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Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Which one do you believe?

Is Fatah lying or is Hamas lying?

Who cares? Pass the popcorn....

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:40 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

When 'Palestinians' die and no one cares

Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you. I know that it's been a while since I posted on this blog - finding the time to sit down and write more than 140 characters has been difficult recently because of work. But it's been quiet today and I thought I would post something.

When does no one care if 'Palestinians' die? When they are killed by other 'Palestinians.' I've been saying that for years, but now, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the same thing - to Russian Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov.
According to the statement, Liberman protested that the UN is ignoring a number of killings and executions that have happened in recent days among the Palestinians in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, as well as in Gaza.

“The international community’s ignoring dozens of dead and wounded shows again the hypocrisy and the double standard that the world employs by ignoring these grave incidents, while on the other hand condemning Israel’s justified actions against terrorism,” he said.

Liberman, according to the statement, expects that the issue of intra-Palestinian killings will be raised at the next meeting of the UN Security Council.
Who does he think will raise it? Does anyone really care?
Mladenov’s office issued a “no comment” when asked about the phone call.
...
On Saturday, Mladenov issued a statement saying that he was “deeply concerned” by growing tensions in Gaza.

He said that over the past decade the Palestinians in Gaza “have lived through four conflicts, with no freedom, unprecedented Israeli restrictions, a dire humanitarian crisis, high unemployment, an ongoing electricity crisis and the lack of political perspective.”

Mladenov called on all Palestinian factions to allow the Palestinian Government to assume its responsibility in Gaza. “Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no efforts should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division. Leaders have a responsibility to avoid escalation and bridge the growing divide between Gaza and the West Bank that further fragments the Palestinian people.”
'Unprecedented Israeli restrictions'? Really? That would be news to East Germans, Hungarians, Czechoslovaks and ordinary Russians.

And which 'Palestinian Government' does Mladenov expect to function in Russia? The one that is in the 12th year of its four-year term? Or the Hamas 'government' which throws its opponents off building roofs?

No, the world doesn't care when 'Palestinians' or other Arabs die - so long as Israel is not involved. That double standard is anti-Semitism - pure and simple.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:00 PM 4 comments

Friday, February 24, 2017

Eyeless in Gaza: How Hamas controls the media in Gaza

For those of you who are in London on Monday night, here's a film you don't want to miss. It's called Eyeless in Gaza, and as the title of this post indicates, it shows how Hamas controls what's reported out of Gaza through intimidation. But that's only half the story. Here's a preview.

Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.



But this isn't just about Hamas intimidating the media. As I have reported previously, the media are willing sheep.
“It’s something I call ‘group think’,” explains Himel.  “Group think isn’t a malicious attempt to lie or distort the truth, but there is a strong herd instinct of what is allowable and what is not.
“When you look at reporting on the Middle East in general, the same model is used. The Syrian conflict was described as a fight for human rights and the Arab Spring was hailed as a revolt against brutal dictators.
“What often happens is the group think will significantly distort what’s really going on when you are reporting something – and if you violate group think you can be in a lot of trouble.”
As a case in point, the film highlights the naval blockade and subsequent raid by Israeli forces on a Palestinian freighter named Karine A in 2007. The vessel was found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons, including short-range Katyusha rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives.
But as the documentary notes: “Very little of the weapons found…made it to the media. Instead, the news focused on flotillas trying to break the naval blockade.”
Why, then, did journalists focus more on the flotillas than the success of the Karine A operation?
Himel explains: “The group think is that an unjustified blockade is causing hardship for the people of Gaza. They can’t get basic food, they can’t move around, they can’t get to family in other places. The media will be attracted to things that strengthen that assumption.
“So a flotilla coming in trying to save the besieged people of Gaza, like those besieged in Leningrad in 1942, is appropriate, whereas if you are talking about a naval blockade that’s stopping arms getting in, you are instantly making the picture more complex – and that doesn’t sit well with editors.”
The consequences for journalists who veered away from the accepted narrative can be extreme.
When RTV reporter Harry Fear tweeted that Gaza rockets had fired into Israel, he was immediately expelled from the area by Hamas officials, while Palestinian journalist Ayman al-Aloul was imprisoned and tortured for being critical about the governing authority in Gaza.
“You pay the price,” says Himel.
There is, however, also another element, which Himel believes underscores the very reasons why the Israel-Gaza conflict is reported in the way it is.
“The real story is there’s a really serious war of beliefs going on, that’s the basis for all of it.
“But editors don’t want to say it, because that means it’s a religious war and you begin to realise how sensitive and complex the whole issue is.”
That decision not to report the conflict as one based on religion has also effectively blocked out mention of Hamas and its anti-Semitic ethos.
I would say it's much more malicious than Himel thinks it is. Let's start with the Karine A. The Karine A happened in January 2002 before this blog existed, not in 2007 as Himel has it. But the 2007 date is convenient. The so-called 'blockade' of Gaza started after Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007. In January 2002, Israel actually controlled Gaza. 

The 'flotillas' have nothing to do with the Karine A and everything to do with the anti-Semitic Europeans (who stand behind the flotillas), who promote the most pernicious lies about Israel and Jews. In fact, it is the Europeans who have done more to keep the dream of 'Palestine' replacing Israel God Forbid than even the Arab states. The Arab states have tired of the 'Palestinian' lies. 

But like the inconvenient fact that our war with Hamas is a religious war, the media also prefers to ignore the inconvenient fact that Europe still dreams of finishing what Hitler started. 

I would still go see Himel's movie, because it's important that someone is at least raising the issue (although Matti Friedman is the guy who really brought the issue up), but given his sloppy reporting on the Karine A, I have to wonder what the movie is really going to say.

To get you thinking, I want to show you the full video from 2014 by an Indian television crew - a video that is quite rare - of which you saw a small clip in the preview above. 

Let's go to the videotape.



My original post containing that video is here.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:15 AM 3 comments

Monday, February 20, 2017

Breaking: Rockets fired from Sinai at Israel

Within the past hour, two rockets have been fired on Israel from an area of the Sinai desert controlled by the Islamic State terror group. Both rockets fell in open areas.
The rockets landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, according to an initial statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. No injuries or damages were caused.

A Red Alert was not sounded, the statement said, due to the fact that the rockets were fired into open space. 
It was reported on Sunday that an Israeli drone killed five ISIS terrorists in the Sinai near Rafah (the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip).

Nothing else could do a better job of making the world forget about the 'Palestinians.'

Heh.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

'Poverty'....

In Israel, which is an OECD country, my two youngest children studied in a school that doesn't have a building last year (one of them will still be there when school starts on Sunday). They study in corrugated tin boxes that are boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter.

Funny, I don't see the 'international community' lining up to give my kids a fancy school building like the one in the picture above.

(Forget the funny number in the tweet - it's almost irrelevant).

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:44 PM 1 comments

Monday, August 29, 2016

More funny 'Palestinian' population statistics

Yesterday, we were told that there are 263,200 students in Gaza.

Today, we are told that there are 50,000 in the 'West Bank.'
As of July 2014, the UN estimates a population of 2,731,052 in the 'West Bank' of which 83% are 'Palestinian Arab,' 33.7% are aged 0-14, and 21.7% are aged 15-24.

As of July 2014, the UN estimates a population of 1,816,379 in Judenrein Gaza, of which 44.7% are 0-14 years old.

Anyone else see a problem with those numbers?

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:53 PM 2 comments

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Gaza is a funny place

UNRWA claimed in a tweet on Saturday that 'oppressed' Gaza has 252 schools (and 78 hospitals - a World Bank report puts that number at 30, still a lot for a small area).
Today, the number of schools has grown to 267. That's right - 15 new schools in a day.

And by the way, it seems that UNRWA forgot to coordinate their numbers with the 'Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.' The PCBS claims approximately 1.73 million 'Palestinians' in Gaza in 2014.  The CIA gives the Gaza 'Palestinian' population at the same time as 1,816,379 (as of July 2014).

But the CIA says 44.7% of the 'Palestinians' are aged 14 and under. I think that means there should be a lot more than 263,200 students.

Hmmm. You don't think someone's monkeying with the numbers, do you?

And by the way, how are they re-building with that alleged Israeli 'blockade' in place?

Hmmm.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Hamas wins a Darwin Award

Yes, it's a travel day again. Greetings from the airline lounge at Paris-Charles DeGaulle.

I've discussed the concept of a Darwin Award many times. A Darwin Award is given to someone who improves the human race by removing himself from the gene pool.

'Palestinians' have won Darwin Awards before (it's just about the only type of reward they ever win). And now a Hamas member has won another one. Posthumously of course.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas announced that one of its operatives was electrocuted to death while working on a tunnel in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Israel Army Radio reported. The news comes as residents of Gaza who seek to rebuild their homes face difficulty in securing the necessary electricity and other resources, which are routinely appropriated by Hamas.
Israel was forced to increase the amount of electricity it sends to Gaza in June after repeated shutdowns at Gaza’s only power plant due to a payment dispute between Hamas and Fatah. Because of this infighting, Gaza residents usually only have six to eight hours of electricity per day. The lack of power has also caused failures at Gaza’s new $100 million sewage treatment facility, which was built with financing from the World Bank.
It's nice to be able to laugh at Hamas once in a while, but really this is not such a joke.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly the head of the research division of Israeli military intelligence and later the director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told reporters in May that the discovery of the tunnels was a sign that Hamas was preparing for another war against Israel. He added that the tunnel digging means that “they definitely invest a lot in making the necessary preparations so that in the next round, when they decide to start it, they will be able to inflict the heaviest damage on Israel, including through those tunnels.”
Commenting on the efforts Hamas was putting into its terror tunnels at the expense of Gazans, long time Palestinian affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh observed, “the last thing Hamas cares about is the welfare of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,”
Haaretz’s defense correspondent Amos Harel wrote in January that “Hamas is investing great efforts and huge sums in the tunnel project. It is reasonable to assume that the number of tunnels crossing under the border is close to that on the eve of Protective Edge,” or the 2014 Gaza war.
But give them a 'state' and the 'Palestinians' will know exactly what to do. The Euroweenies will help them. Oh... wait... Hamas HAS a state in Gaza, and this is what they are doing with it.

What could go wrong?

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:28 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Deja vu all over again: Israel charges UN employee with providing aid to Hamas in Gaza

It's been just five days since Israel charged the head of the World Vision charity in Gaza with siphoning off $43 million for Hamas in the last six years.

Now, an employee of the United Nations' Gaza development agency, UNDP, has been charged with aiding Hamas.
Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said 38-year-old Waheed Borsh has worked as an engineer for UNDP, the U.N. development agency, for 13 years. It said he was arrested in July and confessed to using his position to help Hamas.
The Shin Bet said Borsh used UNDP resources last year to build a jetty for Hamas' naval forces and that he persuaded his managers to prioritize the reconstruction of houses damaged in conflicts with Israel in areas where Hamas members lived.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it has informed U.N. officials of the arrest and the allegations and expects the U.N. to "take concrete measures to ensure that humanitarian activities actually assist those in need in Gaza instead of assisting the terrorist leaders of Hamas."
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said he was concerned about a "worrying trend of U.N. exploitation by Hamas."
A U.N. spokesman in Jerusalem could not immediately be reached.
Imagine what would happen if Israel didn't have a 'blockade' of Gaza in place. 

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:36 PM 0 comments

Slices of life from 'the World's largest concentration camp'

The international media and the 'human rights' group would have you believe that Gaza is impoverished, overcrowded, densely populated, has no recreation and has people who live in constant fear of an Israeli attack. In short, they refer to it as 'the World's largest concentration camp.'

That's a lie.

Here's what Gaza is really like.

Let's go to the videotape - made by Hamas.



And for those of you who doubt that this is Gaza or that the video was made by Hamas....
But don't worry - that won't stop the Europeans from organizing 'flotillas' to Gaza while ignoring the thousands dying by barrel bombs in Assad's Syria because... priorities.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:23 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 07, 2016

NY Times reporter makes excuses for Gaza World Vision chief diverting funds to Hamas


World Vision International is an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1950 by Robert Pierce as a service organization to meet the emergency needs of missionaries. In 1975 development work was added to World Vision's objectives. It is active in more than 90 countries with a total revenue including grants, product and foreign donations of $2.79 billion (2011).

On Thursday, Israel's General Security Agency charged Mohammed el-Halabi, the Gaza director of World Vision, with siphoning off $43 million of aid money from World Vision in the past six years and giving it too Hamas.
Mohammad El Halabi, the manager of Gaza operations for World Vision, the Christian charity group, was arrested in June at the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza while on his way home from meetings in Israel. He spent the next nearly two months in Israeli detention. Israel charged Halabi on Thursday with providing support to Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and which Israel and the U.S. regard as a terrorist organization.
Haaretz has more on the case based on a briefing given to reporters by an official from Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and because a gag order imposed in the case was lifted Thursday. Here’s more from the Israeli newspaper:
The charge sheet says that Halabi, with a masters degree in engineering, joined Hamas's armed wing Izzedin al-Qassam in 2004 and was asked a year later to infiltrate a humanitarian organization so as “to be close to decision makers in a foreign organization, to be involved in the group and operate secretly to advance al-Qassam's interests.”
The Shin Bet accuses Halabi of joining World Vision and sending its funds to Hamas’ military wing, some of it to fund digging military-related tunnels and to purchase weapons.
The Shin Bet alleges that a sum of $80,000 contributed by British donors to assist needy families, and support civilian projects in Gaza were used to build a Hamas position in the Gaza town of Beit Hanun, to pay Hamas activists’ salaries and bonuses members who had fought against Israel in the 2014 war.
Halabi’s attorney rejected the charges, telling Haaretz the fact the World Vision official was detained for 55 days before charges were announced proves, in the words of the newspaper, “there’s a problem with the evidence.” 
The government of Australia doesn't think there's a problem with the evidence: They immediately suspended all aid to World Vision projects in the 'Palestinian territories.'
A Shin Bet official cited by The New York Times said there was no evidence that World Vision had been aware of Halabi’s alleged activities. But Tim Costello, the head of World Vision Australia, which is heavily involved in the Gaza project, told the Times the organization was “very worried” about the impact of the allegations. Indeed, the Australian government said Thursday it was suspending funding to the group’s projects in the Palestinian territories.
On Friday, Germany joined Australia in suspending aid to World Vision projects in Gaza.
World Vision announced on Friday that it will not receive funds from the German government because of the allegations Hamas misused funds, according to a report in the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel.

“The 3.6 million euro, which we received from the [German] Federal Development Ministry and [German] Foreign Affairs Ministry for new projects in the region will no longer be provided until the accusations are clarified,” said a spokeswoman for the World Vision.

Volker Beck, the German Green Party MP and head of the German-Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said in a statement: “World Vision massively damages the trust necessary for aid work for the people in Gaza,” adding that “Hamas is a terrorist organization, which should not be financed with tax-payer funds.”

The paper reported that as much as 1.1 million euro from Germany was transferred to World Vision in Gaza since 2010. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that it welcomed Australia and Germany’s suspension of funds.
But all of that isn't enough for the New York Times' Diaa Hadid. Although she didn't write this in the newspaper (which perhaps might have had the integrity not to publish it), on her personal Twitter page, she was busy making excuses for el-Halabi.
That excuses everything, doesn't it?

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:45 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Video: Hamas terror tunnel tours

Hamas is entertaining the kiddies this summer by opening up one of its terror tunnels in Shuja'iyya in the Gaza Strip for tours.

Let's go to the videotape.





But just give them a 'state' and they'll turn all of Gaza into one giant amusement park....

For those who have forgotten what these tunnels were used for or the toll they took on IDF troops, go here, here, here, here and here.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:42 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 27, 2016

Israel and Turkey 'reconcile': Good for Israel?

Israel and Turkey have agreed to reconcile their six-year split going back to the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010 in which nine Turkish citizens were killed after they attacked IDF soldiers stopping the ship from reaching Gaza (and even before that).

This is from the first link.
As part of the agreement, Israel has agreed to pay $20 million in compensation to the bereaved and injured, and in return Turkey will pass legislation banning legal proceedings against the Israeli soldiers in its courts. Turkey also dropped a demand for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, and will only be permitted to send aid to the territory after it passes security checks at Israel’s Ashdod port. Ankara will also be allowed to build a hospital as well as a power and desalinization plant in Gaza.
In addressing these terms, Netanyahu stressed that the deal will secure the “continuation of the maritime security blockade off the Gaza Strip coast.”
“This is a supreme security interest for us. I was not prepared to compromise on it,” Netanyahu continued.
Turkey in return has committed to thwart the plotting and financing of Hamas terrorist acts against Israel from its soil. It will also not stand in the way of Israeli involvement in international forums to which it belongs, mostly notably NATO.
Jerusalem and Ankara will also restore full diplomatic relations, appointing ambassadors and lifting restrictions on military and intelligence cooperation. Netanyahu added that the deal will open Turkey to Israeli natural gas exports, and that the country could possibly serve as a gateway to European markets. “[The deal has] immense implications for the Israeli economy, and I use that word advisedly,” the prime minister told reporters.
While not a formal part of the deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also personally pledged in a letter to help return the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war, which are thought to be held by Hamas, and free two Israelis reportedly being held by the terrorist group. One of the captives is an Ethiopian Jew — described as mentally-ill by his family — who wandered into Gaza accidentally in 2014; the second man, a resident of a Bedouin town in Israel’s Negev desert, also apparently crossed into Gaza of his own volition. He has been described as mentally disabled.
The agreement is expected to be approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Wednesday.
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Netanyahu on the agreement when the two met in Rome on Monday, calling it a “positive step.”
Who wins from this deal?
“Israel comes out on top here,” Louis Fishman, an assistant professor at Brooklyn College who focuses on Turkish and Israeli affairs, told Reuters. “From the start it believed that a deal could be worked out where Turkish aid was able to enter the Gaza Strip under Israeli supervision. It seems this is what was struck.”
“Restoring relations with Ankara is a linchpin in Israel’s strategy to unlock its natural gas wealth,” Reuters added, noting that Israeli energy stocks and shares in Turkey’s Zorlu Energy rose in reaction to the agreement.
A senior Turkish official has also called the deal a “diplomatic victory.”
But not everyone sees it that way. Some people think the real winner is Hamas.
Israel apparently has agreed to the presence of Hamas in Turkey as long as it does not involve itself directly in terrorist attacks against Israel, but limits itself to political and other supposedly nonviolent activity.

However, the sanction of the presence and “political” activity of Hamas in a country with diplomatic ties with Israel undermines years of Israeli public relations against the terrorist group, which sought to identify Hamas with other Sunni groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State.

...

Would Israel or any other Western country allow the leader of a friendly state with which it has diplomatic relations meet with Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and allow the organization to operate within its territory? Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post the upcoming deal is “a win for the status quo as nothing really changes.”

Besides Hamas not being able to carry out military activity from Turkish soil, everything else stays the same: Hamas maintains its Turkish headquarters; Turkey continues assisting Hamas-ruled Gaza; and Israel facilitates this.

...

Schanzer pointed out that from Israel’s perspective, the government would like to have normalized ties with Muslim countries in general.

“But there is no way to have true normalized relations with Erdogan’s government. It is virtually impossible to imagine, given that Turkey remains an Islamist-ruled state with close ties to Hamas and other anti-Israel organizations.”

Perhaps the deal can be best described as an agreement “to stop publicly fighting, while quietly continuing to disagree on virtually everything.” 
It also remains to be seen how Israel's relations with Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria will be affected by the reconciliation with Turkey.

All in all, it's not a great deal for Israel, principally because it leaves Hamas in place in Turkey. It remains to be seen how Israel will react if Hamas continues to use its Turkish headquarters to orchestrate terror attacks in Judea and Samaria.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:26 PM 0 comments

Thursday, June 16, 2016

'Palestinians' whine to pollsters over Sunni Arabs preferring their own interests

There's a very detailed poll of 'Palestinian' public opinion out ('Palestinian' public opinion tends to be more measurable than in other places in the Arab Islamic world - they learned from Israel). While I may come back to this poll eventually, I'd like to focus on this part for a minute. Keep in mind that this is 'Palestinian' public opinion and not Sunni Arab or other Arabs or Muslims.
(7) The Arab World, war in Syria, ISIS, and US elections: 
78% say the Arab World is too preoccupied with its own concerns, internal
conflicts, and the conflict with Iran and that Palestine is no longer the
Arab’s principal or primary issue or cause. Only 20% think Palestine remains
the Arab’s principle cause. 
They finally are starting to understand that the Arab world is tired of them. It's the anti-Semitic Europeans who have been carrying the ball for the 'Palestinians' for many years now. While the Arab world has not made peace with us, there is a de facto detente, and this a result of shared interests and not love. But the bottom line is that the Arab world has abandoned the 'Palestinians' even more so than it did previously. 
59% believe that there is an Arab Sunni alliance with Israel against Iran
despite the continued Israeli occupation of Arab land while 30% believe that
the Arabs would not ally themselves with Israel until it ends its occupation
and allows the creation of a Palestinian state. 
I'm with the majority. Just from what we know, there is an alliance, and I'd estimate that it's even stronger behind the scenes. The 30% who think that the Arabs wouldn't ally themselves with Israel to save their own necks is simply unrealistic. 
In light of the escalating conflict in Syria and the emergence of three main
parties to the conflict, we asked the public for its view on the party it
views as the more preferable or the one it views as the least harmful. The
largest percentage (40%) chose the Free Syrian army, 18% chose Bashar Asad
and his army, and 5% chose the extreme religious opposition, such as ISIS.
23% said they do not like any of the three parties. 
The Syrian Free Army will go down in history as one of the biggest (of many) foreign policy mistakes by the Obama administration. The FSA could have become a 'moderate' (in relative terms) group had Obama and Clinton chosen to aid it in 2011-12. They did not. Now, it's nearly as Islamist as ISIS. Why Trump isn't pounding Clinton on this.... 
An overwhelming majority of 88% believes that ISIS is a radical group that
does not represent true Islam and 8% believe it does represent true Islam.
4% are not sure or do not know. In the Gaza Strip, 16% (compared to 3% in
the West Bank) say ISIS represents true Islam. 
79% support and 18% oppose the war waged by Arab and Western countries
against ISIS. 
 This is actually a pleasant surprise. 
We asked the public about the US elections and which presidential candidate,
Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump, it viewed best for the Palestinians. A large
majority (70%) said there is no difference between the two candidates, while
12% said Clinton is better and 7% said Trump is better.
I'd love to see a survey of what US citizens in Israel think of the US elections....  I don't like either of them, and am tempted to 'stay home.'

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Monday, June 13, 2016

Hamas' innovative way to eradicate poverty

We all know that the word 'impoverished' always precedes 'Gaza Strip.' But apparently, Hamas' rulers have decided that poverty isn't good for investment, so they've come up with an innovative way to eradicate it: They're arresting beggars.
On May 24, the director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs of the General Investigation Department of the Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip, Imad Harb, announced in a press statement to Safa Press Agency the arrest of 72 beggars, including 42 children in the streets of Gaza. The arrests were part of the campaign launched May 8 by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza in cooperation with the Palestinian police and the Ministry of Culture to fight begging and arrest beggars in Gaza’s streets.
Harb said in his statement that the problem of beggars is being addressed by making them sign pledges not to return to the streets after their arrest. In case the beggar returns to panhandling, the necessary legal measures will be taken for violation of Article 193 of the 1936 Palestinian Penal Code. According to this article, begging is an illegitimate source of income, and beggars are punished with a one-month prison sentence the first time they are caught and a one-year sentence the second time.
However, this campaign has sparked controversy in the Palestinian street, as some questioned its effectiveness in light of the poor living conditions and the government’s failure to address its causes, namely the high poverty and unemployment rates.
Meanwhile, some believe that this campaign is important given that there are panhandlers who are not in need and who have just opted for begging to make money.
And I'm sure Hamas knows just who those panhandlers are....

But hey - no way to blame Israel for this one, so what difference does it make?

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Hamas demonstrates its humanity again

Greetings from London Heathrow. I'm on my way home.

Hamas executed three 'murderers' at dawn on Tuesday. Two were executed by firing squad, while the third, a 'policeman' was hanged.

Last week, Amnesty International called for the 'attorney general' of Gaza to intervene in these cases.

Of course, Amnesty said nothing of Gaza's 'justice system.' Richard Goldstone of the Goldstone Commission once endorsed Hamas' 'court system,' but it goes without saying that Gaza does not have an 'attorney general' and that Amnesty's call is ludicrous.

Hamas does have Abu Mazen, who is supposed to approve any death sentences, but since Hamas broke Gaza off from the more 'moderate' terrorists of Fatah in 2007, they no longer ask Abu Mazen to approve their death sentences.

But just give them a 'state' and they'll sort it all out....

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Gaza's what?

This tweet requires no further comment.


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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:01 PM 1 comments

Sunday, May 15, 2016

In 1961, they knew how to solve the 'Palestinian problem'

Here's an amazing 1961 Atlantic piece (would the Atlantic even publish something like this today @JeffreyGoldberg) written by a woman I am told is Ernest Hemmingway's ex-wife (thanks @soccerdhg) who took a tour of eight 'Palestinian refugee camps' in 1961.

Here's the money quote (in more ways than one) (Hat Tip: @zlando).
On this warlike note, we left. My guide had seemed a sober contented fellow until our little meeting, whereupon he sounded like a politician running recklessly for office. He then astonished me again.
"It can all be solved with money," he said. "Now the people have nothing in their mouths but words, so they talk. Money fills the mouth too. If every man got a thousand dollars for each member of his family, for compensation to have lost his country, and he could be a citizen in any Arab country he likes, he would not think of Palestine any more. Then he could start a new life and be rich and happy. And those who really do own something in Palestine must be paid for what they had there. But those are not many. Most had nothing, only work."
It could - and probably still can - all be solved with money (although probably more today than 55 years ago). But of course no one - especially UNRWA - has any interest in solving it with money. And so, unlike any other refugees in the world, the 'Palestinians' continue to fester in camps... except for the ones who have escaped to the West.

Read the whole thing (I'm still reading it myself). And keep in mind that it was written six years BEFORE Israel 'occupied' the 'West Bank' and Gaza, so obviously that's not the problem.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM 3 comments

Thursday, April 28, 2016

60 years after a terrorist murder and Israel's Gettysburg address

Moadim l'Simcha.

It's just a few minutes until the holiday starts again, and then I will be offline until Saturday night.

60 years ago today (on the secular calendar), a young security guard at Kibbutz Nachal Oz on the Gaza border was murdered by Arab terrorists (Wikipedia and the Times of Israel notwithstanding, there were no Arabs who were known as 'Palestinians' in 1956). Roi Rotberg HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) had moved to Nachal Oz from Tel Aviv. He was eulogized by the IDF Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, in what Wikipedia calls Israel's Gettysburg Address.
In 1956, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan gave a eulogy for a Roi Rotberg, a kibbutz security officer killed near the Gaza Strip,[1] calling upon Israel to search its soul and probe the national mindset. Dayan's eulogy is considered one of the most influential speeches in Israeli history,[2] and has the importance in Israeli collective memory that the Gettysburg Address has in American memory.
Nahal Oz became a kibbutz in 1953 and was frequently in conflict with Arabs who crossed the nearby armistice line from Gaza to reap crops and conduct petty theft.[3] The previous few months had been relatively quiet on the Israel's borders with Egypt and Gaza, but escalated with several cross-border shootings in early April.[3] On April 4, three Israeli soldiers were killed by Egyptian forces on the Gaza border.[3] Israel responded the next day by shelling the center of Gaza City, killing 58 Egyptian and Palestinian civilians as well as 4 Egyptian soldiers.[3] Egypt responded by resuming fedayeen attacks across the border, killing 14 Israelis during the period 11–17 April.[3][4]
Rotberg, the Nahal Oz security officer,[3][5][6][7] was regularly involved in chasing off infiltrators, sometimes using lethal force.[3] On 29 April 1956 he was caught in a prepared ambush; Arab harvest workers began to reap wheat in the kibbutz's fields in a spot where Rotberg would see them, he did, but as he rode toward them to chase them off others emerged from hiding to attack.[3][8] He was shot off his horse, beaten and shot again, then his body was dragged into Gaza.[3] According to Jean-Pierre Filiu, Rotberg's attackers included, "an Egyptian policeman" and "a Palestinian farmer."[9] The body was returned on the same afternoon, badly mutilated, after United Nations intervention.[3][10][11]
Yes, even in 1956, before there was an 'occupation,' Arab terrorists mutilated his body.

Today's Times of Israel includes a translation of Dayan's speech by Mitch Ginsburg. There is a lot here with which one could disagree (Dayan demonstrates far too much sympathy for the Arabs, and we know historically that he did not follow through to reach the conclusions he should have reached). But I have no time to discuss that right now. I'm just throwing it out there for you to think about.
Yesterday with daybreak, Roi was murdered. The quiet of a spring morning blinded him, and he did not see the stalkers of his soul on the furrow. Let us not hurl blame at the murderers. Why should we complain of their hatred for us? Eight years have they sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and seen, with their own eyes, how we have made a homeland of the soil and the villages where they and their forebears once dwelt.
Not from the Arabs of Gaza must we demand the blood of Roi, but from ourselves. How our eyes are closed to the reality of our fate, unwilling to see the destiny of our generation in its full cruelty. Have we forgotten that this small band of youths, settled in Nahal Oz, carries on its shoulders the heavy gates of Gaza, beyond which hundreds of thousands of eyes and arms huddle together and pray for the onset of our weakness so that they may tear us to pieces — has this been forgotten? For we know that if the hope of our destruction is to perish, we must be, morning and evening, armed and ready.
A generation of settlement are we, and without the steel helmet and the maw of the cannon we shall not plant a tree, nor build a house. Our children shall not have lives to live if we do not dig shelters; and without the barbed wire fence and the machine gun, we shall not pave a path nor drill for water. The millions of Jews, annihilated without a land, peer out at us from the ashes of Israeli history and command us to settle and rebuild a land for our people. But beyond the furrow that marks the border, lies a surging sea of hatred and vengeance, yearning for the day that the tranquility blunts our alertness, for the day that we heed the ambassadors of conspiring hypocrisy, who call for us to lay down our arms.
It is to us that the blood of Roi calls from his shredded body. Although we have vowed a thousand vows that our blood will never again be shed in vain — yesterday we were once again seduced, brought to listen, to believe. Our reckoning with ourselves, we shall make today. We mustn’t flinch from the hatred that accompanies and fills the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, who live around us and are waiting for the moment when their hands may claim our blood. We mustn’t avert our eyes, lest our hands be weakened. That is the decree of our generation. That is the choice of our lives — to be willing and armed, strong and unyielding, lest the sword be knocked from our fists, and our lives severed.
Roi Rotberg, the thin blond lad who left Tel Aviv in order to build his home alongside the gates of Gaza, to serve as our wall. Roi — the light in his heart blinded his eyes and he saw not the flash of the blade. The longing for peace deafened his ears and he heard not the sound of the coiled murderers. The gates of Gaza were too heavy for his shoulders, and they crushed him.
There's more here. Chag Sameyach and Shabbat Shalom. See you on Saturday night!

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:42 PM 0 comments

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Hamas continues to tunnel into Israel from Gaza

Based on a Friday night news report....

And now they'll have another $1.7 billion with which to dig tunnels.

#ThanksObama

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:54 AM 0 comments

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