This short clip is a very good portrayal of the anti-Semitic cartoons that Hamas frequently shows on T.V. (and yes, PA television also shows anti-Semitic cartoons and incites hatred).
Now, I used the term Hasbara (or very good and clear pro-Israel advocacy) in my title for two reasons: The first one is obviously the clip. Now, Jon Stewart didn't do this with a Hasbara intention, but rather because it is a comedic clip representing what is shown on Hamas television. The second reason is due to some of the comments on that clip. See the screenshot below.
As expected, the anti-Israel crowd immediately tried to justify these cartoons, throwing out blatant lies about how it's on par with Israeli actions, etc. I show in this screenshot two comments (although there are many others) that basically send a smack in the face to the anti-Israel crowd. They point out their hypocrisy by using a concise, but very clear, and very strong, message. Good job.
Here is another screenshot illustrating that point too.
And he's exactly right.
For those of you wondering what are the clips that the person "Asaf Schreiber" links to, I've embedded them below.
I also embedded and discussed the above video in this post about UNRWA.
I recently wrote a post about an IAF targetting of a Hamas cell responsible for shooting rockets into Israel which lightly injured the French consul to Gaza. I commented on the ridiculous hypocrisy, and the ridiculous nature of the French government. The post can be viewed here.
According to Israel’s clarification regarding Monday’s airstrike, the windows of the home of Majdi Shakoura, a Gaza resident who holds a French passport, were shattered by the blast, and he and another family member were lightly hurt by flying shards.
“We are obviously sorry for the light injuries incurred by the family, but the target of the attack, quite far away from their home, was a Hamas cell responsible for shooting rockets on Israeli civilians who suffer much more serious injuries – and even death – when Hamas rockets are fired,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
One Israeli official wondered aloud about the “disproportional nature” of the French response.
“Thousands of Israelis suffer injuries that are similar or much worse during rocket attacks from Gaza, and they don’t draw the same sympathetic remarks from the French that were elicited by this single family, who suffered very light injuries,” the official said.
In October, 52 rockets and six mortar shells were fired into Israel. The IDF said it would not tolerate continued rocket fire against Israeli cities and that Hamas would be held responsible for such attacks.
It is true. When has France - or any other country in the world - condemned each rocket launched into Israel? When have they condemned the murder of Israelis, whether it was by rocket or by bomb? Oh, but a French consul in Gaza is lightly injured in response to a Hamas cell firing rockets at Israel immediately gets condemnation.
Old sentiments from the Dreyfuss Affair still haven't faded out? That's unfortunate. Although without the Dreyfuss Affair, modern-day Zionism would not exist.
This just in... From the most radical Muslim country, France, where citizens completely swarm their mosque, the Eifel Tower, to answer the call to prayer, comes this interesting news story.
The French consul in Gaza has been injured after an Israel Air Foce strike on Gazan terrorists.
This is just a few days after Sarkozy called Netanyahu a "liar," expressing his frustration that his fantasy peace process hasn't worked yet, and as such can't take part and receive glory (Egypt-Israel peace and Jordan-Israel peace was established in secret, without foreign intervention, the international community only harms the Israel-Palestinian peace process), and baselessly accusing the "rightist, hawkish" Netanyahu, who fulfilled the international community's demand with a 10 month unprecedented settlement freeze, and has built less settlements (which are about 1-2% of the West Bank) than any previou sgovernment. Check out this great review about scapegoating Netanyahu here and about the French government's policies here.
What is interesting is that Sarkozy tried to do "damage control" by sending a letter to Netanyahu stating his support for Israel and declaring himself a friend of Israel. He also said he would take actions against Iran. One wonders how he can be a friend of Netanyahu and call him a "liar" at the same time - that's stabbing him in the back while shaking his hand. It is also interesting what type of actions against Iran Sarkozy is talking about, as France has recently announced that they do not support a military strike on Iran. This leads us to the conclusion that it is not Bibi Netanyahu that is the liar, but rather Sarkozy himself.
This is just a few weeks after Sarkozy ordered that school textbooks avoid the use of the word “Shoah” to describe the Holocaust, preferring the term “anéantissement”, a word that merely means annihilation.
And just a few days after France welcomed Palestinian culture of terrorism and bombings into UNESCO, which has already been put to use through the restriction of freedom of speech for Jews only, jumping at the chance to bash a Ha'aretz cartoon about UNESCO, when in reality, the cartoon was bashing Netanyahu and not UNESCO. Check out my post about this here.
France's consul to the Gaza Strip, his wife and 13-year-old daughter were injured during an Israeli air strike on Sunday night, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said on Tuesday.
Valero told reporters the three were were hit by shrapnel at their Gaza residence , which is located 200 meters from the site of the IAF missile attack. "France condemns the consequences of the raid," he said. "While we are all for Israeli security, France recalls the utmost necessity to avoid civilian harm," Valero said, without specifying the nature of their injuries.
The IDF was looking into reports.
The air strikes killed one Palestinian and wounded four others after terrorists from the coastal territory fired a rocket into southern Israel.
This is most interesting! It is interesting that France has a consul to the Gaza Strip, who is ruled by the Hamas government, which is declared a terrorist organization by much of the international community (and the European Union), who oppresses Gazans, whose charter calls for the genocide of Israel (aka no "two state solution," which has always been supported by Israeli governments), and who routinely launches rockets at Israel or takes no care to stop other organizations from launching rockets at Israel.
Why would a French consul actually place his entire family in the Gaza Strip? Besides for the fact that he's stealing homes from innocent, poor Gazans, he is knowingly placing his life in danger.
He was 200 meters from a terrorist activity hub. Did he really think that Israel would accept the rockets with open arms and not take measures against those terrorists? Israel has done all they could to avoid civilian harm, and the past few weeks of fighting has seen no civilian deaths, which is incredibly tough in the Gaza Strip.
Blaming Israel for an injury in Gaza is equivalent to blaming any country for causing casualties (or as in this case, injuries) during wartime - and especially in response to attacks on that country.
Perhaps the international community needs to do some thinking and imagine that Hamas was situated right next to them. Place themselves in Israel's shoes. Who would they blame? Would they blame Israel for defending themselves and attacking terrorists who were launching rockets? Or would they blame Hamas for launching these rockets (or taking no measures from preventing others from launching rockets, such as Islamic Jihad), in conjunction with a partial blame on themselves for setting up a consul next to a terrorist activity hub in an area ruled by a terrorist entity who calls for the genocide of its neighbor?
Personally, I wouldn't blame Israel. But hey, that's just me.
Foremost among these is David Heap, a University of Western Ontario faculty member who claims to have been “tasered” and “bruised” as Israeli soldiers hauled his unco-operative self from the high seas. From the title of the article he wrote for the left-wing site Rabble.ca — “I write from cell 9 in the Apartheid State of Israel” — you would think he was Martin Luther King with a Twitter account, penning manifestos from a Birmingham jail. But even by his own morally self-aggrandizing account, he is “basically ok” after his high-seas experience.
But “basically ok” doesn’t get you on the front pages. So now a Toronto Star writer has gassed out the story for another day by reporting that Heap’s friends and family are “outraged,” “scared” and “worried” by his “brutal” treatment.
No one else in Canada seems to care much, though: Even among protest junkies, flotilla theatrics now play a distant second to the ongoing Occupy phenomenon. In fact, as far as “brutality” goes, the troops who ushered Heap into Israel don’t have a stitch on cops in Oakland.
“Outraged,” “scared” and “worried” would be good words to describe our thoughts about captured activists who did something that was actually brave and useful — like bringing aid to protesters in, say, Syria, just a few hundred kilometers up the Mediterranean coast. Instead, Heap and his friends set their compass for a confrontation with the Israeli Defense Forces, the most humane and professional military in the Middle East. And their only real punishment for trying to bring material goods to a terrorist-controlled regime in Gaza is to spend a few days in climate-controlled, Internet-equipped Israeli jails complaining about their ordeal to journalist pals back home.
Mr. Heap’s whining campaign isn’t nearly as dangerous as the tactics used by other activists, but it certainly is far more annoying.
These so-called "peace activists" and "Free Gaza humanitarian activists" really don't care about human rights. If they did, then they wouldn't be sending a flotilla to Israel to protest the legitimate blockade (see Palmer Report) on the terrorist organization Hamas. Instead, they would be sending a flotilla to protestHamas' bombardment of rockets into Israel, ruining life for the million Israelis living in southern Israel.
If they really cared about human rights, as they claim by strapping the words "humanitarian" and "peace" to their name, they would be protesting Hamas' cruel and repressive treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. If you're a Fatah member in Gaza, you don't stand a chance of surviving. If you disagree with Hamas, expect a visit. And if you dare criticize Hamas, off with your head.
If they really cared about human rights, they would've sent a flotilla to Turkey, where just a week beforehand, an earthquake shook Turkey and devastated the lives of hundreds. If they really cared, they would've sent aid to Turkey, instead of trying to provoke Israel's legitimate blockade.
If they really cared about human rights, they would've sent a flotilla to Syria to help the protestors who are just fighting for "freedom" from Dictator Assad's rule. But they didn't.
Oh, and if they really cared about the Palestinians in Gaza, they would've carried aid on their ship. The IDF reported that they did not. Which leads us to question - did they care about the Palestinians at all, as they claim, or did they just hate Israel so much out of baseless hatred that they wanted a confrontation?
NEW ACTION CALL - ACT NOW ================ Israel seems to care more about the Palestinians than Mahmoud Abbas does! How can he even think of a unity government with such a vicious group like Hamas. Not only did they kidnap Gilad Shalit and torture him, look at how they treat their very own people! ====================== ... ACTION CALL: ====================== 1. Post this video on your walls. It is time we take the offensive against Abbas who has been prancing around the world stage attacking Israel. This is a small step, but it is a first step. EVERYONE share it on their wall. 2. Email this video to the world. More importantly, share it with your elected official. If you are in the United State, find their information here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ 3. Choose a news organization and write a letter sending this video and explaining why Mahmoud Abbas's theatrics are hiding a vicious regime hurting not only Israelis but also Palestinians.
... But observers of the Palestinian scene say Hamas’s victory will likely prove ephemeral as the Palestinian public quickly forgets the achievement and the age-old debate remains unresolved among Palestinians – whether to achieve their state through negotiations, as Abbas advocates, or through armed struggle, as Hamas wants.
“Twenty days ago, Abbas gave a speech at the UN General Assembly and he was very popular. Nowadays, now one talks about that speech. No one talks about Palestine at the UN,” Mkhaimar Abusada, professor of politics at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, told The Media Line. “The same thing will happen to Hamas.
The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority ruling in the West Bank has been leading a drive to have the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state, a move its leaders say will enhance their standing and pressure Israel into peace talks. Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip four years ago, rejects Israel’s existence and insists Palestinians can defeat it militarily.
While the prisoner swap doesn’t quite fit the description of armed struggle – Hamas negotiated the terms through Egyptian and German intermediaries – analysts and PA officials say that it does demonstrate the value of persistence and the refusal to compromise. They say it undermines in eyes of the Palestinian public the advantages of a negotiated solution.
Abusada said Hamas may enjoy a second wave of public adulation when a second group of 550 prisoners is released in two months, but the impact of that will also fade away, short of a more comprehensive answer to solving the Palestinians’ problems.
Although Hamas leaders have said the prisoner swap includes promises by Israel to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, the movement can only suggest to Palestinians patience as a timetable to military victory. Hamas has stockpiled missiles and other weaponry in anticipation of another conflict with Israel, but its last fight with the Jewish state in the 2008-2009 Cast Lead Operation ended badly for it.
More recently, Hamas has seen its popularity slip amid a failure negotiate a national unity government with Fatah this year or to improve living conditions in Gaza. Its early hopes that the Arab Spring would improve its standing have been dashed. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was cool to the Islamic movement, was ousted from power, but Bashar Assad, a key ally, is beset by popular rebellion at home.
...
What Hamas may not be able to do, however, is rebuild its organization with the released prisoners heading back to the Fatah-ruled West Bank, where Israeli and PA security forces have decimated the movement, analysts said. Their identities are already known and their movements are likely to be restricted.
Yoram Cohen, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and a supporter of the swap, said the number of prisoners being released was too small to change the balance of power between Israel and Hamas or between Hamas and the Fatah.
“The risk we are taking is on a level and a security challenge we will be able to deal with. There are 20,000 Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam fighters in Gaza, and another 200 terrorists won't make the world crash down upon us," Cohen told reporters last week, referring to the military wing of Hamas.
Hamas has also diminished the PR impact of the swap by failing to free some of the most high-profile Palestinians held by Israel and focusing on its own members at the expense of Palestinians affiliated with Fatah and other movements.
"This is not a deal," Fatah's Kadura Fares, who heads a Palestinian prisoner activist group and is a close associate of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti. Fares told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, "This agreement does not come close to respecting the principles and criteria which Hamas itself promised."
Among the celebrity prisoners still behind bars in Israel are Ahmad Sa'adat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, jailed for his role in assassinating Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001; and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences and is regarded as many as a possible successor to Abbas as Fatah chief.
Islamists also have their complaints about the prisoner list, said Zelkovitz. Abbas Al-Sayed, who helped plan to 2002 bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya, was not released; nor were Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas official in Gaza responsible for dozens of murders; or Ibrahim Hamed, the head of the movement’s military wing in the West Bank.
You hear that? It's not a good deal because only 1027 terrorists and murderers are being released... Pathetic...
Chris Gunness is a high ranking member of the notorious UNRWA - the only special refugee committee to deal with Palestinian refugees instead of handing them over to UNHCR like every refugee, and the committee which seeks to perpetuate the problem of Palestiniain refugees instead of solving it/resettling them/assimillating them into Arab countries.
A day ago, the Elder of Ziyon stumbled upon pictures from the Palestinian media website "Safa." It showed Hamas constructing a 10,000 square foot stage. The Elder of Ziyon mentioned that apparently Hamas can find building materials to honor terrorists and cold-blooded murderers who blew up pizza stores and cafes. But they can't find building materials for the homeless Palestinians who everyone shouts about, "Look at the cruelty of Israel! 5 gazillion Gazans homeless due to Operation Cast Lead!"
These pictures show Hamas building a massive stage in support of the terrorists that are to be coming home to Gaza tomorrow.
According to this story, the stage will be 1000 square meters (over 10,000 square feet) and is being built with some 1200 iron poles. 10 people have been working 18 hour days since Thursday to build this, which will include electric generators in case the power goes out.
Imagine how many houses Hamas could build if it wanted to. You know, for all those people that we hear are still homeless since the Gaza war.
A while back, Israel agreed to allow Gazans to export palm trees for the festival of Sukkott (and the Palmer Report states that the Gaza blockade is legal). This would allow millions of dollars to flow into the Gaza Strip. Hamas banned allowing to export them.
Will UNRWA mention this – that Hamas has enough building materials to build plenty of homes, but refuses to use them? Will you urge Hamas to use it for the greater good?
Or will you condemn Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza?
Thank you,
His response is a very interesting one (thankfully, unlike many pro-Palestinians, it is not a rant of "ISRAEL SHALL BURN IN THE ETERNAL FIRES OF HELL WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" aka Ahmadinejad):
Thank you for your mail.
There’s no doubt that right now we all need to redouble our efforts to ease the suffering of the ordinary people of Gaza and to think again about the blockade policy. To take your ideas in order:
I would imagine that the stage is built with materials which came in to Gaza through the tunnels. Because of the blockade policy the tunnels trade from which Hamas takes a fifteen per cent tax is booming. The Israeli blockade policy has empowered Hamas. Another reason you might think to lift the blockade.
I agree that we need to build houses for people who are homeless from the war and since their homes were bulldozed by the Israeli authorities ten years ago in the south. To do that, the UN needs to bring in thousands of trucks from Israel and to do that, the blockade needs to be lifted.
The Palmer report only declared the NAVAL blockade legitimate, not the entire blockade which would include the land blockade, which remains an illegal collective punishment.
We have a humanitarian mandate to work in Gaza to improve the lot of ordinary people and under that mandate we already urge all parties to work “for the greater good”.
While doing all the above, I will continue to advocate that all parties including Israel cease any actions that punish ordinary innocent people just as I condemn the rockets that come out of Gaza as a violation of international law.
In other words, we're not going to condemn Hamas for choosing to build a 10,000 square foot stage over homes of the civilians who are victims of, to put it in his words, "collective punishment" (although they did indeed elect the Hamas government).
Chris Gunness is politely asking for Israel to committ national suicide by removing their blockade, which the Palmer Report upholds, in order that there won't be "collective punishment" on a few innocent civilians who are anti-Hamas and pro-peace (and I would like to know how many are these numbers).
Does Chris know about the following?
Does he know that the IDF does more to safeguard civilians than any other military?
UN Watch Statement, delivered by Col. Richard Kemp, October 16, 2009, UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Goldstone Report
Thank you, Mr. President.
I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Governments Joint Intelligence Committee.
Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.
Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.
The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.
Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.
More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.
Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.
And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Does Mr. Gunness not realize that if Hamas didn't launch 5,000 rockets at Israel since Israel uprooted their own citizens from Gaza, there would be no need for Operation Cast Lead? No need for a blockade? I'm sure Israel would be more than happy to use the manpower and money spent on the blockade someplace else. But in reality, even if you think it is an evil, then it is a necessary evil, to ensure the protection of the citizens of the soverign state of Israel.
Mind you, they don't get phone calls from Hamas when Hamas intentionally launches a rocket at a civilian, schoolbus, or hospital. As opposed to Israel, which in response to 5000 rockets, launched Operation Cast Lead, and prior to doing so, distributed 2 million leaflets of warning, and before airstrikes, phone calls, text messages, sound bombs, etc.
Mr. Guness - and UNRWA as a whole - reverts to a 3000 year old tactic of, "When something goes wrong, blame the Jews." It's much easier than blaming the person responsible for it.
From what I can tell, Gunness is saying that while Hamas is the de facto government in Gaza, they are not responsible for the well-being of their citizens. Only UNRWA builds houses, leaving Hamas without that responsibility.
So, UNRWA's position is that Hamas is perfectly entitled to use building materials that could be used to build houses for people that have been homeless for ten years (way before the Gaza closure, by the way) for whatever it wants - terror rallies, weapons bunkers, tunnels to kidnap Israelis, whatever. Hamas has no fear that UNRWA will say anything remotely critical of it, and it equally has no fear that it will ever have to actually take responsibility for its people the way every other government in the world is expected to (besides the PA.)
Abu Attaya, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, whose fighters joined Hamas in the capture of Shalit, said militants would kidnap more Israeli soldiers until all Palestinian prisoners are freed.
"The coming weeks and month will witness more responses and more, similar operations. We will continue the same path to kidnap Zionist soldiers in order to clear all prisons," the masked spokesman said, clutching an AK 47 assault rifle.
"Today the resistance talks," an activist cried over the loudspeaker of one mosque. "Today the enemy submitted to our demands and that was just the start."
This deal has its goods and its bads. The good being that Gilad Schalit is coming home. The bad being that 1000 terrorists are now free to kidnap more soldiers and plant bombs and committ terrorist acts. Hopefully, Israel's security will prevent these attacks. This is a tough time period, and it is impossible to predict what will come next.
One Palestinian man was injured on Sunday and two others were reported missing after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a Rafah smuggling tunnel running underneath the border with the Gaza Strip, medics said.
Normally, if Israel did this, this would get international attention, and the U.N. would hold a few emergency meetings to condemn Israel and to state that this is the obstacle to peace, and not the Hamas charter which calls for Israel's destruction. But since it's Egypt doing it, Egypt gets immunity from the international community - all in good faith.
Palestinian medical sources told Ma’an that a tunnel worker was hurt and two others went missing inside the Rafah tunnel as a result of sewage pumped in from the Egyptian side.
Two Palestinians were killed and three others injured on Saturday after a gas canister exploded in a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said.
Egyptian security officials said in early September that they were cracking down on the network of tunnels used by smugglers from the coastal enclave.
Once again, if Israel would do such an outrageous act and crack down on tunnels which help smuggle weapons into Gaza, the international community would condemn Israel for this outrageous act. But as long as Egypt is doing it, it's all good.
Medics say over 160 Palestinians have died in the network of underground tunnels since Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006, which was deemed legal by the U.N. Palmer Report as a result of Hamas' attempts at destroying Israel and constant barrage of missile attacks into Israel. Still, it is a shame that Israel would dare to cripple their beautiful culture - this is clear racism and Apartheid.
Under Israel's crippling blockade, the tunnels have provided a lifeline for residents of the coastal enclave. Of course, if Hamas and Gazans choose to reject terrorism and live in peace with Israel, then there'd be no need for a blockade. That's what is so awesome about blockades and security fences and checkpoints - when the need is gone, they can be removed!
Egypt's reopening of the Rafah border eased the impact of the siege for some residents, who were able to leave Gaza freely for the first time in years. Still, it is important to note, that all the years Egypt did not have the Rafah border open, the international community would not dare to condemn Egypt for this, but rather talk only about Israel.
U.N. To do list:
Condemn Israel: Check Condemn Israel: Check Condemn Israel: Check Condemn Israel: To do Condemn Israel: To do Condemn Israel: To do Condemn Israel: To do
Well, now we know, if Israel wants to get rid of terrorists, just dump sewage on them.
Oh wait no, I forgot, Israel would just get condemned for doing that. Instead, Israel should secretly tell Egpyt to do that - I'm sure that after their latest embassy attack they'd be more than willing to do that!
