Pallywood Phony Portrayal Presage

This picture

is not a photograph of Muslim women lined up to be shot/raped/molested/robbed, et al. by Israeli soldiers/policemen/border guards/settlers.

Not, they are just posing.  Some more pics.

For what?

Well, they are waiting for Jews to enter the Temple Mount so they can scream and yell and shout and berate and verbally attack them, to cause a provocation and to threaten them so that the Jews do not merit any freedom of access to the site.

That's what they do, what they are paid to do.

I refer to them as the Wicked Witches of the Waqf.  And here, too.

You have been warned.

^

Look For The Blue Tent

From this now famous video news report on hamas setting up a rocket launcher adjacent to a hotel and in a civilian area of Gaza:

Shall we suggest to Hamas to change the color of its tents next time?

Or shall we simply trust that the IDF Air Force will be better able to pinpoint its retaliatory strikes by simply searching for blue tents?

And who paid for those tents?  UNRWA?

Do they have an itemized expense record?

^

As Days Go By: A Missed Opportunity for Coexistence

I was offered this calendar:

And its particulars:

The JAI Olive Tree Calendar 2015 is now available at the JAI office.
You may order your desired copy / copies, from the JAI Media Officer, Ibrahim Hannouneh, at: ihannouneh@jai-pal.org, to be posted to you.
The calendar includes:
Topics related to the Olive Trees, land, and occupation impact on farmers.
Stories and reflections of some sponsors and farmers.
Christian and Muslim feasts and holidays.
Palestinian and international memorials and feasts.
The JAI, YMCA and YWCA upcoming events and programs.
The calendar includes hard base so as to be placed on desks / tables.

Ah,

Christian and Muslim feasts and holidays

But no Jewish holidays.

"Palestine".  What was I thinking?

^

More on 'No Hamas Fighter Died?'

Following up on my previous post on civilian casualties and my post on open spaces , If you depend on the UN for your data, you (and we) have a problem.

Note:

and if you depend on PCHR:

I am not that clever with math but something is missing.

How many Hamas fighters died?

None?

As of July 28, we have this.

and now this from Aug. 3:

we know now that Hamas have ordered their people to report all deaths as innocent civilians. We know too that Hamas has a track record of lying about casualties. After Operation Cast Lead, the 2008-09 fighting in Gaza, the IDF estimated that of 1,166 Palestinian deaths, 709 were fighters. Hamas – backed by several NGOs – claimed that only 49 of its fighters had been killed, the rest were innocent civilians. Much later they were forced to admit that the IDF had been right all along and between 600 and 700 of the casualties had in fact been fighters. But the short-memoried media are incapable of factoring this in before broadcasting their ill-founded and inflammatory assertions.

Analysis of casualty details released by Qatar-based Al Jazeera indicate that so far in the conflict most of those killed in Gaza have been young men of fighting age, not women, children or old people. According to one analyst, despite comprising around 50% of the population, the proportion of women among the dead is 21%.  Preliminary analysis by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel suggests that 71, or 46.7%, of the first 152 Palestinians killed were fighters and 81, or 53.3%, non-involved civilians.

None of this analysis is definitive. But it does cast doubt upon the accusations of indiscriminate attack against the population by the IDF and upon the UN estimates – widely trumpeted as fact by the media and the not-exactly unbiased United Nations – that between 70 and 80% of Palestinian casualties have been civilians.

^

Gaza as North Wazirstan

Does this sound plausible?

“Israel's military launched a major ground offensive in Gaza, south of Tel Aviv, beginning what army commanders say will be a ‘house-to-house search’ for terrorist leaders and other militants.
“The offensive began after two weeks of airstrikes on the area Rafah… .
“In a statement, Israel’s military said its soldiers discovered ‘underground tunnels’ and ‘preparation factories’ for explosives during the initial hours of the ground assault… .
“Backed by artillery and tanks, troops killed 17 terrorists Monday, the army said. Combined with the toll from airstrikes that began June 16, a total of 376 terrorists have died in the offensive, the army said… .
“More than a half-million residents fled their homes in Gaza ahead of the ground offensive. The mass evacuation of the area, which has a population of about 600,000, was intended to limit civilian casualties during the operation. The military also set up checkpoints in the area to trap militants.”

Of course not.

But this is the real story:

What follows are excerpts from a June 30, 2014, news account by Tim Craig, the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Pakistan:

“Pakistan’s military launched a major ground offensive in the northwestern part of the country Monday, beginning what army commanders say will be a ‘house-to-house search’ for terrorist leaders and other militants.

“The offensive began after two weeks of airstrikes in North Waziristan… .

“In a statement, Pakistan’s military said its soldiers discovered ‘underground tunnels’ and ‘preparation factories’ for explosives during the initial hours of the ground assault… .

“Backed by artillery and tanks, troops killed 17 terrorists Monday, the army said. Combined with the toll from airstrikes that began June 16, a total of 376 terrorists have died in the offensive, the army said… .

“More than a half-million residents fled North Waziristan ahead of the ground offensive. The mass evacuation of the area, which has a population of about 600,000, was intended to limit civilian casualties during the operation. The military also set up checkpoints in the area to trap militants.”

That was from Bret Stephen's article.

i searched for more and found this from July 16:

Airstrikes killed at least 50 people in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday...One strike targeted a house in North Waziristan as well as a vehicle passing nearby, local intelligence officials said. Although authorities said 15 people were killed in the strike, some officials said at least 20 died.

Several local officials said they thought the strike was carried out by a U.S. drone. However, the CIA declined to comment.

“The compound was being used by foreign militants, and some local terrorists were present in the vehicle that got targeted,” said one of the Pakistani intelligence officials,

And whereas in Gaza there are Internally Displaced Persons and they are bewailing, look what the situation is in Pakistan:

Many of the refugees in this northwestern city were abruptly forced to leave their homes and now must endure rationed food, overcrowded housing and uncertainty about the fate of their livestock. Yet despite those hardships, the refugees are also rediscovering a life free from the sway of radical Islamists who effectively ruled North Waziristan for the past decade.

That is real rehabilitation.  If only in Gaza.

And here is how Bret finishes his piece:

Since the war in Gaza began nearly a month ago, I have been bombarded with indignant letters and tweets calling me a “racist” for my views and asking whether I would like to live in Gaza.
My answer to the second point is that I would no more want to live under Hamas than I would under any other fanatical dictatorship that starts gratuitous wars, uses civilians as human shields, punishes political opposition with death, and sends others to die while its leaders hide beneath hospital sheets.
As for racism, people often point out how peculiar it is that the Jewish state seems to arouse a level of condemnation that never seems to apply equally elsewhere. But perhaps the real racism is the indifference to Muslim suffering around the world when the person dropping the bomb or pulling the trigger is another Muslim. A world that makes a fetish of the alleged guilt of Israel is also a world that holds too much Muslim life cheap.

^ 

A Sacred Duty and Media Bias

The unease of America and other Western countries with Israel's military operations is an old story.

One of the early - the first would be Israel's reprisal raids in the 1950s - prominent examples was during the First Lebanon war:

"President Reagan Blasts Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin Over Lebanon Shelling." Karen Gray, correspondent. NBC Nightly News, 13 Aug. 1982

Transcript:

An angry President Reagan made a personal phone call to Israel’s Prime Minister Begin expressing shock and outrage at the latest massive shelling, demanding an end to the needless bloodshed and destruction saying the US and Israeli relations was at stake. Spokesman Larry Speakes in a White House statement said Israel’s actions halted Ambassador Habib’s peace negotiations just when they were at the point of success. He also said the President in his telephone call made it clear it is imperative that a ceasefire must hold.

20 minutes later Prime Minister Begin called President Reagan back saying a ceasefire had been ordered. Despite the obvious pressure White House officials are refusing to discuss whether the President was ordered to threats to recall Ambassador Habib or to withhold arms from Israel. 

Two months earlier, on the day the war had started, and after President Reagan had belatedly attempted to prevent an outbreak of hostilities, then Prime Minister Menachem Begin wrote to him:

"For the last seventy-two hours, twenty-three of our towns, townships and villages in Galilee have been under the constant shelling of Soviet-supplied heavy artillery and Katyusha rockets by the "P.L.O." terrorists. Tens of thousands of men, women and children remain day and night in shelters. We have suffered casualties. The terrorists are aiming their guns exclusively at the civilian population. There are many military targets in the area; these are completely "immune". The purpose of the enemy is to kill - to kill Jews; men, women and children. Is there a nation in the world that would tolerate such, a situation which, after the cessation of hostilities agreement, has repeated itself time and again?

...Mr. President, the bloodthirsty aggressor against us is on our doorstep. Do we not have "the inherent right to self-defense?" Does not Article 51 of the Charter apply to us? Is the Jewish State an exception to all the rules applying to all other nations?

...it is our duty to make sure that our citizens and their families can live peacefully and carry on their daily lives without the lurking permanent threat of sudden death.

I do hope, Mr. President, that you will take into consideration the unique situation in which we find ourselves as a result of the repeated aggression against us...

We shall do our sacred duty. So help us God.

Reagan's reported anger perhaps stemmed from, but of course, a Pal. media stunt:

An allegedly armless child, whose picture is reportedly displayed on President Reagan’s desk as a symbol of suffering in Lebanon, turns out to be a boy, not a girl as alleged, with both arms intact. The child, identified as four-month-old Eli Massou, whose mother is 16 years old, was discharged from the hospital a few days after the picture was taken.  According to the caption accompanying the United Press International photo distributed throughout the world, it was a picture of a baby girl swathed in bandages after both arms had been blown off by a misdirected Israeli bomb. The child was seen held in the arms of a nurse.

...According to the medical report, one of the infant’s arms was broken in a bombing raid. The arm and his face were also slightly burned. His mother was also slightly injured in the raid and his father was killed. Doctors said the child was completely swathed, as shown in the UPI photo, because that is the standard procedure of dealing with an infant whose arm has been broken to prevent unnecessary movement during medical treatment...

And so, the media apologized:

The United Press International said, in a statement issued here yesterday that it had concluded, after an investigation touched off by severe criticism, that a war-injured Lebanese child had not lost his arms, as had been claimed in a caption and photographs circulated internationally on August I by UP International News pictures

But that was a full week later.

And we'll be waiting for the current round of media biases to be dealt with by the media.  But I am not that confident as there are dangers in the media.

David Lyon has noted, reflecting on the British press and Gaza:

Faced by the horrors of Gaza, Guardian columnist Giles Fraser last week urged reporters to show more emotion, condemning calm rationality in the face of the slaughter as “a particular form of madness”. This is a dangerous path. [it was an "incoherent appeal"] Emotion is the stuff of propaganda, and news is against propaganda. Reporting should privilege the emotional responses of audiences, not indulge journalists.

and drew a conclusion:

...the public demand[s] more engagement and participation from reporters than before. Social media is full of material that is more graphic and more directly emotional than the mainstream media, in Britain at least. News organisations are responding with different ways of editing material gathered by non-professionals, as well as new ways of storytelling.

Yes, it is more diffuclt but we have a sacred duty to fulfill: the safety and security and continued existence of Israel and its citizens.

^ 

A Vigil?

From a press conference yesterday:

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, Muhammad Hussein, has warned of the serious repercussions that are likely to be generated by the official announcement, launched by the so-called Temple institutions, of Israeli bids to construct the alleged temple at the expense of holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

"Official"?  Oh, of non-governmental advocacy groups.  Nu.

More:

Hussein called on the Palestinians to maintain vigil inside al-Aqsa so as to thwart the Israeli desecration plans, calling on the Arab and Muslim nations to immediately step in to protect holy al-Aqsa Mosque and rally round the targeted Palestinian people.

Member of the Fatah central committee, Abbas Zaki, said in a press release the renewed vandalism staged by Israeli settler gangs on al-Aqsa aims at halting the two-state solution and imposing a spatio-temporal division on the mosque like the case of the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil.

“Israeli fanatics have been attempting to hold sway over the holy mosque as part of their Judaization conspiracies aiming at wiping out the Islamic and Arabic idiosyncrasy of Occupied Jerusalem,” he added.  “We shall never give room to such Israeli attempts to enforce a new and odd reality on the site,” he concluded.

A vigil?  They throw stones, light off Roman candles, too firebombs and attack Jews.  That is violent resistance, criminal activity.

^

Gazans Should Be Thankful for Iron Dome

I posted a few days ago on Navi Pillay, the UN's human rights idiot, and her statement on the Iron Dome provided to Israel through US funding that

"No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling,"

I just heard a panel discussion on Channel 10 and Dr. Anat Berko made a point on this. 

Paraphrasing, she said that the Gaza civilians should be thankful that Israel has the Iron Dome 

for otherwise, if buildings in Israel would have been toppled and the fatality rate among Israelis would have been much higher, the ferociousness of the IDF in its fighting would have been such that the civilians of Gaza would have regretted supporting Hamas.

_______________


P.S.

And now this, from CNN's political commentator:

what the Iron Dome does is it also takes away all of Hamas's military leverage

He (Marc Lamont Hill) also said:

I'm pleased to see the United States finally joining the international community in condemning Israel for this reckless assault on innocent lives, but it is hard to condemn Israel when you fund them with so much of the money and so many of the weapons. 

^

Never Responsible

A legal academic suggests:

[Mahmoud] Abbas has neither de jure nor de facto effective control over the members of the groups (especially Hamas) that are responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel. Nor does it seem likely that he would be part of the military chain of command in a Fatah-Hamas unity government. So whatever the state of Palestine’s responsibility for the rocket attacks might be, it is extraordinarily unlikely that Abbas would ever be held individually criminally responsible for them — now or in the future.

Is any Arab-who-refers-to-himself-as-a-'Palestinian' ever responsible for anything they do?


But there is this there:

The Palestinian Authority fails all of the elements of the OTP [Office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court]’s “effective control” test in the context of rival governments: it does not control all of the state of Palestine, it does not enjoy the “habitual obedience of the bulk of the population,” and it does not have “a reasonable expectancy of permanence.”

^

Pallywood in Action (Graphic Images Provided by Hamas)

Pallywood is

"media manipulation, distortion and outright fraud by the Palestinians and other Arabs ... designed to win the public relations war against Israel."

Pallywood in action (thanks to LDB) at outside and down the block from the UNRWA Rafah school in which the IDF targeted terror commanders:

"The Israeli army has targeted three Islamic Jihad terrorists mounted on a motorcycle near an UNRWA school in Rafah," said an IDF spokesperson in a statement.

Note, there's no girl here:

Nor here:

Still in pre-shoot production stage;

Almost ready:

Fitting her into the scene:

"Okay, is this the shot we want?"

* And now there is this clip and you can see the infant girl being place down in the first few seconds.

and this clip:



====
Note:

This post does not support illegal actions directed at civilians and I am not pleased that innocent lives are lost.  It is solely uploaded to illustrate how Pallywood works.
________________________

And EOZ found a video.

And this post explains other aspects that I missed or an not sure of to include in my post.

A new summary.

^

If No Jews, Why So Many Synagogues?

Many think there were no Jews in the Land of Israel after 135 CE and the failure of the Bar Kochba Revolt.

But see here:

^

Cutting Edge

The results of a cutting edge bombing in Bet Hanoun:

The 'From the sea to the river' map, Israel plus Judea & Samaria, but it's ours.

^

Journalism in Gaza

"All hotels at the breach are booked out and the price for a room is not cheap these days even if you a room without seaside view. Gaza City is right now not the best place for spending your summer vacation, but the price for a room is the same as a room in a hotel at the Côte d'Azur. Wartime is the time for big business for the accommodation industry in Gaza. In the lobbies of the hotels, the journalists meet their fixers, producers, stringers or facilitators. There are plenty of names for media professionals who never be mentioned in reports but who are obligatory for reporting from Gaza. No matter if Al Jazeera or ARD, all networks work with local stringers who must have an official accreditation at the Media Office of the Hamas. They research facts, schedule interviews, hire drivers and book studios. They demand a daily fee depending on their skills and contacts. Going to hell is not for free...There is struggle for freedom and dignity in any street and place in Gaza. You do need a stringer to cover it. But Hamas wants foreign correspondents to have a stringer whom they trust in order to make sure that you do not explore Gaza by your own." 

From  "The Days of Oil and Za'atar, Gaza Diary", a work in progress by Martin Lejeune.

Martin once interviewed me:

Gaza und Westjordanland sollten durch einen Korridor miteinander verbunden werden. So stand es 1993 im Oslo-Vertrag.
Gott sei Dank gibt es diesen Korridor nicht, über den Hamas-Aktivisten ungehindert aus Gaza nach Samaria gelangen könnten.

or

Gaza and the West Bank should be connected by a corridor. This was written in 1993 in the Oslo Accords.
Thank God there is not this corridor, [for otherwise] the Hamas activists could freely move from Gaza to Samaria.

^

No One Died Naturally?

When you see a poster like this (it's from July 31, 2014),

ask yourselves 'and how many Gazans died of natural causes?' or did everyone in Gaza this past month expire due solely to Israeli defense actions against Hamas?

Or are statistics being manipulated?

______________

UPDATE


Received this from LBD:

Death rate: in Gaza
3.09 deaths/1,000 population (2014 est.)   My bad math comes to 5,500 Gazans who die naturally every year, or 15 per day. During the course of a 30 day campaign 450 would die.

^

'The Situation Before 67' Was The Reason For War'

Back on October 29, 2007, the late Dr. Eyyad Sarraj, Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, a 'professional' who suggested that suicide-bombers can be understood because 

the uprooting of the Palestinians in 1948 triggered by Irgun Jewish terror under the leadership of Yitzak Shamir and Menachem Begin, we have tried every thing

and who, in "The Gatekeepers", was quoted saying "your suffering is our victory" , spoke to a public event in Tel Aviv organized by an extreme left-wing group via phone and said:

Unfortunately, according to the Sharon plan, the first goal is that Gaza and the West Bank will be separated. And what is the plan of this government? They want to go back to what was before 1967. They don't realize that the situation before 67' was the reason for war, not for peace.

So, today's so-called-but-not-actually an "occupation" is not the reason for violence and in trying to solve today's reality has no real affect on the thinking of a Palestinian who is stuck in 1948 (and as that quotation illustrates is a perversion of history and an innaccurate presentation of what was the experience of Zionism and the local Arabs during 1920-1948*).

Why didn't the Left in Israel inform us that?


__________

*

a. Arabs under the to-become Mufti Haj Amin El-Husseini killed Jews beginning in April 1920 and before, there were sporadic unorganized murders of Jews on a nationalist basis, starting in 1851, at least.

b. Jewish anti-Arab 'terror' in the 1948 war was in reprisal for Arab terror attacks beginning of the morrow of the November 29, 1947 UN Partition proposal the Arabs rejected and acts of brutal Arab violence directed at Jews for which, in addition, the Hagana engaged in reprisal.  For example, 

On 10 August, Arabs shot up the Hawaii Cafe in Tel Aviv...Haganah took the offensive...and blew up an Arab house killing 12 Arabs, four of whom were children. The Arabs were suspected of being involved in the Hawaii Cafe attack and the Haganah claimed the house was a training center for Arab guerillas. Haganah said that it didn't know about the children prior to the attack. 

^

The Importance of Josh Being Earnest

I read this after hearing it on CNN but I wanted to be sure my ears weren't playing tricks on me:

“The shelling of a U.N. facility that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible,” Earnest said. “And it is clear that we need our allies in Israel to do more to live up to the high standards that they have set for themselves.”

That Earnest is Josh Earnest, named White House press secretary less than two months ago.

Josh, The Importance of Being Earnest, we should recall, is subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People".  So, while you have an important job, let's keep to being serious rather than trivial.  And it deals with the escaping of burdensome social obligations.  One aspect is the change of names (and the title is a play of words) and on that is this exchange which sounds quite pertinent to what you said:

Algernon.  ...Why are you Ernest in town and Jack in the country?
Jack.  My dear Algy, I don’t know whether you will be able to understand my real motives.  You are hardly serious enough.  When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects.  It’s one’s duty to do so.  And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes.  That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Algernon.  The truth is rarely pure and never simple.  Modern life would be very tedious if it were either...

Josh, is the conclusion that since even in being correct and moral, moreso than even the United States, Israel is criticized by an arbitrary "high set of standards", that we should scale back to the norms?  And in relating to Israel in an attitude which places our country in a unique position to which no other country is held, your words were immoral.

___________________

Follow-up:

Mr. Earnest on August 4:

Q    Thanks, Josh.  The State Department put out a statement over the weekend on the latest Israeli attack on a U.N. facility, and it was about as tough as this administration gets publicly with the Israelis.  I'm wondering if you can give us a sense of the administration’s and the President’s, in particular, level of frustration with the Israelis and the amount of civilian casualties we're seeing...

MR. EARNEST:  Well, Julie...The tragic loss of life that we've seen on both sides of this conflict needs to come to an end.  That tragic loss of life includes the many innocent Palestinian civilians who have been killed.  It also includes the Israeli civilians who have been killed by Hamas rockets that have been aimed squarely at them...

...Q    Can we go back to the State Department’s statement over the weekend?  As I said, it was as tough as this administration gets when publicly discussing Israel.  What went into that decision-making?  Did you feel like it was necessary to take that tougher line publicly?

MR. EARNEST:  Well, let me say a couple things about that.  There have been a number of reports of the shelling of U.N. facilities in Gaza.  I think that there have been seven or so reports of that taking place.  And we have, over the course of time, expressed our concerns about the necessity of the Israeli military to live up to their own standards when it comes to protecting the lives of innocent civilians, even Palestinian civilians who are caught in the middle of this conflict.  What that statement from the State Department made clear is that the suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.

He does add,

Now, as you know, Julie, there have been reports of Hamas using innocent civilians as cover to protect their weapon stockpiles or even to protect Hamas fighters.  That is a deplorable technique or strategy, and it is one that we have strongly condemned and continue to condemn.  What we have also been clear about, and as that statement laid out in very plain terms, that suspicion that Hamas fighters are operating in the vicinity of innocent civilians does not justify taking strikes that put the lives of those innocent civilians at risk.

Actually, international law and military manuals do permit action in such circumstances. 

Here (via JDwyer):

US rules of engagement under Obama are actually worse (more dangerous for the soldiers and the mission).  That’s the point that needs to be hammered if a comparison is made: not that the US has a double standard, but that the Obama standard (a) ignores the latitude national militaries are properly afforded by the Geneva Convention, and (b) increases combat AND (often) civilian casualties, and reduces effectiveness. See:​​ Here. Here. Here. Here.  and Here. 

  

^

Navi Pillay and The Right to Know

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday accused both Israel and Hamas militants of violating the rules of war and got quite specific:

Pillay also took aim at the U.S., Israel's main ally, for providing financial support for Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-rocket defense system. "No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling," she said.

It's also here:

The UN chairwoman criticized the U.S. for helping fund Israel's Iron Dome system which has saved countless Israeli and Palestinian lives. "No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling," she said.

Amnesty has it this way:

"They have not only provided the heavy weaponry which is now being used by Israel in Gaza, but they’ve also provided almost $1 billion in providing the Iron Domes to protect Israelis from the rockets attacks, but no such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling," said Navi Pillay, U.N. human rights high commissioner. "So I am reminding United States that it’s a party to international humanitarian law and human rights law."

Al-Jazeera:

Pillay also criticised the US, Israel's main ally, for failing to use its influence to halt the violence."They have not only provided the heavy weaponry which is now being used by Israel in Gaza, but they've also provided almost $1bn in providing the Iron Domes to protect Israelis from the rockets attacks," she said. 

"No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling."

However, the official version at the Media Centre site of the UN is lacking this accusation. 

Is Pillay violating the public's right to know?

Did she censor herself?

____________

P.S.


President Obama ignores her criticism:

I have been very clear throughout this crisis that Israel has a right to defend itself.  No country can tolerate missiles raining down on its cities...And so, not only have we been supportive of Israel in its right to defend itself, but in very concrete terms -- for example, in support for the Iron Dome program that has intercepted rockets that are firing down on Israeli cities -- we've been trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that Israel is able to protect its citizens.

Now, at the same time, we've also been clear that innocent civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our conscience and we have to do more to protect them.  A cease-fire was one way in which we could stop thekilling...Israel committed to that 72-hour cease-fire, and it was violated.  And trying to put that back together is going to be challenging, but we will continue to make those efforts.

^

No Room in Gaza?

You seen and heard this claim:

Eyewitness Gaza: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide

No where?  no where at all?

Look at this UN map:

There seem to be a lot of empty white-colored area there.

For sure, no bathrooms, running water and electricity --- fror the moment.

But there is a room, for tents and other temporary accommodations.

It's done in Jordan and Turkey for Syrians.

'Palestinians' are less worthy for such life-saving arrangements?

_____________

UPDATE

Did Alan Dershowitz read me?

^

Short Answers to Silly Questions Re: Hamas - #1

Let me start a new theme of an occasional series we'll call

Short Answers to Silly Questions Re: Hamas

Question #1:

Doesn't have Hamas to right to resist Israel?

Background

One can read material like this ---

"...leading intellectuals make separate and eloquent cases that the people of Gaza have the right to resist by any means – including by firing rockets – Israel’s efforts to slowly extinguish their right to self-determination, and possibly to life itself. They argue that the Palestinians have this right most certainly at a moral level, but also almost certainly at the level of international law."

and also this:

"Palestinians have a right to resist the occupation".

and this:

...terrorism for [Israel] was right in what is arguably the most fundamental sense.’ The same blessing is to be withheld from what Honderich calls ‘neo-Zionism’— 3the endeavor to extend the Jewish state throughout Palestine. However, since the Palestinians also have a right to a state of their own in the remainder of Palestine, then they have a right to resist neo-Zionism, and since the only means to do so is through the use of terrorism against Israelis, then Palestinians have a right to engage in terrorism. 

Answer:

According to The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) from 18 August 1988, and unchanged since, 

a.  Hamas does not act according to any secular matrix but by Islamic theology (Art. 27) so any attempt to overlay liberal, democratic or other Western thought to understanding or explaining away Hamas in unapplicable.  They are also destabilized psychologically (see b.)

b.  Their perception of Zionism is that it cannot and should not exist at all inter alia based on weird conspiracy theories sich as Art. 28: "The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion...It relies greatly...on the secret organizations it gave rise to, the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All...aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion...We should not forget to remind every Moslem that when the Jews conquered the Holy City in 1967, they stood on the threshold of the Aqsa Mosque and proclaimed that 'Mohammed is dead, and his descendants are all women'. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people..."

c.   The preamble highlights the uselessness of rational discussion with or about Hamas:  "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it".

d.   The foregoing illustrate that Hamas is not at all interested in seeking to end the conflict it maintains exists with Israel in any diplomatic fashion.  In Art 32 we read: "Leaving the circle of struggle with Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who does that."

With that reality, it makes no difference what Israel does.  Hamas must 'resist' and resistance in Hamas-lingo is terror, not military-style operations, directed exclusively (alright, 99%) against civilians and in doing so, they sacrifice their own civilians.

e.   In Art. 32, it is noted "The Islamic Resistance Movement consider itself to be the spearhead of the circle of struggle with world Zionism". 

f.   Zionism can have no territory at all.  In Article Eleven we read: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries...possess the right to do that...".

Summation:

-   There is nothing moral about Hamas, whether relating to its goals or its methods.

-   No rational or logical thought processes can be utilized to deal with Hamas.

-   It makes no difference if there is or there isn't a blockade, or 'occupation' or whatever Israel can be accused by and as a result of that, nothing Israel does can satisfy Hamas, even if Israel is in the wrong (which it isn't).

-   Moreover, Hamas does not limit its enterprise to the area of Israel but fights a world-wide battle.

-   With Hamas, the struggle of resistance is not over borders or territory but Israel's existence.

Given the above, Hamas can not have a so-called 'right to resist'.

In short:

^

"Hotel Hamas" and Civilian Casualties

Source:

Reference:

"I was thinking to myself,

"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"...

...How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget...

...still those voices are calling from far away,

Wake you up in the middle of the night...

...What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)

Bring your alibis...

...Last thing I remember, I was

Running for the door

I had to find the passage back

To the place I was before

"Relax, " said the night man,

"We are programmed to receive.

You can check-out any time you like,

But you can never leave! "

^

Hillary Clinton as 'Designated Yeller'

From

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS
Interview with Hillary Clinton
Aired July 27, 2014

ZAKARIA: Bibi Netanyahu. You said you had a complicated and it sounded like a difficult relationship with him.

CLINTON: Well, I have to say, I've known be a long time and I have a very good relationship with him, in part because we can yell at each other, and we do. And I was often the designated yeller. Something would happen, a new settlement announcement would come and I would call him up, what are you doing? You've got to stop this. And we understood each other because I know how hard it is to be the leader of a relatively small country that is under constant pressure and does face a lot of legitimate threats to its existence from those around it...

ZAKARIA: But you know, he gave an interview recently to I think it was "The Times of Israel" where he said there are no circumstances under which we will ever relinquish security control of the area west of the Jordan, meaning the West Bank. That sounds like it is going back on his acceptance of the two-state solution.

CLINTON: Well, Fareed, I see that as an opening negotiating position...

ZAKARIA; In 2009 you said that you wanted Israeli settlement activity to stop. In fact you were pretty blunt. You said no exceptions. You write in the book that that was a tactical mistake because it made Bibi Netanyahu get even more hard-line.

CLINTON: Right...This is my biggest complaint with the Israeli government. I am a strong supporter of Israel, strong supporter of their right to defend themselves. But the continuing settlements which have been denounced by successive American administrations on both sides of the aisle are clearly a terrible signal to send if at the same time you claim you're looking for a two-state solution. Now when I was negotiating and I had been able to put together three face-to-face meetings between Netanyahu and Abbas, it was clear that if we were working off the 67 borders which was our stated position that President Obama had outlined, some of the settlements would be within any reasonable drawing of borders for Israel. But a number of them would not. And those that would not would have to be either dismantled or live under Palestinian rule...

^

Are they Shooting?

This was confirmed:-

Al-Aqsa Brigades opens fire on Qalandia, injuring Israeli soldiers
Published Saturday 26/07/2014 (updated) 26/07/2014 20:35

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade early Thursday claimed responsibility for opening fire on Israeli forces at Qalandia checkpoint, launching a gun battle that they say wounded a number of Israeli soldiers.

And there was a shooting at the Rechalim junction on July 21 with one wounded.

But is this believable?

Militants open fire at settlement near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Palestinian fighters opened fire on an Israeli settlement near Nablus early Thursday, in the latest in a string of armed attacks on Israeli settlements and checkpoints across the West Bank in the last two weeks.

Palestinian security sources told Ma'an that armed assailants opened fire on Shavei Shomron, located at a major junction on the main road leading north from Nablus.

Israeli forces shot back live fire, with no injuries reported on either side...On Tuesday, Palestinians opened fire and injured an Israeli soldier in Qublan, also near Nablus.

Guess I'll have to check. 

^