Important things you will not know by following the News

The most important Middle East news story for a long time - Israel's seizure of a ship containing hundreds of tons of weapons including 3000 rockets bound for Hezbollah from Iran - has been completely ignored by the media. Not a word on the main news channels and not a mention on the news pages of google news or yahoo news (even though the latter manages to find space for a news item of Gaza shops selling Goldstone headscarves). The BBC website grudgingly covers the story but only as a 'claim' by Israel with the ludicrous headline:

Israelis 'seize Iran arms ship'

And here is another incredible story that you will not here about in the main stream media. Remember the Washington sniper who shot and killed 10 people over a number of days in 2002? Turns out that these were Jihad inspired terrorist attacks. Read it all here and especially look at the drawings produced by the Muslim killer.

A brilliant analysis of the Palestinian and Arab mentality is Rubin's The Middle east: can you handle the truth

The extent of appeasement to Islamists by the UK and the US

The extent to which the UK and US governments are appeasing Islamic fundamentalists is now confirmed as greater than even my worst fears.

In the UK the revelations of Foreign and Commonwealth Office whistleblower Derek Pasquill confirm that the Government's entire strategy to counter the threat of Islamic terrorism is to ingratiate itself totally with the Muslim Brotherhood at all levels in the bizarre belief that making friends with these Islamic fundamentalists will ensure that they protect us from the 'even worse' Islamic fundamentalists of Al Quaeda. The idiots at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are not even aware that Al Quaeda (like Hamas) is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. Read the full interview with Derek Pasquill.

Meanwhile in the US Obama signed off the new defence budget yesterday. Some of the budget, while despicable, was known in advance. For example, on the pretext that Pakistan needs money to defeat their own Taliban, there is $2.3 billion to the Pakistani military, much of which (based on previous experience) will end up going straight to the Pakistani Taliban via the Pakistani Security Service, and the rest will be used for Pakistan's Jihadist war against Western friend India. There is also an incredible $7.8 billion to help train and supply the Afghan Police and Army - again even though previous experience suggests that much of this money will end up with the Taliban themselves (or corrupt tribal leaders sympathetic to them). But what is truly incredible is that this year the US has decided to cut out the middle man. It has set aside $1.3 billion to give directly to Taliban fighters to 'stop fighting'. And while a massive chunk of the US defence budget is therefore going to end up directly funding the Islamist enemies the US Army is fighting, for the first time ever the budget contains a chunk dedicated to 'fighting hate crimes' - which means prosecuting Americans who dare to speak up against Islamists.

If the BBC wanted examples of racist ideology in practice ...

Given the furore created over the appearance of Nick Griffin on Newsnight and the almost uniform media anger at 'giving a platform to racists' I am surprised this same media routinely ignores the brutal anti-semitic outpourings from Middle Eastern governments and their state-run media. There are, of course, a number of websites (just check the links on the right) that report on such material on a daily basis. But, every so often, an item catches my eye especially. I'm not talking about the antisemitic preachings of endless Jihadists or Imams or even the routine "let's teach 4-year-olds how to kill Jews" television programmes produced by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. I'm not even talking about the popular Turkish series depicting Jews as child killers. No, what catches my eye are those examples of supposedly 'liberal' and 'moderate' countries like Kuwait and Dubai. Hence, I was interested in an article in the Arab Times Kuwaiti newspaper yesterday, which not only reports uncritically on the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry's warning against employing Jewish maids (apparently there are 1800 such black maids of Ethiopian descent in Kuwait) but also warns of the dangers involved to children since such maids "practice black magic" and "may have an allegiance to Israel". Goebbels would have been proud of such racism. Anyway I have grabbed a screenshot of the page (click it to enlarge), just in case it gets removed:

Mia Farrow's insane anti-Israel rant

I have seen some pretty insane anti-Israel rants recently but the Mia Farrow CNN interview I saw yesterday probably takes the biscuit. I tried to find the interview to link to - but it is not on either the CNN site or youtube yet. I didn't catch the start of the interview but my understanding is that the rationale for the interview was that Mia Farrow had visited Gaza as part of her role as 'UNICEF Ambassador'. I heard her say something like the suffering of the Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank was 'the worst ever seen in the world', but that was nothing compared to what she said in response to the interviewer Rosemary Church's question about whether her role had led her to see the suffering of Israeli children from Qassam rocket attacks. Her response was that the Qassam rockets fired at them

"were only filled with mud".

I'm suprised that comment alone has not been picked up anywhere in the media. She seemed to imply that they were some kind of a 'fun' thing to be enjoyed by those lucky Israeli kids. She followed this up by saying - incorrectly - that

"only 3 Israelis civilians have ever been killed" by Qassam rockets

and she contrasted this with a statement saying something like thousands of Gaza children had been killed by Israeli rockets.

Nice to know, as ever, that UNICEF is bringing an unbiased perspective to the problem.

p.s. The excellent Sultan Knish also analyses similar comments by Mia Farrow here

Something that was not in the UK media

Outside Westminster yesterday, the home of British democracy, Islamists were not only calling for Sharia law and freedom 'go to hell', but were also calling for the murder of Geert Wilders (the courageous Dutch politician who has warned of the threat of Islamism in Europe).

Take a good look at the video here and watch it through to the end (it is 5 minutes).

For good measure they also called for death to Israel of course. The guys issuing the death threats are doing so openly and individually to the TV interviewer. Don't expect any police action against them.

Yet, of course, there was not a word of this in the UK media. The only coverage of the story simply referred to the 'extremist right wing anti-Muslim' Geert Wilders and gave space to Muslim spokesmen to criticise him. Even the Sun newspaper presented the story in this way.

More details here.

BBC News today: more instinctively anti-Israel even than Hezbollah

The following complaint, which I have sent today to the BBC, relates to its reporting of the news today of an explosion in Lebanon at the house of a Hezbollah member. It is self-explanatory:

The report of an explosion inside the garage of a leading Hezbollah member in Lebanon states: "Reports are conflicting about the cause of the blast. Some sources said it happened when an Israeli shell left over from the 2006 war was dismantled.
Other reports say a Hezbollah rocket exploded by accident. "

In fact not even Hezbollah themselves are claiming that it was an Israeli shell. Yahoo News says "Hezbollah said in a statement on the Web site of its Al-Manar TV station that an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the blast, which it said took place in the garage of a home belonging to one of its members." Moreover, the news outlet Press TV (run by the Iranian Government who are Hezbollah's sponsors) says that "Security forces had earlier announced that an ammunitions explosion in the house of the local Hezbollah official on Monday had killed five people, including the official and his son." The Press TV article is here:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=108516&sectionid=351020203

In fact every informed source acknowledges that the house (like many others in South Lebanon) was most likely being used as a Hezbollah weapons storage cache in direct contravention of UN resolution 1701 (just as was proven in a similar explosion in July 2009).

So why on earth, other than instinctive anti-Israel bias, would the BBC News seek to give the impression that this explosion was somehow the fault of Israel?

Edgar

Update: The IDF now has video evidence that the house was being used as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility

Routine anti-semitism taught in 'liberal' United Arab Emirates

A friend of mine is a Spurs supporter who subscribes to the Spurs-list forum (which is apparently the largest forum for Spurs supporters). He has sent me a posting (and subsequent comments) from a student who lives in the United Arab Emirates. This guy is worried that, since Spurs have a large Jewish following, no rich Arab benefactor would ever invest money in the club. While such a hypothesis may or may not be true, what is interesting about his posting is the ingrained anti-semitism he has been taught (highlighted in bold) and which he accepts unquestioningly as true even though he is not a Muslim and is not anti-semitic either.

"ok i think outta all the listees i live in an arab country (one of the most liberal ones though) and thus will hv the best idea on this subject. Im indian and hindu btw and live in the United Arab emirates which is a muslim country. Of course we all want an awesomely rich arab benefactor to buy the club and make it a super club by buying the best players available, but the thing is that tottenham has a very big jewish history, we're called the yids for goodness sake. Now like some fifteen hundred years bak (im not really sure, cuz i dont pay much attention in skool, and YES IM IN SKOOL), the muslims and jews had a huuuge fight, and the jews tried to kill the muslim's prophet, which caused a dislike for jews which is still existant (u can see the way iran hates israel). Liberal as they are, the rulers r still very pious amongst themselves and live by the ancient rules, and i dont think the wuld like to buy into a club with a deep jewish roots, but lets keep our fingers crossed.
IM NOT BEING DISCRIMINATIVE IN ANYWAY. IM PROUD OF AND LOVE TOTTENHAM FOREVER. IM JUST STATEING MY VIEW ON THIS WHOLE TOPIC. (IM NEITHER MUSLIM OR JEW BTW) COYS ! "

That schools in the United Arab Emirates are routinely teaching such anti-semitic nonsense even to non-muslim kids like this guy tells you everything you need to know about how 'liberal' (as he calls it) the UAE is.

What is also interesting is that, despite the forum's stated policy to keep all discussion focused solely on Spurs football club, of the dozen people who commented on his posting only one raised a concern about the irrelevant and incorrect 'history lesson' and this poster actually suggested the student should read the works of the late anti-Israel Palestinian writer Edward Said for "an excellent history of the Arab peoples".

p.s. Of course, it isn't just 'liberal' Arabs who brainwash their children into hating Jews and Israelis. Tony Blair's 8-year old neice gets the same brainwashing as you can see here.

Terrorist supporters marching through London

The annual Iranian Government sponsored anti-Israel "Al Quds" demonstration took place in London yesterday. The Guardian has a short video here. Unlike two years ago when I attended (see my own eyewitness report of that) when a counter demonstration included a wide range of groups opposed to the Iranian islamafascists, the only organised counter-demonstration yesterday was by the English Defence League (although there do appear to be some Iranian dissidents and Israel supporters there too).

The Guardian presentation is most interesting in that it characterises the demonstrators as "pro-Palestinian" and the counter-demonstrators as "Far right". But note that the demonstrators are primarily holding pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini along with Hezbollah and Hamas flags. Since the latter two are proscribed terrorist organisations I am not sure why the police allowed this and I am certainly not sure why the Guardian can characterise such people as "pro-Palestinian". I would have thought "anti-Western terrorist supporters" would have been more accurate. And, since the 'official' Palestinian government is still the PLO who have been at war with Hamas why exactly is it that only Hamas flags are used by these "pro-Palestinians"?

In a similar vein here is a video of the demonstrators who the entire mainstream media referred to as "anti-fascists" at last week's demonstration in Harrow.

An incredible story that is being ignored by most of the media

The terrorists who were convicted of the planned airplanes liquid bomb plot were known to be planning to take children with them as an additional method of getting through the Heathrow security. This is sick even for Islamists. But it now turns out apparently that they were not planning to take their OWN children. The plot leader, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, actually had fostered a child from Haringey council and the child was found in Ali's house at the time of his arrest (with a book written by Osama Bin Laden's mentor in the cot). The story appears on the front page of today's Sun but has been completely ignored by the rest of the main stream media, which feels that it is far more important to pump up stories that try to portray Muslims as victims.

Beyond belief: the BBC goes all out to explain why Islamic airline plot was justified

Today the Islamists who planned to massacre thousands of civilians by blowing up airplanes were finally convicted in London.

But look at the following text for how the BBC is reporting this and trying to justify that what the terrorists were trying to do was somehow a perfectly natural reaction to world events (if the link is no longer there when you click it then I presume that even the BBC may have realised they had overstepped their love for terrorists, but this was the main link on Google to the story when it broke):

• "But the story of what the police came to call Operation Overt began in the aftermath of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on America. As US forces poured into Afghanistan, the decades-old refugee crisis worsened. The Islamic Medical Association, a charity shop in Clapton, east London, raised money and collected equipment to send to refugee camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Ali and Sarwar went to deliver aid to the refugee camps - and their experiences radically altered their world view. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the group, was shocked by the appalling conditions. His anger was compounded by the failure of the 2003 mass protest against the Iraq war. The anger felt by men like Ahmed Ali turned him against the UK and America and he turned to radical Islamists who were increasingly calling for attacks on Britain."

Note, in particular, the blind acceptance of the terrorists' version of events as 'facts' here and the whole sympathetic tone.

How the western media lied over the 'Religion of Peace' in China

When the news of bloody race riots in China were first reported in the western media last week the initial reports were all essentially based around the same headline: 'Chinese massacre 156 minority Uigar Muslims'. It turned out to be exactly the opposite to what was claimed. Muslim gangs (typically fired up by a false rumour - spread from the mosques - of killing and rapes of Muslims by the Han chinese) went on a wild rampage with axes and knives killing every Han chinese civilian they could get their hands on. They killed 137 civilians and it was only after this that the Han retaliated killing a small number of Muslims. When the real story became known to the media outlets the word Muslim was eradicated from almost every news report. So all that people would know is that some 'sectarian riots' took place somewhere in China. In fact if you do a google search of "Muslims massacre Chinese" what you get is site after site reporting Muslim anger that THEIR people were massacred by Chinese.

For more pictures of this typical piece of "Religion of Peace" savagery see here.

Hypocrisy

When Jews are brutally murdered in places like France and Yemen for no reason other than they are Jews, the (non-Jewish) media totally ignores it. Yet yesterday the media (including CNN, BBC, Fox news) was saturated with news of the story of a Muslim woman who was murdered in a German courtroom. "The Headscarf Martyr" had sued her neighbour for calling her a 'terrorist' and it was the accused who knifed her to death in court. News bulletins last night showed, for example, mass demonstrations in Egypt calling for revenge against the German government for allowing such an anti-Muslim crime to happen.

Now, notwithstanding the curious issue of why the act of insulting a Muslim in Germany should have resulted in a major court action (you can imagine that the neighbour might have been pretty riled by that) this was clearly a terrible crime. But was it less horrific and racist a crime than one that was announced on the same day and which received precisely zero coverage in the non-Israeli media. I refer to the story of a cab driver (Grigory Rabinovich) in Israel brutally murdered by two Palestinians who claimed "We killed cabbie because he was a Jew" They reportedly got into Rabinovich's cab in Ashdod and asked to be taken to a desolate spot.
The Palestinians told investigators that they punched Rabinovich in the face and head at which point they put him in the trunk of his taxi. They said that when he regained consciousness they decided to kill him, and strangled and beat him to death. The police described the injuries as truly horrific.

Of course what might have made it onto the BBC news would have been if the cab driver had refused to give a lift to two Arabs to a desolate spot for fear of what they might do to him. That, of course, would have been a real case of racism and anti-Muslim stereotyping. Al-Jezeera would have dedicarted a 2-hour documentary to that.

Similarly, can you imagine how the world's media would react if Israel refused entry to a Muslim on the basis that they are wearing a veil? Well don't hold your breath expecting to hear in the UK about the story of Jordan denying entry to Israeli with Jewish prayer items. This is the same Jordan which supposedly has a peace treaty with Israel, yet is responible as much as any country for promulgating the myth of Israel as an apartheid state, while it actually has enshrined in its constitution a law that no Jew can be a citizen of the state.

Dramatic new announcement by Obama

Following his re-opening of diplomatic relations with Syria, his engagement with Hamas, and of course his willingness to continue to engage with the Armadinejad-Khameni regime in Iran despite its brutal massacre and suppression of its own people who rejected it at the ballot box, President Obama has now announced that his rapprochement policy is going to be extended beyond just Middle Eastern anti-semitic clerical fascists. In a speech today Obama opened his hand to the Nazi party of Germany stating that

• "There are many law-abiding Germans still living today who never accepted the legitimacy of the democracy imposed by the Allied forces after World War 2. This includes respected SS officers and highly decorated concentration camp guards, not to mention the many hundreds of thousands of members of the modern German National Socialist Party. We have no right to meddle in the internal affairs of Germany and to engage soley with the regime of Chancellor Merkel. I am therefore setting up a special embassy in Berlin to improve our previosuly badly damaged relations with the Nazi party. This will ensure that we can continue to work together peacefully with Germany when the Nazi party inevitably returns to power."

In the same speech Obama also announced similar rapprochements with the Communist Party of Russia and the Imperialist movement of Japan. For Britain there was a very welcome announcement of new initiatives to support both the Islamist anti-democracy organisation Hizb al Tahir and the BNP, hence demonstrating the extent to which Obama will reach out his hand of friendship. As Obama stressed when making this announcement:

• "it is certainly not for us in the USA to pass judgement on people with different, but equally valid, ideologies."

At the end of his speech Obama stressed the core philosophy driving his exciting plans to unite the whole world: "Everything is driven by our respect for different ideologies and faiths, and above all the committment to never again meddle in the internal affairs of any other country". In a separate policy announcement Obama made it clear that, in order to ensure that no Jewish household in Israel could build an extension, he will be banning any future Jewish births there. Pregnant Jewish women will be required to attend a new American funded Hamas clinic in Gaza city for an abortion.

The Two State Solution is a Victory for the Proxy War against Israel

Some of the best writing I have seen on the Middle East conflict is by Sultan Knish. All of his articles are good, but this one on the implications of the two-state solution is one of the best I have seen.

Iran and the bogus 'Palestine' analogy

There are many important aspects to the continually developing Iran situation beyond simply the horrific brutality being perpetrated by this Islamafascist regime on its own people (if you have not seen the video here you should summon up the courage to do so). We have the scenario of the the leftists either supporting the Ahmedinejad regime or simply ignoring the story altogether, because it does not quite fit into their world view. We have the total failure of Obama (and our own government for that matter) to come out in strong support of the protesters. We have the UK media relegating the story to a minor footnote in stark contrast to its hysterical and obsessive coverage of Israel's war in Gaza (Muslim terrorists killed by Israelis in self-defence is a 'war crime' but unarmed peaceful Muslim demonstrators murdered by Islamists is not even worth reporting) even though a successful popular revolution could lead to a regime change that would solve many of the world's worst problems (the Iranian regime is instrumental in sustaining every Middle East conflict - not just Israel/Palestine via its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah but also Lebanon, Syria, iraq and Afghanistan).

But what I found very curious and rather troubling was reading and listening to many of the Iranian demonstrators making a direct analogy between their own situation and the Palestinians. One after another I have heard comments along the lines of 'they are treating us just like the Israelis treat the Palestinians' and a very common statement today along the lines that the murder of Neda Agha Soltani (pictured here) has the symobolic equivalent of the Israeli 'murder of Mohammed al Dura' that triggered the intifadah of 2000 (even though it has now been proved to be a pure fabrication). Now these demonstrators understand very clearly that their government has lied to them for 30 years and controls every aspect of the media. Yet one of the lies perpetrated - that they are happy to accept without question - is that of the myth of Israel's brutality against the Palestinians.

Palestinians sink to new low

As if the Palestinian Authority response to Netanyahu's speech was not sickening enough already their 'moderate' leader Mahmoud Abbas has now decided to free hundreds of Hamas terrorists being held in its prisons in order to punish Israel and the USA. The Palestinian Authority was quoted as saying:

"the move was also meant as a message to the US and Israel to the effect that the PA leadership was deeply disappointed by Washington's failure to force the Israeli government to stop construction in the settlements and accept the two-state solution unconditionally."

So Abbas is letting free his pack of wild dogs to attack Israel, conveniently ignoring that these wild dogs slaughtered hundreds of his own Fatah members in the last two years. Wouldn't it be a terrible irony if these wild dogs came back to slaughter more of his own cronies.

Before any peace is possible...

Netanyahu's speech was good, but it missed out the most crucial requirement on the Palestinians for there to be any chance of peace. I'm talking about the requirement to stop the anti-semitic incitement and indoctrination that permeates every aspect of Arab education and media. Until that happens we will continue to see stories like that of how a 15 year-old Palestinian boy (Raed Sawalha of Kalkilya) was tortured and then hanged by members of his own family last week for the terrible crime of waving at an Israeli border policeman. The full story is here. I bet you never saw that story anywhere in the UK media. Perhaps the Palestinians might begin to realise that this kind of behaviour is not normal if at least the Western media actually carried these stories. Imagine the coverage such a story would have received on the BBC and in the Guardian if that had been an Israeli family murdering a child for waving at a Palestinian.

Who practices apartheid?

The next time you see the Islamists and their useful idiots of the left accuse Israel of apartheid (like, for example the trade union UNISON which has banned the Trade Union Friends of Israel stall from its conference) it might be worth referring them to this story from Pakistan of a Christian murdered for daring to drink tea from a cup designated only for Muslims.

Another story that went unreported in the mainstream media was that of Barack Obama's spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright saying that President Obama hasn't spoken to him since they parted ways last year, because "them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me." He has since issued his own joking statement after his tantrum was revealed. He said "Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke. Let me just say: Zionists." Remember that this guy was not only Obama's spiritual advisor for 20 years - he also conducted his wedding.

A fine choice to lead UNESCO

If any further proof of the engrained anti-semitic bias of the United Nations was needed how about this. A leading candidate to head UNESCO is none other than Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. As described in a report here, Hosni told a member of parliament who had confronted him about the presence of Israeli books in Egyptian libraries last May that if he could, he "would burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries. Let's burn these books; if there are any, I will burn them myself before you".

For the record the stated purpose of UNESCO, which is funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by people like you and me, is:

"to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter."

A powerful speech by Elena Bonner

Elena Bonner, wife of the late Andrei Sakharov, made a very powerful speech in Oslo. Coming from somebody with such impeccable liberal credentials it ought to be compulsory reading for all the Israel-hating lefties. Especially interesting is her comparison of the world reaction to Gilad Shalit's continued incarceration and that of the Guantanamo prisoners. The full text of the speech is at the Jerusalen Post. Here is what she says about Israel:


THROUGHOUT THE YEARS of Israel's existence there has been war. Victorious wars, and also wars which Israel was not allowed to win. Each and every day - literally every day - there is the expectation of a terrorist act or a new war. We have seen the Oslo peace initiatives and the Camp David handshake and the road map and land for peace (there is not much land - from one side of Israel on a clear day you can see the other side with your naked eye).

Now, a new motif is fashionable (in fact it's an old one): "Two states for two peoples." It sounds good. And there is no controversy in the peacemaking Quartet, made up of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia (some great peacemaker, with its Chechen war and its Abkhazian-Ossetian provocation). The Quartet, and the Arab countries, and the Palestinian leaders (both Hamas and Fatah) put additional demands to Israel. I will speak only of one demand: that Israel accept back the Palestinian refugees. And here a little history and demography are needed.

According to the UN's official definition, refugees are considered those who fled from violence and wars, but not their descendants who are born in another land. At one time the Palestinian refugees and the Jewish refugees from Arab countries were about equal in number - about 700,000-800,000. The newly-created state Israel took in Jews (about 600,000). They were officially recognized as refugees by UN Resolution 242, but not provided with any UN assistance. Palestinians, however, are considered refugees not only in the first generation, but in the second, third and now even in the fourth generation. According to the UN Works and Relief Agency's report, the number of registered Palestinian refugees has grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.6 million in 2008, and continues to rise due to natural population growth. All these people have the rights of Palestinian refugees and are eligible to receive humanitarian aid.

The entire population of Israel is about 7.5 million, of which there are about 2.5 million ethnic Arabs who call themselves Palestinians. Imagine Israel then, if another 5 million Arabs flood into it; Arabs would substantially outnumber the Jewish population. Thus created next to Israel will be a Palestinian state cleansed of Jews, because in addition to the demand that Palestinian refugees return to Israel, there is also the demand that Judea and Samaria are cleansed of Jews and turned over to Palestinians - while in Gaza today there is not a single Jew already.

The result is both strange and terrifying, because Israel will essentially be destroyed. It is terrifying to see the short memory of the august peacemaking Quartet, their leaders and their citizens if they let this happen. Because the plan "two states for two peoples" is the creation of one state, ethnically cleansed of Jews, and a second one with the potential to do the same. A Judenfrei Holy Land - the dream of Adolph Hitler come true at last. So think again, those who are still able, who has a fascist inside him today?

AND ANOTHER question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It's a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn't the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit trouble you in the same way as does the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners?

You fought for and won the opportunity for the International Committee of the Red Cross, journalists and lawyers to visit Guantanamo. You know prison conditions, the prisoners' everyday routine, their food. You have met with prisoners subjected to torture. The result of your efforts has been a ban on torture and a law to close this prison. President Obama signed it in the first days of his coming to the White House. And although he, just like president Bush before him, does not know what to do with the Guantanamo prisoners, there is hope that the new administration will think up something.

But during the two years Schalit has been held by terrorists, the world human rights community has done nothing for his release. Why? He is a wounded soldier, and fully falls under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The conventions say clearly that hostage-taking is prohibited, that representatives of the Red Cross must be allowed to see prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners, and there is much else written in the Geneva Conventions about Schalit's rights. The fact that representatives of the Quartet conduct negotiations with the people who are holding Schalit in an unknown location, in unknown conditions, vividly demonstrates their scorn of international rights documents and their total legal nihilism. Do human rights activists also fail to recall the fundamental international rights documents?

And yet I still think (and some will find this naïve) that the first tiny, but real step toward peace must become the release of Schalit. Release, and not his exchange for 1,000 or 1,500 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons serving court sentences for real crimes.

Returning to my question of why human rights activists are silent, I can find no answer except that Schalit is an Israeli soldier, Schalit is a Jew. So again, it is conscious or unconscious anti-Semitism. Again, it is fascism.

THIRTY-FOUR YEARS have passed since the day when I came to this city to represent my husband, Andrei Sakharov, at the 1975 Nobel Prize ceremony. I was in love with Norway then. The reception I received filled me with joy. Today, I feel Alarm and Hope (the title Sakharov used for his 1977 essay written at the request of the Nobel Committee).

Alarm because of the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment growing throughout Europe and even further afield. And yet, I hope that countries, their leaders and people everywhere will recall and adopt Sakharov's ethical credo: "In the end, the moral choice turns out to be also the most pragmatic choice."

What Arabs are taught to believe

A very disturbing piece by DaveM (who studied Arabic in Syria) about the extent to which anti-Semitism dominates Arab TV. He describes a 25-part series that was recently screened which, in addition to all the usual Protocols of Zion fantasies, claims that the Jews pressured the USA into using the atom bomb agains Japan. He translates Rothschild saying : “I’ve got a group in America to pressurize President Truman, for the first time ever, to use atomic bombs against the Japanese.” He concludes:

• What’s really frightening and depressing is that this, in one form or another, is what most people in the Arab world actually believe. This is the prism in which they view every war with Israel. After all who’s going to spend all the time, effort and money to make a 25-part series knowing nobody’s going to watch it? Where’s the sense in that?

Crude anti-Israel propaganda at the Saatchi gallery London

When I first started writing this blog in the summer of 2005 it was as a result of going to see a play called “Arab-Israeli Cookbook”. Instead of the pleasant evening out I was looking forward to I was subject to a barely disguised piece of brutal anti-Israel propaganda. The Israeli characters were all based on the classic stereotypes of militaristic or heartless immigrants from New York, with no culture of their own; in contrast every Palestinian character was warm, sympathetic and with rich culture deeply ingrained in the land now ‘usurped’ by the Jews.

Last Sunday I experienced the further extent to which the demonisation and deligitimisation of Israel has infiltrated British consciousness. I was at the Saatchi gallery in London to see the special exhibition of new art from the Middle East. A very fine exhibition and overall experience was totally spoiled by a vicious, nasty and unsubtle piece of anti-Israel propaganda posing as art called ‘Qalandia 2067’ by the artist Wafa Hourani. The piece is a very large model. As you approach it from the normal direction you see an intricate and impressively realistic reconstruction of a chaotic Arab village, full of life, diverse culture and even music coming from the houses. But at the end of the village is a very large wall of mirror with a soldier standing on top of it pointing a gun. As you walk round this wall you realise that it is supposed to be the Israeli security fence. But, there is no attempt to leave any doubt about what lies on the other side. In contrast to the vibrancy and ‘authentic’ life of the Arab village this is cold militaristic Israel whose only culture is American imports. Unlike the Arab village, the Israeli side is abstract and unscaled. Just in case anybody fails to notice the Israeli flags and large El Al sign, the artist has helpfully placed an enormous Star of David on a stand ‘protected’ by a soldier (who is of course much larger than any of the Arab figures) and tanks pointed at the Arab side. The only other objects on the Israeli side are an airfield with warplanes (all helpfully emblazoned with the Star of David) and a large abstract reconstruction of an eerily cold restaurant (with the obligatory Israeli flag on top) made from what appears to be coloured sweets - to laboriously emphasize that Israeli presence is alien in this land. A large ‘menu’ pinned to the model helpfully lists only American imports on offer.

The model manages to encapsulate just about every anti-Israel stereotype currently permeating our media, even to the extent of ignoring the context in which Israel’s security fence was built (Qalandia has been a notorious breeding ground for terrorists who have committed dozens of suicide attacks and shootings against Israeli civilians; only since the construction of the security fence have fatal attacks from Qalandia been largely avoided). It also portrays Israelis not just as lacking in humanity, but actually being not human at all. This is much like the way the Nazis portrayed the Jews in order to create the mindset necessary for their annihilation. Make no mistake, the anti-Israel propagandists now have the same end game in mind and they clearly feel they are winning with prominent exhibits like this (I understand that art critics have praised this piece as the outstanding work in the exhibition).

But what I cannot understand at all is why the Saatchi gallery – opened, named and presumably at least part-financed by the well-known Jewish philanthropist Charles Saatchi - should allow this piece to be displayed. Is he aware of the offence this causes to (the still large number of) people who are sympathetic to the State of Israel and the Israeli people? The large Star of David in this context is especially disturbing wince it borders on pure anti-Semitism.

It is also curious that an exhibition of new art from the Middle East fails to feature a single Israeli artist. Perhaps the owners of the gallery know that, if an Israeli artist exhibited a piece that was in any way politically sympathetic to Israel, the usual anti-Israel renta-crowd would have been protesting not just outside the gallery but would have destroyed the work itself as part of their openly stated campaign to boycott all Israeli culture. So why is the Saatchi gallery supporting those kind of people and their propaganda?

Appalling anti-Israel propaganda on Sky News today

Just sent the following self-explanatory letter to Sky News:


Dear Sky News

I have just watched a news item (Sky News at 8.00pm today) on the Israel-Palestine conflict which can only be described as pure anti-Israel propaganda. I am extremely disappointed in Sky since I expect a more balanced approach. This was one of the most biased and ill-informed pieces I have seen from Sky - it would have even have embarrassed Al-Jazeera. .

The item started with the story of Hillary Clinton at a conference in Egypt pledging some $1 billion for 'Gaza reconstruction'. The item, however, then went on to investigate the 'reasons why there was little hope of resolving the conflict'. These reasons were given as:

-"illegal settlement activity by the Israelis"
- "Israeli destruction of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem" (with the inevitable interview only of 'dispossessed Palestinians')
- "likely intransigence by the next Israeli government which 'will probably shift to the right'."

In other words only Israel was an impediment to peace. No mention at all, curiously of that rather more fundamental obstacle to peace, namely that Gaza is run by the terrorist organisation Hamas which is committed by charter to the total destruction of Israel and the murder of all Jews. Moreover, Sky News seem not to be aware that, in the last few days Hamas has relaunched its relentless rocket attacks against southern Israeli towns. These have caused direct hits, for example, on schools in Ashkelon and Sderot, but apparently Sky news does not think this worth a mention even on a 24-hour news channel. Nor was there even the slightest concern raised at why billions of dollars should be poured into Gaza while the rocket attacks were continuing, or that the notion that money poured into Gaza might itself be an obstacle to peace, given that the Palestinians clearly see it as a reward for their continued rocket attacks.

The failure to report the rocket attacks on Israel is especially reprehensible given the nature of the news item. But then of course Sky, along with other news media, also failed to report on the massive barrage of rockets that Hamas launched against Israel in December that led to Israel's retaliatory offensive. No doubt that if and when Israel responds to the current unbearable unprovoked attacks against it Sky News will again be leading all its news items with Israel's 'aggression' . And no doubt the Gazans will look forward to more billions of dollars for reconstruction without anybody questioning the morality of such largesse..

Yours

Edgar Davidson

Why has the Western media ignored these stories?

This week has seen two very good examples which illustrate that, no matter how big, important and of genuine mass interest a story might be, it will generally be ignored if it exposes the Islamists in a really negative light.

The first is the incredible story that Muzammil Hassan, who set up the TV station (Bridges TV) in America 'to combat negative opinions of Muslims' chopped his wife's head off this week - in the TV studio. This story should be huge on so many levels: This station had many viewers and paying subscribers and massive funding from the Saudis. Its mission was to fool the American public into the 'Islam is a religion of peace' nonsense (while, incidentally moving increasingly toward the standard Al-Jazeera subtle jihadist agenda); and this was its founder and CEO no less. Also, let's face it, I don't think it is every day in America that a wealthy public figure decapitates their wife in a public place. Yet the story has been almost completely ignored, and in the rare place it has been mentioned all references to Islam and the objectives of the TV channel have been carefully avoided or minimised.

The other is the story of top Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer being banned from the major women's tennis tournament in Dubai for the crime of being Israeli. Can you imagine the world outcry if Venus Williams had been banned for being black? The fact that the tournament went ahead at all (Peer had already been scheduled to play the opening round match when she was banned) should itself have been a subject for major public denunciation. But no, not a whisper anywhere in the mainstream Western media. Debbie Schlussel has some good comments on this.

Nasty piece of bad anti--Israel 'humour' in the Times

Today's Times contains an opinion piece by Giles Coren about dangerous dogs following the death of a young boy last week by two domestic dogs in his grandmother's home. Not a subject you think that should offer the opportunity for either 'humour' or stereotypical, inaccurate Israel-bashing. Yet Coren finds it perfectly natural to combine both in the article where he speaks about the banning of Staffordshire terriers:

• Germany, where the import of staffies is illegal, has shown us some of the way, and Israel has gone one better, making the breed illegal altogether - and I doubt there are many who flout that little law. You don't go breeding dogs to scare your neighbours when you know that one false snarl and a helicopter gunship's going to whoop into view, flatten your house, your nan's house and your local school, and then blame it on the dog.

I have written to the editorial staff complaining about this example of lazy anti-Israel bashing. I am sure Giles Coren would not have dared to have joked about dog-owners in Muslim countries being blown up by Islamic suicide bombers yet, curiously, owning dogs as pets is forbidden in Islam, so it would have been a much more accurate target for his 'humour'. Moreover there have been genuine incidents of dog owners being attacked in Islamic countries.

Now it's OK to fire rockets at Israel supporters in Sweden also

In Malmo Sweden Hamas supporters not only fired rockets at a small pro-Israel peace rally, but did so with the apparent approval of the Swedish Police. Don't believe? Look at the videos here (before they get removed no doubt for 'inciting racial hatred'). The original eye witness account is here.

In fact, all in, this week has been one of the worst on record for the West's fight against Islamafascism:

• The banning of Geert Wilders (see good material here and here on this) is bad enough but what makes it worse has been the UK media's narrative on this - simply accepting without question the Islamic view that Wilders is some kind of fascist nutter and blindly accepting the ludicrous charges he faces in Holland for racial incitement as evidence of this.
• Note that while Wilders is banned Qaradawi (and many other Islamic fanatics) are still welcome to spew their hatred in the UK. This week Qaradawi treated us to a wonderful sermon in which he not only praised Hitler for the holocaust (while, of course also claiming that is was exagerated) but also dreamed of the Muslims finishing the job with him personally 'martyring himself' while killing Jews. Remember this is the guy Ken Livingstone hugged and said was a great force for progress. It appears that the law that everyone thought was intended to stop Islamic fanatics coming to the UK to preach is actually being used for the opposite effect: to stop people exposing the Islamic fanatics. More on this whole issue of double-standards here.
• A British foreign office diplomat screams anti-Israel and anti-semitic abuse, yet the media (with very minor exceptions) completely ignores the story. Can you imagine the outcry if a diplomat had screamed anti-Muslim abuse?
• And of course for especially serious long-term concern there was President Hussain Obama cravenly on his knees to both Syrian and Iran.

That DEC Gaza appeal

Everywhere you go in the UK at the moment you can see those adverts for the DEC Gaza appeal.

Let's ignore for a moment the irony of a mass charity appeal that raises money for the very people who started a war and then were responsible for the civilians killed on their own side by deliberately using them as human shields. Let's ignore the fact that such an appeal provides every incentive to Hamas and other terrorist groups to start similar wars again, knowing that the useful idiots in the West will provide the necessary financial support for it. Let's also ignore the fact that at this very moment in the world there are millions of more needy and deserving recipients of charity in the Congo, Darfur, Zimbabwe, many other parts of Africa, South Africa and even Australia.

What you cannot ignore is the fact that the charity is unnecessary because the Palestinians, uniquely, have their own UN agency (UNWRA) that ensures that they (uniquely among all the peoples of the world) will, in perpetuity, always receive basic free food, housing and education (albeit mainly anti-semitic indoctrination) paid for by taxpayers in the West not their Arab brothers.

And this ultimate dependency culture is what guarantees that there can never be a 'solution' to the 'Palestinian problem'. Read this excellent analysis of the problem from a genuinely independent source.

And then you will realise that the DEC appeal must ranks as one of the most ludicrously unjustified charities in history - even on a par with that famous telethon in Saudi Arabia that raised millions for families of suicide bombers. But, of course, it was never intended primarily to be a genuine charity. This was always primarily a political message to ensure the public were reminded that this is what those evil Israelis did to innocent Palestinian children.

Thoughts on an Israeli swearing-in ceremony

Here is a letter - in full - sent by a friend who attended an IDF swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall Jerusalem while the conflict in Gaza was still taking place (and let's face it, despite the so-called ceasefire even the mini-conflict has not ended with many dozens of rockets STILL being launched from Gaza). Please read it all.

January 17, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

This past Thursday evening I was witness to an event that deeply moved me, especially as it comes against the backdrop of the disturbing military operation on Gaza and the rocket attacks streaming into southern Israel. I attended the swearing-in ceremony of our very good friends' son into the paratroopers unit of the Israel Defense Forces. I think that this ceremony, held at the Western Wall, with all the complex emotions it elicited, simply epitomizes the struggles, the conflicts, and the inspirations that we live with every day in this war-torn but vibrant country.

My husband and I went to the ceremony to show our solidarity and support for our friends, a couple our age, who are the first of our social circle whose son is being conscripted into the military. In a bizarre way, you could even say we went to celebrate with them. We've known N. since birth and watched him grow up into a fine, patriotic, kind, and motivated young man who persistently prepared for this day, both physically and mentally, all through high school. He competed unremittingly to be accepted into an elite combat unit and is more than eager to dedicate all his skills and talents to successfully performing whatever assignments his military service might bring his way. Always smiling and friendly, N. is utterly serious about the difficult tasks ahead of our country and has no illusions about the risks he takes. Indeed, for him, this ceremony was anticipated as a celebration of all his hard work and of his altruism.

And now, at this week's ceremony, after two grueling months of boot camp, he stood at the Western Wall, symbol of our Jewish heritage and our thousands of years of connection with this land. Side by side with the other tens of new paratrooper recruits, only 18 years old, he solemnly swore to protect the citizens of this country from harm, to uphold our governing bodies' decisions without wavering, without question, and even to give his life if need be, in the defense of Israel and its people.

Yes, hand in hand with the vow to serve his country was the explicit vow to sacrifice his own life if necessary in the relentlessly enduring fight for Israel's independence and indeed for our very right to exist in this region. This was the promise uttered by each vital young man, as his family listened, as he entered the existential fight that Israel has been waging for 60 years and that, even as the words were spoken at the ceremony, was continuing to be fought intensely in the south of our country in Gaza. Against the quiet Jerusalem night sky, the brigadier general at the ceremony apologized for the absence of the colonel who heads the paratroopers' unit, thus bringing home to us how immediate and how troubling our country's fight – even now being played out in fiery bursts against another sky not so far away to the south. The colonel was currently on the battlefield himself, with his troops, out in the night.

I thought of all the boys in all the wars, each generation following the next, for six generations of new draftees joining the ranks of the IDF, all hoping for peace and security, yet all knowing that they might inevitably face deadly battles like those our soldiers might be seeing at the very moment of the ceremony. For this new group of recruits standing at attention before us, the current Gaza fighting will probably be over by the time they complete their intense training course over the next few months, but surely, knowing our region, another battle will rise up during their three years of mandatory service.

I looked at the sea of boyish faces in uniform, some of whom looked like they had not even begun yet to shave. Some seemed tense, exhausted after their training exercises of the day before, perhaps a bit in awe of the cheering crowds of friends and family around them. Others' poised expressions showed their deep pride at reaching this moment, and their steely determination to take their rightful place in the long line of Israeli heroes and heroines who literally defended their families and homes in the face of enemies bent on destroying them. They seemed keenly aware that they had just been passed on the time-honored role of protector of these very men, women, and children in the crowd.

The number of visitors standing on the Western Wall plaza was so large that we could only watch the ceremony on large video screens from afar, and we couldn't catch a glimpse of N. at all. As I looked around at the families of these young soldiers, straining their necks from stairwells and hillsides and wall tops all around the plaza to see their loved ones marching to the major's barked-out orders, a colorful display of bags and containers came into view at the parents' feet. Everywhere were painstakingly prepared care packages of home-cooked food, dry undergarments and socks, extra layers of clothing, chocolates and favorite snacks (in our friends' case: sushi and meat-filled kubeh) to give their beloved soldier at their highly-anticipated reunion after the ceremony.

As I scanned the parents' excited yet contemplative faces, I asked myself: How could these mothers and fathers just "relinquish their sons" without protest? As my friend said incredulously, "On the morning he enlisted, I thought it unbelievable that we and all these other parents were voluntarily bringing our sons to the army. We packed all his things, drove him to the base, said our tearful goodbyes, and left him there. If we lived in a different time and place, we would keep our son safe and hidden at home and barricade the door to prevent the army from coming to enlist him!" But this is the time and this is the place. 2009. Israel. And things have been the same for mothers and fathers saying farewell to sons for 60 years.

For even longer, in fact. As I looked around the plaza at the Wall, with the great Jerusalem stones in front of me, I thought of the ultimate story of father sacrificing son, of Abraham going to sacrifice Isaac in the bible. These days, the days of war, Israeli poets and philosophers are talking incessantly about the parallels between that story of sacrifice and the story of personal sacrifice being made daily by families living here. The brigadier general at the ceremony made mention of our country's deep appreciation of these bigger-than-life parents standing all around the plaza, whose values and mores planted the seeds for the development of such brave combat soldiers, especially in today's postmodern world of adolescent self-indulgence and materialism.

The irony doesn't escape me. Why on earth should a boy getting his first rifle from his commanding officer be greeted by balloons from his family and cheering from the crowd? What kind of a society cheers for a tool of violence? I'll tell you what kind: A society with a long and agonizing history of victimization and persecution that is now cheering at its own inner strength, celebrating its own survival despite the odds, celebrating the freedom to defend itself instead of depending on others. Up until this last war in Gaza, I could add that we are also a society with sufficient confidence in our own moral standards that we are not afraid to use those tools of violence against those who wish us dead, while taking scrupulous care to avoid injury of innocent civilians, though I now find it harder to make that claim. Yet what heartened me was that, with each rifle, each soldier was bestowed a bible. The commanding officer inserted the bible under the soldier's button-down army shirt, against the soldier's heart, and then the officer pressed that bible firmly into the left side of that soldier's chest, in a wordless gesture that seemed to say "Keep this near your heart, for our heritage and our togetherness as a Jewish people are what give us the strength to fight." Only after receiving the bible did the soldiers get their weapons.

In an ironic twist that so much typifies our lives here in Israel, behind the soldiers' ceremony on the plaza, directly near the Wall, stood a cluster of ultra-orthodox men dressed all in black, bowing fervently in prayer, oblivious of the ceremony. I thought about the bravery of these new young recruits, with their bibles against their hearts, and the fact that those Jews standing only a few paces away never served their fellow citizens in the military. The garb worn by these ultra-orthodox men clearly revealed that they had all filed for exemption from military duty on religious grounds, and yet the young draftees on the adjacent plaza would be protecting them too. I was filled with rage when one of these "haredi" men started to disparage the paratrooper ceremony with catcalls. How could he denigrate this almost righteous ritual, where parents are willing to sacrifice what is dearest to them for the greater good? He was soon pulled away by police and escorted off the premises.

My gaze wavered from the moving IDF ceremony to the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is clearly visible behind and to one side of the Wall. For me, that evening, the mosque stood against the darkened sky as a lucid reminder of our Arab neighbors, our Arab enemies, and the Sisyphean task of trying to establish a peaceful existence in this overwhelmingly Arab part of the world. Whatever ending emerges from the current war will not solve the deep-rooted problems in Gaza, or between us and our Arab neighbors, or for Jews around the world who are now facing an outburst of anti-Semitic acts. I am now experiencing my fourth war since making aliya (not to mention two intifadas). Although this Gaza war is the first time that I remember Arab regimes such as Egypt supporting Israel and condemning the terrorists attacking us, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their sponsor, Iran, are unwavering in their resolve to eradicate us from the face of the earth. There just seems to be no reasoning with them, or negotiating with them. Yet here they are, on our borders, just as that mosque stands behind the Wall.

The mosque against the skyline also reminded me of our military's bombings of such Moslem places of worship in Gaza. I know we did so only because these mosques were serving Hamas as ammunition depots, but, nevertheless, to paraphrase Golda Meir, I will never forgive Hamas for making us go against our own ethical standards and destroy their houses of prayer. Like the majority of Israelis, I feel the current military operation in Gaza was unavoidable. I can hardly believe that I am writing such hard words, such militant words, about the fact that military action is inevitable. But I know that any nation anywhere in the world who suffers incessant rocket attacks on its citizens would respond. For eight years southern Israel saw thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on civilian targets like schools, houses, malls, and community centers, including thousands launched after we evacuated the Gaza Strip entirely in 2005. Unlike Hamas, Israel takes significant steps to avoid civilian casualties and never aims intentionally to harm innocent people, whereas that is Hamas's express purpose. But nevertheless we did much harm, with horrific human consequences, and I cannot accept that bloodshed is the only answer. The power of our armed forces requires extraordinary strength, wisdom, and responsibility from our leaders, and I found myself praying silently at the Western Wall that night, for our country to be generously imbued with such virtues as it faces the upcoming frustrations, obstacles, and depressing reality of our region. I felt weighed down with thoughts about our country's present military actions and with my desire to act as an ambassador for Israel and to explain our viewpoint on current events to everyone I know abroad. But as I watched the paratroopers and their commanding officers at the Wall, with the mosque looming overhead, the complexity of our geopolitical mire just seemed too overwhelming to know where to begin.

I could have found this evening to be so devastatingly sorrowful, at the thought of the dangers lurking ahead of these soldiers and the hopelessness of our quest for peace. The evening could have been especially upsetting as I envisioned myself standing at a similar ceremony for all of our friends' older children in the next few years, and then for our eldest son in a little more than three years. Yet, surprisingly for me, I came away from the experience feeling not only troubled but also renewed and strengthened. Despite my profound concern about the future, the fortitude, resilience, and solidarity of this crowd – with its internally weeping but externally beaming parents – moved me deeply and again forged for me that same visceral connection with the Jewish people and with Israel that originally led me to come live in this country.

When it came time to sing the national anthem, Hatikva, I was so choked by tears that I could not emit a voice. As the anthem mentioned "Mizrach" – the West – I observed that it was referring to the ancient holy temple whose western wall was before me. And, as the crowd intoned "2000-year-old hope," I thought between my tears how our entire people was grasping at that hope, desperately wanting to believe that peace is now nearer, that no more sons will be lost, and that we could finally live a free and meaningful life as Jews anywhere in the world and especially here in our homeland.


I send out a wish for peace.

Love, Dee

Reading

I am going abroad for a while - probably won't be posting for a few weeks. Some excellent articles to read in the meanwhile:

To understand why the main stream media reports about Israel and the Palestinians in the way it does read Michael Totten's interview with Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh

For an articulate and heartfelt critique of the West's pandering to the Islamafascists read Judea Pearl on the 7th anniversary of his son's murder by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan

Douglas Murray (who was last week stopped from speaking at the LSE due to threats from Islamic students) has a great article about how Islamic intimidation in the UK works.

An Open Letter to A citizen Of Gaza: I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home

I came across this letter, which should be read by everybody who does not yet understand the basic rights and wrongs of the Gaza conflict.


By: Yishai G (reserve soldier)

Hello,

While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.
I am that someone.

Read the rest

Poor defenceless Palestinians continue to kill Israelis

The poor defenceless (Hamas supporting) Palestinians of Gaza, for whom who the entire British media feel are more deserving of charity than any other group of people in the world, continue with their only real goal in life - to kill Israelis through terror operations. And you can be sure that this important incident this morning will not be reported in the media - at least not until Israel responds (by which time it will be mentioned at the end of any such report, with an implication that this was the Palestinian 'retaliation'):

• An IDF non-commissioned officer was killed on Tuesday morning when a roadside bomb planted by Gaza operatives along Israel's border with the Strip detonated under the army vehicle he was traveling in. Another officer was seriously wounded and two soldiers were lightly hurt in the incident near the Kissufim crossing, the army said... more
  

American Intifada

A good collection of brief videos (5 minutes total) demontrates that, while the pro-Hamas rallies in the USA have not reached the level of violence as they have in London, they are still pretty frightening. No attempts there to conceal anti-semitism as anti-Zionism.

Marching for Hamas

The 'anti-war' brigade are yet again out in London and the media yet again fails to see the irony of an 'anti-war' movement that demands the violent destruction of the State of Israel. These 'peaceniks' will no doubt later this evening be seeking yet more Starbucks restaurants to destroy and yet more Jews to beat up.

A terrific article by Denis Maceoin "Marching for Hamas" sums it all up perfectly.

A Tribute to Dvir Emanuelof

The Elder of Ziyon blog has a very powerful piece containing a letter from the Shalem Center's president Daniel Polisar about Dvir Emanuelof who was killed in Gaza last week. Read it all here. Think about this when you watch the BBC coverage of the conflict.

Jihadists a danger? No, Spurs supporters are the real threat to society

	Vicious
	Peaceful

In the last two weeks in the UK we have witnessed destruction and anti-semitism on a massive scale committed by Islamafascists and their useful idiot allies of the hard left. Look at the scenes from the mainstream anti-Israel march in London or the destruction later the same day in Kensington High Street, with more here. How about this disgusting blood libel outside the Israel embassy in London in broad daylight. There have been attacks on a Marks and Spencer store in Bristol and on people selling Israeli goods in a Belfast shopping mall. Even more chilling, look at one of the main speakers at the 'stop the war' rally of 20,000 people and the reaction he gets when he openly incites terrorism and continually chants "We are all Hamas". The hardcore of this 'anti-Israel' movement is committed to the violent overthrow of the government in the UK and is openly supporting a banned terrorist group. What the videos clearly show is many identifiable people breaking the law in many ways. And the police doing absolutely nothing about. No attempt to either arrest anybody or even stop it. The police appear to have given free reign to the Islamafascists to terrorise and destroy wherever they want without the slightest danger of arrest and prosecution. All helped with the incitement of terrorist supporting leaders like George Galloway and Azam Tamimi.

But have no fear. Because it was revealed today who the police are arresting and prosecuting. In the last few months the Police launched an unprecedented operation targetting a number of Spurs football fans who were alleged to have chanted insulting songs at Portsmouth footballer Sol Campbell during the Portsmouth v Spurs match last October. In fact, people who were at the match say that the singing was the normal banter you get at football matches, and much less offensive, for example, than the crude anti-semitic chants directed almost every match against Spurs fans (the club is known to have many Jewish supporters as well as a Jewish Chairman). Campbell was singled out for special treatment not because he is black or gay but because he used to be Spurs captain and after stating his undying love for the club in 2001 he left a few weeks later to join their bitter rivals Arsenal. Under such circumstances ANY footballer would come in for some stick from the terraces when they play their former club.

It's comforting to know that the police in the UK understand the real threat to society.

Jihad in London in broad daylight

The Jihad Watch site has a chilling video of the main anti-Israel march in London on Saturday. It's 9 minutes long but you must watch it:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024365.php

In particular note this is not the evening 'splinter' group violence in Kensington. This is the main event - the one that the BBC, Sky and CNN told us was a peaceful, carnival-like anti-war demonstration.

A letter to the hypocrites of "Save the Children"

I think this letter I just sent is pretty self-explanatory:

Jasmine Whitbread
Chief Executive
Save the Children
1 St John's Lane
London EC1M 4AR

12 January 2009

Dear Ms Whitbread

My sunday newspaper today has a full page advertisement by your organisation entitled "Stop the Suffering" which appears to be saying that only children in Gaza are suffering and that if everybody texts a message saying "CEASEFIRE" to 81819 then this could force 'an end to the violence'.

I don't understand this. For 8 years the civilians of Southern Israel were living in shelters to protect themselves from indiscriminate bombing from Gaza (over 8,000 rockets including some 6,000 AFTER Israel removed all of its citizens and army personnel from Gaza in 2005). I do not recall ever seeing a campaign by Save the Children to stop their suffering.

Moreover, when the Gazan government (yes Hamas is the government in Gaza) ended a 6-month 'ceasefire' on 19 December 2008 by launching a barrage of longer range Iranian Grad missiles that brought almost one million civilians (including round 250,000 children) within range there was similarly no word from Save the Children despite the pleas by Israel to the international community of the seriousness of this situation.

When this barrage continued for 7 days without a word of world protest, Israel finally acted in self-defence to put an end to it. The suffering in Gaza that resulted is the direct responsibility of the Hamas government, which is committing war crimes by placing civilians deliberately in locations from which it is firing rockets. But indirect responsibility for the suffering is due to organisations like yours which stayed silent when the Israelis were the victims of indiscriminate bombing from a terrorist government. If the world had made its revulsion clear to Hamas then the current suffering would never have happened.

The clear intention of your advertisement is to stop Israel from defending itself. A forced ceasefire that leaves Hamas free to continue its promise to destroy Israel and every Jew once it has the time to re-arm will lead to an even worse catastrophe in 6 months time.

But I guess you never really understood the situation well enough to figure that out. Just like your organisation continually howls about the lack of humanitarian supplies in Gaza, without ever asking why there is no lack of rockets and weapons for the Hamas government who run the place.

Finally your claim about 10 children per day being killed comes from non-verified Hamas sources (remember Hamas controls UNWRA in Gaza) and so should be taken with a pinch of salt. Whatever the number, it certainly is dwarfed by the number being killed in many other conflicts around the world – most inflicted by Muslims about you which you apparently have much less concern.

Yours sincerely,


Edgar Davidson

The peaceful anti-Israel demonstration in London

As my posts below about both the pro-Israel demonstrations I've attended in the last few days suggest, the TV news media has been grossly misrepresenting what has been going on in the various demonstrations. From BBC, Sky and CNN you will have got the impression that that there may have been a small amount of violence but that this was somehow evenly distributed between pro and anti-Israel demonstrators with the Police separating the two sides. In fact it turns out that their reporting in this respect bears all the features of its more general reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is complete and utter bullshit. The pro-Israel supporters have behaved impeccably and the anti-Israel supporters have behaved like animals.

The images here (which I got from the Mail on Sunday) are from the pro-Hamas London rally on Saturday (and if anybody tries to tell you this was pro-Palestinian rather than just pro-Hamas and anti-Israel just look carefully at the images). Most of the action here took place in Kensington High Street. When we there last Wednesday I noticed that the Hamas supporters were very close to this Starbucks and I had a feeling this would eventually be a target for their violence due to the Muslim campaign to boycott Starbucks as they view it as a 'Zionist' institution. It was therefore no surprise that this Starbucks was smashed up and then looted by these people. [UPDATE: here is a video of them smashing up Starbucks - listen to the 'fuck the Jews' cries and also notice a line of Police who simply allow the thugs to carry on the destruction without fear of arrest]

Of course none of this got any mention on the news channels. This is happening now every night in one of the busiest and most fashionable streets in London and nobody is doing anything about it. Even worse, despite both the police officers on the scene and the shop owners being outraged by this (I know because I've spoken with them) somebody high up in the Metropolitan Police is giving authorisation to allow these demonstrations ot take place every night.

Massive turn-out for pro-Israel rally

The organisers estimated there were 35,000 people at today's rally in Trafalgar Square. The BBC (for reasons partly explained below) estimated a much lower number - 4,000. That number is impossible since not only was the entire square packed but there were also many people on the outside. I would estimate the numbers as about 10,000 - a fantastic turnout so early on a cold Sunday morning.

More than anything this was a response to the despicable media campaign that has created the perception that the whole British public is outraged by Israel's actions in Gaza. I felt that there was a real determination by so many Jews to set the record straight.

Today's rally will, of course, be given only a fraction of the media coverage of yesterday's pro-Hamas hatefest. But I'd like to think that anybody who witnessed both rallies will have been struck by the difference in the message today (Peace for Israel and Gaza by stopping Hamas terror) with that of yesterday ("Destroy Israel"). Today: dignified with compassion for all victims. Yesterday: violent, with compassion and love for the terrorist perpetrators and hatred for the Israeli victims.

Yesterday Lindsey German of the "Stop the War Coalition" said that the sheer number of people protesting meant that the government had to do what the protesters demanded and this included boycotting Israel and expelling the Ambassador. Think about that for a moment. It is a bizarre statement on so many levels. On the one hand this woman, who claims to speak for the "weak", the "oppressed", and the "disenfranchised" is advocating that a count of the number of activists on the streets should dictate government policy. That sounds a bit like "might is right" to me - the very thing they accuse Israel of. Also it means that if you can get enough Islamafascists and their useful idiots of the Left on the streets then you have to not only listen to what they say but you must also do what they say. So I suppose that means that if next time they demand the public execution of all Jews then that is what the Government should do to make the mob happy. It is also ironic to note that the "peace protesters" (as the media portrayed them) openly support a terrorist organisation and openly called for the violent destruction of the state of Israel. Peace for everybody else but violence against Israel. And of course never a mention of the suffering of the Israelis under daily bombardment.

Update: Just seen the CNN news report about the rally this evening and it was breathtaking in its misrepresentation. According to this report there was as many anti-Israel demonstrators protesting the rally as there were pro-Israel demonstrators (whom they described as 'several hundred'). Moreover, their angle was that the bulk of the anti-Israel demonstrators were Jews. They duly interviewed one of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians fruitcakes and then focused on the obligatory Neturei Karta lunatics. They also stated that a massive police presence was necessary to keep the two sets of demonstrators apart. For organisations like the BBC and CNN it is clear that even if one million people had turned out for a pro-Israeli rally with a half a dozen counter-demonstrators, their spin would have been to present it as some kind of a tie in numbers. Theydo not want the public to know that there a large number of decent people who understand and support Israel and who are prepared to reclaim the streets from the Hamas supporters.