31-Oct-06: Fences? Who Needs Them?

Some insight from our friend David Frankfurter in Raanana (that's a snapshot of one of its neighborhoods, at right):

Israel's security fence has dropped from the news lately. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy's recent declaration somewhat explains the loss of interest. "I have significantly evolved on the matter of the separation fence. Although the wall was a moral and ethical problem for me, when I realised terror attacks were reduced by 80 percent in the areas where the wall was erected, I understood I didn't have the right to think that way," said Douste-Blazy.

How does it work? By making it harder to cross from the Palestinian Authority areas into Israel, smuggling is reduced, with traffic channelled through monitored border crossing points.

Before the fence was erected, Israeli security managed to prevent around 30% of attempted terrorist attacks. Today, the number is closer to 95%.

A case study is young 20 year old Israeli Arab Warud Qasem. Qasem worked in our local Ra'anana supermarket as a cashier. Her cousin was an illegal Palestinian worker in Ra'anana's Spaghettim restaurant. Three months ago, she joined Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. [You will recall that Al-Aksa is an official organ of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, and that many of its active terrorists received salaries and benefits from internationally funded Palestinian Authority budgets.]

Qasem was able to use her citizenship and familiarity with Israel to help weapons smuggling and to pinpoint terror targets. She recruited her cousin in a plan to plant a bomb in the Spaghettim Restaurant. But asked to smuggle the 7 kilogram bomb into Israel in her car (which has Israeli license plates) she demurred because the border police were likely to catch her. The bomb was driven around the West Bank, searching for a way around the fence into Israel, when Qasem was arrested with it in her possession. She is now facing charges - our town's citizens having been saved from attack by the security fence and the ever alert Israeli security services.

Of course, the intrepid Kofi Annan has never been one to let facts, public opinion or the potential saving of the lives of innocent civilians stand in the way of demonizing Israel. In his fading days as UN Secretary General, the ever-intrepid crusader for the rights of Palestinians to murder Jews has found yet another way to divert even more UN resources to the Palestinian international propaganda campaign. He is initiating an office to collect data and testimonies on damages caused by the separation fence to Palestinians in the West Bank. This "Register of Damage" is to be set up in Vienna, and is intended to serve possible future international adjudication. The office would simply collect and register claims, without any an evaluation or assessment of the loss or damage claimed. "The office of the Register of Damage would not be a compensation commission nor a claims-resolution facility, nor would it be a judicial or quasi-judicial body," said Annan, adding that "Israel also has an obligation to compensate, in accordance with the applicable rules of international law, all natural or legal persons having suffered any form of material damage as a result of the wall's construction."

It would be naive to ask what data collection Annan is undertaking to create a "Register of Damage" caused by Palestinian terror against Israeli civilians. It would be laughable to expect the UN to prepare a mechanism for potential compensation from the international funders and institutions (including the UN) who underwrote that terror for years.

Needless to say, if the Palestinians stopped the violent and criminal attacks against Israeli civilians, there would be no data to collect. There would be no damage to record. There would be no fence. Instead, there would be a basis for the peace that every Israeli yearns for. If only Anan would use UN influence and resources to resolve the Middle East dispute, instead of perpetuating it.

I guess, if confronted, the Secretary General might just paraphrase Douste-Blazy.

...

David blogs his thoughts regularly at http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/

29-Oct-06: Update

Sorry for the long and unplanned break. We're distracted with personal issues, but we expect to be back and publishing soon.

11-Oct-06: Want to See How Two News Reports of One Speech Can Lead to Opposite Conclusions?

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke last night to a gala dinner in Washington DC. Her speech is widely (though briefly) reported in the media today. Reuters and AP were both there, and both have sent out syndicated versions of the speech. But look at how different they are.

First, the AP version, as published in the British newspaper, the Guardian:

Rice: Palestinians Deserve Better Life

Thursday October 12, 2006 1:46 AM
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Palestinians deserve a better life ``free of the humiliation of occupation'' and in a state of their own. ``I promise you my personal commitment to that goal,'' Rice said at a dinner marking the third anniversary of the American Task Force on Palestine. ``There could be no greater legacy for America,'' Rice told the group, which describes itself as nonpartisan and supportive of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. ``The Palestinian people deserve a better life ... free of the humiliation of occupation,'' she said. Rice has made five trips to the region as secretary of state, looking for ways to promote President Bush's call for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But peace talks are in suspension, and Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel, plays a leading role in Palestinian affairs. And yet, Rice said ``things are changing,'' that moderates are coming to the fore. She praised Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority with whom the Bush administration deals while boycotting Hamas. The militant group, which the United States and European governments have labeled a terrorist organization, must choose between remaining what it is or turning into a peaceful political party, Rice said. ``You cannot be both,'' she said.

That's the entire text. Solve the problem of the Jews humiliating the Arabs in Palestine and things will get much better.

Now, the Reuters version as published in this morning's Yediot Aharonot which starts with a headline reflecting the same imbecilic simplification but includes some rather more telling points.

Rice says US wants end to Palestinian 'humiliation'

During dinner party hosted by Palestinian-Americans, US secretary of state says Palestinians deserve better life, to be freed of Israeli occupation
Reuters
Published: 10.12.06, 07:51
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday the United States would work hard to create a Palestinian state free of the "daily humiliation" of Israeli occupation. Speaking at a dinner hosted by Palestinian-Americans, Rice said she was committed to the goal of a Palestinian state where the people lived in peace alongside Israel as proposed under the stalled US-sponsored Road Map for Middle East peace. "The Palestinian people deserve a better life, a life that is rooted in liberty, democracy, uncompromised by violence and terrorism, unburdened by corruption and misrule and forever free of the daily humiliation of occupation," she told a dinner organized by the American Task Force on Palestine. "I believe there could be no greater legacy for America than to help bring into being a Palestinian state for people who have suffered too long, have been humiliated too long," added Rice, whose government is accused by Arab states of siding with Israel in the conflict. Rice was in Israel and the Palestinian Territories last week, where she met Israeli officials and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in what the Bush administration says is a new drive to revive the moribund Middle East peace process and bring in moderate Arab leaders. However, the trip did not appear to make much progress in attempts to bolster Abbas, who has failed to pull together a unity government with Hamas. The United States has cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority since the election of Hamas last January, but has continued limited humanitarian assistance via aid groups. "Either you are a peaceful political party or a violent terrorist group. You cannot be both," Rice said of Hamas. She said the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers was holding firm to the principle that Hamas had to meet three obligations - renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist and recognize previous peace deals, including the US-sponsored Road Map. "I know that sometimes, a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel must seen like a very distant dream but I know too ... that there are so many things that once seemed impossible that after they happened they simply seemed inevitable," she said.

Again, that's the entire text. So in summary, Dr Rice says these are the things that need to be fixed for the Palestinian Arabs:

• a life that is rooted in liberty
• democracy
• a life uncompromised by violence
• a life uncompromised by terrorism
• a life unburdened by corruption
• a life unburdened by misrule
• and to love "forever free of the daily humiliation of occupation"

Those are seven challenges. One of them is in the hands of Israel, sort of. Six of them are entirely in the hands of the Palestinian Arabs. How come the six are literally ignored by most of the media reports of this important speech? And can anyone see how the seventh might be conditional upon the first six?

Unfortunately time and again inadequate reporting and editing of objective reality (a speech) leads to not only inadequate understanding but wrong understanding of what happened. This is not mere quibbling but goes to the essence of why we need reporters, editors, photographers and media watchdogs. Dr Rice's speech, if it means anything, has now been hopelessly misunderstood by most of the people who know about it. Is this a problem? Yes, certainly, for those of us who want to see greater understanding and peaceful relations in this troubled place.

10-Oct-06: No One at the UN Reads Our Blog. Here's the Proof

Ignore our posting from yesterday about the two Pal-Arab men intercepted yesterday with bombs strapped to their bodies at an Israeli security checkpoint.

Ignore our posting of the day before about another Pal-Arab man shot after trying to stab Israelis at another Israeli security checkpoint.

Ignore everything you've heard about Palestinian Arab gunmen, children with bombs strapped to their undersized chests, women with kitchen knives slipped into the folds of their robes, Red Crescent ambulances with explosives hidden behind false floors -- all intercepted at Israeli checkpoints, en route to their destiny with death. Sometimes their own death; always the death of Jews.

Ignore them just as the United Nations does. This report issued today puts that matter beyond doubt.

Number of Israeli roadblocks in West Bank up 40 percent in past year: U.N.

The Associated Press
Published: October 11, 2006
JERUSALEM The number of Israeli military roadblocks in the West Bank grew by nearly 40 percent in the past year, part of an increasingly sophisticated lockdown that disrupts all aspects of Palestinian life, a U.N. aid agency said Wednesday. The placement of these checkpoints and unmanned physical obstacles means the West Bank is increasingly being carved up into separate parts, with travel between them becoming more and more difficult, said David Shearer, head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jerusalem. In all, there were 528 checkpoints and obstacles in the West Bank, up from 376 in August 2005, Shearer said, presenting new statistics. The West Bank's Jordan Valley is now entirely off limits to Palestinians who are not residents of that area, except for those with permits to work in the valley's Jewish settlements. The checkpoints are multiplying as Israel pushes ahead with the separation barrier it is building along — and at some points inside — the West Bank. Some 50,000 Palestinians find themselves on the wrong side of the barrier, meaning they are cut off from the rest of the West Bank, the report said. Israel has also deepened the separation between the northern, middle and southern parts of the West Bank, the report said. "We are seeing a continuing closing down, locking down of Palestinian areas," he said. Shearer said tight travel restrictions were also in place during the height of the Palestinian uprising, between 2000-2003, when dozens of suicide bombers carried out attacks in Israel. "Since then it's become much more systematic, much more sophisticated in terms of monitoring Palestinian movement and closing Palestinian movement," he said. "The West Bank, for example, is effectively being chopped up into three big areas ... and there are pockets within those areas where people also can't move." Capt. Adam Avidan, spokesman for the military's civil administration in the West Bank, said in a statement that Israel tries "as much as possible to preserve the Palestinians' way of life and to avoid hurting innocent civilians in its war against terrorism."

The office responsible for putting out this appalling piece of one-eyed, one-sided pseudo-analysis is the United Nations Office for Co-ordinating Humanitarian Affairs. Their Jerusalem operation costs the UN $3 million a year. Evidently an insufficient sum, since they are unable to find the time, the resources or the wit to analyze the daily small and large acts of terrorism directed at Jewish Israelis and the IDF security checkpoints that are strikingly effective at slowing down, stopping and intercepting jihadist terrorists. How can self-respecting UN civil servants sign off on a report to their employers and not mention this effectiveness? Not a word.

Do they find the effectiveness of IDF security measures a threat to their outlook on life and political convictions? Do they not consider the saving of Israeli lives a matter worth including in a report of this scope? Are they oblivious to the blood-soaked consequences of such highly selective, prejudice-laden moral outrage? Shame on them, shame on David Shearer and shame on the UN bureaucracy that plays along with this pretend-objectivity without protest.

10-Oct-06: Self-Slaughtering Murderers... Again

It's a little after 8 on a very pleasant Jerusalem evening. We're taking things easy at home, eating in the palm-roofed outdoor hut on our terrace (we're in the midst of the festival of Tabernacles). Meanwhile at roadblocks all over this region, young Israeli men and women are manning security checkpoints, as they do 24 x 7 x 365, watching for that disturbing Palestinian Arab creation of self-slaughtering, religiously-inspired young men, hell-bent on getting to paradise by blowing up Jews.

Today, a small victory. A very quiet and small victory. We say quiet because, as so often happens, the only news media interested in reporting on Palestinian terrorists that fail (as opposed to the well-covered stories where actual spilled Jewish blood takes centre-stage) are Israeli news media. Too, too, too boring for the rest.

IDF troops thwart attempted terror attack at West Bank checkpoint

Last update - 18:13 10/10/2006
By Amos Harel and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service
Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Tuesday arrested two Palestinian youth attempting to carry out a suicide bombing attack near the West Bank city of Jenin. Military police troops searching the youths youths during a routine security check at the Rihan checkpoint found two pipe bombs weighing a kilogram each strapped to one of their bodies. Troops arrested the youths and sappers safely detonated the explosives. The youths told police during their investigation that they had been sent by Hamas militants to carry out the attack. This is the second attempted terror attack at a West Bank checkpoint in 24 hours. IDF troops on Monday shot dead a Palestinian youth who they said pulled out a knife and attacked a soldier at the Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus.

Jenin: Terror attack thwarted

Two Palestinians raise officers' suspicion at Reihan Crossing, found to be carrying explosive devices. In interrogation, men admit they planned to throw bombs at troops
Efrat Weiss (Published: 10.10.06, 18:51)
The security forces thwarted a second terror attack in 24 hours, this time at the Reihan Crossing near Jenin. On Tuesday afternoon, two Palestinians who arrived at the crossing raised suspicion with the local Border Guard policemen manning the checkpoint. Following a search of the two, soldiers found two pipe bombs, weighing about one kilogram each. The crossing has been by the officers closed and the bombs were detonated in a controlled manner by Border Guard sappers. During an investigation of the incident, the two Palestinians said they intended on throwing the devices on the local forces. The Hawara checkpoint experiences an incident or an attempt to attack soldiers on daily basis.

Some points to ponder:

• The terrorists were caught at a security checkpoint. These are endlessly criticized by outsiders. They degrade. They humiliate. They delay. They ensure the continued hatred of Palestinian Arabs for Israel and for Israelis. All of these criticisms may be true. But they prevent deaths by terror - every single day. You don't have to be the parents of a child murdered by savages like those caught today (as we are - our daughter's murderer passed unhindered through a laid-back Israeli checkpoint on the day he carried out his massacre) to understand the importance of those security checks. A pity that so many journalists and their editors seem to ignore the almost daily snarings of terrorists that those checkpoints make possible.
• This successful intercept comes 24 hours after the last successful intercept of self-slaughtering Palestinian Arab terrorists with murder in mind. Did you read about it in your local or national paper? See it on the evening news? This latest event happened six or seven hours ago. It's currently reported (according to Google News) in precisely two global news channels: In Israel's Haaretz and in Israel's Yedioth Aharonot.
• By their own admission, the young religious fanatics were sent by Hamas - they control the government of the would-be state of Palestine. Remember this when you next hear how moderate and ready for peace Hamas is.
  
• As boring and uninteresting as it may be to report on foiled terror attacks, on lives saved and not blown away, the reports of terrorists intercepted en route to their barbaric mission are potentially much more important to ordinary readers of the news than the reports of massacres are. Terror is not a Middle East invention. Jihad is not directed at Israelis or Jews alone. There are lessons to be learned from the systems and methods Israel has put in place to deflect the savages of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the rest. What is it about these reports that your news people don't want you to know?

We'll go back to eating our dinner now. Have a good evening.

9-Oct-06: One More Death, Four Different Viewpoints

Other than the fact that a Palestinian Arab died today as a result of shots fired by Israeli service personnel at a crossover point near Shechem (Nablus), almost everything connected with the death of a man called Mohammad Sa'adah today is in dispute. It's instructive - for those of us who care about the role played by the media - to see how different agencies deal with those disputed issues. We'll start with the BBC:

Two Palestinians killed by Israel

The Israeli army has killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said a 14-year-old boy was killed in northern Gaza. Israel said it killed a Palestinian retrieving a rocket launcher. In the second incident, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian they said was trying to stab them at a checkpoint close to the West Bank city of Nablus. But Palestinian witnesses said the 20-year-old victim was unarmed.

As usual, the BBC gives us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. A 20 year-old Palestinian who the Israelis say was trying to stab them, killed by the Israelis. How awful. Yet another innocent death to add to the toll. Another needless death chalked up to those trigger-happy Israelis.

Next a Palestinian agency known for its highly partisan coverage of news from an exclusively Arab viewpoint for consumption in non-Arab news markets:

Army kills Nablus resident at Huwwara checkpoint south of the city

Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies - Monday, 09 October 2006, 16:50
Mohammad Sa'adah, 22, was shot and killed on Monday afternoon by Israeli soldiers stationed at the Huwwara military checkpoint south of the West Bank city of Nablus. Soldiers did not release the body of Sa'adah for some time then gave his body over to a Palestinian ambulance that took him to Rafidia Hospital in the city. Sa'adah is a redident of Tall village near the city of Nablus. Local sources said that Israeli soldiers are holding scores of Palestinian civilians at the Huwwara checkpoint and the nearby Beit Iba checkpoint. Soldiers closed the two checkpoints after the incident. The Israeli army claimed that Sa'adah ran towards the soldiers at the checkpoint and tried to attack them with a knife. Soldiers then opened fire at him and killed him. Eyewitnesses at the checkpoint said that the Sa'adah ran towards a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by a number of soldiers. They said that he was not holding a knife as the soldiers claimed. However, soldiers insisted that they found the knife in his clothes after killing him while searching the body.

So the Pal-Arab version knows about an attempted attack and about a knife. Strange that the BBC failed to pick that up. Move on now to the version of Haaretz, a serious daily from Israel that holds a left viewpoint on most things.

Report: IDF kills assailant near Nablus

Also Monday, IDF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian at the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus. The IDF said the man ran toward a soldiers and tried to attack them with a knife at which point they opened fire and killed him. Palestinian witnesses said the man, Mohammed Saadeh, 20, a Palestinian policeman, ran toward a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by three soldiers. They said they did not see him holding the knife, a small paring knife, but that soldiers later found it in his pocket.

That's interesting. The innocent Pal-Arab is a policeman in the service of the Palestinian Authority. To us, that seems like a relevant piece of information, particularly when the Americans, with enthusiastic support from Europe, are looking to substantially boost the size of Mahmoud Abbas's personal security force and the ranks of the PA police. Is it possible that the BBC could have overlooked this?

Finally, this from Yedioth Aharonot, an Israeli tabloid:

Nablus: Soldier kills Palestinian after stab attempt

Stabbing attack thwarted: Soldiers at Hawara checkpoint shoot, kill Palestinian who tried to assault troops with knife
Efrat Weiss (Published: 10.09.06, 18:17)
A Palestinian man was shot and killed on Monday in the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus after attempting to stab IDF soldiers who were manning the checkpoint. The man raised the suspicion of the soldiers and then attempted to attack them. One soldier shot the man at his lower extremities and wounded him. He died shortly thereafter. A preliminary investigation revealed that the man approached two soldiers who were inspecting vehicles at the checkpoint who were leaving Nablus. At some point the soldiers became suspicious of the man, and after questioning him regarding his actions, the man took out a knife and assaulted one of the soldiers, knife in hand. The Hawara checkpoint experiences an incident or an attempt to attack soldiers on daily basis. In addition, the soldiers thwarted attempts to transfer weapons through the checkpoint.

It's a small story. Among all the bloodshed and misery, just another death. And as most of us know, there's plainly no such thing as objective reporting when it comes to highly contentious issues like the Arab/Israel conflict and the jihadist war against the world.

But there are still some among us who aspire to seeing news media who understand the meaning of impartial. Give us the facts, we say, and let us make up our own minds. It would be interesting to know whether the BBC's large Israel-based staff thinks it belongs to the school of impartial reporting. Israelis like us who consume its reportage daily, albeit from a standpoint of criticism, believe the BBC does not even come close. For ourselves, it's hard to say this is because of their reporters in the field. Most of those we've met (not all) seem serious and professional, especially when compared with reporters for lesser media orgs. That only leaves us to wonder about what must be happening in far-off Bush House where - presumably - they have a much clearer and wiser view of matters than we lesser mortals out here in the sub-tropics.

8-Oct-06: Child's Play, Gaza-Style

On the right side of this screen, you can see a thought-provoking newsagency photo above a caption that we have reproduced verbatim from the Associated Press source. (Thanks to Little Green Footballs who posted it, which is how we saw it.)

Rarely does a picture speak volumes about so many different topics.

• This is the schooling that Palestinian parents and teachers have been imparting for decades. Children educated to solve problems with sub-machine guns are not likely to have a penchant for peaceful co-existence. For some time, Israelis have been protesting to a deaf European Union that European funds earmarked for school-books are actually purchasing the tools of Palestinian terrorist indoctrination. But there is no more effective tool than personal example. Hoisting a child onto daddy's shoulders at a Hamas rally, handing him the family sub-machine gun and urging him to listen-up to war mongering speeches are certain to produce a far more eager fighter than the most vicious text-books.
• The rally this child attended took place in the midst of bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militia that have claimed 16 lives and injured 120 in ten days. This is apparently an accepted way for Palestinians to settle scores with their kinsmen. Does it make any sense then to expect them to talk through their differences with Israelis, their decades-old sworn enemies, at any time in the near future?
• The sub-machine gun in the photo shouts authenticity. The size, the detail, the materials apparently used, all indicate that the AP caption is a bald-faced lie. A lie spun to protect the Palestinians from the criticism that an honest caption would have elicited. Training child soldiers is unequivocally considered child abuse is by Western standards, that is, unless the child is a Palestinian. What you do then, if you're an "unbiased" news service, is tip-toe around the abuse to protect Muslim sensitivities. Dishonest captions of this sort are no less outrageous than the rash of Photoshop doctoring that made headlines during the recent war in Lebanon.
• Israel is being blamed for creating a humanitarian crisis with the economic blockade it imposed following the election of the Hamas government in February of this year. Why are there boundless dollars available to purchase expensive ammunition such as the sophisticated piece pictured here but none to be found for PA government salaries or food? Couldn't the West condition delivery of its humanitarian aid to Gaza on this: that Palestinian parents first trade their weapons in for food, clothing, medicines, toys – the sort of supplies that this ten year old and his friends really need? Only then will Israel's blockade be fully lifted to admit a free flow of Western aid.

Food for thought.

8-Oct-06: Rockets Continue to Be Fired into Israel

Far (very far) from the headlines of the mainstream media, lethal rockets continue to be fired daily from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israeli towns, settlements and homes. If you're not aware of this, you cannot possibly understand the reports of Israeli shelling of storehouses, weapon-making workshops and arms-smuggling tunnels. Which is exactly where the mainstream media leave most of us.

Qassam lands next to Sderot mayor's home

Shmulik Hadad - Published: 10.07.06, 21:40
A Qassam rocket fell Saturday evening next to the house of Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal. No reports of injuries. In the past few days, rockets have been fired frequently at Sderot. Exactly a week ago a rocket directly hit a house in Sderot. Two residents were lightly wounded and another seven suffered shock in the incident. Last night's rocket landed next to the mayor's house while he was at home. "I sat at home in the living room and I was thrown from my chair from the force of the explosion," Moyal told Yedioth Aharonot. "I went out to check if any of the neighbors were hurt. Fortunately, there are no injuries except for a few suffering from shock, but there is damage to my house and to other houses. This is mainly damage to window panes and the walls of the houses. Unfortunately, this firing continues like on other day and just doesn't stop. If the rocket had landed another 10 meters in, we would have had to bury people tonight... Nothing has been done about this matter. Just as we say all the time, this embarrassment of Qassam firings at Sderot must be stopped."

None of this, despite all the rhetoric from terror-apologists in the middle east and beyond it, has anything to do with occupation or liberation. It does nothing to enhance the misreable quality of life of Gazans. It costs money and lives - on both sides. But someone evidently is perfectly satisfied to allow it to continue. As for the media, try to enter the word "sderot" into any image search engine to come up with recent pictures of that city, the target of daily attacks by armed terror gangs. (Hint: If you use Yahoo's news image search engine right now, you'll get zero results. Just like yesterday, last week and almost always.)

8-Oct-06: Seems Like a "Dog" Story. But It's Not.

We're the parents of a blind child, our family's life is shared with a very affectionate dog, and we used to live in Melbourne. All good reasons why it's only right that we respond to this news article:

Muslim cabbies refusing the blind and drinkers

By Lincoln Wright and Ian Haberfield
October 08, 2006 12:00am

MUSLIM taxi drivers are refusing to carry blind passengers with their guide dogs or anyone carrying alcohol. At least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints with the Victorian Taxi Directorate. Dozens more have voiced their anger. And there have been several complaints that drivers refuse to allow passengers to carry sealed bottles of alcohol. Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the association had appealed to the mufti of Melbourne to give religious approval for Muslim cabbies to carry guide dogs.

One Muslim driver, Imran, said yesterday the guide dog issue was difficult for him. "I don't refuse to take people, but it's hard for me because my religion tells me I should not go near dogs," he said.

There are about 2000 Muslims among drivers of Melbourne's 10,000 taxis. Many are from countries with strict Islamic teachings about "unclean" dogs and the evils of alcohol. Drivers who refused to carry blind people with their dogs attended remedial classes at Guide Dogs Victoria, Mr Sach said. "They are taught why blind people need dogs," Mr Sach said. "The Victorian Taxi Association has included a program in their taxi driver training program."

Guide Dogs Victoria spokeswoman Holly Marquette said blind people regularly reported taxi drivers refusing to carry them because of their dogs. "It's sad and quite upsetting," Ms Marquette said. "We try to work with new drivers to educate them about their responsibilities and the needs and rights of blind people. We explain that the dog is clean, well trained, won't go near them and will stay in the foot well with the client. But it's a high turnover industry and it's hard to capture everyone." Ms Marquette said there was a legal requirement for taxi drivers, shops, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets to accept guide dogs.

Under the State Government's customer charter, taxi passengers have the right to "be accompanied by a guide dog or hearing dog".

Mr Sach said the problem was often reversed and that Muslim drivers suffered discrimination from passengers who abused them for being "terrorists". "Muslims are good people and the community has to realise that the days of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are well and truly over," he said. Over the past two years the licences of 306 drivers were revoked or suspended, including those who refused to carry the blind and their dogs.

Since we no longer live in Australia, it's not appropriate for us to tell anyone there how to conduct their lives. But this seemingly-small issue of how to relate to service-providers whose religion, they say, requires them to discriminate against people in ways that clearly offend the local laws, is a reflection of a much larger issue being played out all over the world. Islamic values, which are subject to a broad range of interpretation, frequently conflict with the values of the societies to which Moslems have migrated in search of a better life.

The self-respect of western societies and their real, actual, practical commitment (as opposed to the empty words and chest-beating of many politicians) to their own mores and values are at the heart of this debate. The implications for Europe, in particular, of not handling this appropriately are tremendous.

A comment on words of the taxi industry leader quoted above: "Muslims are good people and the community has to realise that the days of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are well and truly over." Moslems are not good people, any more than Jews or Christians are good people. Their conduct determines whether they're good. As the tensions that characterize multi-cultural societies everywhere grow sharper, people have to be judged by their actions. Not by the shape of their noses, the colour of their head-gear or the direction in which they pray but by their actions.

If their actions serve to make more difficult the lives of blind people or any other group needing some consideration in society, those are bad actions, and society's sanctions need to be applied. This is not racist or prejudicial, but simply a necessary part of living at peace with people whose views different from those of the mainstream. How well we handle the small and large challenges will determine whether or not we're headed for a dark age of intolerance.

8-Oct-06: Cluster of Critics Assails Israeli Self-Defence

In the wake of a war claimed as a "divine victory" by "Shiite and Hizbullah [forces] over the Zionist regime", Israel is now in the cross-hairs of global critics for what are claimed to be a million unexploded cluster bombs scattered across the Lebanese countryside.

A syndicated UPI story from Friday ("Unexploded Israeli bombs threaten Lebanese") covers the main issues:

"U.N. officials said it will take more than a year to clear out the estimated 1 million unexploded Israeli bomblets, The New York Times reported Friday. The Times said the bomblets outnumber the 650,000 people living in the southern Lebanon region where they are located. Unexploded cluster bombs had injured 109 people and killed 18 others as of Sept. 28, Lebanese officials said. The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center in southern Lebanon said unexploded bombs have been found in 745 locations across the south and 4,500 of the estimated 1 million unexploded bombs have been disposed of. Israel has faced criticism from U.N. officials, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for using the cluster bombs, which are legal for use against military targets. However, the groups say the bombs are difficult to focus exclusively on military targets and can harm civilians. Israel has also been criticized for allegedly dropping most of the bombs in the final days of the conflict, while peace negotiations were ongoing."

Dr Gerald Steinberg directs the Program on Conflict Management at Bar Ilan University and is the editor of www.ngo-monitor.org. He has some pungent comments -- better to describe them as home truths -- in response. They're not yet published, but probably will be by the time this blog item reaches you:

Self-Defence and the Rules of War - Gerald M. Steinberg

Jerusalem: In the recent Lebanon war, Israel was attacked with daily barrages of hundreds of rockets, launched indiscriminately by Hezbollah from trucks and other platforms located in towns, villages and fields. These weapons struck Israeli hospitals, schools, houses, workplaces, streets, and even civilians in their cars. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had the obligation to stop these deaths and injuries. In the effort to meet this requirement, the IDF used different tactics and weapons, including cluster bombs, which break into multiple sub-munitions in order to hit weapons, including rocket launchers whose precise location is unknown or changing.
During and after the war, the United Nations Human Rights Council and powerful NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, condemned Israel repeatedly for using cluster bombs. The NGOs are running a campaign for a treaty to ban the use of these weapons, and has issued a barrage of press releases, reports and statements on the injuries caused to Lebanese by the remnants of these weapons. According to HRW, the US government heeded its demand to halt deliveries of these weapons to Israel during the war. On the surface, it would seem that the campaign on this issue was both morally justified and effective.
But a deeper examination of the issues shows fundamental flaws that undermine both the moral argument and NGO claim to a central role in negotiating arms limitation agreements.
Morally and logically, every nation under attack has the right to self-defense, and the rules of law, including various weapons bans that have been adopted, cannot result in greater slaughter of civilians. The first treaty banning the use of chemical weapons after the mass casualties of World War I was adopted in large part because they were also ineffective and did not fulfill any military objectives. Other agreements and prohibitions, such as those placed on aerial bombardment, were short-lived and largely ignored because of their military importance, both for offense and self-defense. The efforts to expand partial agreements on the prohibition of land mines have failed precisely because in many cases, no one has presented a better way to protect people, facilities, and nations from attack. Morally and tragically, in an environment of bitter conflict and terrorism, the use of land mines for security can be the lesser of the evils.
Similarly, in repeated condemnations of Israel for the use of cluster munitions, activist groups such as Amnesty and HRW failed to suggest a realistic and effective alternative against deadly rocket attacks. Although largely missing from HRW's campaigns, there is no question that morally, Hezbollah's arsenal of thousands of Syrian and Iranian-made rockets purposely used to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible constitutes the core violation of human rights and an obvious violation of international law. Massive Israeli ground and air attacks designed to find and destroy the rocket-launchers scattered throughout Southern Lebanon would have taken many more lives. This is the ugly calculus of war, and attempts to ignore this reality of human existence are both irrational and unethical.
In their campaign against Israeli use of cluster munitions, HRW and Amnesty are also coming with unclean hands and a not-so-hidden agenda. Officials from both played an active role in the infamous NGO forum of the 2001 Durban conference, which adopted a strategy to delegitimize the very existence of Israel. Their numerous publications and statements condemning Israeli responses to Palestinian terror far outnumbered the organization's reports condemning suicide bombings.
In this context, HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth [not related to the authors of this blog], who clearly has no military expertise or experience, demanded that Israel arrest Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and Jenin, and bring them to trial – a policing approach, which, when attempted, often resulted in much greater violence. In the case of the cluster bomb campaign, HRW is not even suggesting an alternative.
These NGO officials have also used the millions of dollars at their disposal to join the political crusade against Israel's security barrier and in promoting dubious claims that fed boycott campaigns. The allegations in these reports were based on false or unverifiable claims of Palestinian "eyewitnesses" – a pattern repeated in by HRW and Amnesty during the Lebanon war. When Israel tried to use larger single-explosive weapons against Hezbollah rocket attacks, this was condemned as "indiscriminate force". Every Israeli defense is labeled as unacceptable.
HRW's central role in promoting international agreements to ban land mines is also tainted by a strong dose of anti-Israel propaganda. In a conference on this issue that took place in Geneva in 2000, in which I participated, HRW-funded participants from Palestinian, Egyptian, and other NGOs ignored the land mine issues and instead used this opportunity for unrelated Israel-bashing. The annual report on landmines distributed at the conference, and published by an HRW affiliate, featured a bogus cover photo related to Israel, and the chapters on Israel and the Palestinians included false or misleading information.
In contrast, those who are motivated by genuine humanitarian concerns must present workable alternatives in pursuing prohibitions on specific weapons, including cluster bombs. A treaty that effectively prevents nations and people under attack from acting in legitimate self-defense is worse than useless – it is also immoral.

Whether or not it's possible or credible for anyone to state with accuracy (is there some way for them to know?) the number of unexploded bombs in Lebanon, it's an undisputed fact that the Hizbollah leadership states very proudly, very publicly that it holds an enormous arsenal of death. And that it is preparing to deploy it against Israel's civilian population again. In his widely-reported speech in Beirut on 21st September, Hizbollah chief Nassrallah rejected international calls to disarm his terrorist army, telling a huge "victory" rally his forces have more than 20,000 rockets pointed at Israel - five times more than the total number fired by Hizbollah into Israel during the war, and higher than any previous figure Nasrallah has given. "...There is no army in the world that can (force us) to drop our weapons from our hands, from our grip."

HRW and Amnesty are presumably gearing up for a full-press media attack on his murderous plans. In your dreams.

6-Oct-06: Crying Poor: The Terror-Laden Rise and Rise of the Palestinian National Payroll

Don't be offended. But if you're a European who cares about what's being done with the taxes you pay to your government, the Palestinians are playing you for a fool. Not just you alone, but also your government, your politicians and your public-sector watchdogs.

Four years ago, when a hot terror war here in Israel was at its peak with innocent civilians being killed and maimed daily, the European Parliament started an investigation into whether European money was funding the actions of the murderers and savages on our streets. We ourselves are parents of a child who was murdered in a 2001 terrorist outrage, one of the hundreds of Palestinian Arab and jihadist bombings that have afflicted Israeli society. So we personally paid close attention when the Europarliamentarians began looking into their own civil service and its actions.

The European Commission is the executive arm of the EU government. During that period (2002-2003), Christopher Patten, a smooth, slick and utterly arrogant professional politician presided over an official European Commission program of sending huge sums of money into the maw of the Arafat kleptocracy, while denying eloquently out of both sides of his mouth that anything, Heaven forfend, might be wrong with any of this.

We never for a moment expected the European civil service to police itself in a legitimate way. And in this, we were not disappointed. We also never fell for Patten's manouveurings and chicanery, though most politicians and commentators clearly did. For a contrary viewpoint, and some precious insights into how Europeans have had their goodwill and good sense hijacked by the naked ambitions of their own ill-informed politicians, we suggest you pay an occasional visit to the website of the Funding for Peace Coalition. It's one of the very few sources of analysis and information that manages to see European venality and corruption for what it is.

The culmination of that carefully stage-managed Euro self-examination was that a secret investigation by its internal watchdog, OLAF, ended with a strange sort of whitewash to the Patten-managed terror funding of the Palestinian administration. Strange, because while the headlines of the OLAF audit said "we found no problem", OLAF's report itself - for the handful of people who bothered to read it - said there was no reason to think that everything was kosher, and in fact there were serious problems with the way European money was finding its way from Brussels into the hands of the murderers of Jewish babies and the killers of teenagers like our daughter.

At about the same time, the International Monetary Fund carried out its own audit. Its specialists found poor control mechanisms inside Palestinian government, huge sums 'diverted', rampant corruption and vast numbers of salaried jobs for people who did absolutely nothing (especially in the so-called 'security' arms of the PA.) You'll probably be astonished to know that in the 2½ years since that IMF report, the payroll of PA employees has grown by 35,000.

In 2005, matters got expensively worse when Mahmoud Abbas - who had stepped into Arafat's greasy sandals - quietly incorporated the gunmen of the Fatah-controlled Al-Aksa Brigades into the PA, and assured them a monthly salary from the PA's payroll. Thousands more "security" individuals were added to the bloated payroll earlier this year just before the Palestinian Legislative Council elections which were won by Hamas. At about the same time, Abbas pushed through a wage increase (between 13% and 20%) for his "civil service" - essentially a majority of the Palestinian households, since many of the jobs are bogus.

The IMF criticized the move as a "substantial breach of the wage bill containment plan". The World Bank said: "The PA has created a serious fiscal crisis for itself with salary expenditure essentially out of control."

The polite, formal objections by international bodies go on. But the money has kept pouring into Palestinian hands since then. Arafat's beaming widow ended up with the mother of all nest-eggs after collecting a million euros a month while her husband was still in charge. And the luxurious villas of Fatah chieftains continue to be erected on the fringes of Ramallah and Gaza City for the insiders.

But for the ordinary man, woman and child on the littered streets of Palestinian settlements, life remains a bitch. Despite the largest, most sustained program of foreign aid in the history of mankind, Palestinian life continues to be lived inside garbage cans and slums. The money, most of it European, did not disappear, as people frequently erroneously say. It simply reached the hands of the Palestinian insiders who - for generations - have built personal fortunes by controlling its kleptocracy. And there it stays, as it traditionally has. (See "Arafat's Swiss Bank Account", a personal memoir by Issam Abu Issa, former chairman of the Palestine International Bank.)

In a September 2006 analysis called "EU plans restarting PA aid: Risk of funding terrorism unresolved" published on the euFunding website, Brad Nielson writes about the publication by Die Zeit, a serious German news magazine, of an investigative report in 2002, detailing EU support of corruption and violence against innocent civilians. The response of the European Commission was derisory, but as Neilson points out, the EC made a commitment that: 

If any evidence comes to light that the PA is knowingly employing members of terrorist organisations, the PA will need to act immediately to take these people off the payroll and bring them to justice.

The evidence was available then. New evidence keeps emerging. So the Eurocrats leaned on the Pal-Arabs to "act immediately", right? Of course not. (Are you dreaming?) Then, as now, the bureaucrats of the European Commission chose to ignore the information in front of their eyes, pushing ahead with spending more and more and more European taxpayers money on failed Palestinian systems, on catastrophic Palestinian leadership, on known Palestinian terror channels. All this in direct contradiction of its own EU laws and its own statements to the public and to the media. And almost none of it improving Pal-Arab lives. it keeps going on.

And not only by the EU. Keep your mind focused on the hopeless, dire poverty that characterizes daily life on the Palestinian street as you read the following news reports from yesterday:

U.S. Urging Bigger Force for Abbas

Steven Erlanger (New York Times)
The U.S. is proposing to expand the presidential guard of PA Chairman Abbas to 6,000 men from the current 3,500, as part of a $26 million plan to shore up Abbas' position, according to donors who have been briefed by Washington's security coordinator for the Palestinians... The estimate is that $20 million will go to equip the presidential guard and $2 million to expand it, with $4 million going to build a training facility in Gaza and to complete one that is being built in Jericho. [The article goes on...]

The American funding mentioned here is for set-up costs. The source is private donors so that the US government can evade its own restrictive laws on funding terror. And once the deal is done, the monthly salaries for these new "presidential guards" will come from... where?

Just to be clear that Abbas is not the only Pal-Arab insider who knows how to sort out his guns-versus-medicine priorities, here's what his political rivals are doing:

Tunnels feed new Hamas army

Intelligence officials express worry over expanding Hamas forces, say confrontation with IDF soon to come
Alex Fishman (Yedioth Aharonot) Published: 10.05.06, 10:39
The Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip has assembled an armed and trained force of about 7,500 fighters. A senior military official emphasized that it was not just a large guerilla force, but an organized military force. This new Hamas army consists of several specialized units, including a short-range missile unit, a long-range missile unit, an anti-tank unit, and a sniper unit, among others. Intelligence sources estimated the army would reach operational capacity, and be capable of confronting the IDF as soon as the coming summer, if the flow of arms, military experts, and money into the Gaza Strip was not stopped. The army did not only have defensive capabilities against the IDF, but offensive capabilities that would allow it to launch long-range missiles towards settlements within the Green Line, and to infiltrate Israel through hidden tunnels. According to military sources, the strengthening of Hamas’ army was a calculated aspect of a long-term plan that began with the rise of the Hamas government, and did not cease for a single day since then. Even recent internal struggles and IDF operations did not hinder the moving forward of the plan... In September alone, 12 tunnels were discovered in a single kilometer near the Gaza Strip town of Dahaniya... It was difficult for Israel to make an exact estimate as to the number of working tunnels there were on the Philidelphi route, but a rough estimate showed several dozen tunnels which were sophisticated, professionally quarried, and fully equipped with tracks and wheeled carts.

For the dwindling ranks of hopelessly-pollyannish individuals who still think of Hamas as somehow less corrupt, more true to their people's interests and so on, than Arafat's and Abbas' Fatah, consider:

• In 2006, the number of PA employees has steadily increased since Hamas took control of the Palestinian government.
• This includes Hamas' new so-called "special operational force" of 3,000 gunmen, its members drawn from the Hamas-controlled Iz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades and from the Hamas-loyal Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). This new militia was originally headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, a notorious terrorist who masterminded the 2003 bombing of several US diplomatic vehicles in Gaza, killing three Americans. Samhadana's brilliant career came to an abrupt end in June () but the armed militia continues on its dealy way and continues to draw monthly salaries.
see our report

• President Abbas increased his own Presidential guard from 1,500 gunment to 10,000 (no misprint - that's ten thousand).
• Despite the vast fortunes accumlated by individual Pal-Arab insiders over the past forty years, the current average personal income tax rate for Palestinians is - as it always has been - zero. Surprised? You ought to be. Despite the quiet desperation of the Pal-Arab economy, no Palestinian Arabs pay taxes: not the billionaires, not the tycoons, not the monopolists. Zero.

So in light of all the mismanagement and absence of accountability and of transparency, European government money is going to be withheld from these kleptocrats and terrorists, right?Not right. As the invaluable Funding for Peace Coalition again points out, in a September 2006 article called "EU hints to PA: Accountability no longer required":

Europe has effectively signaled a readiness to hand over more money to the PA. And Europe has shown that it is not interested in receiving a commitment to previously agreed-upon financial reforms called for by the World Bank. Without proper controls, the European taxpayer will yet again lose his investment, with the average Palestinian's money being directed towards corruption and the war industry. 

At a time when the PA claims to be chronically unable to meet its payroll, are we allowed to ask about the prioritization process that allows failed politicians in Europe and in the Palestinian regime to push ahead with their lethal incompetence on the backs of Israeli and Palestinian victims? 

5-Oct-06: Roth on BBC: "Israelis Are Desperate for Peace"

Ritula Shah of the BBC's radio news programme " The World Today" interviewed Arnold Roth last night. The issue under discussion was yesterday's and today's visit to the area by the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The BBC asked Roth how ordinary Israelis relate to the talks being held during the visit, and whether Israelis are ready for peace. (Hint: Roth says yes.) The audio interview can be heard via the BBC website, or here on-line (you'll need an MP3-compatible software like Windows Media Player or Real Player) on the Malki Foundation website. The interview is also being re-broadcast during the day today on the BBC's World Service.

4-Oct-06: Palestinians Say: Spilling Blood is Wrong; It's Prohibited by Islam!

It's not every day that a news report from a Palestinian source comes up with what seems a humanistic, rational, even meritorious declaration. Today appears to be the day. Listen to these words:

"Shedding blood is 'haram' ('prohibited')" it says. "And we call on all Palestinians to stop this act [meaning bloodshed] which is prohibited by our religion. We call on you, everyone, in the name of Allah, everyone who is carrying a weapon, to lay it down, to embrace peace, and to understand the challenges of painful compromise in the name of peaceful relations with people who are different from us but who are, nevertheless, human beings with their own rights, ambitions and beliefs."

Okay, so we lied.

Here's the actual quotation, in full, from a Palestinian source. Read the words of the well-publicized Palestinian PRC (Popular Resistance Committee) carefully, and think about the long, long, long, long road ahead of all of us before peace -- with its painful compromises -- becomes thinkable, let alone achievable.

Spilling Palestinian blood is prohibited by Islam, faction declares
Date: 02 / 10 / 2006 Time: 11:54 تكبير الخط تصغير الخط Gaza - Ma'an - Shedding Palestinian blood is 'haram' ('prohibited'), the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said in a statement issued in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The statement added, "We might be killed by the occupation and [for that] we can be patient and we can have sacrifices against the enemy, but to kill each other, that is unbearable." The PRC warned against the bloodshed while the Palestinian dream is being strangled. The statement asked why the world rejects the results of the elections and said, "Was there any fault committed by the Palestinian people when Palestinians voted freely in the elections and chose Hamas and the resistance to get rid of Oslo?" The statement called on all Palestinians to stop this act which is 'haram' (prohibited in Islam). "We call on you, everyone, in the name of Allah, everyone who is carrying a weapon, to aim it in the right direction, which is at the enemy," the statement said.

Think also of all the intermediaries, all the outside agencies, all the neighboring governments, all the "aid" agencies, all the compromised journalists and photographers, and all the agenda-laden analysts who are only too happy to assist in ensuring the weapons to which they refer are pointed in the right direction.

We're reserving a special space in our comments section (below) for Islamic clergy or individual adherents of the Islamic faith who are prepared to go public with a condemnation of this grotesque usurpation of their religion. We plan to publish every single one that we receive.

3-Oct-06: Palestinian Leadership: When The Going Gets Tough, Demand More Terror

Hamas and Fatah have spent the past few days blasting away at each other and at any unarmed civilians (Palestinian Arab civilians) unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. As the toll of dead and injured rises, the messages from their respective heads are distinctive and notable for (a) their utter lameness and (b) the implicit threat they contain for a tried-and-true solution.

First, listen the words as conveyed by Australia's ABC, of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas regime:

As Prime Minister, I call on all citizens to be responsible and to rise above disagreements, especially in the face of a serious escalation from the occupying forces, who are threatening to expand their aggression in Gaza. I call for an end to incitement, and call for national unity to be preserved and the institutions of the people to be protected, especially now we are in Ramadan, which dictates that we protect our unity and brotherhood.

Then from the same source, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestine Authority and chief of the Fatah terror organization:

I call on all different factions to work hard on dialogue and to stand in the same line and to empower our national unity in confronting the occupation and the siege that is being implemented against our people and our cause. So we can get out of this crisis which threatens our national discourse and threatens to do away with all our national achievements and to throw our people in the garbage of internal fighting.

It's a fact that intended self-slaughtering bombers have been routinely intercepted at the gates of our cities by alert IDF actions on a depressingly regular basis over the past several months. Experience shows it only takes one slip, one piece of bad luck, for Palestinian Arab savages from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaida to succeed in their devil's-work.

We're praying that a massive diversionary attack against Israelis is not the result of these tweedledum/tweedledee messages from Haniyeh and Abbas. If they stand for something other than a call for re-energized, renewed terror attacks on Israelis, then we're not sure what it is.

3-Oct-06: The Mess That Political Correctness Gets You Into

For the past 48 hours, rifle-toting fighters loyal to Fatah and to Hamas have been blowing each other's brains out in various parts of the Gaza Strip. The casualties (10 dead, 100 wounded on Sunday; 2 more dead yesterday with many more wounded; the Palestinian government's cabinet building riddled with bullets) have been happening at the kind of fearsome rate you would expect among a population that's armed to the teeth. And naturally they include plenty of innocent, unarmed non-gunmen because - well - that's what happens when you tolerate savages with lethal weapons in their hands on your streets.

So how do the "objective", "impartial" news media report on the mutual massacres?

Just as you would expect, if - like us - you are appalled at the ongoing, unchecked group-think, ignorance and shallowness of reporters, photographers, headline writers, editors, "fixers" and news producers who ply their trade in this neighbourhood.

Take the BBC's Gaza specialist Alan Johnston who delivers yet another classic of the whitewash-Palestinian-terror genre of reportage for his employer's website. Immediately under the heading "Gazans bury dead after clashes" , Johnston starts his story from Gaza City like this:

"Once more, Gaza has been burying its dead. Not - this time - the victims of Israeli attacks, but the casualties of factional street fighting. "

Two notorious, blood-drenched terror organizations getting stuck into one another in the most violent way, and Mr Johnston frames their story as one of victimhood. The Israelis are of course the attackers - that's beyond obvious. Not one syllable to suggest that both Fatah and Hamas openly declare themselves as engaged in an aggressive struggle against an occupying force (the Israelis) whose "crimes" against them justify any form of barbaric savagery. No, for Mr Johnston the victimhood of the Gazan Arabs is so self-evident that he's probably wondering why Zionists like us even bother to call him to account for this shallow piece of agenda-driven reportage. Oh, and if you're looking for a reference to terror anywhere in Johnston's BBC article, look elsewhere.

The Guardian, under a rather laconic header ("Hamas Closes Offices as Violence Spreads"), points out that many of the injuries occured when a gun battle erupted at Gaza City's main hospital. (Just imagine the vituperative fury and demands for UN Security Council sanctions if it had been Israel that directed gunfire at a Gazan hospital.) Then it offers this piece of bald-faced malevolent untruth:

In addition to the internal Palestinian rivalry, there has been a series of Israeli military operations in Gaza since the capture in June of a soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants. Israel says it is acting to get its soldier back, but more than 200 Palestinians have died in the operations, most of them civilians. Yesterday, Israel's chief of staff said a much larger military operation in Gaza was being considered.

It might have been a tad more honest and accurate if the paper had explained that many of those 200 Palestinians were armed combatants and that the military operation under consideration is related to the unrelenting rocket attacks on peaceful Israeli settlement, towns and cities (never occupied, never disputed) located within firing range of Gaza. Rocket attacks which on any theory of international relations amount to acts of war. (Rocket attacks that we have been chronicling here daily for many months. But which are still basically unknown outside Israel.)

On this point, The Scotsman gets it right when it says:

"General Halutz [the IDF chief of staff] also raised the prospect of a broad ground offensive in Gaza to try to stop Palestinian militants from firing homemade rockets into Israel."

Its article is entitled "Unity hopes fade as infighting leaves eight Palestinians dead", and it includes this rather telling, even poignant, quote:

The ordinary people of Gaza were yesterday trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of fighting between Hamas and Fatah that continued for most of the day. "This is forbidden in Islam - we are in the holy month of Ramadan," said Majed Badawi, 33, who managed to escape uninjured after his car was hit by gunfire. "It's a shame on Hamas, who call themselves real Muslims, and a shame on Fatah as well. Why are they fighting and over what? We are victims because of both of them."

Why is it so rare to find a quality journal that is ready to go against the commonly-accepted PC narrative and chooses to depict - accurately - Gazan Arabs as victims of Palestinian terror?