Amnesty International Slams Palestinian War Crimes in Gaza

In a press release dated today (26 March) Amnesty International advises:

'Palestinian armed groups displayed a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians by repeatedly launching indiscriminate rockets and mortars towards civilian areas in Israel during the conflict in July and August 2014, said Amnesty International in a new report published today.

Unlawful and deadly: Rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian armed groups during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict provides evidence that several attacks launched from inside the Gaza Strip amount to war crimes. Six civilians in Israel, including a four-year-old boy, were killed in such attacks during the 50-day conflict. In the deadliest incident believed to have been caused by a Palestinian attack, 11 children were among 13 Palestinian civilians killed when a projectile fired from within the Gaza Strip landed in the al-Shati refugee camp.

“Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas, repeatedly launched unlawful attacks during the conflict killing and injuring civilians. In launching these attacks, they displayed a flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law and for the consequences of their violations on civilians in both Israel and the Gaza Strip,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

All the rockets used by Palestinian armed groups are unguided projectiles which cannot be accurately aimed at specific targets and are inherently indiscriminate; using such weapons is prohibited under international law and their use constitutes a war crime. Mortars are also imprecise munitions and should never be used to attack military targets located in or near civilian areas.

“Palestinian armed groups must end all direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks. They must also take all feasible precautions to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip from the effects of such attacks. This includes taking all possible measures to avoid locating fighters and arms within or near densely populated areas,” said Philip Luther.

And now, in Gaza, opportunities for women grow (read about it here)

At least 1,585 Palestinian civilians, including more than 530 children, were killed in Gaza, and at least 16,245 homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Israeli attacks during the conflict, some of which also amounted to war crimes.

“The devastating impact of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians during the conflict is undeniable, but violations by one side in a conflict can never justify violations by their opponents,” said Philip Luther.

“The fact that Palestinian armed groups appear to have carried out war crimes by firing indiscriminate rockets and mortars does not absolve the Israeli forces from their obligations under international humanitarian law. The war wrought an unprecedented level of death, destruction and injury on the 1.8 million people in the Gaza Strip, and some of the Israeli attacks must be investigated as war crimes.

“The Israeli and Palestinian authorities must both co-operate with the probes of the UN Commission of Inquiry and the International Criminal Court to end decades of impunity that have perpetuated a cycle of violations in which civilians on both sides have paid a heavy price.”

According to UN data, more than 4,800 rockets and 1,700 mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israel during the conflict. Out of the thousands of rockets and mortars fired, around 224 are estimated to have struck Israeli residential areas, as Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted many others.

The death of Daniel Tregerman, a four-year-old boy, on 22 August 2014 clearly illustrates the tragic consequences of using imprecise weapons such as mortars on civilian areas. His family had fled their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz because of the fighting but returned the day before he was killed. Moments after the alarm sirens went off, a mortar launched from Gaza struck the family car parked outside the house. Daniel’s little sister who was also present watched him die before her eyes.

“My husband and son were in the living room and I was yelling for them to come into the shelter. Shrapnel [from the mortar] entered Daniel’s head, killing him immediately,” his mother, Gila Tregerman, told Amnesty International.

Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The briefing also highlights the Israeli authorities’ failure to adequately protect civilians in vulnerable communities during the conflict, particularly Bedouin villages in Israel’s Negev/Naqab region, many of which are not officially recognized by the Israeli government. Ouda Jumi’an al-Waj was killed by a rocket that struck the Bedouin village of Qasr al-Sir near the Israeli city of Dimona on 19 July.

Most Bedouin villages are classified as non-residential “open areas” by the Israeli authorities, so the Iron Dome system to intercept rockets does not operate there and there are no bomb shelters. More than 100,000 people live in Bedouin villages in southern Israel.

“Civilians living in Bedouin villages during the conflict were left vulnerable and exposed, one manifestation of the discrimination they face on a daily basis. The Israeli authorities must ensure everyone is given equal protection,” said Philip Luther.

Other civilians killed by attacks launched in Gaza included an agricultural worker from Thailand, Narakorn Kittiyangkul, who was killed when a mortar struck the tomato farm in southern Israel where he was working. Ze’ev Etzion and Shahar Melamed were killed in a mortar attack on Kibbutz Nirim on 26 August.

In the deadliest incident believed to have been caused by a Palestinian armed group during the conflict, 13 Palestinian civilians – 11 of them children – were killed when a projectile exploded next to a supermarket in the crowded al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on 28 July 2014, the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

The children had been playing in the street and buying crisps and soft drinks in the supermarket at the time of the attack.

Although Palestinians have claimed that the Israeli military was responsible for the attack, an independent munitions expert who examined the available evidence on behalf of Amnesty International concluded that the projectile used in the attack was a Palestinian rocket.

“Evidence suggesting that a rocket launched by a Palestinian armed group may have caused 13 civilian deaths inside Gaza just underscores how indiscriminate these weapons can be and the dreadful consequences of using them,” said Philip Luther.

Mahmoud Abu Shaqfa and his five-year-old son Khaled were seriously wounded in the attack. His eight-year-old son Muhammad was killed. “The rocket fell near the car… The whole car was pierced by shrapnel. A piece of shrapnel pierced me… My son [Khaled] came to me. He was screaming ‘Daddy get up, get up…’ My entire leg was torn open and my arm had been wrenched to my back.”

There are no bomb shelters or warning systems in place to protect civilians in Gaza.

The report also details other violations of international humanitarian law by Palestinian armed groups during the conflict, such as storing rockets and other munitions in civilian buildings, including UN schools, and cases where Palestinian armed groups launched attacks or stored munitions very near locations where hundreds of displaced civilians were taking shelter.

“The international community must help prevent further violations by tackling entrenched impunity and by ending transfers to Palestinian armed groups and Israel of all arms and military equipment that could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said Philip Luther.

Amnesty International is calling on all states to support the UN Commission of Inquiry and the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over crimes committed by all parties to the conflict.'  [Emphasis added]

 Read the full report in English here  https://www.amnesty.org/…/Documents/MDE2111782015ENGLISH.PDF

Bibi Netanyahu Interviewed On Aussie TV (video)

Shana Tova to all Jewish readers.  May you have a sweet year ...

Here's Bibi Netanyahu, interviewed on the ABC (Australia's answer to the BBC) yesterday.

I saw a few minutes of the interview but have as  not yet had a chance to view the video. (Hat tip: that amazing resource, reader Ian).

Media Most Foul: David Singer demolishes Richard Falk's attempt to justify Israel's status as "a special case" for obloquy

In this, his latest article ("Israel – Media Imbalance Incites Jew-hatred"), Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer brings his own perspective  to the chorus of condemnation by Israel's friends over the way in which an irresponsible western media has stoked the flames of antisemitism in recent weeks.  He proceeds to focus on Richard Falk's "very disturbing" insistence that Israel constitutes "a special case" as a target for press and public opprobrium.

Writes David Singer:

The incessant media focus on Israel – compounded by misleading and factually incorrect reporting  – has materially contributed to inciting the growth of Jew-hatred world-wide. Organisations such as HonestReporting and CAMERA expose inaccurate reports appearing daily in the most widely read and supposedly reputable international newspapers, television stations, radio networks and on-line publications.

Corrections eventually made usually come too late to remedy the initial sensationalist reporting. Matti Friedman sums up this phenomenon:

“Is there anything left to say about Israel and Gaza? Newspapers this summer have been full of little else. Television viewers see heaps of rubble and plumes of smoke in their sleep. A representative article from a recent issue of The New Yorker described the summer’s events by dedicating one sentence each to the horrors in Nigeria and Ukraine, four sentences to the crazed génocidaires of ISIS, and the rest of the article—30 sentences—to Israel and Gaza.”

This pre-occupation with Israel at the expense of covering far more serious conflicts in the region prompted one concerned person to ask Professor Richard Falk – the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” – the following questions:

“Nowhere on the face of the earth will you find a country that has been unremittingly attacked in the language used to attack Israel, or at all – not truly genocidal nations like Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Serbia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Turkey; not the world’s worst violators of human rights like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Somalia, Russia, China, North Korea and Cuba; not seizers and occupiers of land like Russia, Armenia, Turkey (Northern Cyprus), Morocco and Azerbaizhan. Where are the BDS movements, Prof. Falk? Where are the blogs? Where are the armies of blog crawlers? Where are the videos? Where are the links? What do you think it is that draws all these “critics” to Israel and nowhere else?”

Falk’s reply – designating Israel as a “special case” – is very disturbing.

“Israel is a special case for at least three reasons: – its legitimacy was established by UN and League initiatives without any effort to take into account the views of the population physically present in the country; – the US as the world’s self-appointed global leader has singled out Israel for the most massive financial assistance over a period of many years, and has lent controversial support to Israel to shield it from censure by the UN; –Israel itself claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East and otherwise posits itself as a shining example even extending to the boast that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. These three reasons explain and justify the attention given to Israel’s alleged wrongdoing. Beyond this, the fact that worse offenders are not scrutinized to the same extent as Israel is more an argument for according more attention to such offenders. It is not excuse for Israel’s behavior. Whether we like it or not the Israel-Palestine conflict has become the litmus test of international morality ever since the collapse of apartheid South Africa.”

Falk’s reasons for assigning only Israel and none of the other nominated states “special case” status are outrageous and can be dismissed on the following grounds:

1. The “League initiatives” to which Falk refers is the Mandate for Palestine unanimously endorsed by the League of Nations in 1922. Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – products of the same Mandates system – are currently humanitarian and politically dysfunctional disaster areas. Yet Falk does not regard them as “special cases”.

2. The views of “the population physically present” were taken into account  being both politically and violently expressed from the moment Britain assumed its role as Mandatory. Arab riots in 1920, 1929 and between 1936-1939 expressed opposition to the Jewish National Home. The 1922 decision on Transjordan, the 1937 Peel Commission, the 1939 White Paper restricting Jewish emigration to Palestine, and the 1947 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine all recommended changes to the Mandate’s stated policy to the detriment of the Jewish people.

3. Israel’s legitimacy was not established by the United Nations – but by the League of Nations, seven decades of State building and defeating six invading Arab armies in 1948.

4. Since when did financial aid received from another country qualify the recipient to be classed as a “special case” because other countries received lesser aid or no aid from the same donor country?

5. America has not always vetoed resolutions against Israel in the Security Council. America has also vetoed resolutions affecting countries including Panama, Nicaragua, Namibia and South Africa – but never have they been regarded as “special cases”

6. Israel is indeed the only democracy in the Middle East and its army is certainly one of the most moral armies in the world – yet Falk has long advocated support for the PLO and Hamas whose stated objectives are to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Falk’s discredited assertion that Israel is a “special case” setting it apart from the world community for special treatment encourages

* the media to keep focusing disproportionately on Israel

* Arab and Islamic countries justifying their continuing non-recognition of Israel

* Jew-haters and self-hating Jews world-wide maintaining their campaigns denigrating and delegitimising Israel.

“Jews are always good for news” needs an urgent media rethink and policy overhaul – if increasing Jew-hatred world-wide is to be effectively silenced.

Ignorant Anti-Israel Bias: Jon Donnison Strikes Again

 

Operation Protective Edge – 2014 

On July 7, 2014, the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge in order to restore quiet to the region and stop Hamas terrorism. The single goal of the operation is to stop Hamas’ incessant rocket attacks against Israel’s civilians.

The operation is ongoing, and since the start of the operation over 1000 rockets have been launched at Israel. Of those, 754 have hit Israel and approximately 201 were intercepted by the Iron Dome Missile defense system.

Hamas has fired long range rockets at cities across Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Rockets such as the M-302 – the same missiles confiscated from the KLOS-C weapons seizure – have long range capabilities and endanger the majority if Israel’s population. Rocket sirens have sounded non-stop across Israel, sending civilians running for shelter.

In response to these rocket attacks, the IDF has targeted over 1,474 terror targets using precision attacks to pinpoint terrorists and terror infrastructure while limiting civilian casualties.

Seriously, how much longer is this loose cannon of a BBC reporter going to be allowed to tweet selective and ignorant accounts of Israel's actions before he's replaced by someone who's neutral and objective?

"The Future Of Jewish Life In Europe Has Now Become One That Is Questioned" (video)

"Not antisemitism", huh? Stuttgart, Germany, this July

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, and with that in mind Arsen Ostrovsky observes, inter alia, in the Times of Israel:

'When chants of “death to the Jews” or “Jews get out” are common, violent assaults are rising and there are increasing calls for boycotts against Israeli and now kosher products, one cannot but help compare the situation with the 1930’s....

The difference ... is that today’s anti-Semitism is being waged against not only Jews as individuals, but also in the vilification and assault on Israel’s legitimacy, as the Jew among the nations, with false claims and malicious distortions of truth cloaked as acceptable criticism of Zionism and Israel....

In fact, for today’s anti-Semite, the term ‘Jew’ and ‘Israeli’ are interchangeable. They are one and the same. This was demonstrated perhaps most aptly by a recent pro-Palestinian protestor in Geneva, who charged at a Synagogue, with a sign exclaiming “Every Synagogue is an Israeli Embassy.”

Many Jews across Europe are now increasingly being forced to change their way of life, hide their identities and separate from their Judaism out of fear of anti-Semitism. Some are even openly questioning: is there even a future still left for them in Europe? ...'

Consequently, Ostrovsky offers a five-way strategy to counteract the problem (read his article here)

Below is a video regarding antisemitism in Europe.

It shows the American Jewish Committee's Director of International Jewish Affairs, Rabbi Andrew Baker (from whose introduction comes the quotation in my header) moderating a panel discussion featuring the consuls general of Spain (Juan Martinez Salazar), Sweden (David E.R. Dangoor), Hungary (Karoly Dan) and Poland (Ewa Junczyk Ziomecka).

It's a serious discussion and a long one, and probably best listened to in installments, while doing the dishes, the ironing, polishing the car, or soaking in the bath.

And see this disturbing (much shorter) video on antisemitism on American campuses here


Meanwhile, for an intriguing assessment of who came out best from Operation Protective Edge, see Elliott Abrams's substantial article here

"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

What Makes The Welsh Greens' Leader "Think"

Flamboyant, statuesque  and with a flair for courting the limelight, Pippa Bartolotti is leader of the Welsh Greens, and in May tried for a seat in the European Parliament.

One of that monstrous regiment of liberated western feminists who for reasons best-known to themselves appear to prefer the Hamas misogynists to the gender-tolerant Israelis, she is known for her oft-expressed condemnation of Israel, and for her participation in the flotilla/flytilla stunts.

She is also known for making a bit of a fool of herself by displaying a flag with a far-from- blemish-free symbolism:

And for this rant while in transit in Israel in 2011.

On Facebook she's shared this video, of Gazans celebrating the new ceasefire, interpreted by them as a "victory" over Israel (So, h/t to Ms Bartolotti).

Here's a nugget of naive and noisome nonsense that she's also posted on Facebook within the past twenty-four hours.

A sensible riposte from a fellow-countryman of hers that, predictably,  has not gone down well among the leftist Israel-haters who follow her:

Ms Bartolotti is by no means the first leftist Israel-basher to attempt to push an analogy between Anglo-Jews who have served in the IDF and Bristish Muslims who have flocked to the banners of extremist forces in the Middle East from the United Kingdom, "the Yemen of the West" as one journalist is calling it.  (I seem to recall that Stephen Sizer made a remark along those lines of Ms Bartolotti's on Facebook some time ago.) And I doubt she will be the last.

It is, of course, utterly ridiculous to draw a parallel between Jews who have served in Israel's defensive wars and Muslims who have joined the ranks of Jihad.  It is a false analogy that in today's antisemitic climate only serves further to demonise Anglo-Jews and of course Israel itself, and indeed to minimise the repellent preoccupations of the Britons fighting for ISIS.

It marks a fresh low in the Left's ongoing crusade against Israel and Zionism and in the Left's inexplicable love affair with Islam and Islamists.

Update:

That particular virus eems to be catching

 Read more about Yasmin Queshi's remarks here

David Singer: Why The "Canberra Declaration On Gaza" Is A Dud

Signatory Sylvia Hale pickets the Israel Film Festival in Sydney yesterday

This, the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, is entitled "Gaza – Australian Politicians Duped By Dud Declaration".

He writes:

The Canberra Declaration on Gaza signed by 77 current and former Federal and State parliamentarians [including former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser] displays their total factual ignorance and political naiveté concerning the war raging between Hamas and Israel for the last six weeks.

The Declaration has been “Published courtesy of Kohram”.  Kohram is a 24/7 online Hindi and English News and Views website based in Delhi, India. It offers real information relating News Analysis, World Wide News, Politics, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Industry and Feature Articles on Education.

Another picketer

Australian politicians acknowledging assistance from an Indian media website seems a strange circumstance indeed. The Declaration was created by Maiy Azize, a Canberra-based health and social policy analyst. She is a parliamentary advisor in health and community services and campaigner for @GreensMPs. Twenty-one of the Declaration’s signatories are parliamentarians representing the Greens Party. The header image is attributed to Nakshab Khan and was featured in an article written by him for Kohram on 13 July headlined “Will Israeli Offensive Achieve Anything In Gaza?”

Khan wrote:

“Israel always justifies its aggression on the Gaza strip by blaming Hamas militants for firing crude rockets on the Jewish nation’s southern territories.”

Khan was apparently unaware that in the five weeks preceding 8 July 234 rockets had been launched from Gaza into Israel reaching as far as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Hadera – sending hundreds of thousands of civilians scurrying into air raid shelters and disrupting normal life in Israel as well as threatening its tourist industry in the peak summer season. Long range rockets such as the M-302 were employed – the same missiles confiscated from the KLOS-C weapons seizure.

Israel’s inherent entitlement to self-defence under article 51 of the United Nations Charter to prevent the indiscriminate firing of these rockets into Israeli population centres – each rocket an internationally acknowledged war crime – was not worth a mention in Khan’s article.

Australian politicians need to be very careful about their names being identified with a document whose origins are so murky – a Declaration that itself is deceptive and misleading in the following respects:

1. It claims to bear the signatures of members of Australian federal and state Parliaments – yet five of the 77 signatories are former members of those parliaments.

2. Although titled “Canberra Declaration on Gaza” and updated to 4 August it supports

“an immediate cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire deal which includes an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to the blockade of Gaza”

The Declaration ignores any reference to Hamas having rejected a ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt on 16 July and accepted by Israel – and to a number of ceasefire agreements broken by Hamas since then. The Declaration ignored the findings of the 2011 United Nations Palmer Report which found that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza complied with the requirements of international law and recommended that Israel should continue with its efforts to ease its restrictions on movement of goods and persons to and from Gaza in accordance with Security Council resolution 1860 –  all aspects of which should be implemented.

3. The Declaration omitted to include the following underlined words :

“We call on all Australian politicians to also support the United Nations Human Rights Council's decision to launch an independent inquiry into purported violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014”

4. The Declaration alleged that the rockets fired into Israel were “imprecise” and “cannot be compared with the broad-scale bombing of Gaza by Israel”.

A grossly misleading allegation indeed – echoing Nakshab Khan’s spurious claim – considering Hamas rockets were landing all over Israel – whilst Israel’s response was limited to specific targeted areas within Gaza.

5. The Declaration asserted that:

“Collective punishment is not permitted under the Geneva conventions and is a war crime”.

Whilst not specifically accusing Israel of perpetrating this crime, it is clear that the entire civilian population of Israel was being targeted by the broad-scale Hamas barrage of rockets – whilst large parts of Gaza’s civilian population were not being affected by Israel’s actions.

6. The Declaration claimed that hospitals and places of worship were among the Israeli military's targets – but ignored mentioning that such places were used to conceal underground tunnels and weapons and their use as command centres by Hamas.

7. The Declaration concluded:

“The international community including Australia has a vital responsibility to put pressure on Israel to end its current military attack on Gaza and broker a solution of justice and peace.”

Why no pressure on Hamas – especially as Israel had agreed to end its military attack on Gaza three weeks previously and subsequently on a number of other occasions – only to see them broken by Hamas?

8. The Declaration – like Khan’s article - makes no mention of Israel’s inherent right of selfdefence.

Those parliamentarians who signed this Declaration have some explaining to do to their constituents.

I wrote to Senator Lee Rhiannon – one of two named parliamentarians to contact about signing this Declaration – requesting she comment on my criticisms of the Declaration.

Regrettably at the time of writing this article no response has been received.

Seventy-seven out of a possible 598 Federal and State politicians have signed – which attests to the savvy political acumen of those 521 who have refused to be duped by this dud Declaration.

“If Ever There Was A Group Of Lions Being Led By Donkeys This Is It. Our Leadership Has Been Invisible"

From Friday's Times

As reported in Friday's Jewish Chronicle, members of the British Jewish community are up in arms at what is widely seen as the supine response of communal leaders, especially the Board of Deputies, to the fall-out from the current Gaza situation.

One dissatisfied Jew, lawyer Mark Lewis

 'suggested communal leaders “couldn’t organise a p***-up in a brewery”.

He said: “If ever there was a group of lions being led by donkeys this is it. Our leadership has been invisible. The Sussex Friends of Israel have done more than the Board of Deputies. 

“Hitherto unknowns in communal work have risen to natural leadership roles, stood up and mobilised.

“Who mobilised the communities in Leeds and Manchester to go to Bradford [and challenge George Galloway]? No one. We have to stand up as a community. If our leaders won’t lead us, then we need new leaders.” ....'

The Chief Rabbi, Dr Ephraim Mirvis, told the meeting:

 “I felt I must be here to express solidarity with Israel at this time. We have been enduring a very challenging time. We want to engage in positive action.”

Read more here 

"Anti-Semites Have Never Really Distinguished among Zionists, Israelis & Jews"

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, young children, anti-"Zionists" in the making, are recruited into helping to rid a supermarket's shelves of Israeli goods.  See the video below; at about 0.25 (or do my ears deceive me?) a mother's voice tells her children that the cart of removed produce is the "Jewish cart".

Windows of the local synagogue  were smashed by thugs last month.

And now a plaque on the house that was the birthplace in 1918 of Chaim Herzog, whose father was at that time the city's rabbi, has been taken down ostensibly for nearby residents' safety:

'[A]ccording to one DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] councillor, the plaque has had to be removed due to a spate of attacks.

Brian Kingston said there was concern for the safety of those living in the area.

"Attacks have included the scrawling of anti-Israeli graffiti on the building and items being thrown at the plaque and the house," he said.

"Recently some youths were stopped in the process of trying to remove the plaque with a crowbar.

"Out of concern for staff and for residents living in neighbouring houses, the community group and the Ulster History Circle have decided that it was best to remove the plaque for the foreseeable future, and it was removed at the end of last week.'

These incidents in Belfast, while not as serious as many that are occurring elsewhere, are indicative nonetheless of the antisemitism that has erupted in Britain  during the current Gaza crisis.

"While I may not be Israeli, I am a Zionist — an ideology so misunderstood of late that it has become akin to a four-letter word. Used as a term of abuse for Jews by jihadis, alongside ‘crusaders’ for Christians, ‘Zionist’ has found its way into popular parlance", observed a (decidedly non-Likudnik) British Jew  in a London newspaper recently.

"Being a Zionist simply means that you believe the Jews have the right to a homeland, a safe haven....

The other day, a friend said to me: ‘I have no problem with Jews, just Zionists.’ She couldn’t understand why this might be perceived as anti-Semitic.

Let me state for the record that I — and almost every other Jewish person I know — think what’s happening in Gaza is awful....

But I also believe in Israel’s right to defend itself from years of rocket attacks by Hamas, a terrorist group which uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, deliberately stores its weapons in schools and hospitals and has stated many times that it wants to see the outright destruction of Israel.

....Seeing the suffering of a Palestinian child injured in an Israeli bomb attack is heartbreaking. But is it any more heartbreaking than the suffering or death of a child in Syria or Iraq?

Yet everyone, from Facebook friends to Hollywood stars such as Penelope Cruz, seems to think that what’s happening in Gaza merits special attention — and that the Israelis deserve special condemnation.

Why? I can only think it’s because Israelis are mostly Jewish, and the world is only comfortable when Jews are victims, underdogs, kept in our place. It’s no coincidence that, for centuries, anti-Semites have perpetuated the myth that a international conspiracy of Jews runs the world.

The difference now is that criticising Israel is seen as the politically correct thing to do. Facebook friends whom I’ve never seen make a political statement, or discuss any topical issue, now post link after link to articles and videos that decry what the Israelis are doing in Gaza.

Often their posts betray ignorance about the facts and history of a very complicated, very old conflict. Some posted links are years out of date, others inaccurate or fabricated propaganda, like an oft-shared video purporting to show an Israeli child beating a captured Palestinian child which, in fact, turned out to be film of a Lebanese child beating a Syrian child.

These posts do little but spread confusion and stir up hatred. People who would never dream of writing anti-Muslim sentiments — because it’s not politically correct and, perhaps, because they would be scared to — quite happily post anti-Jewish ones, thinking they have the moral high ground.

In their criticisms of Jews they betray old prejudices: Jews are too rich, too successful, too clever for our own good, we have a ‘superiority complex’.

If you dare to respond negatively, you face a barrage of criticism and, worse, the accusation that you are supporting ‘genocide’."

And, as Professor Efraim Karsh, formerly of London and now of Jerusalem, writes:

'Let's admit it: Israel can never win the media war against Hamas. No matter what it does, no matter how hard it tries.

Not because the Islamist terror group that is raining missiles on its cities and villages and using its own hapless subjects as human shields is the underdog in this conflict, but because the sight of Arabs killing Jews (or other Arabs for that matter) is hardly news; while the sight of Jews killing Arabs is a man-bites-dog anomaly that cannot be tolerated....

Just as western politicians and the media have ignored Hamas's indiscriminate missile attacks on Israeli civilians but jumped up and down over Israel's military response, so they have been bending over backward since 9/11 to embrace their Muslim citizens and to accommodate their perceived needs and sensitivities while remaining willfully blind to the fact that it is Jews, not Muslims, whose lives have been most adversely affected by increasing hostile attitudes on the ground – after all it is the Jews, not Muslims of Europe, who are emigrating in record numbers to find a safe haven. It is Jews who feel vulnerable to attack, and who have faced the most violence, and whose institutions from synagogues to community buildings to Jewish newspaper offices have been under heavy police guard for years, because of events in the Middle East – no Muslim community in the West has had to undertake similar security precautions.

The truth of the matter is that since anti-Semites have never really distinguished among Zionists, Israelis and Jews (notwithstanding repeated protestations to the contrary), and since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, it has been tacitly construed as epitomizing the worst characteristics traditionally associated with Jews and has attracted the full brunt of anti-Jewish bigotry and hatred hitherto reserved for individuals and communities, not least because it has reversed the millenarian Jewish condition of dispersal, minority status and powerlessness. If prior to Israel's establishment Jews were despised because of their wretchedness and helplessness, they have hitherto been reviled because of their newly discovered physical and political empowerment.

So much so that 64 years after its establishment by an internationally recognized act of self-determination, the Jewish state remains the only state in the world whose right to self-defense, indeed to national existence, is constantly challenged....'

Read the professor's entire article here

And for a casual antisemitic reference to New Zealand's halachically Jewish prime minister see here

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. 

Melbourne Anti-Israel Demo: Faces in the crowd

Yesterday, in "Marvellous Melbourne"; a motley assemblage, including trade union representatives with union banners, Muslims teaching the Torah, and members of ethnic communities certain Jewish "social justice" and "asylum seeker" advocates have gone out of their way to help ...

Oh, and of course the feminist sisterhood:

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.