Nasties, Nitwits & Nutjobs (videos)

The hypocrisy of the anti-Israel anti-patriarchy "pro-Palestinian" Western feministas knows few or no bounds, so I suppose they're more than comfortable with this:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOP-MdCsMk8

How about this indoctrination of young minds by the fiends of Hamas, though? Yes, the video's deveral years old, but what was taught in it presumably corrupted some youngsters, who in turn will  transmit what was learned to their own some day. (Warning: distressing scenes of cruelty to animals, despite that much-repeated story of The Prophet loving cats so much that he once cut off his sleeve rather than disrurb a sleeping feline).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ExZVimjST8

Meanwhile, catch the UK-based Neturei Karta nut Elhanan Beck propagandising for the enemy on Al Quds Day this year:

Another Neturei Karta nut:

 Much more re this year's Al Quds Day in lockdown on David Collier's blog here

David Singer: PLO-Hamas anti-England, anti-Israel Hatred Politicises FIFA World Cup

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Hatred against Britain and Israel surfaced in Gaza as England progressed its way through the World Cup to meet Sweden in the quarter finals.

One Gaza fan was outspoken:

“Of course I will support Sweden.

I can’t imagine a Palestinian supporting England, which created the Balfour Declaration, or not supporting the country that stood before the world and recognized our state.” 

The 1917 Balfour Declaration has never been forgotten or forgiven by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas – both of whom consider the Declaration to be null and void – spending decades in spruiking this false message to their respective constituencies – fomenting Arab hatred against the Jews since the Declaration first called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

The fuming Gaza fan was expressing his resentment by barracking for Sweden – even though Sweden was one of the 51 countries that transformed the Balfour Declaration into binding international law by unanimously incorporating it in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922.

Our anguished fan was blissfully unaware of these facts having obviously not studied the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. Anti-England prejudice was enough to back his decision to go for Sweden. True – Sweden had purged itself of its 1922 decision when officially recognizing the State of Palestine in October 2014 – making it the first major European Union member state to back the PLO’s statehood bid.

However in atoning for its 1922 sin, Sweden’s recognition of the “State of Palestine” was a fiction that failed to meet the requirements demanded in international law by Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention which states:

“The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

a. A permanent population

b. A defined territory

c. Government

d. Capacity to enter into relations with the other states

FIFA’s admission of the Palestinian Football Federation as a member of FIFA in 1988 had also contravened Article 10.1 of FIFA’s then governing articles:

'Any Association which is responsible for organising and supervising football in its country may become a Member of FIFA. In this context, the expression “country” shall refer to an independent state recognised by the international Community.'

FIFA started living in its own dream world 26 years before Sweden joined it. Who will replace Sweden as Britain’s nemesis was summed up by another fan:

“Anyone supporting England is supporting Israel itself. These teams represent their countries and governments and will raise their flags in the stands. How can I support the country that allowed the Jewish state on our land?”

The Gazan fans are in for a shock and a reality check when they begin choosing one of the three remaining teams – France, Belgium or Croatia – to topple the evil Brits.

France, Belgium and Croatia just happen to have all voted in favour of the Mandate for Palestine incorporating the Balfour Declaration.

The semi-finals, final and third-place playoff will be agony for Gazan viewers as one of these last four countries holds up the trophy on the winner’s podium come finals day – the others the three minor places - with their flags filling Gaza’s TV screens.

The moral is clear – international law cannot be turned on and off as circumstances dictate – because one day the perpetrator will become entrapped in the hopeless position that the Arab States, the PLO and Hamas now find themselves.

Throwing out binding international law – the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine – and falsely creating fake international law – “the State of Palestine” – goes to the heart of why the Arab-Jewish conflict still remains unresolved in 2018.
 
(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Hamas Removed From EU's List Of Terrorist Organisations: Meshaal Exults

The European Union has, as reported by the BBC here, alongside a photo of a sweet-looking boy toddler in Hamas gear, removed Hamas from its list of terrorist organisations.

Read an official statement here.

In response, Bibi Netanyahu  has demanded that the genocidal body be restored to the list immediately.

Not surprisingly, the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, exults:

"We, the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, welcome the decision of the General Court of the European Union to remove Hamas from the European Union's terrorist list and we consider this to be a step in the right direction and a means of making right a position that was wrong. This past position was not based on objective facts. In addition to this, it was in violation of and contradictory to international law as well as legal and humanitarian norms that guarantee the right of nations to resist occupation. It would be in the European Union's best interest to align itself with international law and with legal and humanitarian norms and to refrain from violating these laws under the misguided pressure of Israel and its exploitation of the international community.

In this regard I urge the leaders and governments in the EU states to accept and cooperate with the decision of the Court and to take measures to make a brave political decision to remove Hamas from the European Union's terrorist list in coordination with the Court's decision and with the values of justice and law, as well as out of respect of the people's will and their rights. I also urge the leaders and governments in EU states to avoid stalling or wasting time by taking measures or making appeals attempting to circumvent international law and objective facts.

I also hope that all international forces, including the United States, take the initiative and right the wrong that has been made in the past, which, as everyone knows, is a result of Israeli pressure and not a result of the facts on the ground.

I would like to remind everyone that throughout its long history since its inception 27 years ago, Hamas has, and continues to confine its legitimate resistance and struggle to Palestine and exercises this against the Israeli occupation. This is a natural right for the movement and for all nations under foreign occupation and it is in accordance with our religious and international laws, just as the other nations in the East and the West resisted their occupying forces.

We believe that this step by the General Court of the European Union, along with the initiatives made last week by a number of EU states and the Swedish government to recognise a Palestinian state and the rights of the Palestinian people, are all considered important steps that must be followed through in the context of setting the record straight and making the historical mistake against the Palestinian people right again.

The Palestinian people, as well as other people who have suffered and continue to suffer from unjust occupation, are looking forward to the day, in the near future, when the international community and the global superpowers will call things by their true name and explicitly expose the true terrorist forces, countries, and parties that exercise real terrorism against humanity. Such parties work together to commit acts of terrorism in its ugliest forms, in the name of the state, before the eyes and ears of the world without any accountability or deterrence, starting with Israeli terrorism."

 Exulting too are the types of usual suspects in the West who wish ill to the little Jewish state and seek its destruction; a sample of such individuals can be seen in comments below the line of the report at the above link.

More of relevance here

The Menace Of Islamic Hate Speech & Hamas Propaganda Against Israel (videos)

Here are a couple of great videos for a wet Sunday afternoon (as here in parts of Australia at present).

The first is of a recent speech regarding Israel by Britain's former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, in the House of Lords, who inter alia condemns those who would drag humanity back to a dark age of barbarism, and who preach and disseminate hatred against Jews and Israel.

The second (hat tip: Shirlee of the Jews Down Under online magazine) exposes the deeply troubling inroads Islamic propaganda against Israel is making on American campuses.

"A Script Written By Hamas": Media Manipulation and Mendacity (includes video)

The BBC's Donnison showing his bias and ignorance yet again

By Professor  Phyllis Chesler, inter alia, here;

'Monday night, on the upper east side of New York City, a gang of anti-Semitic "thugs" attacked a peaceful but visibly Jewish man – he was wearing a skullcap (a yarmulke or kippa). They also attacked his wife.

Two cars "flying Palestinian flags and multiple motorcycles" pulled up to the couple at 8:00 p.m. while it was still daylight. They began yelling "anti-Jewish statements." Then, they threw a water bottle that hit his wife, and, when her husband came to her defense, they "punched him in the head."

The suspects fled. No arrests have been made. The 27-year-old man refused medical attention at the scene.

This is my neighborhood, my home town. This incident took place about a mile away from where I live and work. So far, I have found only one brief article about this in the New York Post.

Are there more such incidents that are not being covered?

There are so many synagogues on the upper east side of New York City and so many visibly Jewish men and women. New York City's largest mosque is also on the upper east side. What are Jews supposed to do? Hide our faith – even as more and more Muslims in this very neighborhood proudly proclaim theirs by wearing hijab, burqas, Islamic skullcaps, and Islamic dress? Something is very wrong with this picture.

Jews do not attack Muslims or Christians – or anyone for that matter – for wearing religiously identifiable clothing or jewelry. Only ​some ​Muslims ​appear ​do that – ​some ​Muslims or pro-Muslim sympathizers.

Jews and Christians are not allowed to openly and visibly practice their religion in most Muslim countries, and yet Muslims in America and Europe expect to be able to practice their faith, often in very aggressive ways, in both America and Europe....

Now, Jews everywhere are being held responsible for and hostage to Israeli acts of self-defense, which, alas, have been touted in the media as aggressive and genocidal acts. The media, the professoriate, international bodies, religious and political leaders have followed this lethal narrative for so long and so intensely that people really believe that Jews and Jewish Israel are evil and must be attacked on sight.

What we are seeing is this: The decades of Big Lies in the media, inflammatory sermons in mosques, churches, and synagogues, which falsely present Israel and Jews as genocidal Nazis, have finally empowered the latent hatred among Arab Muslims and their sympathizers in the diaspora to freely attack individual Jewish civilians as targets and symbols – nay, as collaborators – with the Israeli regime....'

By Australian Jewish News publisher Robert Magid in the latest issue, out today, a excellent op-ed entitled "The Media's True Lies" prompted by his recent visit to Britain, and the high levels of indignation at Israel's actions in Operation Protective Shield among the public there, prompting disturbances and discomfort for Jews. 

 '.... For a whole month the visual media has been bombarding us with what Hamas wants us to see ....

The conclusion we are to draw: "Israel bombs – innocent people die".

What we have witnessed this month is [sic] the most slavish, most egregious examples of media manipulation which can only be described as propaganda: a Hollywood show, produced and directed by Hamas and performed by the corps of media producers, directors, journalists, freelancers and stringers presented verbatim from a script written by Hamas.

Forgotten is the cause of the war: deadly barrages of rockets directed at Israel unprovoked and the construction of tunnels intended for a massive attack on civilians in the South.  Rather than Netanyahu rushing to war, in Israel the main criticism of him is that he held back so long despite ample evidence  that Hamas was building tunnels under Israel....'

 He goes on:

'.... Why aren't we told about the manipulation of information such as the rearrangement of bodies for the cameras. Why do they keep repeating ... that according to the UN the overwhelming majority of the casualties are civilians?

They know thatthe dubious information is provided by Hamas and the UN has no independent means of verifying it.  According to Israel's checks of the dead, a majority are combatants.

We are not told that journalists are regularly physically threatened if they deviate from the script.  Why haven't journalists reported even after they left Gaza that they operated under coercion?....'

I can only suggest that the answer to the last question might be that the journalists fear that the media outlets for which they work might on a future occasion send them back there ...

For more on this subject of intimidation of journalists be sure to read David Gerstman's article here  and Daniel Greenfield's article here 

Three cheers for this leading American Reform rabbi!

As for media bias in Britain, please don't neglect to look at the latest posts by blogger and activist Edgar Davidson here and here

See also Harry's Place here

Rooting For The Enemy: Hamas's Jewish Useful Idiots

 http://www.creativecommunityforpeace.com/justice/

'We, the undersigned, are saddened by the devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. We are pained by the suffering on both sides of the conflict and hope for a solution that brings peace to the region.

While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas' charter, Article 7 of which reads, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The son of a Hamas founder has also commented about the true nature of Hamas.

Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.

We join together in support of the democratic values we all cherish and in the hope that the healing and transformative power of the arts can be used to build bridges of peace.'

It's good to see people from the arts community, including Hollywood A-listers, speaking out against Hamas in this way.  If only more, many many more, would nail their colours to the mast.

What is particularly satisfying about the above list of signatories is that it includes Roseanne Barr, who has, if reports can be trusted, made some unpleasant references to Israel and Zionism in the past but who has been outspokenly supportive of Israel for some time .

An (occasional) Hollywood personality (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Torch Song Trilogy), the estimable Ben Stein, observed last month:

"The media in this country for a very long time has been contemptuous of Jews and contemptuous of Jewish life.

This was true during the Holocaust, when the media was largely controlled by old, lying, wealthy, white Protestant males, and it's true now when it's controlled by mostly left-wingers....

The media likes to portray Jews as bullies and murderers and . . . it's kind of amazing to me, because so much of the media is Jewish....

[T]here's a deep-seated self-hatred, especially [among] the New York City elite media.

They want to show they're not Jewish by being anti-Israel, and it's not going to work. We know they're Jewish and we know that they're not being fair to their own people, but they'll keep doing it...

Every story about the war in Gaza should begin with 'Hamas started it, Hamas endlessly refuses to have a ceasefire.'

Hamas could have an incredibly prosperous and happy, peaceful partnership with Israel, and they don't, they prefer to fight, they prefer to kill....''

Now, they might seem naive and innocuous enough, but these protesters  (see the videos here and here and here and here) disrupting in relays a fundraising dinner for Israel at the Chicago Hilton on 21 August, at which the city's mayor Rahm Emanuel and Michael Oren (Israel's ex-ambassador to the United States) spoke, are representatives of an odious organisation which effectively gives aid and comfort to Hamas: the bizarrely-named "Jewish Voice For Peace" (JVP).

Bizarrely-named, because as the heading to an article dated 20 August by Yitzhak Santis, Chief Programs Officer at Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor (where he directs the “BDS in the Pews” project) declares

 "Jews abetting Hamas are no voice for peace".

Rooting for the enemy

Sinisterly, JVP keeps its source or sources of funding firmly under wraps; needless to say, if we knew who finances it we would know who pulls its strings.

Writes Santis inter alia:

 '... JVP’s executive director, Rebecca Vilkomerson, describes her group as “the Jewish wing of the [Palestinian solidarity] movement,” with the mission “to facilitate conversations inside the Jewish community… [to] put that wedge in, saying the Jewish community’s not agreeing on these issues.”

 That’s it. JVP seeks to divide American Jews—Israel’s main foundation of international support—so as to reduce or eliminate U.S. backing for Israel for the benefit of Israel’s enemies.  

Undermining Israel ...

JVP is part of the international NGO “soft power” war, whose unrelenting attacks on Israel’s right to self-defense ultimately aid Hamas.

 This global political warfare strategy includes sustained delegitimization campaigns, BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions), and promoting a “right of return” for Palestinians, which means dismantling Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

... every step ...

 It partners with a wide coterie of radical leftist, Islamist, and Arab ultra-nationalist groups to promote its program. When asked, JVP states that they are “agnostic” about a two-state solution. But that is a smokescreen. The group’s actions demonstrate a clear anti-Israel agenda. [Emphasis added here and below]

A JVP contingent marched at a July 12 “peace” demonstration in San Francisco, where “anti-war” protesters waved Hamas banners and burned an Israeli flag while chanting in Arabic “Ya Hamas, ya habib, udrub, udrub Tel Abib!” (Oh, dear Hamas, strike a blow at Tel Aviv!)  Signs read, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “From Gaza to Ramallah Forever Intifada,” and “F*** Zionism!” The rally’s advertising demanded an “end to US aid to Israel and to Zionist rule over Palestine.”

... of the way ...

In Los Angeles, JVP teamed up with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) to “put on a massive die-in street theater.” AMP’s website refers to Hamas as a “Palestinian resistance group.”  In Detroit, JVP protested for the release of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh....

JVP calls the current conflict with Hamas “Israel’s war on civilians”—which follows Hamas PR guidelines to describe “anyone killed or martyred” as “a civilian from Gaza or Palestine.”  JVP demands an “end [to] the siege on Gaza,” a central Hamas demand. JVP insists the U.S. “suspend military aid to Israel,” which would also benefit Hamas and other jihadist terrorists. Finally, when JVP supports the call to “Stand Against Zionism Everywhere,” it is clear whose water they are carrying. JVP stands unmasked as anything but a voice for peace.'

Read the entire article (with its links) here 

David Singer: Hamas Humiliates & Manipulates World Media

"Gaza – Hamas Humiliates and Manipulates World Media" is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

A report that a family of 11 died in an Israeli air strike in Gaza has turned out to be false – further fuelling the unprecedented furore caused by the Tel Aviv based Foreign Press Association (FPA) issuing the following statement on 11 August slamming Hamas for its treatment of journalists during the current conflict:

'The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month.

The international media are not advocacy organisations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.

In several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.

We are also aware that Hamas is trying to put in place a “vetting” procedure that would, in effect, allow for the blacklisting of specific journalists. Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA.' 

The FPA has also been mildly critical of Israel as this release on 23 July indicated:

“The FPA strongly condemns deliberate official and unofficial incitement against journalists working to cover the current warfare under very difficult circumstances as well as forcible attempts to prevent journalists and TV crews from carrying out their news assignments. While we do not condone the use of invective by any side, outright attacks on journalists are absolutely unacceptable.

On Tuesday, IDF forces aimed live fire at the Al Jazeera offices in Gaza City. The offices are on the 11th floor of a known commercial centre. The IDF apologised claiming it was in error and said they would investigate the incident.

Also Tuesday, FPA member Firas Khatib of BBC Arabic was physically attacked and abused in the midst of a live feed on the Israeli side of the border. “

The FPA numbers some 480 members representing TV, radio, photojournalists and print media from 32 countries including Australia, Qatar, Brazil, Norway, China , USA. Austria, Dubai, Russia, Japan, Finland, South Africa, Denmark and Germany, Turkey, the UAE and the United Kingdom.
It represents amongst others Le Monde, the New York Times, Reuters, the Guangming Daily, CBS Television, the Associated Press, Der Spiegel, the BBC, Danish Broadcasting Corp. and Bloomberg News. On its website, the FPA lists Australian journalists Matt Brown (ABC) and John Lyons (The Australian) as members. Paul T. Jørgensen of Norway’s TV2 states that:

“several foreign journalists have been kicked out of Gaza because Hamas does not like what they wrote or said. We have received strict orders that if we record that Hamas fires rockets or that they shoot, we will face serious problems and be expelled from Gaza"

 Alan Johnson reported in the Telegraph:

* The Wall Street Journal's Nick Casey posted a photo of a Hamas spokesman being interviewed from a room in the hospital along with this tweet: "You have to wonder (with) the shelling how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a safe place to see media." After "a flood of online threats", the tweet was deleted.

* John Reed of the Financial Times was reportedly threatened after he tweeted about rockets being fired from the same hospital.” Yet Jodi Rudoren, Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times – who was not in Gaza – tweeted:

“Every reporter I've met who was in Gaza during war says this Israeli/now FPA narrative of Hamas harassment is nonsense”

It was a strange remark to make considering the above claims – and having regard to the following comment reportedly made by New York Times vice president for corporate communications Eileen Murphy that the newspaper’s team in Gaza did not photograph any rocket launches, sent only “two very distant, poor quality images that were captioned Hamas fighters” and “hasn’t even seen anyone carrying a gun”.

Even more intriguing, Rudoren’s deputy at the New York Times – Isabel Kershner – was one of the FPA board members who approved the condemnatory statement. How could two colleagues from the same newspaper observing the same sequence of events come to such different conclusions?

British freelancer Harry Fear said he was asked to leave Gaza by three plainclothes Hamas officials at Al-Shifa Hospital – apparently for referring to rocket launches near his hotel. He reportedly said he did not feel any intimidation or interference. Some reporters however reportedly received death threats. Sometimes, cameras were smashed. Reporters were prevented from filming anti-Hamas demonstrations where more than 20 Palestinians were shot dead by Hamas gunmen.

Evidence of Hamas controlling the flow of news is obvious in its failure to allow the media to:

1. independently determine, separate and verify the number of civilian and Hamas deaths

2. photograph any Hamas forces launching rockets from residential areas or civilians being used as human shields.

A BBC investigation has uncovered photos of dead children from earlier conflicts being passed off as casualties in the current conflict – being fed to gullible reporters to send around the World to even more gullible target audiences.

Why would reporters keep going back into Gaza to be so humiliated by Hamas?

They are certainly not reporting what is actually happening.

Maybe they should stay out of Gaza and let Hamas do its own media releases.

The media barons would certainly save a lot of money.

David Singer: Evil Hamas Must Be Defeated

Here's the latest article, entitled "Gaza – Hamas Evil Must Be Confronted And Defeated", by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
 
He writes:

One month of fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas has resulted in an enormous propaganda victory for Hamas as horrific pictures of dead and wounded Gazan children and civilians, their destroyed homes and other buildings have appeared daily in social media and newspapers around the world.

Why these tragedies need never have occurred has been lost – as racial incitement is fuelled by articles sensationally headlined “South Africa Compares Gaza Operation to Nazis' Actions”, "The Nazis are in Gaza", "Turkey’s Erdogan Compares Israel Gaza Offensive to Hitler", and "Letter from America: Israel’s Nazi-like criminal campaign in Gaza".

Israelis have been represented as Nazis inflicting war crimes on Gazan Arabs – just as war crimes were inflicted on Jews by the Nazis.

Jews have been attacked in Paris, London, Sydney, Rome, Frankfurt and Austria.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has been told by a leading trade union official:

 “If the Jewish Board of Deputies wants to advance a Zionist agenda, they should leave South Africa and go advance their agenda elsewhere”

Hamas is attempting to gain continuing success in its campaign to denigrate and demonize Israel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosab_Hassan_Yousef

Hamas rejected the continuation of a 72-hour ceasefire that ended at 8.00 am on 8 August – hoping to again induce Israel into retaliating against Hamas and the myriad other terrorist groups embedded in Gaza as they continue their indiscriminate firing of more than 3300 rockets so far into Israeli population centres from rocket launchers positioned in Gazan civilian population centres.

Gazan civilians have unwillingly become the sacrificial lambs in Hamas’s evil objective of eliminating the only Jewish State in the world.

Gregory Baskin summarises how the propaganda war is so far removed from the reality:

“In the current foray into the Gaza Strip, Israelis have killed approximately 1,200 Palestinians. To be clear, Hitler and his army of hypnotized worshippers not only killed millions of people but murdered them, meaning that lives were terminated and family lines severed on purpose. Anyone not consumed with their own anti-Semitism understands the distinction

Many Arab civilians have died in the Gaza Strip. At the least, Israel has made attempts to avoid this by warning civilians ahead of its bombing strikes with the use of dummy bombs, text messages and telephone calls. (Perhaps it is true, as has been reported, that the human shields Hamas puts in harm’s way are not allowed freedom of movement, thus generously contributing to the death toll.) Even the United States and Commander-in-Chief President Obama do less than this when U.S. drones kill terrorists in far off lands. Like so many guerrilla armies before it, Hamas fighters hide amongst the people it purports to protect and represent.

Again, yes, the deaths in the Gaza Strip have been undeniable and horrific. But by no means is what has, and is happening, there a Holocaust. What it is, most unfortunately, is a moment for anti-Semites to express their hatred. Logic is pushed aside as bigotry converts to delirium and then inevitably inflates in magnitude. Again: 1,200 killed compared with 6 million-plus murdered.”

Hamas is openly honest about its intentions – as these three extracts from its Covenant make very clear:

 1.      “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised.”

2.       “The basic structure of the Islamic Resistance Movement consists of Moslems who have given their allegiance to Allah whom they truly worship, – "I have created the jinn and humans only for the purpose of worshipping" - who know their duty towards themselves, their families and country. In all that, they fear Allah and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.”

3.      “The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that.” 

The London Times has refused to run an advertisement featuring Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel speaking out against Hamas’s use of children as human shields – because:

“the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers” 

This advertisement has run in the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, among other U.S. newspapers

Wiesel’s message is clear and unequivocal:

“What we are suffering through today is not a battle of Jew versus Arab or Israeli versus Palestinian. Rather, it is a battle between those who celebrate life and those who champion death. It is a battle of civilization versus barbarism.”

The events in Gaza over the past month would have been avoided if Hamas had accepted the ceasefire proposed by Egypt on 16 July.

Hamas is evil – it must be confronted – and defeated. 

The Press Prejudice Perfecting Hamas's Propaganda War & Coaxing Leftist Bigots Out Of Their Lairs

On Thursday a friend of mine in the dear old Mother Country, a Cambridge-educated educationist (that's Brit for "educator") who's neither Jewish, nor a gung-ho supporter of Israel (I have had heated exchanges with her and her husband over this issue in the past), nor particularly rightwing in politics,  sent me an email.  Its main purpose was to tell me of happenings in the neighbourhood that I left behind last year to return to Australia.  But it also had this to say:

"[My husband] and I are very concerned about Gaza. Even we think it is so unfair the way the situation is reported. Of course Israel can t have rockets landing in their territory; nor tunnels springing up everywhere. Hamas is dreadful - using children as human shields - and how much did those tunnels cost to build? The money would have been better spent building up Gaza's infrastructure. Who has ever heard of a place with that population with only one power station? And as for the conduct of Egypt closing its borders against its fellow Muslims. Why wasn't a proper kindertransport organised? Can you imagine Jews behaving like that to their fellow Jews? Basically I am furious..."

Alas, not everyone faced with a barrage of media distortions is so discerning.  One of my favourite bloggers, Edgar Davidson, has devoted several recent posts (do read them!) to the issue of British media prejudice against Israel, and how the British public is being indoctrinated.  For instance:

'What the latest Gaza conflict has made clear is the extent to which anti-Israel activists have managed to ensure not just that the Hamas narrative dominates all public discussion, but that any alternative view is totally silenced.

The ad The Times refused to run

It is almost impossible to understand how a supposedly 'free' Press has completely ignored the mass of evidence that shows their entire presentation of the conflict to be a tissue of lies. Every British newspaper (and TV News channel) without exception  - left, right and centre - has simply presented the Hamas narrative. This includes reporting - without questioning -  the Hamas reported casualty figures and the Hamas reported 'attacks on schools and hospitals by Israelis'. Although the latter have invariably turned out to be either a) completely false, b) the result of Hamas rockets or c) the result of Hamas firing from those locations, the media has uniformly refused to produce retractions or corrections.

Not a single newspaper or TV report has made clear that all their Gaza reporters are under the total control of Hamas, even though other countries' reporters have documented the abuses after they have left. With very minor exceptions, the ONLY reports from Israel have been those where the media sensed an opportunity to further demonize Israel (such as the story of civilians in Sderot cheering when missiles were targeted at Gaza, and where a group of extreme leftist 'anti-war' protesters in Tel Aviv were confronted by an angry crowd). The obsession with the Sderot story is especially telling since, for 15 years, the media has completely ignored the missiles that have rained down on that town almost every day from Gaza.

We are not talking about 'anti-Israel' bias here. That has been going on for years. We are talking about a totally uniform effort by the entire UK media to brainwash the public with hatred for Israel. While some of the newspapers have carried rare commentary pieces supporting Israel, these have been drowned out by the tsunami of anti-Israel commentaries; to the uninformed reader the pro-Israel commentaries must seem ludicrous since they speak of things that have NEVER been reported as part of the news, like: Hamas use of human shields, the Hamas charter to destroy Israel; the extent Israel goes to avoid civilian casualites; the thousands of Hamas rockets fired at Israel, etc....'

It seems to be getting worse, the one-sided narrative about Gaza in the Western media.  And the Australian media is similarly affected. With honourable exceptions, the bias is all on the Palestinian side.  The ABC, SBS, and the commercial channels, are all as bad as each other, with only token attempts to present the Israeli case, if indeed it is preesented at all.  One newsreader's raised eyebrow, another's frown, and yet another's shake of the head, such mannerisms as those emphasise the disgust that in which  those employed to read from the cue card appear to hold Israel's Operation Protective Edge.

"There's been a major development in the fight against Islamic extremists in Iraq", blithely proclaims Channel Nine News (regarding the current Gaza crisis one of the worst offenders against evenhanded reporting), while failing to consider that in Hamas Israel is facing Islamic extremists on its doorstep.

Meanwhile, segments by the truly egregious Orla Guerin (she of the demonising tone and the fanatical scowl) than whom a more biased reporter never disgraced the BBC, are shown on ABC, and there are no counter-reports from the Israeli side.

Like its counterpart in Britain, the ABC, publicly-funded and obligated to be objective, seldom is, inclining instead towards the left-liberal worldview.  Why Israel let her and the snide, brattish Jon Donnison back, given their track records of hostile reportage and misrepresentation towards it, must be reckoned amongst the most magnanimous acts of a country in peril; it must also be reckoned among the most reckless and stupid.

At the same time, the odious pronouncements of Israeli leftists (well-described here for what they are) give aid and comfort to leftist Israel-haters everywhere.

Sentiments such as these appear on left-leaning media websites (in this case the ABC's, in relation to the downfall of journalist Mike Carlton) by opponents of the Middle East's only true democracy:

And on Facebook a leftwing bigots show their true colours by posting, in relation to the antisemitic targeting of Jewish children on a Sydney school bus:

(Another third post from this avowed Socialist, which I omitted to screenshot, described Jews as "arrogant" etc.)

While a good guy is penalised!

As for the press propaganda war, British-based blogger The Bilateralist has a long and thoughtful piece on the subject that is well worth reading and taking to heart.

"Risking Death For The Sake Of Martyrdom ... Has Become A Religious Obligation For Many Gazans"

Notwithstanding the hideous culpability of Hamas for the heart-wrenching plight of the population under its control, Israel is self-evidently bearing the brunt of the blame, and (as my last post – please look at it – shows all too clearly), the kind of antisemitic images once restricted to the Arab and Soviet press in the decades following the Shoah, and in grubby gutter publications elsewhere, has now entered sections of the mainstream press, even here in Australia.  And as seen on various sites around the Web, antisemitic incidents, some violent, have occurred in many parts of the world in recent weeks.

This situation is of course exacerbated by the large and growing Muslim populations that now inhabit major and indeed not so major western cities in both the Old and New Worlds (regarding this photo of a shop sign in Belgium welcoming dogs but barring "Zionists" see here; and see what happened in Preston, Lancashire; incidentally, "Children of the Ghetto"? Is that a take-off of Israel Zangwill's work by the same name?), and by the distortions inherent in the reportage and commentary of leftist news channels such as the BBC (see my last post but one, regarding the odious Jeremy Bowen), CNN, and (in Australia) the ABC and SBS (both of which were particularly biased this evening, Aussie time, with barely a nod towards balanced reporting, and for the most part not even that.

Here's Mark Regev, doing his best to present the Israeli case regarding civilian casualties in Gaza on Al Beeb, but being hectored judge-and-jury style by an all-too-obviously emotional Emily Maitlis (the granddaughter, incidentally, of Jacob Maitlis, a well-known Polish-born Yiddishist cultural figure who from 1958-67 was director of the UK Zionist Federation's Educational Trust):

Hamas's reponsibility for the terrible suffering befalling the population under its control is the focus of the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer; it's entitled "Gaza – Hamas Exploits Death Over Life".

Writes David Singer:

The failure of many Gazans to leave their homes and seek safer shelter after ignoring Israeli leaflet drops, mobile phone calls and even the firing of harmless warning shots as a last resort has been a major contributor to the increasing number of civilian deaths and casualties in Gaza.

This phenomenon has presented a perplexing problem for Israel as it continues its determined drive to destroy the Hamas arsenal of rockets, rocket launchers, weapons caches and extensive network of tunnels located in, under or in the vicinity of densely populated housing areas of Gaza.

Former US President Bill Clinton hit the nail squarely on the head with this prescient statement on 17 July:

"Hamas was perfectly well aware what would happen if they started raining rockets on Israel. They fired a thousand of them, and they have a strategy designed to force Israel to kill their own civilians so that the rest of the world will condemn them…

… In the short to medium term, Hamas can inflict terrible public relations damage on Israel by forcing it to kill Palestinian civilians to counter Hamas."

The strategy was given expression by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad in 2008:

“[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 mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, 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."

The execution of the strategy rests on two platforms – the religious and the psychological.

The religious platform has been articulated by Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs - Mahmoud Al-Habbash – who declared in his televised Friday sermon from the Al-Yarmouk Mosque in Ramallah on 20 December 2013:

“Pay attention, it is Allah who says: ‘They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance’ (Quran, Sura 3:111, translation Sahih International) – it is possible that they will harm you. I say to you, it is possible that they will kill us, it is possible that Allah will sentence us to Martyrdom. It is possible that we will be wounded, it is possible that terrorism will be laid on us – ‘They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance’ – but in the end, ‘and if they fight you, they will show you their backs’ and the conclusion – ‘then they will not be aided’ (Quran, Sura, 3:111, translation, Sahih International). We ask for victory more than we ask for life. We ask for the strengthening of our people in this good and blessed land.”

 Shlomi Eldar summarises this exhortation to martyrdom:

“The entire Hamas system worked to promote and advance the theme of martyrdom. It emerged as its greatest weapon and, unfortunately, the most effective and destructive weapon that the movement had, too. Preachers in mosques used their sermons to speak about the importance of martyrdom (fi sabil Allah, “in accordance with Allah’s will”), until many people throughout the West Bank and Gaza sincerely believed that Allah wanted to be sanctified through the sacrifice of believers’ lives, and that only through martyrdom could they prove their loyalty and their faith.”

Risking death for the sake of martyrdom – rather than leaving a declared danger zone for safer waters – has become a religious obligation for many Gazans.

The psychological platform is evidenced by Hamas's Ministry of Interior spokesman Iyad Al-Buzum calling on its civilian population on 12 July to ignore Israel's warnings and remain in their homes in spite of the danger:

 

 “The [Hamas] Ministry of the Interior and National Security calls on our honorable people in all parts of the [Gaza] Strip to ignore the warnings [to vacate areas near rocket launching sites before Israel bombs them] that are being disseminated by the Israeli occupation through manifestos and phone messages, as these are part of a psychological war meant to sow confusion on the [Palestinian] home front, in light of the [Israeli] enemy's security failure and its confusion and bewilderment." 

 One day later the same spokesman issued another similar warning:

"Answering the occupation's calls will merely aid it in carrying out its plans to weaken the [Palestinian] home front and to destroy property and homes as soon as you leave them. We call on all our people who have left their homes to return to them immediately."

 Kim Sengupta concludes:

“Hamas can, however, be accused of making people complacent, repeatedly stating in the media that the Israeli warnings were psychological games and asking the population to ignore them. Some mentioned this as a reason for staying behind; returning home having initially left.”

The counter-argument to that was the need to prevent panic spreading. The discovery of the extensive network of cement-strengthened tunnels throughout Gaza (video here) – with many already located snaking into Israel and in and under thousands of residential dwellings – has posed a major problem for Israel in completing its military objectives.

Staying in their homes risking possible death to achieve martyrdom or alternatively succumbing to propaganda falsely promoting a fools paradise on earth has been spectacularly exploited by Hamas.

Respect for life has become the real victim.

"We Must Massacre Them...; In Palestine...They Cannot Have The Status Of Dhimmis": Hamas MP

Here's one of those nice guys from Hamastan, an MP and cleric named Yunis al-Astal, telling on Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV earlier this month what should be done with the Jews, as derived from the Quran itself.

 From the transcript provided by MEMRI:

'In today's show, we will discuss the demand that the Palestinian people recognize [Israel] as a Jewish state, so that the occupation will graciously hand them out scraps. I would like to begin by quoting what Allah said about them: "The worst of beasts in the sight of Allah are those who disbelieve. They are the ones with whom you made a covenant, but they break their covenant every time....

The obvious question is: What is the solution to this gang of people? The Al-Anfal chapter of the Koran provides us with the answer. After He said: "They are the ones with whom you made a covenant, but they break their covenant every time," Allah added: "If you gain mastery over them in a war, use them to disperse those who follow them that they may remember." This indicates that we must massacre them, in order to break them down and prevent them from sowing corruption in the world. They are the ones who still spark the flame of war, but Allah has taken it upon Himself to extinguish it....

We must restore them to the state of humiliation imposed upon them. They should be dhimmi citizens. This status must be imposed upon them by war. They must pay the jizya security tax while they live in our midst....

However, in Palestine, where they are occupiers and invaders, they cannot have the status of dhimmis...."

Well-known American Islam-watcher Dr Andrew Bostom has an in-depth analysis here
(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)

"The Hands Of Freemasonry Have Shaken The Filthy Hands Of The Hypocrites" (video)

Ever since the odious apostate from Judaism Jacob Brafman introduced it in an appalling antisemitic work published in the Tsarist Empire in 1859 the supposed nexus between da Joos and the Freemasons has been a staple of conspiracy theorists and judeophobes everywhere.  It turns up in this Hamas TV drama dating to 2010, which I haven't seen previously.  Subtitled in English by the invaluable Memri.org, the drama revolves around Theodor Herzl's negotiations with the Sultan of Turkey ("They'll get it [Palestine] over our dead bodies").  It comes with a dastardly plot by Zionists to have the Sultan assassinated, with the line "You Jews, your greed knows no bounds" from Kaiser Wilhelm, with an anachronistic reference by the Sultan to Chaim Weizmann, with a trio of Chasidic rabbis (well, nobody, except possibly the makers, claim this to be an accurate rendition of events!) accompanying Herzl in his endeavours, and features a sidekick called Lewinsky who possesses a taste for mid-twentieth century trilbies and for gesticulating Lower East Side style.

Enjoy, if you haven't already!

"Palestine Belongs To Us ... Jihad & Resistance Are The Path" (video)

As BBCWatch details here, Britain's despicable "national broadcaster" has been

 "all agog at the visit of Khaled Masha’al to the Gaza Strip for the occasion of events marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the terror organization Hamas – brought forward from the actual date of its establishment in order to coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of the first Intifada on December 9th.

So, whilst Syria slaughters and Egypt writhes, the BBC News website’s home page has for two consecutive days been running the Khaled Masha’al/Hamas rally story as its lead item, with a level of enthusiasm nearing that usually reserved for a Royal visit."

As one commenter aptly observed:

"From the tone adopted by the bbc newsreader [make that successive newsreaders on successive bulletins - D.A.] covering this story on News At Ten on Friday you would have thought the story was about the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, The tender, affectionate style would equally have suited a piece about a child reunited with distraught parents after going missing in, say, an earthquake."

And, as demonstrated here, the BBC's enthusiasm for Hamas's birthday celebrations shows no sign of abating.

Here, from Memri.org, is the blood-curdling pro-Jihad speech that the antisemitic Islamofascist object of the BBC's reverential tones and grotesquely misplaced affections delivered to his followers in Gaza on 7th December, declaring that all the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea "belongs to us and to nobody else ... Palestine ... is the land of Arabism and of Islam" and consequently there will be no recognition by Hamas of Israel.

"Killing [Israelis] Is Worship That Allah Made Into Law": Hamas's Blood Lust (plus video)

Be sure to read this new report, with accompanying footage, of how Hamas idealises the killers of Jews and Israelis.

Examples (given in the above report) during Israel's counter-terrorist Operation Pillar of Cloud:

"Bless [Hamas'] Al-Qassam men, guardians of Palestine...
Oh pride of Salah Shahada, oh wisdom of Immad [Aqel]
(i.e., Hamas leaders killed by Israel)
[Oh] the explosives of [Yahya] Ayyash (i.e., Hamas bomb maker killed by Israel),
Martyrdom,
[Oh] lovers of the trigger:
Killing the occupiers [Israelis] is worship that Allah made into law...
Arabic text on sign:
'Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah'
Arise, oh determined men. The color of [the Martyr's] blood protects the land.
Oh masked one wearing a keffiyeh (i.e., Arab head scarf), terrifying the Jews...
call out in Zionism's face: 'Muhammad's army has begun to return.'"
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Nov. 15, 2012]

"We are [Hamas' Al-Qassam] Brigades
Brigades - we kidnap soldiers
Brigades - we kill Jews
Brigades - we watch the borders
Brigades - we ride at night
Brigades - on horseback
Brigades - we are not afraid of death
Brigades - gear up your weapon
Gear up, gear up
Prepare the force
Prepare, prepare
Prepare the force and get ready
Destroy the usurper's dens and set fire to the oppressors
Through training and preparations, you roar, oh lion of Qassam
It's in your hands to get [our] country back and then we will raise the banner of Islam."
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Nov. 21, 2012]

 Hat tip to reader Ian for alerting me to this new StandWithUs video:

And hat tip to a commenter on BBCWatch's latest post regarding Jon Donnison for this:

Of Such Stuff Are Nightmares Made (videos)

This trio of videos was recently uploaded onto You Tube.  They date from 2009, 2009, and 2006 respectively.

Hamas indoctrinates the kids with bloodcurdling Jew-hatred:

And some of the grown-ups on Palestinian Authority TV do the same:

Infidels beware!