't progress. It just changes clothes.

Either Fight Islamic Terror Or Submit To It

After seven years of bombardment from Gaza, the Israeli government finally took action to stop Hamas who were once a small terrorist group, but today a 20,000 strong, well trained army, with weapons supplied by Iran.

Before Israel hit Hamas, there were months - even years - of intelligent gathering in order to not hit civilians or as little civilian collateral damage as possible. “Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties”, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters Monday, while "Hamas is looking for children to kill. Hamas is targeting deliberately kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. Our values are completely different. We are trying to target Hamas, which hides among civilians," Livni said.

No other governments in the world that would try as hard as Israel to not kill civilians.
But when you have a terrorist group that hides in crowded populations and shoots missiles from back-yards, school-yards and mosques, it is not so easy to go after them without some collateral damage.

Yet, the anti-semitic world-news agencies are reporting that these terrible Jews are killing “Palestinian children” in Gaza. For seven years Palestinians have been targeting the civilian population with no out-cries from the world’s media. When Israeli children were blown to pieces and baby body parts were scattered across the streets of Israel’s cities there was no out-cry. - Is Jewish life so cheap that the world doesn’t care how they are treated or murdered?

Yesterday was a day full of explosions on both sides of the border. Tank fire and jets flying overhead can be a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

A friend wrote: "I am staying at a bomb shelter.….I
realize more and more that I am not in control of my life and I am thankful that
G-d is.”

After the air raids that have killed over 200 Hamas terrorists, Israelis are faced with the decision of going back into Gaza with ground troops, knowing that many lives will be lost as these blood thirsty terrorists have booby-trapped the side of roads and buildings throughout the Gaza strip.

The strikes have driven Hamas leaders into hiding and appear to have gravely damaged the organization's ability to launch rockets, but barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day.

Hamas terrorists have shown no signs of surrendering their vicious, evil war against the Jews of Israel. On Monday, at least 50 rockets and missiles had been fired from Gaza at the Israeli towns of Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod. Israeli military forces, meanwhile, continue to pummel Hamas headquarters, rocket launching pads, and other military infrastructure.

The deputy chief of staff of the IDF is warning Israelis that, "We are just at the beginning of the battle, this will not be hasty. The worst is not behind us -- it is still ahead of us, and we should be prepared for this. Our resilience will be determined by the functioning of the authority and the way the civilians are protected."

Did you know that Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority? Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion!!

Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its Jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

There is a great deal of ignorance in the West about what the likes of Ahmadinejad and his colleagues in Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas stand for. But this isn't their fault. They tell us every day that they seek the destruction of the Jews and the domination of the West in the name of Islam. And every day they take actions that they believe advance their goals.The reason that the West remains ignorant of the views and goals of the likes of Hamas and Iran is not that the latter have hidden their views and goals. It is because the leading political leaders and foreign policy practitioners in the West refuse to listen to them and deny the significance of their actions.

Please pray for the half million Israelis living within rocket and missile range of Gaza. They and their children have no idea what today and tomorrow hold.

Keep in mind that this is not just a fight for Israel but for the rest of the civilized world, - for Islam has declared a Jihad against the non-Islamic world. It’s not just an ideology, but an evil spirit in the world today.

G-D requires us to fight against evil, and to resist it at all levels. Islam translated is (submission) and to not fight Islamic terror is to submit to it!

Abbas: Hamas could've prevented 'massacre'

Dec. 28, 2008JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas could have prevented the "massacre" in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday in Cairo.

"We spoke to them and told them 'Please, we ask you not to end the cease-fire. Let it continue,'" Abbas said during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. "We want to protect the Gaza Strip. We don't want it to be destroyed."

Abbas called on Hamas to renew the cease-fire with Israel to avoid further bloodshed in Gaza.
Aboul Gheit also attacked Hamas, saying the group had prevented people wounded in the Israeli offensive from passing into Egypt to receive medical attention.

"We are waiting for the wounded Palestinians to reach Egypt. They aren't being allowed to go through," he said.

Asked who was to blame for the dire situation in Gaza, the foreign minister replied: "Ask the party that controls Gaza."

He added that the meeting of Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo Wednesday should call on Hamas to extend the truce.

Meanwhile, Egypt summoned the Israeli ambassador on Sunday to brief officials in Cairo about the Israeli military action.

Operation Oferet Yetzuka

The day I had to fly back to the USA, my husband said: “Israel will go into Gaza soon.” I asked him how he knew? He answered he could feel these things.

Sure enough, the war with Hamas began on Shabbat, December 27, – the sixth day of Hanukkah. The Operation was given the military name “Cast Lead” (Oferet yetzuka), referring to the leaden Dreidels played with on Hanukkah. These festive spinning tops were once made of molten lead poured into a metal mold, and a popular Hanukkah children's song refers to a Dreidel made of "cast lead". As G-D would have it, this war will be identified in the annals of Israeli history as the Hanukkah war.

Most Israeli wars are connected with certain Jewish holidays. On the “Ninth of Av” (Tisha b'Av) in 586 BC and 70 AD, both Jewish Temples were destroyed in Jerusalem. The “Yom Kippur War” of October 1973 began on the “Day of Atonement”. The First Gulf War ended in 1991 on the first day of “Purim”. The Second Intifada broke out on “Rosh Hashanah”, in 2000.

G-d is still speaking to Israel and the nations using His prophetic calendar and His feast days (see Leviticus 23:2, 4), including minor feasts like “Hanukkah” (see Daniel 11:29-35).

After Israel withdrew or retreated from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, that region was taken over by the Islamist group Hamas ('The Islamic Resistance Movement'), a group linked with the Muslim Brotherhood. All these different Islamic Jihad groups are ideologically linked to Osama Bin Laden.

It is important to know that Hamas refuses to recognize the state of Israel and calls for Israel's military destruction. Over the past three years it has fired more than 10,000 Qassam or Grad rockets and mortars against civilians only – towns, farms and cities within Israel. And during the past week it fired between 36 and 80 rockets per day into kibbutzim, small villages and large towns.

For the past three years the government of Israel tolerated a buildup of these rocket attacks. Though originally then-Prime-Minister Ariel Sharon soothingly promised Israelis that the disengagement from Gaza would bring peace, and if even "one rocket were fired" Israel would re-conquer the Gaza Strip, the 10,000 rockets fired starkly contradict the soundness and wisdom of his policies. Part of the recent tolerance is due to the fact that the Kadima party Sharon founded is still in office, and these officials owe their political positions to these failed policies. - Trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result!

Over the past few weeks Israel has repeatedly warned Hamas and surrounding countries that if the rocket attacks continue, it will decisively and powerfully respond. These Israeli warnings have gone unnoticed by the world's media, as have the rocket attacks. No country that is worthy of the name would allow terrorists to rocket their civilian populations for so long without an overwhelming response. For both Israel and Hamas, that day of response has come.

That is why Israeli fighter jets and attack helicopters destroyed strategic Hamas sites. 95% of the hits were 'alpha', meaning exact strikes with no collateral damage.

Over 240 strategic sites have been hit in the past 40 hours. One site hit was the Hamas police compound, where 80 gunmen were gathered.

On Sunday Israeli jets struck and destroyed 40 underground tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle in significant amounts of weapons, explosives and anti-tank/anti-aircraft missiles in a 3 minute 20 second sortie. This area is called the Philadelphi Corridor, and was surrendered to Hamas by Israel due to significant U.S. State Department pressure in 2005. Over 700 tunnels have been dug, and most are still operative.

Up to this point Hamas rocket squads have managed to fire more than 70 rockets at Israel, and Israel's Military Intelligence believes that Hamas has the ability and reserves to fire up to 200 rockets daily for quite some time.

On Sunday one Hamas rocket traveled 37 kilometers, hitting Gan Yavne a bedroom community east of Ashdod.

Despite the realities on the ground or how discredited the land-for-peace process has become after decades of futile efforts to push ahead with it, the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators let Israel know Tuesday that there is no going back, no way out, no turning around.
Efforts are going to be made to shoulder ahead with the process. And if it is in fact endangering the security and very existence of Israel, that's just too bad.

A dictatorial statement released by the group said that "the bilateral negotiations process launched at Annapolis is irreversible and ... these negotiations should be intensified in order to put an end to the conflict and to establish as soon as possible the state of Palestine."
The land on which this "Palestine" is to be created has for nearly 4000 years been regarded by Jews as their national homeland, and houses the bones of Israel's founding fathers.

US Secretary of State is Condoleezza Rice has been particularly keen to lock in the "progress" she has made at pushing, cajoling and strong-arming Israel into striking a deal with the Arabs.
With time running out for her - she has just a month left in her powerful position - a relieved Rice said the Quartet's resolution had "put the international community on record in believing in the irreversibility of the Annapolis process."

To placate the oil-wielding aggressive Arab states and uncompromising Muslim demands, the G-D-rejecting nations of the world remain determined to divide up the Jews' divinely-given land.

According to the Bible - a day of reckoning is racing towards them.

Please pray for the IDF and the people of Israel:

“G-D, don’t remain silent! Don’t stay quiet, G-D or still; because here are your enemies, causing an uproar; those who hate you are raising their heads, craftily conspiring against your people, consulting against those you treasure.

They say, “Come, let’s wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” With one mind they plot their schemes; the covenant they have made is against you – the tents of Edom (Jordan) and the Yishmaelim (Arabs). Moav (Jordan) and the Hagrim ( descendants of Hagar= Arabs), Gval (Lebanon), Amon and Amalek (descendants of Esau). Pleshet (Philistines =Palestinians) with those living in Tzor (Tyre). Ashur (Syria) too is allied with them, to reinforce the descendants of Lot (nephew of Abraham)”…..Fill their faces with shame, so that they will seek your name, Adonai!

Let them be ashamed and fearful forever, yes, let them perish in disgrace. Let them know that you alone, whose name is Adonai, are the Most High over all the earth!” (Psalm 83:1-8,16-18)

May the Dreidel say again: נגהפ - Nes Gadol Haya Po—"A great miracle happened here".

Terrorists Inflating Casualty Numbers?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU

WorldNetDaily Exclusive

Terrorists inflating casualty numbers?

Media reports count of civilians dead in Gaza airstrikes using Hamas totals

Posted: December 27, 20086:00 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily

JAFFA, Israel – The U.S. and international news media have largely accepted as fact Hamas-provided casualty counts following a series of Israeli surgical strikes today in the Gaza Strip, despite Hamas' and the Palestinian Authority's long and sordid histories of greatly inflating casualty figures.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told WND, "The Hamas government in Gaza has instituted a Taliban-like regime and has systematically destroyed independent civil society, which makes it pretty difficult for there to be independent verification of these numbers," Regev continued, "One must kept in mind Hamas has a major propaganda interest in highlighting civilian casualties while at the same time minimizing the number of Hamas combatants killed."

Still, the news media today reported as fact that at least 205 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes, which targeted dozens of Hamas buildings in a purported Israeli bid to clamp down on repeated rocket attacks launched from Gaza and aimed at nearby Jewish cities.

Most news reports failed to mention the casualty numbers were provided by Hamas, which claimed only 3 of the casualties were actual Hamas military leaders.

"Israeli air strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza," reported a widely-circulated Reuters article.

"Egypt condemned as 'murder' Israel's Saturday air raids on Gaza that killed at least 205 Palestinians," reported the AFP. Similar statements were parroted in over 4,500 English language reports today.

With somber music playing in the background, both CNN and the BBC have been airing continuous loops of what the networks claimed were Palestinian civilian casualties being rushed into a local hospital. Both networks aired the same footage, provided to them by Al Jazeera, which is openly sided with Hamas.

"Does hitting so-called Hamas institutions mean over 200 civilians killed?" Regev was twice asked today by a BBC anchor during an interview.

CNN interviewed a man identified as a Gaza-based doctor who claimed two-thirds of the "over 200 casualties" were women and children. The network also featured – without challenge – a man identified as a Gaza-based human rights activist, who accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and perpetuating a "massacre" in Gaza.

Neither CNN nor the BBC have thus far featured any footage today of the southern Israeli towns that have been battered by Palestinian rocket fire in recent days, killing one Israeli.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, claimed his group's casualty counts were minimized.
"We're talking about much more than 200. Every minute we get more information on more civilians killed," Barhoum told WND, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.

"We call on the international community to condemn this Israeli massacre and hold Israel back from more war crimes," he said.

The IDF tonight released a list of some of the targets hit: a Hamas headquarters and training camp in Tel Zatar; a "Palestinian Prisoner Tower" in Gaza City that was turned into a Hamas operations center and armory; a Hamas police academy, which Hamas claims was bombed during a graduation ceremony, killing 70-80 Hamas operatives; training camps in southern and central Gaza; the former office of late Palestinian Yasser Arafat in Gaza City that is now used by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh; and the Izzadin Kassam Brigades headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas and the PA have been caught many times inflating casualty counts. In June, 2006, Hamas claimed the Israel Defense Forces killed over 20 sunbathers on a Gaza beach, but it was later determined seven were killed, and the cause of the explosion was not the IDF but a Hamas explosives booby trap intended for Israeli naval forces.

Following a 2002 Israeli antiterror raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Hamas and the PA claimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians were murdered. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed on CNN that "more than 500 people" were killed. He repeated the charge on CNN a day later, adding that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves.

It was later determined 54 Palestinians were killed, mostly terrorists, while the IDF lost 23 troops it engaged in house-to-house combat – instead of massive air raids – in order to limit civilian casualties.

Israel claimed Hamas routinely labels as civilians its gunmen killed in Israeli anti-terror attacks.
In today's air strikes, the IDF maintains it tried to minimize casualties. An IDF statement said its military strikes were predicated on precise intelligence amassed in recent months to target specific Hamas facilities.

Olmert's office released a statement explaining the attacks were launched, "following the violation of the terms of the truce by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians in the south of the country."

The U.S. for its part squarely blamed Hamas for the Gaza violence.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

"The ceasefire should be restored immediately," Rice said. "The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."

Today's strikes come after Hamas refused to renew a six-month truce with Israel that expired last week unless Israel met a series of conditions, including opening the country's borders with Gaza and expanding the truce to the Fatah-controlled West Bank. In a show of force, Hamas in recent days launched hundreds of rockets from Gaza into nearby Jewish cities, including Ashkelon, which houses a power plant that provides the Gaza Strip with 75 percent of its electricity.

Preparing For War

I noticed in Israel that the IDF was training for the next war. We saw trucks moving, nights we heard airplanes flying.

In Israel, the people are focused and making preparations. Unfortunately these preparations are for war, thanks to the friendly neighbors in Gaza who keep threatening them or launching rockets.

Yes, you heard right, rockets from Gaza continuously land in Israeli towns and farms, but it is not reported on the news, except in Israel. The western media is not interested in reports about daily rocket attacks. They only start reporting, when Israel does something. Consequently the West thinks that Israelis are aggressive, and the poor Palestinians Arabs are “innocent” victims.

Yet, the truth is, that for the past seven years missiles have been flying out of Gaza into Jewish towns and Kibbutzim traumatizing everyone, sending children running for bomb shelters.

News came out of the Knesset a few days ago that we should expect an invasion by the IDF into Gaza some time soon. One would think it was about time even for this weak failed Israeli Kadima Government to do something. No other country in the world would endure rocket attacks like a sitting duck, without retaliation of some sort.

So, the next Middle Eastern war is just around the corner and undoubtedly will be broadcast live on all the major networks in prime time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be attempting to destroy significant elements of the leadership and rocket squads of Hamas (the acronym of Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, translated as 'The Islamic Resistance Movement'. Hamas is just one of the many groups of Jihad warriors, who want to bring the West under submission to Islam. – Most people who know about Islam are aware of that, except for Jimmy Carter. He thinks because Hamas leaders wear business suits when they go to a meeting, they can’t possibly be terrorists! LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZYwvkqt4WM

We also note that Hamas receives much of its military and financial support from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran – in turn – gets help from Russia.

Many are concerned, if the IDF masses a large amount of forces in the south, it will weaken our front in the north for Lebanon, Hezbollah and Syria to attack and we are told that they are ready and waiting. This gives Israel more than one front to fight on at the same time, not to speak of the possibility that Iran will join in with their missiles and possibly with nukes. And maybe even Russia extending help to the Islamic Jihad warriors against the west.

At the moment, the nations of the world are caught in molasses, responding to Iran's actions without any great urgency. Some voices in the US are deeply concerned. But Israel's concern goes way beyond deep. It is existential.

The Truth is, - there is no Truce!

When Islam is involved, a truce not a truce as we Westerners understand it. I tried to explain this concept in an earlier blog: http://lilo97423.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/truce-or-hudna .

The Arabic word “hudna”, is often translated as "cease-fire”, and has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history. The term comes from the story of the Muslim conquest of Mecca. Instead of a rapid victory, Muhammad made a ten-year treaty with the Quraysh tribe. In 628 AD, after only two years of the ten-year treaty, Muhammad and his forces concluded that the Quraysh were too weak to resist. The Muslims broke the treaty and took over all of Mecca without opposition.

Hamas uses a “truce” as a tactic aimed at allowing the party declaring the hudna to regroup while tricking an enemy into lowering its guard. When the hudna expires, the party that declared it is stronger and the enemy weaker. Whenever Hamas has acquired enough weapons, they use them again against Israel. – So, you see, in truth, - there is no truce!

The “hudna” began to unravel last Tuesday. Who started it? The Palestinians had used the time during the cease fire to build another one of their militant tunnels. When IDF troops discovered it, they entered Gaza to destroy it. That set off battles in which seven Palestinian gunmen were killed. The fighting sparked a wave of rocket attacks from Gaza at Israeli border towns.

It seems to happen every time Condolezza Rice travels to Israel trying to create “peace” according to the Saudi peace-plan. Hamas is either celebrating her arrival with rockets or trying to say: “That’s what we think of you!” - But she doesn’t seem to listen either way.

Gaza’s 10-day missile blitz has damaged homes and parked vehicles, forcing tens of thousands of inhabitants in the towns and villages around the Gaza Strip to spend hours in shelters or under cover.

Israel National News reported on Friday that Gaza terrorists aimed a barrage of Kassam rockets at the coastal city of Ashkelon, just a few hours after attacking Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt. They were not certain if the rockets were Kassams or the longer-range Katyusha rockets. One 70-year-old woman suffered shrapnel wounds in the attack and was taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. A number of people in the city – including children -- were treated for emotional trauma and shock. Earlier in the day, Hamas terrorist launched ten Kassam rockets at Jewish communities in the western Negev. Seven of the homemade missiles exploded in the rocket-battered city of Sderot. Two slammed into areas close to Ashkelon, further to the north.

An eyewitness reported: “Here in Ashkelon we had today a barrage of missiles or rockets falling. I was shopping downtown for Shabbat when the siren start sounding, the store was with a lot of people and there was no place for shelter anywhere. We heard the bombs falling behind us, and I decide to go home right away, when I go out again the siren sound and people where running all over, crying it was awful then the bomb fell about a block of where I was standing, just midst to a huge school with thousand of kids there. Kids were let out and they were crying and running home. The traffic was stacked and crazy and everybody was shouting or crying. Finally I got home with a headache and the blood pressure very high. All the rockets fallen down near my home for I live in the center of the city. What else can I say it is hard to see all the people out of control and suffering. So far the economy here has been sustained but people had lost the jobs in the region and stores have no customers. Now it is 4 PM, they stop the Kassams, Baruch Hashem and we hope to have a peace full Shabbat….”

Yet, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defense Minister Ehud Barak, and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi decided at a special conference Friday evening, Nov. 14, to refrain from responding to the Palestinians’ 10-day missile blitz from Gaza.

Sderot Mayor David Buskila told reporters: “It is sad to be a citizen of a country that cannot deploy its army to give an immediate response to this phenomenon.”

How many more rockets will it take until Israel responds and defends its citizens?

Truce or Hudna?

Thursday morning I read that at 6 am, when the sun was barely peeking over the horizon, Israel and Hamas entered into another uneasy truce. The ceasefire is supposed to be absolute, binding both the IDF and all terrorist groups in Gaza. If the truce lasts after several days, Israel agreed to reopen the Karni and Sufa goods crossings, allowing large quantities of food, fuel, building materials and other goods into the strip, in order to facilitate its economy. Once the Karni and Sufa crossings open - and prior to the reopening of the Rafah crossing - the negotiations to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit are to be accelerated.

Amos Gilad, Head of the Defense Ministry's Security-Diplomatic Bureau, said yesterday that "unless Gilad Shalit is released, the Rafah crossing will not be reopened” and; “I think the ceasefire is the only way we can hope to be able to facilitate Shalit's release."

To a Western audience, the word "truce" suggests a Hamas commitment to a peaceful resolution. In Arabic such a truce is referred to as “hudna.”

Hudna (هدنة) is an arabic term coming from a verbal root meaning "calm". It is sometimes translated as "cease-fire". In the Lisan al-Arab (Ibn al-Manzur's definitive dictionary of classical Arabic, dating to the 14th century) it is defined as follows: "hadana: he grew quiet. hadina: he quieted (transitive or intransitive). haadana: he made peace with. The noun from each of these is hudna."

“Shu'ada hudna?” (What is a hudna?) Sayed Ahmed Youssef, adviser to Palestinian Hamas PM Haniyeh, explained the meaning of "hudna" to us ignorant foreigners in the August pages of 2006 in the New York Times: “A truce is referred to in Arabic as a ‘hudna.’ Typically covering 10 years, a hudna is recognized in Islamic jurisprudence as a legitimate and binding contract.” - Americans should thank the New York Times for this bit of enlightenment. As we know, the US lacks Arab speakers, and this maybe the reason why the media nearly everywhere translates the term into English as "truce".
Will a hudna with Hamas really mark a "major breakthrough" toward a nonviolent future?

The answer lies in the historical meaning of the Muslim expression, Hamas' track record, and the terms of the road map itself. Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history.

It began with Islam's most revered founder, Muhammad. He declared a 10-year "hudna" with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the 7th century. Two years into the hudna, Muhammad had acquired enough troops and arms to abrogate the hudna and conquer Mecca, the holiest city in Islam – decimating the Quraysh in the process.

This became known as the "Quraysh Model," which defines the meaning of a hudna. When you are militarily at a disadvantage, declare a "hudna" until you are militarily strong enough to discard it and win the war. This is a Muslim tactic that has been used over and over again throughout history with devastating success. According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi'i jurisprudence, hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: "if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud" ('Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).

The "Quraysh-hudna" tactic is something that fits perfectly into the plans of terrorists who have already sworn they will never make a permanent peace with Israel.

Once Palestinians have a state, they can bring all manner of weapons and trained militants into the heart of Israel. Israel will be forced into indefensible borders and have only one ultimate military option – nuclear weapons.

The "hudna" that Muslims make with non-Muslims can never be more than temporary, and is entered into only because the Muslim side feels it is too weak to conduct open warfare, and would benefit from a respite from open hostilities. If the hudna is undertaken in order to give the Muslims time to gather their strength, then the Muslim side is then not merely allowed, but required, whenever it feels strong enough, to re-engage in open hostilities.

The idea of a permanent peace between Israel and Palestine is a "pipe dream." It is a self-deception for those who ignore the history of the Quraysh-Hudna Muslim tactic. To the followers of the Quran, this is just a tactical interlude in a long-term strategy for the ultimate annihilation of the state of Israel and the return of what they view as sacred Muslim soil to its rightful owner – Allah.

In the case of land previously conquered by Muslims, now under the control of "infidels," there is no time limit for the obligation of true Muslims to take it back for Allah. It never means a permanent peace. It is only a tactical interlude in which Muslims rearm for a successful jihad.

Hamas has proven time and again their commitment to a tactical hudna —
replenishing their strength during the quiet periods, then returning with increased deadliness. - As documented by The Washington Institute, Hamas agreed to no less than ten ceasefires in the past ten years, and after every single one returned freshly armed for terror. Hundreds of Israeli citizens have paid for these hudnas with their lives.

So beware of the limited cease-fire, called "hudna!"