In Old London Town, The Ferals Come Out (video)

PSC photo

Needless to say, all decent people view the fate of young Mohammed Abu Khdeir (reportedly burnt alive) as a monstrous act of wickedness, and believe that those responsible should suffer condign punishment, applied with the full force of the law.

But the fact remains that  the perpetrators of this vile act still remain unknown.

Indeed, there are suggestions that since burning people alive is a hallmark of ISIS, that brutal organisation may have killed the unfortunate Palestinian boy in order to foment all-out conflict with Israel.

The assumption that "Jewish settlers" abducted and killed the youngster in retaliation for the murders of the three murdered Israel teenagers has been widespread, beginning from the minute he was reported to have been kidnapped.

Complicit in this have been elements of the mainstream media (including, of course, the Quislingesque rag Ha'aretz) as well as the usual suspects in the West, such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has all along taken Jewish settler culpability as a given.

(There is a good post about the widespread attitude to the killing, and the fact that that killing might not be what the Israel-bashers assume, here.  For some British parliamentary reactions to the entire kidnapping crisis, click here)

Yesterday, in London, members of the PSC were joined by a number of other Israel-delegitimising groups (Friends of Al-Aqsa, the London Palestine Action, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and inevitably Israel-hating Jews) in demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy.

A still from Alex Seymour's video

As described in a London evening  newspaper:

'Pro-Palestine campaigners held a 'die in' protest in west London today to highlight what they see as the "horrific escalation of racism and violence" in the country by the Israeli authorities.

Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy close to Kensington High Street to call on Israel to stop attacks on Palestinian citizens and to end its occupation of Gaza.

At one point they brought traffic to a standstill and had to be moved along by police....

The event was sparked by the recent killing of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair....'

The event was captured on video by Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander), himself a rabid critic of the Zionist Entity:

""Break The Crosses & Destroy The Lin­eage Of The Grand­sons Of Mon­keys"

 From that master demagogue, George Galloway:

Meanwhile, reports blogger John Rossomando:

'A Twitter post Thursday by supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now calling itself the Islamic State (IS), has promised a Holocaust against the Jews.

"The Real Zionist Holocaust is Predicted in the Hadiths! The Hour [resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and the tree will say: "Oh, Muslim, servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, kill him! THE PROMISED Holocaust," the terrorist group's Islamic State Media a graphic posted on its @ISIS_Conquests's Twitter account said.

This hadith has proven popular with Islamic extremists of all stripes, ranging from IS to Hamas – and even on television in the Middle East.

Daniel Pipes, an expert on jihadism, said the hadith likely was a recruitment tool.

"​Yes, ​calling for a holocaust against Jews refers to a violently anti-Semitic strain among jihadis and will surely appeal to some of them," Pipes said in an email to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Anti-Semitic propaganda has played an important role in the terrorist group's recruitment effort. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, placed Jews on the side of evil in a speech posted Tuesday on the Internet in which he called on Muslims to join him.

"O ummah of Islam, the world today has been divided into two camps and two trenches … The camp of Islam and faith, and the camp of kufr (disbelief) and hypocrisy … all being led by America and Russia, and being mobilized by the Jews," al-Baghdadi said.

In another such video released on Twitter, IS told jihadists to "Break the crosses and destroy the lin­eage of the grand­sons of mon­keys."

Some jihadist supporters are calling on the group to open a new front against Israel....'

Read all of Rossomando's post here

"The Israeli Army Killed Palestinian Children For Sport": Vivid imaginations run rampant

It's instructive to note how elements within the Western BDS movement reacted to the kidnapping crisis that began on 12 June and had its tragic denouement this week.

From the start, conspiracy theories abounded.  The earliest consisted of allegations that Israel had faked the kidnapping of the three tragic teenagers as a pretext to mount an offensive against the Palestinian Arabs, and an article in Ha'aretz (see below), the despicable rag that's the Israeli newspaper of choice for foes of Israel everywhere, played its inevitable part in the dissemination of the theory.

There were suggestions that Israel had made sure to include among the abductees a youngster with American as well as Israeli nationality in order to whip up outrage on the part of American Jews and ensure their support for Operation Brother's Keeper.

There was indignation on the part of some Israel-haters that the media had given publicity to the three boys' disappearance and subsequent fate, alleging that the media values Jewish lives above Palestinian ones: amazingly (as the above photo indicates), there was a demonstration outside the BBC's headquarters over this point.  But look at BBC Watch's posts (latest one here) to be persuaded of the unsubstantiated nature of the allegation! (Presumably the Israel-haters want the BBC to be biased at all times against Israel, whereas what the BBC should at all times be is impartial and objective, favouring neither side over the other. But as I've observed before, such demonstrations enable the smug, self-satisfied BBC to claim that, since Israel's supporters also perceive it as biased against their side, the Corporation's reportage is balanced: "just about right".)

There was a desperate recourse to the "Israel has killed 1518 Palestinian children since 2000" mantra,  citing "official figures from Ramallah".  Needless to say, these "official figures" are highly suspect, manipulated and politicised, and the definition of "children" is deeply flawed. "Children" implies non-combatants, and persons below, say, 16 years of age.

Elder of Ziyon, in a post of 1 July titled "How NGO's make up lies about Israel", happens to discuss highlights one of the very graphic summaries that the Israel-haters have been citing. (Hat tip: reader Yosef)

Some of the reaction to the kidnapping and the ensuing Operation Brother's Keeper in representative images:

Is that the gospel truth, vicar?

This report seized many an anti-Zionist imagination

By an American heavy-duty antisemite whose posts infest Facebook

Widely shared on Facebook by the usual suspects

A well-peddled poster with the anti-Israel set

Numerous Israel-haters took up this theme, with various images

No "Christian charity" here for the mourning Israeli families

From the Scottish PSC chief

From a pin-up of the Israel-haters in Britain and abroad

Veteran anti-Israel MP Jeremy Corbyn in the Morning Star

Moral relativism and conspiracy

See here for Tony Gratrex

Australia's Israel-demonising Left gets into the act

A link to a conspiracy-theory video

Another conspiracy theory; Note that the boys are termed "soldiers" here!

Protesting Al Beeb's "pro-Israel" bias! (Should have gone to SpecSavers!)

Steve Bell's cartoon in today's Guardian

A vile crime, but the perpetrators aren't yet known for sure

Al Beeb's Jon Donnison tweets his ten cents' worth here and below

 

Now that he's been told as much by another Twitter member, Eugene Kontorovich, Donnison will in future perhaps bear in mind that the policy of home demolitions was adopted as a punitive necessity against families rewarded by the Palestinian Authority with both money and adulation for producing terrorist shahids; unlike the PA, Israel is not disposed to reward those of its people who are found to have carried out heinous acts. 

 For their part, the Palestinian media shamelessly manipulated the facts.  As reported inter alia here,

'the Palestinian media routinely referred to the three murdered boys as “settlers” and in some cases, also as “soldiers.”   The Palestinian news agency Wafa condemned Israel for collectively punishing Palestinians, but did not denounce the murder of the three Jewish youngsters.   They merely referred to them as “the three settlers” that disappeared.

Fatah’s official Facebook page, however, referred to them as “the three killed soldiers, whose bodies according to Israeli claims, were found in Hebron.” Two weeks ago, Fatah had celebrated the kidnapping of the three boys with a caricature posted to their Facebook page showing three mice with Stars of David attached to a fishing hook. According to an article [Dr Mudar] Zahran [the exiled leader of the Palestinians in Jordan, who is of course a friend of Israel; see for example his recent video here] wrote in the Gatestone Institute, the official PA daily had written that “Israel was behind the kidnapping,” alleging that the three were soldiers. He noted that the kidnappings were celebrated by average Palestinians with glorifications of the kidnappers and the passing out of sweets.... 

[R]eferences to the three boys as soldiers tend to be retweeted more than any other mention of them within the Palestinian Authority [as in Adnan Abdulal's post reproduced above]....

As Zahran wrote in the Gatestone Institute, “Keep in mind that the PA exerts extreme monitoring and control over social media used by Palestinians in the West Bank. A Palestinian man was jailed for six months for liking an anti-PA post on Facebook. The PA, therefore, is fully responsible for encouraging the celebrations of the kidnappings over Palestinian social media.”

.... Zahran stressed, “My comment as the leader of the Palestinians in Jordan, which numbers 6.2 million people is it is with our sincere sense of sadness and disgust that we extend our condolences to the families of the killed children and to Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as to the Israeli people. We are forced to remind everyone that the death of these young men is yet another result of the Oslo Agreement and its time to consider different options.”

Zahran called on the Israeli leadership to hold the Palestinian leadership within the Palestinian Authority responsible for what happened: “As much as it is a tragedy, it’s a chance for all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, to have Oslo ended forever. Everyone in Judea and Samaria is better off under Israeli sovereignty and now in Jordan, while we have the Israeli Army protecting us from ISIS, we have another reason to see that Israel’s power is the only guarantee of safety and security for Palestinians in Jordan and inside Israel.”'

"This Evening We Buried Our Boys .... Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay and Hamas will continue to pay"

Declared Binyamin Netanyahu a few hours ago, before the start of a Security Cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the funeral for the three murdered teens:

"This evening we buried our boys – Naftali, Gilad and Eyal, may God avenge their blood.

The entire nation supports the families and the entire nation is united in our struggle against murderous terrorism. We are fighting it decisively and with determination.

We have three tasks:

First, to reach the murderers and all those who participated in the kidnapping. Whoever was involved in the kidnapping and the murder will bear the consequences. We will neither rest nor slacken until we reach the last of them and it does not matter where they will try to hide. We will reach them all even if it takes time. This is our first goal and it will be carried out.

Second, we must vigorously strike at Hamas members and infrastructures in Judea and Samaria. We have already arrested hundreds of Hamas activists. We have closed dozens of institutions. We have demolished homes. We are still active.

Third, is that we must act against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is continuing to encourage the abduction of our citizens and it is directly responsible for firing rockets and mortars at our territory, including in the past few hours. The IDF has been active in recent days against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip and here as well we are still active. If need be, we will expand the campaign.

Anyone who thinks that they can achieve anything by using terrorism against us will continue to be mistaken and will achieve the opposite results.

Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay and Hamas will continue to pay. We are acting with determination, sagacity and responsibility with the top consideration – of myself, the Defense Minister and the Chief-of-Staff – being to ensure the security of Israel's citizens."

By Jonathan S. Tobin in Commentary magazine (read his entire article here):

'Now that the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers have been found, we can expect the usual chorus of pro forma condemnations of terrorism and sympathy for the victims to be voiced by many world leaders. But the willingness of so many of the same people to treat deliberate attempts to target civilians by the Palestinians as morally equivalent to the fate of those Arabs killed while conducting violence against Israelis gives the lie to their pose of objectivity.

.... The Hamas terror group that is believed to be behind the crime will feel the consequences of what appears to be the cold-blooded murders of these three boys shortly after their abduction. Hamas’s partners in the Palestinian Authority will also be put to the test as the Israelis will now see whether PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s helpful rhetoric condemning the kidnapping will be matched by actions that disassociate his government from terrorists.

But once condolences have been given and the boys buried, the atrocity will probably be shoved down the global memory hole as Palestinians and their cheerleaders contend that the terror attack on the teens must be seen as either an understandable reaction to the “occupation” or morally equivalent to the fate of those Palestinians who die while attacking Israeli forces. The New York Times provided a prime example of such thinking this morning in an article published only hours before the bodies were found.....

.... Israel will be justified in taking drastic actions against Hamas in the coming days, especially in light of the news that, for the first time in years, the Islamist group is firing missiles into southern Israel from Gaza rather than farming out that duty to other Palestinian groups. But the point here isn’t so much the necessity to mete out retaliation for the kidnapping/murders as it is the necessity of the Palestinians to reassess their actions and belief system that set this chain of events in motion.

The tragic ending to the search should also cause those—like the New York Times—who routinely treat the victims of terror as somehow morally equivalent to those who aid and support terror to think again about what it truly means to be evenhanded in one’s thinking about the conflict. By treating these events as an excuse for superficial moralizing rather than an honest evaluation of a toxic Palestinian political culture that glorifies terror, the Western media plays a not insignificant role in perpetuating a conflict that they deplore.'

"We Will Eradicate Hamas" (includes videos)

In the immediate aftermath of the finding of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers who went missing on 12 June, Israel's deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon has stated:

“I was filled with deep sadness upon hearing of the murders of Naftali Frankel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach by Hamas terrorists.  All of Israel mourns with these brave families who will forever hold a special place in the collective hearts of our nation.

In their memories, we must ensure that this tragic end be turned into an opportunity to create a better and safer Israel.  Israelis have the willingness and the fortitude necessary to endure the hardships of a long-lasting operation aimed at eradicating Hamas.

We will not stop until Hamas is completely defeated.  The homes of the terrorists must be demolished and their arms caches destroyed.  Our mission will not be complete until all the terror organizations are deterred from attacking Israelis and understand once and for all that the people of Israel will not be threatened

I call on the international community to end all aid to the Palestinian Authority and its Hamas-backed government.  President Abbas cannot continue to claim to want peace with Israel, while at the same time partnering with Hamas as they kidnap and brutally murder teenagers.”

 Below are two CNN reports ensuing on the finding of the bodies:

David Singer: How Israel Could Be Jordan's Lifeline Against The ISIS Threat

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It's titled  "Palestine – Jordan Faces Looming Crisis With ISIS".

Writes David Singer:

Jordan has mobilized its military forces along Jordan’s 180 kilometre border with Iraq – deploying rocket launchers, armored personnel carriers and tanks following the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) reportedly taking control of the Trebil crossing between Iraq and Jordan on 23 June.

Other reports said members of this Salafist jihadist group took over a number of Iraqi towns in Anbar – including al-Rutba – 40 kilometres from the Jordan-Iraq border.

Osama Al Sharif reports:

"Jordan maintains close ties with the Sunni tribes of Iraq, especially in Anbar. But these tribes provided sanctuary to ISIS founder, Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. It is believed that Jordanian intelligence and an anti-terrorist squad helped the Americans locate and liquidate Zarqawi. The spread of ISIS in Anbar will raise red flags in Amman."

Taylor Luck, an Amman-based political analyst specialized in jihadist movements, opines:

 “Jordan's greatest national security threat currently is neither the Syrian regime or the potential use of chemical weapons - it is the spread of the Islamic State’s ideology and the spillover of the jihadist civil war into Jordan."

Al-Monitor confirms these assessments:

“The quick takeover by ISIS and Sunni rebels of at least three Iraqi governorates in the past two weeks, including the city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has created unease in Jordan for a number of reasons. ISIS has in the past threatened the regime and video clips on YouTube by Jordanian members of the organization, vowing to march on the kingdom and burning their passports, have generated concern. No one really knows how many Jordanians have joined this radical Islamist group, but there are estimates that at least 2,000 jihadists have joined Jabhat al-Nusra, which is associated with al-Qaeda, and ISIS to fight in Syria.”

These developments followed Jordan’s King Abdullah’s surprise meeting with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya last week.

Europe Online magazine explains:

“Jordan has a significant community of ethnic Chechens stemming from 19th century emigration from the Russian empire, while Chechens are thought to make up a significant proportion of Islamic State fighters, who are currently spreading unrest in Iraq.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – currently waging offensives in Syria and Iraq - claims that up to 2,000 fighters in both regions are from the Caucasus.

Kadyrov, who has been battling Islamist insurgents in Chechnya and neighbouring regions, has in the past vehemently denounced Chechen jihadists in the Middle East.”

Abdullah was obviously concerned about the extent to which Chechens already in Jordan might make common cause with ISIS Chechen militants outside it.

Paul Saunders assesses the help Kadyrov could give Jordan:

“While he likely has extremely limited influence over the extremists fighting in the Middle East, he does have a variety of tools at his disposal that go beyond those normally employed by states. One example has been Kadyrov’s apparent deployment of his pro-Russian Chechen fighters in eastern and southern Ukraine to support pro-Russian forces there; Crimea’s new leaders went so far as to award him a medal "For the Liberation of Crimea," a fact proudly reported on Chechnya’s official news website. In explaining the award, a Crimean official said that “at the request of Chechnya’s leader, the Chechen diaspora supported Crimeans in a difficult time.” Kadyrov may well have very useful channels into Jordan’s Chechen diaspora too.”

Abdullah’s visit to Kazyrov – his “brother and friend” – will not have earned him any brownie points with America or the West.

The US Department of State has described Kazyrov’s rule as "corrupt and brutal" and Western human rights organizations frequently condemn his government’s conduct.

See: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4354/isis-jordan

Abdullah is desperately seeking to strengthen the protective umbrella afforded by Israel and the West that has shielded its Hashemite rulers against past PLO, Hamas and Moslem Brotherhood attempts to destabilize Jordan and overthrow the Monarchy.

The Hashemites are long time survivors – having astutely managed to retain 78 per cent of Mandatory Palestine under exclusive Arab sovereignty for the last 92 years.

Jordan has been a safe haven for millions of refugees from past conflicts in Kuwait and Iraq. It currently hosts 599,461 registered Syrian refugees – of whom approximately 27 per cent are aged between 0-17.

Osama Al Sharif warns:

“The possible collapse and partition of Iraq will also have grave geopolitical repercussions on Jordan. The creation of a Sunni enclave along Jordan’s eastern borders will have political, economic and social effects on the kingdom. Israel, too, is worried about such a possibility since Jordan has acted as a buffer zone between the Jewish state and Arab heartland. Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on June 23 that Jordan and Israel have increased their security consultations to deal with the latest ISIS advances in Iraq.”

Jordan badly blundered in ignoring Israel’s warning to stay out of the 1967 Six Day War – resulting in Israel capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem – ending Jordan’s 19 years of uninterrupted occupation since 1948.

Direct negotiations with Israel to redress that fatal decision by redrawing the boundaries between Israel and Jordan within the framework of their 1994 Peace Treaty  should now become an increasingly attractive proposition for King Abdullah to seriously consider.

Article 4.5 provides for co-operation in combating terrorism of all kinds.

Jordan – facing its looming crisis with ISIS – risks suffering the same political and humanitarian disasters currently embroiling Syria and Iraq.

Israel could be Jordan’s lifeline in preventing this happening.

Isi Leibler's Insights Into European Antisemitism, Jewish Leadership Reactions, & Other Critical Current Issues (video)

Here's the highly articulate and characteristically forthright veteran international Jewish leader and Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leibler in conversation with Rabbi Mark Golub on Shalom TV.  The topics range from the kidnapping of the three teenage Israelis in the West Bank, to the New York Metropolitan Opera's planned restaging of the despicable opera "The Death of Klinghoffer", to the crisis of European antisemitism (on which Leibler wrote so perceptively recently here) and the head-in-the-sand attitude of what passes for the Anglo-Jewish leadership.

As Golub remarks, "Isi ... nobody says it like you do".

 And talking of European antisemitism, there is a disturbing report here