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Israel Tag

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:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 15, 2014 12 Comments
Prof. Jacobson posted yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal. This morning Israel's security cabinet accepted the Egyptian proposal. The New York Times reports:
Israel has accepted Egypt’s proposal for a cessation of hostilities with Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip, the prime minister’s office announced at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the appointed hour for the start of the cease-fire in the proposal made by Cairo on Monday night. “In accordance with the government directives, the I.D.F. now holds fire,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said in a statement nearly two hours later, using the abbreviation for the Israel Defense Forces. “We remain alert and preserve high preparedness levels, both defensive and offensive. If the Hamas terror organization will fire at Israel, we shall respond.”
Hamas, as The Washington Post reported, rejected the Egyptian proposal.
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, called the proposal “unacceptable” and complained that Egyptians have not spoken with the Gaza leadership. The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigade, wrote on its Web site that the initiative was “not worth the ink it was written with” and “the resistance will continue until all the demands of our people are met.”
Arutz-7 reports that according to the IDF approximately 35 rockets have been fired into Israel since the ceasefire. One hit a house in Ashdod but there were no injuries:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 14, 2014 26 Comments
Egypt has offered a cease fire proposal, as reported by Haaretz at its live blog (times are Israel time):
10:29 P.M. Sources in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry say Egypt has proposed a cease-fire outline to Israel and Gaza: The cease-fire will start at 9 A.M., meaning Israel will stop aerial, naval and ground operations against the Gaza Strip and promise not to engage in a ground offensive or harm civilians. At the same time, all the Palestinian factions will hold their fire. Crossings between Gaza and Israel will be reopened, and restrictions on the passage of commodities and people will be eased, in return for a halt to hostilities. Within 48 hours after the cease-fire, Israeli and Palestinian delegations will arrive in Cairo for continued indirect talks to discuss the details of the truce and its implementation. Egypt will receive guaranties from both sides, and promises to implement the outline. (Jack Khoury) 11:14 P.M. Israel's security cabinet will meet Tuesday morning to discuss the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. A senior minister in the cabinet said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepts the Egyptian offer and will bring it to a vote in the meeting that will take place on Tuesday at 7 A.M. "This is a basic proposal that can be accepted as a starting point and after that further discussions on the specifics can be held," the minister said. (Barak Ravid)
This presents an obvious problem for Hamas.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 14, 2014 8 Comments
We reported the other day how Pallywood swings back into action for Gaza conflict with images of carnage from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere being passed off by anti-Israel propagandists on social media as reflecting the current Gaza conflict. It gets worse. Now there are accusations that Israel is faking injuries, in essence doing it's own Pallywooding: There's only one problem with that, as exposed at Twitchy. The photo in question is from a magazine shoot about women in the Israeli army.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2014 10 Comments
On the streets of Paris today, a crowd of anti-Israel protesters surrounded and attacked a Synagogue full of worshippers, throwing rocks and attacking the building, via Times of Israel:
Several thousand demonstrators walked calmly through the streets of Paris behind a large banner that read “Total Support for the Struggle of the Palestinian People”. But clashes erupted at the end of the march on Bastille Square, with people throwing projectiles onto a cordon of police who responded with tear gas. The unrest was continuing early Sunday evening. Media reports said that hundreds of Jews were trapped inside a synagogue in the area and police units were sent to rescue them. A person in the synagogue told Israel’s Channel 2 news that protesters hurled stones and bricks at the building, “like it was an intifada.”

Posted by David Gerstman on July 13, 2014 6 Comments
The Times of Israel sums up the casualties so far.
As of Saturday afternoon, the death toll in Gaza from Israel’s Operation Protective Edge had climbed to 127 people, after Israeli forces struck 60 targets overnight Friday and into Saturday; Israel had no breakdown on the proportion of civilian and combatant casualties. Among the dead was a relative of former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, named as Nidal al-Malash, who the Israeli army said was in a terror cell that was hit as it prepared to fire rockets at Israel. No Israelis had been killed by rocket fire as of Saturday afternoon, though several were injured, including an Ashdod man badly hurt in a rocket strike at a gas station Friday. A Haifa woman suffered a fatal heart attack dashing for shelter on Friday.
The Times also notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "that all Gaza casualties were 'the responsibility of Hamas,' since the Strip’s Islamist rulers deliberately put Gazans in harm’s way by firing on Israel, hiding out, and storing weaponry among the civilian population." In an implicit admission of Netanyahu's charges, Hamas told Gaza residents not post photographs of rockets being fired from their neighborhoods to social media. Also as the IDF tweets: 2014-07-13_065803_IDF_Warning

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 12, 2014 6 Comments
In the propaganda war against Israel, fakery is key. Pallywood is the longest running series in the history of fiction. This video is from the November 2012 Gaza conflict: In the July 2014 Gaza conflict, even the BBC -- notoriously hostile to Israel -- has reported that many of the photos circulating in social media are fake, old, or based on conflicts elsewhere, or all of the above:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 11, 2014 14 Comments
This is a little spooky. Here's a blog post I wrote in November 2012, the last time Israel had to deal with the terrorist alliance in Gaza and its rocket fire: Our Blog Friends in Israel - November 2012 Since then, we have added more Israeli blog friends, many of whom I met on my trip to Israel last summer. So once again pay a visit to and say a prayer for our blog friends in Israel. Let them know we stand with them. Bloggers I've met: Israel Matzav — also known as Carl in Jerusalem (Featured Image). Anne’s Opinions — also known as Anne in Petah Tikva. IsraellyCool — also known as Aussie Dave and others. CiF Watch -- also known as Adam Levick. BBC Watch -- also known as Hadar Sela. NGO Monitor -- also known as Prof. Gerald Steinberg and others. Bloggers I haven't met: The Muqata — also known as Jameel, “Wherever I may be, my blog turns toward Eretz Yisrael ” His Facebook page is the go-to place for updates. An Israeli Soldier’s Mother –  Also known as Paula. Backspin David suggested these blogs as well: My Right Word (Yisrael Medad) Shilo Musings (Batya Medad) This Ongoing War (Arnold and Frimet Roth - Their daughter Malki was killed in Sbarro's in 2001) Dry Bones (Yaakov Kirschen) If there is anyone else who should be on the list, post in comments and I will add. Updates::

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 10, 2014 2 Comments
We have previously reported Six Israeli Jews arrested in murder of Palestinian teen. Police now have determined that three of the six were not involved in the murder, and have been released on home confinement since they may be implicated indirectly to a group to which the actual murderers belonged. The Times of Israel reports:
Three of the six people arrested Sunday in connection with the murder of East Jerusalem teen Muhammed Abu Khdeir were released to house arrest Thursday after police determined they had not taken part in the killing, despite being linked to those suspected in the crime. The three remaining suspects, one adult from the West Bank settlement of Adam and two minors from Jerusalem, were certainly behind the deadly assault of the Arab teen, police asserted. The three prime suspects in the killing confessed to the crime and reenacted it after they were brought by police to the spot in the Jerusalem Forest where Khdeir’s beaten and burned body was found, officials said.
Needless to say, the usual suspects are falsely reporting the story as the murderers being released:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 10, 2014 10 Comments
As Operation Protective Edge it's worth anticipating the likely response to Israel's latest war against Hamas. Israel will be accused of a disproportionate response and of not taking care to avoid collateral damage. Already there's been at least one incident in which a number of civilians were injured and and 7 were killed. Israel has a policy of letting civilians know when they are about to bomb a target to give them a chance to get of the way. One would assume that observers would be impressed that Israel gives up the element of surprise in order to reduce collateral damage. But that assumption would be wrong, if one judges by the reporting and analysis from the New York Times and Washington Post. Here's how the New York Times reports the incident:
The call came to the cellphone of his brother’s wife, Salah Kaware said on Tuesday. Mr. Kaware lives in Khan Younis, in southeast Gaza, and the caller said that everyone in the house must leave in five minutes, because it was going to be bombed. A further warning came as they were leaving, he said in a telephone interview, when an Israeli drone apparently fired a flare at the roof of the three-story home. “Our neighbors came in to form a human shield,” he said, with some even going to the roof to try to prevent a bombing. Others were in the stairway when the house was bombed not long afterward.
Israel warned the residents and people went into the building. The casualties here occurred because Gaza residents because people intentionally put themselves in danger. The New York Times then informs us:
The Israeli military said that targeted houses belonged to Hamas members involved in launching rockets or other military activity, and that they had been used as operations rooms.
As the Washington Post also reported the story we have an indication that in this case, the Israeli military was 100% correct. After describing the warning call, the "knock on the roof," and the entry of neighbors into the building, the Post reports:
Ahmed Kawarea said he ran home when he heard about the first rocket. The second missile hit when he was in the stairwell on his way to the roof.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 09, 2014 8 Comments
From our good friend Anne in Petah Tikva, a story and translation regarding the zoo in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv:
In contrast to the inhuman behaviour of the terrorists, the elephants at the Ramat Gan Safari showed how they protect their young during an air raid alert. This must be one of the most moving videos I’ve seen. The translation of the blurb explains:
This morning as a Red Alert siren was sounded in the area of the Ramat Gan Safari, the adult elephants trumpeted a loud warning and gathered round the young calves Latangi and Lalana in an attempt to protect them.
Vocativ captured some Israeli reactions on Facebook:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 09, 2014 5 Comments
The New York Times, in the past week, has twice drawn a false moral equivalence between Israeli society and Palestinian society. Last week after the killing of Mohammad Abu Khdair, Isabel Kershner of the New York Times wrote:
The two events exposed the extent to which parts of each side have dehumanized the other. After the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers last month, messages posted on social networks by Palestinians celebrated the capture of “three Shalits,” in reference to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas militants in Gaza, who was eventually released in exchange for 1,027 prisoners. A 17-year-old created the Facebook group calling for revenge for the kidnapping of the three Israelis, and an Israeli blogger, Ami Kaufman, pointed to a photograph submitted to the Facebook group by two smiling girls who held a sign reading, “Hating Arabs is not racism, it’s values!”
This was a sentiment repeated in an editorial in today's New York Times, Four Horrific Killings:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 08, 2014 44 Comments
Rockets fired from Gaza were shot down today over several major Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv -- and landed in the Jerusalem vicinity. Hamas landed 5 "naval commandos" by sea. They were taken out by an IDF helicopter gunship. (added) Another video from the Israeli Navy of the same incident: Elsewhere, Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem cheered the rockets landing in Israel (via Truth Revolt):
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