The Western media must take a lot of the blame

The Western media's ignorance and misrepresentation of the current situation in Gaza was perfectly demonstrated by an appalling interview by Andrew Pierce on LBC last week of the Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor. My letter to LBC below is self-explanatory:

I wish to complain about the questioning by Andrew Pierce (on LBC on 29 Dec) of Ron Prosor the Israeli Ambassador. Mr Pierce sarcastically and repeatedly asked why so few Israelis had died if the attacks against them were as serious as the Israelis claimed ("come on Mr Ambassador just tell me how many dead Israelis are there from these so-called rockets").

Mr Pierce exhibited appalling ignorance, unprofessionalism and insensitivity. He seemed to be completely unaware of the years of rocket attacks and their seriousness (including the use of long-range Iranian Grad missiles). He had no conception that 800,000 Israelis were living under constant threat of rocket attacks, unable to be more than 15 seconds from a shelter, unable to work, shop, drive, or go to school. He was unaware that the reason for the relatively few fatalities was the infrastucture, warning system and use of shelters since Israelis (unlike Palestinians) take repsonsibility for their citizens. But what was especially unforgivable was that he was unaware of the particularly ferocious and significant barrage of rockets that rained down on Israel for several days prior to Israel's response. That new barrage included attacks against major cities (including Ashdod and Beersheba) which had previously been beyond range.

Perhaps if news stations like LBC had bothered ever to report the attacks against Israel, Mr Pierce and other listeners may have realised that these actions put Hamas beyond the pale, especially when their misfiring rockets also kill Palestinians such as on 26 Dec when a Hamas rockets killed two Palestinian children in Beit Lahiya.

In fact if News stations such as LBC had bothered to ever report on the daily rocket attacks against Israel over the last few years then I believe that the current Gaza crisis may never have happened since Hamas may have been made aware by the rest of the world that these actions were intolerable.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

The last bit is something I really believe. Although I am not naive to assume that the Hamas attacks - if reported properly - would have triggered the same kind of worldwide condemnation and UN action that greeted Israel's eventual defensive actions, I believe there would have been widespread revulsion of Hamas and even pressure on it, which could have led to its eventual demise.

Unfortunately, nobody in the West has ever been made aware of the suffering of the Israelis living under constant rocket attacks. It was painful having to explain to even intelligent Jewish pro-Israel friends after the Israeli response that Israel had just been subjected to days of intolerable attacks. Typical responses were "that cannot be true because there was nothing about it in the newspapers or on TV". And it is little surprise that idiotic presenters like Andrew Pierce behave in the way they do. Or why Palestinian spokespeople, such as Diana Buttu (who, note, is an advisor to the 'moderate' Fatah not Hamas) are now consistently - and without challenge on interviews like on CNN - making the claim that the Hamas rockets never carried any explosive charge.

So, you see, the 800,000 Israelis living under constant threat of rocket attacks are all either a figment of the imagination or need to realise that their worries about being harmed are totally irrational since the rockets fired at them are less harmful than a broken sparkler.

Anyway, some good pieces on the situation are here:

Alan Dershowitz's analysis of the legal aspects of Israel's actions

Melanie Philips on the moral case

Barry Rubin on the ground in Gaza

Michael Totten: Gaza and the Law of Armed Conflict

News of the World Article slanders Israel

I felt moved to write the following self-explanatory letter to the News of the World political writer Fraser Nelson. The article was about the child Afghan suicide bomber who killed three British marines. It was entitled "Who can spot an angel of death?". The article managed to incorporate two outrageous and totally irrelevant slurs against Israel. And what makes it so shocking in my view is that I am sure the writer had no idea that he was being offensive in any way.

****************************************************

Dear Mr Nelson

I enjoy your column in the News of the World every week, and hence am particularly disappointed that your normal journalistic standards could have been so completely compromised as they were in your article today about the child Afghan suicide bomber.

The problem in the article is that you have introduced two inappropriate, unnecessay and totally incorrect references to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. There have, of course, been many articles in the media that exhibit both ignorance and anti-Israel bias, but your two references to Israel reach an all-time low in my view (especially as I am sure your outlook is generally sympathetic to Israel). Specifically:

Point 1: You say "The Taliban use children like the Israeli army use robots. Seldom has a fighting force been so callous"

I can only assume that you had a mental blockage when you wrote this statement. First of all it seems to imply that the Israelis callously use robots to attack people in the way the Aghans do with suicide bombers. I can only assume that you have confused your facts here. The Israelis have, on a small number of occasions used robots to DISARM potential suicide bombers, as in the well known case of the 14-year-old Palestinian boy in March 2004:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E0DC1530F936A15750C0A9629C8B63

This use of robots is exactly the opposite of what is implied in your statement. The use of robots is explicitly to save lives including even that of the suicide bomber. Your statement is a kind of a blood libel, that requires an apology. Perhaps you were confusing Israel's use of robots with the American use of drones against the Taliban. That would surely have been a more relevant and appropriate comparison to make given that the article was about Afghanistan and not Israel.

Point 2: You say (about the Afghan suicide bombers): "These are not the serious, adult suicide bombers used by Palestinian terrorists against Israel". This statement is offensive and ignorant on two levels. First the statement is false because the Palestinians have not only used child suicide bombers extensively, but have indoctrinated an entire generation of children to believe that killing as many Jews as possible by becoming a suicide bomber is the greatest ambition they can achieve. In fact, compared to the Afgan child bomber (who apparently may not even have known that he was on a suicide mission) the Palestinian child bombers have begged to become suicide bombers as a result of their indoctrination. For information about this, and a catalogue of Palestinian child suicide bombers see:

http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/A-096-Child-Abuse-In-The-Palestinian-Authority.html

Secondly, the statement implies that Palestinian use of suicide bombers is somehow a legitimate and professional type of activity compared to the Afghans. Again you need to be reminded that, almost exclusively, Palestinian suicide bombings have been directed at civilian and not military targets. To even imply that these are morally superior somehow to the Afghan suicide attacks against the army is truly abhorrant.

I am extremely upset that you of all people have now joined the rest of our media writers in using any opportunity, no matter how inappropriate, to slander Israel.

Yours sincerely

Edgar Davidson

No memorial to massacred Israelis for fear of upsetting Muslims

What a surprise. It seems that 'Muslim experts hired by Scotland Yard' are lobbying to minimise or even stop any planned memorial at the London Olympics to the massacred Israeli athletes of 1972.

The story is here at the Times.

Two obvious questions:

1. Why would Muslims be offended at such a memorial?

2. Why are Scotland Yard hiring Islamfascists to peddle their usual garbage?

"Religon of Peace" maintains its peaceful image with Western media

If Israel kills Hamas terrorists in Gaza in the act of launching rockets the muslim world is outraged and the western media goes into overdrive to cover events and denounce the Jews. Yet Fatah muslims blowing up Hamas muslims in Gaza, even when a 4-year-old child is one of the victims, is not considered sufficiently important to merit a single word in most newspapers or even on the 24-hour news channels (Al-Jazeera, which devoted hours of coverage when an arrested Palestinian was shot in the foot with a plastic bullet by an Israeli soldier also somehow managed to avoid the events on Saturday). Today's Sunday Times weighs about three tons, but apparently they do not have enough room to say a single word about what happened in Gaza. Nor do they have a single word to say about the multiple bomb attacks by Islamists in India yesterday that killed dozens.

Today's terrorist attack in Jerusalem

Having close family members who were either nearby today's attack or were in the exact location shortly beforehand makes it somewhat personal. Hamas and all the other Palestinian groups, including Abbas's own Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have, as usual, glorified the attack - claiming it is a "natural action". So it is apparently perfectly natural to crush to death young women and babies. One of the young women could very easily have been my own daughter. And all this during a supposed ceasefire. And not in any 'occupied territory'.

So I got to thinking why such attacks continue and this is where I start to blame the western media and leftists. The fact is the attacks continue because few in the western media actually disagree with the Hamas notion that such acts are natural (Bradley Burston has written a fantastic article on this very point). On the contrary, the BBC and their ilk - if they report such stories at all (most news outlets in the UK totally ignored the story today as usual) - inevitably seek to justify such acts in ways that are not too dissimilar to the way Hamas does. What people in the West fail to realise is that the Palestinians - including even Hamas - are incredibly sensitive to 'Western opinion'. You only have to look at how they reacted when they received widespread condemnation over the kidnap of the BBC journalist Alan Johnson to realise this. Basically, as soon as they saw it was hurting their image Hamas released him. Simple as that.

But killing Israel civilians is ALWAYS justifiable in the eyes of the leftists in the West who dominate the mainstream media. So, no matter how heineous the terrorist attack, it will never be condemned - or even exposed - by that media. In fact, if news of terrorist attacks against Israelis is covered at all in the mainstream media it will normally be accompanied by more prominent material sympathetic to the Palestinians (often even focusing on the family of the terrorists themselves - conveniently ignoring all the rejoicing and candy-handouts that preceeded the BBC interviewers knock at the door).

Compare the reaction to today's terrorist attack with the accidental death of Rachel Corrie - an ISM activist dedicated to the destruction of Israel - when she deliberately ran into the path of an Israeli bulldozer in 2003. Don't hold your breath waiting for the kind of international condemnation (not to mention endless documentaries, plays, books and articles) that followed that death.

So if, as Bradley Burston implores, the leftists could for once bring themselves to condemn unconditionally this kind of attack, there is a very good chance it could have a real impact in avoiding future similar outrages. Their deafening silence means that THEY are part of the problem, and it is fair to put some of the blame for the deaths of these innocent young women on them.

A visit to Sderot

The media has almost totally ignored the appalling plight of the Israeli town of Sderot, which has been under constant bombardment by rockets from Hamas in Gaza. If mentioned at all the reference is likely to be dismissive and sneering - usually referring to 'home-made' (implying 'harmless') rockets. The letter here, from a young English girl visiting Sderot, gives a moving first hand-account of the impact of these 'harmless' rockets on everyday life.

How the story but not the news changed in Gaza

On Thursday 12 June an explosion flattened a house in Gaza belonging to one of Hamas's major military commanders, killing several people including a 4-month old girl. All the news agencies dutifully reported that "Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike" and the usual scenes of destruction and wailing people were broadcast with viewers left in no doubt that this was Israel's doing. The BBC, Sky and Al Jazeera carried the story prominently with the Hamas claims of Israel's responsibility. To emphasize their 'outrage', Hamas 'responded' with its most ferocious bombardment yet of Israel, some 50 rockets in the space of two hours.

But within less than 12 hours it was clear that Israel could not have been responsible for the explosion and even Reuters reported the following:

• GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas's military wing said on Friday an explosion that killed eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was an accident that occurred as militants prepared to carry out a bomb attack. Hamas initially blamed Thursday's explosion on an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military denied involvement. The blast flattened the two-storey house of Hamas bomb-maker Ahmed Hamouda in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, killing six Hamas fighters, a four-month-old girl and a civilian.

You would have thought that the real story in this case - Hamas' own explosion killing so many people, its deliberate misleading of the media and its diabolical rocket attacks on Israel as false retaliation - would have led to that same media giving it prominence. Wrong. Whereas the original false story implicating Israel was given prominence, the real story has been ignored totally on TV and radio in the UK. What about newspapers? No chance. Today's Times newspaper has only one small item about Israel and that is of course a negative one, highlighting US criticism of its home building programme in Jerusalem.

If you want an example that captures everything about the media's bias against Israel it is this saga. And here is something that you should also remember. When the next figures listing Palestinian casualties of Israeli 'agression' are trotted out you can be guaranteed these the people kille in the explosion wil be added to it.

Terrorist Incitement by George Galloway MP

I've just posted the following self-explanatory letter to the Prime Minister. If you can stomach it you should watch the video link in the letter to know what we are up against. And also note the reaction of our enlightened Jordanian 'friends'.

The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister

Terrorist Incitement by George Galloway MP

On 15 May 2008 George Galloway delivered a speech in Amman Jordan that was shown on Al-Jazeera TV. I have attached the transcript of the speech. The actual footage is available here:

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1773.htm

This speech includes a call for the violent destruction of the State of Israel, which is especially concerning since it was delivered in Jordan – one of only two Arab countries officially at peace with Israel. It also contains a number of instances of glorification of terrorism (as well as, curiously, the glorification of Saddam Hussein). While Galloway never mentions the word ‘Jew’ (instead referring to Israeli Jews as being either ‘occupiers’, ‘colonialists’, or simply ‘gunmen from Brooklyn, London, Paris, and Moscow’) the speech is deeply offensive to Jews at all levels.

On 16 March 2008 I wrote to the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith about a related subject (and have received no reply or even acknowledgement). I attach a copy of that letter. The point about that letter is that the Government of the UK has legislation to handle incitement to terrorism, but has badly misused it.

I would like to know whether you intend to use the legislation now against George Galloway.

How (not) to fight Islamic extremism

Melanie Philips reports today on various aspects of Government lunacy regarding pandering to the Islamists. One example is allowing the massive funding from Saudi Arabia of Islamic Studies departments in UK Universities, despite the overwhelming evidence that this always results in an obsessive and ferocious anti-Israel agenda (the example at Oxford University being one I know well).

Well, at least the money pouring in to Universities to fund Islamic extremism is mainly being provided by the (foreign) extremists themselves. Unfortunately we can't say the same about the initiative that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is set to announce according to the report here.

Basically, it appears that the Home Secretary's answer to the problems of Pakistani imams indoctrinating congregants in their mosques with Islamic extemism is to ... pay to import even more Pakistani imams. Here is what the article says:

This week the Home Secretary will step up the government's "Prevent" campaign—its battle against Islamic extremists who preach hate and indoctrinate potential jihadi recruits.

On Wednesday she will announce a new deal she struck with the Pakistani government on a visit last week. It will allow respected moderate Islamic clerics to be brought over from Pakistan to help British imams combat extremism in the Islamic communities.

Mrs Smith explained: "The vast majority of British Muslims have a Pakistani heritage. If we work with the government there we can win the arguments.

"We need to do more to tackle those places where radicalisation is developing—in prisons, schools, higher education—so that people are getting the right messages about what it means to be a British Muslim."

Remember that when they talk about "respected moderate Islamic clerics" the most celebrated such 'moderate' is none other than our old friend al-Qaradawi - the anti-semitic, homophobic, misogynist who issued the fatwa permitting the murder of Israeli children and who not only encouraged Muslim women to become suicide bombers, but also allowed them to disguise themselves in Western clothes to do so.

Oh, and of course, I still have not received any response from Jaqui Smith to my letter asking why she allowed in Islamic terrorist supporters but banned Israeli members of Parliament under the new anti-terrorism legislation.

UK Government hypocrisy over who it allows in

I've posted the following self-explanatory letter to the Home Secretary:


Jacqui Smith MP
The Secretary of State for the Home Department
Home Office
Direct Communications Unit
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

16 March 2008

Dear Ms Smith,

Excluding the wrong people from the UK

When the government introduced its legislation (following the Islamist terrorist bombings of London) to bar from the UK anybody responsible for fomenting or justifying terrorist violence, most sensible people assumed that the target of this ban would be the many Islamic fundamentalists who preach hatred of the West, work for the destruction of the State of Israel, and glorify suicide bombings.

But in fact it turns out that you have used the legislation to ban the very victims of terrorist incitement rather than those doing the incitement. I refer to your banning of an Israeli politician (Moshe Feiglin) who had not even applied to enter the UK, at the same time as Islamic fundamentalists are allowed in to preach their hatred and justify terrorism. In case you are not aware of it, the Israelis have been and continue to be the number one victims of Islamic terrorism, so the irony here is somewhat tragic.

In fact in the same week that you made your bizarre unilateral decision to exclude Mr Feiglin a spokesman (Ibrahim Mousawi) for the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah was allowed in to the UK for a speaking tour. This is the organisation whose leader has vowed to kill every Jew in the world. Perhaps you can explain how Ibrahim Mousawi’s entry into the UK (even Ireland had banned him) was likely to do anything other than foment and justify terrorist violence?

But it certainly does not stop with Ibrahim Mousawi. The UK hosts many notorious Islamists who foment and justify terrorist violence in the furtherance of world-wide Islamic domination. I understand, for example, that the UK has hosted many visits by Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, vice president of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a Dublin-based organisation of Muslim Brotherhood clerics. He issued a fatwa that legitimises and encourages the killing of any and all civilians in Israel. Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi's teachings go well beyond those of Feiglin. Moreover, he is a cleric who, unlike Feiglin, is specifically targeting his rulings at Muslims living in Europe. The argument for banning him, and every other member of the European Council of Fatwa and Research is surely compelling.

Then we have Abd al-Bari Atwan, the editor of the London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi. I note, for example, in his lead article last Sunday, he glorified the terrorist killing of eight teenage students in Israel, and said the celebrations in Gaza that followed symbolized the "courage of the Palestinian nation." He added that the recent violence in Gaza might "mark the countdown to Israel's destruction." Atwan has already been banned from Australia as a result of his declaration, last year, on Lebanese TV that "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.” I trust, therefore that you will never give him the opportunity to go to Trafalgar Square again by deporting him.

Yours

BBC's Jeremy Bowen - beyond the pale

Following on from my complaint to LBC this morning I have now sent one to the BBC:

The BBC's anti-Israel bias in the reporting of the massacre of young Israeli students is simply beyond the pale. In particular I refer to the following quote in the article which comes under the bizarre subheading "Settler stronghold"

"The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says that the school was no ordinary seminary. It was the ideological cradle of the settler movement in the West Bank, which could be the reason it was targeted."

This statement by Bowen is not only inflamatory and irrelevant, but is completely nonsensical. Has Bowen looked at a map of Jerusalem to see where the seminary is? It is in West Jerusalem in an area that was never part of the "occupied territories" and with no connection to "settlers" or the "West Bank". According to Bowen's twisted logic any Israeli is a valid target for massacre.
I expect to see a full apology for this appalling rubbish.

How LBC reported the massacre in Jerusalem

This is how LBC Radio this morning presented the news of the
massacre of Jewish students by a Palestinian terrorist.

“8 people have been killed in a religious school in Jerusalem when a gunman opened fire. It came days after Israel fired rockets into Gaza.”

In a later broadcast the newsreader added the comment

“It was the first militant attack in Jerusalem for 4 years.”

I have made a complaint to LBC about their reporting. Here is what I said to them:

If you knew little of the details of the Israel Palestine Situation (like 99% of the public) you would have assumed from the report that the 8 dead were probably Palestinians and that they were killed as a direct result of some rocket attack by the Israelis. For those who found out from other sources that the dead were Jews and the killer was a Palestinian terrorist then the later broadcast would have assured them that this kind of thing has not happened for a long time.

As a news channel LBC ought to report the news in a clear and understandable way, not in a way that is deliberately misleading and biased. LBC also ought to be aware that it is the Palestinians who have been firing rockets into Israel not the other way round as stated. In fact over 8,000 have been fired against civilian targets in southern Israel since Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005. Of course, LBC has never once reported on these attacks, nor on the suffering in Israeli cities like Sderot that are attacked every single day. Nor of course did it report on last night’s scenes of wild celebrations by thousands of Palestinians when they heard of the massacre in Jerusalem. And of course they did not report on the Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declaring it as a ‘heroic attack’.

What LBC has reported of course many times are the previous Israeli responses to rocket attacks. Israel’s responses have, in the main, been pinpointed and accurate strikes against the rocket crews and other terrorists. By focusing only on Israeli responses to Palestinian terrorism rather than on the terrorism itself, LBC in common with other news media are becoming part of the problem. The terrorists are comforted to know that their actions will never be properly condemned and that instead the condemnation is reserved for the very victims of their terrorism. This in turn encourages more terrorism.

And as for the comment about this being the first ‘militant’ attack in Jerusalem for 4 years, this is complete nonsense. As recently as 25 Jan 2008 a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem result in Israeli killed and six injured in Jerusalem. There were also deadly attacks in Jerusalem on 6 Nov 2006, 8 Oct 2006 and 25 Aug 2005. Moreover, during this period Israeli security forces have stopped dozens of major attacks in Jerusalem.


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I received the following response (very fast I must say):



----- Original Message ----
From: LBC Complaints LBC Complaints
To: Davidson Edgar
Sent: Friday, 7 March, 2008 5:20:02 PM
Subject: Re: Write Your Complaint or Feedback Here ENTRY

Dear Mr Edgar

I'm sorry you were unhappy with our news coverage. We always strive to be fair and balanced, obviously you feel we failed in this case. It's a shame you also didn't hear James O'Brien this morning between 10 and 1 who presented an excellent hour on the conflict in which both sides put across constructive words about the terrible situation with the aim of discovering if there could be a solution. I found that debate refreshing because it offered hope.

Kind regards,



Jonathan Richards
Programme Director
LBC 97.3

***********************************************************************

And here is my follow-up reply:


Jonathan

Thanks for replying.

I did not hear the James O'Brien show, but even if I had that hardly excuses the appallingly misleading, inaccurate and blatantly anti-Israel presentation of your main morning news (which I assume is the part of the programme the vast majority of your listeners would have heard). There is no doubt that whoever was responsible for the text provided to your newsreaders this morning spent considerable time massaging the words to ensure that listeners were not aware that:

a) the victims were Jews
b) the attacker was a Muslim Arab terrorist
c) the attack took place inside Israel
d) the attack was supported (and indeed later claimed) by the Hamas government of Gaza
e) the attack sparked scenes of wild celebration by many thousands of Palestinians.

All of these facts are crucial to the story and all were provided by other news agencies as long as 10 hours earlier (even the notoriously anti-Israel BBC managed to give relevant information). Yet somebody at LBC made the very deliberate and conscious decision not only to doctor the story, but to introduce the false and irrelevant point about Israel firing rockets into Gaza. In other words somebody at LBC has a very clear and spiteful anti-Israel agenda and I find that unacceptable.

Edgar Davidson

Anti-semitism in the UK

Today's Sun contains a chilling story about Chelsea's Israeli manager Avram Grant receiving anti-semitic death threats from Chelsea fans. The article says:

One package was found to contain white powder and a chilling note warning it was lethal.
The ground was sealed off and staff put in isolation as experts tested the powder.
Special Branch were then called in after cops read the sickening antisemitic threats against Israeli Grant, 52, and his TV star wife Tzofit, 43.
One note read: “You are a back-stabbing Jewish b*****d.
“When you open this letter you will die a very slow and painful death.”
A second message made twisted sexual threats against his wife Tzofit, adding: “Then she will die.”
Dad-of-two Grant was subjected to racist abuse after replacing Jose Mourinho as manager last September.
Many fans thought Grant – a close pal of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich – was to blame for Mourinho’s axeing.

I checked the BBC News and Sport, Sky News and Sport, BBC teletext news and Sport and ITV teletext news and sport. None of them made any mention at all of this news item. I also looked at Google News UK and Yahoo News UK. Not a mention. [Update: some later news bulletins did mention the story briefly]. Can you imagine the outrcy if anti-Islamic death threats had been made against such a public Muslim figure. There is no doubt it would have been the lead story on the BBC News. But hey, it's only a Jew so it doesn't matter.

New spate of terrorist attacks the direct result of Western apologists

I was thinking about the conclusions that could be drawn from the following brief news item from Israel tonight (and like most attacks against Israelis it will not be reported on any mainstream British News outlet):

**************************************************************************
Two Palestinian terrorist attacks near Jerusalem leave one Israeli dead, six Israelis injured

Thursday night, Jan. 24. Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli border checkpoint near Shuafat on the old road to Pisgat Zeev, Jerusalem. One border guard was killed, and his female partner left in serious condition from shots in the chest. The two gunmen escaped before Israeli forces arrived on the scene and set up a manhunt.
At Gush Etzion, southeast of Jerusalem, two Palestinian gunmen clad in Israeli uniforms burst into the Makor Haim yeshiva (school). Wielding guns and knives, they injured three Israelis, one seriously. In a shoot-out in one of the buildings, the two gunmen were shot dead.
*******************************************************************************

What conclusions can be drawn from this news? Recently my MP quoted body counts as the ultimate 'proof' of Israeli brutality and responsibility for 'the cycle of violence'. More Palestinians are killed than Israelis, so ispo facto the Israelis are the guilty party. In tonight's attacks only one Israeli dead (known so far), but two Palestinians dead. So Palestinian dead outnumber Israeli dead by two to one. The Israelis are therefore twice as brutal as the Palestinians. Do you think my MP might start to see the problem with his logic? Don't hold your breath.

Also, according to that MP's logic the only reason for Palestinian terrorism are the roadblocks and checkpoints which prevent their freedom of movement. Therefore the Israelis should lift all the checkpoints and everyone will live happily ever after. But the problem with that logic is that it is ONLY the roadblocks and checkpoints that are preventing massacres against Israeli citizens every hour of every day.

In truth the Palestinians have become emboldened in their terrorist actions precisely because of apologists like my MP and the media in the West. It is the same reason why they bombard Israeli cities from Gaza with total impunity because the media turns a blind eye to it and expects the Israelis to grin and bear it. In the rare cases where Palestinian terrorism is reported in our media the apologists do not issue unequivocal condemnation, but rather seek to 'explain' and 'justify'.

Despite what the apologists for Palestinian terrorists want to think, the basic problem is not Israeli 'occupation' (the dispute and Palestinian terrorism existed long before 1967), it is not the Israeli response to Palestinian terrorism and its attempts to quell it, it is not even the Palestinian violence itself. The basic problem is the complete refusal of the Palestinians to recognize the right of the Jews to have a Jewish State in any part part of the Jew's historic homeland. And because of apologists like my MP they will continue to kill Jews because they will never be be aware that it is simply WRONG to do so.

Reflections on the Gaza situation

Naomi Ragen captured the bitter irony of the Gaza situation very well

Picture this: the electric plant which supplies 70% of electricity to the Palestinians in Gaza is in Ashkelon. The Palestinians in Gaza have been shooting kassam rockets at the
plant ever since the "disengagement" i.e. the abandonment of Gush Katif. Now, Palestinians are crying that they don't have enough electricity. They are complaining about Israeli sanctions against them. They are going to the U.N.

The truth is, Israel has not stopped supplying electricity to Gaza. Not only that, but Israeli electric company employees are risking their lives to do so.

Mickey Tsarfati, head of the union of electrical workers, said: "It is unbelievable chutzpah for them to complain. We have not stopped supplying them with electricity for a minute. And they have not stopped logging bombs at us for a minute." Many of the workers who fix the lines to Gaza daily are residents of Sderot. It has happened more than once that bombs fell next to their homes as they were fixing the lines to supply electricity to the bombers.

Now the U.N. and the Quartet, and the Arab League are all getting demands to stop Israeli "sanctions" against the Gazans....

You tell me what other country would be supplying electricity to people who are bombing their children on a daily basis, and risking their lives to do so.

The situation is indeed unprecedented in the history of the world. One country A under brutal, unprovoked and continual attack from a neighbouring country B whose government is committed to killing or expelling every citizen of A. Yet A is not allowed to defend itself, and also has to supply its enemy B with the means for their further continued attacks. And the whole world has sympathy only with country B.

Even if you try to think of analogous situations in history it is impossible to come up with anything as far fetched. The closest I could think of was 1940 Britain: No longer with any forces on mainland Europe. No active allies. All alone against the Nazis who occupy the whole of Western Europe including France next door from where they threaten to invade. Night after night German bombers blitz London. Now imagine that, when the RAF sent up its brave pilots to confront the Nazi planes, there was an outcry from the rest of the world about Britain using disproportionate force and about it 'creating a cycle of violence'. Even this analogy does little justice ot Israel's comparative plight. For a start, unlike Britain, Israel is completely surrounded by deadly enemies, so for the analogy to work you would have to imagine that Ireland, Scotland and Wales were in the hands of the Nazis. And you would also have to imagine that there was no British Channel separating Britain from France. Moreover, it would have had to be the case that Britain supplied the fuel for the Nazi warplanes and that the rest of the world condemned Britain when it threatened to withhold that fuel from the Nazis. And you would also have to imagine that the rest of the world (including countries like the USA, Canada, and Australia) were openly rooting for the Nazis even though they were not involved in the fighting.

But the worst shame about where the analogy breaks down is that Israel has no Churchill to lead them. Someone who, above all else knows that there can never be any compromise with the Nazis.

BBC now even attributes Hamas murders to Israel

Today Hamas claimed responsibility for the killing of a foreign volunteer in a western Negev kibbutz. The Jerusalem Post reports that 20-year-old Carlos Andres Muscara Chavez from Quito, Ecuador, was working in a potato field in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, when he was shot by a Palestinian sniper.

But if you read the BBC report about this murder of an innocent civilian, you will be led to believe that it was the Israelis who killed him. In the report here the headline says "Israeli Gaza City raid kills 16" and the first paragraph reports:

• "At least 16 Palestinians, including at least 13 militants, have died in an Israeli raid in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, reports say. Medical sources and witnesses said the deaths came after Israeli tanks pushed into eastern suburbs of Gaza City. A farm worker in southern Israel was also killed by sniper fire from Gaza. "

Since the report only refers to the "Israeli raid" (and of course says nothing about the barrage of rockets into Israel that preceded the raid and which injured a woman and 7-year-old child) the implication is that the sniper must have been Israeli. In common with BBC reporting on Israel, as analysed by Honest Reporting, today's story again uses explict headlines involving "Israelis kill Palestinians" but when Palestinians kill Israelis the prepetrators (and often even the victims) are never mentioned explicitly. The BBC today have managed to provide both examples of the bias identified by Honest Reporting in the same story.

Our Palestinian friends

I found this image (of a Palestinian 'infomer' being mutilated after a public execution by Islamic Jihad) on the Winds of Jihad website, and further references to it on Atlas Shrugs. Both sites refer to an Islamic website that boasts the picture and proudly proclaims

"This is a picture of a Palestinian mother stepping on the corpse of her son who betrayed the Muslims by helping the Israelis. If all mothers were like this, Our lands would be liberated in no time."

However, I do NOT believe the woman is the mother. After some digging it appears the woman is the mother of an Islamic Jihad member and she was invited to crush the head of the executed man. What is certain is that this took place with hundreds of people watching in Jenin (which is of course under the control of our friends the Palestinian Authority) in 2006. More information about it can be found in this video (the video lasts about 5 minutes and the relevant bit is near the end, but you should watch the whole video anyway). Please note that because the video shows graphic evidence of Muslim violence it is likely to be removed by YouTube at any time (the Islamists are well organised in complaining in numbers to YouTube to get any video they do not like removed and YouTube, who are happy to host the most vicious anti-semitic and pro-Jihadist videos, usually succumb to their demands).

Fun and games at terrorist's funeral

Interesting story from Gaza today (also reported here). Note that the terrorist whose funeral it was belonged to Abbas's Fatah movement. These are the people who Israel is negotiating peace with while they fire rockets into Israel. And I was especially intrigued by the joyful chap who accidentally blew up the bomb he had around his waist while he was singing songs on top of a car. I mean doesn't everybody wear a bomb around their waist at a funeral?

Just checked to see if the BBC had this story on their teletext service. What a surprise - not a whisper about it. Yet they are running a story about the Red Cross making an unprecedented complaint about how Israel is making life unbearable for the Palestinians.

Does this make you want to vote Tory?

An item on the LGF website about the Conservative Muslim Forum should be compulsory reading for anybody contemplating voting for Cameron's Tories in the next election. In a nutshell these 'enlightened' Muslims are advising the Tories to ditch any support for Israel and to support a nuclear Iran. While there are plenty of ferociously anti-Israel MPs in Labour's ranks there is no doubt that if, push comes to shove, Gordon Brown's instincts will always be to support Israel. Anybody who thinks the same is true of the slimy Cameron is deluding themselves. For one thing, he simply does not understand anything about the Middle East and Israel's situation. Moreover, his Foreign Secretary-in-waiting, William "Israel must be condemned for using disproportionate force against Hezbollah" Hague has nailed his colours firmly to the "appease fundamentalist Islam" mast. Setting up a Muslim forum, which peddles the usual fundamentalist Islamic message, to advise him is even more deeply worrying.

Also worth reading the report on Harry's Place about who is really behind the "Islam is Peace" campaign going on at the moment ad nausea. No suprise to me that it's the same old fundamentalists behind this. The first time I heard a spokesman talk about this campaign they came out with the same "if only the government did not support Israel there would be no problems blah blah". Yeah, just like Israel was the root cause of the massacre of 130 Muslims by other Mulsims in Pakistan yesterday. Where is the Muslim outrage about that?

Islamafascists walk through centre of London demanding Israel's destruction

A demonstration of about 400 Islamafascists - organised by the Iranian Government sponsored "Islamic Human Rights Commission" marched through central London today calling for death to Israel. Waving banners of Ayatolla Khomeini and Hezbollah flags, the Islamafascists were 'celebrating' Al Quds Day, which was introduced by Khomeini as an annual day where all Muslims demand the 'liberation of Jerusalem' and the destruction of Israel. The Islamafascists were joined by the inevitable group of Neturei Karta 'Jews' and a small handful of useful idiots from the far left (who would be sure to be among the first to be exterminated under an Islamic regime).

We joined a counter-demonstration at Eros (Piccadilly Circus) that consisted mainly of Iranian dissidents opposed to the Islamic regime. The march was supposed to come past Eros at 12.00 but was delayed. A couple of us decided to take a walk down Piccadilly to see what was going on. We eventually came to the start of the march just past Green Park station. What amazed me was that, on what should have been a lovely Sunday afternoon for London's tourists and shoppers alike to enjoy the centre of town, the police not only allowed this demonstration but actually closed the whole of Piccadilly and the streets around it for what turned out to be several hours. Anyway, when we got to the demonstrators we held up some Israeli flags; the police told us to put them away (although, to be fair, they did tell us that there was a counter-demonstration we could join). But it is a bit ironic that the Islamafascists are allowed to carry Hizbollah flags and placards inciting terrorism (all funded by a regime that is killing British soldiers in Iraq) but the police would not allow an Israeli flag to be held up for 'fear of inciting them'. I cannot begin to describe how disgusting were the scumbags on this march. Their contempt for Western values and hatred of Israel, was accompanied with a barrage of vicious anti-semitic abuse. Make no mistake this lot (despite the Neturai Karta idiots walking alongside them) were openly calling for death to Jews (not just Israel). They chanted "Kill, kill kill the Jews at us when they saw us with the Israeli flags.

We decided to return to the counter-demo at Eros. Although the Islamafascist demo was organised by an Iranian funded organisation, its sole message was anti-Israel, so it was a bit disappointing that the only other counter-demonstrators there were those who wanted to get across their anti-Iranian government message (and nothing else). If ever there was a cause for the entire Jewish community to be out in force it was this one. In many respects what happened today characterised everything that is wrong with the Western approach to Islamafascism:

1. The fact that, presumably in the 'interests of free speech', the authorities allowed this disgusting hate-fest to take place. We the taxpayers had to pay for its policing, and thousands of ordinary Londoners and tourists were massively inconvienced by the disruption.
2. That the authorities seem to think that the freedom to call for the death of millions of non-muslims is important; and that the offence that this causes in the streets of London is irrelevant. After all it's the Muslims' 'right' to incite hatred - but nobody has the right to even slightly upset Muslims.
3. The fact that these people were simply allowed to walk through our streets spewing their hatred totally unchallenged. The thousands of non-political passers-by presumably think it is normal for people to be demanding the destruction of Israel. It is just another part of the process of deligitimisation of Israel.
4. The fact that a march like this (focusing uniquely on the destruction of Israel) can take place with a total absence of any organised Jewish opposition. Nothing from the Zionist Federation; nothing from any of the Youth Groups or students; not even a mention in the Jewish Chronicle that it was happening.

Update: another report at Harry's Place and a couple of videos here.