| The most remarkable example of sparing civilians in the history of warnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 27 May 04:45 AM In eleven days, Israel hit more | |  |
In eleven days, Israel hit more than 1500 terror targets in a heavily populated area.
How many people would normally be killed in such an operation? 3000? 6000? A single bomb could easily kill scores of people.
But the numbers seem to indicate that roughly 300 were killed by Israel, of which 200 were terrorists.
Assuming those numbers hold up, this will be an unprecedented achievement in avoiding civilian casualties in a largely urban warfare environment.
Never in history has any war where the terrorists deliberately place their targets among civilians resulted in a lower civilian to fighter ration of deaths. And as tragic as civilian deaths are, most of the civilians were killed because they were near high value legitimate targets.
Under Geneva, civilians do not shield legitimate targets, unless their loss is not proportionate. The rules on proportionality depend on the opinion of a "reasonable military commander" given his intel available at that moment.
So as regrettable as the death of civilians are, it is legal and part of war. If a Hamas commander is with his family, Israel has every right under international law to attack the house he is in, even if his family will undoubtedly get killed. This is what happened with Iyad Fathi Sharir, commander of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, who was killed along with his wife, teenage and toddler daughters.
Israel is literally the model for avoiding unnecessary civilian deaths. It spends millions on ensuring that the strikes...Read More |
Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal Recently, Jews in the West who thought themselves safe have found themselves facing the same form of antisemitism that is common in the Arab and wider Muslim world, much of it imported along with immigrants from the Middle East. In the US, Canada, Continental Europe, and Britain, Muslim Jew-hatred become cross-fertilized with the native brand, bringing along the extreme violence that characterized it at home. Ironically, traditional Islamic antisemitism itself became more radical with the injection of vicious eliminationism from Nazi Germany, starting before the war, continuing through the employment of Amin al-Husseini as propagandist for Hitler, and concluding with the arrival in Arab countries of fleeing Nazi war criminals afterwards. Now it is coming back to the post-Christian West. Red lines are being crossed at a nauseating pace as the violence that was first directed at Jews in European countries where there was massive Muslim immigration moves westward. What American would have expected, even one year ago, that a gang of pogromists would invade a restaurant, ask who among the patrons were Jewish, and beat them? That is something that happened in Berlin in 1938 or Baghdad in 1941; but it ought to be unthinkable in Los Angeles today. And yet it happened. For some time it has become dangerous for Orthodox...Read More |
From Ian: French, Canadian, Israeli, UN officials demand justice for Sarah Halimi Leaders and officials from France, Canada, Israel and the United Nations held a special digital rally demanding justice for Sarah Halimi, a French Jewish grandmother murdered by Kobili Traore. Halimi was brutally beaten and thrown from her balcony window by Traore, who repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the murder. The crime was widely condemned as being antisemitic. However, as Traore was under the influence of marijuana at the time, the French court ruled that he wouldn't stand trial. This led to public outcry across the world as tens of thousands took to the streets and social medias to voice their outrage at the decision. "We should never, ever forget Sarah Halimi. This [court's] decision hurts me, hurts us - citizens of the French Republic. It's truly a judicial and moral catastrophe," former French prime minister Manuel Valls said at the digital rally, which was organized by the watchdog NGO Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and the French Jewish umbrella organization the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF). "Antisemitism has been ravaging… France for more than 12 decades. This antisemitism comes from the far right, from the far left, from our working-class districts, from the Arab-Muslim world under the guise of hatred for Israel and for...Read More |
What prompted Hamas, with the help of Iran, to shoot more than 4,360 rockets into civilian Israel? Was it the "occupation?" The anticipated eviction of Arab tenants from Sheikh Jarrah? The defilement of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Jewish settler feet? The mistreatment of poor brown people by white Jews? The answer: none of the above. It was only ever about currying favor with the people, about wresting power from the PA and ousting Mahmoud Abbas, to install itself as sole authority of all of the Arab people in the region. And Hamas had only to whisper one word to make it all happen: "Jerusalem." Because in our region, it's not about the reality, so much as the perception. It's about spinning a yarn, setting little Ahmad on your lap and saying, "Once upon a time, Hamas rained thousands of rockets down on Israel in order to defend Jerusalem." Paternalistic? Yes. But that's how it is. Hamas needed to be seen as the defender of Jerusalem, and so it spun a yarn, using current events as a pretext for attacking Jews, and telling the people that Hamas defends Jerusalem while Abbas—Abbas!!—remains ineffectual. And certainly, shooting more than 4,360 rockets at Jews in heavily populated urban centers looks impressive. Not to mention the Israeli response! Yup. A lot of attention for Hamas. Which is great for Hamas and unifying for the people. No more of this Hamas in Gaza, and PA in the "West Bank" stuff. Instead...Read More |
By Daled Amos Last August, there were protests after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man. The protests turned angry, and the words "Free Palestine" were spray‐painted on the driveway of the Beth Hillel Temple. On August 27, 2020, IfNotNow condemned this as antisemitism: They even followed up that tweet, making it very clear that the left also has to be held accountable for antisemitism: One day later, after the far-left let IfNotNow know they had gone too far in standing up for Jews, the group weaseled out of their condemnation of antisemitism: Of course, IfNotNow's mistake was not that the "phrasing" fell short -- their condemnation enraged their left allies because it went too far. And worse, they think their condemnation of the defacing of a synagogue was a "distraction" by focusing on an attack on Jews and away from police violence and Black Lives Matter. But INN was not finished yet. Just as IfNotNow refuses to take any kind of stand on Israel ("We do not take a unified stance on BDS, Zionism or the question of statehood."), they avoid actually spelling out just what was wrong with their condemnation, to begin with...Read More |
From Ian: Melanie Phillips: Why western mobs are now sticking it to the Jews It is not the case, as head teacher Roper suggested, that some antisemites have hijacked the Palestinian cause for their own ends. Palestinianism is in itself innately and inescapably anti-Jew. Writing the Jews out of their own history and denying them the right to self-determination in their own historic land — a presence within that land that is intrinsic to Judaism — is profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. The Palestinians' insignia and maps which excise the whole of Israel and replace it by "Palestine" are profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. Their educational materials which teach their children to hate Jews and steal Israel from them, their hysterical incitement against Jews as a conspiracy against the world and their Nazi-style antisemitic blood libels which pour out of their preachers and media are profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. Which is why anyone who supports Palestinianism is supporting a cause that is profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. Those of us who point out such things are routinely called "Islamophobes" or "racists" and dismissed. Instead the falsehoods, distortions and libels of Palestinianism are accepted as axiomatically true. So anyone who makes any criticism of the Palestinians — or who even merely vouchsafe, like the hapless Roper, that some people abuse that cause for other ends...Read More |
As with the last war, a large number of the women and children who were relatives of the intended target. Even though Hamas members know that they are often targeted in their homes, they remain with their families during war - with often tragic results. PCHR reported the airstrike this way: At approximately 20:20, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a 3-storey house belonging to Yousif Ibrahim al-Rantisi ('Azarah) and his brothers in al-Juneinah neighborhood. As a result, the mother, her grandson, her son and his wife were killed. Those killed were identified as Siham Yousif Mohammed al-Rantisi (66); her 2-year-old grandson Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim al-Rantisi; her son Ra'ed Ibrahim Khamis al-Rantisi (29) and his wife Shaimaa' Diab Mohammed al-Rantisi (21.) Moreover, 15 others were wounded variously, including 7 children and 3 women. All of them were taken to Abu Yousif al-Najjar Hospital to receive treatment.Whenever PCHR lists an entire family killed, look for any males of military age - in this case, Ra'ed Ibrahim Khamis al-Rantisi.
Sure enough, he is Hamas. Clearly, he was...Read More |
In 2011, in response to an article in the Weekly Standard that noted that government press releases routinely referred to events in "Jerusalem, Israel" while the US was arguing that it had the right to say that a US citizen born in Jerusalem was not born in Israel, the White House scrubbed nearly all references to Jerusalem being in Israel on its website. Later, in 2016, the White House issued a press release for Obama attending Shimon Peres' memorial service on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. The release which originally said "Israel" but was then "corrected" to remove reference to Israel, literally crossing it out: Anyone who thought that the Trump administration 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as being the capital of Israel would end this nonsense was optimistic. During Secretary of State Blinken's visit to the Middle East now, three out of four State Department press releases refer only to "Jerusalem" with no country - contrary to standard practice - and only one mentions Israel. Only when meeting embassy staff does it say Israel, perhaps because it is the US embassy in Israel and it would really be egregious...Read More |
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