Why is this terrorist attack being covered up and ignored?

Update 25 Feb 2018. Since posting this story a third victim, Shilo Siman Tov (aged 23) had died from his injuries. The Arab who drove the lorry crushing the soldiers is still under detention. He had 115 previous driving offences and nobody seems to be asking why he was still allowed to drive a heavy lorry on Israeli roads, let alone how he came to drive it in such a way as to completely demolish three stationary army vehicles.

Shilo Siman Tov: 3rd victim of Arab truck attack

Tonight's Channel 10 News in Israel spent no less than the first 40 minutes on the Netanyahu 'story' before briefly mentioning this tragedy as if it was an everyday occurence...

Moronic Israeli General's own goal and gift to the antisemites of the world

Probably the worst and most inappropriate speech ever given by any Israeli in a position of authority. And on Holocaust Memorial Day. Makes you wonder why anybody bothers to fight antisemitism.The antisemites are salivating over this.

Making it hard to do business in Israel

Letter I was handed at Bank Leumi last week

Elder of Ziyon has just posted an article based on his friend's experience of having her Chase credit card rejected in Israel. In the light of this I thought it worth reporting what happened to me last week when I went into my Bank Leumi branch in Tel Aviv to get a new cheque book (I have a foreign resident's shekels account that I use mainly to pay standing orders for my apartment and to get cash from machines).

I actually found my personal representative ZZ who (although like the dozen other workers had nobody with them) told me I had to wait. After 10 minutes ZZ called me over and said simply "you cannot have a cheque book because we are closing your account - you have 28 days to transfer your money because you do not have a minimum $50,000 in your account". Now, for those who do not know how Israeli banks operate, I need to point out that even a modest account like mine (which has never been less than $8,000 shekels equivalent in credit in 9 years) pays enormous fees - including commission on every single cheque, standing order payment and cash machine usage as well as uninvited correspondence. In fact, my typical monthly fees are around 180 shekels ($45) for things that would cost nothing in a UK account. Moreover in 9 years I have received the grand sum of about 10 shekels in interest despite part of the money ($3,000) being in a 'savings account' that has never been touched.

So why suddenly - and without any warning - were they closing my account? ZZ printed out the above letter with the explanation (they never sent me this letter and had I not by chance needed a new cheque book I would never have known, so my account would have been closed without my knowledge and my money would have been seized). I have since found out that the 'risk compliance pressure' on Israeli Banks has come from the US Government who do not want their nationals having foreign accounts for fear of them being used for money laundering and terrorism; I do not understand why having lots of money in such accounts (as opposed to little) makes the 'risk'  lower rather than higher and nor do I understand why British citizens should be penalised. It turns out that all the other Israel banks are introducing similar restrictions which means I will have no Israeli shekel account and no obvious means of paying my bills.

Jerusalem Post has become yet another Israel paper that thinks its main role is to deligitimize Israel

Whereas Haaretz is the standard source of anti-Israel articles used by external media organisations to deligitimize Israel, it seems that in the last two years the Jerusalem Post (once considered 'right wing' and strongly pro-Zionist')  has been desperately trying to outdo Haaretz.

Today's top two headline 'stories' in the JPost are a perfect example. The main 'story' is actually just an opinion piece that uses exactly the same narrative as Israel-haters the world over - drawing a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli soldiers. It even uses the standard anti-Israel trick of suggesting that Palestinians only use stones and slingshots (rather than knives and guns) to attack Israelis, emphasizing this in the photocaption which says:

Splitscreen: Palestinian with slingshot at demonstration and IDF soldier who shot dead a wounded terrorist in Hebron

The second ‘story’ with the ludicrous and offensive title "Has Tunisia replaced Israel as the Middle East's only genuine democracy" is piece of pure nonsense based on an article in the Economist –  a magazine that has been at the forefront of pumping out anti-Zionist (and even pure antisemitic) lies and propaganda for several years. Did nobody at the Jerusalem Post check that? Doesn't the JPost have its own writers? And regarding 'democratic Tunisia' perhaps the 'author' should have checked the JPost's own recent articles such as this one; and he has forgotten the fact that Tunisia is known to have the largest proportion of ISIS fighters and supporters in the Arab world (hence the terrorist attacks of 2015). [Update: Here is some real apartheid in Tunisia]

It is a shame that the Jerusalem Post has decided its main role is to pump out propaganda pieces rather than reporting the News. If they focused on the latter they might, for example, have discovered that the Palestinian woman who they lavishly praised two weeks ago for winning the $1 million Global Teacher Prize is actually very proud to have married a man who massacred a group of Jews walking home from synagogue in Hebron in 1980. Instead it took blogger Aussie Dave at IsraellyCool to find that out (it really was not hard; update: see Brian's rant about this)

Perhaps the April Fools article about the Guardian focusing on Israel hatred because it is profitable was not really such a spoof after all. Just as fourth rate Israeli academics can become big stars in the West by promoting anti-Zionism, it seems the same is true of media outlets.

See also:

• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists JPost says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists"
• Responsibility for British deaths in Tunisia
• Antisemitic rhetoric increasing in Tunisia under Muslim Brotherhood
• Hannan al-Hroub winner of global teacher prize married a terrorist 
• The radical anti-Israel agenda of the Economist
• Economist and its antisemitic cartoon

Everything you need to know about why the Islamist terrorists continue to strike is in these 2 headlines

The two stories leading the Jerusalem Post online news at 15:00 today explain everything you need to know about why Islamists are winning in their battle to terrorise 'Infidel' nations. The first story is about an Israeli soldier arrested for killing a terrorist who had stabbed a colleague seconds earlier*, and the second is about a London man arrested for "inciting racial hatred on social media" after sending  a tweet criticising a Muslim woman he spoke to who would not condemn the Brussels terrorists.

Leftists are proud of these stories (look at the triumphant tone of moral superiority in the Jerusalem Post report which talks about the "ghastly shooting of a Palestinian knife attacker") because in their eyes it demonstrates 'our' moral righteousness even when under attack by 'them'.  They think these kind of stories show why the Islamic terrorists can never 'win' because even in the face of terror 'we will still uphold the democratic process and fight racism'. But the exact opposite is true. For a start these prosecutions have got nothing to do with justice, democracy and fighting racism. They are all about signalling our righteousness and appeasement to the Islamists - and even the suppression of our own values of free speech. In reality they signal our weaknesses to the Islamists, along with the fact that we do not even acknowledge that we are fighting a war against an enemy dedicated to our destruction.

*remember that every Palestinian terrorist who attacks Israelis is guaranteed to become a very wealthy man/woman if they survive the attack. So think about that if you just saw a terrorist stab your mate.

The media getting it wrong on the Istanbul blast

UPDATE: Two days after I first highlighted this some media is now reporting that the bomber did indeed specifically target the Israeli group. See below for more.

The first we knew of any Israeli connection to yesterday's terrorist attack in Istanbul was when one of the Turkish Government officials put out a tweet saying that she wished Israelis had been killed rather than only wounded. Then came the (incorrect) claim that the Israelis involved were all Arabs.  And every media source claimed that the attack was almost certainly carried out by Kurdish separatists.

As soon as I heard that one of the fatalities was actually an Israeli I suspected this was an ISIS/Jihadist attack and nothing to do with the Kurds (and it has since been confirmed that the attacker was a known Jihadist). Now we know that 3 Israelis (all Jews and not Arabs as originally claimed) were killed and many others were injured. Most reports mention 4 dead in total including the suicide bomber; the "2 dead Americans" cited in many reports were actually two of the Israelis as they held dual passports. Although there were reports of some Irish wounded I have not seen any of that confirmed anywhere. 

That means that in the centre of Istanbul a Jihadist suicide bomber managed to target a group of people who just happened to be almost exclusively Israeli Jews. Apart from the bomber himself all the dead were Israeli Jews (which will make that Turkish Government official very happy after all) as were  most of the injured. 

We also know that all of the Israelis involved were part of an organised tour.  This is a fact which would have been known to many people in Turkey - a country where 96% of the population have unfavourable views of Jews and where they hate Israelis more than anybody else in the world. Given that Turkey hosts thousands of ISIS terrorists - as well as many other terrorists operating under Iranian funding - a large group of Israelis in the centre of Istanbul would have been a very attractive and easy target. While Israelis are positive people who like to travel and often think that their foreign hosts are all delighted to meet them (despite the persistent evidence to the contrary), they sadly will have stood out like a sore thumb.  Both ISIS and Hezbollah have stated their desire to target Israelis everywhere. When you consider all of those facts - and throw in also the number of terrorist attacks that have taken place in Turkey recently - the idea that an Israeli group should choose the centre of Istanbul for their holiday destination is surprising to say the least.

Maybe it was all just one big, very unlucky, coincidence that a group of Israelis in the centre of one of the most antisemitic places on earth found themselves side-by-side with an Islamist suicide bomber. But my recommendation would be for Israelis - especially in groups - to avoid places like Turkey. Not simply because of the fact that there have been terrorists attacks there (that really would be giving in to terrorism) - but because the terrorists especially would like to kill Israelis and Jews; and in an Islamist country, especially, there are no Israeli security personnel to stop them.

Finally, after it became clear that the only victims were Israelis the story was dropped from all the main stream media apart from minor reports which simply still talk about an attack with unspecified victims 'likely to have been carried out by Kurdish separatists'. Sadly (but now typical for this increasingly useless newspaper) the Jerusalem Post also quickly relegated the story to a minor mention on its web pages so that it could continue to focus on what leftists seem to think is the greatest threat to world Jewry - Donald Trump.

 
Postscript: Now that the attack is known to have been directed only at Israelis the story no longer appears on the BBC New website (see screenshot below). Also I suppose the BBC will exclude it from their list of worldwide terrorist attacks as they have routinely done in the past. (their previous lists always exclude terrorist attacks in Israel).

Screenshot of BBC Middle East News taken 17:21 on 21 March 2016.

Are Jews being sacrificed for political correctness in Israel?

Earlier today I wrote my thoughts about the knifing murder of Tuvia Weissman by two 14-year old Arab terrorists, arguing that these kind of killings will continue while there are multiple incentives for the killers and no deterrents.

But there is something more disturbing about this case than any of the other recent terrorist attacks. Just hours before the attack Israel's Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkot made the disgraceful public statement that Israeli forces had been wrong to shoot young terrorists (a statement that was predictably lapped up by the Israel-hating western media as it played directly into their narrative about the current intifada).

Was this obsession 'not to look bad in the eyes of the western media to blame for Tuvia's death? Of the few details that have been released about his murder we know that the terrorists entered the supermarket with their knives and were in the store for 20 minutes looking for victims. Given the location, the current situation, and the description of the killers how was this possible?

The fact that there appears to be a complete media blackout concerning the killers is also disturbing. None of the reports says anything about them other than that they came from a nearby Arab village. There was a photo of one of them being treated in an Israeli hospital which I can no longer find. One report says one was killed while another says they both survived and are being treated in different Israeli hospitals. How is it possible that, 24 hours after such a terrorist attack, the Israeli media is saying nothing about the killers?

Is the news blackout because the Government does not want anybody to know that these killers will be allowed to go free (because of their age) once they receive the best Israeli medical treatment and recover? And that the killers will be welcomed back as heroes by the Palestine Authority?

Or are they now covering up for Gadi Eisenkot who should have been sacked immediately after he made his public statement?

Tuvia Weissman (with wife and child): sacrificed for political correctness?

On the murder of Tuvia Weissman by 'Palestinian kids'

Murdered 21-year-old Tuvia Weissman with wife and child

 UPDATE: Was Tuvia a victim of Israel's political correctness?

• The Western media as usual largely ignored the murderous knife attack in an Israeli supermarket, despite the fact it was carried out by two 14-year-old Palestinians. Had two 14-year-olds committed such an act of terrorism anywhere else in the world you can be sure it would have been headline news. But even the age of the assailants failed to pique media interest because neither were killed in the attack and so the headline writers were unable to lead with "Israel kills Palestinian children". 
• Where the attack was reported Tuvia Weissman was dehumanized - being referred to as a 'soldier' - even the Israeli media was guilty of this (some - as reported by Aussie Dave felt his death was deserved because he was a 'settler'). But every 21-year-old man in Israel is a soldier and since he was off-duty shopping in a supermarket why was the fact that he was a 'soldier' of any relevance at all? 
• The killing came just hours after chief-of-staff of the military, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot scolded Israeli soldiers for shooting at "Palestinian kids who attack with scissors" and knives. Clearly in the eyes of Eisenkot (and most of Israel's military leaders) it is far better to have dead Jews than have the Western media screaming about the killing of Palestinian kids. 
• The  'Palestinians' (supported by the Western media and political elites) continue to have massive incentives to carry out terrorist attacks. That the Israeli authorities continue to provide no deterrents at all is not unrelated to the fact that the vast majority of leaders in Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF are leftist appeasers (as reported here). Hence, while Tuvia Weissman was being buried today his killers were being treated with the best possible medical care in an Israeli hospital (and because of their age they will be released without charge when they recover to a life of luxury as 'Palestinian heroes').
• In the light of all this I have updated my table about incentives and deterrents for Palestinians (especially 'kids') to carry out terrorist attacks. Unless Israel's leaders start to come up with some deterrents the attacks will intensify and there will be many more victims like Tuvia:

Incentives and deterrents for Palestinians to commit terrorism against Jews

This might explain why the current terror wave shows no sign of abating.

And Bibi's range of deterrents against the terrorists is matched only by the extensive range of actions currently undertaken to destroy the Hamas network of attack tunnels and advanced missiles. These actions consist of Bibi saying that he will respond harshly to Hamas AFTER they have attacked Israel through the tunnels (which Bibi's Generals and Intelligent Staff assure us don't exist anyway).

See also:

• House demolitions - not a deterrent, not a punishment
• International community perplexed why an Arab teenager would stab to death a defenceless Jewish Mum…..  
• Rules and Guidelines for reporting on Israel
• 4-1 in favour of the Arabs - all the world will know of the murder of another Jewish woman
• Another brutal terrorist killing the media will ignore
• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists" 
• Palestinians celebrate murder of Dafne Meir 
• Understanding media terminology for events in Israel 
• Exposing the antisemitic scorecards

Yachad's attempts to delegitimize Israel fail to save it from attack by antisemites at London University

PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT UPDATE TO THIS POSTING HERE.

As I reported earlier Yachad is the anti-Zionist group (fraudulently claiming to be 'pro-Israel') that partners with B'Tselem who are so anti-Zionist that they hand over Arabs who sell land to Jews to be tortured and murdered by the Palestine Authority.

But, no matter how low Yachad stoops to kiss the boots of Israel haters it will never be low enough, and this was proved by what happened  yesterday at Kings College London. It is Yachad who  brought the leftist former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon to the UK for a lecture tour. Ayalon has been a vocal critic of the Israeli Government, demanding that Israel make major unilateral concessions to the Palestinians. His claim that Israel is 'heading toward being an apartheid state' is contributing to the international delegitimization campaign and much of what Ayalon has said has been used by Israeli haters in their propaganda. This includes his disgraceful contribution to the film the Gatekeepers which many believe was an act of treason against Israel. But while Yachad brought him to the UK to speak about Israel's faults, Ayalon is still an Israeli who believes in a (much reduced) Jewish State. And in the eyes of our enemies that makes Ayalon a 'war criminal' who, like every other "Zionist", must be silenced.

So Yachad - whose members are normally among those protesting when Israelis speak in the UK - found themselves on the receiving end of the Israel haters' venom. Richard Millett provides an eye witness report of what happened. The story has even been picked up by some main stream media and a Government spokesmen has condemned the disruption.


But if you think that this kind of brutal exposure of the futility of Yachad's policy (of adopting the narrative and lies of Israel's enemies) has been a wake-up call then you will be disappointed. Their Facebook page is actually trying to downplay what happened. Their report says

Whilst some of what happened at the event has already been documented on social media, some important details have been left out.  

Except their report contains much less detail than Richard Millett's. The only 'detail' seems to be the following assertion that attempts to downplay the significance of what happened:

These 20 something protesters were incredibly small in number

UPDATE

The B'Tselem scandal and its implications for Yachad

B'Tselem is an NGO (Non-Government organisation) whose English title is: "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories".  Like most of the NGOs who operate in Israel and the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, B'Tselem has no interest in "Palestinian Human Rights" (despite that being their main claim) but is instead dedicated to destroying Israel as a Jewish State by spreading anti-Zionist lies and propaganda. Almost of all of these organisations are funded by EU and US taxpayers who are never told anything about them because their governments are so obsessed with 'helping the Palestinians' that they are blinded to what really goes on. The British Government has recently given £227,988 to B'Tselem. The (only) reason B'Tselem and its activities are now in the spotlight is because a recent TV documentary exposed its members as being involved in the murder of Arabs simply because they were interested in selling land to Jews.

The fact that the B'Tselem scandal has finally made it into the mainstream British media (albeit only the online edition of the Sun) is good because it should be the catalyst to destroy any remote credibility that Yachad has for its claim that it is 'pro-Israel' (for US readers: Yachad is JStreet's UK sister organisation). This is because B'Tselem are a major partner of Yachad (and JStreet). In fact, all of Yachad's 'educational trips' to 'Israel and the West Bank' are coordinated with B'Tselem (and also involve other vicious anti-Zionist organisations like "Breaking the Silence"). For example, this is the itinerary of their most recent such trip from their own website. Yachad runs joint meetings with B'Tselem and consistently promotes B'Tselem's appalling propaganda on their website and facebook page.

Interestingly, Yachad received another wake-up call yesterday.

I do not believe that these latest wake-up calls will help Yachad realise the folly of what they do. So it is time for others to expose Yachad for the fraud and danger that they are.

From last year (satire but not much different to their actual website):

While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists"**

Jerusalem Post front page: Ignore actual Arab terrorists killing Jewish Mums; it's the Jews we have to worry about

While some of us rage at the anti-Israel bias of the Western media, the Israeli media itself (and not just Ha'aretz) continues to do a splendid job of deligitimizing Israel without outside help. Today an Israeli mother was murdered in her home in a brutal terrorist attack. But that story never made it on to the front page of the Jerusalem Post. Instead, the above screen shot is its front page. This ludicrous headline** and 'story'  is nothing more than the personal view of yet another leftist former Shin Bet moron Carmi Gillon made during a Sunday lecture at the Jerusalem Press Club. And to get a feel for just what a disgrace Carmi Gillon is read this article by Daniel Greenfield.

Which 'story' from Israel do you think the Western media will choose to talk about? The one above or the one below? Who needs enemies when we have friends like Carmi Gillon and the Jerusalem Post.

** Note that, not only is the JPost headline exceptionally offensive but it is also flawed due to political correctness. Since the article title explicitly said "Jewish terrorists" the ONLY correct comparison is with "Muslim" terrorists (which is why I titled this posting that way). By saying "Arab" instead of "Muslim" the JPost article was simply compounding ignorance and bias with political correctness (it's OK to talk about "Jewish terrorists" but not "Muslim terrorists"). Also note that it cannot even bring itself to say "Arab terrorists", instead using "Arab counterparts".

See also: Duma and the return of the King

Why is Britain funding the murder of Arabs who sell land to Jews?

As this incredibly important story is not being reported outside of Israel, and as there is a clear 'British' angle, I have written the following self-explanatory letter to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk)

Dear Sir/Madam

British Funding of anti-Zionist Organisations involved in the murder or Arabs who sell land to Jews
 
In case you are unaware of it, I would like to draw your attention to an important story from Israel that was revealed last week by the television program Uvda of Israel’s Channel 2.  It concerns the activities of Ezra Nawi, a far-left activist from the anti-Zionist Ta’ayush organisation, in collaboration with employees of another anti-Zionist organisation B'tselem. Nawi is heard gloating about how he passes on to the Palestinian Authority’s counter-intelligence arm the names of Palestinian Arabs who sell land to Jews. Nawi is heard saying: “The Palestinian Authority catches them and kills them. But before it kills them, they get beat up a lot.”

The 'British' Foreign & Commonwealth Office angle on this story is that the British Government - through taxpayer money has been directly funding both the B'teslem and Ta'ayush organisations to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Moreover, these organisations also receive substantial additional funding indirectly from British taxpayers via EU grants to which Britain contributes.

I would like to know why Britain is funding these organisations and whether such funding will now stop.

Also, I am sure you are aware that the context of this story is that, in the Palestinian Authority, the penal code reserves capital punishment for anyone convicted of selling land to Jews. I would therefore also like to know why the Foreign & Commonwealth Office - which in the last 5 years alone has funded the Palestinian Authority to the tune of £400 million - has done nothing to intervene with such a murderous, anti-Semitic penal system.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

Also a note to British Jews: B'tselem is an especially treasured 'charity' of Yachad and the New Israel Fund, while the Jewish Chronicle, Limmud and the Union of Jewish Students also consistently fall over themselves to provide a platform for their representatives. Yachad's 'educational trips' in Israel are actually run by B'Tselem.

Updates:

• The Israeli hard-left circles the wagons 
• The Israeli hard-left goes over the edge, aiding and abetting murder 
• Leftism absent morality in Israel
• Police open criminal investigation of far-left activists

Let's all ignore Jews stabbed to death and self-flagellate on Jews stabbing a photo

 

Yesterday another two Jews were knifed to death by Palestinian terrorists in the centre of Jerusalem. Naturally, that story has been totally ignored (or mis-reported) by the main stream media. But another 'stabbing' story from Israel is being reported everywhere: some 'right wing extremists' filmed stabbing a photo of an Arab child  -  and Jews on social media have gone into full self-flagellation mode explaining why this proves we are just like Arab terrorists, so it is understandable that the world hates us.

The usual left-wing Israeli media sources have been jubilantly pumping the story to 'prove' their narrative that right-wing Jews are the biggest threat to national security. But even the Jerusalem Post had it as their main headline yesterday evening - with the story of the Jews killed in Jerusalem not even appearing in their top 4 stories. (UPDATE: Daniel Greenfield has an excellent analysis of the hysteria surrounding the video with an important reminder of the left's history of 'Jewish terrorism' claims) Meanwhile the real stabbing and killing of Jews continues relentlessly and is relentlessly unreported.

Where is the sense of perspective here? The behaviour of the Jews in the video is terrible, but a stabbed photo is not a stabbed person. And while this type of activity is a genuine abomination among Israeli Jews (and rightly condemned universally) much worse antisemitic incitement is practised - and universally welcomed - everywhere and every day by the Palestinian Arabs.

The media who are apoplectic with rage that some Jews stabbed a photo of an Arab child are the very same media who not only refuse ever to report on the far more vicious antisemitic incitement that takes place in every Arab school every day, but who also refuse to report on Arabs stabbing to death real Jewish children. And those Jews who are especially apoplectic with rage at the photo story are the very same Jews who tell us that Arab antisemitism and incitement is 'understandable' because Israelis are 'killing Arabs'.

Jews who think they are helping to address terrorism by grossly exaggerating minor non-violent incidents committed by Jews are simply playing into the hands of antisemites around the whole world. The world is not interested in stories of murdered Jews in Israel, but it laps up any stories that can cast Israelis as the villains. And it seems Jews are only too pleased to serve up and exaggerate such stories.

UPDATE: When I posted the above in response to a FaceBook friend who posted this article by David Horovitz he criticised me saying I had not condemned the extremists. When I replied that I had, he said:

Your condemnation is a tad glib and does nothing at all to address this issue seriously. Anyone reading your post would assume that there is really no problem with far right, ultra nationalism. No probs folks, nothing to see here, move on, move on. Read Horovitz. Then read your piece again. Then notice the difference.

Here is my response:

When the main stream media starts reporting about the incessant terrorist attacks against Israel and the incessant incitement and antisemitism in Arab and Muslim societies, then I might feel it is worth spending some of my time writing about the problems of Jewish extremists. Until then my time is best spent writing about things that few others do, rather than joining the chorus of self-flagellation that is used by antisemites to spread further hatred against Jews. And, incidentally, Horovitz's conclusion is simply stupid. He says that "unless the State of Israel reasserts its insistence on upholding the core Jewish values that these young people have lost .... these dancing youths... will bring down ruin upon us all." For a start, the State of Israel does more than any other country in the world to try to ensure its young people uphold decent principles - and I bet that (Israeli Arabs notwithstanding) there are fewer % racists in Israel than any other country in the world. To suggest that these people are going to bring down the State 'if nothing is done' is complete bullshit.

And here is a photo of one of the real victims yesterday:

And here is the tragic story of the other victim Ofer Ben Ari.

Also, I see that the terrorists were aged 19 and 20 respectively and had both been released from prison after terrorist convictions. Given their ages now that means they either got ludicrously light sentences for terrorist offences or were released as part of the Shalit deal. Anybody shed any light on this?

And here is the wider context for all of this:

Haaretz bitter post-election coverage

Look at the titles of all five articles on the Haaretz newspaper website this morning (screenshot taken at 11.19am). And there are people who still claim that Haaretz is not an anti-Zionist paper.....

p.s. to Haaretz: if Israel is the racist apartheid state that every one of your journalists claims it to be, how comes the Arab List became the third biggest party in parliament?

What Israel should have said following the attack against Iranian and Hezbollah terrorist commanders

This is a follow up to my posting here about the dumbest statement ever made by an Israeli official.

What Israel should have said to Hezbollah and Iran following the successful attack against their  terrorist commanders on the Israel-Syria border was something like the following:

We have demonstrated that, when you threaten us with murder and plan your terrorist attacks, we can strike even your most senior commanders anywhere and any time. The Hezbollah terrorist commander we eliminated was - like his father before him (who we also eliminated when he felt safe) - one of the most evil men in the world who was dedicated to killing Jews. The world is a better place for his death, as it is for the death of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander who sowed state-sponsored terrorism throughout the world. There is no reason for any Lebanese or Iranian terrorists to be in Syria, let alone on our border planning attacks, and if any of you even think about coming close again you will meet the same fate as your colleagues on Sunday. As for any form of retaliation - if you even think about that, then we can guarantee a response 100 times more devastating than what you have seen so far. In the words of Clint Eastwood - go ahead and make my day....

Sadly instead of that a "senior Israeli defence official" essentially issued a craven apologetic statement that effectively said:

"We didn't mean to kill your top men - we thought they were some petty criminals from a completely different terrorist organisation. So we accept that you now have every right to attack us but please, please don't as we promise we will never touch you again even though you are planning massive terrorist attacks against us from a country you have no right to be in"

Who seriously believes that the actual statement makes Israel more secure in the long term than my proposed statement? I'd be interested to know if anybody can shed any light on the morons in the political and defence establishment who allowed the 'apology' to be made.

Is this the dumbest statement ever made by an Israeli official?

I have often highlighted dumb statements made by Israeli politicians (usually on the Left) - such as here and here. I have also often highlighted the irrational extent that Israeli politicians will go to in order to 'reduce tensions' with its terrorist neighbours - such as either apologising for completely legitimate actions (something that Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres specialised in) or even accepting responsibility for incidents that did not happen (such as the infamous Mohamed al-Dura hoax) - another Ehud Barak speciality.

But today's announcement by "an Israeli source" about Sunday's successful targeting of leading Hezbollah terrorists and an Iranian general (who were planning a major attack against Israel from the Golan Heights) is surely the dumbest of all. The source said: "We meant to target low-ranking guerrillas in Syria, not Iranian general". The article goes on to say

The remarks by the Israeli source, who declined to be identified because Israel has not officially confirmed it carried out the strike, appeared aimed at containing any escalation with Iran or the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Whether or not the statement really is true then let's look  at the pros and cons of keeping quiet and making the statement:

By keeping quiet:

• The mystique of the IDF's power, reach and accuracy is further enhanced.
• The mystique and penetration of Israel's intelligence services is further enhanced.
• Evey high ranking Hezbollah terrorist and Iranian terrorist general - in areas where they have no right to be - lives in fear for their lives 
• There is a genuine deterrent against Hezbollah and Iranian forces (who have no right even to be in Syria) moving into the Golan Heights
• There is little chance of any retaliation from Hezbollah or Iran, since the terrorists know they will be obliterated if they did so.

By making the statement:

• The mystique of Israel's power, reach and accuracy is shattered
• The mystique and penetration of Israel's intelligence  services is shattered
• Hezbollah and Iranian forces now know they can operate at will on the Golan Heights without fear of further attacks from Israel
• Evey high ranking Hezbollah terrorist and Iranian terrorist general now knows that Israel will not deliberately target them no matter what atrocities they commit
• Israel is actually inviting some limited retaliation from Hezbollah or Iran as 'compensation' and is effectively saying they will not respond

UPDATE: What Israel should have said in response to the attack

Who needs anti-Israel activists when you have Israeli 'leaders' like Nir Barkat doing their job?

One of the most ludicrous and offensive tactics used by anti-Israel bigots around the world is to equate Israel with Nazi Germany. It has become a core tactic for deligitimizing and ultimately destroying the Jewish state.

Yet Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat has now done exactly the same thing.  In response to a plan by Ashkelon's Mayor to limit the employment of Palestinian Arab construction workers in the city, Barkat launched a ferocious criticism of his fellow Mayor saying:

“You can’t outlaw an entire public, as was done in Nazi Germany 70 years ago.”

The plan by the Ashkelon Mayor was very clearly not to 'outlaw an entire public' and, unlike Israeli Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian Arabs  have no legal 'right' to work in Israel. In any case the Ashkelon plan has already come in for a lot of criticism from Israeli politicans of all parties, so there was no need for Barkat of all people to get involved.  By using the very language of Israel's bitterest enemies Barkat has stooped to a new low for main stream Israeli politicians. Apart from the factual error at the start of Barkat's statement, he is also implying that the Jews of Germany were, like the Palestinian Arabs today, carrying out multiple unprovoked terrorist attacks against German civilians.

As Mayor of Jerusalem, Barkat of all people, knows better than most the enormous scale of the threat currently posed by Palestinian Arabs against Jews in Israel. All sections of Palestinian society have made it very clear that they support the current intifada taking place - not only do they glorify the murderers but they are being implored by their entire media to carry out a 'tsunami' of individual attacks inside Israel wherever they can, using knives, cars and axes as their weapons. Many of these attacks - like last week's synagogue massacre - were carried out by Palestinian Arabs (as opposed to Israeli Arabs) working in Israel. One of the terrorists in the synagogue attack actually worked as a cleaner at the synagogue and knew the Rabbis he slaughtered.

Of even greater relevance is that there have been several cases of attacks by Palestinian workers on their Jewish colleagues at construction sites - most notably the recent murder of Netanel Ararni in Petah Tikvah, which the Israeli authorities initially tried to cover up. 

Ashkelon is a city which has suffered appallingly from rocket attacks and terrorism. It is prudent for any elected official to take whatever measures are needed to protect their citizens, and that is what the Ashkelon Mayor was trying to do. It is a great shame that the Jerusalem Mayor does not likewise focus on protecting the citizens of his city - a job he is failing at miserably - instead of doing the job of the world's anti-Semitic bigots.

It is ironic that I just reported on the inspirational Centre for Jewish Learning event with Israeli hero Noam Gershony. As I reported there, Gershony had stepped in as a late replacement for Nir Barkat. The organisers promised that Barkat would speak at another of their events. They should rescind the invitation - or maybe just invite George Galloway instead if they want to push the Israel=Nazis narrative.

Update: Barkat's Jerusalem police are now blaming Jews for being attacked by Arabs. 

Iron Dome and Deja Vu

While the Iron Dome is proving a remarkably effective defensive shield, it is worth recalling the article below I wrote about it on 20 November 2012. Less than 2 years after that conflict everything is repeating itself (down to the detail of Obama trying to stop Israel getting the job done) with the only exception being that both the number, range and accuracy of rockets from Gaza has increased significantly. And that is why my criticism of the very rationale of the Iron Dome is even more valid today than it was then. The more Israel depends on purely defensive systems like this, the greater will be the frequency and scale of assaults from Gaza (and now also Lebanon). Oh and by the way if you want to see what the terms of the ceasefire will be this time then you do not need to wait because here is how I called it the last time.

Iron Dome: short-term benefit, long-term catastrophe (written 20 Nov 2012)

Israel's 'Iron Dome' system has performed remarkably well in intercepting about 30% of the 2000 rockets launched from Gaza in the last two weeks. But as a long-term 'deterrence' mechanism it is a total catastrophe for Israel. Apart from the incredible expense - and the fact that the number of rockets that still get through ensure that daily life is no less disrupted - putting your faith in a system like this is an acceptance of permanent cowering of an entire state to a bunch of terrorists.

No other country in the world would accept, even in principle, the concept of the Iron Dome as a long term defence/deterrent, because no other country in the world would accept a situation where it is subjected to continuous unprovoked rocket attacks from a bullying neighbour. Don't believe me? Then read the following from a commenter on Debbie Schlussel's blog this evening:

“Back in mid-June, during the great Paris weapons show, the Rafael pavilion was absolutely the busiest around, and everybody wanted to look at the new, exciting, Iron Dome system, the greatest achievement in rocket defense ever. But by the end of the show, Rafael hadn’t made a single sale. The Arrow sold well, other systems did great – Iron Dome wasn’t moving. So they contacted their big clients, the serious ones, and asked what gives. And those clients told them no one except Israel has any use for these things. Because in any normal, sane country, if some hooligans were to start targeting civilians with rockets – the army would go and kill them.”

The Obama administration is right now trying to force Israel to stop a ground invasion with the promise of an extra 250 million dollars to pay for more Irone Dome batteries. This is the ultimate indication that Obama believes Israel has to simply allow the Islamist bully to carry on doing what the Islamist bully does best while Israel has to pay for the privilege of only being struck by 140 rockets a day rather than 200. This is back to the mentality of living in a ghetto under the Nazis. Obama is going to 'allow' Israel to have a half-baked defensive capability but no offensive capability. That's like allowing your 'friend' to wear a gum shield to protect him from the school bully but not allowing him to wear boxing gloves.

"A society that is too moral to protect itself is immoral because it is incapable of protecting the sources of its morality"

Daniel Greenfield perfectly sums up Israel's current predicament. Weighed down by the burden of morality not shared by any of its multitude of enemies it is allowing those enemies to run riot without any serious attempt to stop it even in the short term. A non-stop barrage of rockets that is imprisoning over a million people in southern Israel in bunkers (and causing extensive damage) and attacks on Jews across country by gangs of Arab rioters and terrorists.

In taking the moral high ground of refusing to robustly defend the country, Netanhyahu appears to have given in to the demands of Obama, left-wing politicians and of course the ever threatening  judiciary system that is increasingly dominated by anti-Zionists. If he thinks this approach will result in less hostility to Israel and greater understanding of Israel's position he should try looking at the international news media today: it has completely ignored all the missiles and the violence against Jews and has focused its rage against Israel with the highly questionable story of an "Arab-American youngster beaten up by Israeli police".