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Israel

"The LORD said unto Abram, ... 'I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee ...
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed
'"
(Genesis 12:1-3)

"Thus saith the LORD God of Israel ... 'The LORD liveth, ... which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country,
and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land
'"
(Jeremiah 23:2,8)

"Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:1-4)
 

Operation Protective Edge
(July-August 2014)

Articles and Videos


Israel: Index of Articles   |   Israel: Quotations and Miscellaneous Information   |   Israel: Books and Websites

 

 

 

For up-to-date daily information on Operation Protective Edge please see here, here, here, here, and here

 

Today in Israel  (02 September 2014)

 

"Today, no rockets hit my country, no mortars were shot at my land. No buses exploded; no restaurant was bombed. No one was murdered simply for being an Israeli, a Jew..."

 

There Should Be Quiet  (01 September 2014)

 

"After a summer that wasn't, Israel's children - over 2 million strong, including over 150,000 starting first grade, returned to school today..."

 

The Unfinished War  (01 September 2014)

 

"The war with Hamas is not over. What we are experiencing is a temporary cease-fire. The most basic reason the war is not over is because Hamas has no existence outside its war against the Jewish state. Hamas exists to obliterate Israel..."

 

Hamas Was Defeated, Until Next Time  (01 September 2014)

 

"Hamas was clearly defeated, but was not destroyed. Israel was successful in significantly degrading the military capabilities of Hamas and forced it to accept the Egyptian-Israeli ceasefire unconditionally..."

 

No, It's Not Speculation  (01 September 2014)

 

"Coverage of Israel is a total disgrace. ... Almost every single news agency should fire all its 'journalists'..."

 

Hamas Condemned For Stealing Majority of Humanitarian Aid During Recent Gaza War to Sell on Black Market  (31 August 2014)


"During the recent conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror network of Gaza a huge amount of damage was caused and a large loss of life suffered as a result of the war. But fighting a war against the likes of Hamas, an organisation similar in ideology to ISIS, isn't simple ... As the dust settles and the damage is assessed numerous interesting facts are coming to light showing just what a formidable and morally corrupt enemy Hamas is for the Jewish State..."

 

Drawing Red Lines for Israeli Doctors  (31 August 2014)

 

"Israeli doctors have been working incredibly hard over the last 50+ days - in addition to the regular work they have, hundreds of additional patients, mostly soldiers, were brought in for treatment. More, the number of traffic accidents, a sign of the stress within Israeli society in general, have increased significantly over the weeks of the war. Plus, regularly, they are called upon to treat non-Israelis - Syrians who are injured and brought to the field hospital we have set up; Palestinians who know the treatment they get in Israel far exceeds anything they'll get in any Palestinian/Arab hospital pretty much anywhere in the Arab world, certainly in Gaza..."

 

Another Fake Palestinian Sniper Video  (31 August 2014)

 

"Nader Mohammed Edriss was shot during protests in the Bab al-Zawiya neighborhood of Hebron on August 8, 2014, and he died in the hospital at around 1:30 a.m. on August 9.  Every news outlet that reported Edriss's death said that he was shot in the heart by an Israeli sniper..."

 

How to Expose Pallywood  (30 August 2014)

 

"The Internet allows propaganda to spread across the entire world within hours if not minutes, and Hamas and its sympathisers are trying to exploit this to demonise Israel. The Islamist [sic]  habit of lying (taqqiya), however, means they tell lies that are easily exposed, which should destroy their credibility..."

 

Max Blumenthal Exposes Palestinian Propaganda, Part Two  (30 August 2014)

 

"...And then poor Max lets the cat out of the bag and confirms the fraudulence of the most widely reported 'atrocity story' to come out of Operation Protective Edge..."

 

Max Blumenthal Debunks Palestinian Propaganda, Part One  (30 August 2014)

 

"Today I went looking for evidence of a theory I have about the Battle of Shijaiyah (July 20-23, 2014), and why there's so little fragmentation damage..."

 

Back to Normal  (29 August 2014)

 

"All over Israel, things are settling back to normal. I've spent much of the last 50 days writing about the military aspects of the conflict and how they impacted on daily life around Israel..."

 

Day 50 - Are We There Yet?  (28 August 2014)

 

"Yesterday was Day 50 of Operation Protective Edge and in the end, the day ended in a ceasefire that is supposed to last for 30 days, during which the sides are supposed to talk and get to some long range agreement..."

 

The Lie That Israel Used Too Much Artillery in Gaza  (28 August 2014)

 

"Yesterday Al Jazeera published a piece by Mark Perry titled 'Why Israel's Bombardment of Gaza Neighborhood Left US officers 'Stunned'."  It's a dishonest hit piece that can be debunked with one sentence, but I'll write a lot more..."

 

How to Assure Another Gaza War in Two Years: A 12-Step Program  (28 August 2014)

 

"Now that the cease-fire seems to be holding, the international community is doing everything in its power to make sure that once Hamas regroups and rearms, it will once again attack Israel with better rockets, deeper tunnels and more effective use of human shields..."

 

Media Are Hamas's Main Strategic Weapons  (28 August 2014)

 

"Western news organizations have failed to see and understand Hamas's media strategy as part of a long global jihad war, argued historian Dr. Richard Landes. ... [He] said that 'global jihad is waging a cognitive war against the West because they cannot win on the battlefield'..."

 

Who Supports UNRWA and Why  (28 August 2014)

 

"Following the tragic loss of life at a UNRWA school in Rafah that resulted from an IAF attack on a Hamas rocket position nearby, Israel was condemned. US, UN and UNRWA officials complained that the air force knew, or should have known, that 3,000 people were sheltered at the facility. No one asked why UNRWA was sheltering people in an area from which Hamas was firing rockets..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (27 August 2014)

 

"Yesterday, on August 26th, a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect at 19:00 after 50 days of fighting. Prior to the 19:00 deadline, Hamas shot a massive volley of mortars and rockets across southern Israel. Two Israelis were killed and several more injured by a mortar attack. On August 26th, 217 trucks were scheduled to cross into Gaza. However, due to the security situation and Hamas rockets, only 75 trucks arrived at Kerem Shalom. On August 26th, 75 trucks carrying 1,692 tons of goods and aid entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 54 trucks carrying 1,020 tons of food; 2 trucks carrying 30 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 51  (27 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Ceasefire Brings an End to Gaza Conflict  (27 August 2014)

 

"After 50 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas, an open-ended ceasefire went into effect Tuesday night at 7pm, all but ending Operation Protective Edge. ... As in past rounds of this summer's conflict, scenes of rejoicing and celebratory gunfire on the streets of Gaza instantly filled TV screens in Israel, where a feeling of confusion about what the fighting accomplished remained..."

 

VIDEO:  Gaza Kids Hope Hamas Rockets Land in America  (27 August 2014)

 

"This is what turning over a whole population in Gaza to Hamas and its UNRWA schools (which are run by Hamas) has done..."

 

When You Support the 'Palestinian Cause'  (27 August 2014)

 

"It's fashionable to be anti-Israel. Many even believe that it's important to be anti-Israel. How else can you advocate for justice?

 

Embracing the Obvious Truth  (27 August 2014)

 

"It isn't hard to understand the truth about Israel and Hamas. ... The moral and ideological divide between [them] is so self-evident that the only way to ignore it is by embracing and cultivating ignorance..."

 

Hamas's Useful Idiots  (27 August 2014)

 

"Images coming out of Gaza should horrify any viewer with a grain of humanity. decent people around the world have been moved to help relieve the suffering. For many, outrage against Israeli policy has seemed a reasonable way of expressing support for Gazans. ... But if one really hopes to alleviate Palestinian suffering, this outrage bears serious scrutiny. It may have exactly the opposite effect..."

 

Selective PSC Outrage Over BBC Impartiality and Integrity  (27 August 2014)

 

"The Palestine Solidarity Campaign needs no introduction and neither does its recently accelerated campaign to try to persuade the British public that the BBC suffers from pro-Israeli bias..."

 

Sold Out  (27 August 2014)

 

"Two events that seem eminently pointless and one sided discussing BBC bias but only its 'pro-Israeli' bias... all the speakers being the 'usual suspects'..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (26 August 2014)

 

"On August 25th, 274 trucks were scheduled to cross into Gaza. However, due to the security situation and Hamas rockets, only 203 trucks arrived at Kerem Shalom. Despite the constant and indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, the Kerem Shalom crossing remained open, providing food and essential supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip. On August 25 203 trucks carrying 3,706 tons of goods and aid entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 111 trucks carrying 2,190 tons of food; 3 trucks carrying 8 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

Wise Tactical Choices in Gaza  (26 August 2014)

 

"Over the past few weeks, some have argued that Israel should have launched Operation Protective Edge sooner, and that it should have taken the initiative before Hamas' tunnels became an actual threat..."

 

An Insider's Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth  (26 August 2014)

 

"A former Associated Press correspondent explains how and why reporters get Israel so wrong, and why it matters: The lasting importance of this summer's war, I believe, doesn't lie in the war itself. It lies instead in the way the wart has been described and responded to abroad, and the way this has laid bare the resurgence of an old, twisted pattern of thought and its migration from the margins to the mainstream of Western discourse..."

 

The Historic Defeat of Hamas  (26 August 2014)

 

"People lie and say stupid things because they're corrupt, they're dishonest, they're idiots, or they want desperately to be liked by the in-crowd. The biggest in-crowd of all time is those who hate Jews..."

 

Intelligence Report: Terrorists Killed by IDF Listed as Child Casualties  (26 August 2014)

 

"An Israeli military intelligence report reveals that terrorists killed by the IDF in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge were subsequently given fake identities to disguise the fact that they were armed grown men..."

 

The Sound of Scared  (26 August 2014)

 

"This morning as I was driving to Tel Aviv - early because I prefer to beat the traffic, the 6:00 a.m. report said that there had been no rocket fire from Gaza since 9:00 p.m. You're tempting fate, I thought to myself. And sure enough, a short while later - sirens in Ashkelon. A few minutes later - Rishon L'Zion..."

 

STOP - They Are Bombing My People  (26 August 2014)

 

"Surreal... just surreal. I'm sitting in a meeting and as we go around the table speaking of tasks and accomplishments over the last two weeks of work at this hi-tech company - in the last 30 minutes, the screen constantly goes red on the small window on the side of my laptop. Again and again. 'They are bombing my people,' I want to scream..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (25 August 2014)

 

"Yesterday Hamas launched a mortar shell directly at the Erez Crossing from the Gaza Strip seriously injuring two humanitarian workers at the Erez crossing. Following the mortar attack on Erez, the crossing closed down, with the exception of border passages for life-saving humanitarian reasons. By this incident Hamas continues to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching the civil population in the Gaza. Despite the constant and indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, the Kerem Shalom crossing remained open, providing food and essential supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip. On August 24 199 trucks carrying 3,842 tons of goods and aid entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 114 trucks carrying 2,236 tons of food; 4 trucks carrying 33 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

Caught: Hamas Reports Terrorist's Death as Civilian Casualty  (25 August 2014)

 

"Media outlets have relied on Hamas' statistics when reporting casualties in Gaza, but the terrorist group routinely exaggerates civilian deaths for propaganda purposes..."

 

Letter From an IDF Soldier in Gaza  (25 August 2014)

 

"I've wanted to write this since I left Gaza. Since I came out of Gaza I have stopped reading the international news., Some say we act disproportionately and with disregard for Gazan civilian life, and some outright say we are monsters and commit genocide. I want to explain the IDF as I know it..."

 

Anatomy of a Media Fraud in Gaza  (25 August 2014)

 

"At 12.30 a.m., August 25, 2014, the IDF bombed the 'Italian Compound', a residential building in the Nasser neighborhood of Gaza City. All sorts of lies are being reported about it. I'll show you the anatomy of a media fraud. Also, here's a message to Israelis:..."

 

What Are Inert Bombs?  (25 August 2014)

 

"Inert bombs are aerial munitions filled with wet sand or cement. They're also called 'dumb bombs'. Though they were originally designed for training, air forces began using them during wartime in order to reduce collateral damage..."

 

How Homemade Is This Rocket?  (25 August 2014)

 

"One laughable claim that Palestinians and their misguided supporters like to lob at Israel is that the rockets and mortars they fire at us - Like the one that killed little Daniel Tragerman two days ago, were 'homemade'..."

 

Day 48 - How Is This Possible?  (25 August 2014)

 

"I can't work. I can't think. I am bombarded by messages of hate and though on the outside I try not to show that they get to me, deep down they do. Not because I doubt, even for a second what Israel is doing, and why, but because hate is such an overpowering emotion. It is ugly and ignorant; it is irrational and loud..."

 

Listen - He Speaks Truth  (25 August 2014)

 

"A young soldier speaks of his experience in Gaza. He's not a trained spokesman; not a propagandist. He's simply one soldier who was called to fight and did what he had to do. You'd have to be blind to think he's not sincere - both in his determination to do what he is required to do to protect Israel and in his attempt to avoid harming innocents in Gaza while doing it. ... Listen to this soldier ... He is telling you the truth - and if you are too blind to see it, the fault lies with you and not with him."

 

More Sirens Than I Can Count  (25 August 2014)

 

"Somewhere in Israel, there is someone responsible for counting how many rockets Hamas fired at us today, this week, this month, this year and all of the 15 or so years or more that it has been firing at us. I don't know how many fell. I only know that it seemed endless..."

 

Weekend Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (24 August 2014)

 

"Heavy rocket fire targeting civilians from Gaza has continued throughout the weekend. On Friday, four year old Daniel Tragerman was killed from Hamas rocket fire as he was playing in his family home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Earlier in the day a mortar landed near a preschool in the Eshkol Regional Council. Despite the constant rocket fire into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, the Kerem Shalom crossing remained open, providing food and essential supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip. On August 21-23 232 trucks carrying 4,839 tons of goods and aid entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 135 trucks carrying 2,761 tons of food; 9 trucks carrying 65 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

YOUTUBE:  A Soldier's Account From Gaza: Hamas Used Human Shields  (24 August 2014)

 

"Lieutenant Adam Landau, from the 188th Armored Brigade, fought in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. Watch him describe what he saw and felt while he was battling Hamas..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 47  (23 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

VIDEO:  Gaza Protests in London 2014: Hatred and Ignorance on Display  (23 August 2014)

 

"These videos are well worth watching, for a taste of the hatred [and astounding wilful ignorance] on display in the recent Gaza protests:..."

 

Bombing Hamas Command Posts Is Not Like 9/11  (23 August 2014)

 

"Today the Israeli Air Force bombed a twelve-story apartment building in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. The building - named 'Zafir 4' - collapsed. In a completely obscene attempt at historical revisionism, Palestinians are calling this 'Gaza's 9/11'. In reality the IDF is bombing Hamas command posts; this was one such installation..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 46  (22 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Is the UN Responsible for War Crimes?  (22 August 2014)

 

"Welcome to UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinian refugees: Rockets were fired from its facilities, rockets have been stored in it schools, and a tunnel was dug from one of its booby-trapped clinics..."

 

Faked Photos of Gaza International Airport  (22 August 2014)

 

"When I first saw this image of what was said to be the Israeli bombing of Yasser Arafat International Airport on July 7, 2014, I thought it looked very strange..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (21 August 2014)

 

"Throughout August 20th, Hamas fired a large number of rockets towards Israel totalling at 175. This is following their violation of the ceasefire on August 19th. With the implementation of a ceasefire there was a marked increase in the quantity of goods and humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip. Despite the security situation in the previous days, Israel continues to facilitate the entrance of goods and aid to the Gaza Strip. 241 trucks carrying 4,839 tons of goods and aid entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 105 trucks carrying 2,353 tons of food; 39 trucks carrying 378 tons of humanitarian supplies. Israel coordinated the transfer of 21 Palestinians in need of medical assistance and 18 escorts through the Erez Crossing..."

 

IDF Kills Three Hamas Commanders  (21 August 2014)

 

"[T]he Shin Bet - Israel's internal counterespionage and counterterrorism agency - located the three terrorists, who were killed in an air strike. First, the IDF video of the strike. ... Now the aftermath..."

 

Gaza War Seems To Be Ending, But Who Won?  (17 August 2014)

 

"News item: ... I understand that these things are hard for regular people to understand. There are many considerations here that the Israeli government knows about that I don't. But still..."

 

Hamas Strategy Revealed (It Isn't So Complicated)  (16 August 2014)

 

"Sometimes one hears that the Hamas strategy is difficult to understand, appears irrational, is self-defeating, and so forth. After all, they are not going to destroy Israel with their rockets, and every time there the conflict heats up they end up with a huge amount of physical damage to Gaza. But I think the strategy is not so complicated and makes sense. In order to understand it, there are a few basic premises that we need to accept:..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 39  (15 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

A Letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon  (15 August 2014)

 

"We heard and read with amazement and incredulity your recent statements accusing Israeli forces of violating international humanitarian law, and especially your statement of August 12, 2014, questioning of Israel's respect for the principles of distinction and proportionality, and your call for an 'investigation into the repeated shelling of UN facilities harboring civilians.'  We find these statements by you to be nothing less than shocking, deceitful and totally inaccurate..."

 

Israel's Disproportionate Decency  (15 August 2014)

 

"When observers describe or denounce Israeli military actions as 'disproportionate', they glibly assume sweeping legal conclusions without sufficient proof or analysis. But the evidence shows that Israel has acted with disproportionate decency while Hamas has committed war crimes..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (14 August 2014)

 

"On August 11th, the 72 hour humanitarian ceasefire was still in effect, facilitating movements, infrastructure repairs and damage assessments around Gaza. On August 13, 18 patients with 15 escorts were transferred to Turkey for further medical treatment via Ben Gurion airport. 313 trucks carrying 5,613 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 125 trucks carrying 2,686 tons of food; 13 trucks carrying 132 tons of medicine and medical supplies. On August 13th a team of 7 Turkish doctors and medical staff were coordinated to enter the Gaza Strip in order to assist the current medical staff..."

 

How the Obama Administration is Helping Hamas  (14 August 2014)

 

"I have been saying for a long time that the present US administration is the most unfriendly to Israel ever. Now it is becoming even more clear..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 37  (13 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (13 August 2014)

 

"August 11, a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect. This cease-fire is particularly important in order to facilitate humanitarian efforts on the ground and enable an assessment of infrastructural damage. 270 trucks carrying 5,580 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 133 trucks carrying 2,820 tons of food; 10 trucks carrying 100 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 4 patients from Gaza were transferred for treatment in Turkey via Ben Gurion Airport..."

 

Israeli Humanitarian Aid to Gaza Continues  (13 August 2014)  [Please note: this page is updated frequently]

 

"Despite the constant rocket fire into Israel, the Kerem Shalom crossing remains open during Operation Protective Edge, providing food and essential supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip..."

 

PM Netanyahu Comments on the UN Human Rights Council  (13 August 2014)

 

"'The UN Human Rights Council gives legitimacy to murderous terrorist organizations such as Hamas and ISIS. Instead of enquiring into Hamas's attacks on Israeli civilians and its use of the residents of Gaza as human shields and instead of inquiring into the massacres that Assad is perpetrating against the Syrian people or that ISIS is perpetrating against the Kurds, the UN has decided to come and check Israel - the only democracy in the Middle East, a democracy which is acting legitimately to defend its citizens against murderous terrorism...'"

 

To My Friends in Fresno  (13 August 2014)

 

"Although I have been happily living in the one and only Jewish state for a week, I still haven't let go of my old home town, Fresno California. here is a statement from an email sent to its members by Peace Fresno, a local organisation dedicated to 'social justice and peaceful resolution of conflict':..."

 

Whither UNRWA?  (13 August 2014)

 

"UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, has joined Hamas's clamor for lifting Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip forthwith. This is the gist of what UNRWA's Gaza spokesman Chris Guinness demands. No surprise here; UNRWA has never been impartial. It's interest in self-preservation rules out fairness. Its existence hinges on keeping the flames of conflict burning..."

 

Groundhog Day in Gaza  (13 August 2014)

 

"All too many in the political arena ... presume to exploit a consensual conflict to advance their non-consensual agenda. They portray Operation Protective Edge as the vehicle to propel their pet project of reinstating Ramallah figurehead Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu-Mazen) at Gaza's helm. Winning Gaza back for Abbas wasn't what most fighters fought for..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (12 August 2014)

 

"On August 11, a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect. This cease-fire is particularly important in order to facilitate humanitarian efforts on the ground and enable an assessment of infrastructure damage. 248 trucks carrying 4,881 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Originally 283 trucks were slated to entered. Among the trucks that entered were: 150 trucks carrying 2,956 tons of food; 10 trucks carrying 115 tons of medicine and medical supplies..."

 

Atrocity Porn and the Online Campaigners Who Use Dead Children to Push Political Points  (12 August 2014)

 

"I haven't seen the decapitated Palestinian child, though quite a few others have. But I have seen countless other corpses; mostly infants. And the man having his throat slit by an Isis fighter. Social media - in this context, the most inappropriate of phrases - has a new craze. Atrocity porn..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (11 August 2014)

 

"Early Sunday morning, Hamas launched barrage of rockets at Kerem Shalom crossing, forcing the closure of the primary point of entry for goods and supplies to the people of Gaza. Although the crossing was later opened, only 34 of the 283 trucks that were scheduled were able to cross through. Because of Hamas attacks, the people of Gaza were deprived of: 94 trucks of food; 20 trucks of bottled water and drinks; 16 trucks with humanitarian and medical supplies; 14 trucks of agricultural materials; 53 trucks of mixed goods (i.e. clothing, cleaning supplies, etc.); 27 trucks of equipment ad supplies for international organizations carrying food, medicines, water and other humanitarian relief materials..."

 

War Crimes in Gaza?  (11 August 2014)

 

"Condemnation of Israel for its conduct of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza continues unabated. The chief accusation, heard time and again, is that the IDF have either been cavalier about civilian casualties or are intentionally inflicting them..."

 

The Media, The Social Media, Lies and Our Israel  (11 August 2014)

 

"No mention of the bombardment of Haifa by Hezbollah Katyusha rockets. No mention of a man riding his bicycle and being killed by a rocket..."

 

The Civilised World Contracts  (11 August 2014)

 

"The actions of the 'Islamic State', or whatever name the Islamic horde that is murdering and raping its way through Iraq as you read this call itself, make me think that ... the gates of hell have opened. ... As has ever been the case with messy third-world genocides, the West wrings its hands to some extent, but does nothing. There are huge 'anti-genocide' demonstrations in Europe and many cities in North America, but they are all about Gaza, in support of Hamas, which would emulate the IS if only it had the ability to do so..."

 

Hamas Said to Have Executed Dozens of Tunnel Diggers  (11 August 2014)

 

"Sources in Gaza told the [Mako] website that Hamas took a series of precautions to prevent information from reaching Israel. ... After the tunnels were completed, dozens were reportedly executed to prevent intelligence leaks to Israel..."

 

Seemingly Sisyphean Quest  (11 August 2014)

 

"The most effective weapon which Hamas wielded against Israel throughout Protective Edge was its manipulation of civilian casualty numbers and images. The cumulative impact was used to provoke hate campaigns against Israel and/or Jews worldwide and misrepresent Israel's self-defense as a calculated massacre of helpless civilians. Some of the ploys were beyond belief..."

 

Compare and Contrast  (11 August 2014)

 

"BBC journalist: ... What appears to attract the attention of Hamas goons is journalists reporting things that Hamas doesn't want reported. perhaps that helps to explain why BBC journalists haven't run into them."

 

Minority Report  (11 August 2014)

 

"The BBC does not bother its audience with the complexities and horrors of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel but instead offers a vision not unlike Warsi's and Clegg's where Hamas are the heroes and Israel the villain..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 34  (10 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Weekend Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (10 August 2014)

 

"Despite efforts to extend the 72-hour cease fire, on Friday morning of August 8th Hamas recommenced firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. Hamas's insistence on resorting to violence continues to jeopardize the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza and further complicates the humanitarian efforts of COGAT and the international community."

 

Hamas' Tunnel Rugrats  (10 August 2014)

 

"The BBC loves images and heart wrenching tales of children suffering... if caused by Israelis... the guiding principle for any BBC journo is that tears of a child say more than words ever can. Here the BBC examines the suffering of children in Gaza and Syria: 'Children in Conflict'. What they don't tell us is this remarkable statistic:..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 33  (09 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

The United Nations 'Human Rights' Council  (09 August 2014)

 

"[E]xpecting the UNHRC to carry out a fair, balanced or accurate investigation of anything involving the State of Israel is rather like asking the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] to carry out investigations into the persecution of Christians, Ahmadi Muslims, or Baha'is in Muslim countries..."

 

I Was Just Kidding, But Now...  (09 August 2014)

 

"Earlier today [8th August - see below] I wrote a post about the horrendously dishonest and inept Reuters piece 'Ten-year-old Palestinian boy the first casualty of renewed fighting in Gaza.' At the end, I wrote that Salem Salem Salem Salem - the 'victim' in the fake Gaza sniper video - was in the funeral procession for Ibrahim Dawawsa. I was just kidding, but a reader sent me a side-by-side comparison that makes me wonder..."

 

The Truth About Palestinian Casualties  (09 August 2014)

 

"Even after Hamas brazenly flouted the latest attempts to end the fighting in Gaza, demonstrators marched around the globe to protest what they and the Palestinians claim are Israeli war crimes..."

 

Mostly Civilians...?  (09 August 2014)

 

"I see that BBC continues to echo Hamas PR by stating 'More than 1,900 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in four weeks of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, the UN says.'  Where does the UN get these figures, BBC? Since you claim to be all about investigative journalism, I am sure you would seek to be sure of your sources?..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 32  (08 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (08 August 2014)

 

"On August 7th, the 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire was still in effect, facilitating movements, infrastructure repairs and damage assessments around Gaza. On August 7th, 254 trucks carrying 4,718 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 149 trucks carrying 3,129 tons of food; 13 trucks carrying 106 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 51 trucks carrying 407 tons of humanitarian supplies; 5 trucks carrying 51 tons of agricultural supplies..."

 

YOUTUBE How to Interview a Terrorist: Hannity on Hamas  (08 August 2014)

 

"The media often interview supporters of Hamas - even Hamas members themselves - on air. Some of the journalists allow them to say lies on air and evade the tough questions. Here is what happened when a 'guest' refused to answer Sean Hannity's question, 'Is Hamas a terrorist organization?' You don't have to agree with Hannity's politics to admire what he does here."

 

We Now Know: Gaza Edition  (08 August 2014)

 

"The fog of war often means the first draft of history makes the greatest impact but needs to be corrected by later drafts..."

 

The Moral Imperative Is To Survive  (08 August 2014)

 

"I have been a 'real' Israeli again (one who lives here) for three days, so here are a few impressions of some things that have changed in 26 years and one which hasn't..."

 

The West is Ignoring the Practitioners of 'Disproportionate' Violence  (08 August 2014)

 

"'Disproportionate' is the key word deployed against Israel over Gaza. Israel is criticised because so few Israelis have died compared with the number of Palestinians. Israel is held more morally culpable because its Iron Dome anti-rocket defence system actually works. Would it be better if hundreds of Israelis had died?..."

 

Pandering to the Extremists  (08 August 2014)

 

"An interesting Tweet from the BBC's Danahar... apparently the extreme Islamist radicals of Hamas are nothing like Al Qaeda or ISIS... I imagine this Tweet can be placed alongside Bowen's 'moderate' Muslim Brotherhood assertion... Hamas being part of the Muslim Brotherhood..."

 

The Difference Between Germany 1940 and Israel 2014  (08 August 2014)

 

"Whenever Hamas runs low on dead babies to parade to the world, they start lobbing missiles into Israel. There is never any tactical purpose, they certainly aren't supporting any immediate military operation such as halting an Israeli invasion, nor is there any strategic purpose since they don't care where the missiles fall, even on their own civilians..."

 

Not So Hard Really  (08 August 2014)

 

"We had a look at the casualty figures from Gaza two weeks ago and based on the figures available then it looked like 61% of the casualties were fighting age men (18 to 60 years old... of course there will also be many under 18 who are fighters and not all men in the age bracket will be fighters.)  The BBC refrained from doing any analysis on these figures and preferred instead to give us casualty numbers as provided by Hamas, via the UN..."

 

Exposing the UN's Unreliable Data on Gaza Casualties  (08 August 2014)

 

"Okay, it's official: Even the BBC now admits the UN has been essentially collaborating with a terrorist organisation to libel Israel. Of course, the venerable British broadcaster doesn't say so explicitly; it even assures its readers that UN officials aren't to blame for the misinformation they've been propagating..."

 

Hamas Executes One of Its Leaders - Then Blames Israel  (08 August 2014)

 

"Shortly after Palestinian journalists reported the execution, Hamas published a brief statement 'mourning' the death of [Ayman] Taha, who it claimed was 'martyred' during an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in Gaza City. Hamas had no explanation, of course, as to why the man had been hit in the head and chest by bullets that were apparently fired from close range. ... The international media, for its part, will simply endorse the Hamas story because it is more convenient to blame Israel than to get into trouble with a radical Islamist movement that carries out extra-judicial executions."

 

Reuters Accidentally Exposes Hamas Pallywood  (08 August 2014)

 

"Reuters has released possibly the worst piece of 'journalism' in the history of the human race. First I'll tell you what's wrong with it, and then I'll explain how Reuters accidentally exposed Hamas Pallywood in a way that leaves no doubt whatsoever that the reporting from Gaza is being stage managed..."

 

Hamas Breaks Ceasefire, Media Headlines Claim Israel Did  (08 August 2014)

 

"Well, what do you know, Hamas has broken the ceasefire (as only Islamic terrorists can) and started firing missiles into Israel again. After 18 missiles came Israel's way, they retaliated. The funny thing is the media doesn't acknowledge the fact that Hamas and not Israel started this, and no doubt their biased coverage will have thousands on the streets tomorrow protesting against... Israel."

 

So, Who Started the War...?  (08 August 2014)

 

"BBC playing games about Gaza again. It screeches 'Israel air strikes resume in Gaza amid rockets' ...so creating the impression that those bad JOOOOOOOS are back to their business of killing innocent women and children. You have to read a little more carefully to see that it was HAMAS that refused to continue the temporary truce and it was Hamas that attacked Israel with several rockets this morning."

 

Letter to Navi Pillay About Her Silence on Hamas  (08 August 2014)

 

"Dear Navi Pillay, Every minute of your silence since Hamas attacked Israel this morning and broke the ceasefire only confirms what we already knew: You are a fraud. Sincerely, Hillel C. Neuer, UN Watch."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 31  (07 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"On August 5th, a 72 hour humanitarian cease-fire went into effect. This cease-fire has been particularly important in order to facilitate humanitarian efforts on the ground and enable an assessment of infrastructural damage. On August 6th, 236 trucks carrying 4,196 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Among the trucks that entered were: 131 trucks carrying 2,526 tons of food; 5 trucks carrying 27 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 43 trucks carrying 313 tons of humanitarian supplies; 6 trucks with 110 tons of equipment to help repair infrastructure; 1 truck carrying 7 tons of agricultural supplies..."

 

Is Journalism Dead?  (07 August 2014)

 

"It was during the reporting on the Second Intifada in Israel that I began to notice an erosion of the basic tenets of journalism. Journalists became vehicles for the Palestinian narrative of injustice rather than simply impartial observers of a complex conflict. ... In the current war, international media coverage makes it appear to viewers as if every morning Israelis wake up and ask - how many Palestinian children shall we kill today? ... journalists, wittingly or unwittingly, are serving Hamas's propagandist aims. This is not journalism..."

 

Journos Tell All As Press Corps Leaves Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"YNet talked to a number of foreign journalists who just left Gaza about their experiences. ... a correspondent described Hamas' media manipulation:..."

 

Foreign Journalists Reveal Hamas' False Front  (07 August 2014)

 

"The world didn't believe Israel, but it might believe foreign reporters who were afraid to report real-time but now tell all: Hamas HQ at Al-Shifa Hospital, launchers near UN facilities, threats and staged bombing scenes. ... Why didn't they report those facts during the ongoing fighting?..."

 

Hamas' Phony Statistics on Civilian Deaths  (07 August 2014)

 

"It's a mystery why so many in the media accept as gospel Hamas-supplied figures on the number of civilians killed in the recent war. ... Even human rights groups antagonistic to Israel acknowledge ... that Hamas probably counts among the 'civilians killed by Israel' the following groups:..."

 

The Lie of Hamas Being a 'RagTag Militia'  (07 August 2014)

 

"Hamas is anything but a ragtag militia. It's a world-class transnational terrorist organisation. I'll explain how sophisticated it is. But first... People have asked me - demanded quite forcefully and dismissively of me, rather - why I'm so sure that most of the damage done in Gaza is being caused by Hamas IEDs instead of Israeli munitions. I've gone through it before, but a little common sense will give you the answer..."

 

Archbishop: Hamas Fired Out Of Our Church in Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"'Islam is the rule of this place and whatever Hamas says we must obey or face the consequences,' ... Archbishop Alexios showed the reporter where Hamas terrorists used the roof of the center to fire rockets at Israel..."

 

Humanitarian Pressure Helped Create Terror Tunnels in Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"Hamas has been digging hundreds of tunnels for operational purposes since the year 2000. ... human rights organizations who pressured Israel 'overlooked or ignored Israeli warnings about the use of these materials to build Hamas's military infrastructure. So, in the name of humanitarian support for Gaza, Hamas misused the trust of the international community to build the infrastructure to attack Israel, with the help of human rights organizations'..."

 

Dead Gaza Children Win Again, at the New York Times  (07 August 2014)

 

"The New York Times has an article about the looming war over statistics of what percentage of the Gaza casualties were civilians and terrorist. It pretends to be even-handed, although it falls very far short..."

 

Are All Dead Children Created Equal?  (07 August 2014)

 

"While furious mobs of leftists draped in Keffiyahs and corn syrup were shrieking about Gaza in the public squares of every major city, ISIS was continuing its genocidal advance on Baghdad. In the last 24 hours, the Yazidis, a non-Muslim minority, fled ISIS to a mountaintop where their children are dying of thirst. The stark reality of their plight, caught between thirst and a genocidal army, is in sharp contrast to the phony claims made about Gaza where truckloads of goods continue passing from Israel during wartime..."

 

Israel Does Not Exist To Make Liberal Jews Feel Good  (07 August 2014)

 

"In one of the most important pieces written during the course of this conflict, Shmuel Rosner has taken to the website of the New York Times, where he is a contributing opinion writer, with a profoundly thoughtful riposte to the disapora [sic] Jews who have expressed their disaffection with Israel as a result of the goings-on..."

 

Why UK is Fascinated with Hamas as Underdog, Its One-Sided Media, and 'Death to All Juice'  (07 August 2014)

 

"Coverage of Israel is only of the destruction in Gaza. ... 'The empathy is reserved for only one side ... When [the British media] interview Israeli spokespeople, it seems as though they are mocking them ... questions that begged to be asked, were not' ... coverage of the war in Gaza has featured only the civilians, never a photograph of Hamas in action..."

 

How BBC's Orla Guerin Reports From Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"On Tuesday 5, 2014, the BBC's flagship 'News at Ten' broadcast a report by Orla Guerin from Gaza. The text of that item follows. Readers will note with alarm the thrust of the item, the crucial questions that went unasked, and the questionable replies and values that went unchallenged..."

 

'Smashing a Peanut With a Hammer': Foreign Journalists on Int'l Coverage of Gaza Fighting  (07 August 2014)

 

"Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF has published videos of pilots calling off air raids, officers have called civilians to evacuate, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the international community of Hamas' use of human shields - however, it appears that Israel's critics abroad refuse to let the facts throw them off..."

 

Israel's Conduct in Gaza Is a Model for Other Nations  (07 August 2014)

 

"During his press conference yesterday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was once again asked whether Israel had acted with enough care in responding to the attacks by Hamas..."

 

Some Truly Hated Truths  (07 August 2014)

 

"Last Friday morning, during yet another so-called humanitarian ceasefire, we heard that Lt. Hadar Goldin was missing-in-action. Before this too was revealed as a ghoulish body-snatching attempt, it looked like the Palestinians had finally grabbed the mega-ransom-generating and game-changing live hostage they craved., Mind-bogglingly, the truth is that by the Hamas devil's arithmetic, it was worth sacrificing over 1500 Gazan casualties to just maybe seize one Israeli..."

 

Hamas, Gaza and Body Count Ratios  (07 August 2014)

 

"Global outrage about the deaths of nearly 1,900 Palestinians now focuses on the alleged disproportionality of Israel's attacks. For some, the word 'disproportionality' simply means huge, for others excessive, but for an increasing number it is the code word they hope will trigger a charge of war crimes against Israel in the International Criminal Court in the Hague..."

 

London Times Censors Elie Wiesel, Rejects Ad Against Hamas Use of Children as Human Shields  (07 August 2014)

 

"The ad ... has run in The New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, among other U.S. newspapers. ... The London Times refused the ad because the 'opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers', according to a statement from a representative of the newspaper..."

 

Hamas Intimidation Has Cowed Foreign Media in Gaza, Why No Photos of Hamas?  (07 August 2014)

 

"'The growing number of reports from journalists testifying to Hamas intimidation are troubling and call into question the veracity of some accounts of the fighting'..."

 

No Donor Conference for Gaza  (07 August 2014)

 

"Albert Einstein quipped that insanity was doing the same action repeatedly but expecting different results each time. Once again, as the smoke clears in Gaza, the European Community is stepping in with calls for a donor conference. That's simply crazy. The Palestinians have received more per capita than any other national community, but have the least to show for it..."

 

BBC on Gaza: Excellent Reporting?  (07 August 2014)

 

"How is the BBC covering the current conflict between Israel and Hamas?..."

 

BBC's Reynolds in Shuja'iya: Still No Reporting on What Really Happened  (07 August 2014)

 

"The latest 72-hour ceasefire is now ... being used by the BBC to produce yet more of its 'aftermath' reports and one of those ... was aired on BBC Two's 'Newsnight' on August 6th. In that report ... Reynolds passed up on the opportunity to properly inform BBC audiences why a battle took place in Shuja'iya. He does, however, continue the prevalent BBC practice of making over-dramatic, sweeping and simplistic characterisations of complicated situations..."

 

BBC's Jon Donnison on Hamas Message in Beit Hanoun  (07 August 2014)

 

"Of the 3,356 missiles fired at civilian targets in Israel by terrorists in the Gaza Strip between July 8th and August 5th 2014, 69.4% were fired from the northern part of the territory with the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun being major centres of missile fire, cross border tunnels and other terrorist activity. But viewers of Jon Donnison's filmed report ... of August 5th ... would never have known that even one missile was fired from Beit Hanoun..."

 

Conclusive Proof That Hamas Uses Palestinians as Human Shields  (07 August 2014)

 

"For the past four weeks, as the war has raged in Gaza, Israel has repeatedly pointed to the Hamas strategy of using civilians as human shields. Palestinian spokesmen and supporters, in turn, have insisted that it's 'racist' to accuse Palestinian terrorists of such behavior..."

 

Israeli U.N. Envoy Says International Community 'Has Lost Its Way'  (07 August 2014)

 

"'It might be too much to ask you to stand on our side in this battle between civilisation and barbarism, but at least have the decency to swallow your selective outrage while Israel wages war against the extremist groups seeking to eradicate the values that we all hold very dear', Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Ron Proser told the U.N. General Assembly..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 30  (06 August 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (06 August 2014)

 

"On August 5th, a 72 hour humanitarian cease-fire went into effect. The cease-fire is particularly important in order to facilitate humanitarian efforts on the ground and enable an assessment of infrastructural damage. As a result of the cease-fire the largest number of trucks (243) since before the operation began entered into Gaza. Including 5 trucks carrying new ambulances. The challenge of electricity, water and the number of displaced people is still of immediate concern, and we are working with the different parties to assist in the areas of urgent and immediate need..."

 

Netanyahu Lays Out Israeli Case For Morality of Gaza Campaign  (06 August 2014)

 

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night set out a moral justification of r the way the IDF has dealt with the Hamas strategy of firing rockets at Israel, and tunneling under the Israeli border, from the heart of Palestinian residential neighborhoods in Gaza..."

 

Standing Down  (06 August 2014)

 

"One of the hardest parts of war, believe it or not, is letting it end. Of course, we really aren't certain this is the end. A 72-hour ceasefire has been declared. We've made it half way - 36 hours - in relative peace. No rockets have been fired at Israel; we've pulled our soldiers out of Gaza and sent many of the soldiers home. My friends in the south tell me that the children were outside playing today, the malls and parking lots were full..."

 

Hamas Cowards? Oh Yes...  (06 August 2014)

 

I got this comment and decided it deserved a place of honor - a whole post dedicated just to responding... Anonymous wrote:..."

 

Piteously-Cum-Victoriously  (06 August 2014)

 

"While it wails piteously, Hamas also crows victoriously. This evident logical incongruity may bewilder us but Gaza honcho Ismail Haniyeh connects the dots thus:..."

 

Israel Might Have Won; Hamas Certainly Lost  (06 August 2014)

 

"Ten thoughts at the end (maybe) of the summer 2014 Israeli-Hamas war:..."

 

The Uninformed Rule the World  (06 August 2014)

 

"Almost everything has an upside and a downside. My posts on Pallywood have made literally thousands of Israelis feel better. I know because I've gotten thousands of messages. But by immersing myself in the media coverage of the story, I confirmed my worst fear: The uninformed rule the world. Uninformed people vote for uninformed politicians who appoint uninformed cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and judges. The same uninformed public reads stories by uninformed journalists and watches uninformed TV pundits..."

 

The Gaza War and the New U.S. Jewish Consensus on Israel  (06 August 2014)


"It's hard to imagine any issue on which more than 90% of American Jews agree. ... Yet we finally do have one such issue..."

 

South Israel Cautiously Returns to 'Normal' Amid 72-Hour Ceasefire  (06 August 2014)

 

"Ashkelon, Israel - residents of the coastal city of Ashkelon in South Israel cautiously returned to their daily routines on the second day of a planned three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas..."

 

They Thought It Was Rockets They Had To Be Scared Of  (06 August 2014)

 

"As [the] ceasefire inspires flickers of hope in the battered towns and kibbutzim near Gaza, residents begin to internalize the new trauma of tunnels..."

 

Indian TV Shows Hamas Rocket Fired Near Gaza Hotel  (06 August 2014)

 

"India's NDTV filmed what the New York Times said it could not: footage of Hamas fighters in Gaza assembling and then launching a rocket aimed at Israel, from a residential area. The launch took place in  a dense, urban environment in Gaza with plenty of civilians around - and one intrepid Indian reporter..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (05 August 2014)

 

"On August 4th, 167 trucks carrying 3,361 tons of goods and supplies entered into Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. ... Among the trucks that entered were: 94 trucks carrying 2,089 tons of food; 2 trucks carrying 11 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 41 trucks carrying 357 tons of humanitarian supplies; 1 truck carrying 800 tons of agricultural supplies..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Hypocrisy Over Gaza  (05 August 2014)

 

"Hypocrisy has always been very 'progressive', but there's so much of it flying around right now you almost feel as if you need a progressive-proof vest..."

 

The Bombing of the Al-Ghoul House in Rafah  (05 August 2014)

 

"On August 3, 2014, the IDF bombed the al-Ghoul house in Rafah, Gaza. We're told that ten people were killed. In response to this bombing, journalist Asmaa al-Ghoul has written 'Never Ask Me About Peace Again', a deeply dishonest attempt to mislead the world into thinking that Israel simply murdered a harmless family for no reason. And now the global media is editing their stories to fit that narrative..."

 

There is Nothing Wrong With More Palestinians Dying Than Israelis  (05 August 2014)

 

"Many Americans assume that missiles being lobbied into Israel from Gaza is what provoked Israel to retaliate against Hamas this summer. That is not the case..."

 

The Empty Spaces in Gaza  (05 August 2014)

 

"How many times have you heard on television or read in the media that the Gaza Strip is 'the most densely populated area in the world'? Repeating this statement, however, does not make it true. There are dense parts of Gaza, ... but there are far less dense areas in Gaza ... Just look at Google Earth, or this population density map. The fact that these sparsely populated areas exist in the Gaza Strip raises several important moral questions:..."

 

Hamas Manual on 'Urban Warfare'  (05 August 2014)

 

"IDF forces in the Gaza Strip found a Hamas manual on 'Urban Warfare', of the Shuja'iya Brigade of Hamas military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades. The manual explains how the civilian population can be used against IDF forces. A reading of the manual demonstrates that Hamas' callous use of the Gazan population was both intentional and preplanned..."

 

Some Homework for Bowen  (05 August 2014)


"[B]elow ... it is explained how Hamas plan to take advantage of Israeli rules of engagement which limit their use of force due to the presence of civilians when they return fire on Hamas..."

 

How Hamas Assembles and Fires Rockets  (05 August 2014)

 

In the minutes before the ceasefire kicked in at Gaza this morning, Hamas fired a flurry of rockets towards Israel - 30 according to some counts. Israel has argued that these rockets are fired from civilian areas, and this is why its retaliatory strikes can result in civilian casualties. ... [T]his morning, NDTV witnessed one such rocket silo being created under a tent right next to the hotel where our team was staying..."

 

Indian TV Station Does What No Other Media Outlet Has Done - Airs Video of Hamas Launching a Missile  (05 August 2014)

 

"Media savvy Hamas has ensured that every news outlet it allows into Gaza only reports what they tell them. Which is why nobody mentions or films armed gunmen, all deaths are reported as civilians, no mention of terrorist deaths. Of course, some, like the BBC, take this a stage further and openly promotes anti-Semitism. However, today, somebody has had the [courage] to actually film a Hamas rocket squad setting up next to living accommodation and expose the lie that the media in general has been promoting as the truth..."

 

'Israel Breaks Ceasefire!'... Palestinians Say!  (05 August 2014)

 

"The above tweet from Hams is interesting... it shows that not only do they target civilians but that they relish inflicting terror and feat upon them. No doubt the UN will be making some strong statements about such war crimes and the BBC will be buttonholing Cameron and asking him if he believes these are war crimes..."

 

The UNRWA is Hamas  (05 August 2014)

 

"The UNRWA is on the front lines of the Hamas War in Gaza. In the headlines, its schools are forever being fired on or found to be stockpiling rockets. If individual Gazans are being used as human shields, the UNRWA often seems as if it is one big organizational human shield..."

 

UNRWA Union is Run by Hamas  (05 August 2014)

 

"The US is funding this terror. What a scandal:..."

 

Hamas Activities Understood on the Basis of Law  (05 August 2014)

 

"To paraphrase the line in a Richard Rodgers ballard, I do not know a day when I did not behold Hamas rockets attacking Israeli civilians. Calculations suggest that more than 13,000 missiles have been fired by Hamas in Gaza against those civilians. During July 2014, Hamas fired more than 800 rockets before Israel responded by Operation Protective Edge seeking to eliminate or reduce the aggression. According to international law, the concept of military necessity justifies Israeli attacks on legitimate military targets..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 28  (04 August 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

Gaza Conflict Day 29  (04 August 2014)

 

Today's top stories.

 

Weekend Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (04 August 2014)

 

"On August 3rd, 185 trucks carrying 3,270 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. ... Among the trucks that entered were: 100 trucks carrying 2,129 tons of food; 4 trucks carrying 13 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 67 trucks carrying 627 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

Protocols of the Elders of Hamas  (04 August 2014)

 

"I was at the UN Security Council hearing on the war in Gaza on Thursday ... I heard the regular condemnations of Israel for being indifferent to the murder of children. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said that there could be nothing more shameful than Israel killing children while they slept at a UN school that Israel targeted. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay went further and said that Israel deliberately targeted civilians. Deliberate. That's quite an accusation..."

 

A Closer Look at Gaza's Civilian Casualties  (04 August 2014)

 

"Hamas wants you to think the Israelis are either killing people at random in Gaza or they're so inept that [they] can't hit what they aim at. If either of these narratives strikes you as plausible, by all means, believe whatever you want..."

 

Miracles of War  (04 August 2014)

 

"I just opened the window to post something... and the sirens start. All thought is lost when the siren is sounding in Israel ... so I have to pull my mind away from the latest ceasefire that isn't. I want to write about miracles. The BBC reporter on the phone felt that it sounds off the wall to suggest that God is protecting Israel, even if that is the only logical explanation. Miracles, by their very definition, defy logic. And so here is another one..."

 

Weekend Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (03 August 2014)

 

"On Friday, August 1, at 8.00 a 72 hour US-UN sponsored humanitarian cease-fire took effect. At 09.30 Hamas launched a massive attack in Rafah near Kerem Shalom. As a result of the Hamas attack Kerem Shalom shut down. 91 trucks of food, water, medicine, etc couldn't enter Gaza; 14 scheduled infrastructure repairs (10 electrical) were cancelled. Hamas's violation of the humanitarian cease-fire deprived the civilian population of Gaza of vital humanitarian relief..."

 

Two Pallywood Duds in One Day!  (03 August 2014)

 

"Another day, another Palestinian hoax. Actually, August 3, 2014, brought us two Pallywood duds. The first production I'll discuss is the bombing of the al-Ghoul house in Rafah, which is said to have killed ten people. The second is the 'air strike' on the Rafah Preparatory 'A' Boys School..."

 

Gaza's Civilian Casualties: The Truth is Very Different  (03 August 2014)

 

"'So are you going after innocent civilians or is it incompetence Colonel Lerner?' asks the interviewer, her face contorted with a contempt apparently reserved only for Israelis. ... To suggest that military incompetence is the only explanation for civilian deaths other than deliberate mass murder reveals a breathtaking but unsurprising ignorance of the realities of combat. Although rarely allowed to complete so much as a single sentence, Israeli attempts to explain IDF targeting policies are inevitably dismissed as laughable fabrication..."

 

Hamas Home Protection Services  (03 August 2014)

 

"I want to ask my readers a question and I ask that you answer truthfully. Here is the situation:..."

 

Hamas, A Resistant Strain of Pathogen  (03 August 2014)

 

"As my faithful readers know, tomorrow I expect to board a flight from Los Angeles to Israel, with a one-way ticket and enough household stuff in 6 suitcases and duffel bags for my wife and myself to survive for the month or so it will take the rest of our goods ... to follow us. ... Possibly by the time I get there, the government's Gaza strategy will be more clear..."

 

Geraldo Rivera Distorts the Truth on Gaza War  (03 August 2014)

 

"Geraldo Rivera committed one of the most infamous flubs in the history of television journalism, with his much-hyped flop of an expose about gangster Al Capone's time capsule. This week, Geraldo treated American television viewers to another time-capsule flop - this one involving the Gaza war..."

 

How Not to Report Gaza  (03 August 2014)

 

"Is it possible for an authoritative news organisation to report independently from inside Gaza? The BBC's World Editor of News, Andrew Roy, thinks so. Speaking on the BBC's 'Feedback' programme last week, he talked proudly of the work done by the BBC journalists based in its Gaza City bureau, and considered that the threat that they face comes from Israeli rockets rather than intimidation by Hamas enforcers..."

 

There Are Other Brands  (03 August 2014)

 

"We all know what advertising is don't we? It's the business of making people want things. There's a science behind it. Subliminal or overt psychological manipulation, persuasion, all that lot. If you're alive you can't be completely impartial. Every time we interact with others we (inadvertently) 'advertise' but let's not pursue that for now. What we will pursue in this [article] is the way the BBC and the other main news organs are acting as advertising agents..."

 

Pannell Bleating  (03 August 2014)

 

"The BBC's Ian Pannell claims that Hamas made no claim about capturing an Israeli soldier, a claim that mislead [sic] everyone including the IDF into thinking he was a prisoner:..."

 

Three Schools  (03 August 2014)

 

"The BBC has lovingly lingered on UNRWA condemnation of Israel for hitting a THIRD UNRWA school. It's all part of the 'damn-Israel' meme that the BBC has spewed out during the latest conflict. However, for some reason, none of the world class BBC journalists felt inclined to ask UNRWA why it has allowed at least THREE of its schools to be used to store Hamas missiles..."

 

IDF to Complete Destruction of Hamas Tunnels by Sunday; Troops Begin Withdrawal  (02 August 2014)

 

"The IDF has destroyed Hamas's flagship terrorism project; its network of cross-border tunnels that snuck under the border into Israel. The military also began to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening..."

 

Jon Voight Pens Letter to 'Ignorant' Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz on Israel: 'Hang Your Heads in Shame'  (02 August 2014)


"My name is Jon Voight and I am more than angry, I am heartsick that people like Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem could incite anti-Semitism all over the world and are oblivious to the damage they have caused..."

 

Finnish TV: Rockets Fired From Gaza Hospital  (02 August 2014)

 

"The reporter, who was not named in the television segment shot on-site at Gaza City's [Al-Shifa H]ospital, said a rocket was launched 'right in the back of the parking lot' of the hospital at 2 a.m. on Friday morning. ... Foreign press in Gaza has scarcely reported on Hamas's rocket launching strategy during the conflict..."

 

Hamas Targeted the UN School at Jabalia  (02 August 2014)

 

"Early in the morning of July 30, 2014, the UNRWA school at Jabalia, Gaza, was struck by several munitions. The Palestinians, the UN, and the global press immediately blamed Israel. Later in the day, Hamas accidentally blew up its own people while trying to set up a Pallywood production..."

 

The Difference Between Intentional Murder and Unintentional Deaths  (02 August 2014)

 

"Blogger Tom Clarke over at thebadrash.com has a mental problem telling the difference between Palestinian 'Nationalists' as he calls them, and Israel's defense forces - that since both end up killing civilians, then both ate guilty of intentional 'murder'..."

 

Giles Frazer's Sentimentality  (02 August 2014)


"'Sentimentality is the expression of emotion without judgement. Perhaps it is worse than that: it is the expression of emotion without an acknowledgement that judgement should enter into how we should react to what we see and hear.'  Theodore Dalrymple wrote that in a context quite other than Israel/Palestine, but I couldn't help remembering it as I read or listened to various outpourings of emotion about the sufferings of the innocents of Gaza..."

 

One Million Ceasefires  (02 August 2014)

 

"If you like cease-fires, then this is a great time to be alive. Those Israelis who weren't shot in the head by Hamas terrorists ... or killed by a Hamas rocket, encounter almost as many cease-fires in a given day as terrorist attacks..."

 

BBC Presentation of the August 1st Ceasefire Breakdown - Part Two: BBC Television News  (02 August 2014)

 

"In this post we will look at the way in which the breakdown of the August 1st humanitarian ceasefire - breached after 90 minutes by Hamas terrorists who staged an attack on IDF soldiers decommissioning a cross-border tunnel near Rafar - was presented to viewers of BBC television news..."

 

BBC Presentation of the August 1st Ceasefire Breakdown - Part One: BBC News Website  (02 August 2014)

 

"At around 01:00 local time on August 1st, the UN released a statement saying that a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire effective from 08:00 local time had been agreed..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 25  (01 August 2014)


Live updates.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (01 August 2014)

 

"On July 31st, 128 trucks carrying 2,392 tons of goods and supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing. ... Among the trucks that entered were: 71 trucks carrying 1,395 tons of food; 2 trucks carrying 18 tons of agricultural supplies; 10 trucks carrying 106 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 24 trucks carrying 95 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

An Open Letter to Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem  (01 August 2014)

 

"I am writing this, not as a journalist, but as a regular person, an Israeli citizen, in response to the letter you signed condemning Israel for 'genocide' in Gaza. ... your family members - and especially your children - are not running to bomb shelters several times a day while thousands of rockets rain down on them, not just in the past weeks, but for years. My family is. Even when the Iron Dome system is neutralizing those rockets, shrapnel can still fall and cause injuries. Your babies don't have to worry about that, nor do they have to worry about a terrorist crawling out of a tunnel and butchering them in their sleep. I wonder what you would do if you were us?..."

 

Pallywood Bombs  (01 August 2014)

 

"Pallywood bombs. All the time. Its sniper video was transparently fake, the bloodied Crying Man had no dead father to cry about, and the nonexistent market shoppers were blown up by Hamas rockets. A favorite Pallywood production is 'unexploded Israeli bombs' lying around... everywhere!..."

 

United Nations: US Must Share Iron Dome with Hamas  (01 August 2014)

 

"The United Nations is a farce. If it weren't enough that some of the world's worst regimes have sat on the Human Rights committee, now you have this..."

 

No, President Obama, Israel Could Not Do More to Prevent Civilian Casualties  (01 August 2014)

 

"Imagine you are the PM of Israel or the President of the U.S., or the Chief-Of-Staff of either Army. Your soldiers are fighting a just war to try to prevent rockets from hitting your civilians or tunnels from being used to murder and kidnap your people. Your enemy, knowing that you wish to prevent casualties among their civilians, purposely shoots at your soldiers from civilian areas. Your soldiers, caught in the midst of an ongoing fire fight, basically have two choices:..."

 

Media Disgrace  (01 August 2014)

 

"Almost 2000 killed in just 10 days. No, not a statement regarding the current conflict in Gaza but the latest statistic to emerge from Syria, a country whose bloody civil war has raged for more than three years. Two thousand in just 10 days. And the world barely flickers an eyelid. But why would it when it can focus on its favourite bete noire, the State of Israel?..."

 

NYT Answers Why Not Publishing Photos of Hamas Fighters  (01 August 2014)

 

"After my piece Thursday morning asking why mainstream media outlets aren't showing photos of Hamas fighters in Gaza, The New York Times offered me this response: We don't have any. ... Why not? After all, Hamas attacks against Israel are crucial to understanding what's underpinning this conflict..."

 

A Radical New Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Change the Education System  (01 August 2014)

 

"Those at the UNHRC who voted to condemn Israel in the harshest terms, are, as usual, the nations with the bloodiest hands..."

 

Hamas Versus Israel: A Failure of Imagination  (01 August 2014)

 

"For a number of diplomats and journalists, predictable storylines have emerged, as the most recent round of Israel-Hamas fighting continues into its fourth week. ... It is too intellectually lazy, not to mention dangerous, to stand on the 50-yard line and assert that the two combatants - a democratic nation seeking nothing from Gaza other than a quiet border and a terrorist regime calling in its charter for the elimination of Israel are little more than mirror images of one another..."

 

Pillay's Dastardly 'Doublethink'  (01 August 2014)

 

"On Thursday UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused Israel of 'deliberate defiance' of its obligations under international law. ... This is but one of many times over the years that Pillay has ripped into the only democracy on the Middle East for crimes it did not commit, while siding with its enemies, whose human rights abuses are as well documented as they are indigenous to their societies..."

 

The Images Missing From the War with Hamas  (01 August 2014)

 

"In cooperation with the terrorist organization's media blackout of its fighters, the international press is only telling half the story..."

 

If You Thought There Were No Sharks Left For the BBC's Orla Guerin to Jump...  (01 August 2014)

 

"The scene for Guerin's report is set in her opening sentences. 'Israel calls this Operation Protective Edge but this massive assault has now killed more than thirteen hundred Palestinians - the vast majority of them civilians.'  Guerin of course does not make any effort whatsoever to inform viewers that the numbers she cites have not been independently verified by the BBC or that their source is ultimately either Hamas or Hamas-supporting political NGOs with no less of an interest in misrepresenting the number of civilian casualties..."

 

BBC WS Presenter: Filmed Evidence of Hamas' Misuse of Hospitals is 'Rumours on the Internet'  (01 August 2014)

 

"The International Solidarity Movement is - as readers are most likely aware - an organisation which since the early days of the second Intifada has been providing financial, logistic and PR support to terrorist organisations which attack Israel civilians. One of the ISM's activists currently located in the Gaza Strip is American Joe Cotton who has been very busy in the past three weeks..."

 

The Return of the Template BBC Response to Complaints  (01 August 2014)

 

"We have seen it before. During times of intense BBC coverage of events in Israel, members of the public making complaints to the BBC are likely to find themselves receiving a generic response which actually does nothing to address the substance of their complaint, but is clearly merely intended to tick performance boxes..."

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (31 July 2014)

 

"On July 30th, 131 trucks were scheduled to cross into Gaza; only 65 trucks arrived at Kerem Shalom. Drivers on the Gaza and Israeli side are reluctant to come to the crossing due to Hamas mortar fire and the security situation. Of the trucks that entered: 26 trucks carrying 575 tons of food; 11 trucks carrying 440 tons of agricultural supplies; 4 trucks carrying 47 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 24 trucks carrying 169 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

PHOTO:  pic.twitter.com/VvC6osScPG  (31 July 2014)

 

"Hamas Terrorist hangs & position kids on a fence in front of a house to ensure the IDF will not strike the building."

 

The Self-Inflicted Massacre at Shijaiyah  (31 July 2014)

 

"Every news outlet on the planet is calling this 'an air strike on a crowded/busy market street' and a deliberate followup attack on the ambulances that came to help. Both accusations are entirely bogus..."

 

Goebbels on the BBC  (31 July 2014)

 

"Imagine Josef Goebbels invited to speak his mind on the BBC, smack dab during the Battle of Britain and the blitz. Sounds absurd? Sure, but only in the context of normal nations. No sane Briton would have tolerated the notion of the BBC broadcasting German propaganda to Londoners as they ran for shelter from German bombs..."

 

40 Questions for the International Media in Gaza  (31 July 2014)

 

40 questions for the international media:..."

 

Spanish Journalist on Why Hamas Never Photographed in Action  (31 July 2014)

 

"A Spanish journalist told Israeli filmmaker Michael Grynszpan that the reason television news does not broadcast images of Hamas fighters in action is because of fear of immediate execution..."

 

Reminder: Most Gaza UNRWA Staff are Hamas Supporters  (31 July 2014)

 

"A little basic context for all the stories about UNRWA schools being shelled and rockets being found in UNRWA schools. There's a perfectly good reason for that..."

 

Kill the Cancerous UN  (31 July 2014)

 

"[H]ere is yet another case of UN - UNRWA - facilities being used by terrorists, following three cases in which rockets were found stored in UNRWA schools. ... Today Israel is in the front line of the struggle between those who accept the Western ideal of free, democratic, religiously tolerant societies with equal rights for all, and those who believe that the seventh-century vision of Islam - unfree, undemocratic, intolerant and based on a hierarchy of rights in which the Muslim male rules all others - is the proper form of human society. This is ultimately what those rockets Hamas is launching are about..."

 

Analysing 'The Palestine Effect'  (31 July 2014)

 

"Why does the media continue to post Gaza casualty figures provided by Hamas - often without mentioning the source - as though the information is credible and useful to people trying to make sense of what's happening in Gaza? And why do some people instinctively blame Israel for 'starting' the Gaza war, even though it's clear that the first act of violence was the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teens?..."

 

Militants 'Blow Up UNRWA Clinic' Killing 3 Soldiers  (31 July 2014)

 

"Three IDF soldiers were killed Wednesday morning in Gaza in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed a tunnel entry shaft, the IDF's Gaza Division commander, Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein, said in a briefing..."

 

Israel-Hamas Conflict Day 23  (30 July 2014)

 

Live blog.

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 23  (30 July 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

Daily Report: Civilian Assistance to Gaza  (30 July 2014)

 

"On July 29th, 158 trucks were scheduled to cross into Gaza. However, due to the security situation and Hamas rockets, only 43 trucks arrived at Kerem Shalom. Of the trucks that entered: 30 trucks carrying 621 tons of food; 2 trucks carrying 80 tons of agricultural supplies; 7 trucks carrying 44 tons of medicine and medical supplies; 4 trucks carrying 25 tons of humanitarian supplies..."

 

This Poignant Last Photo of an Israeli Soldier...  (30 August 2014)

 

"A photographer of a leading Israeli news site captured the moment a soldier and his girlfriend were hugging for the last time just days before the soldier was killed in the exact spot along the Gaza border where the picture was taken..."

 

Moving to Israel for Moral Clarity  (30 July 2014)

 

"[H]ere are a few things to keep in mind about the unequal casualty figures:..." 

 

No Jews, No News  (30 July 2014)

 

"On Twitter a Jewish man succinctly explained to me why the press steadfastly refuses to give us details on actual atrocities committed by the same people Israel is fighting: 'No Jews, no news'. It's the only thing that explains why this story, for example, isn't being covered to the degree that it deserves..."

 

In LA Times Gaza-Israel Photo Slideshow, Hamas Not in Picture  (30 July 2014)

 

"As of this writing, the collection of 75 photographs ... does not include a single photograph of anyone identified as a Hamas fighter, dead or alive. According to Times photo editors, the Israeli army and Gaza's civilians are the only players in this conflict. Hamas literally does not have a role..."

 

Things Not Linked To By BBC's Jon Donnison  (30 July 2014)

 

"After leaving Gaza Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati tweeted:..."

 

Lord 'No Brain' Piles in Against Israel  (30 July 2014)

 

"A great deal of bile has been heaped on Israel during the last three weeks of the Gaza offensive. We have witnessed the usual torrent of hypocrisy, double standards, and delegitimisation in The Guardian, The Independent, the BBC, Channel 4 News and a variety of other outlets. The Daily Mirror too has entered the hall of infamy..."

 

Up to 25% of Hamas Rockets Fall Short and Kill Gazan Civilians  (30 July 2014)

 

"As many as 25% of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel in the current Israel-Hamas war don't make it out of Gaza and strike civilians inside the coastal enclave..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 22  (29 July 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

The Last Time She Would Ever See Him  (29 July 2014)

 

"Sad photo making way across Israeli media this morning. Killed soon thereafter."

 

Hamasbara and Media Terrorism  (29 July 2014)

 

"The media war between Israel and Hamas is a disproportionately unequal one. It's unequal because Israel must maintain its credibility, while Hamas and its media allies never worry about their credibility..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 21  (28 July 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

Listen to the Children  (28 July 2014)

 

"Lyse Doucet is fronting a programme tonight, Children of Syria (BBC2 21:00) about the children in Syria, suffering because of the war. In her write up about the programme she of course also manages to slip in plenty about the children of Gaza... though she neglects to mention the children in Israel under constant Palestinian bombardment..."

 

Gaza Conflict Day 20  (27 July 2014)

 

Today's top stories.

 

Two wars, One Moral Confusion  (27 July 2014)

 

"The term 'moral equivalence' was popular during the Cold War, when it was widely used by Westerners of the leftist persuasion. ... 'Moral equivalence' was the term they used, but they didn't really mean equivalence. The word was just shorthand for the emotional and ideological kinship they felt for the Soviet Union..." 

 

The Lancet's Latest Abuse of Medicine for Political Ends  (27 July 2014)

 

"UK medical journal The Lancet has a history of politicizing medicine in the cause of bashing Israel. ... So, in the midst of Israel's Operation Protective Edge, The Lancet's publication of an 'open letter for the people in Gaza' comes as no surprise. That radical Israel hater and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Mads Gilbert is one of the signatories is enough to signal just how politicised the letter is:..."

 

Hamas' Use of Human Shields  (27 July 2014)

 

"What is so hard for the world to understand that if you can strap a Bomb Belt around a six year old child (as Hamas has done repeatedly) and send him into a crowded Mall, that you can send a mortar shell right smack into the middle of a United Nations School housing women and children?..."

 

President Obama's Moral Ambiguity on Hamas  (27 July 2014)

 

"[For] political leaders sworn to uphold the world order, I believe that the greatest moral failure of our time is a refusal to hate evil. Hatred of evil implies both the right to make judgements as well as a belief in moral absolutes, both of which are anathema to liberalism and modern sensibilities..."

 

No, Supporting Hamas Is Not 'Feminist'  (26 July 2014)

 

"It was only a matter of time. Today, Ali Abunimah's Electronic Intifada published a piece titled 'Ending Zionism is a feminist issue'..."

 

Opponents of Israel's Military Operation in Gaza Are the Real Enemies of Middle Eastern Peace  (26 July 2014)


"Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but subsequent barrages of missiles against Israel have met with indifference by the international community. Hamas's quotidian commission of war crimes nets them a global shrug or rap on the knuckles - another example of the soft bigotry of low expectations. The UN has gone further..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 18  (25 July 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

The Proportionality of Arabs Being Killed  (25 July 2014)

 

"Are you upset at Arabs again, being killed by the Israeli Defense Forces? Are you at unease that civilians are caught up in hostilities? Does it bother you that Israel is using what the world calls 'disproportionate' power? I am. I am not happy when misfortunates meet a fate they themselves could have mostly avoided. But, then again, this is the Middle east. Besides, Gaza, there are a few other bloody items this past week:..."

 

War 'Statistics': The New York Times Deceives Again  (25 July 2014)

 

"The 'Daily Tally' in the New York Times, a casual-sounding infographic, presents a side-by-side count of casualties and missiles in Gaza and Israel. Although it is ostensibly one of the clearest representations of violence, it is seriously misleading..."

 

A Thank You Letter From Hamas to the Media  (25 July 2014)

 

"Dear Members of the Mainstream Media, You've been awesome! Everyone knows that we start unwinnable wars with Israel because the real victory happens when you predictably side with us each time. And you've been so supportive of our strategy that we really want to acknowledge your helpfulness. In particular , we thank you for:..."

 

Gaza Conflict Day 17  (24 July 2014)

 

Today's top stories.

 

Assuming That Israel Is Less Moral Than Hamas is Pure Bigotry  (24 July 2014)

 

"I had written at the outset of this war that the number one mistake reporters were likely to make is assuming that all Gaza casualties are the result of Israeli fire. And that is exactly what has happened..."

 

Why a Hospital IS a Legitimate Target  (24 July 2014)

 

"There are those who continue to cry about disproportional responses and the injuring of civilians. So, if Gaza had wounded, where would they take them to? In a normal world, you'd take them to a hospital. But in Gaza, a hospital is just another building from which to fire at Israel. People seem to be horrified that Israel is firing at a hospital. What amazes me is why the world isn't horrified that Hamas is using hospitals to store explosives, rockets, weapons..."

 

Hamas Spokesman: A Truce Means Preparing for the Next Battle  (24 July 2014)

 

"Mushir Al Masari, a Hamas MP ... was asked ... if Hamas had its own ceasefire proposal. He responded, 'This is just nonsense of the Zionists and a dream of them to live in peace and calmness for 10 years. We shall keep disturbing the Zionists until the last of them [sic] Zionists leaves our Palestine land because every truce is temporary for a certain period of time...'"

 

07/24 Links Pt1: Hamas Uses Humanitarian Aid for Evil; Who Is Responsible For Suffering in Gaza?  (24 July 2014)

 

Links to various relevant articles.

 

IDF Says Bombing, Deaths at Gaza UNRWA School May Be From Hamas Rocket Falling Short  (24 July 2014)

 

"One or more munitions that slammed into a UNRWA school in southern Gaza on Thursday killing at least 15 and wounding dozens of others may have been fired by Hamas, and not the IDF, as Palestinians are claiming. ... UNRWA also acknowledged on Thursday that Hamas fired into the Beit Hanoun area, where the agency's school was hit, ... The IDF has counted at least 100 rockets fired by Hamas as striking within Gaza..."

 

Israel and the Burden of Being Right  (24 July 2014)

 

"Generally when someone says they 'hate to say I told you so,' it's fair to doubt they really hate saying it. But in Israel's case it's believable. The current conflict with Gaza is proving Israel correct about its various claims with regard to Hamas, and the result is the treacherous urban warfare the world is currently witnessing..."

 

The Love of Israel  (24 July 2014)

 

"Flags and signs are going up all over Israel - on cars, on buildings, homes and stores... each is a message. A message to our country, to our soldiers, even a message to each other..."

 

What's Wrong With the UN Human Rights Council?  (24 July 2014)

 

"Where do I begin? The AJC explains..."

 

The Most Guarded Tank in Gaza  (24 July 2104)

 

"this, and all the other Israeli tanks (with or without the pictures on them) are protected first and foremost by the Protector of Israel, who neither sleeps nor slumbers..."

 

From a Father to His Son  (24 July 2014)

 

"This song was written by a father many years ago with the hope that all would be well, and his son would never be called upon to serve and fight as he was doing at the time. Years later, his son has now been called up; now wears the uniform of Israel. With pride and pain, his father now sings this song with him..."

 

Hamas Al Qassam Offices Are Next to the Emergency Room at Shifa Hospital (Update)  (24 July 2014)

 

"French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abu Dagga tells of his harrowing experience with Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades :..."

 

How the West Helped Hamas Build Its War Machine  (24 July 2014)

 

"[T]here are many [ways in which the West helps Hamas], including media coverage that encourages Hamas's use of human shields ... or even parrots outright Hamas lies ... But ... one important form of assistance to Hamas that has received far too little attention despite contributing greatly to Gaza's current misery: the West's relentless pressure on Israel to stop restricting imports of 'dual-use' items into Gaza..."

 

Guardian Brings Back Jihad Misharawi Photo to Illustrate 'Israeli Attacks'  (24 July 2014)

 

"Hamas terrorists fired approximately 2270 rockets at Israeli civilians since the beginning of the current war. We know that a percentage of mortars and Grad rockets have fallen short and landed in Gazan territory - quite possibly (based on past experiences) injuring or killing Palestinian civilians..."

 

One Sentence by the Guardian's Mid-East Editor Explains Their Coverage of the War  (24 July 2014)

 

"To date, the Guardian's coverage of the war has revealed the following:..."

 

The Blame Game  (24 July 2014)

 

"Some sort of explosive weapon has hit a school in Gaza, the BBC says it was a 'shell'... only the Israelis use 'shells'..."

 

Why Israel Fights: Life on the Gaza Border  (24 July 2014)

 

"You won't be able to feel what I felt yesterday in the warm embrace of an amazing family who live in one of the small agricultural communities on the border they share [with] the Hamas's Terrorist enclave in Gaza, ... I won't be able to convey the emotion, the frustration, the courage, the grace, the anger at a world that refuses to see what's right in front of them, ... The war they face and have faced almost constantly for thirteen years is about two thousand meters, as the rocket flies, from their front door. At least that's the distance away from their front door that it was up until a few days ago when the first thirteen terrorists popped up like zombies from graves opening up on their front lawn!..."

 

This Is How We Fight the Monsters  (24 July 2014)

 

"Look Saraleh, no monsters,' my mother would tell me when she'd shine a beam from my Little Mermaid flashlight in my bedroom closet when I couldn't fall asleep. 'Check under the bed, Mommy'. She'd get down on her knees, ... and peer into the darkness: 'Nope. None.'  'Promise?'  'Promise'.  We'd hug and kiss on it, which made it true. These demons of the imagination, so easily dispelled, banished by the beam of a flashlight, by a hug and a kiss. Not so in Israel. There are no monsters lurking beneath our bed, or lunatic clowns crawling out of closets. Instead: 'mama, I don't want to go to sleep,' my daughter whimpers. 'Mama, I'm afraid of the rockets,' my son says. The night before, we ran over shaking ground to a public bomb shelter, and the roar of the siren still rings in their ears. These are our monsters, these rockets hurling toward us. And they're very very real..."

 

When Is It My Turn to Die?  (24 July 2014)

 

Jon Snow published a photo yesterday whose provenance was originally disputed but which has now been verified as being from Gaza. However "Well so far so good, that is the photo dealt with... but what about the words of the six year old? Could this possibly be the same six year old whose mother claimed spoke similar words when she was being interviewed by Sheila Fogarty 10 days ago? ... Are all six year olds trained to parrot this phrase by Hamas...?"

 

A Work of Remarkable Honesty  (24 July 2014)

 

"Hamas advised its supporters: 'You must always cast doubts on this [Israeli version], disprove it, and treat it as false.'  Who could doubt there are many who have taken that advice to heart..."

 

BBC Avoids Giving Audiences the Whole Picture on Hamas' Pre-Ceasefire Demands  (24 July 2014)

 

"There is nothing novel about BBC misrepresentation of Israel's naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and the restrictions placed on the entry of dual-use goods to that territory. However, that topic now moves into the limelight again..."

 

BBC TV News Airs Claim That Gazans Are Being Deliberately Starved to Death by Israel  (24 July 2014)

 

"BBC audiences might very reasonably expect that studio-produced backgrounders would be capable of meeting editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality more easily than reports produced under pressure in the field. Apparently that is not the case..."

 

Some BBC Bright Spots and the Remarkable Reaction of a Presenter Confronted with Reality  (24 July 2014)

 

"Among the subjects still missing from the BBC's coverage is some in-depth coverage of the topic of Hamas' use of human shields and the way in which that deliberate policy contributes to the high number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. ... One attempt to shed light on that issue was made by Barak Seener ... in an interview with BBC World News on July 21st - with a remarkable reaction from the presenter when presented with an expert opinion (which is presumably what the BBC sought when it invited the specific interviewee) on the realities underpinning Hamas strategy:..."

 

Jeremy Bowen's Gaza Notebook: "I Saw No Evidence of Hamas Using Palestinians as Human Shields"  (24 July 2014)

 

"The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has written a 'Gaza notebook' for the New Statesman. (Well, did you really think it would be for the Spectator or the Jewish Chronicle?). It is strikingly opinionated, even by his standards..."

 

Greater Men Have Tried  (24 July 2014)

 

"I wrote this in February 2014 and posted it to the Times of Israel. For months after, friends came over and told me people had sent it to them. Several more have come in the last few days and so I reprint it. It was true in February 2014, it is now true in July 2014 and sadly, since John Kerry has learned nothing since it was written several months ago, one war later, it will still be true in February 2015. ... Open Letter to John Kerry:..."

 

Hamas Helpfully Explains What It Means by 'Truce' (In Arabic, Of Course)  (24 July 2014)

 

"Mushir Al Masri is a member of Hamas parliament and one of the more prominent spokespeople for Hamas. Here, he explains in Arabic exactly what Hamas has in mind with its 'generous' offer of a hudna ('truce'): ... Al Masri is also behind a quite different message aimed at Westerners:..."

 

Ninth Lesson From the Gaza War: Hamas Will Use Humanitarian Aid for Evil  (24 July 2014)

 

"It required 800 tons of concrete to build the terror tunnel that almost resulted in a massacre of Israelis on a kibbutz near the Gaza border last week, the Washington Post reports. Where did all that concrete come from? And how is it related to the $47-million in 'humanitarian aid' that Secretary of State John Kerry now wants to give to Hamas?..."

 

UNHRC is the Council for Terrorist Rights  (24 July 2014)

 

"Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, over its intention to launch an investigation into the IDF's operations in Gaza..."

 

Israel's Morally Impossible Self-Defense  (24 July 2014)

 

"Forgetting that Israel's current campaign was necessitated by ceaseless rocket and mortar assaults on its southern towns from Hamas-controlled Gaza, international leaders and diplomats have initiated their moral hectoring of Israel as it attempts to shield its citizens from harm..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 16  (23 July 2014)

 

Live updates.

 

Gaza Conflict Day 16  (23 July 2014)

 

Today's top stories.

 

Facts About the Battle of Shejaiya the Guardian Didn't Report  (23 July 2014)

 

"Below are excerpts from two articles about the battle, written by two of the leading Israeli journalists..."

 

Guardian Likens Hamas Rockets to 'Useless Fireworks'  (23 July 2014)

 

"The Guardian, in an official editorial on the war in Gaza, argued the following:..."

 

HURRAH for 'Blood-Stained' SHIRTS!: Daily Mail Leads With ISM Propaganda  (23 July 2014)

 

"You really have to question the judgment of Daily Mail editors in not only publishing the following selectively edited anti-Israel propaganda video released by the pro-terror group, International Solidarity Movement, but in featuring it in a story on their home page yesterday:..."

 

Guardian Cartoon Depicts Bibi With Suicide Vest of Dead Palestinians  (23 July 2014)

 

"Like any good Guardian Left contributor, cartoonist Steve Bell seems to share the philosophy of his colleague Martin Rowson, who believes his 'progressive' mission is to 'afflict the powerful, and comfort the afflicted'. Within this facile moral paradigm, Jews represent the former and Palestinians the latter..."

 

Tweeting With Twits  (23 July 2014)

 

"I've been tweeting with twits for days now, and I'm so tired... as an active Twitter participant, I've been watching and responding for days. Three common things are coming my way:..."

 

This is war...  (23 July 2014)

 

"Israelis seem to love to declare operations. I can't count how many operations I've lived through in the 21 years since I moved here. ... But Israel is making a mistake by continuing to call this an Operation and not a War..."

 

BBC Radio 4's 'Today' Airs Falsehoods on Gaza Medicine Shortage (and the Ramblings of Bar Hillel)  (23 July 2014)


"Judging by the amount of correspondence in our inbox on the morning of July 22nd, a great number of people were very dismayed  by the peculiar decision made by producers of BBC Radio 4's Today programme to invite Mira Bar Hillel to speak as a supposedly representative voice of 'British-Israeli Jews' ... But what is more interesting about this edition of the 'Today' programme ... is the introduction to the item given by presenter Sarah Montague to apparently seven million listeners..."

 

BBC Radio 5 Live Broadcasts Inaccurate Claim on Shortage of Medicines in Gaza  (23 July 2014)

 

"Let's be quite clear about this: there is a shortage of medicines and disposables in Gaza Strip hospitals and that shortage existed even before Operation Protective Edge began, but it has absolutely nothing to do with any Israeli policies or actions..."

 

BBC's Chris Morris Misquotes the Israeli Prime Minister  (23 July 2014)

 

"On July 20th yet another of the BBC correspondents who have been 'parachuted in' to provide backing to the regular team made a filmed report for BBC television news. Europe correspondent Chris Morris' report also appeared on the BBC News website's Middle East page ... and there the synopsis promotes unsourced casualty figures - with no evidence of independent verification by the BBC - which once again fail to make any distinction between civilian and terrorist combatant casualties..."

 

War Crimes? As Judged by the UNHRC Whose Bias Against Israel 'Cannot be Doubted'  (23 July 2014)

 

"The BBC has gone frontpage with the UN's suggestion that Israel 'may have committed war crimes': ... Curiously no mention of the UN's own war crime on the BBC... the hiding of Hamas weapons in one of their schools... for the second time... at least: ... Also where are all those tunnel entrances used to launch attacks on Israel hidden?..."

 

Pallywood?  (23 July 2014)

 

"The BBC has remarkably played it cool with this video which claims to be of a Palestinians out looking for his lost family when he was allegedly shot by an Israeli sniper ... if even the BBC is reluctant to go with this there must be a high degree of doubt... not something either the Telegraph, Mail or Mirror seem concerned about as they splash it over their websites. One up for the BBC then."

 

How the West Helps Hamas Thwart Future Israeli Pullouts  (23 July 2014)

 

"Several commentators have already noted that foreign airlines' suspension of flights to Israel due to Hamas rocket fire may mean Israel will 'never-ever hand land to Palestinians ever again' ... Israel can't afford to have its sole air bridge to the world be at the mercy of a terrorist organization's whims. But blaming Hamas alone for such a development would be unfair..."

 

UNRWA's Second Rocket Cache and Their Zeal to Redirect Anger at Israel (Update)  (23 July 2014)

 

"It is fascinating that UNRWA couldn't count the rockets, or take photos. It is equally fascinating that the guards [UNRWA] deploy[s] to guard the schools don't notice things like this..."

 

How B'Tselem Counts Terrorists as Civilians  (23 July 2014)

 

"The UN doesn't count the casualties in Gaza directly. They get the data from a consortium of 'human rights' groups: the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al Mezan, and B'Tselem, which they call the 'Protection Cluster'. Based on the data they receive from these groups they publish their statistics of whether the dead in Gaza are civilian or 'members of armed groups'..."

 

The UN Perverts Law to Demonize Israel  (23 July 2014)

 

"The United Nations Secretary-General is supposed to promote UN ideals ... Those ideals focus on the dignity and worth of the human person - and on international peace and security. ... The UN Secretary-General is also supposed to uphold the values and moral authority of the United Nations. Part of those values includes establishing rules of war so as to protect civilians during times of conflict..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 15  (22 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Did Newsweek Promote Fake Atrocity Video? Will ISM Produce Video for Inspection?  (22 July 2014)

 

"The International Solidarity Movement, a radical anti-Israel organization that has condoned acts of terror against the Jewish state, is alleging that an Israeli sniper killed a young man in Gaza during the recent fighting between the IDF and Hamas. The ISM posted a video of the alleged sniper attack on its website on July 21, 2014. Later that day, Newsweek posted an article about the video on its website and quoted ISM activist Joe Catron..."

 

Strategic Implications of Operation Protective Edge  (22 July 2014)

 

BESA Center Perspective Paper No. 256. Executive Summary: The current Israel-Hamas war will have broad strategic implications that go far beyond the immediate results on the battlefield. The war might have an impact on the political future of the Palestinian Authority and the disposition of the West Bank, on the struggle against Iran, on the future of missile wars in the region, and on regional alliance politics..."

 

The Terrorists' Reality Show  (22 July 2014)

 

"For terrorists, the death of innocent children is irrelevant. In a society that promotes martyrdom as the ultimate sign of success, the death of innocent children can sometimes even be seen as a public relations blessing. In every action, intent is paramount. There should never be a moral equivalence painted between the deliberate killing of civilians, and a retaliation that tragically leads to casualties among civilians. There is, however, one small difference..."

 

Israel's War With the Muslim Brotherhood  (22 July 2014)

 

"Despite the cries of furious hipsters waving cardboard signs stained with fake blood, there is no ethnic cleansing going on in Gaza. No more than there was when the US began bombing the Taliban. The last act of ethnic cleansing took place in the summer of 2005 when the Israeli government gave in to international pressure by forcibly evicting all the Jews from the Gaza Strip..."

 

Rockets, Borders, and 'Proportionality'  (22 July 2014)

 

"During January, terrorists ambushed a train, kidnapping 18 innocent civilians, and ruthlessly murdering them in cold blood. Several weeks later 1500 terrorists again breached the border and staged another brutal attack, sacking a city and leaving another 19 dead in the street. The government, having put up with multiple onslaughts, finally responded by sending 6000 troops back across the border to kill or arrest as many terrorists as possible, particularly the barbaric leader of the group. As familiar as this scenario sounds, the events actually occurred during January 1916. The leader in what today would be called a terrorist [sic] was not Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas but Pancho Villa. The government was the USA..."

 

Perhaps I Was Wrong  (22 July 2014)

 

"In English, people like this are called 'clueless' - cut off from reality with no idea of what's happening around them. The term came to mind when I was watching foreign correspondents ... reporting from Gaza..."

 

Hamas: Leading Their People to Death  (22 July 2014)

 

"Ernest Hemingway had great advice for writers. 'Write one true declarative sentence,' he said. 'Then write another.'  By that standard, Papa Hemingway would be proud indeed of Sami Abu Zuhri's literary prowess..."

 

From Gaza to UCLA, Israel Faces Multi-Front War  (22 July 2014)

 

"As Operation Defensive [Protective] Edge enters its 14th day and Israeli forces mount an intensive counterinsurgency campaign against a cowardly, genocidal Islamist enemy bent on terror and destruction, a different war of sorts is shaping up across the Atlantic in America's universities..."

 

Tunnel Threat Must Be Eliminated  (22 July 2014)

 

"The ongoing fighting in Gaza Strip has slowly exposed the daunting tunnel infrastructure Hamas has dug between Gaza and Israel. This is a strategic threat, which has grown undisturbed over the past few years, and may still exact a heavy toll in the coming days..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 14  (21 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

A Fake Atrocity Video From Gaza  (21 July 2014)

 

"Hooray for Pallywood! If you're unfamiliar with the term, Pallywood refers to the fraudulent videos that the Palestinians and their supporters put out to try and convince the world that Israel is the New Third Reich. Today the International Solidarity Movement released the most blatantly phony footage I've ever seen. A child could deconstruct this fake atrocity video..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 13  (20 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 11  (18 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 10  (17 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Families Grapple with Lasting Effects of Israel-Gaza Conflicts  (17 July 2014)

 

"'Take something as simple as a shower [said Esti Day in Ashkelon]. Now, you have to do it very quick and have the towel beside you. You need to make sure all the children come in the bathroom with you - there wouldn't be time to get them from another room.' ... 'Imagine yourself having two or three small children,' [Lilach Nissim of Herzilya] said. 'Your husband is not home and there is an alarm and you have to get to the shelter in 15 seconds. You cannot take them all. Who do you take first?'  Nissim said her cousin in Ashkelon was once driving when a 'code red' siren sounded. Her then 3-year-old and 10-month-old children were strapped into the car. She stopped the car, but in less than 15 seconds needed to decide what to do: either take them out to lie in the middle of the street, or grab one and run for shelter..." 

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 8  (15 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Gaza Conflict Day 8  (15 July 2014)

 

Today's top stories.

 

Why Did Hamas Launch Its Current Rocket Offensive Against Israel?  (15 July 2014)

 

"The current Gaza conflict, which broke out following a deliberate escalation by Hamas when it fired dozens of rockets into Israeli cities over a wide radius ... raises questions about the reasons for this rocket offensive by Hamas..."

 

A Maoist in Gaza  (15 July 2014)

 

"Despite the flurry of reports from Gaza today, very few news outlets picked up on Hamas' declaration that it had closed the Erez border crossing into Israel, citing 'Israeli shelling' as the reason for doing so. The move, reported AFP, left stranded a group of Palestinians who had arrived at Erez early in the morning, 'some of whom were scheduled to enter Israel for cancer treatment'..."

 

Muslim Double Standards Abound  (15 July 2014)

 

"If the murderous spree some of my fellow Muslims have embraced is not enough, their hypocrisy of playing the victim card makes the rest of the world cringe in anger, if not outrage..."

 

The 'Unsustainable Status Quo' and Gaza  (15 July 2014)

 

"Speaking yesterday at the White House after dinner, President Obama reiterated his support for a peace agreement that would end what he called the 'unsustainable status quo' between Israel and the Palestinians. But while his support for peace is appropriate, his inability to connect the dots between the fighting in Gaza and his hopes demonstrates anew the administration's tone-deaf approach to the Middle East..."

 

Hamas's No to Peace, Not Just Cease-Fire  (15 July 2014)

 

"For the last week, supporters of the Palestinians have been railing at Israel for its response to rocket attacks from Gaza. The plight of ordinary Palestinians in this latest round of fighting has stirred the sympathy of the world, But when given a chance to put an end to the shooting, Hamas wanted no part of a cease-fire..."

 

Guardian Logic Used to Blame Israel for Ceasefire Violation in One Tweet  (15 July 2014)


"If you've been following our recent posts, you're aware that the Guardian live blog on the Gaza War posted two entries a few hours ago that somehow managed to blame Israel for breaking the ceasefire which took effect this morning. ... Well, a Guardian deputy editor named Phoebe Greenwood doubled down on the Guardian claim a few hours ago, and the rhetorical somersault she employed to defend the indefensible was truly something to behold..."

 

IDF Responds to 6 Hours of Hamas Rocket Fire, and Guardian Blames Israel for Breaking Ceasefire!  (15 July 2014)

 

"As we noted about 30 minutes ago, the Guardian's Live Blog pronounced that the ceasefire (which went into effect at 9.00 this morning) was 'holding' despite the dozens of rockets fired by Hamas since the morning..."

 

Guardian's War Blog Uncritically Cites Commentator Who Likens Israel to a Child Molester  (15 July 2014)

 

"Like any live blog on a serious news site, the Guardian's running blog of the Gaza War is, presumably, supposed to post significant events and snippets of relevant commentary relating to the conflict..."

 

Graham Jones MP Accuses Israel of 'Deliberately Killing Children'  (15 July 2014)

 

"Graham Jones MP, a Labor Party member who serves Haslingden & Hyndburn, Tweeted the following on July 14th..."

 

Hamas Is Playing a Dangerous Game With Gazan Lives  (15 July 2014)


"So far Hamas's military campaign against Israel has been a dismal failure. Thanks in part to Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system, some 1,200 rockets fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities have caused only one Israeli death and a few other casualties. Attempted commando attacks via the sea and a tunnel were stopped short, and a drone that ventured into Israel was quickly shot down. Yet Hamas on Tuesday rejected an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was supported by Western governments and the Arab League and had been accepted by Israel. Why would Hamas insist on continuing the fight when it is fairing so poorly? The only plausible answer is stomach-churning..."

 

There's Something Very Ugly In This Rage Against Israel  (15 July 2014)

 

"Why are Western liberals always more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It's extraordinary. ... Anyone possessed of a critical faculty must at some point have wondered why there's such a double standard in relation to Israeli militarism, why missiles fired by the Jewish State are apparently more worthy of condemnation than missiles fired by Washington, London, Paris, the Turks, Assad, or just about anyone else on Earth..."

 

Undermining Israel's Right to Self-Defense: The UN Pathology  (15 July 2014)

 

"When the people of Israel exercise their inherent right of self-defense, they are forced to withstand an additional onslaught from today's morally bankrupt United Nations. ... UN actors manufacture a cycle of violence that begins with Israeli aggression; assert a moral equivalence between Arab terrorists and their Israeli victims; and concoct a litany of Israeli human rights abuses..."

 

Hamas's Own Goal  (15 July 2014)

 

"It was almost poetic justice - a rocket that Hamas fired at Israel on Sunday night knocked out a high-voltage line that supplies electricity to some 70,000 Gazans. This was a blackout waiting to happen. Literally biting the hand that feeds it, Hamas persistently aims at the very Ashkelon power plant upon which Gaza depends for its electricity..."

 

The Guardian Retracts Ceasefire Tweet  (15 July 2014)

 

"One HonestReporting subscriber called out The Guardian's journalists when he saw this tweet:..."

 

Paying the Price for Disengagement  (15 July 2014)

 

"We have now reached the ninth anniversary of one of the most shameful actions ever carried out by the State of Israel in its history..."

 

The Israeli Army... Then and Now  (15 July 2014)

 

"Same army, same enemy. Same actions then as now, same determination to do the best we can. And sadly, we face the same Arab propaganda machine and the same twisted media..."

 

The Shortest Ceasefire in History?  (15 July 2014)


"or not even that?"

 

Gaza War Crimes Continue  (15 July 2014)

 

"only to be ignored by the Guardian. A picture and a headline. The headline says,..."

 

Hamas Rockets Kill Ceasefire Deal  (15 July 2014)


"Hamas' continued rocket fire has forced Israel to resume Operation Protective Edge after a six-hour, one-sided ceasefire..."

 

CBS Report Comes Up Empty on Fuel Claim  (15 July 2014)

 

"On CBS This Morning, Holly Williams reported today from Gaza City that Hams appeared to reject an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire agreement because it did not include the removal of the security-based naval blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007..."

 

Where's the Coverage? NYT, Others Ignore Attacks on Paris Synagogues  (15 July 2014)

 

"The New York Times and other major American media outlets have completely ignored attacks this past weekend on three Paris-area synagogues, one involving a firebomb and another which left hundreds of Jews tapped for hours and several injured..."

 

Reuters Corrects Reference to '100s' of Fleeing Israelis  (15 July 2014)

 

"Reuters has corrected an article from earlier today which grossly understated the number of Israelis in rocket range who have forced to seek shelter during sirens warning of incoming salvoes launched from Gaza..."

 

Good News: Obama Administration Finally Supports a Border Fence - in Israel  (15 July 2014)

 

"[A] border fence between the West Bank and the 1967 Israeli border, [Philip Gordon, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East said], would be built after Israel relinquishes the territory in exchange for an empty promise of 'peace' with the Palestinians. Apparently Gordon hasn't noticed that missiles fly over fences..."

 

The Jewish State in a Morally Sick World  (15 July 2014)

 

"Let's drop the names 'Hamas' and 'Israel' and make a list of the characteristics of two imaginary warring entities. We'll call them Entity A and Entity B..."

 

Geraldo, Geraldo, Geraldo  (15 July 2014)

 

"Recently, Geraldo Rivera posted the following: 'Back in NYC after the wonderful family excursion to Spain and Italy, my two favorite countries to visit. Today on my first day back to work on my WABC radio show I spoke about Israel and how the bombing of Gaza was undermining Israel's moral authority...'"

 

BBC, Would This Make You Happy?  (15 July 2014)

 

"'It's unfair that we aren't able to kill more of your civilians'..."

 

Random Voices From Israel - Part 3  (15 July 2014)

 

"Many are talking about the ceasefire that was agreed to by the Cabinet of the State of Israel... here are some things appearing on my Facebook page and messages I am getting from friends..."

 

BBC World Service Gives Inaccurate Report on the Ceasefire That Wasn't  (15 July 2014)

 

"A BBC World Service radio programme ... gives some interesting indications regarding the BBC's already emerging framing of the topic of the ceasefire..."

 

BBC Continues to Promote Theme of 'Homemade' Rockets  (15 July 2014)

 

"One of the themes we have seen being recycled in BBC reporting of Operation Protective Edge is that of the description of the missile arsenals of Gaza Strip-based terrorist organizations as 'homemade rockets'. Just a few examples of that practice can be seen in the following reports:..."

 

BBC's Bowen Tries to Persuade TV Audiences That Hamas Does Not Use Human Shields  (15 July 2014)

 

"BBC license fee payers pay a lot of money in order to be informed of facts. Hamas' use of human shields is one of many important facts audiences need to know about in order to be able to reach an understanding of this particular international issue as they are promised in the BBC's constitutional document. It is bad enough that in over a week or reporting from the Gaza Strip, not one BBC journalist has explained the human shields issue properly to BBC audiences. It is beyond grave when the man in charge of Middle East reporting - not some junior journalist - not only fails to inform, but actively seeks to deny and refute the issue..."

 

Random Voices From Israel - Part 2  (15 July 2014)

 

"During a phone meeting, the siren went off and [a friend of mine] had to go running to the shelter. the other person, who was in the United States, wrote her a note and this [my friend's] response..."

 

No Peace with Israel, No Recognition of Israel, No Negotiations with Israel  (15 July 2014)

 

"'Hamas Bombards Israel and Refuses to Agree to a Ceasefire'.  That's one headline the BBC could have, should have, written... instead they chose this one: 'Gaza Conflict: Israel Restarts Air Strikes Amid Rocket Fire'.  Here's the front page... once again the emphasis is on Israel and Israel is presented as the aggressor: ... The headlines matter because many people don't read any further and even if they do [headlines] can influence how they 'read' the report..."

 

Will the BBC Accept that Hamas Wants to Kill Lots of Jews?  (15 July 2014)

 

"A fairly typically partisan report on the Israel and Palestine crisis last night on the BBC 10pm news. The focus was entirely on the killed or injured Palestinians, referred to exclusively as 'civilians'; the point was made, at the top of the report, that Hamas had killed nobody. Yes, but only because Hamas is utterly useless: it clearly WANTS to kill lots of people, which is why, on a daily basis, it bungs over the rockets - indiscriminately - in an attempt to do so. The rockets which precipitated this crisis. We are enjoined to have sympathy for the Palestinians and treat the Israelis with odium because the former are murderous and incompetent and the latter ... adept. It is an infantile sensibility."

 

No To Cease Fire  (15 July 2014)

 

"'As a mother of three...oh, sorry...of five...you support a ceasefire don't you?'  So asked the BBC interviewer Friday afternoon in a prerecorded interview that I was told would be non-political. They said they wanted to know what it was like for Israelis to live under the fire of rockets. One question about that - and then two more. The one above and the one asking me to explain how more than 100 Palestinians have been killed while no Israelis have died. Non-political? Yeah...  Do I support a ceasefire...as a mother? How very insulting to men that question is. Don't men want peace? Aren't they equally worried about not only their children but the children of their enemies? In the world of BBC, apparently not. And so I answered..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 7  (14 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Gaza Conflict Day 7  (14 July 2014)


Today's top stories.

 

What Would You Do?  (14 July 2014)


"70% 0f Israelis are living within range of Hamas' rockets. That's the same as..."

 

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Vicious and Misdirected  (14 July 2014)


"One of the ugliest responses to Israel's Operation Protective Edge comes courtesy of serial Israel basher Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent..."

 

Israel Under Fire: Answering the Accusations  (14 July 2014)


"In response to the media's coverage of Operation Protective Edge, HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams has issued the following statement:..."

 

VIDEO:  Abd Al-Bari Atwan: Former Editor-in-Chief Al-Quds Al-Arabi  (14 July 2014)


"Interview with Abd Al-Bari Atwan, former editor-in-chief of Al Quds Al-Arabi, which aired on Mayadeen TV on July 14, 2014:..."

 

Independent Op-Eds Spew Hate and Vitriol at Israel  (14 July 2014)


"The Independent doesn't have a Jerusalem correspondent at the moment. So, during the war, they've been mainly  relying on stringers and wire service reports. However, their lack of on-the-ground coverage hasn't stopped them from using the 'expert' analysis of a few of their op-ed contributors. Here are a few examples:..."

 

Palestinian Envoy More Honest Than The Guardian on Hamas 'War Crimes'  (14 July 2014)


"The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent Peter Beaumont reacted angrily to rather mild criticism directed towards him, and his paper's coverage of the war, in a Times of Israel report..."

 

Where's the Coverage? Palestinian Official: All Hamas Rockets Are War Crimes  (14 July 2014)


"In a stunning moment of candor, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council states that it would be folly for Palestinians to apply to the International Criminal Court given that 'each and every' rocket fired by Hamas is a 'crime against humanity'..."

 

Reporting of Casualties in Gaza  (14 July 2104)


"Shown below is a chart of male fatalities in Gaza resulting from hostilities between Hamas and Israel between July 7 and July 14, derived from a list published by Al Jazeera on July 14..."

 

Muslim Mob Attack Jews in Paris  (14 July 2014)


"Translation of text from French report in JSS News."

 

The Gaza Numbers Game  (14 July 2014)


"Five days into Operation Protective Edge, the out-going UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, issued a statement that the number of casualties in Gaza raises 'serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.'..."

 

Paris Synagogue Attacks Ignored by BBC  (14 July 2014)


"This is a screenshot of the BBC News website's Europe page on the morning of July 14th 2014: ... This is what happened in Paris the evening before..."

 

How the BBC's ME Editor Prevents Audiences From Understanding the Background to the Gaza Conflict  (14 July 2014)


"Back in 2006, the role of BBC Middle East editor was described thus:..."

 

Hamas Uses BBC Brand for Fauxtography Propaganda  (14 July 2014)


"A picture circulated by Hamas purporting to show a teenager in Gaza killed by an Israeli airstrike is in fact a still image from the Hollywood horror film..."

 

The Slaughter of the Innocents  (14 July 2014)


"Interesting, as always, couple of exchanges with Nicky Campbell this morning on 'Your Call'..."

 

Random Stories of Israelis Under Fire  (14 July 2014)


"From Tel Aviv ... A call to Obama ... From the center of the country ... From the South..."

 

Israel is the Victim of Mohammed's War Against the Jews  (14 July 2014)


"Hamas isn't shooting rockets at the Jews because of persecution, isolation or occupation. The Sunni Islamic terrorist group is doing it for the same reason that Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other in Iraq and Syria. And why its Muslim Brotherhood core group is killing Christians in Egypt. To understand why, let's step into a time machine and go back to the spring of 632..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 6  (13 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Netanyahu Finally Speaks His Mind  (13 July 2014)


"[O]n Friday afternoon ... the Prime Minister, for the first time in ages, gave a press conference on Day Four of Operation Protective Edge. He spoke only in Hebrew, and we are in the middle of a mini-war, so his non-directly war-related remarks didn't get widely reported. But those remarks should not be overlooked even in the midst of a bitter conflict with Gaza's Islamist rulers; especially in the midst of a bitter conflict with Gaza's Islamist rulers..."

 

How Diplomats, Reporters and Human Rights Activists Saved Hamas  (13 July 2014)


"As Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas targets and Hamas rockets fall on Israeli towns, some wonder how did Gaza come to [be] run by Hamas terrorists. The answer is that the world forced Israel to let them in..."

 

Abbas Facing Prosecution for Aiding and Abetting War Crimes  (13 July 2014)


"Mahmoud Abbas - Head of he Government of National Consensus in Gaza since 2 June - faces prosecution in the international criminal justice system for aiding and abetting war crimes involving the indiscriminate firing of 384 rockets and missiles from Gaza into Israeli population centres reaching as far away as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the past four days. This latest barrage - which sees no signs of ending comes after more than 10000 similar rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza - then governed by Hamas - following Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Abbas and his government now however bear primary responsibility for preventing war crimes emanating from Gazan soil..."

 

Canadian PM Harper Praised for Statement in Support of Israel's Gaza Campaign  (13 July 2014)


"The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification. It is evident that Hamas is deliberately using human shields to further terror in the region. Failure by the international community to condemn these reprehensible actions would encourage these terrorists to continue their appalling actions..."

 

A Message to World Leaders: Put Yourself in Israel's Shoes  (13 July 2014)


"If it were your cities under attack, we know you would agree that a sovereign government has a duty to defend its citizens..."

 

BBC Watch Uncovers the Sources of Jeremy Bowen's Cited Casualty Figures  (13 July 2014)


"Several readers wrote in to bring our attention to the less than impartial Tweets sent by Jeremy Bowen since his arrival in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. A couple of examples are shown below, and readers can see more here. In some of his reports filed since July 11th too, Bowen has promoted his own amateur opinion ... that Israel has 'serious questions' to answer..." 

 

BBC News: Israelis Target Women and Children  (13 July 2014)


"In 2006 Hamas was busy murdering its rivals for power in the Palestinian territories, dragging Fatah men from their hospital beds before shooting them or throwing other Fatah members from the roofs of their buildings. The BBC told us that Hamas were 'merely flushing out the corrupt and violent Fatah'. How different the BBC reaction when Israeli bombs accidentally kill civilians and hit a home for the disabled. Whiles Hamas deliberately set about killing patients the Israelis did not. But it is Hamas that receives the BBC's stamp of approval... despite deliberately storing weapons in hospitals and mosques..."

 

Proportionality - Number of Israeli Airstrikes About the Same as Number of Gaza Rockets  (13 July 2014)


"Of course most IAF missiles are more powerful than most Gaza terror missiles, but it is interesting that the numbers are so close, especially for people who falsely claim a 'proportional response' means an equivalent response..."

 

Israel Not to Blame: False Photo Caption Corrected  (13 July 2014)


"The following two photos attributed to Hatem Moussa of the Associated Press appeared in a Daily Telegraph photo montage: ... In the first caption, the fire at the Karni crossing was attributed to shelling while the second photo caption was more specific, claiming that the cargo terminal was 'shelled by Israeli tanks'. It would be unthinkable that Israel were to attack its own crossing through which cargo goods enter the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the IDF has confirmed that the fire was a result of a Palestinian rocket that fell short. Credit to the Daily Telegraph for promptly amending the captions when informed of the error by HonestReporting."

 

Anyone Ever Shot a Rocket At You?  (13 July 2014)


"This amazing picture was taken by my son-in-law, a very talented photographer (who should have been looking for a shelter). Look carefully. What you will see is four things of interest:..."

 

Voices From Israel: M From Jerusalem  (13 July 2014)


"While getting dressed for Shabbat Friday afternoon, I was thanking G-d for the 'luxury' of being able to take my time figuring out what to wear (we have 90 seconds to get to a safe place if there's a siren; friends 30 minutes away have 15 seconds)..."

 

From a Southern Mother  (13 July 2014)


"My daughters and I are thankfully not at our homes in Netivot. A rocket landed outside of my elder daughter's home and blew out all of the windows of her apartment!! None of us are planning to return south until this is over G-d willing..."

 

From the Children of Israel  (13 July 2014)


"From a three year old: 'imma... yesh boomim' (Mommy - I hear booms)..."

 

From an Israeli Soldier On His Way to Base  (13 July 2014)


"This is what an Israeli soldier just sent his mother as he made his way back to base. This is a son of Israel, a son of us all, all our sons..."

 

A View From Inside Israel  (13 July 2014)


"[W]e are expected to conduct this war carefully while the Palestinians continue to fire randomly at everything south of Haifa and north of Eilat. Five million people are being bombed. Why, asked the BBC radio in an interview they told me would be non-political, why have no Israelis been killed while more then 100 Palestinians have?..."

 

UN Security Council Issues Non-Binding Call For Cease Fire in Gaza  (12 July 2014)


"The unanimous but non-binding resolution makes no call on the conflict itself, but demands a return to the November 2012 cease-fire that Hamas has continuously violated almost since the ink dried on the document:..."

 

Israel Crisis: Obama's Obscene Moral Relativism  (12 July 2104)


"As Palestinian terror dramatically escalates, the Obama administration is working hard - not to defeat the terrorists, but to tie Israel's hands behind its back. Sure, there is background noise paying lip-service to an Israeli right of self-defense and babbling about a Palestinian peace partner. The reality, however, is that responsibility for the harrowing transition from the kidnap and murder of three Jewish teenagers by Hamas members to 4 million Israelis running in terror from Hamas rocket attacks leads directly to the White House. Here are the dots that need to be connected:..."

 

Israeli Teachers Use 'Color Red Song' to Calm Children During Hamas Attacks  (12 July 2014)


"In an Israeli town where experts say 90% of children between the ages of 4 and 18 suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, a song designed to get children to a safe place before Hamas' rockets hit has become an indispensable part of living with terrorism..."

 

Why Gaza Doesn't Have Bomb Shelters  (12 July 2014)


"One of the key talking points by apologists for Hamas in the current conflict is that it isn't fair that Israelis under fire have bomb shelters while Palestinians in Gaza don't have any. Among other factors, the lack of shelters accounts in part for the difference in casualty figures between the two peoples. But somehow none of the talking heads on TV ever ask why there are no bomb shelters in Gaza..."

 

When Is a 'Home' a Legitimate Target?  (12 July 2014)


"When is a house a home? And when does it become a legitimate military target?..."

 

Brave Hamas Fighters Courageously Hiding Among Children  (12 July 2014)


"In what military experts around the world are calling a bold, gutsy strategy, militants of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip are bravely taking the risk of positioning themselves among noncombatants, despite the risk that as a result Israel might not attack them for fear of harming civilians..."

 

Hamas Continues to Use Human Shields to Launch Attacks  (12 July 2014)


"Hamas continued its documented record of using civilians and 'protected' areas as cover for launching missile strikes into Israel..."

 

Jeremy Bowen  (12 July 2014)


"I have to be honest and say that I did a double take when reading Jeremy Bowen's twitter feed. I thought it has to be a parody but evidently not. Hamas must love him. Over the years, we have covered many of the flare ups in this region and the BBC bias is truly visceral. Palestinians are ALWAYS innocent victims and Israelis are ALWAYS the aggressors. The script never changes. Never any investigation into how Hamas operate. Never any consideration of why Hamas rockets Israel on a daily basis. The three young Israeli boys kidnapped and shot to death forgotten now. Most times, I can brush off the BBC bias with the contempt it deserves BUT when it comes to this vile Palestinian propaganda machine, it makes me seethe with anger."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 4  (11 July 2014)


Live Updates.

 

The Israel-Hamas Conflict - The Obligation of Getting the Law Right  (11 July 2014)


"International law has quite a lot to say about the latest violence that has flared up between Israel and Hamas. So do the media. Unfortunately, they rarely match, leading to unfortunate - and sometimes egregious - misrepresentations. In an age when both real and perceived violations of international law have a substantial effect on the legitimacy of state action, getting it wrong is way more than just bad journalism..."

 

Does Obama Want 20 More Gazas?  (11 July 2014)


"Speaking today, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed not to cease Israel's military operations against Hamas terrorists until his country's people are 'assured of quiet' as they coped with a weeklong barrage from Gaza. But in explaining his position, he raised an important question that transcends the immediate confrontation: does the U.S. really expect Israel to tolerate a situation in which this battle will be duplicated on the West Bank?..."

 

VIDEO:  Israel Air Force Aborts Gaza Airstrike After Spotting Children Near Target  (11 July 2014)


"'There are people close to our target,' the pilot carrying out the mission is heard saying in the clip. 'It looks like there are people, possibly children in our targeted area.'  An operator responds: 'We are not going to strike this target now, let's move on.'  The aborted strike was part of Israel's ongoing Operation Protective Edge aimed at halting Gaza rocket attacks on Israel that have increased over the past weeks..."

 

Senate Opposition to PA Unity Grows in Face of Rockets  (11 July 2014)


"As senators submitted a bipartisan resolution in support of Israel's right to defend its citizens in the face of rocket attacks, a key Democratic senator hosted Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and Defense Attache Major General Yaacob Ayish Thursday for a briefing on the ongoing IDF operations against terror targets in Gaza..."

 

UN: Gaza Casualties Were Warned in Advance by Israel  (11 July 2014)


"The majority of Palestinians injured or killed by Israeli airstrikes were warned in advance by Israel that an attack was coming, providing further evidence that the terror group Hamas is intentionally urging citizens to ignore these warnings in a bid to inflate the body count, according to the United Nations..."

 

Washington Post Headline Reeks of Anti-Israel Bias  (11 July 2014)


"It's the biggest, boldest headline on the front page of the July 10 edition of the Washington Post. In huge type, it proclaims:..."

 

Obama's Mixed Middle East Messages  (11 July 2014)


"President Obama called Israeli PM Netanyahu and offered to help mediate a cease-fire with Hamas that was accompanied by a statement of support for Israel's right to self-defense. But Israel is not jumping at the proposal. And, as much as Israelis would love for the rocket attacks from Gaza to stop, that reluctance is well founded..."

 

Diana Buttu, Who Tangled With CNN Reporter, Has History of Falsehoods  (11 July 2014)


"Diana Buttu had a tough time on CNN yesterday. When the former PLO advisor tried to avoid answering pointed questions about Hamas rocket fire, the interviewer did not give up..."

 

IDF Tells West Bank Arabs How to Remain Safe During Gaza Rocket Attacks  (11 July 2104)


"The Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria (COGAT) passed on the Home Front Command guidelines in Arabic for Palestinians (in the territories), and explained to them how to act when the (Code Red) alarm is heard or when rockets are falling. The Civil Administration guidelines were designed in recent days together with PA officials in all sectors, at their request, following concerns within the territories of the escalation of Gaza rockets. In most homes in the West Bank there is no safe room."

 

Despite Rocket Attacks, 23 Palestinians Including Eight Gazan Children, Are Undergoing Treatment in Israeli Hospitals  (11 July 2104)


"Despite ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza leaving most of Israel's population under threat, the Jewish state's Rambam Health Care Campus is currently treating a number of Gazan patients including three adults and eight children, and three adults and two children from the Palestinian Authority. In addition, Haifa hospital is hosting seven patients from the PA for treatment in outpatient clinics, and additional patients from Gaza are scheduled for treatments later this week..."

 

A Game Changer in Gaza  (11 July 2014)


"Terrorism is a game. The rules are simple. You have three choices: 1. Destroy the terrorists, 2. Live with terrorism, 3. Give in to the terrorists. There are no other choices..."

 

Why Does Hamas Want War?  (11 July 2014)


"Politicians start wars optimistic about their prospects of gaining from combat, ... otherwise, they would avoid fighting. Why, then, did Hamas provoke a war with Israel? ... And why did the Israeli leadership respond minimally, trying to avoid combat? This although both sides know that Israel's forces vastly out-match Hamas' in every domain - intelligence gathering, command and control, technology, firepower, domination of air space? What explains this role reversal?..."

 

The Palestinian Rocket and Propaganda Offensive  (11 July 2014)


"Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas and its co-jihadists have fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel. They have been conducting an unrelenting Nazi-style rocket blitz for years, except during cease-fires that are hastily negotiated after Israel strikes back. Hamas's rocket blitz has intensified massively in recent days to new heights..."

 

The Pro-Israel BBC  (11 July 2014)


"On Wednesday Owen Jones made a rather surprising claim in the Guardian ... that the BBC was pro-Israeli: ... Incredible that Jones manages to ignore every other headline from the BBC or their continuous reports of Israeli bombardments of Gaza killing 'Palestinians'... and oh yes... the Palestinians may have fired off a few ricketty homemade rockets into the deserts of Israel where absolutely no one was hurt. So BBC... tell us who all those 'Palestinians' were..."

 

Latest Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Exposes Surreal Reality  (11 July 2014)


"Perception and reality continued to baffle Palestinian advocates on Thursday as the conflict between Israel and Gaza terrorist groups reached its third day..."

 

BBC Promotes Lie That Israel Is Targeting Civilians in Gaza  (11 July 2014)


"The BBC News website's main articles on the second day of Operation Protective Edge - July 9th - underwent amendment numerous times ... Currently going under the title 'Hamas fires rockets amid Israeli airstrikes on Gaza', its first four versions were titled 'Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities after Gaza offensive', thus misleadingly suggesting to BBC audiences that the firing of missiles by terrorists from the Gaza Strip is a response to Israeli actions, rather then the exact opposite, which is actually the case..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 3  (10 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Ban Ki-Moon Calls Hamas Irresponsible  (10 July 2014)


"Yes, this rates a flying pig. Israel must be winning because the Security Council met..."

 

Hamas Orders Civilians To Die in Israeli Airstrikes  (10 July 2014)


"Hamas' Interior Ministry has ordered residents of the Gaza Strip to remain in their houses if they are about to be bombed by the Israelis, a move that effectively turns citizens into human shields and is intentionally meant to boost the casualty rate, according to a copy of the order published by Hamas..."

 

Hamas Tells Gazans to Ignore IDF's Call to Leave Border Area  (10 July 2014)


"The IDF on Thursday warned some 100,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of impending military action and called on them to leave their homes to avoid danger, but Hamas told them to stay put..."

 

Hamas's Human Shield War  (10 July 2014)


"Hamas terrorists continued shooting rockets at Israel today as air raid sirens sounded all over the country including in Jerusalem. But the international media's focus on the conflict continues to be the rising toll of Palestinian civilian casualties. Yet, as with previous conflicts, not much attention is being paid to the way Hamas used Palestinians as human shields..."

 

How Does Israel End Up the Bad Guy?  (10 July 2014)


"It is a terrible irony that Israel, revolted first by the murder of three of its teenage citizens and then by the revenge attack on a Palestinian teen, is the object of riots, bombs, and demands. ... 200 rockets of increasing size and precision in the past month, 50 one night this week - and major waves of international disapproval, including from President Obama who demanded that 'all sides show restraint' as if Israel hadn't, and that Israel get on with dispensing justice as if it wouldn't. ... How did Israel get there?..."

 

Genocidal Math and Mahmoud Abbas' Jew-Hatred (update)  (10 July 2014)


"On Wednesday, it was reported: 'Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas told a crisis meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza during its military offensive which has so far killed at least 50 Palestinians' ... Of course, no world leaders take him to task for sounding more like Saddam Hussein rather than the statesman they pretend he is. They still believe him to be a man of peace, because the truth is so depressing. Still, it is worthwhile to do the grisly math..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Ambassador Ron Prosor Sounds a Siren in the Security Council  (10 July 2014)


"Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor: Imagine having only 15 seconds to find a bomb shelter. Now imagine doing it with small children or elderly parents or an ailing friend..."

 

Hamas's (and Iran's) Fail-Safe Strategy  (10 July 2014)


"What is Hamas doing? Hamas isn't going to defeat Israel. It isn't going to gain any territory. Israel isn't going to withdraw from Ashkelon or Sderot under a hail of rockets. So if Hamas can't win, why is it fighting?..."

 

12 Points About Operation Protective Edge  (10 July 2014)


"[T]welve understandings about the objectives of the current campaign, Operation Protective Edge, and how it differs from Operation Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense:..."

 

Despite Ongoing Rocket Fire, Israel Transfers Aid to Gaza  (10 July 2014)


"Despite the ongoing rocket fire by Gaza terrorists, Israel has not halted the entry of trucks into Gaza - and on Thursday, some 200 trucks carrying food and 'basic supplies' entered Gaza..."

 

Fires in Israel  (10 July 2014)


"This morning, an attack on Shaar Hanegev resulted in this devastating fire. ... Fires are being set by rockets - and also by intentional acts of arson. ... two days ago, Palestinians fired on the holy city of Jerusalem... if you love something, you don't try to destroy it."

 

Nation That Carpet-Bombed Vietnam Calls for Israeli Restraint  (10 July 2014)


"The government of the last country to use saturation bombing in combat is admonishing Israel to exercise restraint in its handling of the current offensive in the Gaza Strip..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Hamas Song: 'Fire Your Rockets... Blow Up Tel Aviv'  (10 July 2014)


"O [Hamas'] Al-Qassam [Brigades], fire without asking / On [southern Israel's) Eshkol to return (the Israeli city) Ashkelon / Let the thieving [Israeli] army lament and go down to the shelters / Let them go down to the shelters / O Al-Qassam, fire your rockets / make them explode and write your history / O Al-Qassam, victory is from Allah / In Paradise there is a Garden [for Martyrs] calling to you / Fajar 5 [rocket], O blaze, hurry, destroy Tel Aviv / O Martyrdom-seeker (i.e., suicide bomber), O blaze hurry, blow up Tel Aviv / The free [Hamas'] Al-Qassam say, ' Allah willing, we will hit and will not fail' [Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 9, 2014]."

 

No Big Deal  (10 July 2014)


"The world seems uninterested."

 

Daily Mail Omits Hamas Man's Terror Affiliation  (10 July 2014)


"The Daily Mail leads its coverage of the Gaza conflict with the dramatic headline and image above. The article states:..."

 

Independent Absurdly Claims That Israeli Self-Defense is Violating Jewish Values  (10 July 2014)


"What would the appropriate U.K. response be to thousands of rockets raining down on London, fired by an extremist movement dedicated to the country's destruction, which had forced thousands of Brits to take cover in bomb shelters? Do you think it's safe to say that the British government would give its military leaders explicit orders to stop the rocket fire? Further, considering such a hypothetical scenario, is there any question that the 'enlightened' voices in the media would support the government while it engaged in such a basic act of self-defense?..."

 

Eerily Deja Vu  (10 July 2014)


"[This] is an op-ed I wrote in 1990, right after the murder in Rishon Lezion of seven Arab itinerant laborers by Ami Popper (who's still doing life and who unlike homicidal Arabs hasn't been released to ransom hostages or to win a presumed peace-partner's goodwill). Have a read ... it could well have been written today:..."

 

The Love of a Nation  (10 July 2014)


"Once again, our reserve soldiers are being asked to put their lives on hold, leave their families, and take up arms to defend our country..."

 

The Miracles of Israel  (10 July 2014)


"This morning, yet again, they fired a rocket at Israel - it hit the small and beautiful city of Netivot. I've been there - the first word that came to mind was gentle. It's a gentle town. Sweet, helpful. Netivot. The rocket landed... right next to a nursery school - in the year where children play. Damage was caused to the building - but who cares? None of our babies were hurt..."

 

When A Picture Says It All  (10 July 2014)


"This picture was taken ... on the Tel Aviv highway this morning. there are so many elements of this picture that should be seen. The most obvious is the woman crouched on the side protecting her head, covering her ears. Such fear, such tension can be seen. But look beyond to the cars on the right..."

 

An Open Letter to Israel's Critics  (10 July 2014)


"To Israel's critics: Want to be taken seriously by Israel and its friends? Here's your moment to demonstrate your bona fides..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: the Real Peace Process  (10 July 2014)


"It was slightly under a year ago that the not-real peace process, ... got under way. In that 'process', Israel; and the ostensibly moderate Fatah wing of the Palestinians, led by Mahmoud Abbas, were supposed to negotiate for nine months and reach a conflict-ending two-state solution. There was a hitch: to reach that pot of gold, Israel would have to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in phased batches. They could not be car thieves and the like; they had to be terrorist murderers. Sometimes the road to peace has strange bumps in it..."

 

Operation Protective Edge Enters Its Third Day  (10 July 2014)


"The IDF is currently focusing its efforts on destroying the terror infrastructure in Gaza from the air and targeting terrorist leaders and commanders. The IAF on Wednesday evening targeted the homes of several Hamas commanders who were using their homes as terror command centers. Early Thursday morning, the IDF targeted three Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who were involved in the manufacturing of medium-range rockets. Accurate hits were registered. Hamas has resorted again to using human shields to protect their infrastructure. The population seems to be willingly cooperating, creating a situation that boosts the number of casualties in Gaza. The IDF has been doing its utmost to minimize civilian casualties and therefore chose to abort certain missions..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 2  (09 July 2014)


Live updates.

 

Proof Hamas Uses Human Shields in Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"For those who still don't believe that Hamas uses human shields, get a good look at the picture above. It's a group of 'Palestinian civilians' (perhaps that is becoming an oxymoron too) on the roof of a building that Israel wanted to destroy. In this case, the human shields accomplished Hamas' purpose: Israel did not destroy the building. ... Why aren't the 'human rights' groups criticizing Hamas? Because they're not about human rights. They're about anti-Semitism and Jew hatred."

 

Mr. President, My Kids Are in Bomb Shelters  (09 July 2014)


"My four children who are currently in Israel tell me not to worry. That running to shelters is common. ... What is more tragic? A tiny democracy that had more than one million people in bomb shelters on Tuesday night? Or the fact that the citizenry are so accustomed to running to bomb shelters that they consider it normal. The response of the United States has been appalling. President Obama is calling on all parties to show restraint. Let me repeat that. The President of the United States is calling on the elected officials of democratic Israel and the bloodthirsty terrorists of Hamas to show restraint. To whom is he directing his appeal? Hamas' charter calls for the annihilation of Jews wherever they may be found. Does the President think that Hamas gives one damn about his calls for restraint?..."

 

YOUTUBE:  What Israeli Schoolchildren Sing to Deal With Rockets  (09 July 2014)


"This song was composed by a local teacher and has been taught to hundreds of schoolchildren within firing range of Gaza's rockets to help them deal with the fear and trauma of having 15 seconds to run for cover when the Color Red siren sounds. Shachar Bar, an art therapist who teaches in Sderot, became increasingly alarmed after seeing the thousands of children of the western Negev suffering the cumulative effects of trauma due to the ongoing barrage of Kassam rockets from Gazan Palestinians. ... How different from the videos of the Palestinian children learning to call for the murder of all Jews."

 

Who Started the Fighting? The UN Lies, As Usual  (09 July 2014)


"Here is the UN-OCHA-OPT backgrounder on the current situation:..."

 

The Gaza Rules  (09 July 2014)


"According to many critics, Israel is slaughtering civilians in Gaza. It's 'purposefully wiping out entire families', says an Arab [please note that: an Arab] member of Israel's parliament. It's committing 'genocide - the murder of entire families', says Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA. Iran says Israel has committed 'massacres against the defenceless Palestinians'.  The charges are false. By the standards of war, Israel's efforts to spare civilians have been exemplary..."

 

An Important Reminder: The IDF Was Formed to Protect Israel's Civilians  (09 July 2014)


"One of the reasons that the Israeli Air Force has had such trouble taking out the terrorist commanders and their rocket crews is because they are deeply embedded within the Gaza civilian population. ... Hamas leaders operate solely from inside schools, mosques, apartment buildings and hospitals. The rockets and their launchers are also hidden away inside of these civilian centers. It is virtually impossible for the IDF to strike at the launchers without endangering the lives of the Gaza civilians who act as human shields for the terrorist infrastructure. ... Each alleged civilian casualty is widely publicised in the international media to brand the IDF as war criminals. This, at the same time Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately target Israeli citizens!..."

 

And Again: Hamas Leadership Hiding in Basement of Shifa Hospital  (09 July 2014)


"As in 2009, Hams is using Shifa hospital to hide its leadership, and as in 2012, it is using the hospital as part of its war effort..."

 

YOUTUBE Schumer in Senate Floor Speech: No Moral Equivalency  (09 July 2014)


"Senator Schumer responds to the dangerous notion that there is any equivalency between the actions of Hamas and the actions of the State of Israel."

 

Ten Points on Day Two of Israel's New War With Hamas  (09 July 2014)


"Here are ten points worth bearing in mind as the conflict develops..."

 

Morality and Self-Defense in Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"[T]he idea of a country defending its borders and population against terrorist assault by politely asking the people living in and around a legitimate military target to evacuate the place before it is demolished is virtually unprecedented in the history of warfare. The Israelis are doing it for a number of reasons. One is that the IDF's code of conduct has always promoted the concept of avoiding civilian casualties whenever possible. The other is that the Palestinians have deliberately sought to provoke Israeli counterattacks that would cause civilian deaths that could then be used to discredit the Jewish state. But the problem with the practice is twofold..."

 

When You Hear Your First Siren  (09 July 2014)


"When you hear your first siren, time stops. Your stomach lurches, and your legs shake. Time stops and the world keeps spinning..."

 

Guardian Website Spews Lies About Gaza Conflict  (09 July 2014)


The Guardian has launched a Live Blog on the war, ... "One of the first blog entries highlighted the analysis of Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding. (As BBC Watch has noted, CAABU is a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, and a well-established part of the Arab lobby in the U.K.)..."

 

As Rockets Fly, Administration Blasts Israel  (09 July 2014)


"Philip Gordon, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and a special assistant to President Barack Obama, gave the keynote address at the Haaretz Conference on Peace in Tel Aviv yesterday. Yet rather than use the opportunity to focus on American support for Israel's right to self-defense at a time when the very city he was speaking in was being targeted by Hamas rockets, Gordon centered his remarks on harsh criticism of the Israeli government and lavished praise on the Palestinian leader who had embraced unity with the people currently shooting at Tel Aviv and scores of other Israeli cities, towns, and villages..."

 

Hamas, Stop That Right Now, Or I Shall Be Forced To Frown!  (09 July 2014)


"By US President Barak Obama: 'Making a frown is perhaps extreme for some, who would rather see me ignore the situation entirely. To them, I say what good would that accomplish? Remaining silent would condone the ongoing violence. What is necessary here is a clear condemnation of the violence, but not one that would commit actual resources to giving the condemnation any teeth. I do not show teeth. Facial expressions featuring teeth are not in keeping with the dignity of this office. A proper presidential smile is disdainful, even haughty. Toothless...'"

 

Prominent Leftist Backing IDF Action in Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"Gershon Baskin is Co-Chairman of IPCRI - Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information and is a renewable energy entrepreneur. He was involved in the negotiations for the terrorists for Gilad trade two and a half years ago."

 

Blind to Reality  (09 July 2014)


"And then the rocket was intercepted. That is, the rocket that was fired as a greeting from the besieged Gaza Strip to the peace conference hosted by the Not-Our-Land newspaper Haaretz in Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city. Ah, if only we'd discussed peace, we wouldn't need a sword now. So what have we been doing for the past 20 years? The Palestinian Authority, Camp David, the disengagement form Gaza, and peace proposals by then Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak?  How symbolic that this ridiculous conference was taking place just as half our citizens were heading for shelters because of rocket attacks from Gaza..."

 

New York Times Page-One Anti-Israel Bias  (09 July 2014)


"The NYT's anti-Israel bias is on prominent display today in its international edition with a highly skewed page-one headline. Completely inverting reality, the headline, ... declares: 'Israel presses air barrage and Hamas strikes back.'  Uniformed, casual readers would have no clue from this grossly skewed headline that the opposite is true. It is Israel which is striking back following 386 Palestinian rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip and targeting civilian communities in Southern Israel since 12 June, when the three Israeli teens were abducted and killed..."

 

Hamas Commits War Crimes, Supporters Complain About Israeli Restraint  (09 July 2014)


"It's unbelievable (Adam Taylor, Washington Post): ... Let's come back to earth. Has any other country done anything remotely like this in the course of fighting a war? Is it reasonable that Hamas should fire rockets at civilian targets in Israel with the intent to kill as many Jews as possible, but Israel should be criticized for its attempts to avoid hurting non-combatants?..."

 

Preview of Coming Comments  (09 July 2014)


"The hardly unexpected reactions to Operation Protective Edge, from those who rarely react when Israel is attacked, may be regarded as a preview of coming comments. At first hearing, some Israelis took heart from the fact that players like the UN Secretary General and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton at all denounced the missile barrages from Gaza. But the devil is in the further details. It's instructive to pay heed to the entirety of their messages..."

 

Bombing Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"We've been in this movie before."

 

Intensifying Conflict as More Rockets Aimed at Tel Aviv  (09 July 2014)


"This is a follow-up to several other recent dispatches on the ongoing conflict between Hamas (which is now part of the Palestinian unity government, having been invited in by president Abbas) and Israel..."

 

2014: Why Israel is Hitting Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"Propaganda value aside, why is Israel attacking Hamas in Gaza today? Hamas' ... declared goal is to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic one. Indeed, its enmity is directed not only toward Israel but toward Jews in general..."

 

What If Terrorists Could Shoot Rockets at Your Country?  (09 July 2014)


"It is now clear that Hamas has received powerful M-302 rockets from Iran, placing over 3.5 million Israelis in danger. ... The Israel Navy found the same type of rocket onboard the Klos C vessel in March. The ship, intercepted in the Red Sea, was carrying Iranian weapons destined for Gaza terrorists..."

 

Hamas's Nazi-Style Rocket Blitz  (09 July 2014)


"The Palestinians unity government, via its co-equal partner Hamas, is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli civilians. Hamas has launched scores of rockets from Gaza aimed at major Israeli cities covering more than half of Israel. ... The attacks have escalated from 6 on June 27th to more than 160 on July 8th. this is Hamas's version of the Nazi-style air blitz, meant to terrorise the Israeli population into submission..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Hamas Spokesman Encourages Use of Human Shields  (09 July 2014)


"The spokesperson for Hamas in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, spoke on Al Aqsa TV about the use of civilians as a human shield. He refers to the night of June 8 when the IDF avoided civilian casualties by aborting an airstrike. He encourages Palestinians in Gaza to continue the practice in order to deter IDF strikes."

 

New York Times Drops the Ball on Hamas' Human Shields  (09 July 2014)


"[F]aced with a watertight confession that Palestinians are using IDF warnings in order to act as human shields, ... [and] instead of focusing on Hamas' policy of deliberately placing civilians in harm's way, the New York Times brands Israel's measures to avoid civilian casualties as 'contentious'. What's so contentious about avoiding civilian casualties? Shouldn't the contentious policy be that of Hamas?..."

 

Hamas: Now You See Them, Now You Don't  (09 July 2014)


"Watching the news reminds me of when I was in Gaza..."

 

BBC Bias in Gaza  (09 July 2014)


"The BBC's Yolande Knell is reporting from Gaza. But she isn't reporting everything. She begins by referring to an incident involving Palestinian casualties..."

 

Gaza Conflict Day 2: Hamas Escalates Rocket Fire  (09 July 2014)


"Today's Top Stories: Escalation marked the second day of Operation Protective Edge..."

 

Hamas Uses More False Images Against Israel on Social Media  (09 July 2014)


"[T]he majority of the pictures on social media using the hashtags #GazaUnderAttack and #GazaUnderFire are from previous events. The pro-Palestine people have continued in this practice of attaching images of dead children and women, mostly from the Syrian civil war, and asserting that the pictures were taken in Gaza this week."
[Please be warned that these photos are extremely graphic and distressing.]

 

Fake Images on Social Media Blame Israel For Violence  (09 July 2014)


"A significant part of any battle nowadays is waged in the media, as each side tries to garner public support through the exploit of images and footage used to influence popular opinion. A report by the BBC shows that Hamas in Gaza is wasting no time in the current round of violence and has already begun to generate the imagery they use in their media battle, misrepresenting the facts..."

 

World Reaction to Israel's Defensive Measures Varies  (09 July 2014)


"Governments around the world have been quick to condemn the surge in Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens but most have not offered unequivocal support for Israel's Operation Protective Edge. ... Thus far, the Government of Canada has been the sole voice demanding that the new Fatah-Hamas unity government stop the terror..."

 

'Mummy, What Have I Done to Hamas?'  (09 July 2014)


"I was busy washing dishes yesterday evening when all of a sudden I heard a wailing sound and doors slamming in my building. ... In Tel Aviv you have a minute and a half to find shelter. A big difference from the 7 seconds I had when I was in Sderot..."

 

Would the UK Be 'Restrained' If You Were Under Rocket Bombardment?  (09 July 2014)


"In the last day, I have been forced to run into a bomb shelter three times. I am in Tel Aviv. For other Israelis, in the south, running to bomb shelter has become an hourly occurrence during these days. ... This situation is simply intolerable. No nation can accept such incessant rocket attacks on its people and neither will we. But the world seems oblivious, ... Where are all those so-called enlightened liberals, who continue to call for BDS against the Jewish State, but are silent in the face of Palestinian terror against Jews? What about human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Oxfam, who do not waste a single opportunity to condemn Israel for human rights violations against the Palestinians? Are the human rights of Israelis not equally important? Or is Jewish blood really that cheap? And then there is the mainstream media, like the BBC, which lead their stories about rocket attacks with headlines like 'Israel launches new airstrikes on Gaza Strip' and not the more accurate 'Palestinian Terrorists in Gaza rain down Hundreds of Rockets Against Millions of Israelis?..."

 

Operation Protective Edge Is a Battle for Human Life  (09 July 2014)


"Without thinking, an Israeli mother or father will shield their child. In those 15 seconds - where the sound of the siren may well be the last thing you hear on this earth - children are shielded by their parents. A human shield. A shield of love. Now try to comprehend this..."

 

Guardian Fails to Challenge NGO Claim on 'Restrictions of Medicines' into Gaza (Update)  (09 July 2014)


"[E]ntry on July 8th from the Guardian's Live Blog: ... Though the blog's editor allows the claim made by MAP (a radical NGO whose leaders misuse their reputation as medical experts to support Palestinian political goals) to go unchallenged, the suggestion that there has been any Israeli restrictions on medicine into Gaza is flatly untrue. ... the problem 'emanates primarily from a dysfunctional relationship between the Palestinian Ministries of Health in Gaza and Ramallah'..."

 

BBC's Knell Inaccurately Attributes Shortage of Medical Supplies in Gaza to Israel  (09 July 2014)


"Perhaps the only vaguely surprising thing about Yolande Knell's promotion of the tried and trusted theme of a shortage of medical supplies in Gaza in her July 8th filmed report for BBC television news was the fact that she did not wait longer than a few hours after Operation Protective Edge commenced before producing it..."

 

BBC News Informs Audiences 'Several Rockets' Fired at Israel on Evening of July 8  (09 July 2014)


"The report opens as follows, already whitewashing Hamas' international terrorist designations: 'At least 15 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel launches a major air and sea offensive against the militant group Hamas.'  Readers had to continue right down to the eleventh paragraph and past the loaded sub-header 'War Crime' in order to learn that some of those casualties were actually terrorists..."

 

BBC WS Journalist Tells Israeli Official How to Run Gaza operation  (09 July 2014)


"One of the recurrent phenomena associated with media coverage of outbreaks of conflict in this region is the proliferation of journalists who suddenly transform into self-appointed 'experts' in military strategy and 'international law' ... BBC journalist Rebecca Kesby ... uses her questions to the Israeli spokesman to advance the inaccurate and defamatory notion of 'collective punishment' to suggest that there is no need for Israeli action against missile fire from the Gaza Strip because Israel has the Iron Dome missile defense system, to yet again promote the falsehood of Israeli attacks on 'civilian' houses and to suggest some distinctly off the wall alternatives to current Israeli strategy. ... Clearly way out of her depth, Kesby's self-appointed upgrade to military strategy consultant is not just embarrassing to hear; it actively distracts listeners from forming a proper understanding of the real issues at stake."

 

Only the New York Times...  (09 July 2014)


"Israel has a practice of warning civilians before it hits Hams targets that sit among them. Only the New York Times could turn a humanitarian practice into a vice..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Statement by PM Netanyahu Regarding Operation Protective Edge  (09 July 2014)


"Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza are firing rockets on cities throughout the State of Israel - on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, BeerSheva, Sderot, and other cities. No country on earth would remain passive in the face of hundreds of rockets fired on its cities, and Israel is no exception..."

 

VIDEO:  How Should We Respond?  (09 July 2014)


"How would the world respond? Well, if you were to listen to President Obama, we should show restraint. We should consider that maybe if we let them shoot... I don't know... 30,000 rockets at us and if they don't manage to murder a ton of us... they might get tired. Amira sent me this clip ['Proportional Response' from West Wing, Season 1] - I've been meaning to put it up..."

 

Tears...  (09 July 2014)


"I found my first tears this morning - and even I would not have suspected the timing and cause. I didn't cry last night as I watched the news and saw my country being bombarded with missiles. I almost cried when I saw a picture of a father kissing his daughter goodbye and promising he would return to her safe and soon. ... 'It will be okay' ... and that was when the first tear fell. It will be okay?..."

 

Thoughts...  (09 July 2014)


"More rockets have been fired at Israel than I can count. There is no semblance of their attempting to target any specific places. They have shot at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Rechovot, Rishon L'Zion, and everything in between around and near - north and south and east and west..."

 

Operation Protective Edge: Day 1  (08 July 2014)


Live Updates.

 

New York Times Criticizes Israel For Trying to Save Arab Lives (Update)  (08 July 2014)


"This is really sickening reporting by the New York Times:..."

 

What Hamas Wants: Would You Believe a 'Cease Fire'?  (08 July 2014)


"A Hamas spokesman actually asked for a 'cease fire' this evening according to a report on Israel Radio. But the request came with five conditions that Israel is very unlikely to fulfill:..."

 

No Words...  (08 July 2014)


"They are firing rockets at my country. They fired at Tel Aviv. Jerusalem is opening the bomb shelters and tells us we have 90 seconds to take cover."

 

Why Are We Fighting With Gaza Again?  (08 July 2014)


"We're still on Day One ... and the contours of international thinking are already predictably clear: Since people are dying in Gaza and, as of this writing, nobody has been killed in Israel, plainly Israel's response is an aggressive overreaction. It become wearying, conflict after conflict, but it is necessary, nonetheless, to urge policy-makers and opinion-shapers overseas to make just a modicum of effort, to look just a little closer, to exercise just a smidgeon of intellectual honesty. And to recognise the bottom line:..."

 

The Misleading Blood Feud Narrative  (08 July 2014)


"Today's escalation of fighting in the ME is provoking the usual calls for restraint from the West and the usual talk about cycles of violence from the international media. But as long-range missiles are being launched at Israeli cities to indiscriminately kill or maim the country's citizens, [Westerners] should be asking themselves why Hamas is doing this. This is, after all, the same Islamist group that the Obama administration assured us was on its way to being a partner for peace. ... [L]ost amid the rush to moral equivalence are some basic facts about Hamas and why it chooses to keep attacking Israel..."

 

Obama and the Middle East Mess  (08 July 2014)


"[W]hile the world reproaches both sides today President Obama reminded us why he deserves a good deal of the blame. ... Obama has largely held himself aloof from the conflict in recent weeks other than warning Israel to show 'restraint' in response to both terror attacks and missile barrage on its territory. But he did choose to contribute an op-ed to the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz today as part of its 'Israel Conference on Peace' ... probably best remembered for proving just how intolerant the left can be..."

 

What Reporters Need to Know During Operation Protective Edge  (08 July 2014)


"As an observer of previous Israeli operations in Gaza, and as the person who has uncovered and publicized some huge journalistic errors during those times, I strongly caution reporters not to make the same mistakes that they have made in the past in their coverage. Mistake #1: Assuming that all Gaza casualties are the result of Israeli airstrikes [examples]; Mistake #2: Assuming that Gaza casualties and damage are the direct result of Israeli airstrikes [examples]; Mistake#3: Believing that victims are civilian when they are not [examples]. It is easy to allow oneself to be fooled in the fog of war, especially when one doesn't know the history of how terror groups manipulate the media. Let's hope that this time around the reporters are more aware of the pitfalls of believing, uncritically, what terrorists and their supporters tell them."

 

Rocket Diplomacy  (08 July 2014)


"Fatah to Israel: Prepare your body-bags. Obama to Israel: Fatah is a partner for peace. ... Which begs the question: is Obama as out of touch with reality, as cold to human suffering, as Abbas is? Or does Obama, like Abbas, believe that human suffering is terrible, but only if it does not involve Jews or Israelis? Here's a message for Obama: STOP trying to equate Israel's defensive responses with the US-supported Palestinian Arab government's offensive terror against Jewish civilians. There is no moral equivalency here. At all..."

 

Is This the Last Stand for Hamas?  (08 July 2014)


"Can Hamas survive the latest onslaught in Gaza? The terrorist organization has clearly learned from past confrontations and is trying to hone its military abilities in the current exchange..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Gaza Terrorists Fire Rockets From Civilian Areas  (08 July 2014)


"Terrorists in Gaza fire rockets towards Israel under the cover of houses, schools, hospitals and other civilian buildings during Operation Protective Edge."

 

Hamas Caught Using Human Shields in Gaza  (08 July 2014)


"Hamas places weapons and missile launchers in densely populated areas. They also send men, women and children to act as human shields for terrorists. Innocent bystanders can be killed as a result of Hamas' abuse of its own civilians. Instead of keeping its citizens out of harm's way, Hamas encourages and even forces Gazans to join its violent resistance against Israel..."

 

Refusing to Die Peacefully  (08 July 2014)


"[Radio 5 Live Breakfast host Nicky] Campbell was busy making moral equivalence between the Israeli government and the terrorist organisation Hamas. ... [He] seems to think that Israel should not defend itself and should sit back and shrug off any amount of bombardment... philosophising that violence only begets more violence. All very easy when sat in the comfort of a radio station on the safety of the UK. The relative safety of the UK I should say... because Nicky Campbell has been traumatised by violence here..."

 

BBC Admits 'Gaza Under Attack' Images Fabricated  (08 July 2014)


"BBC Trending says that many of the images being shared on social media under the #GazaUnderAttack hashtag are in fact several years old, and in some cases from different conflicts. ... one of the images was from Syria last month, and another from Baghdad in 2007. ... The BBC itself, however, is not immune from sharing inaccurate images..."

 

James Reynolds Tells BBC Viewers About Hamas' 'Crudely Made Rockets'  (08 July 2014)


"In the synopsis to that item as it appears on the [BBC News] website, no mention is made of the cause of Israeli airstrikes on terrorists infrastructure in the Gaza Strip: the firing of hundreds of missiles at Israel civilian targets by Palestinian terrorists. However, the synopsis does promote the inaccurate notion that 'tensions' in the area are related to the murder of Muhammed Abu Khdeir, when in fact the surge in missile attacks from the Gaza Strip began four weeks ago..."

 

BBC News Describing Hamas Command & Control Centres as 'Houses'  (08 July 2014)


"Israel launched Operation Protective Edge ... in an attempt to bring to a halt the barrages of missile fire against Israeli citizens by terrorists in the Gaza Strip which have been ongoing for almost a month and has severely intensified and widened over the last few days. The BBC News website's main and ME pages announced in their lead headlines on the morning of July 8th 'Israel launches new strikes on Gaza' with mention of missile attacks on Israeli citizens relegated to the subheader..."

 

Only One Kind of Incitement Worth Mentioning for BBC Trending  (08 July 2014)


"The July 5th edition of the BBC World Service programme 'BBC trending', ... included a discussion with BBC Arabic's Abdiraheem Saeed on the topic of social media use and recent events in Israel and the PA controlled areas..."

 

War in Gaza: 5 Tips for Sorting Through the News and Sharing Responsibility on Social Media  (08 July 2014)


"The conflict isn't only being fought over the skies of Gaza and the Israeli home front. It's also being fought in the media. ... As we all want to be informed, and inform others, how do we sort through the information overload? And what's our responsibility for what we choose to share?..."

 

Israel Under Fire: Operation Protective Edge - A Primer  (08 July 2014)


"Israel once again finds itself forced into taking military action against Hams in Gaza. ... Since the beginning of 2014, Gaza terrorists have fired more than 450 rockets at innocent Israeli civilians. Rocket fire endangers more than 3.5 million people who live within rocket range of Gaza - about 40% of Israel's population. There has been a dramatic escalation of rocket fire with some 240 rockets fired during the past month and at least 40 rockets hammering southern Israel on Monday night alone. ... Operation Protective Edge is meant to stop the rockets..."

 

Operation 'Protective Edge' Begins in Response to Escalation of Terror  (08 July 2014)


"Within 24 hours, 100 rockets landed in Israel - mainly in the south, where civilians are confined to bomb shelters. Missiles were also fired into central Israel, where sirens were sounded in a number of cities and residents ran for cover. In response to the intense escalation of terror, the IDF launched dozens of air raids overnight as part of a major offensive..."

 

Israel Under Fire: IDF Launches Operation Protective Edge  (08 July 2014)


"The IDF's Operation Protective Edge began as the IDF hit Gaza rocket launchers, Hamas command and control facilities and other terror infrastructure. ... As this roundup went to press, 130 rockets were fired at Israel since midnight, and the Israeli Air Force struck 150 targets..."

 

Operation 'Protective Edge' Commences as IDF Targets Terror Sites in the Gaza Strip  (08 July 2014)


"In combined efforts of both aerial and naval forces, the IDF targeted overnight approximately 50 terror sites and targets across the Gaza Strip, commencing operation 'Protective Edge' - aimed to retrieve stability to the residents of southern Israel, eliminate Hamas' capabilities and destroy terror infrastructure operating against the the State of Israel and its civilians..."

 

YOUTUBE:  Israel on the Verge of Major Conflict  (08 July 2014)


"With Israel on the verge of a major conflict, it is important to note what has taken place. Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered and Palestinian society rejoiced. An Arab teen was kidnapped and murdered and Israeli society was horrified. Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel and Israel responded. There is NO cycle of violence and no moral equivalence."

 

Update From Israel  (08 July 2014)


"Several rockets were fired at Israel overnight. More were fired this morning. No one expects calm to return soon. Hamas has ordered us not to target the homes of its leaders - apparently, they don't mind if we target the homes of civilians as they do... it's just the cowardly leaders that must be protected..."

 

Important Video for Secure Places When Under Fire  (08 July 2014)


"Important information on where you should seek shelter in case of a rocket attack."

 

Ever Wonder How Long You Have to Live?  (08 July 2014)


"In Israel's south today, at any minute, it could be as little as 15 seconds. What can you do in 15 seconds? Tie your shoes, drink a glass of water, send a text message, save your life. Israelis living near Gaza have only 15 seconds to run for shelter during a rocket alert."

 

A Call to Arms  (07 July 2014)


"According to news sources, 1,500 reservists are being called up. I go to some of my favorite news sites to see if there is more information. They don't mention units, but they do say that at this point, that it is mostly commanders and part of the Home Front Command being called in. Elie is not, I think, part of the Home Front division, but he is definitely a commander. I don't want to do this again..."

 

Where Are the 'Human Rights' Watchers?  (07 July 2014)


"'Hey HRW, amnesty, btselem, EUinIsrael, kenroth. Wake up. 65 rockets from Gaza vs. Israeli civilians. That's 65 war crimes...'  The 'watchers' sleep. Hey - it's only Jews being hit."

 

More Rockets Are Bombarding Southern Israel  (07 July 2014)


"Men, women and children in Israel's southern towns - many of whom already suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by previous terrorist onslaughts - are being terrorized anew by screaming Code Red sirens and exploding rockets. More than 200 missiles have been fired at Israelis by Hamas terrorists in Gaza in the past month..."

 

Israel Under Fire: Gaza Rockets Target Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sirens Heard Across the Country  (07 July 2014)


"Gaza-based terrorists escalated their rocket attacks on Israel late on Monday launching a salvo of rockets into Israeli cities and towns..."

 

Forgotten People: Half a Million Israelis in Shelters and the World's Reaction...  (07 July 2014)


"There are half a million Israelis hiding in bomb shelters from a blizzard of rockets being shot by Hamas from Gaza. Pathetically, PM Netanyahu is being restrained from going after them by the Obama-Kerry junta, at the request of 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas/Abu Mazen. And the world's reaction is best described by the video at the top of this post..."

 

Fed Up With Dead Jews  (06 July 2014)


"There have been other murdered Jews at the hands of terrorists, countless in fact. Walk the streets of Jerusalem and see all the plaques on cafes, pizza shops, and street corners to Jews murdered by Palestinian terrorists. But something changed with the murder of these three innocent teens. It was not just the senselessness of the act, three defenceless teen boys killed for no other reason than that they were Jewish, for no other purpose but to indulge Palestinian hate. Rather, it was a feeling that this had happened one too many times..."

 

 

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