German Anti-Semitism Pushes The Envelope

Especially the youth:

… since in recent years the word “Jew” has again become a general purpose insult, precisely among young people. Some German rappers also use the term “Intifada Rap” to describe their music and they see themselves as belonging to a “Generation Jihad.” They do everything they can to adopt the look and tone of Jew-haters. In videos that are accessible to anyone on YouTube, rap fans celebrate Hamas activists and other Islamist terror groups and challenge the right of Israel to exist. In these circles, Osama bin Laden has long since replaced Che Guevara as a symbol of emancipation.

...But Robert Peschke is right to point out that this development is not simply to be explained by the Muslim immigrant background of the rappers: “Not a single German rapper would have enough money to keep his refrigerator stocked, if it was not for the purchasing power of the white middle class kids who buy their recordings. They are drawn to the toughness of the Islamophile German rap and they pay hard cash for it. But they also can get their anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism on offer from ‘white bread’ rappers.”

Read the whole thing.

Technorati Tag: Anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile...In Sderot

Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times features a guest post by Laura Bialis,--an independent documentary film maker responsible for the new film Refusenik--describing her last 36 hours in Sderot, starting on Friday:

ANOTHER WEEK IN SDEROT: THIS IS WAR

As many of you know, I am living here in Sderot, making a film about the situation through the eyes of Sderot's musicians. I live with Avi Vaknin, one of the musicians in my film, and Aner Moss, who is working as my cinematographer.

I am sad and angry today. It has been a really difficult week here. Wednesday the qassam attacks escalated again. Several fell on Sapir College, which is just a couple of minutes from here, killing a student. Many landed in Ashkelon -- one on a hospital. The attacks continued Thursday with more injuries. Because the rockets started hitting Ashkelon, the Prime Minister (while eating sushi on a trip to Japan) announced that Hamas is trying his patience.

Living in Sderot these days is all about listening and waiting. It feels like there is going to be a real War. You can hear everything. Sometimes we hear a far away boom. We look at each other and say: "Must be us. Must be us bombing them." We hear helicopters. The first time I heard a helicopter here I realized suddenly that this isn't LA. Its not a news helicopter or a police helicopter, or most likely not even a hospital helicopter. A helicopter here can only be one thing. IDF. The first time I heard airplanes, I realized there was no airport around here. You hear airplanes and they are military airplanes. If they are loud, probably F-16s.

Below is a journal from my last 36 hours

Read the whole thing.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Sderot.

Olmert Continues To Gaze Into The Soul Of The Palestinians

At the beginning of the year, Olmert looked deep into the heart and soul of Abbas and liked what he saw:

He said he was convinced, too, that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "has made the choice in his heart" between clinging to the "myth of the 'right of return'" and the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state where all Palestinians, refugees included, would live.

"My impression is that he wants peace with Israel, and accepts Israel as Israel defines itself," Olmert said. "If you ask him to say that he sees Israel as a Jewish state, he will not say that. But if you ask me whether in his soul he accepts Israel, as Israel defines itself, I think he does. That is not insignificant. It is perhaps not enough, but it is not insignificant."

Now with Israel finally taking action against Hamas, Olmert once again gazes--this time into the minds of the Palestinian Arabs themselves:

The prime minister went on to say that "nobody in the world would deny" that striking at Hamas strengthens the chance for peace.

"The more Hamas is hit, the greater the chances of reaching a peace agreement. It is clear to me that the Palestinian leadership with whom we are trying to make peace, understands this. Israel will continue to defend its citizens and will continue to make efforts to hold negotiations in order to reach an understanding with the Palestinian leadership that [also] wants this," he said.

Clear? He must be using Peretz's binoculars:

Earlier Sunday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had said that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks had been "buried in the dust of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip."

If Olmert refused to take the Palestinian terrorists at their word, what chance is there that the West will?

Technorati Tag: Israel.

Israeli Statement To Security Council

Statement by Israel Ambassador Daniel Carmon, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. to emergency meeting of the Security Council
United Nations, New York
1 March 2008

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General,

Two days ago, and as a matter of fact a few minutes ago in his briefing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Hamas' rocket fire against Israel, and called on Hamas and other terrorist and militant groups to cease all acts of violence and terrorism. He also called on Israel to exercise maximum restraint.

Mr. President, Israel has exercised that restraint for many months now. This has been in spite of the constant firing of rockets and mortar shells on our towns and villages in southern Israel, every single hour, every single day. And this is in spite of Hamas' attempt to carry out terrorist attacks wherever they can target and kill an Israeli.

While Israel has been showing restraint, Hamas has showed no intention of ceasing its vicious attacks. On the contrary. In the past week, since Hamas failed to organize a provocative demonstration in Gaza - a failure that might be seen as a weakness - it has dramatically escalated its rocket attacks and upgraded its capabilities against our people. Grad missiles. Qatyusha rockets. Mortar shells. And Qassams. Since Wednesday, more than 150 rockets were fired at Israel, dozens in the past 24 hours alone.

As I speak to you now, more than a quarter of a million Israeli citizens are in the range of the deadly and murderous weapons of Hamas, care of Hamas, of its backers in the region and their malicious vision.

The Government of Israel should thus not apologize for protecting its citizens.

Mr. President,

We have addressed this situation for a very long time. The Members of the Council can see the many letters we have sent, this week alone, expressing our alarm and concern with Hamas' attacks and reiterating our determination to protect our people. This is our right. This is the right of all States to act in self defense, in accordance with article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This is our duty. This is our obligation to our people.

I ask the Members of the Security Council, wouldn't it be yours too?

No responsible Member State would sit back in silence and do nothing as its citizens and territory are under constant attack. They would not be idle as the alarms in Sderot - and now Ashkelon - blare "Colour Red, Colour Red", giving Israeli civilians less than 15 seconds - 15 seconds of terror - that's all it takes, before the rocket slams into their lives, their homes, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and playgrounds. And their lives are destroyed forever.

There is only one way to describe the activity of Hamas against Israel - it is plain and blunt terrorism. Hamas is a terrorist group backed by Member States of this world body, an organization that denies the very basic principles set by the international community: the cessation of hostilities, cessation of terrorist acts, recognition of Israel, and abiding by previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hamas, Mr. President, not only seeks to kill Israelis; it has no concern for its own civilians. It fires rockets from populated civilian areas, using their civilians as human shields. This is a war crime - there is no other way to describe it - against both Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr. President,

We heard the term “war crimes” here today in this hall. May I suggest to the Palestinian observer to divert this term - or accusation - to the Hamas terrorist group, who brutally took over the Gaza Strip a few months ago in what the Palestinian Authority leadership itself calls a “coup”.

If they answer your phone, distinguished colleague, you can tell them something about “war crimes”, as well as much of what you told the Council this evening. The address is there: Hamas.

The Palestinians in Gaza are victims of Hamas' regime of terror. It is not only Israelis. We are all being held hostage by Hamas, the real and only occupier in Gaza through its terror.

The situation is unacceptable - we do not accept it. We will continue with our fight against terrorism.

Mr. President,

There should be no doubt in our minds that Hamas' true vision is the extermination of the State of Israel, and not to live peacefully side by side with us. It does not even seek to restore normalcy for the sake of the people of Gaza.

It is thus unfortunate that the Palestinian observer tonight, as has been the case in the past, does not recognize that Hamas' bears sole responsibility for the violence. Once again, Hamas’ name, the word Hamas, was not mentioned even once in his address, and I think it says it all.

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General,

Hamas' vision for the failure of the moderates is a vision shared by some States in the region, including Iran and Syria, who is sitting behind the scenes, orchestrating and supporting Hamas' terrorism against Israel. They have done this in the past with other terrorist groups elsewhere in the region and around the world.

One must wonder about the timing of Hamas' escalation of violence, and whether its purpose is to distract the international community's attention today and this week.

Mr. President,

I reiterate Israel's determination to protect its civilians and territory - cities, towns, and villages. It is what they expect from us, and it is what we must do for them.

Sitting on the sidelines will only embolden the extremists and convince them that they should not stop their violence, trying to derail the peace process is what the extremists want to do. Israel expects the international community - and the Members of the Security Council - to support us in our protection of our people.

Thank you.

Technorati Tag: Israel.

Tracking Palestinian Rocket Attacks

Elder of Ziyon points out a site, PT Watch, that closely monitors Palestinian terror attacks

This project tries to monitor every palestinian terror attack (homemade projectiles, mortars) from the Gaza-Strip to Israel since 2005/08/22 (IDF withdrawal from Gaza). Attacks during clashes within the Strip are not considered. All attacks were documented. Please check the references.

The database is searchable and also breaks the attacks down according to group.
It is an important resource.

Technorati Tag: Palestinians.

Now The Media War Begins

Now that Israel has acted in response to the continuous barrage of rockets aimed at Sderot and now Ashkelon--the media swings into action.

Mere Rhetoric has a post how Reuters mistranslation has led to stories that Israel threatened a holocaust in Gaza.

Meryl Yourish looks at the similarity of the media headlines and the selective way they use the word "civilians".

Mr. Bagel writes about faux journalism, the reliance of the media on the word of terrorists, and a blog covering photojournalism that has been forced by the AP to go offline.

My small contribution--at 38 seconds into this NBC report, you can hear how much the media buys the Hamas line:

Not since 2005, when they forced Jewish settlers to pull out of the land they occupied have Isreal forces advanced this deep into Gaza

No Disengagement. No strategy to defend Israel. It was all Hamas chasing Israel--the occupying power--out of Gaza. Here's the report:



And the media attack on Israel has only started.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Media Bias.

US Will Not Interfere With Law Suits Against PalestinianTerrorists

At least that is the way the response by the US government seems to read:

"The United States supports just compensation for victims of terrorism from those responsible for their losses and has encouraged all parties to resolve these cases to their mutual benefit," he wrote in the letter to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero.

"At the same time," Nichols added, "the United States remains concerned about the potentially significant impact that these cases may have on the financial and political viability of the defendants."

This is the way the US has decided to approach the contradiction of financially supporting the PA at the same time that the relatives of Americans murdered by the PA are suing the Palestinian government for reparations.

Read the whole thing.

See: Will The State Department Give In To Terror on February 29?

Technorati Tag: Terrorism.

Who Is Behind The Hamas Escalation?

That is a question asked at Powerline--and answered:

From Hamas’s point of view, its current terror escalation from Gaza does not seem to make sense. Hamas has already created a balance of strategic deterrence with Israel by keeping Israel off balance with short range rocket attack for more than two years s without striking deeper in to Israel which it could have done long ago.

Hamas has also been saying publicly that its strategy has been to “bomb Israel into a truce.” But this week’s strategic Palestinian rocket assault on Ashkelon has all but sealed the probability of a broad Israeli ground attack and military reoccupation of at least part of the strip. Why would Hamas continue to taunt Israel into invading Gaza which would almost certainly destroy Hamas’ terror infrastructure, and uproot Hamas political control of Gaza?

Part of the answer may line in the fact that strategic interests here are not local. As in the Second Lebanon war, the road to war against Israel and the West began in Tehran, even at the immediate expense of its proxies; Hizbullah in 2006 and Hamas in 2008.

Similar to its objectives in the 2006 Second Lebanon War and its subsequent subversive behavior there via a rebuilt Hizbullah, Iran’s goal today is the continued destabilization of the region. Iran’s strategy is to exploit Gaza as an Iranian platform to attack Israel and subvert Egypt while simultaneously extending its hand in cooperation to its fellow Muslim power.

Read the whole thing.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.

Hamas--Proof That Democracies Really Do Attack Other Democracies?

From Andy McCarthy at The Corner in response to Israel's operation today:

We are lectured a great deal about the importance of democratizing the Middle East as, somehow, a strategy to defeat terrorism. I do not want to reargue this issue or make too much (again) of the fact that popular elections have thus far succeeded in empowering terrorists.

My question for the moment is this: Does this democratization ever entail any responsibility? The Palestinian "civilians" were given a choice in 2006, and they chose to elect Hamas — a choice that was overwhelming in Gaza, where the terror organization — having ousted the more "moderate" terror-mongers from Fatah — now rules. If the civilians, eyes wide open, opt to be led by a terrorist organization whose chief calling card is its pledge to destroy Israel (a sentiment shared by a large majority of the "civilian" population), how upset are we supposed to get when the said civilians get caught in the cross-fire that is provoked by the savages they elected?

Those who like to remind us that Hamas gained power in Gaza though democratic elections conveniently forget that Hamas has no interest in Democracy and the democratic process.

In the meantime we can expect--and in some cases have already seen:

• Palestinian leaders claiming that Israel's response is disproportionate
• Decry the death of Palestinian civilians killed in the areas where terrorists were operating
• Condemnation from various European countries
  
• Condemnation from the UN
• The US vetoing resolutions that blame Israel but do not mention the provocation
• Continued attacks on Ashkelon

The question will be whether Israel (read: Olmert) has the stomach to send a clear message to Hamas by continuing to respond militarily to Hamas.

Technorati Tag: Israel.

Israel In Gaza

Check out Israellycool, who is liveblogging the conflict.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza.