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Gaza Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 22, 2014 13 Comments
Part of the big news today is that multiple airlines have cancelled flights to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel as a result of a rocket landing in a town nearby. At first it was unclear if this was a unilateral action, or under pressure from governments. It appears that the FAA and European aviation authority issued a temporary order to that effect. El Al continues to fly, as do some other airlines. But one cancellation can have a ripple effect as other airlines are questioned whether they are putting passengers at undo risk in light of other airlines' can The implications are enormous. Whether intended or not, Hamas has made the case as to why it's rocket arsenal and infrastructure must be dismantled no matter the cost. It also has justified why Israel cannot give up security control of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"). Hamas has to fire a long way to scare away air traffic, but from the West Bank it's practically a stone's throw. Alan Dershowitz points out, Has Hamas ended the prospects for a two state solution?(h/t Roger Simon):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 22, 2014 44 Comments
I tweeted about this yesterday: Now Yair Rosenberg of Tablet Magazine has the video: This is part of a worldwide phenomenon, and puts the lie to the claim that in modern political reality there is any difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

Posted by David Gerstman on July 22, 2014 2 Comments
According to Ynet nine soldiers were killed Monday in separate incidents. Israel also announced that one of the soldiers killed in Sunday's armored personnel carrier attack has not yet been accounted for. Although not all the circumstances are clear, it appears Hamas may have retrieved body parts and/or belongings to the dead soldier: https://twitter.com/CiFWatch/status/491539100491866113 Of the 27 Israeli soldiers killed so far in Operation Protective Edge, 6 of them have been killed inside of Israel, not Gaza. In separate incidents soldiers were killed by terrorists emerging from terror tunnels:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 21, 2014 9 Comments
Part of the anti-Israel war effort includes attempts to demoralize Israel and its supporters. That is why Hamas, Hezbollah and others try so hard to kidnap Israeli civilians or soldiers, and even to grab dead bodies. That psychological warfare is on full display in the media and social media. But it's not working because Israelis know that Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups in Gaza, who fire from among civilians towards civilians, leave Israel with no choice but to fight in a war it didn't want but in which so much is at stake. Despite losses from infiltrators and in city combat, Israeli troop morale is high from all reports. The video below has gone viral on Facebook, with over 30,500 likes and almost 20,000 shares as of this writing. It shows Israeli soldiers on a break from combat in Gaza singing: The song is "Who Believes" by Eyal Golan. This is a rough translation (thanks to our Israeli family friend Daniel for the link):

Posted by David Gerstman on July 21, 2014 5 Comments
Note: There are live Video and Twitter feeds at the bottom of the post ----------------------------- Overnight Hamas attempted two infiltrations through tunnels, one of which opened up near the dining room of Kibbutz in Israel. Both sets of terrorists were eliminated by the IDF. There are unspecified reports of Israeli casualties. The Times of Israel reports:
In open ground near Erez five terrorists come out of a tunnel shortly after six in the morning. They surface near the security fence and only a few hundred yards from the nearest community. An IAF aircraft intercepts them, killing all five, with no Israelis wounded. ... Near Kibbutz Nir Am, a second group of terrorists surface on the Israeli side of the border. It is not clear if they emerge from a different tunnel or a branch of the one that served the other squad, nor is the number of gunmen confirmed. The sizable squad is able to surprise a passing army jeep, ambushing it with an anti-tank missile and inflicting Israeli casualties. But with the help of Nahal troops the force is able to kill the operatives and thwart an infiltration to civilian areas or an abduction attempt.
Ynet has more on this incident as well as other fighting:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2014 16 Comments
From an Imam in Berlin -- can you tell his words apart from tweets of pro-Boycott Divest and Sanctions professors and campus speakers? From my Twitter feed keeping track of events today:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 20, 2014 15 Comments
[WAJ Note: Live Twitter and video feeds added at bottom of post.] Today, Sunday, fighting has intensified. Ynet reports:
The IDF's ground incursion into Gaza has led to a rapid rise in the number of terrorists killed. Since the beginning of the ground operation, IDF soldiers have eliminated more than 130 terrorists, including more than 60 Saturday overnight. During the overnight firefights, a Golani Brigade battalion commander, Colonel Rassan Alian, sustained light-to-moderate injuries. Large infantry forces entered Gaza overnight, as the IDF expanded Operation Protective Edge on Sunday. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced that the ground forces joined the ongoing operations to destroy terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, which began with the ground incursion.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2014 4 Comments
This is night two of the ground invasion of Gaza. It does not appear to have moved into the large Gaza City, yet. The focus has been on uncovering tunnels, of which many have been found. You can follow the video and Twitter feed below for live updates. We also will post updates at the bottom of the post. (added) Overnight there was another tunnel attack where Hamas terrorists emerged on the Israeli side of the border and were confronted. Two Israeli soldiers were killed. Also, Hamas sent a donkey loaded with explosives towards Israeli soldiers -- the animal exploded without causing Israeli casualties. More details on all of these below. More Live Video Feeds and Live Twitter Feed below

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2014 9 Comments
[Council meeting now over] The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting at the request of Jordan. The live tweets are below. The main outcome is that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will leave Saturday for the Middle East to try to mediate a ceasefire. Security Council Emergency Meeting Gaza undersecretary of the UN Jeff Feltman

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2014 14 Comments
There has been a lot of vile anti-Israel propaganda in social media, going along with open anti-Semitism in social media and the streets. It's part of a pervasive dehumanization of Israeli Jews to justify Hamas' deliberate rocket fire into the middle of cities and perpetual war to destroy Israel. This tweet caught my eye because it distills how deviant the propaganda has become comparing not just Israelis, but Zionism itself, to Nazism.  The tweet shows the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, giving birth to Hitler: Twitter - @bound0479 - giving birth hitler Zionism As if that's not bad enough, note the reaction from Max Blumenthal, one of the leading anti-Israel and pro-BDS campus speakers and authors:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 18, 2014 10 Comments
Overnight, the New York Times reports that one Israeli soldier and 20 Palestinians were killed. (A report at The Times of Israel puts the number at 22 Palestinians, at least 14 of whom were members of Hamas.)
An Israeli soldier was killed early Friday along with at least 20 Palestinians in the first hours of Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip as the violent conflict there entered its 11th day. ... Sirens signaling rockets sounded all night and into the morning across Israel’s south; the army counted more than 50 rockets from the 10 p.m. start of its ground invasion until 7 a.m. Friday.
https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/490029893204180993 Israel has made it clear that Hamas' network of tunnels is its target. Mitch Ginsburg of The Times of Israel explains what Israel hopes to accomplish with the ground invasion.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2014 25 Comments
There are numerous reports that after heavy artillery shelling along the border, Israeli troops have entered on the ground in Gaza. Israel i24 News reports that the Prime Minister's office has authorized a ground incursion to destroy tunnels. It's not known if it is a limited incursion or something larger. It comes the same day that Hamas launched an unsuccessful attack through a tunnel near an Israeli Kibbutz. Israelii24 News has live coverage in English: More Live Video Feeds and Live Twitter Feed below As it's obviously a fluid situation subject to misinformation, we've embedded numerous news and local sources on the Twitter Feed below, so you can keep track as events develop.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2014 14 Comments
The killing of four boys on a Gaza beach has generated enormous criticism of Israel. Israel itself has expressed sorrow at the killing (see Featured Image Tweet). But one fact not reported anywhere except WaPo is that the area was known to be used for rocket launching: This clip is from British news. Note how the interviewer doesn't even attempt to hide his bias. Welcome to British media, and increasingly, U.S. left-wing media. Mark Regev, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister's office, held his own and handled it well:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 17, 2014 19 Comments
In the early morning hours today, prior the implementation of the humanitarian ceasefire, the IDF spotted a terror cell infiltrating from Gaza. Aircraft targeted the terrorists in a dramatic video. The New York Times reports:
The Israeli military said it foiled an attempt by Gaza militants to infiltrate a kibbutz through a tunnel early Thursday, hours before the two sides briefly halted fire for a humanitarian lull in which Gaza residents tentatively stepped into the streets, hoping to find one of the handful of cash machines that opened for the first time since the conflict escalated July 8. ... An Israeli military spokesman said it was not immediately clear if all the militants from the tunnel had been killed. Residents of the Israeli border community nearest the exit of the tunnel, Kibbutz Sufa, were told to stay in their homes for several hours after the initial confrontation, which began around 4.30 a.m.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2014 10 Comments
If you followed our coverage of the Boycott Divest and Sanction movement on campuses this past academic year, you would know that the BDS movement on campus was on the verge of violence. From confrontations with professors, to dorm storming, to vandalism, to publication of a Nazi cartoon, to disruptions of speeches and demands for Zionists to get off campus, to takeovers of student government offices, to demands for a new Intifada, to intimidation of Jewish students, to defacing pro-Israel posters, to seeking disqualification of pro-Israel students from student government, to threats from faculty at one college to boycott me, and so on. The tactic was to completely dehumanize Israeli Jews, and BDS gets support from some influential faculty in such endeavors. The campus BDS movement came unhinged this past academic year in part because of failures on campus, leading to calls for "direct action." And that was before the July 2014 Gaza conflict. Now we are witnessing a worldwide upsurge of open anti-Semitism in which BDS is part of the message, accompanied by threats and in some cases violence, including in the United States.  We already have seen  in the reaction The threatening face of anti-Israel boycotters in America. (language warning) Haaretz reports, Anti-Israel protests go viral - and violent - in U.S. and Europe:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 15, 2014 53 Comments
An argument which is being used against Israel and which is quite nonsensical is that the low Israeli casualty rate from over a thousand Hamas rockets somehow makes the higher Palestinian casualty rate a war crime or otherwise indefensible. It's true that the casualty rate is lopsided, but that has nothing to do with breach of law or intent to kill. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others in Gaza fire rockets from civilian areas, and conceal their weapons and leadership in and under civilian buildings. The only way for Israel to defend itself is to target the source of the rocket fire and to seek out command and control structures located in civilian areas. Israel goes to extraordinary and unprecedented lengths not to kill civilians. From warnings via text message and telephone, to public announcements and leaflets, to roof tapping (use of inert warheads to shake a building as warning to get out, usually 15 minutes in advance), to calling off airstrikes. If any other military in the history of humankind has gone to such lengths, please tell me. As in every single military campaign in the history of modern warfare, sometimes mistakes are made. But to deny Israel's efforts is to deny reality. Hamas and the others have no such concerns. Their rockets are fired almost exclusively into heavily populated civilian areas, the one exception being targeting of the Dimona nuclear reactor. So when not trying to kill civilians directly, Hamas tries to create a nuclear leak to kill civilians indirectly. The low Israeli casualty rate is due to the extraordinary efforts of the Israeli government to protect its civilians -- including extensive bomb shelters and safe structures on streets. And of course, the Iron Dome system that shoots down rockets heading for populated areas. So on the one side we have homicidal Hamas maniacs targeting civilians and using civilians as human shields, and on the other side we have Israel trying to avoid killing Palestinian civilians and protecting its Israeli civilians. The result is an imbalance in civilian casualties in Israel's favor. But that imbalance is not proof of anything other than which side values civilian life. Israel's good behavior, however, does not go unpunished. Islamists and leftists accuse the party trying to avoid civilians casualties (Israel) of being the equivalent of Hitler, as they spew their Jew hatred openly around the world. But it's not just street mobs who play this perverse game. Some Western commentators use Israel's protection of its civilians as evidence that Israel is acting unjustly or even in violation of international law. Here are three examples:
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