I am now going to break the silence about what are very probably egregious human rights violations in Palestine.

But first, you must excuse these personal and intimate questions: Are you seeking dialog and solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians? Are you European or American, female, between the ages of 17 and 40?

Uh, er, are you a virgin? (I did warn you that this is going to get personal and intimate).

If you are looking for an adventure of a new and different kind, then you should probably head for the Palestinian territories, where you can do a real service to the oppressed Palestinians and at the same time get first hand experience of solidarity and intimate dialog with Palestinian Arabs, who, it seems, rape American and European female activists.

Please scroll down below for photos of the new shopping mall that opened today in Gaza. I have also attached new photos and film of Gaza's hotels, beauty spas, swimming pools, beaches and street markets -- images the BBC, New York Times and others refuse to show you.

Meanwhile, Hamas are deliberately leaving some Gazans in plastic tents, in order to fool gullible Western journalists and politicians who are brought to Gaza to witness a staged "humanitarian crisis."

This is relatively old new, but I still see people referring to Gaza as the "world's biggest prison/concentration camp" so I wanted to have this link saved somewhere.

Gazans are furious over the "Humanitarian Aid" which has been arriving on flotilla ships and from donor counties -- and they are specifically mad at the "aid" that has arrived from Arab countries.

...

Most of the medications are being buried in landfills since they have expired or are of no use.

Wrap Up:

- Broken Medical Equipment
- Non-functioning dialysis machines
- Expired Medication
- Medication for issues not in Gaza.
- Burial shrouds for kids

Bottom Line:

- 70% of the total aid is unusable.

I'm writing for some clarification about how we are supposed to cover the Gaza flotilla story. If we, as a news organization, are supposed to be acting as a public relations arm of Hamas, or Hezbollah, both internationally recognized terrorist organizations,  or if we are supposed to be  jumping on the bandwagon of 1930's style anti-Semitism that's presently sweeping much of the world, then we are doing a fine job. If we are supposed to be acting as a news organization that covers the story objectively, then our coverage is a travesty and an embarrassment.

...

In addition, remarkably, her piece made no mention – absolutely none — of the Israeli perspective in this story. For example:

The widely aired (though not here) video that clearly shows an IDF soldier being tossed over a railing, and others being beaten with sticks, was omitted.

The fact that bullet proof vests and night vision goggles were found among the "humanitarian aid" on the ship was omitted.

IDF video of confiscated knives and metal bars that were apparently used as weapons was omitted.

Information that Israeli soldiers were also wounded and injured was omitted.

Moreover, her piece included no background whatsoever on why Israel's interception ("attack" as we called it ) of the flotilla would likely have passed muster in any court outside the thug-ridden United Nations.

The NY Times currently has a story up on the front page of its website with the following headline:

4 Divers Killed Near Gaza by Israeli Navy

Judging from the headline, I would guess that since the Israeli Navy has not had its fill of violence after it killed nine humanitarian activists from the Freedom Flotilla, they decided to murder four Gazan citizens whose only crime was to go diving in an area that Israel had claimed to be part of their blockade. Such evil Israelis.

However, if you go into the actual article, you will read the following:

At least four Palestinians suspected by Israel of planning an attack via the sea were killed near the Gaza coast early on Monday. The Israeli military said that an Israeli naval force spotted what it called a “squad of terrorists wearing diving suits” and fired on them, killing some of the suspects.

Well, that changes things a little bit. It seems that the Israeli Navy spotted a "squad of terrorists wearing diving suits" in the water and fired on them. Though the selective use of quotation marks here shows how much trust the NY Times will put in the IDF.

How was this event reported in other news sources:

• Jerusalem Post: IDF Foils Attack Close to Gaza
• Haaretz: Israel Navy Fires on Armed Palestinians off of Gaza Coast
• CNN: Israel Kills 4 Palestinians off Gaza in foiled terror attack
• Al Reuters: Israeli patrol kills four militants in diving gear

The CNN article adds in another pertinent detail:

Al Aqsa -- the armed wing of Fatah, Hamas' rival -- confirmed the men belonged to their organization and were on a suicide mission.

And just for reference, here is the official statement by the IDF Spokesperson blog:

Terrorist Attack Thwarted by Israel Navy, 7 June 2010 - Earlier this morning, an Israel Navy force in the area of Nuseirath identified a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack. The force fired and hit the terrorists. No casualties were reported amongst IDF forces.

Ok. So the IDF found a group of armed men in diving suits off of the Gaza coast, in a place where they really should not be. They killed some of the suspects. No details are available yet on exactly how this transpired. However, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (which is recognized by Israel and the US as a terrorist organization, and yet is part of the same Palestinian Authority under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas with whom the US is so insistent that Israel give away land to and make peace with) have confirmed that these men belonged to their organization and were on a suicide mission (a different article from The Sun quotes Al Aqsa as having said that the men were part of their organization and were training at sea - I don't think that this makes much of a difference, as we know exactly what they were training for).

So now that that has been established, why the completely misleading headline from the NY Times, which lacks any context whatsoever that would tell more about the identity of the Palestinians other than that they were divers.

Lest we think that the NY Times is the only organization that writes such blatantly anti-Israel headlines (in my opinion, the deliberate exclusion of context from the headline, and the use of language that implies that Israel has murdered innocent people out for a swim, is as anti-Israel as it gets), here are some more of the same:

• Associated Press: Four Palestinian Divers Killed by Israeli Naval Fire
• The Sun: Israel Navy Kills 4 Gaza divers
• The Boston Globe: Israeli navy kills Palestinian divers off Gaza
• FOXNews: Israeli Navy Fires at Palestinian Divers off Gaza, 5 Killed
• The Daily Telegraph: Israel navy shoots, kills four Palestinian divers off Gaza

None of these headlines are telling lies, yet all of them are presenting a skewed version of the truth. The reader who only sees the headline and does not click through will receive a completely different message from what is written in the actual stories.

I have copied all of the headlines as they appear at the time that this article is first published. I expect that some of these headlines will change over time, and it is quite likely that as more details are released that the general tone of some or all of these headlines will shift to include more descriptions of the divers like "armed", "militant" or "terrorist". However, that will not change the fact that these different news organizations act in an irresponsible (at best) or blatantly and intentionally anti-Israel (at worst) manner when they choose to introduce and headline their content in this way.

In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mideast, has been full of stories about "activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials."

The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)

Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent "mass humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.

What they won't tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip's crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn't fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.

Note that this is only the first group identified as directly involved with terrorist groups and there will be more soon. Their connections include Hamas and al-Qaida. So much for the peaceful nature of the hardcore cadre who attacked Israeli soldiers. Remember that if there had been no such assault--as happened on the other five ships which were taken into port without anyone being injured--there would not have been any casualties.

The following passengers on board the Mavi Marmara are known to be involved in terrorist activity. The Mavi Marmara attempted to break the maritime closure on the Gaza Strip on Monday, May 31st 2010, and was boarded by Israel Navy forces.

One picture cropped to remove a knife might be explained as incompetence or a simple mistake.

But now we have two pictures from the "peace activists" that were cropped by someone at Reuters to remove knives in the hands of the activists, as they attempted to take soldiers hostage.

Here are just a few charts detailing the list and volume of merchandise going into Gaza from just the Israeli crossings.

It does not include what is coming in through Egyptian crossings, and it does not include what is coming in through the tunnels (such as the luxury cars and missiles).

It certainly doesn't include what they produce themselves with their own industries, fishing boats, farms and livestock.

It also doesn't include the water or electricity we (ie: Israel) still provide.

Click on the link to see the charts and pictures.

Had the mainstream media been truly brave, outlets could have given full context, namely that the blockade of Gaza targets the Hamas government and is a joint enterprise of both Israel and Egypt.

There is no "humanitarian crisis," as claimed by the flotilla's propaganda, given that approximately 100 aid trucks enter Gaza every day. "Throughout the last few months," according to the Israel Defense Forces website, "more than 1,200 tons of medicine and medical equipment, 155 tons of food, 2,900 tons of shoes and clothing and 17 million liters of diesel fuel were transferred in to the Gaza Strip."

The "crisis" that is brewing in Gaza is Hamas' failing political status. Worsening economic conditions - a direct result of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade - have seriously undermined Hamas' standing. Media reports out of Gaza in recent months indicate that Hamas can't meet its government payroll, and ordinary Gazans are on edge.

Not surprisingly, few of these facts found their way into the mainstream media's coverage.

Read the rest of the link where they rip into coverage from the AP, Washington Post and NY Times.

The fundamental deception here is the use of the word "humanitarian." . . . Humanitarians don't wield iron clubs, and [they] would have killed the Israelis had the Israelis not drawn their pistols in self-defense.

But there's a larger issue here. What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. There's no one starving in Gaza. The Gazans have been supplied with food and social services, education, by the U.N., by UNWRA, for 60 years, in part with American tax money.

Second, when there are humanitarian needs, the Israelis allow — every day — food and medicine overland into Gaza. The reason that it did not want to allow this flotilla is because, as the spokesman for the flotilla said herself, this was not about humanitarian relief. It was about breaking the blockade.

And the reason the Israelis have a blockade is because they only want to allow humanitarian supplies and not weaponry. Look, the proof of that is the fact that if you look at a map of Gaza, you'll see that Israelis only control three sides of this rectangle. There's a fourth side on the Egyptian side. So it is an Egyptian-Israeli blockade.

Under international law, and under common sense and common decency, Israel has every right to interdict this weaponry and to inspect the ships that might be transporting them.

This is not a theoretical challenge or a theoretical threat. We have already interdicted vessels bound for Hezbollah, and for Hamas from Iran, containing hundreds of tons of weapons. In one ship, the Francop, we found hundreds of tons of war materiel and weapons destined for Hezbollah. In another celebrated case, the Karine A, dozens of tons of weapons were destined for Hamas by Iran via a shipment to Gaza. Israel simply cannot permit the free flow of weapons and war materials to Hamas from the sea.

I will go further than that. Israel cannot permit Iran to establish a Mediterranean port a few dozen kilometers from Tel Aviv and from Jerusalem. And I would go beyond that too. I say to the responsible leaders of all the nations: The international community cannot afford an Iranian port in the Mediterranean. Fifteen years ago I cautioned about an Iranian development that has come to pass – people now recognize that danger. Today I warn of this impending willingness to enable Iran to establish a naval port right next to Israel, right next to Europe. The same countries that are criticizing us today should know that they will be targeted tomorrow.

For this and for many other reasons, we have a right to inspect cargo heading into Gaza.

"On a daily basis 80-100 trucks with humanitarian aid enters Gaza via Israel. The aid is not only medical supplies, but also contains supplies that support a wide range of important infrastructure projects, including water, sewage, and electrical power. We [COGAT] coordinate our efforts with UNRWA, UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF and we even help facilitate the transfer of toys and the enabling of mobile swimming pools for Gazan summer camps.

So far, we have loaded 21 trucks worth of aid from the flotilla and it appears there will between 70-80 trucks worth of aid. Its difficult to ascertain the amount of supplies because the aid was not loaded in an orderly manner onto the ships in crates, cartons or containers -- but was haphazardly dumped in.

As of now, there are 8 trucks at the Israeli - Gaza border crossing of Kerem Shalom; 7 of which contain medical equipment for the disabled and elderly, including 100 electric mobility scooters and hundreds of wheelchairs.

Unfortunately, the disabled, sick and elderly in Gaza are denied this aid, because Hamas has forbidden anyone in Gaza to coordinate the distribution of this equipment.

Hamas has stated that until every last one of the flotilla activists have returned to their home countries, they will refuse to allow the aid to enter Gaza."

Read the rest for more good stuff

The blockade of Gaza.  Is it legal?  

Simply put; yes.  Actually, in technical/legal terms, it is not a blockade per se since although Israel handed over all of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in 2005, we retained control of the airspace and borders (including both land and sea borders).  [Note: This, not incidentally, is one of the reasons that our claims of no longer occupying Gaza are relatively weak.]  But if we never relinquished control of the borders and airspace, is it legally a blockade?  Not really. The result is the same (at least as far as Hamas is concerned), but blockading our own coast is not the same as if we were blockading another sovereign state.

While there are many countries around the world who do not support the so-called blockade of Gaza, few except NGOs and 'interested parties' use the term 'illegal' to describe it. 

b)  Is Israel alone in the 'blockade' of Gaza? 

No.  While Israel controls the borders of Gaza, Egypt also controls its borders with Gaza and is a full participant in controlling the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza.  It doesn't get much press, but Egypt is actually much more violent in the control of its borders with Gaza; shooting dozens of refugees from Africa trying to enter Israel and Gaza... and using lethal force against Palestinians trying to enter Sinai.

Read the seed for more.

Israel had every right under international law to stop and board ships bound for the Gaza war zone late Sunday. Only knee-jerk left-wingers and the usual legion of poseurs around the world would dispute this. And it is pretty clear that this "humanitarian" flotilla headed for Gaza aimed to provoke a confrontation with Israel. Various representatives of the Free Gaza Movement, one of the main organizers of this deadly extravaganza, have let it slip throughout Monday that their intention was every bit as much "to break" Israel's blockade of Gaza as to deliver the relief goods.

The Israeli commandos who stormed the ship, where fighting erupted, badly mishandled the situation. But theirs was a mistake in pursuit of a legal goal, not a war crime. And as for calls for international investigations, they represent the usual hypocritical nonsense that will go nowhere. Except for those who routinely fool themselves about the judiciousness and effectiveness of action by the United Nations or the European Union, everyone understands their "investigations" will amount to nothing. Only the United States might do something useful—if the White House would only seize quickly the practical solution staring it in the face.

One of the Naval Special Forces commandos who sustained a broken arm while under attack by the S.S. Mavi Marmaris' passengers, reports, "Each soldier who descended was grabbed by three or four men and they simply exploded, beating him up. They lynched us.

"They had metal clubs, knives, slingshots, glass bottles…At one point there was also live fire.

"I was among the last to descend, and I saw that the group was dispersed, everyone in his own corner surrounded by three or four men. I saw a soldier on the floor with two men beating him. I peeled them off of him and they came at me and began beating me with the clubs.

"That's how I broke my arm. At that moment I had no weapon in my hands, like everyone else who descended on the cables empty-handed. My paintball gun was behind me.

You are about to witness a blood libel take shape in real time. By the time you read this, you will not doubt have been informed that the Israeli navy stormed the pro-Palestinian flotilla headed for Gaza and wantonly fired upon the peaceful activists within, killing many.

This is a lie. But it is a lie that will be repeated ad nauseum over the coming days, until it takes on all the appearance of truth. As you watch this happen, note well what it says about the people who repeat this lie, and the ease with which it is accepted by many ostensibly sensible and right thinking people. And note as well what this says about their claims to be compassionate, liberal, concerned citizens of the world.

The details are not entirely clear at the moment, and the numbers of dead and wounded may change over the coming hours. But what is clear is that those on board the flotilla were armed and prepared to use their weapons. That they attacked the Israeli commandos who attempted to board the vessels and that several of these commandos are currently languishing (dead or wounded, reports vary) in Israeli hospitals. That the weapons used were clubs and knives, both potentially lethal weapons, and that at least one firearm was taken from an Israeli soldier and turned against the boarding party. That the Israeli soldiers reacted as anyone would react when attacked by a club and knife-wielding mob. And lastly, that they and Israel are about to be internationally crucified, once again, for doing precisely this.

The reality is simple and stark. Israel is the target of a massive information war that is unprecedented in scale and scope. This war is being waged primarily by a massive consortium of the international Left and the Arab and Islamic worlds. The staggering scale of the forces aligned against Israel is demonstrated by two things.

...

And now, in the aftermath of the lethal takeover of the flotilla, Israel's leaders stammer. Rather than demand an apology from the Turkish government for its support for these terrorists, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called his Turkish counterpart to talk over what happened. Rather than demand restitution for the terrorist assault against Israeli troops, Israel has defended its troops' moral training in non-violent crowd control.

These efforts are worse than worthless. They make Israel appear whiny rather than indignant. And more depressingly, they expose a dangerous lack of basic comprehension about what has just occurred and a concomitant inability to prepare for what will most certainly follow.
Israel is the target of a massive information war. For Israel to win this war it needs to counter its enemies' lies with the truth.

The NPT has been subverted by the very forces it was created to prevent from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization ideologically indistinguishable from al Qaida. International law requires all states and non-state actors to take active measures to defeat it.

Israel is the frontline of the free world. Its ability to defend itself and deter its foes is the single most important guarantee of international peace and security in the world. A strong Israel is also the most potent and reliable guarantor of the US's continued ability to project its power in the Middle East.

The whole world is speaking about the flotilla affair as "tragic." The Israeli media and government are also calling it "tragic."

It was not tragic. It was a terrorist aggression against Israel by Islamofascists and leftwing fascists. The tragedy is that the flotilla ships were not sunk by torpedos, as I proposed, rather than forcing IDF soldiers to risk injury.

The tragedy is that the idiotic Israeli politicians are agreeing to an "investigation" of the soldiers' actions, so once again Israel proclaims itself guilty until proven innocent in order to appease the anti-Semites. Once again the world is demanding a Goldstone-style investigation, one whose conclusions were written before the ships even left Turkey.

Pictures of the weapons found on the Mavi Marmara ship where today, when IDF soldiers attempted to board the ship and redirect it to the Ashdod Port, the activists on board lynched the soldiers in a planned attack. They used knives, metal rods, firebombs and other weapons to attack the soldiers. The violence resulted in the deaths of nine activists and seven IDF soldiers were wounded in the process. All casualties were evacuated from the ship and taken to hospitals in Israel.

Also see this Youtube video which shows live shots of the knives, slingshots, clubs, wrenches and molotov cocktails collected from on board the vessel.

7. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian and enemy vessels.

8. A state may take action to enforce a blockade. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked under international law. The US Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations sets forth that a vessel is considered to be in attempt to breach a blockade from the time the vessel leaves its port with the intention of evading the blockade.

9. Here we should note that the protesters indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade by means of written and oral statements. Moreover, the route of these vessels indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade in violation of international law.

10. Given the protesters explicit intention to violate the naval blockade, Israel exercised its right under international law to enforce the blockade. It should be noted that prior to undertaking enforcement measures, explicit warnings were relayed directly to the captains of the vessels, expressing Israel's intent to exercise its right to enforce the blockade.

Official response from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Among the various statements of outrage targeted at Israel, many point to Israel's confronting the "flotilla" ships in international waters as a sign of Israel's guilt.

I direct your attention to the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. Specifically, paragraph 67-68:

67. Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:

(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture;
(b) engage in belligerent acts on behalf of the enemy;<
(c) act as auxiliaries to the enemy s armed forces;
(d) are incorporated into or assist the enemy s intelligence system;
(e) sail under convoy of enemy warships or military aircraft; or
(f) otherwise make an effective contribution to the enemy s military action, e.g., by carrying military materials, and it is not feasible for the attacking forces to first place passengers and crew in a place of safety. Unless circumstances do not permit, they are to be given a warning, so that they can re-route, off-load, or take other precautions.

So these were ostensibly merchant vessels who were flying the flags of neutral states (since Turkey and Greece have not declared that they officially side with Hamas in their war for Israel's destruction). However, there was definitely reasonable grounds to believe that they were carrying contraband and breaching a blockade (since that was there very public, stated intention). After receiving prior warning (see this YouTube video) they intentionally refused to stop (I heard that they just radioed back curses in Arabic and English), and they quite clearly resisted visit, search or capture.

So this would have legitimized an attack by Israel on the vessels themselves, pursuant to paragraphs 38-46 of the treaty - note: Israel did not attack the vessels, they merely sought to prevent them from breaching the naval blockade of Gaza and redirect them to the Port of Ashdod where their supposed humanitarian supplies would then be rerouted to Gaza, along with the rest of the aid that goes in every day to not-so-starved Gaza.

With regards to Neutral waters:

14. Neutral waters consist of the internal waters, territorial sea, and, where applicable, the archipelagic waters, of neutral States. Neutral airspace consists of the airspace over neutral waters and the land territory of neutral States.

So Neutral waters would be waters of a neutral state. This is not a valid description of the location of the confrontation between Israel and the boats.

So now that we have established that this did not take place in Neutral waters, look at the following:

118. In exercising their legal rights in an international armed conflict at sea, belligerent warships and military aircraft have a right to visit and search merchant vessels outside neutral waters where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that they are subject to capture.

119. As an alternative to visit and search, a neutral merchant vessel may, with its consent, be diverted from its declared destination.

So according to this, since this did not take place in Neutral waters, and there were reasonable ground for suspecting that the ships are subject to capture (see analysis of paragraph 67, above), Israel was fully within its rights to go so far as to capture the vessels in question (they did offer to divert to Ashdod, which was rejected by the captains of said vessels).

The material above makes it clear (at least in my opinion) that Israels actions, if not justified, are at least not immediately guilty in both their intent and location.

And international law itself is always a tricky topic - after all, if a country does not sign on to a treaty governing any specific agreement, how can one say that their violation of said treaty would be a violation of International Law? International Law defined by any treaty or agreement only applies to countries who agree to the precepts of said treaty or agreement. Which makes it even more difficult to indict Israel on the basis of interpretations of the San Remo Manual, being that Israel (and Turkey and Greece) is not even a signatory. Similarly, Israel is not a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which seems to take a harsher view of these types of actions in International waters (thus a violation of the precepts of this UN convention by Israel would not be in violation of International law, as Israel never signed on the dotted line).

Israel's position: See the official response by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (seed). Most pertinent for our case:

7. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian and enemy vessels.

8. A state may take action to enforce a blockade. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked under international law. The US Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations sets forth that a vessel is considered to be in attempt to breach a blockade from the time the vessel leaves its port with the intention of evading the blockade.

9. Here we should note that the protesters indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade by means of written and oral statements. Moreover, the route of these vessels indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade in violation of international law.

10. Given the protesters explicit intention to violate the naval blockade, Israel exercised its right under international law to enforce the blockade. It should be noted that prior to undertaking enforcement measures, explicit warnings were relayed directly to the captains of the vessels, expressing Israel's intent to exercise its right to enforce the blockade.

When it was launched last December, Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip looked to most people in Washington to be risky, counterproductive and doomed to futility. Not only pundits like me but senior officials of the Bush administration predicted that the Israeli army would not succeed either in toppling Gaza's Hamas government or in eliminating its capacity to launch missiles at Israeli cities. Instead it would subject the Jewish state to another tidal wave of international opprobrium and risk its relations with West Bank Palestinians and Egypt.

Mostly, we were right. But today, Operation Cast Lead, as the three-week operation is known in Israel, is generally regarded by the country's military and political elite as a success. The reasons for that are worth examining now that a new and even more hawkish Israeli government is weighing whether to flout Washington's prevailing opposition to a military attack on Iran.

International donors pledged almost $4.5 billion in aid for Gaza earlier this month. It has been very painful for me to witness over the past few years the deteriorating humanitarian situation in that narrow strip where I lived as a child in the 1950s.

The media tend to attribute Gaza's decline solely to Israeli military and economic actions against Hamas. But such a myopic analysis ignores the problem's root cause: 60 years of Arab policy aimed at cementing the Palestinian people's status as stateless refugees in order to use their suffering as a weapon against Israel.

While the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, whose death toll figures have been widely cited, reports that 895 Gaza civilians were killed in the fighting, amounting to more than two-thirds of all fatalities, the IDF figures shown to the Post on Sunday put the civilian death toll at no higher than a third of the total.

...

As an example of such distortion, he cited the incident near a UN school in Jabalya on January 6, in which initial Palestinian reports falsely claimed IDF shells had hit the school and killed 40 or more people, many of them civilians.

In fact, he said, 12 Palestinians were killed in the incident - nine Hamas operatives and three noncombatants. Furthermore, as had since been acknowledged by the UN, the IDF was returning fire after coming under attack, and its shells did not hit the school compound.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Friday said it is suspending humanitarian aid in Gaza until further notice, after Hamas seized control of its warehouses and stole 200 tons of food and supplies.

The agency said it made the decision after Hamas personnel seized an aid shipment on Thursday. Earlier this week, Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

Substitute the words "UNRWA" with "Israel" and the world would howl in protest at the cruel actions committed by the Zionist Entity. I guess when the UN does it, it suddenly becomes kosher. How ironic.

Most people remember the headlines: Massacre Of Innocents As UN School Is Shelled; Israeli Strike Kills Dozens At UN School.

They heralded the tragic news of Jan. 6, when mortar shells fired by advancing Israeli forces killed 43 civilians in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The victims, it was reported, had taken refuge inside the Ibn Rushd Preparatory School for Boys, a facility run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The news shocked the world and was compared to the 1996 Israeli attack on a UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, in which more than 100 people seeking refuge were killed. It was certain to hasten the end of Israel's attack on Gaza, and would undoubtedly lead the list of allegations of war crimes committed by Israel.

There was just one problem: The story, as etched in people's minds, was not quite accurate.

Sound familiar: during a war with a neighboring terrorist army, a group of civilians are killed while standing around the launching grounds for missiles being fired into Israel. Israel is globally condemned. Even the UN gets into the act. And a month later, after the dust has settled, the people who were so eager to make blanket accusations and come to immediate conclusions while the war was going on are now slowly coming forward and "clarifying" their previous statements. Not that anyone cares - as long as Israel is labeled as the bad guy five minutes after the event, nothing else matters in the court of world opinion.

Since the beginning of the Israeli operation in Gaza:

• 53,647 tons of humanitarian supplies have been transferred to Gaza in 2,084 trucks. Also, 3,162,351 liters of fuel have been conveyed through Nahal Oz and Kerem Shalom.
• 681 dual nationals were evacuated from Gaza.
• 3000 units of blood were donated by Jordan.
• 5 ambulances donated by Turkey.
• 15 ambulances transferred from the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
• 68 people evacuated to Israel for medical treatment, including two injured children.
• Numerous infrastructural repairs have taken place - sewage, water and electricity.

The Defense Ministry has begun to operate a live feed of the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing into Gaza throughout the hours of the terminal's operation. It includes three cameras showing the points of access and exit of the terminal.

If you believe that Israel does everything that it can to starve the people of Gaza and deprive them of humanitarian aid, see this page. Also see a video about the aid delivered.

Hamas exploits the civilians of the Gaza strip as human shields. Here are two aerial photographs which illustrate how Hamas deploys rocket launchers within densely populated areas in the Gaza strip, next to schools, mosques and medical facilities. Residential buildings are used as arms depots and rigged with explosive charges, without any consideration given to potential civilian casualties.

Be sure to check out the pictures to see exactly how Hamas has surrounded its schools and mosques with training camps, command center and missile launch sites.

Video of IDF soldiers finding anti-aircraft guns and rockets in a mosque in Gaza

"If you feel the need to go to war against an enemy that is not as powerful as you are, one of the tactics of the weaker party is to hide among civilians, and use the global media to advertise the horror of the onslaught. People on the receiving end of the bombs greatly exaggerate the casualties and get photographers to take the most gruesome of pictures, and at the same time, the people in charge of the stronger power try to minimize the number of casualties. If you live in a democracy, then public opinion really matters, and reports of dead children swells the criticism of the war. If you live in a dictatorship, then you don't care what the people think. Israel is a democracy and it cares about the way the rest of the world feels.  It gets hurt by killing civilians, so for moral and practical reasons, they're trying very hard to avoid it."

"I believe that culpability for these casualties is very much with Hamas. Take this leader, Nizar Rayyan, who was killed with many of his children. He knew he was a target. If I knew that I was a target, I sure as hell wouldn't have my children near me. It's a horrible and cynical choice he made. But if your enemy is a sophisticated manipulator of public opinion, then this is one of the many downsides of choosing to go to war. Israel knows that."

As the editorial page of The Jerusalem Post put it on Monday, the world must be wondering, do Israelis really believe that everybody is wrong and they alone are right?

The answer is yes.

"It is very frustrating for us not to be understood," remarked Yoel Esteron, editor of a daily business newspaper called Calcalist. "Almost 100 percent of Israelis feel that the world is hypocritical. Where was the world when our cities were rocketed for eight years and our soldier was kidnapped? Why should we care about the world's view now?"

Israel, which is sometimes a fractured, bickering society, has turned in the past couple of weeks into a paradigm of unity and mutual support. Flags are flying high. Celebrities are visiting schoolchildren in at-risk areas, soldiers are praising the equipment and camaraderie of their army units, and neighbors are worried about families whose fathers are on reserve duty. Ask people anywhere how they feel about the army's barring journalists from entering Gaza and the response is: let the army do its job.

As an Israeli (and US) citizen who lives 25 miles away from Gaza, I can attest to the accuracy of this article.

These protocols have been carefully crafted by leaders of civilized nations and are not to be lightly dismissed. It may be convenient to blame the Israelis when civilians are killed by their air strikes in Gaza, but the Geneva Conventions clearly state that Hamas fighters endangered those civilians by disguising themselves.

Not only do Israelis have a harder time figuring out who is a target and who needs protection, we all have a harder time identifying those who have already been wounded and killed. Hamas says mostly civilians have been wounded and killed in the fighting in Gaza, but its fighters look just like everyone else. They can trot out the bodies of two dead terrorists in front of the cameras and say they're civilians, thus easily fooling just about anyone. The number of civilian casualties, therefore, appears much higher than it really is. But even if that weren't the case, far more civilians are being killed in this war because Hamas is fighting dirty.

Israelis, in the meantime, go far out of their way to avoid harming the civilians of Gaza. They have even developed weapons for precisely this purpose.

But in Sderot, he seemed just as intent on teaching a thing or two to the media. "Do you think this is normal, the way you cover this conflict and give away information to your enemy?" he asked the journalists that gathered around him.

"It makes me sick to see the way you behave - you guys need to be protective of your homes, your children, your family."

"I am angry," he said, "and this is why I came here."

Be sure to check out the video here to get some video of "Joe the Plumber" in Israel.

As Israel persists in its military efforts -- by ground, air and sea -- to protect its citizens from deadly Hamas rockets, and as protests against Israel increase around the world, the success of the abominable Hamas double war crime strategy becomes evident. The strategy is as simple as it is cynical: Provoke Israel by playing Russian roulette with its children, firing rockets at kindergartens, playgrounds and hospitals; hide behind its own civilians when firing at Israeli civilians; refuse to build bunkers for its own civilians; have TV cameras ready to transmit every image of dead Palestinians, especially children; exaggerate the number of civilians killed by including as "children" Hamas fighters who are 16 or 17 years old and as "women," female terrorists.

Hamas itself has a name for this. They call it "the CNN strategy" (this is not to criticize CNN or any other objective news source for doing its job; it is to criticize Hamas for exploiting the freedom of press which it forbids in Gaza). The CNN strategy is working because decent people all over the world are naturally sickened by images of dead and injured children. When they see such images repeatedly flashed across TV screens, they tend to react emotionally. Rather than asking why these children are dying and who is to blame for putting them in harm's way, average viewers, regardless of their political or ideological perspective, want to see the killing stopped. They blame those whose weapons directly caused the deaths, rather than those who provoked the violence by deliberately targeting civilians.

A short film presenting visual evidence of the long-standing Hamas tactic of exploiting civilians as human shields, and civilians buildings as cover for terrorist attacks.

See video of how Hamas booby trapped a school with explosives in Gaza.

We have reached a crucial stage in the IDF's operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. If we are not careful, we may have defeat staring us in the face - another defeat, after the fiasco of the Second Lebanon War. This time at the hands of Hamas, a terrorist organization even smaller and weaker than Hezbollah.

Insistent calls are being heard for a cease-fire. Some of these calls come from outside Israel and others come from within our midst. If the IDF does not complete the mission it has been assigned, of suppressing the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip against the cities, towns and villages of southern Israel, and if the final act before a cease-fire goes into effect ends up being an avalanche of rockets fired by Hamas against Israel, not only Hamas and the Arab states, but most of the world, will consider Hamas as having succeeded in defeating Israel.

...

Our job now is to keep our eye on the ball, and not be diverted from the task at hand. The IDF must continue to pursue the mission it has been assigned and put an end to the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip. We have the ability to do so and it must be done. The consequences of failure, regardless of the explanations offered by Israeli politicians and the wording of the relevant UN Security Council Resolution, would bode very ill for Israel.

Allow me to propose a metric for evaluating whether a journalist is behaving responsibly or not: If he reports that Israel bombed a UN school and killed 30 civilians, he is irresponsible. If he reports that Hamas used a UN school as a weapons cache and base of operations for launching mortars at the IDF, and the IDF's return fire killed the Hamas cell along, tragically, with a yet-unspecified number of civilians, then he is behaving responsibly. ..Journalists who abjure reporting the vital details of this story should be called what they are — activists masquerading as reporters.

Also check out comments on this by Michael Totten

In every scenario save a very long Israeli occupation (which is unlikely), Hamas will have an opportunity to eventually regenerate. New fighters can be trained, new rockets acquired, new smuggling tunnels built. If Israel's choke hold on Gaza for the past year hasn't stopped Hamas from arming itself, then it's a good bet that the presence of international monitors won't either.

The argument that Israel's incursion will give the nation an upper hand in any future talks — and allow it to dictate the terms of a new cease-fire — doesn't really wash. Any new truce will be brokered by third parties; while U.S. President-elect Barack Obama chooses to remain silent, France's Nicolas Sarkozy is offering himself for the role. That alone means Israel won't have everything its way. The international outcry over the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Gaza means the broker will insist that Israel loosen the economic shackles as well as withdraw troops. And when the money begins to flow in, it will flow through the Hamas networks that control every aspect of Gaza. The militants will distribute some of the money to Gazans, looking like generous benefactors; the rest they will use to rebuild their military capability.

Amnesty purports to be "deeply concerned about the escalation of human rights abuses following the series of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that began on December 27th," but it fails to mention nearly all of them...Other than a pro forma reference to Hamas' indiscriminate rocket attacks, Amnesty's letter mentions none of these facts, nor any of the other human rights abuses Hamas has inflicted upon the Palestinian population under its control in Gaza, such as restrictions on religious practice, speech and due process.

Instead, Amnesty bristles at imaginary Israeli wrongdoing. Amnesty writes that "aid agencies and residents of Gaza have long ago run out of provision reserves due to the Israeli blockade" just two days after the UN's World Food Program informed the Israel Defense Forces that it would not be resuming shipment of food commodities to Gaza through Israeli crossings because WFP warehouses were already at full capacity...

(Thanks to alkimija for the reference)

At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops. According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching cell, including operatives Immad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar.

The infantrymen returned mortar shell fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site.

The IDF released a video taken by a UAV in the end of 2007 showing terrorists firing mortar shells from right outside the school.

"Hamas has in the past fired at Israel and at troops from inside schools, cynically using civilians, as is proven by UAV footage," the army said.

Also, check out the kind of teachers that the UN employs

And in an AP article: "Two residents of the area who spoke by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal."

Dateline: January 3rd 1944 - Fury continues to mount worldwide about the senseless loss of civilian life in Germany caused by England's callous bombing of German cities including Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden.

As of today many innocent German women and children have died in these utterly brutal bombing missions. And now there are ground offensives starting on mainland Europe.

The English have claimed that they are merely retaliating against the V-1 flying bombs being launched indiscriminately by Nazis at their civilian population in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Coventry and other cities. The English point out that their enemy is sworn to its utter destruction and has used the missiles and flying bombs against its civilians without any regard to English loss of life. Moreover it makes the case that their own bombing missions are specifically directed to military targets that the German army has intentionally planted in the heart of civilian populations to try and deter English counter-attacks.

These points may of course be true - but they are utterly besides the point.

Of course England has a right to exist. Of course England has a right to defend itself. But it should ensure that its responses are PROPORTIONATE.

(Never thought I would see something like this on HuffPo)

A man comes into your home. He has a gun he made himself. He points it at your family. He fires, but misses. The gun has little accuracy. He fires repeatedly, missing again and again.

You have a much better gun, made in a real factory. It is in the drawer in the bedroom.

Demonstrators in London and San Francisco - who are distant relatives of the gunman - stage a protest, calling you a murderer and demanding that you keep the well-made gun in the drawer because it would be a disproportionate response.

The man with the homemade gun, it turns out, is a religious fanatic who lives across the street. You were once his landlord. There is much bad blood between you.

He races back across the street. He has a larger weapon that he smuggled in through his basement. He shoots from behind his younger son. He wounds your daughter. You take out a rifle. You aim for him and hit the son, killing the boy.

The demonstrators are now calling you a Nazi and chant "Slaughter the Landlord!"

[In his defense, the neighbor explains that you have kept him and his family locked in the house, and have at times, failed to pay his water, gas and electric bills, causing them to be turned off.

This is some years after the neighbor send out his older son, nicely dressed, to knock on your door. Your older daughter opens the door. He greet her politely, and presses the detonator on a homemade bomb.]

I have seen many people make claims that while Israel states that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, they consider it to be just a way to legitimize Israel's war strategy. A representative example:

I haven't seen one Palestinian "terrorist" holding a woman or child in front of them as a shield as people have claimed. That argument that they are hiding out with the civilians is unfair. How much can someone hide in a place that's probably not as big as Connecticut? - Dulcita

In response, here are a few things I found on the Internet regarding the subject:

1. Speech by Fathi Hamad, member of Hamas Council, Al Aqsa TV, Feb 29, 2008: "For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters againset the Zionist bombing machine, as they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire Life."
2. Gaza TV calls out to the local civilian population to go and form a human shield around the house of a Hamas terrorist after Israel called him to warn him about an airtstrike.
3. Video of Hamas terrorists grabbing children and using them as shields while running across the street
4. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs report on Hamas exploitation of civilians as human shields: Photographic evidence. Includes other videos and photographic evidence of Hamas sending children to protect rocket launch sites and weapons assembly facilities, firing rockets from densely populated areas, etc.
5. News report of Hamas terrorists dressing up as women and using a crowd of women for cover

Enough said?

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis -- 6,464 launched from Gaza in the last three years -- deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.

This has two purposes. First, counting on the moral scrupulousness of Israel, Hamas figures civilian proximity might help protect at least part of its arsenal. Second, knowing that Israelis have new precision weapons that may allow them to attack nonetheless, Hamas hopes that inevitable collateral damage -- or, if it is really fortunate, an errant Israeli bomb -- will kill large numbers of its own people for which, of course, the world will blame Israel.

For Hamas the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians.

(I have also seen this published under the title Moral Clarity in Gaza in the Washington Post)

Check out this interview on English Al Jazeera. I bet that that guy wont be invited back anytime soon.

Here is the transcript

Al Jazeera: Joining me now is Gary Grant, a barrister specializing in international law. Does Hamas have any sort of a case in the eyes of international law for this attack?

Gary Grant: Very little. Any country's first duty is to protect its citizens. It is called self defense. And of course Hamas is an organization intent on the destruction of Israel and the Jews in Israel as part of its covenant.

AJ: Surely it is not proportionate.

GG: Well, not quite that simple. If someone were to run at me, a knife-wielding lunatic, I don't have to wait for that knife to enter my heart before I am allowed to respond. I am allowed to take preemptive action in order to stop it [Yaakov: You also don't have to fight back with a knife - if you have a machine gun, take him down]. Now Israel...

AJ: Surely the killing of civilians is against international law and the targeting of populated areas where you know that civilians are going to die is against international law.

GG: Even if you target your action at military sites, civilians are inevitably going to get killed...these need to be contrasted with the actions of Hamas where every single rocket is designed to attack civilian populations, so every single act of Hamas in firing these rockets is clearly an illegal act without any legal justification.

The 4th Geneva Convention (relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War) states in Part II, Article 14: "Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.".

Seems straightforward enough. Civilian hospitals are off limits as military targets.

However, this is qualified in Article 19: "The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit and after such warning has remained unheeded.".

So if the enemy was using a hospital as a military base, was using a hospital to store weapons and to provide refuge for fighters, then it loses its protection as a hospital and becomes a fair target (once warning has been given).

Now what is going on in Gaza today?

From the Jerusalem Post:

The defense officials said it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror chiefs were hiding and conducting their operations from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

"Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors," one official said.

This echoes the claims made by Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin a few days ago (and let's not even get into the use of hospitals as excution grounds". And they don't exactly have an exemplary history of maintaining the neutral status of ambulances. It seems like Hamas is trying to take advantage of Article 14. Too bad they didn't read all the way to Article 19.

Now, I realize that Hamas is not actually a signatory to the Geneva Convention. However, as of July 1951, Israel is. And even if Hamas and the PLO have not obligated themselves to act according to any of these treaties (for once they refrained from signing something that they knew they would not be able to fulfill) Palestinian media talking-heads and anti-Israel commentators around the world have no hesitation in accusing Israel of war crimes. If Israel were to attack a hospital (which they might end up doing if Hamas starts using hospitals as launching grounds for missile attacks), as sad and unfortunate as it would be (since many civilians would be injured or killed), it would be an attack on a legitimate military target, and the fault would lie exclusively with those who decided to remove the protective status accorded to the hospital through the Geneva Convention by making it into a war base.

They have been warned.

On January 3rd, a link was seeded titled "Israeli Airstrike on Gaza Street Market: Graphic Content. The link text was "WARNING; EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT. Do not watch this if you are sensitive to graphic footage of violence" and it linked to a video on muslimtv.magnify.net that purported to show what happened after "Israel just bombed a large civilian street market in Gaza."

Now compare that video with the video found here: Raw; (2005) Hamas Weapons Parade Accident Kills 15, including kids. Look familiar? It should (reference: LGF):

A pickup truck carrying masked militants blew up at a Hamas rally on Friday, killing at least 15 Palestinians and wounding 80, The PA Interior Ministry confirmed.

Witnesses said the truck carried homemade weapons, and Palestinian security officials said the blast apparently was caused by the mishandling of weapons. Hamas blamed Israel, saying Israeli aircraft flew overhead during the rally. Israel denied it was involved.

Seven of the wounded were in serious condition, hospital doctors said.

The rally was held in the Jebaliya refugee camp. Witnesses said participants crowded around the pickup truck carrying militants when the explosion went off. The witnesses said the truck carried homemade weapons.

Now read the comment on the original thread on reddit that publicized the "Israel attack on the Gaza Street Market" which provides links to video footage and photographs of the real event from three years ago when this video was taken.

Israel did not bomb a crowded street market in Gaza yesterday.Shame on the vast majority of the 256 comments on the original thread that accepted the fictitious claim of Israel's guilt without any hesitation, who took a report from muslimtv.magnify.net as gospel (don't you think that in their zeal to report anything negative of Israel that one of the mainstream media networks would have reported this?) and who had no problem bashing anyone who stepped to Israel's defense. The carnage that you see here is the result of the Hamas terrorist organization showing off the power of their own "harmless" explosives that they send over to Israel. These are the weapons that are sent into Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beer Sheva. I will be waiting (but not holding my breath) for apologies.

Update: Thanks to Dennis for promptly updating the text of his seed with a correction/update relating to this issue.

There were, I suppose, other "proportionate" responses available aside from killing one Palestinian and two Israelis. The Israel Defense Forces might have launched thousands of air strikes against targets in Gaza to match the thousands of Qassam rockets fired at the cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. It's unlikely, however, that this is what Israel's critics have in mind.

So what do they have in mind? What would a legitimate and "proportionate" response actually look like? Surely they don't believe Israel should scrap its sophisticated weapons systems, build Qassam rockets, and launch those at Gaza instead.

The "disproportionate response" crowd doesn't seem to mind that Israel struck back at Hamas per se. They aren't saying Israel should only be allowed to negotiate with its enemies or that any use of force whatsoever is wrong. They're clearly saying Israel should use less force, inflict less damage, or both.

One problem here is that it's not at all clear how they think Israelis should go about doing it.

There have been many natural disasters in the Muslim world over the past few decades where Israel has offered to provide medical supplies, emergency personnel and... blood. This last bit has always been a sticking point. You see, Jewish blood is considered unacceptable by the people we are supposed to be trying to make peace with. It is, according to them, 'filthy'.

The New York times almost - but not quite - made reference to this seldom discussed fact in the 19th paragraph of an article (link or seed). Here, read the following and tell me if you spot it:

"Israel sent in [to Gaza] some 40 trucks of humanitarian relief, including blood from Jordan and medicine. Egypt opened its border with Gaza to some similar aid and to allow some of the wounded through"

Did you catch it? Why would Israel need to send blood from Jordan? We never have a huge surplus of blood, but we always have some on hand! Is Jordan's medical establishment better prepared than Israel's??? And why would Egypt need to send 'similar aid'? If Israel is controlling everything going in and out of Gaza right now, why are we suddenly talking about sending trucks of our own humanitarian aid... but blood from Jordan and Egypt?

Check out this excerpt hidden most of the way down the New York Times' article today on the Hanukkah War (as it is being referred to in Israel):

At Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the director, Dr. Hussein Ashour, said that keeping his patients alive from their wounds was an enormous challenge. He said there were some 1,500 wounded people distributed among Gaza's nine hospitals with far too few intensive care units, equipped ambulances and other vital equipment.

On Monday, Dr. Ashour was not the only official in charge. Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.

In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.

Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.

Yesterday the French appeals court vindicated Phillipe Karsenty in his accusations against French Channel 2 that they had falsified and deliberately misreported the death of Muhammad Al-Dura. Karsenty had the following to say:

Today a French court ruled that I did not defame France 2 when I said that its news report was a staged hoax. Because I refused to be brainwashed, I was sued for defamation.

Our victory today was a victory for freedom — the freedom to think and to speak one's mind; the freedom to question what one is told; and the freedom to disbelieve the solemn pronouncements of others when the individual concludes that his reasoning is correct and that the state and the state-run media — and all of the institutions they represent — are wrong.

The al-Dura lie is an assault on our ability to think, to criticize, to evaluate, and finally to reject information — especially the right to reject information on which we base our most cherished assumptions. One of Europe's most cherished assumptions is that Israel is a vicious Nazi-like entity that deliberately murders Palestinian Arab children. Moreover, polls conducted in Europe have identified Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, greater than Iran and North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The al-Dura hoax is one of the pillars on which these assumptions rely.

I have written about the Al-Dura case previously.

Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin has told Haaretz that in two years time every community within 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip border could be vulnerable to rocket attacks.

Wednesday's attack on an Ashkelon shopping mall, which wounded about 90 people in various conditions, made the military intelligence chief's recent statement prophetic.

He had told Haaretz that "every community within a 40-kilometer range may come within range of the Hamas rockets: Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, even Be'er Sheva." He spoke in an interview to be published in full Friday in Haaretz Magazine.

Yadlin also said that Hamas is not interested in peace because it is unwilling to recognize the State of Israel. The group is willing to accept a long-term cease-fire (hudna) only in exchange for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, and with refugees returning to their homes.

I live exactly 38 kilometers away from the Gaza border.

Article 51 of the United Nations Charter guarantees its members "the inherent right to…individual self defense" against "an armed attack." In January of 2006, Hamas was elected to govern the Palestinian Authority. After Israel ended its occupation of Gaza and removed all of its settlers, Hamas threw the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza and assumed de facto as well as de jure control over the entire Gaza Strip. Its leaders then instructed its military wing to direct rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel. At first these rockets were Qassams with a relatively short range. Now they include Katyushas, which can reach to Israel's large cities, including Ashkelon, with its population of 120,000 civilians. Hamas has officially declared that its policy is to develop or smuggle even longer range missiles capable of reaching Israel's largest city Tel Aviv and its lifeblood, Ben Gurion Airport. It has promised to keep aiming its missiles at civilian targets until the Jewish state is finally destroyed.

If this is not an "armed attack" under Article 51, then I don't know what is. The only argument against it being an armed attack is that rocketing civilian population centers, as Hamas is doing, is a war-crime. International law prohibits, even during a declared war, the deliberate targeting of civilians or the bombing of areas of civilian population centers with absolutely no military significance. But war-crimes may also constitute an armed attack: Hitler's invasion of Poland was both, as the Nuremberg Tribunal determined. If anything, an armed attack that is also a war crime justifies the right of self defense even more than a mere armed attack.

...

The time has come for Israel's critics to tell Israel what it should do in the face of these escalating rocket attacks on its civilian population centers. If economic sanctions, border controls, targeting terrorists and ground incursions should not be done, what are the alternatives?

And that is indicative of the most perverse behavior of all: the refusal of Israel to face the fact that it is in a war for survival - a war that it will win only by fighting and defeating its enemy, not by clinging blindly to a phony "peace process" that has brought it nothing but terror, tears, and a mounting toll of death.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's reaction to last week's massacre of the innocents was to announce that he would "not give up on making a tremendous effort to take another significant, important, and dramatic step that might bring us to an opportunity for real reconciliation."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry spouted the same drivel: "These terrorists are trying to destroy the chances of peace," its spokesman said, "but we certainly will continue the peace talks." The White House chimed in too: "The most important thing is that the peace process continue and that the parties are committed to it."

Wrong. The most important thing is to recognize that there is a war against Israel by enemies profoundly committed to its elimination - enemies who regard negotiations, concessions, and all the trappings of the "peace process" as evidence that the Jews are in retreat, and that hitting them even harder will bring victory even closer. That is why there was jubilation in Gaza. And why last week's atrocity in Jerusalem was only the latest such horror - not the last.

No translation necessary.

"Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, but as the occupying power in Gaza it also has a legal duty to ensure that Gazans have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care," Kate Allen, Amnesty International's UK director, told The Telegraph. "Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible."

There are a few problems here. First, food, clean water, electricity and medical care may be all kinds of things, but they aren't human rights. They may indeed be the minimum obligations a modern state must meet in terms of its citizens' needs, but there is no inalienable right to material stuff.

More important, we are constantly told that the Palestinians aren't Israel's people. Whatever obligations Israel might have to provide food, water, electricity and health care to its own citizens, it's not clear why it has those obligations to the Gazans, particularly when those Gazans are committed to the destruction of Israel.

The Palestinian Arabs regularly accuse Israel of intentionally targeting their civilian population in a cruel attempt to ethnically cleanse all non-Jews from the region.

That accusation, especially during times of escalating violence, is more often than not echoed by the international community.

Israel, meanwhile, maintains that it has no desire to harm Palestinian civilians, but finds itself forced to put them in harms way because Palestinian terrorists insist on violating international law by operating out of civilian population centers and disguising themselves as civilians.

Case in point: During the heavy weekend fighting in and around the Gaza Strip, Israeli aerial surveillance spotted a donkey-drawn cart transporting a concealed Katyusha missile through an agricultural grove outside Gaza city.

Israel Airports Authority inspectors on Monday discovered two tons of dual-purpose fuel, which can be used to produce Kassam rockets, during a sample check of a humanitarian aid transport vehicle at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip.

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) launched an investigation to determine the truck's origin and who was behind the transfer. Defense officials said that the incident was alarming and proved that Palestinian terrorists were trying to take advantage of the "humanitarian route" into Gaza for terror purposes.

According to an IAA statement, the vehicle was stopped due to the inspectors' alertness and before it crossed into the Gaza Strip.

The IAA added that this was the second time within a week that its inspectors had discovered a dual-purpose substance on its way to the Palestinian Authority under the cover of humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza.

According to Israel radio, the fertilizer was hidden among bags of flour.

Think twice the next time you read a piece critical of Israel for having the audacity to set up checkpoints around Gaza to check humanitarian aid coming in.

Egypt is allowing some 1,200 Arabs - including Hamas terrorists - to return to Gaza without having to go through Israeli security - in violation of an explicit agreement between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak just two weeks ago.

...

Hamas diplomatic figure Muhammad Nazal told Hamas TV that the return of the Arabs to Gaza "via Rafiah is the first nail in the coffin of the [Israeli] siege on the Gaza Strip."

An Egyptian official, acknowledging that his country violated its leader's word to Israel, tried to explain why. "We had no other choice," he told the Al-Hayat newspaper, "because we couldn't accept the responsibility of having pilgrims being arrested by Israel." He said that Egypt had tried to negotiate with Israel on the topic, but with no results. "Egypt's leadership was right in enabling them to enter via Rafiah, even though this is in violation of the agreement between Egypt and Israel," the source said.

Every .. Single .. Time the Arabs attack and the Israelis close things down to defend themselves, the Arabs scream, the UN screams, the world screams, "economic strangulation!!" What is going on here?

Here's the hidden dynamic that no one talks about, the both politicians and the MSM almost always gets wrong...

...

The hidden unspoken dynamic at work for the Palestinians is, their economy is based on the bracha of the Jews and the flourishing of Israel. Today, their econonmy is almost solely based on world handouts, of which the vast majority are siphoned off. The Palestinian people are completely dependent on the largess of the world channeled and distributed by thugs.

...

It is now the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War (according to the Gregorian calender). You will see many people saying things like: "If only Israel didn't attack...if only Israel would just return to the 1967 borders...if only Israel would just give up the West Bank like they did Gaza, then everything would be fine. It is all Israel's fault for being obstinate and stubborn, for failing to leave the West Bank". You will read this in the Arab press, from left-wing Israeli historians, and many more.

When you hear these statements, ignore them. They deny reality and pretend that possession of the West Bank is the only thing of importance to the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank (who are currently firing rockets at Israeli cities non-stop in efforts to terrorize, injure and kill Israeli civilians).

Check out this survey from Near East Consulting. It asks one question of "Palestinians" living in Gaza and in the West Bank: "Would your opinion about Israel's right to exist change if there was a two-state solution whereby Palestine is on the land occupied in 1967?". If ownership and possession of the West Bank were the main issue, if a two-state solution would be the answer, then we would expect that the overwhelming majority of respondents would answer "yes, if we returned to the 1967 borders and had our own state, our opinion of Israel's right to exist would change, and we would be happy to live side-by-side with the Jewish state, in peace". That is what you would expect to hear.

What was the response? 36% said that their opinion of Israel's right to exist would change. 64% said that it would not (and interestingly enough, the yes-vote was proportionately higher in Gaza than it was in the West Bank).

Remember, the Palestine Liberation Organization committed its first act of terrorism in 1964, before the sacred concept of "the 1967 borders" ever existed. It was founded with the mission of destroying the Zionist entity, and this mission has never changed. They share this goal (though differ in how it should be accomplished) with their brothers in Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, Hamas, Syria and Iran. Do not delude yourself into thinking that Israel would be safer, more secure or better off by "reverting to the 1967 borders". Just the opposite is true.

(Ref: Israel Matzav)

A recent article by David Bedein from The Bulletin reports on the recent actions of Gaza-based terrorist cells firing missiles at Israeli civilian cities from heavily populated civilian areas (and in some cases, from the rooftops of apartment buildings):

Missile attacks on Israel from Gaza over the past two weeks have emanated from populated areas in Gaza. Last Monday, The Sderot Media Center filmed a missile fired from the rooftop of an apartment building in Gaza

As a result, the top brass of the Israeli army has given orders to wipe out all missile launch pads. That order will mean that it is a matter of time before there are massive Arab civilian casualties that will occur because the terrorists are shooting the rockets from within civilian areas.

The video clip referred to above can be seen here

This is not the first time that we have seen terrorist groups firing at Israel from apartment buildings and heavily populated civilian areas. We have been down this road before.

I know that there are those out here (US State Department and UN included) who claim that Israel has no right to fire back at Hamas, the PLO and Islamic Jihad when they fire on Israel from civilian areas. I think that that is very hypocritical (they would never say that if they were under fire) and ethically flawed. If the terrorist groups choose to fire at Israel from heavily populated civilian areas with the full knowledge (and intention) of placing these civilians in danger (as civilian deaths on their side are worth big points with the Western Media), Israel should in no way hold back from firing back at these terrorists where there is a chance at disrupting their operations. This is not to say that Israel should just fire back indiscriminately (or use snipers to shoot civilians like they do in the Lebanese Army). However, if Israel has the opportunity to save Jewish lives, using precision weapons, missiles and artillery, by firing back (or firing preemptively) at the terrorists who are deliberately aiming at Israeli civilians, they must fire back, taking care to avoid civilian casualties where possible, but not letting the presence of civilians in the area deter them from firing back.

Once, Hamas members were afraid to wear beards for fear of being arrested by Israel's security forces. Today, they are once again afraid of appearing in public with beards - this time for fear that they will be killed or kidnapped by Fatah militiamen in the Gaza Strip.

Sources close to Hamas said over the weekend that at least 10 bearded men have been shot and killed in the past week after being stopped in the street by Fatah gunmen.

One case was caught on camera and has since appeared on the Youtube Web site. The film shows several Fatah gunmen shooting a bearded man in the legs. As the man lies in a pool of blood in the street crying for help, a Fatah gunman approaches him and fires at his head from an automatic rifle, killing him instantly.

Hey - all you people who yell and scream at Israel when they respond to missiles fired at Israeli cities by targeting the people firing them - what do you have to say about this? These are the people that you think Israel should be turning over large areas of land to? Honestly?

The first Tzeva Adom (Color Red) Kassam rocket warning siren went off while I was across the street from my office, using a friend's computer on the fourth floor.

As usual, we stepped into the corridor - the safest place in the apartment building - and waited.

I counted: 15, 14, 13... I had gotten to 12 when I heard the screams. It was a type of scream I couldn't recognize, half laughter, half terror, complete madness: 11, 10... it hit. A block away at most.

Everyone else raced outside; it wasn't until 30 seconds later - when I woke from my daze - that I realized the screaming hadn't stopped.

I was about to join everyone outside when, once more, Tzeva Adom: 15, 14... I had barely reached 13 when it crashed, shaking my entire body - half a block away.

So, you hear about Hamas firing rockets at the Israeli city of Sederot, and think to yourself, "what's the big deal, they are just rockets and don't kill as many people as when the IDF shoots a missile at a Hamas terrorist driving a Kassam delivery truck"...well, if that is what you think, then you need to read this.

As I write this, Kassams are hitting Sderot. Children are screaming, mothers are collapsing in despair, and doctors are pulling shrapnel out of the bodies of Jews.

There has hardly been an Arab peace plan in the past 40 years -- including the current Saudi version -- that does not demand a return to the status quo of June 4, 1967. Why is that date so sacred? Because it was the day before the outbreak of the Six Day War in which Israel scored one of the most stunning victories of the 20th century. The Arabs have spent four decades trying to undo its consequences.

The real anniversary of the war should be now, three weeks earlier. On May 16, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser demanded the evacuation from the Sinai Peninsula of the U.N. buffer force that had kept Israel and Egypt at peace for 10 years. The U.N. complied, at which point Nasser imposed a naval blockade of Israel's only outlet to the south, the port of Eilat -- an open act of war.

[snip]

Why is this still important? Because that three-week period between May 16 and June 5 helps explain Israel's 40-year reluctance to give up the fruits of the Six Day War -- the Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza -- in return for paper guarantees of peace. Israel had similar guarantees from the 1956 Suez War, after which it evacuated the Sinai in return for that U.N. buffer force and for assurances from the Western powers of free passage through the Straits of Tiran.

All this disappeared with a wave of Nasser's hand. During those three interminable weeks, President Lyndon Johnson tried to rustle up an armada of countries to run the blockade and open Israel's south. The effort failed dismally.

[snip]

The world will soon be awash with 40th anniversary retrospectives on the war -- and on the peace of the ages that awaits if Israel would only return to June 4, 1967. But Israelis are cautious. They remember the terror of that unbearable May when, with Israel possessing no occupied territories whatsoever, the entire Arab world was furiously preparing Israel's imminent extinction. And the world did nothing.

Please read this entire excellent article by Charles Krauthammer in order to get a better perspective on why giving returning to the pre-Six Day war borders would be so dangerous for Israel.

According to the IDF, no less than ten (10!) Kassam rockets have landed inside Israel since Friday. One hit a house... another struck a gas station (wounding a teenager with shrapnel) and the latest one landed outside a kindergarten. A security guard working at a facility where fuel is transferred from Israel to the PA was critically wounded when as many as three Palestinian gunmen opened fire, hitting him in the head and leg. His condition is still extremely unstable and he has lost the leg and an eye. Sadly there have been too many rock and Molotov cocktail attacks over the weekend to count...

Yet amid all this mayhem, the US is still pressuring Israel to move ahead with more confidence building gestures. They want Israel and the PA to agree to a short timetable during which each must achieve a series of steps in hopes of getting the stalled peace process back on track. IMHO this is a lot like getting a deer and a hunter to agree to work together towards their shared goals.

On Israel's side this series of steps includes such lunacy as removing security check points and easing restrictions on Palestinian movement. It also involves the incredible requirement for Israel to supply the Palestinian security services with more weapons and ammunition!

On the Palestinian side, the PA government is being asked to commit to far less tangible steps such as 'deploying security forces' and 'endeavoring to reign in rocket fire'. But even these seem plain silly in light of the fact that Hamas not only hasn't recognized Israel, but its top political leaders still say that open attacks on Israel - what they call 'resistance' - are among the basic rights of the Palestinian people.

My question is this? Why bother with this charade? The Palestinians will never be made to be deliver on any of the commitments they make, and each side's obligations are independent of one another, meaning that Israel must meet her obligations regardless of whether the Palestinians meet theirs. Good deal, huh?

Palestinians attend a demonstration against violence in Gaza April 23, 2007.

The text above is a caption to a picture taken by a Reuters photographer, Ibreheem Abu Mustafa. One might find it commendable that the Palestinians are demonstrating against violence...at least until one looks at the accompanying pictures. (LGF, Israellycool). Here's another demonstrator against violence.

(hehe)

"There isn't a chance any Hamas leader will ever recognize Israel," said outgoing Interior Minister Said Siam. "We will not betray our values and we will not betray our land. We will leave this world as shahids (martyrs) without recognizing Israel."

Siam further noted that if any Hamas member dared recognize Israel, he would be swiftly ejected from the movement. Siam did not deny, however, that considering Hamas' values the current unity government was not ideal. However, the deadly intra-Palestinian conflicts necessitated certain concessions, he noted.

Thanks for clarifying.

(I bet within a week, some European Union official is going to say that sanctions against Hamas should end, because of the positive steps that are making towards peace by forming their new government).

It is nearly a year and a half since a government-sponsored advertising campaign reassured the nation that "there's a solution for every settler" - a reference to the thousands of Israeli citizens then slated to be removed from Gaza and northern Samaria as part of disengagement.

However the sorry truth is that not a single evacuated family has been relocated to a permanent home. Most of the evacuated breadwinners are still unemployed. Only 10 of the 400 farmers were given new land, and even that was woefully inadequate.

And the advances that have been paid on compensation (the final extent of which is still bogged down in red tape) are being eaten up by the cost of daily subsistence in lieu of income. Many previously well-to-do settlers are being reduced to financial ruin and cannot afford to buy new homes.

The litany of post-disengagement misery for these uprooted Israelis is long, and includes the breakup of families, truancy and physical and/or psychological ill-health. Officialdom's excuses, which may have been semi-tolerable in the immediate aftermath of the complex and wrenching unilateral pullout, are patently no longer sufferable.

Read the rest of the article. All of the promises that were made by the corrupt Israeli politicians pushing the expulsion from Gaza as a necessary step in Israels quest for "peace", none have been kept.

This is what happened when Israel performed ethnic-cleansing on Gaza, clearing the land of Jews to make way for Hamas. Now what do you think will happen if Israel would do this to more than 200,000 settlers who live in Judea and Samaria?

Visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair Monday offered Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas funds for his special security forces.

In a recent seed on the topic of Jimmy Carter and his new book (linking to an interview with carter in the LA Times), the egyptian asked the following question:

Can anyone make a real, honest argument that he is motivated by anti-Semitism

I don't know what his motivations are. I can't say whether he is motivated by anti-Semitism. But I can say that he as come into his analysis of the situation in Israel with his own preconceived notion o who is right (the Palestinians) and who is wrong (Israel). He bases this on his pronouncement that US policy is pro-Israel for the sole reason that there is a strong Israel-lobby in Washington, and he, Jimmy Carter, unencumbered by such political artifices, will lead the way in pronouncing the truth.

He claims that "the International Quartet's "Roadmap for Peace," which has been accepted by the PLO and largely rejected by Israel". Excuse me? The "Roadmap for Peace" (what a stupid name) was accepted by the PLO and rejected by Israel? Israel is 100% to blame for its failure? Did he sleep through the intifada? Through the constant pronouncements coming from the Palestinians side affirming their allegiance to the founding principles of their movement (death to Israel)?

But more damning is his uninhibited use of the term "apartheid" as his main adjective for Israel. Israel diverges in a major way from the concept of apartheid invented and popularized in South Africa: Israel is not restricting the movement of Palestinians based on racist beliefs and principles. Any time that a fence is built or a checkpoint manned, it is because were it not for these physical barriers, many more Israelis and Jews would be killed by terrorists seeking to enter Israel and commit mass-murder. Carter criticizes Israel for "abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank", yet never once pauses to question whether this is being done for the purpose of anything more than making a land-grab. This is ignoring reality. When Israel allows free passage of Palestinians into Israel, Israelis die. It is a very simple equation. Though Carter admits that the "apartheid" is not based on racist motivations, by using that very term (with all of the emotional and historical weight that it carries), it is impossible to avoid accusing Israel of that very act.

Carter indicts Jewish organizations who would dare to criticize him (after all, he own the Nobel Peace Prize, so he has to be a good guy, right?) since they would be "unlikely to visit the occupied territories". Well, I will then go ahead and criticize Carter for the same sin. While he may gleefully visit Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jenin to converse with "the beleaguered residents", I don't remember him ever visiting Beit El, Jerusalem, Kochav haShachar, Haifa or Kedumim to commiserate with the Jews who live there about how he wishes that they did not have to live with the daily fear that an Arab would try to kill them for the crime of Driving-While-Jewish.

Three weeks ago, a Palestinian flag was found on the fence around my community (3 miles North of Jerusalem, in the "West Bank"). The next day, armed terrorists cut a whole in the fence and attempted to infiltrate the neighborhood next to me. Thankfully, the IDF was on hand to chase them away (no casualties) and put on extra guards. I guess in Carter's eyes I am just one of a "minority of Israelis" who is seeking to "confiscate and colonize choice sites in Palestine" (where?? Oh, and the place that I live was a barren hilltop before a few Jews came here with tents 20 years ago and built from the ground up a nice town. It only becomes a "choice site" after the Jews get there). I guess Carter would not see me (and hundreds of thousands of others) as an "innocent civilian" against whom he would "condemn acts of terror".

If Carter is not motivated by anti-Semitism, then he is propelled by ignorance and propaganda. He bases his conclusions on an incomplete, one-sided analysis of the situation, and the presumption that any action done by Israel is done not for the sake of defense and security, but rather with the malicious intention of colonization and oppression, while ignoring or sweeping under the carpet any intimation that perhaps the PLO and Hamas (organizations that are committed to the destruction of Israel) are interested in anything other than Jimmy's vision of how things should be done.

Yaacov Yaacobov was hard at work at the poultry processing plant in Sderot on Tuesday morning when Palestinian terrorists murdered him with a Kassam rocket.

Wednesday an Arutz 7 reporter spoke to his young son, Hanan. The reporter asked the boy whether he wanted to move away from his hometown to get away from the rocket bombardment. Hanan said no, he wanted to stay.

When the reporter asked him why he wanted to stay, the orphaned child with moonbeam eyes replied, "I love Sderot very much, and I won't leave it because I love the State of Israel. If I leave Sderot, if all of Sderot were evacuated, then the country would fall apart. The Palestinians will see that they are succeeding in Sderot, and then they'll shoot Kassams at Ashkelon and Ashdod too, and do the same in the whole country until nothing is left."

But three days after Hanan explained why Sderot must stand, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to let it fall. Saturday night Olmert ordered the IDF to end the limited counterterror operations in Gaza he had allowed it to conduct in recent weeks.

Caroline Glick gives her take on Olmert's recent moves to stop the IDF from reacting to missiles and rockets fired at Israeli citizens and offer major concessions to the "moderate" Palestinians in return for a cease fire that didn't even last two hours.

At the same time, the last thing they can expect is for these forces (ie: Abbas' Fatah army) to act as moderates. Over the past six years, Fatah terrorists, both in and out of the official Palestinian security services, have committed more terror attacks than Hamas. While it is true that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are commanded by Iran, it is also true that Fatah terror units are deeply penetrated by Iran and Hizbullah.

And yet, rather than accept the fact that Abbas is an enemy, not an ally, and that his "security forces" and Fatah "party" are actively involved in terror and racketeering, the US and Israel pretend that they are credible interlocutors. The US trains them and Israel allows them to be trained and pretends there is a chance that they will protect us from themselves.

Why does everyone keep insisting that Abbas and his PLOniks are the moderates in the region? Are we so easily fooled when a person says nice things in English and mean things in Arabic. (Apparently so)

Leaders of major terrorist groups in Gaza said Sunday they either do not recognize the ceasefire agreement or plan to use it to re-arm and improve terrorist training. Two Kassams were fired Monday.

Abu Abir, spokesman for the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization in Gaza, said Sunday, "The ceasefire offers a period of calm for our fighters to recover and prepare for our final goal of evacuating Palestine."

All of this going on while Olmert is naively and stupidly claiming that he has negotiated a ceasefire in order to try and make "real peace".

Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' "military wing," told WorldNetDaily that Hamas agreed to the ceasefire "because we need a period of calm to recuperate. This lull in fighting will not bring us to speak about peace."

Abu Abdullah is consider one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Iz-Addin al-Kassam Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Hamas.

Abu Luay, a leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, said Israel's weak stance "proves that our rocket attacks work. The Zionists know there is no remedy for our rockets."

More analysis of Olmert's latest delusional blunder:

Olmert still doesn't get it. First, this conflict is not about territory - it's about Israel's existence. If this conflict were about territory, Gaza would not have become a terror base when it was gifted to the 'Palestinians' in 2005, and the 'Palestinians' would not be demanding that Israel vacate the towns that border Gaza. After all, those towns are within the 'green line,' and in Olmert's delusional world, the 'Palestinians' make no claim to them.

Second, the hudna that began at 6:00 AM yesterday (subject to its violation) has nothing to do with a 'new path' and everything to do with the IDF's effective fighting against the 'Palestinian' terrorists. The terrorists needed a break to regroup and rearm. They have said so. The IDF has said so. But Ehud K. Olmert, who was never even an officer in the army, thinks he knows better than the IDF. After all, he's a lawyer....

Third, Olmert has nothing to offer that will satisfy the 'Palestinians'. He's a lawyer. Note those carefully chosen words: "the Palestinians could establish an independent, viable state with contiguous territory in the West Bank, and have full sovereignty over recognized borders." But there's an elephant in the living room of the 'Palestinian' state. You see, the 'Palestinians' 'minimalist' demand (for now) is a contiguous 'Palestinian' state reichlet in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. You can't get from Judea or Samaria to Gaza without going through pre-1967 Israel. And of course, the 'Palestinians' don't want to be 'humiliated' with 'inspections' every time they go from one to the other. There's also a second elephant in the living room of the 'Palestinian' state - it's not economically viable whether or not Judea and Samaria are contiguous with Gaza.

See the link for more...

I just finished watching a 40 minute show (which is currently available on YouTube) by Glenn Beck called Exposed: The Extemist Agenda (originally aired on CNN). Its focus is to publicize the threats that are being posed to the world by extremist Islam. He takes care to make it clear that this is not representative of all of Islam (and at the end of the show, gives examples of people in the Arab world who are trying to spread the opposite message). However, the messages, propaganda, and hatred, of Jews, Israel and the entire Western world, are an extreme threat to world peace, and the safety and well being of perhaps anyone reading this. If you can spare the time to watch the show, please do so. Below are some notes that I took while watching the program:

Examples of propaganda showed:

• Series from Iran TV that features Israelis removing the eyes from Arab children
• Series from Jordanian TV that features Jews plotting to kill a Christian child for making Matzah on Passover (the classic Blood Libel)
• Cartoon from the official PA newspaper, showing Bush and Sharon drinking from a bottle of Palestinian blood
• An expose on Iranian TV about how Jews control Coca Cola (who is plotting to overthrow the government of Iran) and how Pepsi stands for "Pay Each Penny Save Israel" (which is kind of ironic since Pepsi was one of the countries who gave in to the Arab boycott of Israel for so many years).

Ahmadinejad & The Two Faces of Iran:

• On Iranian TV: "The whole world knows that America and England are the enemies of the Iranian nation". Compare this with what he tells US interviewers: "We love the American people as we love our own"
• On Iranian TV:"The rage of the Muslim peoples may soon reach the point of explosion. Death to Israel! Death to America!". On US TV: "We want peace to be established there (in Israel). We care for Jews that live under pressure there as well".
• To the world: "We are no threat to anyone. The issue of making nuclear weapons has no place in Iran's policy". To Iranian TV: "Today the Iranian people are owners of nuclear technology. If some believe they can keep talking to the Iranian people in the language of threats an aggressiveness, they should know that they are making a bitter mistake.
• "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury".
• Netanyahu: "Iran is gearing up to produce 25 atomic bombs a year, 250 bombs in a decade...they are building missiles that will reach the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Like Nazism, they start with the hatred of the Jews, they want to annihilate the Jews, but that is only the first stop. The goal is Western civilization"

Suicide Bombing Propaganda:

• Video from Hizballah television, featuring an interview of a small boy describing how his father committed his act of suicide murder
• The goal of suicide bombers is to use the media to leap-frog over the military and directly reach the home audience.

How Hate is Taught to Children:

• Videos showing a three year old girl proclaiming that Jews are "apes and pigs".
• In a different video, a young girl cries out "With my soul and my blood I call upon thee, my country, with stones and with bullets I shall redeem you, my country, your martyrs and prisoners protect you, my country"
• A Kuwaiti sheikh in a video for parents, telling them what to teach their children: "We seek martyrdom. Oh mothers and fathers: You must train your children every night, before they go to bed, to go on raids in order to liberate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and when he goes to sleep...he should recite together with you the prayer for martyrdom...Do this every night"
• Childrens cartoons glorifying suicide bombings, specifically aimed at dehumanizing Jews and legitimating their murder
• Walid Shoebat testifying about how he has personally experienced (as a child) his teachers demonizing and dehumanizing Jews
• Brigitte Gabriel: The government of Saudi Arabia is funding 25,000 schools worldwide, supplying them with books full of hate, glorification of suicide bombers. From an eighth grade book (being used in the US): "Jews and Christians were cursed by Allah and turned into apes and pigs."
• Gabriel: "Political correctness is the disease that is killing the West. It is the apathy by which the Muslims are killing us one by one. We have got to throw it in the garbage, which is where it belongs. People have to develop the backbone to stand up to and identify the enemy, because the West right now is plagued with Islamofascism, a disease...that is going to kill our body unless we fight it and kill it first."

At one point in this video, Binyamin Netanyahu (former and perhaps future Prime Minister of Israel) talked about how Condaleeza Rice has said about Ahmadinejad that we should not pay attention to his words, and only consider his actions. He then talked about how a holocaust survivor told him that if there is one thing that he learned from Hitler, it is that when someone says that they are out to kill, murder and massacre you and your people, you had better listen.

Rice's prefered course of action may be more prudent politically, but it also is the most irresponsible thing that one can do in the face of the threats that are described in this video. Now is not the time to just sit back and pretend that these things are not going on. You have all been warned.

Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip early Sunday morning as part of a surprise cease-fire agreement reached late Saturday night by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end five months of fighting.

The agreement also called for Palestinians to stop their own attacks at 6 a.m. Sunday. But rocket and mortar fire from Gaza continued to strike southern Israel.

"Let's hope that's just the problems of the beginning," The Associated Press quoted an Israeli government spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, as saying. "But if Israel is attacked, we will respond. If there are Palestinian factions that are not part of the cease-fire, it's hard to see how the cease-fire will hold."

In other news, no fewer than five Kassam rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since the beginning of this "cease fire".

A video of a rocket attack made on Sederot, Israel. These "home-made" rockets are quite deadly, and are aimed at killing, injuring, maiming and destroying the lives of the civilian residents of this city.

Hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the home of a militant in the northern Gaza Strip late Saturday to prevent an Israeli air strike on the building, residents said.

[snip]

The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and people said they were prepared to give their lives to protect the home. "Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender," the crowd chanted.

So Israel (stupidly) gives warning of the terrorist sites they are going to strike, and then a crowd gathers to "protect" the site. And Israel backs down?? Anyone who is there is accessory to acts of terrorism, is freely and willingly helping those who would like to massacre Jews, and is therefore as much of a threat to Israel as those who are pulling the triggers.

If they want to be martyrs, who are we to get in their way?

Former Defense Minister and longtime Oslo and Gaza Disengagement supporter Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is calling for the IDF to do "whatever is necessary" to halt Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza.

In an interview with Army Radio, the current Minister of National Infrastructure, Ben-Eliezer exclaimed, "We've had enough! The rocket attacks must stop!"

"I am tired to burying children and visiting people in the hospital," he added, stating the government must order the IDF to do "whatever is necessary" to bring a complete halt to the attacks. He rejected the opinion of those who feel the attacks cannot be stopped, but rather just minimized at best.

The important thing to note here is that Ben-Eliezer was one of the biggest supporters of the Oslo and related peace plans, back in the days when those still enjoyed popular support. The fact that a Lefty like him has finally jumped off the bandwagon is a sure sign that support for these types of negotiated land-for-peace deals has really reached the bottom, and that a strong response to the missiles from Gaza is gaining more and more support throughout the political spectrum in Israel.

Arutz Sheva reported the following today:

According to a report appearing in the British Daily Telegraph, during their White House meeting this week, US President George W. Bush called upon Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to authorize the entry of 1,500 armed PA (Palestinian Authority) security forces into autonomous areas throughout Judea and Samaria.

This is based on an article published by the Daily Telegraph, which goes into more detail about these "requests" that Bush has made to Olmert.

Olmert is reportedly in favor of meeting this request, for the following reason:

Mr Diskin (the head of Israel's domestic spy service) said unless moderates from Fatah became more powerful in the occupied territories, Israel would have to stage widescale incursions to neutralise the growing strength of Hamas and its militant supporters.

"Israel must prepare for a wide military confrontation in the Gaza Strip, if moderate sources in the Palestinian Authority do not get stronger," he said.

Have they completely lost their minds? They think that giving PLO soldiers free reign in the West Bank will do anything other than allow them to make it easier for them to kill Jews? They really think that this will give the PLO ("the good guys") the ability to "neutralise the growing strength of Hamas and its militant supporters"?

The last time I checked, the PLO/Fatah (or whatever you want to call them) do not recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist, are active sponsors of anti-Semitic propaganda through their official media outlets and are pledged to follow the example set by Yassir Arafat (of cursed memory). They are not in favor of making peace with Israel, they would like to see Israel obliterated and they will take advantage of any opening to sponsor and perform more acts of terror against Israel.

Of course, we should have seen this coming, since this is only a natural progression with giving them weapons. Still, I am appalled by the absolute blindness and stupidity being exhibited by those who head Israel's government and security services. Is there something that I am missing here?

Do not be fooled when you here the talking heads praising Hamas for creating a "Unity Government". They are very open about the fact that they have not changed their platform and mission in the slightest.

The ruling Islamic militant group Hamas said Tuesday the agenda of the proposed Palestinian unity government would not recognize Israel or accept a two-state solution.

"We reject the two-state solution, which is the vision of U.S. President George Bush, because it represents a clear recognition of Israel," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

"Our position in this regard remains unchanged. We reject joining in any government that recognizes Israel."

The following exchange was recorded in the Knesset (amidst cursing, fighting and yelling):

Deputy Minister Sneh resumes speaking: "On Nov. 7, from an orchard on the outskirts of Beit Hanoun, rockets were fired towards Ashkelon. On the next morning, we received warning that it would happen again, and therefore two artillery volleys were fired [by the IDF] to that spot. As a result of a technical fault in the second volley, tens of innocent people were hit. We see this as a grave issue, a catastrophe, and a failure. I assume that those who fired the rocket on Ashkelon, if they would have hit dozens of innocent people, they would have seen it as a success.

MK Tibi screams: You're just clearing yourself! [unintelligible]

Sneh: No, no, Tibi - that's the difference of our cultures; that's the whole thing; that's the difference in our values.

[Tibi and other Arab MKs start yelling wildly]

Sneh: I promised you that you wouldn't like what I had to say. ... You cannot evade the point that when we hit civilians, we see it as a failure, but those who shoot at us see it as a success; that's the difference, you cannot evade that! [more screaming] I came to speak here in order to respond [to the charges of slaughter] and there is a limit to what we are willing to hear. [Tibi and others keep screaming]

Sad, but true.

At the observance of two years since the death of arch-terrorist and Palestinian Authority chief Yassir Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas declared: "The Palestinian leadership won't stray from Arafat's path."

Abbas (Abu Mazen), in a speech delivered in honor of the second anniversary of Arafat's demise, promised that he would not relinquish the "Right of Return," meaning the desired entitlement of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948, and their millions of descendants, to return to Israeli towns and cities.

"We won't give up on this issue," he said, promising terrorists imprisoned in Israel that there "Won't be peace even if just ten thousand Palestinians are still imprisoned in Israeli jails."

If there is one thing at which the Palestinians excel, it is public relations. With their elected government ostracized by the West, their task would seem daunting. Yet despite this handicap, they have successfully diverted Western attention for months from two embarrassing questions.

The first relates to money. In recent months, the media have been filled with dire reports about the growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Authority. And at first glance, this seems logical: The West cut off aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas took power, and since Western aid comprised most of the PA's budget, a crisis would seem inevitable.

Yet as recent news reports have made clear, the PA appears to have plenty of money. It has simply chosen to use its funds for purposes other than its people's welfare.

Looks like someone could use an audit...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Sunday that the military would not halt its offensive in the northern Gaza Strip until Palestinian rocket fire toward Israel was significantly reduced.

Good. But not good enough. What he should have said is that the military would not halt its offensive...until Palestinian rocket fire toward Israel was completely eliminated.

"I urge members of the international community to take the appropriate response to Israel's crimes in Gaza," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. "Condemnation is the least one would expect."

I find it humorous how this guy can continue to make statements like this with complete seriousness (so Israel is committing a crime by trying to prevent you from firing rockets onto Israeli cities? When you could stop the IDF at any time by just stopping the rockets and using that money to produce something positive!?!), and the world keeps taking him and his ilk seriously.

In recent years, I've read more romanticized profiles of terrorist leaders in the mainstream media than I'd care to admit. But Vanity Fair's sickening puff piece on Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh takes the cake.

Authored by David Margolick and titled, "The Most Dangerous Job in Gaza," the article is nothing more than a transparent attempt to make us feel sorry for the poor, beleaguered terrorist leader Haniyeh and the people who elected him. To hear Margolick tell it, if only Haniyeh didn't have to spend all his time escaping from Israeli bombs, he might just turn out to be the next Gandhi.

As usual, all of Israel's military actions are described in a vacuum, with little to no context as to what prompted them. That would be the ongoing war of extermination against Israel on the part of the Palestinians and the Muslim world as a whole.

The Kassam rocket just cleared the apartment block before slamming into the Sderot playground, less than 15 meters from the jungle gym. A child was wounded and another four individuals were treated for shock in Tuesday afternoon's rocket attack that could have been much, much worse.

The news from Sderot has not changed recently. No one should forget that.

Mohammed Shahadeh, leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the camp, was killed outside his home.

The clash began on Saturday when Fatah-aligned police blocked streets and set fire to tires on main roads, in protest of non-payment of salaries by the Hamas-led government. The stabbing of a Hamas militia man who arrived with a force to halt the rally led to a showdown of gunbattles which lasted hours.

Sunday morning, the exchanges of fire resumed and Shahadeh was killed. Three others were wounded.

This reminds me of the lyrics of a particular song.

Haaretz just published an article with the headline: Russian FM calls international demands on Hamas 'unrealistic'. From the article:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that international demands for Hamas to immediately renounce violence and recognize Israel were unrealistic at present, and that the Palestinian movement should be given more time to honor them.

And how much time would be reasonable? 1 year? 2 years? A century? Why exactly is it unreasonable to expect Hamas to "recognize Israel"? Perhaps because they are incapable of such, and never intend to.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas told demonstrators in Gaza on Friday that Israel is an abomination in the Middle East that will some day disappear.

So what is Russia worried about?

Lavrov added that the ruling Palestinian movement could "move gradually toward accepting these conditions."

He criticized unidentified members of the quartet of "trying to influence this process by making excessive demands, excessive at the present stage."

What amazes me is that the "Quartet" and every other international power that is putting pressure on Israel to accept and give in to Hamas and the PLO, are intimating that given more time, Hamas will really go and make extremely large and generous concessions like recognizing that the State of Israel deserves more than extermination.

Are they really that stupid and ignorant. Is there some alternate fantasy world where they are living, in which one is allowed to stick one's head in the ground and selectively pay attention to only the things that adhere to one's own personal agenda? Or do they really know what is going on, and just want to give off the impression of ignorance? While the Quarter continues speaking about how Hamas just needs a little bit more time, and eventually they will come around to recognizing Israel (which will still have gotten us absolutely no where), Hamas is making no effort to conceal their true intentions (other than speaking in Arabic). Here is what they have to say:

Speaking at a rally in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, the Palestinian foreign minister said Hamas would never accept Israel's existence.

"We will never recognize Israel, and the end the [fate of] Zionists will be like that of the Crusaders, the Persians and the English, who left. We want all of Palestine, every centimeter, from the river to the sea, from Rosh Hanikra to Rafah. If we can form a state within the 1967 borders we will do so, but this doesn't mean that we will relinquish our right to every centimeter of Palestine's land," he said.

In his speech, Zahar also addressed the Palestinian prisoners in Israel and promised them that Hamas will do all that it can to secure their release, including kidnapping more Israeli soldiers.

While the rest of the world is waiting for Hamas (and Iran), I sincerely hope that Israel can produce some real leaders who are capable of actually acting in the best interests of Israel. Not in the best interests of public relations, or doing things that will allow the Prime Minister to avoid indictment or get an invitation to Oslo or Washington DC. The best interests of Israel. Because if we can't do anything but help dig our own grave, we have no reason to blame the rest of the world for holding out the shovel.

Remember those high-tech greenhouses Israeli settlers built in Gaza, that provided employment for Palestinians and produced an amazing assortment of fruits and vegetables in the midst of barren desert? The ones that rich Westerners (like Bill Gates) bought and presented to the Palestinian Authority when Israel withdrew from Gaza?

Guess what they are being used for now.

Another pattern thats unusual," he said. "They use the civilian population as human shields. It's not really unusual. Hezbollah did the same thing in Lebanon. Fighters in Iraq do it there, too, although some in Iraq also deliberately murder Iraqis.

Does the local population let them do this? I said.

Its a problem," he said. "Sometimes we see resistance. But its difficult to judge from our perspective. We see a lot of cases where Katyusha or Qassam rockets are fired from within populated areas. More than that, they came up with a system that was based on the fear that we would find the exact location of the rocket launchers. So they place the launchers with a timer. And ten, eleven, and twelve year old children come and take the launcher away afterwards. Often were faced with fourteen or fifteen year old youth who come, armed, and place charges along the fence. When we see them, even when we see that they are armed, if they are only fourteen or fifteen we only shoot to scare them. We dont actually fire at them. Of course, only if there is no immediate danger to our forces.

Our general instructions," he continued, "not just in the these cases, is if we see a militant who is armed, a terrorist, and there is no immediate danger to our forces, we dont fire if there is a danger that we would hurt the innocents, people who are not involved. But with that, its important to say that when we have such aggressive fighting in populated areas, when theres an exchange of fire between terrorists and the IDF, there are cases where innocent people get hurt. But we warn as much as we can to step back, step away, to clear the area. So we see the terror organizations as responsible when civilians get hurt. And when there is a case and we know that a civilian was killed by mistake or unnecessarily, we check ourselves. When a rocket is fired and we respond with artillery fire, there could be civilians hurt. We dont fire into populated areas. Only to the exact spots where they fired Qassams. If its in the middle of the city, we will not shoot.

Michael Totten reports on human shields, terrorism, Hamas and the IDF's Gaza strategy.

Why do Palestinians in Gaza still live in refugee camps? Did the Israelis force Palestinians to stay in the squalid, overcrowded camps?

Palestinians still live in refugee camps, even when the camps are in Palestinian Authority controlled areas, because the PLO opposes and prevents refugee resettlement. As the PLO slogan goes, A Palestinian refugee never moves out of his camp except to return home (ie, to Israel).

While the PLO has done its best to keep Palestinians in refugee camps, Israel has done its best to move Palestinians out of the camps and into new homes. Israel even started a heavily subsidized "build-your-own-home" program for Palestinian refugees. According to an early description of the program:

So what happened to these programs (created by Israel) aimed at resettling Palestinian "refugees" outside of their camps in new towns, which would have resulted in a higher quality of life for said "refugees"? As the article goes on to explain, it was oppossed by both the Palestinian leadership, and by the United Nations.

See the article for more.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Hamas officials last week that the international community considered the Prisoners' Document unacceptable as the political platform of a Palestinian national unity government.

According to a report in the London-based Al-Hayat daily, Abbas explained that the changes made to the document to assuage the various Palestinian factions had made it unacceptable.

So much for the "Prisoners' Document". Apparently even implicit recognition of the existence of the state of Israel is too divisive a position for any government representing the Palestinians.

The timing of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comment Wednesday that military success in the North could create momentum for his realignment plan was horrible.

It came just one day after tens of thousands of settlers and religious Zionists mourned the one-year anniversary of the "expulsion" from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria.

At no other time of the year were religious Zionists so conscious of their tense relations with the Olmert government, a government that has declared it will continue Ariel Sharon's legacy of dismantling Jewish settlements.

It also came less than a week after the death of Maj. Ro'i Klein, 31, who lived with his wife and two children in Eli, a settlement in Samaria. Klein died heroically by jumping on a Hizbullah grenade to take the brunt of the explosion, thus rescuing his fellow soldiers.

The Kleins lived in Eli's Yovel neighborhood, established in 1998, which is on the Olmert government's list of "illegal outposts" slated for evacuation.

This article expresses very well some of the sentiments being felt across all of the religious Zionist and settler communities in Israel. Up until these comments were made by Olmert, the settler communities were making very large contributions to the defense of Israel, and were in full support of the actions of the government and the IDF. Now, on the day before the ninth of Av (the saddest day in the Jewish calendar), on the day on which the lagrest number of rockets yet fell on Northern Israel, on the one year anniversary of the expulsion from Gaza, Olmert has to come out and say that he thinks that the events in Lebanon show that Israel should proceed with convergence?? People here are furious (including all of the other Left-wingers who had supported Olmert in the election). Words like this at a time like this are the most effective way to break the unity that is currently being felt in Israel. (The one good thing about this is that it probably moved up the date of the next elections by a few months, as people are even more disgusted with Olmert's prospects as a successful leader of Israel.

The conversation between a Jewish holocaust survivor and a young Arab man attending Hebrew University. This took place in the middle of the intifada, in 2002 on a beach outside of Herzliya, Israel. I haven't looked at this piece for a few years, but I remembered it today while thinking about the animosities present in this region, and whether any prospects for peace in the near future exist.

For a while he looked at me perturbed. " We all make mistakes. But Islam with all its faults is a thousand times more preferable to the abomination that is the West." He finally said quietly. Then he gave me a fierce look and said: "If you had said in any Arabcountry about Islam, what you have just said to me, you would be a dead man!"

"I am sure I would. And if you had said in any Arab country denouncingtheir corrupt regimes the way you are denouncing Israel, you would be adead man too. Yet, here you are, studying at the Hebrew University inJerusalem, allowing yourself openly to speak of subversion and treasonagainst the State of Israel, without any fear of being arrested, let alonebeing killed for it. Doesn't it say something to you?"

"Yes, it says that you are weak, and that weakness will be your undoing."he said seriously."

Isn't there a way our two nations could ever come to terms and make peace?"

Again he gave me that serious look. " Yes, there is a way. We are not like the Nazis who gave you no other choice but death. We give you the chance to convert to Islam, then you will become a part of us and our people willlive in peace.

"For a while we stood in silence looking at the sea.

(This article was widely distributed in 2002 after it was first published. At the top of the page that is linked there is a letter of introduction from the author of the article. To get to the article itself you will have to scroll down a little bit)

Despite what has been going on in the North, Israeli civilians in the area bordering Gaza have been subjected to non-stop rocket attacks. The latest one hit a kindergarten. Thank God, no one was killed.

A Qassam rocket landed next to a kindergarten in a community south of Ashkelon at 10:45 a.m. Friday. Two children were lightly wounded and eight more people suffered shock. Additionally, the kindergarten building was damaged.

Magen David Adom emergency crews arrived at the scene and began treating the children and took some to the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon.

Shin Bet security service agents have begun telephoning members of Palestinian terrorist organizations and warning them to leave their houses, so that they and their families will not be hurt when Israel bombs them, Palestinian sources said yesterday.

According to the sources, Shin Bet agents have contacted members of various armed organizations over the last few days and warned them that Israel plans to attack their houses. The houses in question are being targeted because Israel believes that they are being used to store or manufacture weapons, including Qassam rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Before dawn yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces bombed two such houses - one belonging to an Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza City and one belonging to a Hamas operative in Rafah, on the Gazan-Egyptian border. According to the army, both houses served as weapons factories.

More on the steps Israel is taking to reduce civilian casualties while destroying the terrorist infrastructure here.

Nobody has yet to improve upon the late Abba Iban's assertion that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". That statement sums up with startling clarity and simplicity the ability of the Palestinians to shoot themselves in the foot if given half a chance.

I bring this up, because with the whole word's mostly negative attention focused firmly on Hezbollah, one would think the Palestinians would just sit quietly and pretend for a moment that they haven't been acting in concert with the other terrorist organizations in the region. For a change, they could actually get to be the kid who has just helped set off a stink bomb in the school bathroom but who stands angelically by while the principal yells at another guilty party who actually got caught. The Palestinians could have been the Eddie Haskell of the middle east!

But noooo. True to form, they have missed yet another opportunity... just the latest in a long line of missed opportunities: