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20 hours ago
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
PROPAGANDA & THE SPREAD OF LIES ABOUT ISRAEL
PROPAGANDA & THE SPREAD OF LIES ABOUT ISRAEL
August 4, 2009
The British Firestorm Against Israel
Melanie Phillips
The shocking rise in anti-Jewish attacks demonstrates that the way Israel is presented impacts directly on the safety of British Jews.
According to the Community Security Trust, there were 609 anti-Jewish incidents in the first six months of this year, more than in the whole of 2008. And more than half the incidents reported in January made some reference to Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Well, of course. People were being told day in, day out that the Israelis were wantonly killing Palestinian children.
In fact, Israeli figures showed that the vast majority of those killed were Hamas operatives. Given that half of Gaza’s population are children, not to mention the use by Hamas of civilians as human shields, the relatively small number of child casualties testified to the remarkable care Israel took not to kill children.
What makes the Israel-bashing so monstrous is that Israel is being vilified through falsehood and distortion for defending its citizens against attack. This is tantamount to saying it should not defend itself – and therefore should not exist at all.
When a culture goes bad like this, an enormous amount rides on the attitude and behavior of those at the top. But this vicious mood is being reflected and exacerbated by the government of that self-described Israel-lover, Gordon Brown.
There has of late been a flurry of Israel-bashing by the Foreign Office. It has totally disregarded the opinion of Colonel Richard Kemp, formerly commander of British forces in Afghanistan and the intelligence coordinator for the British government.
Col. Kemp recently told a conference in Jerusalem that, like Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israeli forces were up against an enemy that deliberately manipulated Israel’s adherence to international law so as “to produce an international outcry and condemnation.”
And HMG has duly allowed Hamas to manipulate it. The Foreign Office has revoked five export licenses for spare parts for Israeli warships’ guns on the grounds that Israel’s actions were “disproportionate” — even though these are claims fabricated by Hamas and recycled by the UN, media and NGOs.
The FO says it based the revocation on the criterion of whether the proposed items would be used for “internal repression.” But Gaza is not ‘internal’ to Israel. Nor does Israel even occupy Gaza any more.
The Foreign Office told me that because of the “significant control that Israel has over Gaza’s borders, airspace and territorial waters, Israel retains obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention as an occupying power in relation to Gaza.”
But this is nonsense. The Geneva Convention merely lays out the obligations of an occupying power. It does not actually define “occupation” – which, as set out by the Hague Convention, means military boots on the ground, preventing a territory from governing itself. There are very obviously no Israeli boots on the ground in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
This and other similar Foreign Office initiatives form part of a frenzied eruption of anti-Israel malice. Malevolently distorted reports by NGOs have provoked a firestorm of similar articles in the Guardian.
A book entitled Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide by Ben White – who has stated: “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are” – was launched by both War on Want and the Council for Arab British Understanding at a separate Commons reception presided over by Labour MP Brian Iddon.
And a few days ago, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee – in an incoherent report which condemned Hamas but bashed Israel for fighting it – reiterated its call to negotiate with Hamas.
Moral muddle and manipulative malice over Israel: look no farther for the causes of those shocking attacks on British Jews.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Melanie Phillips is the author of the powerful and frightening Londonistan, and she blogs at The Spectator.
taken from B'NAI ELIM (Sons of the Mighty)
The Diameter of the Bomb
The Diameter of the Bomb
I finished reading the report on the Gaza operation today; tomorrow I'll try to write about it. It's a fascinating document; if there was anyone out there who bases their opinion on Israel in facts, it would be a game changer. Since most no-one does that, however, preferring to base their opions on feelings or sentiments, the writing of it was probably mostly a waste.
So instead of blogging today, here's a poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The Diameter of the Bomb
The diameter oft he bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters
with four dead and eleven wounded
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometer,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won't even mention the crying of orphans
that raches up to the throne of Gog and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God
from Yehuda Amichai, Poems of Jerusalem
So instead of blogging today, here's a poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The Diameter of the Bomb
The diameter oft he bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters
with four dead and eleven wounded
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometer,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won't even mention the crying of orphans
that raches up to the throne of Gog and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God
from Yehuda Amichai, Poems of Jerusalem
taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
Israel Matzav: Stability on norther border could explode at any minute
Stability on norther border could explode at any minute
Alon Friedman, the deputy commander of the IDF's northern sector, told the Times of London that the border could explode 'at any minute' after the Times showed him surveillance video (some of which should look familiar to you) showing Hezbullah terrorist trying to salvage rockets from the weapons cache that exploded last month.
See viodeo and read all at :
Israel Matzav: Stability on norther border could explode at any minute
Israel Matzav: The elusive compromise on the 'settlement freeze'
The elusive compromise on the 'settlement freeze'
Herb Keinon reports on what's holding up a compromise between the US and Israel over the 'settlement freeze,' and it appears that the biggest item holding it up is that Israel insists on having an 'exit strategy' Israel Matzav: The elusive compromise on the 'settlement freeze'Part of the problem, the Post learned, is that Israel cannot agree to a settlement freeze without having "an exit strategy" for renewing construction if the diplomatic process a freeze is meant to promote runs aground.
Another open question is what the country's settlement policy would be after any temporary moratorium ended, since the government has made clear it needs to ensure that "normal life" in the settlements will continue, and that it has no intention of simply "drying out" these communities.
Israel argued that while it was trying to be helpful in getting the diplomatic process restarted - and in fact no new housing tenders in the settlements have been issued since Binyamin Netanyahu became prime minister on March 31 - there are basic needs in the settlements that have to be met.Read All at :
Israel Matzav: Obama's hopeless approach to Syria
Obama's hopeless approach to Syria
The Wall Street Journal gives several reasons why the Obama administration should drop its attempts to bring Syria in from the cold, but perhaps the most important reason is that Syria has nothing to offer in return. Israel Matzav: Obama's hopeless approach to SyriaAs for Syria and Iran, their strategic separation makes sense in geopolitical concept. But in practice their ties won’t easily be severed. Mr. Assad’s sectarian Allawite regime fears its own Sunni people and massacred them by the thousands in the 1980s. Maintaining close ties to Shiite Hezbollah and Shiite Iran are key elements to Mr. Assad’s strategy of political survival. Unlike Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in the 1970s, Mr. Assad has given no signs of wanting to engage Israel on equal terms and still shelters the leader of Hamas in Damascus. We wonder what the Obama Administration can offer that would change that fundamental calculus.
Read All at :
Israel Matzav: One document in English and one in Arabic
One document in English and one in Arabic
The reason that organizations like Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI started is because it took a while for the world to catch on that the 'Palestinians' and other Arabs were saying what the West wanted to hear in English and telling their own people something else in Arabic. In fact, much of the world still hasn't caught on, but at least those of us who are open to hearing use these invaluable organizations and others to know the truth of what the Arab world is planning against Israel.The master of speaking out of both sides of his mouth in two languages was Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PLO and Fatah. His best student was his colleague
Read All at :
Israel Matzav: One document in English and one in Arabic
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