Israel On Trial

By now, the conclusions of the Goldstone report should come as no surprise to anyone. Goldstone found that "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Operation Cast Lead. The report is quite damning in its portrayal of the Israeli army as a murderous, genocidal force in Gaza. Here is yet another example of anti-Israel bigotry masquerading in the guise of human rights. Supporters of Israel must realize that this report is no simply a denunciation of specific Israeli actions but rather a denial of Israel's right to self-defense.<br /><br />The conclusions of the report were a foregone conclusion. According to <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3778063,00.html">Israelis who testified</a> before the commission, the situation was hopeless. Their testimonies were largely ignored. Noam Bedin, a resident of Sderot and the manager of the rocket-ridden city's communications office, recounts, "when I stood up and started to testify before the judges, Justice Goldstone fell asleep in front of me. It was an embarrassing moment but I continued talking, realizing that I should not have high hopes," he added. Bedin said the testimony had felt pointless. "One of the judges on the committee had already expressed the very clear opinion that Israel was committing war crimes against the Palestinians," he said. Dr. Mirela Siderer, a resident of Ashkelon, was injured by a Grad missile fired at her by Hamas. She claims that her testimony was completely left out by the commission. In it, she had explained that she was a doctor who often treated Palestinian patients.<br /><br />Much of the "facts" in report are based on unsubstantiated claims by anti-Israel NGOs. The 575-page Goldstone report is primarily based on NGO statements, publications, and submissions (70 references each for B’Tselem and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and more than 30 for Al-Haq and Human Rights Watch). In its analysis of NGO submissions and testimony, <a href="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/the_goldstone_gaza_fact_finding_committee_and_the_lund_london_guidelines_">NGO Monitor found numerous false and unsubstantiated allegations</a>. Nevertheless, the Goldstone committee simply copied the NGO biases, flawed methodology, and false claims, rendering the entire report invalid.<br /><br />Israel's actions in Gaza were certainly legal, and in fact were its moral obligation. The hypocritical marches and protests that follow only demonstrate how the world rejects Israel's right to fight back. In early November, Israel discovered that Hamas had dug a tunnel into Israel and was preparing to kidnap more soldiers. As a result, the IDF carried out an operation which eliminated seven Hamas terrorists. Hamas <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404736151&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull">never respected the ceasefire</a> from the very beginning. When the Hamas-imposed six-month deadline expired in December, Israel hoped an agreement could be reached to extend the cease-fire. Instead, Hamas began firing what would be hundreds of rockets into Israel. The sophisticated rockets smuggled in from Iran had put 1-in-every-8 Israelis in mortal danger, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the south to have 15 seconds to run to their lives to take shelter before the rocket hit. The Goldstone commission was based on a false premise of equating perpetrators of terror with its victims. During Operation Cast Lead, Israel, a sovereign democratic state, was responding to hundreds of attacks on its citizens and their homes by a terrorist organization.<br /><br />The world is ready to accept any libelous claim when it comes to Israel. Recently, Sweden's leading newspaper published an article claiming that Israeli soldiers <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132979">intentionally killed Arab children</a> in order to harvest their organs, a modern reincarnation of the medieval blood libel. This was despite the fact that the writer of the article, Donald Bostrom, acknowledged that "he has no idea whether the accusations are true." Of course, when it comes to slandering Israel, truth need never get in the way. Similarly, the Goldstone report, based on the biased claims of Palestinian sources and NGOs, is short on facts but full of rhetoric.<br /><br />Article 51 of the United Nations Charter reserves to every nation the right to engage in self-defense against armed attacks. The only nation to whom that doesn't apply, it seems, is to Israel. The world cannot abide by the idea of Jews defending themselves. In 1967, Israel lost the brief amount of goodwill the world afforded to Jews after the Holocaust, precisely because this was the first time in 2000 years when Jews were no longer the victims. This hideous report is only the beginning of a new wave of anti-Israel sentiment, one which exonerates terrorism and its perpetrators and blames the victims. Israel can look to no support in the international community. Maybe this report is actually good, as it lays bare something that all supports of Israel have known all along: the world does not believe that Jews have a right to exist and to fight back to protect their existence.<br /><br />On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShana, this teaches us a very important lesson. <strong>We have no one to rely on except our Father in Heaven</strong>. Israel believed that its withdrawal from Gaza would bring in its wake international support and sympathy. Instead, it brought rockets upon our heads and even more intense hatred against Israel. With a new anti-Israel administration in Washington, Israel's list of friends is growing increasingly shorter. As Rosh HaShana approaches, Israel must rely on itself and turn to G-d for strength to defeat its enemies and fulfill its destiny.<br /><br /><em>Shanah Tova</em>. May 5770 be a year of blessing, goodness, prosperity, success and the Complete and Final Redemption. May all of Am Yisrael be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Israel On Trial

By now, the conclusions of the Goldstone report should come as no surprise to anyone. Goldstone found that "Israel committed actions am...

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Clarity over Gaza

<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PmfOLl92MrQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PmfOLl92MrQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Note: I was asked to asked to justify Israel's operation in Gaza in January. My opinion on the operation can be found throughout my posts and articles. Rather than right an entire article, I thought that I would refute point by point the lies and misinformation disseminated by fellow blogger <a href="http://1humanity.blogspot.com/">Young Activist</a>. His article can be found in italics, with my commentary.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">An Israeli intelligence officer acknowledged the IDF was targeting "both aspects of Hamas -- its resistance or military wing and its dawa, or social wing," Bombing schools, hospitals, universities, the water system, police stations, and other civilian infrastructure was entirely justified because, as NYT correspondent Stephen Erlanger makes clear, "in a war, [Hamas's] instruments of political and social control were as legitimate a target as its rocket caches." Of course, when Hamas acts on a smaller scale, but in a similar fashion, it must be denounced as terrorism.</span><br /><br />My fellow blogger is making a false distinction between Hamas's military and "social" wings. They are both parts of the same entity, Hamas using its "social" wing to build schools that indoctrinate Arab children in hatred. Just as the Allies during WWII made no distinction between the Nazi Wehrmacht and the social centers built by the Nazi regime, so too this is completely irrelevant. The media has succeeded in portraying the Arabs of Gaza as poor victims of Israeli aggression. Such a characterization is demeaning and in fact bigoted, because it implies that the Arabs cannot be held accountable for their own actions, essentially infantilizing them. Israel withdrew its 7000 Jewish citizens from Gaza in 2005, in a bid to give the Arabs a chance at self-government and a better future. Israel poured aid into the Gaza and even left behind the greenhouses and agricultural infrastructure that had made the Jewish communities so successful. <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/hothouses.html">[1]</a> While Israel extended the olive branch, they got terror in return. In the 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas was elected with a clear majority of 74 of the 132 available seats. Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. It was founded with an explicit dedication to the destruction of the State of Israel and has carried out hundreds of murderous suicide and other terrorist attacks against Jewish targets. <a href="http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm">Hamas' charter</a> is based on rejections and says that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Lest anybody claim that Hamas makes a distinction between Jews and Israel, its charter declares its genocidal intent. "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim)." Concerning this intended genocide, the charter promises that " the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take." To claim that the Arabs who voted for Hamas as their legitimate representatives were not aware of their goals and aspirations is simply dishonest. The Arabs of Gaza must take collective responsibility for freely choosing Hamas as their government. During the past 3 years, there was not a single protest against Hamas using homes, schools, hospitals and mosques to fire rockets against Israeli civilians. The Arabs cannot allow Hamas to use their homes as rocket launch pads while at the same time claim innocence.<br /><br />NYT correspondent Stephen Erlanger's statement reveals a dangerous lack of moral clarity and hypocrisy. There is no comparison between a terrorist organization attacking civilians and a sovereign state trying to protect its civilians. This is the same twisted mentality that would denounce both a robber and the law enforcement officer who tries to neutralize him.<br /><br /><em>If Israel's apologists are to be believed these actions, namely the firing of rockets, necessitated the bombing and subsequent invasion of Gaza. The attack was launched to save lives, Israeli lives that is, Palestinian blood is worthless. But even if we accept the premise that Palestinian deaths are of no conrequence this justification quickly falls apart.</em> <br /><br />This last statement is mere rhetoric, intending to portray Israel as a racist state. The obligation and responsibility of the Israeli government is to protect Israeli citizens, just as it is Russia's duty to protect Russian citizens.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Six months before the offensive began in earnest Hamas and Israel signed a cease fire: both sides would halt their attacks and Israel would open the borders. Rocket attack essentially stopped, although a trickle of fire from dissident groups continued with no fatalities, but Israel refused to open the borders. Nonetheless Hamas was interested in a renewal of the cease fire before it expired, Israel repudiated this offer with violence. This was not the long term settlement endorsed by Hamas and the entire world save Israel and the U.S where Israel and Palestine would recognize each other on the June 1967 borders and all hostilities would cease, this was a short term agreement to end immediate attacks. Israel not only refused to renew the cease fire, it violated it with a Nov. 4 raid that killed several Palestinian fighters.</span><br /><br />Hamas never abided by the truce for even a moment. Almost immediately after the truce was signed in June 2008, Hamas fired rockets into Israel. Despite such a flagrant violation of this truce, Israel promised "restraint" <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/06/25/palestinian_rockets_threaten_truce/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+World+News">[2]</a>. In fact, during the entire 6 month truce period, Hamas fired a total of 329 rockets at Israel <a href="http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e017.pdf">[3]</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Immediately, and predictably, Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets in what the MFA acknowledged was "retaliation" for Israel's violation of the cease fire agreement. If the sole objective of Israel's leaders was to save Israeli lives they would have pursued an extension of the cease fire. The attack, as predicted, resulted in more Israeli deaths. As it launched its offensive the IDF was preparing for scores of Israeli casualties, in the end only eleven Israeli soldiers were killed, several by friendly fire, but this was still many more than had been killed in the preceding six years by rocket fire. </span><br /><br />Dozens of Israelis have been killed by Hamas rocket attacks. The small number of casualties has been nothing short of miraculous yet it is twisted thinking to argue that Israel should have waiting until a higher number of Jews had been killed before responding.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The air attacks began shortly before noon on the Sabbath, Dec. 27 just as children were returning from school and midday crowds were out on the streets. Within moments over two hundred people were dead. Israel's deterrent capabilities, terrorism is lay man's terms, were quickly reestablished to the applause of over 90% of the non-Arab population. One Israeli political analyst predicted that the parties of then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's governing coalition would capture one additional seat in the upcoming Parliamentary elections for every forty Palestinians killed, a prediction that ultimately proved false but still reflected well on the mood of the country. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Israel's PR arm has claimed civilians were warned to leave by the world's most moral army before the fighting began, they couldn't leave the conflict zone through the sealed border crossing, but Israel nonetheless quickly absolved itself of all blame for deaths inflicted by its forces. Unfortunately civilians were not given an opportunity to flee, the result was nearly a thousand dead Palestinian non-combatants. Writing in the nation's leading newspaper Israeli intelligence analyst Reuven Pedatzur noted "[t]he IDF, which planned to attack buildings and sites populated by hundreds of people, did not warn them in advance to leave, but intended to kill a great many of them, and succeeded." Indeed, on one occasion Israeli soldiers ordered a family to evacuate the fighting to a shelter which they promptly bombed, killing scores of people. </span><br /><br />Israel's army went to great lengths to prevent unnecessary civilian casualties, unfortunately often putting Israeli soldiers in harm's way. Following international allegations that Israeli soldiers acted immorally in Gaza, Israel's military launched an investigation hnto the matter. The military probe revealed that there was little truth behind the accusations. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033001240.html">[4]</a> Maj. Yehoshua Gurtler, a military lawyer, said that "these allegations were based on hearsay. They were not based on firsthand evidence. They were rumors. They did not reflect the operational circumstances which had actually taken place on the ground." We are still waiting for the NY Times and other news agencies to publicize the findings with the same zealousness with which they smeared the reputation of the Israeli army.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The IDF made little effort to distinguish between civilian and military targets, often it deliberately attacked civilian targets. It bombed a U.N school housing refugees killing scores of innocents claiming it was sheltering Hamas fighters, a claim the IDF was later forced to retract, it destroyed the warehouse of UNRWA on whom most Palestinians depend for sustenance, it used banned chemical weapons against civilians, it destroyed the al-Quds hospital where hundreds of terrified residents had taken shelter, it refused to allow emergency aid in, ramming and nearly sinking a relief vessel in international waters, and shooting at ambulances attempting to evacuate the injured during Israel's "three hour daily humanitarian cease fire". These reports come from Palestinians, the U.N, and those westerners in Gaza when the attack began, the IDF refused to allow foreign doctors or journalists into Gaza. Who did they want to die from lack of medical attention? What were they hiding? Perhaps the scale of the violence was too great even for Israel's well oiled propaganda machine to talk away. IDF soldiers, some of whom proudly dawned T-Shirts bearing images of a pregnant Palestinian women in a sniper's crosshairs with the words "1 shot 2 kills", killed even the animals at the Gaza zoo during their rampage through the coastal enclave.</span> <br /><br />Just as in the case of the case of the 2002 Jenin massacre that wasn't, Israel was falsely accused of crimes against humanity. rael faced a similar rush to judgment after reports of an Israeli attack on January 6, 2009 on a UN-run school in Jabalya. The building was not being used as a school at the time but was sheltering Palestinian noncombatants. Initial reports said at least 30 (the figure was later revised to 43) Palestinians were killed and UN officials claimed they had given Israeli forces coordinates of this building and others that they said were not associated with Hamas. The incident was immediately portrayed as a deliberate Israeli attack on innocent people.<br /><br />Israel maintained that the building was being used as a shelter and that Israeli forces fired in the direction of the building because they were attacked by Hamas terrorists launching mortars from the area. Israel later identified two of the casualties at the site as Imad and Hassan Abu Asker, who served as heads of the Hamas mortar units in Gaza. A witness from Jabalya said that he had seen Abu Asker in the area of the school right before the attack when he answered a call for volunteers to pile sand around the camp “to help protect the resistance fighters.” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/middleeast/07mideast.html?_r=2&hp">[5a]</a> In addition, two residents of the area near the school told the Associated Press they had seen a small group of terrorists firing mortar rounds from a street close to the school. <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167272256&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull">[5b]</a><br /><br />Journalists who investigated the incident and spoke to eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was in the schoolyard at the time of the shelling, concluded that no one in the school compound was killed. “The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where all three mortar shells landed.”<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090129.wgazaschool29/BNStory/International/home">[5c]</a> As the Globe and Mail noted, this is very different than the UN’s allegation that the IDF had fired into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers.<br /><br />Nearly a month after the incident, following the publication of accounts discrediting UNRWA’s story, Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, was forced to admit that Israel’s account was true after all, that the IDF mortar shells fell in the street near the compound, and not on the compound itself. Gaylord said that the UN “would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school.” <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061189.html">[6]</a><br /><br />One explanation for the inflated civilian casualty figures is that Hamas routinely hides among civilians, since more Arab dead is better for their propaganda purposes. Hamas has stored weapons in schools, mosques and hospitals, and used them as bases for rocket attacks. United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Chief John Holmes told the UN Security Council, “The reckless and cynical use of civilian installations by Hamas and indiscriminate firing of rockets against civilian populations are clear violations of international humanitarian law.” <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059475.html">[6a]</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Norwegian Mads Gilbert, one of only two western doctors on hand for much of the conflict, estimated half of the casualties were woman and children and almost all casualties in Israel's "[a]ll out war against the civilian population of Gaza," were civilian. But perhaps the onslaught was justified, because as the Jersusalem Post noted one Sephardic Rabbi wrote to the Prime Minister that there is "absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings," Perhaps the only fault in killing over 1,300 people, mainly civilians, was that it did not go far enough in reestablishing Israel's deterrent and it failed in returning Kadima to power. Perhaps a 100:1 kill ratio was just not good enough. Perhaps what Israeli commentators frequently refer to as the "Palestinian peace offensive" was not sufficiently thwarted. As for the official pretense, the attack was, as predicted by Israeli officials, counterproductive to its declared aims. When the fighting subsided thirteen Israelis were dead and Hamas remained in power in Gaza, more popular than ever.</span><br /><br />Pure anti-Israel rhetoric. Official Israeli statistics put 300 of the 1200 casualties as civilians <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304788684&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">[7]</a>. This amounts to one-third, not the two-thirds Arab propagandists claimed. This is a much lower rate of civilian casualties than the United States in Iraq or Afghanistan, Russia in Chechnya or NATO in the Balkans. It is despicable to argue that Israel's operation was not justified because a fair or equal amount of Jews hadn't been killed. Close to 100 000 civilian have been killed by violence in Iraq <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.org/">[8]</a>. When Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001 in Afghanistan, the US launched an indiscriminate bombing campaign. Two US jets accidentally killed 100 people and wiped out an entire village in Eastern Afghanistan. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/terrorism.afghanistan2">[9]</a> The high number of civilian deaths have led Afghan President Hamid Karzai to complain to the US. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6615781.stm">[10]</a> To combat Chechnyan terror, the Russian army essentially decided to level Grozny, killing over 200 000 people since 1994 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20041120124031/http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/11/19/civiliandeath.shtml">[11]</a>. Of course, only Israel, the one country that went to pains not to harm civilians (and had a relatively low percentage of civilian deaths) is singled out for abuse, condemnation and vilification.<br /><br />Hamas also bears direct responsibility for civilian casualties in Gaza because it is a violation of international law to launch attacks from civilian infrastructure. According to the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war, civilians are to be protected and distinguished from combatants. This protection extends to civilian areas to minimize harm to innocents. Hamas provoked return fire on civilian areas by launching attacks from densely populated areas and, specifically, from inside and the vicinity of private homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals. In a report to the Israeli cabinet, Israeli intelligence chief, Yuval Diskin, indicated that the Gaza-based leadership of Hamas was hiding in an underground bunker beneath Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/world/middleeast/11hamas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=world">[11a]</a> Hamas also endangered civilians by ordering its forces to discard uniforms and dress in regular clothes that made them indistinguishable from the civilian population.<br /><br />The rage over the T-shirts worn by Israeli soldiers highlights the selective anger of the world. While many brimmed with righteous indignation about these T-shirts, nary a word has been said about Hamas' explicit genocidal statements and the constant and deadly anti-semitic and murderous incitement in Arab culture. Some might argue that Hamas does not have the capacity to carry out these threats. However, when these threats are coupled with the proclamation of "wiping Israel nff the map" by Hamas's Iranian puppet-masters, the situation becomes frightening. Former Canadian Justice minister, member of the Canadian Parliament and expert on international law, has said that Hamas is a "case study per excellence in war crimes" <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231866576202&pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull">[12]</a>.<br /><br />Finally, Hamas is in violation of the prohibition against using child soliders. Hamas regularly indoctrinates children in anti-semitic, anti-Israel hatred and the glorification of "martyrdom". <a href="http://www.pmw.org.il/tv%20part3.HTML">[13]</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">We are told if there were no rockets than Israel would not have been compelled to massacre Gaza, but in the West Bank there are no rockets, but there are land seizures, there are checkpoints, there are regular IDF kidnappings, there are daily incursion into Palestinian communities, there are Jewish only roads, there are illegal settlements, there are attacks on peaceful demonstrations, and there is still the occupation. If peace is what Israel wants than it will engage the Arab world with words and not weapons.</span><br /><br />In typical anti-Israel fashion, history began yesterday. The Arab assault on Jews in Israel has continued unimpeded for over a hundred years. In 1920-21, 1929 and the 1930s, Arabs rioted and massacred hundreds of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Hebron, Safed, etc. This was before there was a state, let alone an "occupation" or checkpoints. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, its was attacked by a million Arab soldiers from 7 different countries. Again in 1967, Israel was threatened and attacked, before any "settlements". Israel has offered the Arabs peace numerous times. Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert recently announced that he offered the PA more than even Ehud Barak did <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130628">[8]</a>. Barak offered Yasser Arafat practically 95% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with a capital in East Jerusalem and control over the Temple Mount. In typical Arab fashion, Arafat wanted everything and walked away. "At one point, I put everything on the table and offered Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – ed.] an offer that had never been made before, that touched on the core of the conflict and the most heavily emotionally charged issues, the rawest nerves, the historical baggage,” Olmert said, recalling his negotiations with Abbas. “I told him, 'Come on, sign.' That was half a year ago, and I'm still waiting,” he added. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Clarity over Gaza

Note: I was asked to asked to justify Israel's operation in Gaza in January. My opinion on the operation can be found throughout my post...

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Jewish Guilt and the Gaza Blood Libel

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPusYw2pcuQ7s1KyL0aoz08S_VeZ-kFiVdL7aC7oDsoYeskSPXrZu10TJZjaiOjX5ZUpCtMue-zMjjae4PWxJkmOKYErjGSm5l0OVBHRkAyt1TKWhnqWU8CqAmyLLdyBw3XuN8f_6_Qdq8/s1600-h/pat+oliphant.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318689014733928834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPusYw2pcuQ7s1KyL0aoz08S_VeZ-kFiVdL7aC7oDsoYeskSPXrZu10TJZjaiOjX5ZUpCtMue-zMjjae4PWxJkmOKYErjGSm5l0OVBHRkAyt1TKWhnqWU8CqAmyLLdyBw3XuN8f_6_Qdq8/s400/pat+oliphant.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" /></a><br />In medieval Europe, Jews were often targeted with the claim that before the Passover season, they would murder a Christian child to use his blood in their matzot and wine. This dangerous libel spread across Europe, attacking Jews in England, Germany, Spain, Russia, and even reaching Damascus, Iran and the Islamic world. The myth of the blood libel led to the pogroms and persecutions of Jews. Cults supported by the Catholic Church flourished around the "martyrs" of the blood libel, such as Simon of Trent and Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln. These blood libel accusations began to wane as the Church lost influence in Europe, yet they occasionally did pop up in Russia, Eastern Europe and Syria.<br /><br />Today, this classic anti-semitic motif has been re-incarnated in a new anti-Zionist form. The common claim is that Israel has been intentionally targeting and murdering Arab children as part of some genocidal program by the Zionist entity. During the recent war in Gaza, the Islamofascist-apologist media portrayed Israel as a blood-thirsty aggressor intent on terrorizing and massacring innocent Arabs in Gaza. The Israeli operation was a delayed under-reaction to 8 years of constant rocket fire on Israel's south. The Israeli army attacked Hamas terrorist weapons caches, smuggling tunnels and training camps. According to official Israeli statistics, 709 Hamas terrorists were killed, out of a total of 1,166 casualties. Hamas and the anti-Israel media deliberately inflated the number of civilians killed in order to make Israel seem guilty of "war crimes". Ignoring the fact that Hamas intentionally chose to hide among civilians and store weapons in mosques, hospitals and schools, the number of civilians killed is relatively low and is testament to the accuracy of Israel' air force.<br /><br />While the fighting raged, protesters all over the world called for Israel to "stop the killings in Gaza" (never mind the fact that they had no problems with killings as long as they were directed at Jews). It was forgotten (or conveniently ignored) who the aggressors and who the victims were. Hamas, amidst bravado of how Gaza would "be a graveyard" for the "Zionist soldiers", spoke paradoxically of the slaughter of Arabs by the Israeli army. Hamas, the terrorist organization responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israelis, whose genocidal commitments are enshrined in its constitution, quickly became the innocent victims and the mean old Zionists, the bad guys. Cynical and obscene comparisons between the Nazi murderers responsible for the annihilation of a third of world Jewry and Israel's defensive operation abounded. The Holocaust became a tool to attack the Jewish state fighting for its survival. No context was provided to the conflict as it became accepted discourse that Israel was bombing Gaza simply out of a sick and perverse desire to kill Arab children. World reaction surpassed that of the 2002 Jenin massacre that wasn't, when allegations of hundreds of Arabs slaughtered in the Jenin refugee camp spread. After a UN investigation, it was revealed that about 50 Arabs had been killed during this phase of Operation Defensive Shield, half of them armed terrorists. Of course, this did not prevent condemnation and denunciation of Israel.<br /><br />Unfortunately, some Jews joined in the chorus of Israel-bashers. Consumed by guilt over everything, these Jews marched side by side with Arabs, acting as useful idiots for those who used anger over Israel's actions as a smokescreen to attack Jews. These self-haters, such as Roseanne Barr and Gerald Kaufman, repeated the tired fallacy that the Israel army and the Nazis are interchangeable, lending credence to the anti-semites' claims. Incredible that while the Jewish state was fighting for its life, these kapos would choose to condemn it. This phenomenon of self-hatred is limited to Jews. Never will one find an Italian obsessed with hating and condemning Italy, or an "Arab against Palestine". Tragically, 2000 years of exile have poisoned the minds and hearts of far too many Jews, people who do not identify as Jews unless to lend support to their bigoted views.<br /><br />Even supporters of Israel fell for this libel, apologizing over and over again for "killing innocent civilians". The pro-Zionist argument went like this: "Its a shame about the civilians deaths in Gaza, but..." The destruction of one's enemy is not supposed to be something painful or shameful. War is cruel and civilians die. The people of Gaza were not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. In 2006, the majority of the people in Gaza voted democratically to have the Hamas terrorist organization represent them. They permitted their homes and towns to be used as rocket launch pads against Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod and the Negev. They danced in the streets and gave out candy when 8 teenagers were shot in cold blood by an Arab gunman last March in a Jerusalem yeshiva. They have held Gilad Shalit captive for 1000 days without Red Cross humanitarian access They have built a perverse society built on hatred, anti-semitism and love of martyrdom and death. In short, their suffering, as all Arab suffering, is self-imposed, a result of their rejectionist policies. They chose the rocket over the olive branch and war over peace and they are now paying the price. <br /><br />In WWII, the Allies went on a bombardment campaign of German cities. The people they killed were not Wermacht generals, Gestapo police or members of the German army. The Allies did not limit their attacks to Hitler and his Nazi regime but to the German people who voted in and supported the Nazi beast. No tears were wasted on those killed in the bombardment and similarly, Jews should spare no tears on those killed in Gaza. The "innocent civilians of Gaza" were the same ones who helped Hamas, who are totally committed to the destruction of Israel and who rejoice when Jews are murdered. These "innocents" are the same ones who kidnapped Gilad Shalit and have kept him in a cell for 3 years. With such a surplus of Israel-bashers, we need not join in.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E8IV6ZnzoDY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E8IV6ZnzoDY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Jewish Guilt and the Gaza Blood Libel

In medieval Europe, Jews were often targeted with the claim that before the Passover season, they would murder a Christian child to use his ...

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