"Frankly, I'm Not Satisfied."

So I have received a rebuttal from my friend.  It is pasted below exactly as I received it:

HARE KRISHNA EIAL

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLAY, FRANKLY I'M NOT SATISFIED

WIT THAT FOR MANY REASON FIRST YOU SAID THAT THE ARMY KNOW ABOUT THE HOSTAGE STILL THEY FIRED KILLING 16   NOW THE ARMY REJECT THE NEWS BUT THE U.N.   NOT AGREE 

75% OF THE DEATH ARE CIVILIAN AND THE U.N. ORDER AN INQUIRY FOR CRIME WAR SO HOW COME THAT YOU STILL DEFEND THIS CRIMINAL IN UNIFORM?
YES THE HAMMAS KILL 3 STUDENT AND FOR THAT YOUR ARMY KILL THOUSAND? K MON EIAL GIVE ME A BREAK PLEASE

YES THE BIBLE SAID ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF YOUR PEOPLE THERE BUT IS LIKE  THAT WE GO TO AFGHANISTAN AND TAKE BE CAUSE THE MAHABARATHA SAID THAT, IT DOSE MAKE SENS,

IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE YOUR COUNTRY WAY THE PALESTINIAN CAN NOT HAVE THEY RIGHT TO HAVE THE SAME? YOU REMEMBER THAT YOU HAD ISRAEL THANKS TO  THE BIGGEST DEMON MR HITLER, NOT BE CAUSE YOU WERE THERE ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE.  THE PALESTINIAN FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHT , 

YOU REMEMBER WEN THE ISRAEL ARMY BROKEN THE ARMS OF HUNDRED OF YOUNG PALESTINIAN GUILTY OF PELTING STONE ?  PLEASE EIAL YOU ARE A INTELLIGENT MAN NOT BE FANATIC, SEE THE REALITY AND BE HONEST ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR ARMY ARE DOING MANY WRONG THINGS. HOPE TO HERE GOOD NEWS IN THE FUTURE  JAYA JAGANNATH 

My response follows:

Hare Krishna,

I have found in the past that you can never really judge a person’s English by how well they speak, but only when you observe how well they write.  Speech flows and it is easy to gloss over the many grammatical and lexical errors made when it is enough to get the gist of what a person is saying. Writing, on the other hand, is unforgiving and exposes every dangling modifier, lack of subject/verb agreement, and omitted comma.  The same is true with political discourse. What presents itself for analysis in the media or “polite” society, rarely passes the test of the printed word. For that reason, I am glad that I have this opportunity to show you where your faulty assumptions and ideological blinders lie. To do so, takes time, but I will address your contentions one by one:

WIT THAT FOR MANY REASON FIRST YOU SAID THAT THE ARMY KNOW ABOUT THE HOSTAGE STILL THEY FIRED KILLING 16   NOW THE ARMY REJECT THE NEWS BUT THE U.N.   NOT AGREE 

I did not say anything about “hostages.”  Perhaps you mean to say “refugees”?  In any case, I did not say anything about the Israeli army knowing who exactly was there or how many people were there.  I said that there was firing in the vicinity of the school, that already three days prior the army requested (through various means) that people evacuate, and that on the morning of the alleged attack, the UN was called and asked to immediately evacuate everyone.  I know for a fact that the residents of Beit Hanoun were asked to move away from the border because I, myself, heard the army request this on the radio for three days straight.  It was reported in the press and Hamas even went out of its way to try to convince people to stay and serve as human shields (video available upon request).  I also believe the Israeli army when they say that they called because, in a very similar case, the Palestinians claimed that there was no call and in the end the army released the calls to show that they were made (Al Wafa hospital case).

The army actually completed its investigation of this case and admitted that there was an errant mortar round that hit the school courtyard and showed aerial footage that no one was in the yard at the time. (See Here) On the other hand, the Palestinians presented the media with injured people, but did not release any information about the nature of their injuries.  So far, over 200 Hamas rockets have landed in Gaza and hurt their own people.  There is strong reason to believe that the same thing happened here.  Hamas has made no effort to disprove this in any way.  The UN also has no evidence that Israel did not call in the morning and certainly they knew that the army had called for Beit Hanoun to be evacuated.  Why didn’t the Palestinians in the school evacuate when they were asked to?  For the answer to this, I think you need to ask Hamas and not Israel.  As things stand at the moment, this constitutes a blood libel.

75% OF THE DEATH ARE CIVILIAN

How do you know that 75% of the deaths are civilian?  Where did you get such a statistic?  Only a few days ago, I showed how, based on the names of those who died, 80% were men and most of them were of fighting age.  In past conflicts with Hamas, after the guns went silent, they released full lists of all the “heroes” who died and they turned out to be mostly fighters.  I doubt it will be different this time, but by then, the world will be paying attention to some other titbit of international news and Hamas will have accomplished its goal.  As Bret Stephens of the WSJ rightly pointed out today:

Consider the media obsession with the body count. According to a daily tally in the New York Times as of July 27 the war in Gaza had claimed 1,023 Palestinian lives as against 46 Israelis. How does the Times keep such an accurate count of Palestinian deaths? A footnote discloses “Palestinian death tallies are provided by the Palestinian Health Ministry and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.”

OK. So who runs the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza? Hamas does. As for the U.N., it gets its data mainly from two Palestinian agitprop NGOs, one of which, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, offers the remarkably precise statistic that, as of July 27, exactly 82% of deaths in Gaza have been civilians. Curiously, during the 2008-09 Gaza war, the center also reported an 82% civilian casualty rate.

When minutely exact statistics are provided in chaotic circumstances, it suggests the statistics are garbage. When a news organization relies—without clarification—on data provided by a bureaucratic organ of a terrorist organization, there’s something wrong there, too.

So are you sure that it is only 75% and not 82% like in the past conflict and in this one as well?

THE U.N. ORDER AN INQUIRY FOR CRIME WAR SO HOW COME THAT YOU STILL DEFEND THIS CRIMINAL IN UNIFORM?

The UN Human Rights Council is made up by such countries as Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.  It also has ten majority Muslim countries on the council.  These are countries that know a lot more about Human Rights violations than Israel and certainly should not be throwing stones from their glass houses. Indeed, the UNHRC is such a beacon of morality that Syria is doing its best to become a member this year.

In general, the UNHRC body has a long history of showing bias towards Israel and ignoring all of the rest of the world’s problems to focus only on Israel.  In the normal world, that is called discrimination.  Democracy is not democracy unless it ensures the rights of minorities, unless it is the UN and used as a political weapon by the Arab States against to make Israel look bad.  In fact, last year it was so obvious that the UNHRC was biased against Israel that even one of the translators was caught on a hot mic saying so.  In that session there were nine resolutions against Israel and one against Syria.  One of the anti-Israel resolutions demanded that Israel return the Golan Heights to Assad immediately.  I wonder what that would do to the human rights of the people living there!

By the way, you should be more precise in your language and aware that even with this politically motivated vote, the UNHRC has only requested an inquiry and has not reached any conclusions.  The last time they did this (The Goldstone Report), the author of the report himself denounced his own report in the end. As Goldstone noted in theWashington Post, subsequent investigations by Israel, "indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy" while "the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying." 

Lastly, I take offense at you calling those who have put on uniforms to defend me and my family as criminals.  These are both young men and women in regular service and tens of thousands of reservists who have left their loved ones behind to defend their country from a missile assault and numerous violations of our sovereignty (invasion attempts by land, by sea and by air.)  Perhaps you are still suffering from some juvenile 1960s anti-establishment hangover, but these men and women are heroes fighting a just war and your calling them criminals is both uninformed and deplorable. I can tell you already now that the day that my children will don their army uniform will certainly be one of the proudest days of my life.  I know that the world likes to see dead Jews, but we no longer want to be victims in your morality play. 

Which brings me to my next point.

YES THE HAMMAS KILL 3 STUDENT AND FOR THAT YOUR ARMY KILL THOUSAND? K MON EIAL GIVE ME A BREAK PLEASE

As of this moment 56 people have been killed by Hamas. If they have not managed to kill more, it is only because they have failed to do so and not because they have not tried.  Our government has invested over decades in early warning systems and missile defense while Hamas has invested in building attack tunnels and buying missiles to shoot at our people.   So, do some research and give me a break.

 

By the way, the goal in war is to kill your enemy while doing your best to avoid being killed.  I will not apologize for success in battle and this is not some Golf game where you need to give your opponent a handicap.

YES THE BIBLE SAID ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF YOUR PEOPLE THERE BUT IS LIKE  THAT WE GO TO AFGHANISTAN AND TAKE BE CAUSE THE MAHABARATHA SAID THAT, IT DOSE MAKE SENS,

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t seem to recall that the Ganges and Varanasi are in Afghanistan or that Vrindavan is in Herat province.  Your analogy makes absolutely no sense at all! Actually, according to the Bible, historic Israel includes Jordan and, at times, much of Syria.  Even more so, Judea (where the Jews come from) is in the “West Bank” today. I wasn’t arguing that we need to set our borders based on the Bible, rather that clear Biblical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that we are an indigenous people from this land and not some colonists who showed up out of nowhere all of a sudden. For this reason I rejected your characterization of Palestinians as the Native Americans in this story.

 

Also, we did not “take” anything.  Until 1948 all the land that Jews were living on was purchased from the Arab owners or government “wasteland” where they were granted a right to live in order to improve the land.  Even politically, we did not “take” anything.  We were given the right to a country by the League of Nations (Mandate for Palestine) in 1922, which was reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1947. (Please read some history.) 

IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE YOUR COUNTRY WAY THE PALESTINIAN CAN NOT HAVE THEY RIGHT TO HAVE THE SAME?

I think you need to ask the Palestinians this question.  I said above that the Jewish people were “an” indigenous people.  I did not say that we are “the” indigenous people.  Though I think the Palestinians are recent arrivals, I recognize that they also have rights to this land. For my entire life, the Israeli government has been trying to negotiate with Palestinians so that there will be a 2 – State solution, but for some reason they seem uninterested.  Over the years we have even given up our own territorial claims – whether it be the East Bank of the Mandate (1922), our agreement to the Peel Commission (1937), the UN Partition Plan (1947), the Oslo Agreements and the creation of the PNA (1993), and most recently, our unilateral departure from Gaza (2005).  Clearly you know none of this history, or you would not embarrass yourself with saying such things.

   

YOU REMEMBER THAT YOU HAD ISRAEL THANKS TO  THE BIGGEST DEMON MR HITLER, NOT BE CAUSE YOU WERE THERE ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE. 

This is a common fallacy, but completely untrue! It is untrue because, as I noted above, 26 years before Israel was established, the League of Nations voted unanimously to “RE-constitute” the Jewish National Home.  This was not based on the Bible, but on the right to self-determination and the fact that Jewish sovereignty had existed for over a thousand years.  The UN vote in 1947 only affirmed the 1922 League of Nations decision by ending Britain’s Mandate. In fact, modern political Zionism predates the Holocaust by over 60 years and has to do more with the rise of nationalism in Europe. As European countries became independent, Jews were told that they did not belong and so embraced their own nationalism.

It is also untrue because, even though they were only supposed to administer the Mandate temporarily, the British would never have left had the Jews not fought them and forced them to live up to their obligations under the Mandate. This freedom struggle many several years and, eventually, forced the British to surrender.

THE PALESTINIAN FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHT

The Palestinians have the right to fight, but then they do not have the right to complain when their “resistance” is met with resistance.  We would prefer to sit down and negotiate, but if they want to fight, then we will, regrettably, give them what they want. Just today the head of their military wing said that his fighters are “eager for death.” 

YOU REMEMBER WEN THE ISRAEL ARMY BROKEN THE ARMS OF HUNDRED OF YOUNG PALESTINIAN GUILTY OF PELTING STONE ?

No, I do not remember this because it never happened.  I would like to see the source for this allegation of “hundreds” of young Palestinians having their arms broken.  Please provide it or take back this calumny.

PLEASE EIAL YOU ARE A INTELLIGENT MAN NOT BE FANATIC, SEE THE REALITY AND BE HONEST ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR ARMY ARE DOING MANY WRONG THINGS.

I appreciate that you consider me to be an intelligent man and that you think I am not a fanatic.  If you really believe that then maybe you will accept the reality that I know a little bit more about this conflict than you do and have come to my conclusions based on factual knowledge of the subject matter.  Unfortunately, I have found that too many people are either blinded by a knee-jerk leftist ideology (e.g. anti-colonialism and third-worldism) or simplistic media-driven narratives.

*** Earlier today I received another missive from my friend.  Here is what he wrote:

SO YESTERDAY ANOTHER PEACE DAY ONLY 8 CHILDREN DEAD

I HOPE THAT YOUR ARMY SEND A S.M.S BI-FOR KILLING THEM.  

WAT A SHAME

Maybe it has escaped your attention, but we happen to be in a war here.  Yesterday, the Palestinians also killed 10 Israelis, some of them in cold blood. They also shot a missile that hit one of their own hospitals. I wonder how many children they killed in that attack? Personally, I think it really tragic when children die in war.  

You realize, of course, that there are children – Jewish and Arab (we live as neighbours here) – on this side of the border, who are being targeted every single day by missiles that are shot at our homes? Just yesterday two missiles fell about 10-15 kilometers south of my home.  Many children are sleeping in bomb shelters and reinforced concrete rooms right now.  All of our lives have been negatively affected in many ways and you can be sure that my children are terrorized by the fear that the sky will rain death.

None of what is happening here is theoretical. That Hamas is not able to break through our defences, does not change the fact that 2,500 missiles have been fired from Gaza and that they really are trying to kill me and my family. For that reason, I must say that I find it extremely disappointing that, throughout this entire e-mail exchange, you have shown much more interest in the children of terrorists and strangers than in those of someone who considered you a friend.  

PS  So far I have not received even one SMS from Hamas.

"I Really Hope That You Will Condemn This Act of Aggression"

Yesterday, I received the following e-mail from an Italian friend of mine who has lived in India for the better part of thirty years as an ISKCON (Hare Krishna) devotee. I have known him for over a decade and am indebted to him for all that he has shared with me with respect to religion, spirituality, and Krishna Consciousness in particular. He is a caring and well-meaning person who is, a bit of an aging hippy and a true believer in his chosen faith.

Since his points are accusations that are repeatedly levelled at Israel, I decided to respond in an open letter. Here is his letter in full and unadulterated:

HARE KRISHNA EIAL HOW ARE YOU?
VERY BAD NEWS ARE COMMING HERE DO YOUR ARMY SEND SMS TO THE SCHOOL? BEFORE SENDING A MISSAIL AND KILLING
16 BETWEN WOMAN AND CHILDREN? IT LOOK LIKE THE WITH AMERICAN KILLING THE READ SKIN AMERICAN
WAT A SHAME I REALLY HOPE THAT YOU WILL CONDEM THIS ACT OF AGGRESSION

My response:

Hare Krishna!

Yes, it is truly tragic that innocent civilians including many women and children died in the shelling of the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun. 

The short answer to your question is: No. There is no evidence that the army sent an SMS to the school prior to firing a mortar round at it.  Rather, starting three days before this incident, the Israeli army informed ALL the citizens of this border town (through SMS, through the media, and through leaflets) that they should evacuate before the army arrived.  Unfortunately, there is a great deal of evidence indicating that Hamas operatives actively prevented them from doing so.

Then, on the day of this tragic event, a phone call was made to the school by the Israeli Defence Forces requesting that all the people immediately leave the school.  Though they were granted four hours to do so, this request was also ignored.  As this video shows (Click Here), they were requested to leave the area because Hamas had placed several Grad rocket launchers in the vicinity of the school and were firing these rockets into Israel. Even worse than that, twice in the last week rockets were found stored inside an UNRWA school (see Here). Lastly, it is important to note that at least three Hamas rockets that were shot at Israel from the Gaza Strip fell short and landed that day in Beit Hanoun and it is not yet clear whether or not it was Hamas that was directly responsible for this incident.

In any case, let’s assume for now that an Israeli tank was, in fact, responsible for the shelling of the school and the tragic loss of life. If that is proven to be true, I still would no more condemn this act than I would condemn a car driver who killed a group of pedestrians because their brakes failed. In both cases, there is undoubtedly a tragedy. In both cases, there needs to be a full investigation and lessons learned to prevent any repeat. Yet, in both cases, the intent is as equally important as the tragic consequences.

  

So, until such time that someone can definitively prove to me that an Israeli soldier DELIBERATELY, on purpose, and with malice aforethought, fired into a crowd of women and children huddled in a school, I see no reason to voice condemnation for this truly unfortunate event. To do so would not only be self-righteous, but morally suspect. It would remove intentionality and privilege me as omniscient judge and jury when, as you know, the only one who can do that is G-d.

But that is not all. In case you have not noticed, Israel and Hamas are currently engaged in a war.  In the fog of war many terrible things happen to people – both those who are innocent and those who are not. Though all the evidence points to the majority of those being killed being men of fighting age (see here), all that an army can do is try its best to avoid civilian casualties.

At the end of the day, wars are violent affairs and protecting civilians is not only the responsibility of one side. While Israel has developed impressive defensive capabilities (e.g. Iron Dome) and built early-warning systems and bomb shelters, the elected Hamas GOVERNMENT of Gaza has used its international aid to build attack tunnels into Israel and bomb shelters that protect only their leaders and fighters. 

As such, I condemn them for purposefully placing their civilian population in harm’s way and expect that you would condemn them as well. Moreover, as the party that began this round of violence – by kidnapping and murdering three teenagers and shooting rockets at Israel unprovoked – they made a DELIBERATE choice to pursue violence and thus need to be held accountable for its tragic consequences. Even now Hamas could easily put an end to the suffering on both sides of the border by accepting the numerous ceasefires that have been offered them.

Last, but certainly not least, your assertion that this looks in any way like the genocide carried out on Native Americans must be addressed. To begin with, I strongly suggest that you put down the Srimad Bhagavatam long enough to reread the Jewish Bible and all it says about the ancient Jewish connection to this land. Regardless of whether you accept the Bible as G-d’s word, there is no doubt that the Jewish people are an indigenous people of this land. This is evidenced both in our writings and in the numerous archaeological finds located throughout Israel.

Indeed, from about the 14^th century before the Christian era and until the 13^th Century Crusades, there was a very strong Jewish presence in this land, including hundreds of years of Jewish rule.  Even after the 13^th century, there were numerous Jewish communities in this land and even Jewish majorities in some of the major cities.  Certainly, every Jew everywhere considers themselves to be indigenous to this place and connected to this land. Our entire religion revolves around our obligation to this land and Jerusalem has been the sole, eternal capital of the Jews for 3,000 years.  As such, I would argue, it is, in fact, the Jews who are no different than the “Red-skin Americans” you referenced in your letter.

If you would also consider for one moment that we are surrounded by millions of fanatics who would love nothing more than to see every last one of us dead, then you would realize how close we are at any given moment to a real genocide. The only reason that our neighbours have not been able to carry out this murderous vision is because the Israeli army is here to defend us. So, as terrible as it is when innocent people die, I will not condemn those who have been forced to fight and die to protect the one place we call home. In fact, I sincerely believe that history will harshly judge those who were quick to condemn us.

נצח ישראל לא ישקר!

Update from Day 8 of the Hamastan War

So, it was actually a good thing that I did not provide an update of the latest events yesterday because the past two days ended up providing a pretty cohesive story – I.e. that of John Kerry’s latest failed attempt to bring peace to the Middle East. As in all of his other unsuccessful efforts (e.g. Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and Afghanistan), it appears clear that this effort is not really going anywhere at the moment.  Let’s recap:

After keeping quiet about events in this corner of the world for about a week, the Obama administration woke up and took notice once Israel began its ground operations.  In particular, after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed, it was clear that the US took a decision to actively engage in an attempt to put an end to the conflagration. 

Since the US has absolutely no leverage with Hamas, it seems that that it was decided at the State Department to try and pressure Israel into making concessions.  First of all, this involved an updated Travel Warning to American citizens.  Though absolutely nothing had changed on the ground between Tuesday and Wednesday, the new advisory urged Americans to postpone all non-essential travel to Israel.  While I completely understand why someone would want to defer their visit at this time, it still seemed suspicious, coming as it did just one day before Kerry’s decision to arrive uninvited.  Apparently Kerry decided that his own visit fell into the category of “essential travel” and so he publicly flouted his own department’s advice and landed in Ben Gurion airport.

Then on the morning of Kerry’s visit, the Federal Aviation Administration sent out a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) not to fly to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv because of the danger of being hit by a Hamas rocket.  To be fair to the FAA, this came in the wake of a direct hit on a building located about one kilometer from the airport , in the town of Yehud.  That said, the timing was once again suspicious.  The fact that State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki admitted that the FAA had consulted with the State Department prior to making the announcement, also made it seem like the fix was in. 

Both decisions immediately carried with them far-reaching consequences.  This is not only a death knell for the Israeli tourism industry (which was suffering already), but the green light for businesses who have interests in Israel to pull out staff and postpone any cooperative projects.  Worse, since most Western countries take their cue from the State Department, this meant that they all, almost immediately, sent out notices to their citizens to get out ASAP. Similarly, the decision by the US to halt flights was replicated by all the major airlines with flights into Israel.  Not only could people no longer travel in or out of Israel, but this meant that even cargo planes were grounded.  In short, these decisions effectively constituted a blockade on Israel and were tantamount to economic warfare.

Almost immediately after these US government decisions made, there was pushback from various quarters.  Of course, the Israeli government protested the decisions and not long after, pro-Israel voices in the US began questioning the administration’s decision making. For example, former Mayor Bloomberg of New York announced that he was flying to Israel on EL AL (the Israeli carrier) to show solidarity with the Israeli people and to show that there really was no reason to cancel all flights to the country. Even Ted Cruz got in on the act and argued essentially what I said above (to the great content of those on the Left).  Nonetheless, the idea apparently was gaining traction because Obama’s advisors trotted him out in front of the cameras to say that there was absolutely no truth to the allegations that any of this was politically motivated.

Not surprisingly, the FAA decision was hailed as a “Great Victory” by Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas spent most of Wednesday trying to score a direct hit on the airport.  Although no missiles even got close, thanks again to the Iron Dome system, this led the FAA to send out a second NOTAM on Thursday morning just hours before Kerry’s arrival for ceasefire talks.  Once again, Kerry ignored his own government’s advice and flew into Israel for talks.  Apparently, Kerry had negotiated with the Qatar government (which is representing Hamas’s interests) that there would be a one week ceasefire and then talks over Hamas’s demands regarding Israel’s blockade of Gaza.  From Israel, Kerry headed to Cairo.

I’m not sure what, if any, quid pro quo the Israeli government promised Kerry, but shortly after he departed Israel, the 24-hour flight ban was suddenly (and magically) lifted.  While we were happy to hear that the NOTAM was canceled, the fact that there was a flip flop in a matter of a few hours, actually only strengthens my conviction that the Obama administration felt that it could do without a distraction at this time and decided to cut its losses.  2016 is not too far away and Jewish voters in the US are definitely watching closely to see how the administration handles this conflict.

In any case, Kerry went off to Egypt to convince Generalissimo Sisi that a ceasefire was in Egypt’s best interests and that the addition of Qatar as a negotiating partner would not diminish Egypt’s role in the region (i.e. bullshit).  In the meantime, the Israeli cabinet met to decide whether it would take up Kerry-Qatar’s ceasefire offer. 

I can tell you that, literally everyone here in Israel that I spoke with were dreading the cabinet decision. There was this depressing sense that the world was pushing Israel to once again play the grown up while giving Hamas a break to further build up its offensive capabilities.  Worse, there was a sense that we have already paid a heavy price and that the army should be given a chance to “take care of business,” as Elvis used to say.  14 years of constant shelling and living in fear of being abducted or killed has taken a great toll on the communities near Gaza and people have given up any hope of resolving this conflict through peaceful dialogue.  That said, everyone was convinced that, due to the unfortunate deaths in the UNRWA school yesterday, the government would cave and the fighting would stop in a day or two at the most.

In the end, the cabinet surprised everyone by unanimously voting to reject this ceasefire offer while agreeing to a 12 hour humanitarian ceasefire tomorrow from 8 AM. Hamas announced that there was a “national consensus” on the need for a ceasefire and accepted the offer.  Israel is probably banking on the fact that Hamas or some of the other outfits in Gaza will breach the ceasefire and Israel will resume with its campaign.  Hamas will undoubtedly spend the time priming the missiles for an 8 PM sound and light show over Tel Aviv.

In the interim, Kerry, who arrived uninvited for discussions on a ceasefire, tried unconvincingly to save face by contending that there never was an actual ceasefire offer per se. As such, he argued, it was misleading to say that it was voted down by the Israeli cabinet. Fortunately for Kerry, pretty much no one was paying any attention so he will be able to continue shamelessly meddling in our affairs and pretending like he has something substantive to offer. To sum up, throughout this whole saga, Kerry and the Obama administration come off looking antagonistic towards Israel as well as both flat-footed and feckless. Poor Kerry - that Nobel Peace Prize looks more distant than ever.

UPDATE: Further proof that Kerry is antagonistic to Israel and feckless, can be found in this report from the Times of Israel.  If he thinks that the problem will be resolved between Turkey and Qatar and without the participation of Israel and Egypt, then he is completely off his rocker. Am afraid that US-Israel affairs may be heading to a new low. See Article.

For some pics of the Gaza tunnels check out YNet.

The Funeral of Staff Sargeant Shahar Dauber HY"D

This morning I went to my second funeral in four days.  This time it was for a young man, a paratrooper named Shahar Dauber, whose life was cut tragically short when the booby-trapped house he entered collapsed on top of him and his two fellow platoon-mates.  Several thousand people came out to attend the funeral, which was held high up on the hill overlooking Kibbutz Ginegar in the beautiful military cemetery located in the shade of ancient olive and carob trees. Shahar was the first addition to the cemetery since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Because of the close-knit nature of kibbutz life and my personal connection with this little corner of Israel, the funeral really hit home and left me gasping for air all day. It was all so intimate. Person after person told of their shared lives with Shahar and their inability to grasp or accept this loss.  His friends spoke of their childhoods growing up together in their little community and their shared plans for the future. We all sobbed when his brother told us that on the same day that they received the terrible news he had also been called up for reserve duty before letting out the plaintive cry “My kid brother is no more!” It is a devastating blow for this little community and a wound which will take a very long time to heal. 

As difficult as it was to be at the funeral today, and as hard as it is at times to be here in Israel, there is absolutely no place in the world I would rather be, especially at this time. This is actually my third time being in Israel during a war, and, as painful as it is sometimes, living abroad during bouts of conflict was always infinitely harder for me. The distance, the inability to help in any way, the frustration of being around people who haven’t a clue always made it much harder to bear.  At least here, I can go to the funeral and pay my last respects to a young man who was a hero, I can comfort my friends in their loss, and I can partake in the heartfelt camaraderie that Israelis share during such trying times.

Two anecdotes from the last day come to mind. When I called my boss to see if I could take off from work to go to the funeral, he didn’t answer me in officialese about vacation hours or say anything about making up the time lost. He simply told me, “Comforting those in mourning is a Jewish value. You have to go.” Somehow, I just can’t imagine a manager in a US office or HR department making an appeal to values – whether Jewish or otherwise. The second example came after the funeral concluded.  I was walking back to the car with my friends when we ran across a distraught woman who had clearly been crying her eyes out since long before the funeral started. I assumed that she was from the family of the deceased and several kibbutz members stopped to give her an encouraging word and a hug.  I overheard someone tell her “Lightning won’t strike twice.” It was at that moment I understood that her son was also off fighting in Gaza. Tonight my prayers go out to him and all the other soldiers fighting in Gaza, that they may all return home soon and in one piece. 

As it says in Psalms 29:11 "The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with Peace."

In Other News: There is much political commentary that needs to be discussed, but it will have to wait for the morrow.

Update from Day 6 of the Hamastan (Under)Ground War

Since arriving in Israel a little over a year ago, Kibbutz Ginegar has become for us a home away from home.  Lucky for us, my friend Haike always generously arranged for us to stay there and to join in all of the holidays and events in the kibbutz.  We were there for Israel Independence Day and went to watch the world cup in their little brewery and often went to their pool on the weekend during these hot summer days.  Overlooking the Jezreel Valley, Ginegar is a quaint and peaceful community of a couple hundred souls about 45 minutes from Haifa.

Unfortunately, the Angel of Death spreads its shadow to even the brightest of corners. This afternoon, the terrible news arrived that a son of the Kibbutz, Shahar Dauber, 20 years old and a soldier in the paratroopers, was killed with two others from his unit, when they entered a booby trapped house.

I don’t know if I ran into Shahar or his family during our visits to the brewery or while enjoying a meal at the dining hall, but I do know that he was a hero who gave his life so that all of us could raise our families here with peace and security in our ancestral homeland. I do feel that his death was likely unnecessary.  It could have been prevented if the army was not so careful about inflicting civilian casualties and Hamas was not so determined to hide behind human shields. Any other army would have just punched its way through the Gaza neighborhood, but the IDF chooses to check the houses to see if there is anyone hiding in there and does not destroy buildings if there is no need to. Israel is excoriated by the international community for bombing houses, while Hamas not only does not have any qualms about destroying houses, but rather it uses them as weapons.

I mention this because the UNHRC, a body consisting of such “bastions” of human rights as Cuba, Venezuela, Congo, Pakistan, China, and Russia voted today to set up a committee to investigate alleged Israeli “war crimes.” This same body recently called for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria, even though that country is embroiled in a deadly civil war. Not surprisingly, the kind of human rights the inhabitants of the Golan were meant to expect was never made entirely clear in the resolution.   

This is a dangerous game that the UN is playing.  By constantly obsessing solely over Israel, it prevents other issues from being addressed while making a mockery and undermining the UN system.  Worse, after all the very real (and unprecedented in the history of warfare), efforts that Israel has made to minimize civilian casualties, it seems clear that the council keeps moving the goalpost while providing cover for Hamas and obsessing over only one side in this conflict. If Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Minister for Legal Affairs response this evening that the UNHRC should “Get lost/Look for me” is indicative of anything it is that Israelis will no longer feel obligated to take into consideration critiques of its policies.  As such, this politically motivated decision encourages a purely realpolitik approach that would seem, at face value, to place Palestinians in even greater danger.  It means that Israelis will be held responsible no matter what they do, as such the international community has effectively lost any leverage as well as any moral suasion over Israel.  In short, this will only serve to radicalize Israelis and strengthen the voices calling for the establishment facts on the ground.  After all, if you are going to be hated anyways, then you just might as well do what you need to do to get the job done.

In general, I think the entire conflict has been a watershed moment for Jews for both here in Israel and especially for those living abroad.  For Israelis, it has been a watershed because the nature of Hamas’s attack capabilities – both in terms of missiles and attack tunnels – was fully revealed.  The attack tunnels have especially captured the imagination of people because no one can now argue that if we just leave them alone, then they too will let us be.  Clearly, their desire to capture and kill Israelis supersedes anything else, including the well-being of their own people.  The fact that tunnels have been dug to within feet of nursery schools and dining halls, has united the always fractious political spectrum in Israel.  Even the Left cannot find a logical justification for these tunnels and have come out in support of the campaign. None of this sits well with the narrative that there are reasonable people over there who will jump at the chance to negotiate in good faith if only given the chance.  All of this means that there is no public pressure on the government to end the campaign before it its objectives are met.

For Diaspora Jews, this entire experience has been a wake-up call, the likes of which have not been experienced in over a generation.  The unleashed terror campaign by pro-Palestinian thugs in Europe is a harbinger of the end of Jewish communal life in Europe.  In the wake of the brutal attacks on Jewish synagogues, Jewish Businesses and Jewish homes, I have no doubt that immigration from France will grow dramatically in the coming months.  It is already at record levels.  If governments fail to decisively combat this anti-Semitism, other communities may also begin to reassess their calculus regarding emigration.  Hungary’s Jews in particular are already sitting on their suitcases and this conflict will likely only further serve to alienate them from society at large.

In the United States and Canada, thanks to social media such as FB and Twitter, many Jews are for the first time seeing what people really think about them and it has left them feeling vulnerable and upset. Certainly, a whole generation of young Jews – especially those who have been on Birthright – are witnessing and experiencing the irrational outpouring of hatred and demonization of the Jewish state and it does not jive with their personal experience of Israel.  This will certainly affect their sense of security and identity in ways that we cannot yet even fathom.

Meanwhile, the US administration has doubled down on its one-sided efforts to secure a cease fire.  For now, this effort has had exactly the opposite impact and has led to increased firing on Ben-Gurion airport.  After all, the only tangible accomplishment that Hamas can point to is the shuttering of the airport – Israel’s main link to the outside world thanks to the FAA ban on flying to Israel.  Today it was announced that this ban will be extended another day, even though there were far fewer missile launched towards Israel and none came close to the airport.  This has all the hallmarks of a coordinated effort at economic warfare against the State of Israel and it is clear that the Obama administration is actively fomenting this travesty.

In other News:

Al Wafa hospital was targeted today after several days of warning that the place needs to be evacuated immediately.  The Palestinians would love to proffer this as a war crime, but there is the inconvenient fact of secondary explosions indicating the existence of a missile cache on site.  Here is the raw, unedited footage.

Liel Leibovitz calculated that over 800,000 tons of cement were used for the tunnels and that this was an amount equal to seven Burj Dubai’s.

Last, but definitely not least, a foreign worker from Thailand was killed this afternoon while working in a greenhouse near the Gaza border. A mortar scored a direct hit on him and he was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital. May his memory be a blessing to his family and friends.

PS  My apologies for any typos or non-sequiters.  It is exceedingly late and I have neither the strength nor the focus necessary to carefully proofread this right now.

Positivism and its Uses

Here is statistical evidence that there is no indiscriminate bombing campaign on the part of the Israeli army (as if there was any doubt). Based on a list provided by Al Jazeera, Palestinians killed in Gaza were analyzed based on gender and age.

What the researchers found was that over 80% of the dead were males and about 50% of the were between the ages of 18 and 28. If you figure all males of fighting age, then approximately 3/4 of all those killed have been from this category. This is surprising if you figure that half of Gaza's population is under the age of 14.

Sometimes even positivism has its uses.

http://honestreporting.com/analysis-of-gazans-killed-so-far-in-operation-protective-edge/

Update from Day 5 of the Ground War (Day 15 since the start of Operation Protective Edge)

There have been a great many developments over the past two days and many of them are perhaps unclear in their implications to those who are unfamiliar with the subtleties of the region.  I’ll try my best to decode some of these items for you.

Johnny’s back! After visiting Israel every other week for months, John Kerry returned today after snubbing us for the past three months.  I don’t blame him, he has been busy dealing with the world’s crises that she should have been dealing with while he was doing his best to earn himself a peace prize and a leg up in the 2016 Presidential Elections.  As it turns out, while he was he was running back and forth between Israel and the Palestinians – which was the quietest corner in the entire region at the time – Russia was busy planning the invasion and annexation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, ISIS was planning its capture of half of Iraq and Syria, Iran was inching ever closer to having a nuclear bomb, and Libya slid into complete civil war.

Back in April, in this blog, I facetiously noted that because of Kerry's peace push that the region's forecast was “Cloudy with a Chance Missiles.”  I wrote this because after every round of “negotiations” in the “peace process” there is a terror wave, intifada, or missile war. You don’t have to be a genius to understand why this is. It is because you build up false expectations and then when they do not materialize, you strengthen the hand of the radicals in society.  Note also that, in over twenty years of negotiations, Palestinians have not budged one inch in their demands. Yet have been rewarded with international assistance and buttressed by moral support from the Left. From their perspective, they need only hold out a bit longer and the world will impose a solution on Israel – one which will come close to their maximalist demands.  To some degree they are absolutely right.  For example, this time around the US pressured Israel to release of Palestinian prisoners with blood on their hands and the Palestinians gave absolutely nothing in return.  In other words, “Something for nothing and your pricks for free…”

In short, what the US, the Europeans and others do not understand is that neither side is interested in resolving the conflict right now.  Israel sees too many regional threats on the horizon (e.g. Syria, Iran, ISIS) to give up strategic territory and control of the border crossings and the Palestinians see no reason to compromise when Europe and the US are doing the hard bargaining for them. There is much more to it than this, but there it is a nutshell.  Another way to put this is that the US has been the arsonist of the Middle East.  Feckless and flat-footed on almost every issue, both this and the previous administration have managed to bring the region to the brink of total disaster.

So now Kerry shows up uninvited after instigating the whole slide into chaos and wants a ceasefire.  Since the State Department has no leverage over Hamas, the brainiacs in the State Department have decided to wage economic warfare on Israel.  Though nothing has changed in the past few days EXCEPT that there are now FEWER missile attacks, the State Department has chosen this moment to release a warning against all “non-essential” travel to Israel.  Then today, shortly after Kerry’s arrive, the FAA sends out a State Department approved notice to airlines that they should not fly to Israel.  As a result, except for El Al, there are no flights coming in and out of Ben Gurion airport as of tomorrow.  Obviously, this will have serious ripple effects on the Israeli economy. 

Some Thoughts on the Above: Considering that all the major Western papers have shrugged off Israeli concerns regarding rocket attacks on our civilian population, it is at least reassuring to see that even the US and Europe now admit (through these travel warnings) that there exists a legitimate danger to life and limb. Also, since the airport is now closed, it is hard to imagine any country in the world that would not be justified in doing anything and everything in its power to keep open its only commercial airport.

It is not hyperbole to say that the region is undergoing its greatest upheaval since at least World War I and more rightly since the Mongol invasions of the 13^th century.  You cannot see what is going on in Gaza as separate from what is happening in the region.  The spread and strengthening of ISIS, is both an indictment of the Obama administration’s policies in Iraq and Syria and a palpable threat to the stability of the entire region.  Due to the Syrian Civil War, 2 million Sunnis have become refugees in Lebanon, upsetting the nation’s delicate ethnic balance.  Most importantly it has erased the Shiite majority that first developed in the 1980’s.  Similarly, in Jordan, one million refugees have made Palestinians a minority there for the first time.  If these destitute refugees join the cause of ISIS, then you could see the countries around Israel tumble like the proverbial dominos.  Israel is aware of this real threat and for that reason (among others) feels the need to defang Hamas now or face being attacked in the rear should a regional war break out (and it will). Of course, Hamas has been weakened by the downfall of Morsi and has lost much of its regional support by its backing (on and off) of Iran and financial support from Qatar (Saudi Arabia’s arch enemy).  Though the PLO is in a partnership with Hamas, no one there is saddened by it getting punched in the face and Egypt has already declared the organization a terrorist outfit.  The downside in all of this is that Hamas has nothing to lose and hopes to gain as much sympathy as possible in its “martyrdom.”

There is a whole chapter that can and should be written about how these changes are affecting and changing the political calculus of the region's minorities (e.g. Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, Shiites, and Jews). Maybe we’ll get to this next time.

In Other News: 

• Apparently an Israeli soldier’s body was kidnapped from the battle in the Shajaiya the other day.  Hamas announced that Israel will have to “pay” just to see a picture of his body.

• Several foreign correspondents tweeted that they saw Hamas cross-dressers in women’s clothing (i.e. burqa) and rifle.  One of these “fighters” tried to approach an army unit and was shot dead before they could detonate their suicide vest.

• Among the ten infiltrators killed or captured yesterday as they were headed to attack a Jewish community, one was injured and is now being treated in an Israeli hospital.  He is 16 years old.  A thirteen year old child wearing a suicide vest was also caught yesterday by soldiers in Shujaiya. Next time the news reports that minors were killed by Israeli airstrikes, ask yourself if perhaps they might have also been enemy combatants.

• A tunnel that led to a dining hall in an Israeli kibbutz and another one that led to a nursery school were uncovered.  It’s not like it was any secret that these tunnels existed – Hamas repeatedly warned that it would “surprise” the enemy once the time would come.  But no one thought that there were so many and so sophisticated. These were built at great cost and over a long period of time, hooked up with electricity, supplied with food and weapons, and clearly designed to harm Israel’s civilian population.  These were not headed to any of the military bases in the region.

• One of the ten demands that Hamas has made in order for it to agree to a ceasefire is that it be given unfettered access to cement.  Now we know why. 

• If even a fraction of the cement used to build these tunnels was used by the Hamas government to build bomb shelters, I wonder how many people’s lives could have been saved.