"Ridiculous", Rant the Routed

Amid wailing and whimpering and gnashing of teeth and tugging of hair in the wake of Bibi Netanyahu's spectacularly successful visit Down Under, the routed forces of Bishop Browning's APAN (which sought to keep him out) limply regroup and rally, in response to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Dr Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel Public Affairs Council (AIJAC) and Jamie Hyams, a senior policy analyst at AIJAC. 

It will indeed be difficult to represent as "ridiculous" the eminently justified and sensible points made in the article.  Inter alia:

 'Israel captured the West Bank in a defensive war in 1967 and, when its offer to exchange land for peace was unequivocally rebuffed by the Arab League, began establishing settlements in the area.

This was partly for the need for security, given the hostile intentions and actions of its neighbours, and partly to allow some Jews to live in places that had Jewish communities going back hundreds if not thousands of years, until the Jordanians ethnically cleansed them in 1948.

Jordanian troops expelling Jews from their Jerusalem homes

 Jerusalem, which has always had a substantial Jewish population and been the centre of the Jewish world, was annexed.

 The United Nations passed the pivotal Security Council resolution 242, requiring Israel to withdraw from territory in return for peace, with the borders to be negotiated.

 Under the 1993 Oslo accords, the Palestinians finally accepted Israel's existence, and the Palestinian Authority was formed. Ninety-five per cent of West Bank Palestinians now live under the authority's rule. Travel between Israel and the West Bank was relatively unfettered, and many Palestinians worked in Israel, travelling home to the West Bank each night. In 2000, then authority president Yasser Arafat infamously refused the Camp David offer of a Palestinian state and launched the second intifada, characterised by widespread terrorism inside pre-1967 Israel, most notably suicide bombings. The terrorism killed more than 1000 Israelis and maimed thousands more.

Some Israeli child victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism

 It was in those circumstances that Israel set up the checkpoints to monitor the movement of terrorists, and the security barrier, which for most of its length is a fence, and is only a wall where Palestinian terrorists were in the habit of taking pot shots at Israeli civilians.... The barrier was erected to save lives by keeping terrorists out, and has been markedly successful. The Berlin Wall was to keep a captive population in. The checkpoints between Palestinian towns are now largely non-existent – they are just at the entries to Israel.

Despite the rebuff at Camp David, and the terrorism, Israel again offered the Palestinian Authority a state on increasingly generous terms in 2001 and 2008, only for the authority to again walk away. A unilateral total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, intended to allow the Palestinians there to rule themselves as a peaceful entity alongside Israel, instead resulted in a Hamas takeover, more than 10,000 rockets and mortars, terror tunnels and three wars.

 Since Benjamin Netanyahu resumed power in 2009, he has repeatedly offered to negotiate without preconditions, repeatedly confirmed his support for a two-state peace, and instituted goodwill measures including an unprecedented 10-month freeze on building in settlements and releasing Palestinian prisoners who have killed Israelis. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, has refused to negotiate in good faith. US Middle East envoy Martin Indyk has said that, in 2014, Netanyahu was sweating bullets to make peace, but Abbas just walked away.

The settlements, as even Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat has admitted, occupy less than 2 per cent of the West Bank. Furthermore, the vast majority of settlers live in blocs that it is generally accepted Israel will retain as part of land swaps in any peace deal. Israel has not established a new settlement since 1999, and the settlements have hardly expanded beyond their geographic boundaries since 2003, while population growth has not even kept pace with natural growth. Settlements did not prevent the previous Israeli offers of statehood, and they would not prevent a two-state outcome if the Israelis had a genuine peace partner....

 The Netanyahu government still supports a two-state peace, but its concerns about the present circumstances are understandable. If Hamas was to take over the West Bank as it did Gaza, the rockets would hit Israel's population and economic heartland, and its airport, and the country, would be shut down.

 Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority, Israel's supposed peace partner, demonises Israel internationally, incites its people against Israel with false claims of Israeli intentions to take over the Temple Mount, and rewards terrorists by lionising them and giving them and their families generous lifetime pensions.

[P]ressure must be brought to bear on the Palestinians to cease their destructive behaviour, to genuinely accept Israel's right to exist in peace and to negotiate in good faith, if they are genuine about wanting a two-state outcome.'

No Sounding the Knell of BBC Reporter's Bias

Hallel Yaffa Ariel

In an egregiously one-sided feature (that's her hallmark, as shown time and time again by BBC Watch and other BBC monitoring sites) the BBC's Yolande Knell begins:

"For retired West Bank farmer Issa Hamed, the idea that Jewish settlements are destroying a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a no-brainer" 

and goes on to push the Palestinian narrative in what should properly be known, as it always used to be, as the Arab-Israeli conflict, for several paragraphs.

In the course of these, Knell described (en passant, without naming) tragic Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old stabbed to death, by an evil teenager bent on mayhem against Jews and since praised as a shahid, while sleeping in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba, as "an American-Israeli girl".

 The fact that Hallel held American citizenship is of interest to Americans and their newspapers, and that is perfectly understandable (as seen here) but Knell's reference to it is, judging from her past form, in all likelihood merely gratuitous.

 Other BBC reports referred to Hallel as "Israeli".   The suspicion must be that Knell, in her snide propagandistic fashion, was deliberately emphasising the "settler" status of the young victim of Palestinian Arab terror in a sort of "well, what do you expect?" frame of mind. A frame of mind that would seek, though not to condone this frame of mind, then at least to excuse it in some sense as tit-for-tat ...

Of course, Binyamin Netanyahu has a response to that Knellian-type frame of mind, declaring:  

One mother ...

"In the 24 hours before the publication of the Quartet report, Palestinian terrorists stabbed and shot innocent Israelis three times, leaving two dead and others wounded. Today a young father was killed and his wife and children injured when their car was riddled with gunfire. Yesterday a 13 year-old Israeli girl was stabbed to death while she slept in her bed. Not only did the Palestinian Authority fail to condemn this gruesome murder, it referred to the murderer as a “martyr” in official media.

... and another

Palestinian praise for murderers today inspires those who will strike tomorrow. This response reflects the moral bankruptcy of the Palestinian leadership and leaves little doubt about its true intentions.

Israel therefore welcomes the Quartet’s recognition of the centrality of Palestinian incitement and violence to the perpetuation of the conflict. This culture of hatred poisons minds and destroys lives and stands as the single greatest obstacle to progress towards peace.

The report unfortunately says nothing about the payments made by the Palestinian leadership to terrorists and their families. The graver the violence, the greater the payment. This Palestinian practice must stop.

Israel shares the Quartet’s historical commitment to advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace through direct, bilateral negotiations without preconditions.

In previous agreements, Israel and the Palestinians committed to discuss every difficult issue exclusively through direct, bilateral negotiations. Nevertheless, the record shows a history of repeated Palestinian rejection of offers to negotiate and compromise from Israeli governments across the political spectrum. Israel cannot negotiate peace with itself.

Israel also notes the Quartet’s concern about the military buildup in Gaza and the threat posed by Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization, to both Israeli and Palestinian lives.

We regret the failure of the Quartet to address the real core of the conflict: the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people in any boundaries.

The report also perpetuates the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace. When Israel froze settlements, it did not get peace. When Israel uprooted every settlement in Gaza, it did not get peace. It got war.

It is troubling that the Quartet appears to have adopted the position that the presence of Jews living in the West Bank somehow prevents reaching a two-state solution. The presence of nearly 1.8 million Arabs in Israel isn’t a barrier to peace; it is a testament to our pluralism and commitment to equality.

Israel rejects any attempt to draw moral equivalence between construction and terrorism. So too do we reject the parallels suggested between the campaign of Palestinian terrorism and the violence of marginal elements in Israeli society. The former is lauded by the Palestinian leadership. The latter is utterly condemned and rejected by Israelis across the board.

 Israel will continue to strive for a genuine, negotiated peace based on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vision of two states for two peoples. While the report includes numerous factual and policy assertions with which we take issue, Israel will discuss with the Quartet envoys ways to explore moving toward this end."

A pertinent post from Edgar Davidson here See also here
 And here

Meanwhile, for this Muslim lady, all praise

"The Most Beautiful Thing About BDS" (video)

BDSers in Adelaide, with variations on their usual theme:

By the way, my previous post, on the contrasting attitude between most Israelis and Palestinians in response to the slaughter of innocents, by a French oleh, is garnering a lot of attention. 

In similar vein is an article by Palestinian scholar Bassam Tawil, which is summarised thus:

 'We Palestinians have failed to educate our people on the principles of tolerance and peace. Instead, we condone and applaud terrorism, especially when it is directed against Jews. We want the world to condemn terrorism only when it claims the lives of Palestinians.

Abbas's ambiguous, half-hearted condemnations of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis are only intended for public consumption and are primarily aimed at appeasing Western donors so that they will continue channeling funds to the Palestinian Authority. In addition, his condemnations seek to blame Israel for Palestinian terror attacks.

Netanyahu's strong and clear condemnation left me and other Palestinians wondering when was the last time we heard similar statements from our leaders. I cannot remember Abbas or any other Palestinian leader ever expressing shock and outrage over the killing of a Jew in a Palestinian terror attack, nor the last time a Palestinian official visited the Israeli victims of a Palestinian terror attack.

Each time Abbas reluctantly condemns a Palestinian terror attack, he faces a wave of criticism from many Palestinians. Unlike the Israeli public, many Palestinians often rush to justify, and even welcome, terror attacks against Jews. Has there ever been a Palestinian activist who dared to hold a rally in a Palestinian city to condemn suicide bombings or the murder of an entire Jewish family? The Israeli president has good reason to feel ashamed for the murder of the baby. But when will we Palestinians ever have a sense of shame over the way we react to the murder of Jews?' 

 Read all of Bassam Tawil's article here 

"A Mon Voisin Arabe Palestinien; To My Palestinian Arab Neighbour"

First in French, and afterwards in English, the thoughts of a French oleh following the tragic terrible fate of baby Ali Dawabsheh and his family at the hands of an evil monster.  (The links have been added by me.)

A mon voisin Arabe Palestinien,

Je t’écris aujourd’hui pour exprimer mon horreur suite à l'attaque terroriste qui a eu lieu hier à Douma et je souhaite aux survivants soignés par des docteurs sionistes un prompt et complet rétablissement.

Je suis sûr que pratiquement tous les Israéliens se joignent à moi à ce sujet. Vous voyez, nous savons ce que vous ressentez. Même si à cette heure nous ne connaissons pas les auteurs de ce crime. En juin, Ceux qui ont brûlé l'église près de Tiberiade étaient bien arabes, tu t'en rappelles.

Je peux seulement imaginer comment les membres survivants de la famille Dawabsha se sentent, mais il y a d'innombrables familles juives qui ont été déchirées par le terrorisme arabe palestinien que vous pourriez imaginer.

Depuis au moins une centaine d'années, les Arabes palestiniens ont assassinés nos bébés, nos enfants, nos athlètes, nos passagers de bus, d’avion, nos amoureux de pizza, nos jeunes amateurs de cafés, discothèques et tous les Juifs pris au hasard au mauvais endroit au mauvais moment. Ils ont été fusillés, poignardés dans le dos, dans leur sommeil, ils ont été battus, enlevés, brûlés vifs, la gorge tranchée ou explosés dans les attentats. Les milliers de roquettes que vous avez lancés contre nous n'ont servi à rien, regardez ou vous en êtes aujourd'hui.

Des familles entières, comme les Dawabshas, ont été détruites. La famille Vogel, la petite Adele Biton et le bébé Chaya Zissel Braun agé de trois mois seulement et bien d’autres encore…

L’as tu oublié ?

Vous nous avez envoyé vos monstres terroristes pour nous anéantir et vous les avez accueillis comme des héros aux mains pleines de sang.

Et il se trouve, que cette vermine terroriste est peut être parmi nous aujourd’hui. À quoi t'attendais-tu?

Après une centaine d'années de terrorisme arabe palestinien dirigé contre nous, certains membres de notre nation ont peut-être appris à vous imiter.

Nous sommes humains aussi. Nous avons nos criminels, nos assassins, et même nos terroristes. Bien sûr, nous ne les traitons pas comme des héros comme vous le faites. Nous ne diffusons aucune incitation à la haine sur nos stations de radio, de télévision, dans les écoles. Nos Rabbins ne nous incitent pas à tuer des Arabes. Nous ne distribuons pas des sucreries quand une personne est assassinée et ne chantons pas de Youyou. C’est la toute la différence entre mon peuple et vous.
 Chez nous dans le Goush Etzion, des centaines de villageois prient pour cette famille arabe pendant que chez vous à Gaza/Ramallah/Jennine ont crie " "Allah Wakbar, Itbakh al-Yahud" (à mort les juifs)

Nos forces de sécurité vont sûrement appréhender les auteurs et notre société saura les isoler. Ils seront punis, peut-être même plus sévèrement que les terroristes arabes. Le terrorisme est le terrorisme.

Bonne chance avec l'ONU et l’UE. Je suis sûr qu'ils seront heureux d’accepter votre demande de commission d'enquête, une chose qu’ils n’ont jamais faite après l'une des centaines attaques terroristes arabes contre mon peuple.

Nous traversons une zone de turbulences mais nous nous en sortirons, les épreuves on en connait un rayon.

Même si les médias biasés sont avec vous, nous continuerons à nous défendre sur tous les fronts.

 Shalom,
 Jean Vercors

* * *

 To my Palestinian Arab neighbour,

I am writing to you today to express my horror following the terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Duma and wish to the survivors treated by Zionist doctors a full and speedy recovery.

I am sure that virtually all Israelis join me.
 
We know how you feel, even though at this time we do not know the perpetrators of this crime.
 
In June, those who burned the church near Tiberias were Arabs, you remember.
 
I can imagine the suffering of surviving members of the Dawabsha family,  countless Jewish families that were torn apart by the Palestinian Arab terrorism share the same suffering.

For at least a hundred years, the Palestinian Arabs have been murdering our babies, our children, our athletes, our passenger bus, plane, our lovers of pizza, our young people sitting at the cafes, in nightclubs, and all Jews mowed down randomly in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They were shot, stabbed in the back, in their sleep. They were beaten, abducted, burned alive, their throats slit, exploded in the attacks.Entire families like Dawabshas, were destroyed. The Vogel family, little Adele Biton, baby Chaya Zissel Braun aged 3 months only and many more ...
 
Also I can imagine what the surviving Dawabsha family members feel.
 
You sent us your monster terrorists to destroy us, you welcomed them as heroes.
 
After these years of Palestinian terror, some members of our nation may have learned to imitate you.
 
We also have our criminals, our murderers, and even our terrorists? Good.
 
But we do not treat them as heroes, as you are doing.

We do not pay pensions to their families as you do.
 
We do not name streets in their names to honor them, as you do so.
 
Our rabbis do not encourage us to kill Arabs. Instead they condemn such acts. Your imams, what do they say?
 
We do not distribute sweets when an Arab is killed, as you do when a Jew is murdered.
 
We do not cheer and dance when a Palestinian dies as you do when our brothers and sisters are ruthlessly murdered.
 
This is one of the many differences between my people and you –

At home in Gush Etzion, hundreds of villagers are praying for this Arab family.
 
Unlike you. At home in Gaza, Ramallah, Jenin, they shout "Allah hu akbar, al-Yahud Itbakh" (killing the Jews). Not here.
 
Our security services will apprehend the perpetrator or perpetrators of this crime.
 
And if they are Jewish or Israelis,our society will judge them, neutralize them, condemn and punish them.
 
If they are Jewish, perhaps they will be even more severely condemned that Arab terrorists.
 
With us, terrorism is an extremely rare fact.
 
Since the attacks of September 11, hundreds of terrorist attacks are perpetrated every month worldwide. None has been committed by a Jew.
 
Almost all were committed by Muslims.
 
Without looking at the statistics, I know that no country in the world has had to endure one single Jewish attack.

Good luck with the UN and the EU: they love you because you are their peaceful young “freedom fighters”. Through you, they harass us and try to reach us yes ... Good luck!
 
They will welcome your complaints, complaints they will never dispatched after all your terrorist attacks against my people.

We are passing through a very slight turbulence. We are accustomed to it, nothing new under the sun.
 
The media are biased against us? They sow doubt among the general public.

The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a split moment.

Shalom,

Jean Vercors

See also Bibi here

More Moral Relativism & The T Word

Some Israeli victims of terrorism

"Some of the prisoners have carried out militant attacks that claimed Israeli lives and were jailed for up to 30 years."  Thus reports the BBC in relation to Israel's current commitment to release 104 Palestinians in its gaols to facilitate the resumption of "peace" talks.

The BBC is evidently not alone in using the euphemism "militant" for depraved killers (killers of Israelis, that is) who merit the description "terrorists".

For example, in The American Thinker, Leon Rennert, a former White House correspondent, notes: "Israel and Israel alone it seems is immune from terrorism in the pages of the Washington Post."

That newspaper, he writes, "stoutly refuses to describe blood-soaked Palestinian murderers of Israeli children as terrorists. Instead, it substitutes a totally inaccurate euphemism, calling such depraved killers "militants."'

It's an inaccurate term, he continues, since

'"militant" is a non-judgmental, neutral noun. It carries no pejorative connotations. Whereas use of "terrorist" makes it crystal-clear that the writer and/or publication deems such depraved acts as beyond the pale. Which of course they are if they involve deliberate murders of innocent civilians in pursuit of a political agenda -- the basic definition of terrorism....

Never mind that children were firebombed on a bus or that Palestinian killers singled out women and the elderly as targets, these killers [the paper's Jerusalem correspondent William] Booth insists, are NOT "terrorists"; they are instead "militants." In so writing, Booth washes his hands of any trace of moral turpitude attached to such acts.

As he makes clear in the next paragraph: "The Israeli public views these prisoners as terrorists who have blood on their hands. Palestinians see them as freedom fighters struggling to reclaim their homeland and oust the occupiers."

So there you have it: Moral relativism carries the day at the Washington Post. Israel may call them terrorists -- but not Booth or the Washington Post. Message to readers who retain a modicum of absolute morality: Be grateful that we don't extol them as freedom fighters. Just take your pick. Call them freedom fighters or terrorists. But we won't. The Post sees nothing repulsive, nothing subhuman, nothing immoral in Palestinians murdering Israeli kids."

... and some more

Yet, again like the BBC, the Washington Post does not resile from employing the description "terrorist" in certain situations:

'Compounding this deliberate rejection of the T-for-terrorism word is the fact that the Post does not hesitate to use it in reporting on terrorist attacks elsewhere, including when such attacks occur in Europe or the United States....'

Read more here
Hat tip: Love of the Land blog

Online Petition To Prevent The Release of One of The Terrorists Due For Release In the Shalit Exchange

The petition (in which time is of the essence) concerns Ahlam Tamimi, whose victims (15 killed and 130 wounded) include the fifteen-year-old Malki Roth.

Explains Malki's father, Arnold Roth:

'Ahlam Tamimi was not the driver of the Sbarro restaurant suicide bomber. On the day of the massacre (9th August 2001), she personally transported the bomb (10 kg) from a West Bank town into Jerusalem, concealed inside a guitar case. Taxi cabs brought her and an accomplice by the name of Al Masri, a young, newly-religious fanatic, to an Israeli security checkpoint and from there into Jerusalem. To reduce suspicion, they dressed as Israelis and the bomb was not detected. Tamimi, who inspired, planned and engineered the Sbarro attack, personally led her "weapon" - Al Masri - to the target she had carefully selected at Jerusalem's busiest intersection.

The target was a pizza restaurant, selected because it was located in the heart of Jerusalem and on a hot summer vacation afternoon it would be teeming with women and children. Tamimi instructed Al Masri to wait fifteen minutes before detonating the explosives to give her sufficient time to flee the scene safely. He followed her orders. As to this being (as some journalists have implied) an act of momentary madness or lack of sound thinking, take into account that a short time prior to Sbarro attack, Tamimi carried out a 'dry run', placing an explosive inside a downtown Jerusalem supermarket (Hamashbir Lazarchan) which exploded causing damage but resulting in no injuries.

According to a journalist I met who had interviewed her some years ago, she is a charismatic and influential woman who played a central role in Neve Tirza, until now the prison for Palestinian Arab female security prisoners. And, he told me, a monster.'

The logic behind the petition is that if one specific terrorist is removed from the list of those due for release, namely Ahlam Tamimi, it may prompt a much more thorough thinking process about the real damage that will flow from this agreement. The official Israeli version of the to-be-freed list goes out some time tomorrow (perhaps after Shabbat) via the Israeli Prison Service website. If the petition sponsors can obtain a substantial number of supporters by then, they may be able to have some influence over what ensues.

The petition is online here

Giulio Meotti has an article on the prisoner exchange here, entitled "Why Did Israel Betray Its Victims".

Children of the Martyr Race

Harrowing photographs of the Fogel Family following their cold-blooded slaughter – reportedly at the hands of members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a wing of the supposedly moderate Fatah, Israel’s “partner for peace” – were made available by the victims’ relatives and have been widely reproduced.

I chose not to use these photographs, believing that to do so was disrespectful to the victims, preferring to show the family members as they were in life – and unwilling to give satisfaction to any sick individuals who might gloat at the sight of dead Jews.

In common with many other bloggers, David Hallam, a philosemitic Methodist preacher in the UK, has reproduced two of the pictures on his website, in a post calling for his church – which is nowadays in the forefront of the BDS movement – to condemn their killings. One shows the three-year-old boy, Elad, stabbed through the heart, lying on the floor in a pool of blood; the other shows his eleven-year-old brother, Yoav, who had been reading in bed when the demons struck and slashed his throat, slumped diagonally across the blood-stained sheets, one of his bare feet on the blood-soaked carpet. http://methodistpreacher.blogspot.com/2011/03/church-must-condemn-itamar-killings.html

Richard Hall, another Methodist minister – one who is continuously critical of Israel and who certainly supports the Boycott – soon posted a thinly veiled response on his own blog:

“Their [the Fogels’] murders are being put to most cynical use. Photographs of the Fogels’ bloody bodies lying where they died have been released to the internet, provoking outrage and revulsion, as any such act should. Unfortunately, much of the reaction has gone beyond revulsion at the killings and has become an outpouring of hatred not merely towards the individuals who carried out this dreadful crime but also towards the community from which they are presumed to have come. Israeli Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein said on Sunday, “Only these ghastly images can show the world what and who the State of Israel has to deal with,” and many bloggers have been even more strident. This message is reprehensible and dishonouring to the Fogels, feeding as it does the racist lie of uniquely Arab savagery.

Sadly, the bitter truth is that these deaths do not change anything. If the settlements were illegal before , they remain so now. And while this killing is shocking, it is not unique. It stands as one more link in a chain of violence and injustice which has been forged in this conflict for generations.”  Read more: http://theconnexion.net/wp/#ixzz1Ghaqcp8B

A like-minded colleague of Hall was soon fulminating about “Hallam’s despicable use of them [the pictures]” and before long that well-known defamer of Israel, young Ben White (you can read about him here http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/02/ben-whites-latest-anti-israel-analysis/ and here http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/there-is-no-such-thing-as-anti-semitism/ ) was putting the boot into the Jewish State – cynically using the murders to make squalid political points, in fact.

To the blogger himself I commented:

‘I think the best response from you to the cold-bloodied murder of the Fogel Family would be silence, Richard, in view of the fact that you have cynically used their butchery to inveigh against Israel yet again.

That the settlements are illegal is, in fact, a matter of dispute.

But what should not be in dispute is the fact that babies and children of “settler” parents cannot be held accountable for the “illegal” choice of their parents.

There have been 123 deliberate murders of Israeli children by Palestinian terrorists since the First Intifada commenced in 2000.

By contrast, Israelis do not kill children in cold blood, nor do they rejoice when children are murdered.

Please do not demonise the mourners and the bereaved; it ill becomes a Christian minister.’

Commented an indignant Israeli from Jerusalem:

‘The photographs were published after great public discussion, which I have been following for 2 days on Israel radio; they were published with the consent of the nearest relatives of the massacred family.

They were published exactly because of people like you: people who can still write “This message is reprehensible and dishonouring to the Fogels, feeding as it does the racist lie of uniquely Arab savagery”, and can find it in their hearts and minds to turn the event into yet another attack on Israel, meaning JEWS.’

Another outraged commenter noted:

“The pictures were released at the express wish of the children’s grandparents. For years Israel has refrained from using such emotive and distressing pictures, such as the 12 month old baby killed by a sniper, the two children murdered in their beds as their mother read them a story, or the two boys bludgeoned to death when they were out on a hike.

Did I hear any objection from you when the notorious man in a green helmet carried round the same allegedly-killed Palestinian children to different sites where they could be photographed and then went around strategically placing toys among rubble to set a false picture [?].”

And another pointed out:

“... it is chuffing rich of your to suddenly develop a sense of propriety over the use of images of dead children when these are de rigeur on anti-Israel rallies/riots - sometimes even the same child used on multiple occasions.”

The above is an excellent point.

Here, for example, is the singer-cum-activist Annie Lennox at an anti-Israel rally in London, showing child casualties of Operation Cast Lead, for which, although obviously tragic and regrettable, there is of course no moral equivalence with cold-bloodied acts of terror:

And here, courtesy of Richard Millett’s trusty camera, is “Michael,” a bloke who regularly pickets the Ahava shop in London, always carrying this photo montage, apparently:

This list of atrocities by Palestinian terrorists before the Six Day War, some of them involving the deaths of children, gives the lie to the oft-heard claim of Israel’s detractors that Palestinian terrorism came in response to “Occupation”:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/Which+Came+First-+Terrorism+or+Occupation+-+Major.htm


It was with the Ma’alot massacre of 1974 – in which 22 children were killed and 68 injured – that the deliberate murders of Jewish children by Palestinian terrorists reached its nadir.

And as Daled Amos (from whose blog I've copied these two composite photos, directly above and below, of child victims) explains in detail, since the start of the First Intifada 123 Israeli children have lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2006/08/123-israeli-children-killed-by.html

Things really have got to a shameful state when posting photographs of dead Israeli children provokes more condemnation than do the monstrous acts of evil men that caused those children to lose their lives.

Update: Another must-read from the great Melanie Phillips: http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6786364/a-terrible-resonance.thtml