30-Jan-08: Analysis, political analysis and damned politicized analysis

We're grateful to the Sandbox blog for this latest example of the wild and unchecked/unsubstantiated claims being made in the name of Gaza's humanitarian crisis.

Under the headline "Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza", the Boston Globe ran an op-ed this past weekend written by Eyad al-Sarraj, a founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Sara Roy, a professor at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Just to be clear about the sources: al-Sarraj's highly politicized office hosted a delegation of European Parliamentarians in 2005, describing to them the “psychological violence” waged by Israel in Gaza (clearly the source of all Gaza's problems) and helpfully campaigned for economic and academic boycotts of Israel. Sara Roy, termed "one of the foremost scholars on the economy in Gaza" has worked in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since 1985 and writes extensively on the Palestinian economy.

The key point in the article is this claim -

Although Gaza daily requires 680,000 tons of flour to feed its population, Israel had cut this to 90 tons per day by November 2007, a reduction of 99 percent.

Heartless Israeli child-starvers at it again.

But wait a minute. Gaza's population is said to be 1.5 million. Doesn't it follow that 680,000 tons of flour a day means every man, woman and child consumes almost half a ton of flour? Per day.

Sandbox asks -

"A typographical error at the Boston Globe?

And then answers -

"Hardly. The two authors used the same "statistic" in an earlier piece. They copied it from an article published in the Ahram Weekly last November, which reported that "the price of a bag of flour has risen 80 per cent, because of the 680,000 tonnes the Gaza Strip needs daily, only 90 tonnes are permitted to enter." Sarraj and Roy added the bit about this being "a reduction of 99 percent." Note how an absurd and impossible "statistic" has made its way up the media feeding chain. It begins in an Egyptian newspaper, is cycled through a Palestinian activist, is submitted under the shared byline of a Harvard "research scholar," and finally appears in the Boston Globe, whose editors apparently can't do basic math. Now, in a viral contagion, this spreads across the Internet, where that "reduction of 99 percent" becomes a well-attested fact. What's the truth? I see from a 2007 UN document that Gaza consumes 450 tons of flour daily. The Palestinian Ministry of Economy, according to another source, puts daily consumption at 350 tons. So the figure for total consumption retailed by Sarraj and Roy is off by more than three orders of magnitude, i.e. a factor of 1,000. No doubt, there's less flour shipped from Israel into Gaza--maybe it's those rocket barrages from Gaza into Israel?--but even if it's only the 90 tons claimed by Sarraj and Roy, it isn't anything near a "reduction of 99 percent." Unfortunately, if readers are going to remember one dramatic "statistic" from this op-ed, this one is it--and it's a lie."

There may be a correction on the way (the authors have international reputations) but the damage is done, just another powerful and ugly defamation to add to a long list.

Sandbox calls this an illustration of the difference between a "political economist" and an economist. Sadly, there's far more of this sort of "political reportage" than reportage going on right now. It's hard to blame the reporters. Sticking to the facts means going counter to a compelling narrative of Palestinian suffering and of photogenic school-children in darkened rooms and holding candles.

We're pleased to note that despite the tsunami of politically-correct but factually-woeful stories emanating from Gaza, once in a while there's a feature that actually captures what the jihadist leadership are doing, day after day, to their land, to their communities and to their children. Read Spiegel's article on the world's largest cemetery: Graveyard Shift for Islamic Jihad: A Visit to a Gaza Rocket Factory. And then think for a moment what the energy and intelligence of the terrorists depicted in it might have achieved for Gaza's Palestinian-Arabs under a religious, political and moral leadership different from the catastrophic Hamas jihadists.

Bread for thought.

29-Jan-08: Answering Human Rights Watch

NGO-Monitor, based here in Jerusalem, does uniquely valuable work in calling various global organizations to account for their improper, Israel-hostile activities. Human Rights Watch is one of NGO-M's most prominent targets for all the worst reasons. NGO-M's report below, issued today, deals with a statement issued from New York by HRW three days ago, criticizing Israel for the Gaza situation. It's important enough, we feel, to warrant being reprinted in full.

HRW Accuses Israel of “Word Games” and Patronizes Hamas

A number of politicized NGOs have condemned Israel’s responses to the rocket attacks from Gaza. In parallel, HRW, World Vision, FIDH, Al Haq, and Defence for Children International,¹ addressed the UN Human Rights Council, repeating their allegations against Israel. In contrast, as numerous media reports demonstrated, the impact on the civilian population was orchestrated by the Hamas leadership, including staged scenes of hardship.

Joel Stork of Human Rights Watch (HRW) joined this campaign with a statement on January 26. Following HRW’s well-established pattern of statements related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, this one paints a very incomplete and selective picture of the crisis in Gaza. Joe Stork, who has been "acting director" of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division for many years, and has a history of anti-Israel campaigning, accuses Israeli leaders of “playing word games", as if the daily rocket attacks were of no consequence. Stork patronizingly absolves Hamas of all responsibility for the attacks and response, claiming that “Gazans can’t turn on the lights, get tap water, buy enough food, or earn a living without Israel’s consent.” HRW demands that Israel end its “collective punishment” (a term that is not applicable to the Israeli policy²), while failing to demand that the Hamas government put an end to the daily rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by “Palestinian armed groups”.

Stork Invents "Facts"

Stork also gets the facts wrong, including the false implication that Israel cut off electricity supplies to Gaza.³ In reality, Israel decreased fuel supplies but maintained its provision of electricity to Gaza. HRW’s statement also omits the fact that Israel supplied Gaza with cooking gas, 500,000 liters of diesel fuel for generators, primarily for hospitals, 2.2 million liters of industrial fuel for power plants, and 50 trucks of humanitarian aid.

While many journalists acknowledged that Hamas manipulated and manufactured this “humanitarian crisis”, including ordering bakery owners to keep their stores closed, this was inconsistent with Stork’s objective. He also ignored evidence that fuel intended for a European hospital in Gaza was diverted to supply the “Hamas-affiliated Executive Force.” HRW’s portrayal of the mass exodus through the border with Egypt as an act of desperation in response to the Israeli “blockade” is also misleading, in the light of the televisions and other luxury goods purchased by the Palestinians. They were clearly not starving, or in the middle of a life-threatening crisis.

HRW's Own Word Games

As in most of HRW’s reporting on the Israeli-Arab conflict, this statement includes numerous misstatements and distortions of international law.⁴ Following Palestinian claims, HRW asserts that since Israel “still controls Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters, and land borders”, it is an “occupier”, but fails to cite any provision of the Geneva or Hague Conventions – the international treaties that establish the law of occupation. In contrast, Article 6of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states that a foreign power is only considered an occupier "to the extent that such Power exercises the functions of government in such territory." Since 1995, and certainly since Israel’s disengagement in 2005, Gaza's Palestinian population has been under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.⁵ And Stork’s “facts” to the contrary, Gaza’s southern border is controlled by Egypt (and not only for “this week”, in Stork’s version.)

Minimizing Palestinian Terror

Stork’s ideology-based analysis also minimizes the context of terror, making only passing reference to the barrage of rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israeli civilians. Between January 16 and 21, 2008, more than 225 rockets have been launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza against Israeli towns. From June to December 2007, the totals were 475 missiles and 631 mortar bombs. In addition, HRW fails to ascribe responsibility for these attacks to the Hamas government but rather only to “Palestinian armed groups” and “militants”.

Following HRW’s long-established pattern of ignoring the human rights of Israelis under daily bombardment from Gaza, Stork claims Israel’s real security concerns are merely a pretext to “arbitrarily block, delay and harass people with emergency medical problems who need to leave Gaza for urgent care” or to prevent “6,000 people with foreign citizenship, permanent foreign residency, work permits, student visas, or university admissions abroad,” from leaving Gaza. In this case as well, HRW is very selective with factual claims, omitting several instances where Palestinians have exploited Israel’s humanitarian policies to carry out terror attacks. In May 2007, for instance, a pregnant woman and her niece, who had been granted permission to seek medical treatment in Ramallah, were arrested for planning to carry out a double suicide attack in Tel Aviv and Netanya. In another incident four weeks ago, terrorists attempted to smuggle in explosives materials into Gaza hidden in sacks of sugar marked as European Union aid.

The result is a moral muddle and double standards that undermine universal human rights. As in many of its previous campaigns, such as “Razing Rafah” (October 2004), the flood of biased condemnations in the 2006 Lebanon War, the so-called “Gaza beach incident” (June 2006), false charges of war crimes in Jenin (2002), etc. HRW misuses and exploits international law to further political campaigns against Israel.

NOTES

¹ Al Haq and Defence for Children International submitted a written statement to the Council.

² "The bar on collective punishment forbids the imposition of criminal-type penalties to individuals or groups on the basis of another's guilt. None of Israel's actions involve the imposition of criminal-type penalties.” Abraham Bell, “International Law and Gaza: The Assault on Israel's Right to Self-Defense”, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, January 2008

³ Echoing the Palestinian narrative, Stork alleges that Israel “denies civilians the food, fuel and medicine needed to survive”.

⁴ For examples, see NGO Monitor’s analyses of HRW’s Lebanon War reporting.

⁵ See Abraham Bell, “International Law and Gaza: The Assault on Israel's Right to Self-Defense”, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, January 2008

29-Jan-08: Eyeless (and clueless) in Gaza

The magnitude of the disservice done by the agenda-driven reporting brigade and their editors is on view yet again today. This time it's via a revealing look by the Times of London at Gaza's humanitarian 'crisis'.

Referring to the widely-covered tearing down of the fence on the border between Gaza and Egypt, the British paper calls it an "audacious operation" that "handed the Islamist group Hamas what might be its greatest propaganda coup."

'Course, that coup required some help, conveniently provided by many of the world's most important news publications. Some examples of what the propagandists delivered:

• Hamas "spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation..." [With all the reporters swarming over Gaza and the environs, you'd think one or another of them might have noticed. Nope.]
  
• The Times names and quotes a Hamas source, Lieutenant Abu Usama of the Palestinian National Security, saying the Islamist group "was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches."
• Just to be clear about this: "It happened in the daytime but was covered up so that nobody would see." [Damnably clever people, these terrorists.]
  
• "Everything [chief jihadist] Haniya is saying is simply to exploit this situation to win political gains... It is a part of the problem, not the solution," said Ashraf Ajramim, a Cabinet minister in Mr Abbas's [Fatah i.e. anti-Hamas] government."
• As for the starving masses: "Some staggered back into Gaza carrying televisions, and others sported brand-new mobile phones. In Gaza City, prices of cigarettes - which had skyrocketed during the total blockade of the past week - fell by 70 per cent in a few hours."
• "Rami al-Shawwa, a 23-year old falafel vendor, said he planned to head to Egypt in the afternoon, after his brothers returned from there. He was going to buy waterpipe tobacco".

At the peak of the near-hysterical reporting of a blacked-out, humanitarian-disaster-struck, crisis-ridden, on-its-last-legs Gaza, hundreds of news channels reported on five Palestinian-Arabs who had died allegedly because of Israel's shut-down of the electricity supply. Very few of those channels have now owned up (the Toronto Star is a half-exception) to the truth - that they were manipulated, spun and shilled by bogus reporting from Hamas sources that they uncritically swallowed and then fed to their news consumers.

The role we have taken on ourselves in this blog is not to hold the press accountable but to speak about terror - about its practitioners and about its unbearably expensive price. But we also want people to understand that there's a connection between terrorism and the outrageously inaccurate and dangerously partisan reporting of events in Gaza the past week. Gaza is one of the few places in the world run, day by day, by an actual terror organization, Hamas. The jihadist government of Gaza is busy re-arming itself, preparing for a substantial escalation (perhaps from Egyptian territory) while continuing to fire rockets into a neighbouring country without only the slightest pretense that this has strategic justification or worth.

It's terrorism. The victims are not only Israelis but also - perhaps even more so - Palestinian Arab Gazans living under the jihadist Hamas regime. How news people can quote the self-justifying assertions of that appalling organization's ruling clique with a straight face is just beyond us.

By their gross irresponsibility, and their sometimes astonishingly idiotic (using that word the way Lenin did when he coined the expression useful idiots) way of reporting on events in Gaza, many members of the professional media have become indispensable players - willingly or unwillingly, wittingly or unwittingly - in that terrorist enterprise.

28-Jan-08: Collective punishment? Of whom?

Memo to Ed O'Loughlin of The Age/Sydney Morning Herald:

When you describe (as you did this weekend) the chaos in Gaza as "tens of thousands of people enjoyed a rare outing from what has been for many years a de facto prison for 1.5 million untried inmates", you might consider a different viewpoint.

Here's Brad Burston's take:

Imagine a situation in which thousands and thousands of people, many of them children and the elderly, are plunged into a situation in which they must fear for their lives day in and day out, their livelihoods crippled, their schools and even pre-schools under siege. Entire communities are trapped, paralyzed. Whole childhoods are spent in a state of post-traumatic stress. Occasions which should be high points in a lifetime are routinely curtailed or cancelled. The people of this place are forced to bear the burden of the whole of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They are the unarmed proxy warriors of their side, victimized by the tactical cruelty of the other. They are the victims of collective punishment.

And they live in Israel.

We'd be pleased to think that you're going to click and read the remainder of his well-reasoned piece. But in truth, on the basis of our experience with hundreds of other members of the press who have passed through our home and our home-town, we think you're unlikely to be too interested in a version of matters in which your Palestinians-as-victims narrative is turned on its head.

You're not alone, of course. Many of your colleagues reporting from this area are just as true as you to the "1.5 million untried inmates" dangerous nonsense. For them, as for you, the only important thing to know is, to quote you, that "in Gaza a humanitarian crisis is already the normality".

Know, Ed, that there is another normality to take into account; the normality of Israelis, enduring barbarism and hatred emanating from the jihadist regime in power on our southern border. A normality that comes at a high price paid by our society in terms of disturbed, damaged and lost lives. It's a subject we personally would be glad to describe to you if you ever happen to muster up the interest to examine it. We and many of our friends here in Jerusalem can provide you with some well-articulated English-language first-person insights into how it feels, what it means, how it impacts our lives.

You ignore the humanity of our side in one column after another. And you place theirs at the center of this conflict. Like so many of your colleagues in the reporting industry, you're voting with your fingertips. Nothing wrong with that in principle, provided you and your editors and their managers declare your partisanship openly - and desist from the pretense of giving an impartial view of life in this complicated region.

26-Jan-08: Humanitarian crises and dark manipulation

Far from the headlines of the mainstream media, there are things going on with the jihadist Hamas regime in Gaza that are being ignored by journalists, their editors and political analysts. The terrorist-generated narrative is being swallowed wholesale even while the clear evidence of manipulation is there for anyone (who cares to see it) to see.

Palestinian reporters told an alert journalist on Wednesday that, in the midst of the many tear-soaked international headlines of a threatening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Hamas staged a phony 'photo op' meeting in Gaza City while they were seated in front of burning candles. The picture at right comes from Reuters. Somehow the Pal-Arab journalists - but not the editors at the major international news agencies - noticed that the need for candles was completely artificial. Both meetings were being held in daylight.

The ever-quotable Khaled Abu Toameh writes: "They had closed the curtains in the rooms to create the impression that Hamas leaders were also suffering as a result of the power stoppage," one journalist told The Jerusalem Post. "It was obvious that the whole thing was staged. Another journalist said he and his colleagues were told to wait for a few minutes before entering the chamber of the Palestinian Legislative Council so that each legislator would have time to light his candle. He said that when he saw that the curtains had been closed to prevent the light from entering, he realized that Hamas was trying to manipulate the media for political gain."

Nothing especially profound here... except that not a single mainstream media channel reports it. But the pictures of a phony blackout are everywhere. And accurate reporting of the facts is practically invisible.

What sort of darkness really descended onto Gaza this week? Consider this analysis from Joel Leyden and Amir Mizroch:

"As the clock struck 8 p.m. this past Sunday night, prime time in the Middle East, Israel and Europe for TV news broadcasts, the Al Jazeera satellite TV network opened its top-of-the-hour news bulletin with a live scene from Gaza City. The footage was powerful and unforgettable: thousands of people gathered to light candles in a Gaza City plunged into darkness. The possibility that the Hamas PR machine itself had switched off the lights in the densely populated city to create the impression of an urgent humanitarian crisis was likely not considered by many watching the broadcast... How could Al Jazeera broadcast if there was no electricity? Where did those candles come from? Who organized this demonstration and how much were they being paid? Why wasn't this information getting out? The Israel decision over the weekend to reduce shipments of industrial diesel fuel to the Gaza power station, still fresh in the minds of worldwide viewers, was presumably seen overwhelmingly as the cause of the outage. Never mind the fact that Israel's Ruttenberg power station in Ashkelon was still streaming electricity into Gaza and that there had been no Israel action that shut the city's lights off."

Noah Pollak points out that less than a third of Gaza’s electricity comes from within Gaza. A tiny amount is supplied by Egypt, and by far the largest share is generated in and supplied by Israel. "It was the power station inside of Gaza that was shut down, and not shut down by Israel, but by Hamas, in order to lend credibility to its effort to generate international pressure against Israel’s blockade of the Strip. For the media, it staged candle-lit scenes and trumpeted the fiction that Israel had plunged Gaza into darkness."

To which we add that the Israeli power station that supplied, supplies and will continue supply electric power to the huddled masses of Gaza living under jihadist rule has been under constant fire (via Qassams) by the armed representatives of those same huddled masses since Israel removed its soldiers and its thriving communities from Gush Katif and the other Jewish enclaves in Gaza two years ago.

Seems the people kept in the dark are not limited to the areas under jihadist control. No sign that anyone's about to turn on the real lights.

26-Jan-08: Weekend stabbing, rockets, mortars

In the third Jerusalem-area attack in the last 48 hours, a knife-wielding Palestinian Arab stabbed a Border Police patrol officer on duty near the Atarot industrial area in northern Jerusalem today (Saturday), according to Haaretz. Policemen nearby opened fire at the Palestinian who is wounded. Both the stabbed policeman and the attacker are getting treatment at Hadassah University Medical Center.

And despite all the festivities on the Hamas/Egypt border, the thugs remain active. Two Qassams were launched from the northern Gaza Strip Saturday afternoon into Israel. They hit open areas in the western Negev, causing no casualties. Two mortar shells were also fired in Israel's direction by the jihadists, but they fell short inside Palestinian territory, causing who-knows-what-damage.

24-Jan-08: Multiple attacks in and near Jerusalem

We've been traveling, so have been temporarily unable to comment here on the tumultuous events of the past 72 hours in Gaza. But tonight there's been a pair of terror attacks quite close to where we live.

At the entrance to East Jerusalem's Shuafat neighbourhood, a man and a woman were shot tonight in a terror attack. The man was critically injured and later died of his wounds, while the woman sustained serious wounds and is now getting treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem medical center. YNet says two terrorists approached the scene on foot, fired at the Israelis and fled. No doubt, one heroic freedom fighter group or another will shortly be taking 'credit' for their great achievement.

And just south of Jerusalem, two of the communities in the Gush Etzion bloc came under attack tonight. Terrorists threw molotov cocktails at the entrance to Migdal Oz. Shortly afterwards, two Pal-Arab terrorists burst into the Steinsaltz Mekor Haim yeshiva (a boys' school) in Kfar Etzion and stabbed and wounded two people, presumably students, who are described as lightly wounded. Several of the youth leaders at the school quickly arrived on the scene with their weapons and brought the terrorist attack, and the lives of the perpetrators, to a complete end.

Eye-witnesses say the two terrorists, themselves in their teens like their intended victims, were dressed in stolen or copied uniforms. Haaretz says they were the uniforms of the security company that protects the boundaries of the school. JPost says green military-style uniforms - perhaps trying to pass themselves off as belonging to the IDF or the Border Police.

Wasted lives. Pointless, hate-filled actions. Additional 'achievements' to add to the terrorist agenda.

21-Jan-08: Electric wars - a sad tale of two realities

One version of tonight's reality:
Israel approves Gaza power cuts (BBC)

Gaza City plunged into darkness
Gaza's only power plant shuts down, saying it has run out of fuel because of increased Israeli restrictions.
Israel's defence minister has approved sanctions against Gaza, including cuts in the supply of electricity and fuel to try to halt rocket attacks. Ehud Barak authorised the cuts, which are expected to follow immediately after rocket attacks are launched. Palestinian leaders say the measure amounts to collective punishment. Israel supplies 60% of the electricity for Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants - but last month Israel declared Gaza a "hostile entity".

Meanwhile a completely different perspective:

'We're supplying electricity to Gaza under Qassam fire' (YNet)

The Israeli Electric Company (IEC) is supplying nearly 70% of electricity to the Gaza Strip despite Palestinians' claims of a power shortage in Gaza, said Miko Zarfati, the chairman of the workers' committee at the power company. "This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped the supply of electricity to the Strip," Zarfati told Ynet. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Qassam rockets falling in the area. The Gaza power plant only produces 30% of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest. "It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said. The IEC employee was upset that Israel continues to supply electricity to Gaza while the Qassam rockets continue to land in the western Negev. "The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply them electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israeli residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under threat from Qassam rockets," Zarfati railed. "The Electric Company sends people to fix power outages that are caused from the Qassam barrages everyday in Sderot and the Gaza vicinity and more than one worker has already been injured in these rocket attacks."

The gall. The jihadists of Gaza fire rockets into Israel's Ashkelon power station day and night for months, aiming to knock it out. They do this even though the same plant is the source of most of their (Gazan) electricity. Finally after months of this appalling terrorist warfare, Israel says "enough". It doesn't stop supplying power to Gaza but it cuts back on fuel supplies to the Strip. The jihadist Hamas regime then shuts down its own small power station, plunging the entire area into darkness, announces that babies are dying because of the absence of power, and cries to the world that the Israelis did it.

And the BBC (among others) dutifully falls into line.

Time for someone to switch on some lights in Bush House.

19-Jan-08: Terror attacks don't rest

During the day today (Saturday, the day of rest in this country), Gazan Palestinian-Arab terrorists fired three Qassam rockets into Israel. One landed near a hesder yeshiva (program which combines advanced Talmudic studies with IDF service) in Sderot. Two other rockets landed in the Shaar Hanegev region: one near an educational center, the other in an open area. Fortunately, no reports of injuries.

18-Jan-08: Rockets from outside, jihadist bombs from within

A month ago (but embargoed until yesterday), Israel's security forces uncovered a jihadist plot to bomb the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem railroad by planting a bomb on the tracks at the point it approaches Bethlehem, the Palestinian-Arab-controlled town where they lived. Four jihadists have been arrested, all in their twenties. Their explosives lab was also working on explosives to be hurled at Israeli cars.

World Magazine points out that ten years ago "Bethlehem had a population roughly 60 percent Christian; today it is closer to 10 percent as Christians flee or are forced out by Islamic extremists and an often hostile Palestinian Authority. In Gaza, where believers number less than 1 percent of the population, the manager of the only Christian bookstore in the territory, 31-year-old Rami Ayad, was kidnapped and found dead in the street last October."

The terrorism and denial-ism emanating from the jihadists don't grab that much attention from mainstream editors and their local reporters. The Age (Melbourne), for instance, has a Bethlehem article today. But it's not about Bethlehem-based jihadism or the de-Christianizing of the town and the region. Instead it's yet another partisan wail by the context-averse Ed O'Loughlin: "In the settlements [he writes] and on the bypass roads, meanwhile, Jewish settlers and visiting Israelis - even foreign tourists with no connection to the land - enjoy freedom of movement and superior rights and protections to the indigenous Palestinians."

It will be a cold day in hell before O'Loughlin and reporters of his ilk become the arbiters of who is connected to this land.

18-Jan-08: What the jihadists are achieving

Israeli woman, affected by shock after a Qassam rocket exploded nearby, is evacuated to hospital on Wednesday 16th January.



An explosives expert from Israel's police force removes one of the 120+ Qassam rockets that landed in various parts of southern Israel over the past three days. This one, on Wednesday, landed near Kibbutz Nir Am. The jihadists have no ability -- and no interest -- to control the direction of their explosives, some of which land among their own homes, wreaking havoc. Some kill, some injure, all terrify - this is why they are terrorists.



One of numerous Israeli homes damaged in the barrages of rockets fired by the terrorists into Israel this week.



This Israeli child's home in Sderot was hit by one of the Qassams fired by the jihadists. The man tending to her is a Magen David Adom paramedic.



Israeli children take cover in a shelter as a warning siren for incoming rockets is sounded in the southern city of Sderot, January 16, 2008.



An Israeli home, after a jihadist Qassam came calling this week.



This family's home was damaged in one of yesterday's 40+ jihadist missile barrages in southern Israel. How long does a country with the military means to respond energetically have to keep one of its arms behind its back? Terrorism of the Palestinian-Arab Gazan variety is not out to achieve territorial gains or greater democracy; they want to destroy, harm, injure and kill, and have never claimed to want anything different. How well is this understood outside Israel? Will it be more clearly understood when one of these dozens-a-day explosive projectiles causes a real disaster?

UPDATE Friday 12:30pm - So far today, the Gazan jihadists have fired nine more rockets into Israel. One landed near a Sderot kindergarten, striking a water pipe. Another landed in Ashkelon's industrial area; a third near Kibbutz Zikim in the south. Fortunately no injuries are reported so far.

UPDATE Friday 1:15pm - The Israeli government, rather than escalating the military response, just announced the closing of its borders with Gaza - promoting immediate and predictable calls for relief from "the impending humanitarian disaster". Compounding the hypocrisy and double-talk, the man who nominally heads the Palestinian Authority has now lined up with the same Hamas forces that decimated his own militia in bloody fighting in Gaza some months ago, threatening to quit if Israel's "escalation" continues, and demonstrating that no failed Arab leader ever lost his job by blaming Israel.

17-Jan-08: "Get the schoolkids" (inc Friday morning update)

It's Thursday morning, and at around 8 o'clock, eleven Qassam rockets were fired by the jihadists of Palestinian-Arab Gaza into southern Israel, aiming at Sderot. The casualties so far are a woman who suffered mild injuries and was hospitalized, and several others who suffered shock. Two rockets damaged a number of homes, one located next to an elementary school. Another Qassam hit the city's industrial zone, while the rest landed in open fields. YNet points out that the heavy barrage was timed to begin "at around 8 am, as Sderot's children were entering the local schools and kindergartens."

Barbarians.

UPDATE Friday 7:15am - Thursday's toll of rockets fired into Israel by the jihadists from Palestinian-Arab Gaza was about 40 Qassams plus two mortar shells (reports Haaretz). That makes some 120 Qassam attacks in the past 3 days. Two Israelis were injured yesterday in these attacks, while several others had to be treated for shock. Also yesterday, another Palestinian-Arab drive-by shooting in a growing list of such attempts at murder. An Israeli man was shot Thursday evening in an attack near Ramallah. He sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder while driving on Route 446 when Palestinian terrorists opened fire on his vehicle from a passing car. Fortunately he managed to continue driving until he reached an Israel Defense Forces checkpoint near Na'alin. Several deaths have resulted from other such terrorist strikes in the past few weeks on roads traveled by Israeli jews and Palestinian Arabs.

16-Jan-08: Wednesday morning update

The Pal-Arab jihadists of Gaza let fly with some 28 Qassam rockets into southern Israel this morning (Wednesday), and it's not yet 10 o'clock. Some damage is reported to physical property on the grounds of several kibbutzim that border Gaza, but thankfully no injuries so far. The rockets also struck the Sderot area and open fields just south of Ashkelon, and several people there were treated for shock. This time, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility but the fact is that the weaponry and methods are virtually identical no matter which of the real or imagined fronts, brigades or forces issues the press release. Gaza is entirely controlled by the Islamicists of Hamas who, with Iranian backing, decide whether, when and by whom Israel and Israelis (like the injured woman in yesterday's AP picture from Sderot at right) are attacked.

UPDATE: Wednesday 7:30pm - Haaretz says "more than 40 Qassams, three mortar shells" have been let loose by the Gazan jihadists into Israel so far today. YNet says no fewer than 50 Qassam rockets have crashed into Sderot and its surroundings today. It reports on at least six people hurt by this (Wednesday) in and around Sderot and Ashkelon. "Five people suffered shock and a woman was lightly injured after being hit by a passing vehicle while running to take cover from the rockets... An exceptionally heavy salvo hit the western Negev in the afternoon hours... The rockets caused damages to two buildings and a factory in Sderot."

15-Jan-08: Bloody day

The news media are replete with reports of the Israeli raid on Gaza this morning that resulted in many Palestinian-Arab deaths and injuries (all or nearly all of them Hamas operatives directly engaged in terrorism, according to Reuters' Gaza correspondent). Far fewer will adequately relate Israel's actions with the ongoing terror war being waged from Gaza. Here's what's happened so far today on Israel's side of the border:

• A Grad missile was fired into Israel from northern Gaza. It landed near a tennis court in Ashkelon. No injuries or damage.
• Two Qassam rockets were fired into Israel a short time after the Grad, again from the northern Gaza Strip. These landed in an open field near the southern Israeli city of Sderot. No injuries or damage.
• At Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha where Carlos Andres Chavez, 20, a tourist-volunteer from Quito, Ecuador was shot in the back and killed by a Pal-Arab sniper from Gaza Strip this morning, kibbutz members came under fire as they attempted to retrieve tractors abandoned in the field as a result of the attack.
  
• Two more Qassam rockets plus five mortar rounds were fired into Israel from Gaza during the day today.
• An interesting sidenote: The Reuters man in Gaza, Nidal al-Mughrabi, points out that Hamas claimed responsibility for firing the rockets into Israel today (as we noted this morning), marking the first time the jihadists had admitted their involvement since they routed the Abbas-Fatah forces in June to take control of the Gaza Strip. He writes: "Hamas had [previously] fired mortar bombs and allowed other Palestinian militant groups to fire rockets into Israel, but the direct claim marked a more aggressive approach toward the Jewish state."

The day's not over.

UPDATE Tuesday 8:30pm - Channel 2 television news here and YNet are reporting that four people (at least) were wounded, including a 5-year-old girl, in a rocket barrage on Sderot during the afternoon. 15 Qassams were fired into Sderot during the afternoon hours; four rockets landed in the city's limits. "The rocket fire started at around 4:15 PM, with one Qassam hitting a poultry processing plant where Yakov Yakobov was killed in November 2006. Since Tuesday morning, a total of 23 Qassam rockets and 16 mortar shells were fired at western Negev communities. One of the rockets hit a power line in Sderot, halting power supply to several areas in town. Electric Company workers were called to the place to repair the damage."And as we wrote earlier - the day's still not over.

UPDATE Wednesday 7:30am: According to Haaretz, 24 Qassam rockets were fired by the Gazan terrorists into Israel on Tuesday. YNet says 41. In addition, some 24 mortar shells and one Grad Katyusha rocket struck the outskirts of a residential section of the city of Ashkelon. Five Israelis were hospitalized for their shrapnel wounds, four for shock and another who was hurt while trying to take cover during an attack. Three rockets crashed into Sderot's urban sections; the Color Red incoming-rocket siren sounded 14 times, causing local residents to scramble for cover time after time. Toward evening, a rocket struck a power line, leaving Sderot's residents in darkness.

15-Jan-08: How terrorists deal with existential threats

The headline above is not meant to be facetious: it's literally the case that volunteer fruit pickers who travel to Israel and see for themselves the constructive lives created here by Israeli society are among the most serious threats to jihadist thugs like the members of Hamas' so-called military wing. The reality of a robustly democratic, open society where the right to participate in free and fair elections is not only universal but also meaningful, and where the state of health, welfare, education, economic prosperity and quality of life by any measure is far greater for Israel's Arabs than for the Arab residents of any of the neighbouring Arab states, is unbearable to the terrorists. Little surprise that Hamas rushed this morning to take full credit for the murder, by sniper fire, of a twenty-year-old tourist from Ecuador who was shot while working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. YNet says: "The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, took responsibility for the shooting. The young man had recently arrived to Israel with a group of volunteers from South America in order to volunteer and travel around Israel."

15-Jan-08: A desperate humanitarian need to kill people

Hardly a news channel or public figure in the world has missed the opportunity in the past several months to criticize Israel for its defensive measures against the Hamas regime in Gaza. Partly this is a result of consistent, agenda-driven under-reporting of the reign of terror unleashed against Israelis from Gaza. Partly, it's simply more of the same hypocrisy and politics-as-war-by-other-means factors that have long characterized this ongoing war of the Arabs against Israel through the generations.

Recall that in a blood-soaked campaign of thuggish violence against Fatah and its supporters, Hamas wrested control of Gaza this summer. The most immediate result was a substantial escalation in the rate of ongoing acts of terror against neighboring Israeli communities. Rockets, grenades, Qassams, Katyushas became - as we try to report here: have remained - a daily fixture of life in southern Israel since then.

In June, 5 days after Hamas violently seized power there, Israel sealed the crossings on its border with Gaza. As the NY Times reported, "the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security services that had operated the Gaza side of the border crossings ran for their lives during the fighting. Israel, like much of the West, considers Hamas a terrorist organization and will not deal with it."

Israel then took the additional step of declaring jihadist Gaza as a "hostile entity" in September, warning that unless Hamas curbed its war of terror against us, fuel and electricity supplies into Gaza would be targeted, though (as the BBC pointed out at the time) not water, food or medicine. (These were and continue to supplied by and with the help of Israel, even at the height of the attacks on israel, with almost no reporting to bring it to the attention of people in far-away places.)

Why such self-evidently required defensive actions should be surprising or odd is beyond us.

As a reminder, here's how certain observers reacted:

• Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman: "It is a declaration of war and continues the criminal, terrorist Zionist actions against our people."
• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: "Such a step would be contrary to Israel's obligations towards the civilian population [of Gaza] under international humanitarian and human rights law."
• BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus: "The Israeli move will only be seen by Palestinians as a form of collective punishment and risks consolidating support for Hamas in Gaza."
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a Dec. 13 statement: "The Palestinian population living in the occupied territories is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis as a result of the drastic deterioration of the situation there".
  

For many, many, many more references, do a Google for pages that include the 3 terms "humanitarian crisis"+Gaza +Israel. Click here to see what we mean. If you could make money from pouring scorn on Israel, you would quickly become quite wealthy. (As a matter of fact, a number of prominent individuals already have.)

So if you're facing a humanitarian catastrophe, with your children in danger of serious illness or even dying from neglect, you'd take every possible measure to protect your channels of supply of medicines and other essentials, right?

Maybe not so much if you're a Gazan-Palestinian-Arab jihadist.

Last night, Israeli sources disclosed the latest act of self-destructive madness perpetrated by the Gazans. As Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post and YNet report this morning (but not one non-Israeli source, as at the time we write this Tuesday morning), the terrorists who dominate Gaza, taking cynical advantage of an Israeli permit allowing the entry of humanitarian goods, smuggled two tons of raw materials for explosives in a truck transporting aid. (Note: two tons.) They failed this time.

In the second such incident in a fortnight (see our report "29-Dec-07: Security checkpoints? Who needs 'em?"), Israeli security staff employed by the Israel Airport Authority at the Kerem Shalom border crossing uncovered the smuggling during a random inspection of vehicles carrying humanitarian equipment and goods. No one is under any illusions here that this seizure means an end to the smuggling of weapons, explosives and money into the hands of the jihadists. Israel's defensive measures will undoubtedly continue, maybe increase.

The criticism of Israel will also grow. The emotional impact of a news photograph of Israelis sticking their noses and search-equipment into trucks and sugar sacks and vehicles and guitar cases heading for Gaza is enormous. The same is true for the remarkably effective security fence under construction for the past few years in our country. Too many people (and the politicians and news analysts and media photographers who serve them) just don't want to know why.

But we know why.

13-Jan-08: Sunday evening terror round-up

Eight mortar shells were fired into Israel by Gaza-based Palestinian Arab terrorists this afternoon. Two landed in the grounds of Kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara, one damaging a residence. Six others crashed into open ground near the Erez Crossing that connects Gaza with Israel. Two Qassam rockets were also fired into Israel today; one landed in an undisclosed open-field location while the second crashed into Hamas-controlled Gaza territory; no injuries, no damage. Elsewhere today, Israeli Border Guard forces neutralized a Palestinian Arab woman carrying a hidden 12-inch (30cm) kitchen knife as she tried to enter Hebron's Machpelah Cave, one of the Jewish world's four holiest sites. A day literally does not go by without terrorist attacks like these by Palestinian-Arab thugs. Making matters steadily and measurably worse, Gaza has ready access to a growing supply of lethal weaponry via a vast and proliferating network of tunnels dug literally under the noses of the Egyptians; the Christian Science Monitor describes the charade in a feature article ("Gaza tunnel smugglers stay busy") to appear in tomorrow's edition.

12-Jan-08: Open letter to the friends of our hostile neighbors

To the leaders of War on Want, Christian Aid, World Vision, UNRWA and the long list of other non-governmental organizations purporting to work for the benefit of the Palestinian Arabs:

As parents of a child murdered in the name of jihad, we try to focus our energies on educating people about the dangers of jihadism and other forms of terror, while trying to stay out of politics. But it's hard for us to ignore your endless and frequently shrill criticisms of Israel and Israelis as the source of all evil in the lives of Palestinian Arabs. They're galling to those, like us, who see the Middle East conflict as a multi-dimensional conflict involving complex issues of religion and national self-determination. We yearn for a better deal for them and for us Israelis; as we view things, the two are closely inter-connected.

For decades, you have marketed an image of the Arabs on the other side of our borders as living lives rendered miserable because of us. You raise money from well-meaning churchgoers and university students in Europe, Australia, the United States, Canada and elsewhere on the premise that the absence of proper health facilities, decent education and adequate housing and industry are matters that need outside funds.

We don't seek to persuade you to share our outlook on what's going on in and around our country and our neighbourhood. That's politics. We do however demand that you begin to take public account of some of the less-known aspects of this conflict. And particularly that you internalize and respond to the matter of massive financial corruption among the leadership of the people you cast as pathetic, powerless and poor.

Financial aid to the Palestinian Arabs is a serious industry. One study says that between 1994 and 2004, the US (alone) provided the Palestinians with $1.3 billion, the EU $1.1 billion, and Japan $530 million. Lots of palms are greased as this cash works it way through the channels. As recently as 2006, the US earmarked $234 million in aid to the Palestinian Arabs. The European Union and its member nations annually earmark about $615 million.

Barely a month ago, a meeting in Paris of some of the world's wealthiest nations raised $7,400 million in additional gift money for the people who rule Palestinian Arab society. Tony Blair co-hosted the conference in his role as envoy for the Middle East Quartet (the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia) and made clear that this phenomenal windfall was for spending here and now: as one report put it, for the "short-term priorities for the Palestinians".

We're writing this today because this morning, the courageous and well-connected Palestinian Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh published an article revealing that one of the most influential of the kleptocrat terrorists in the Fatah hierarchy says $2 billion disappeared from Fatah's coffers after the death of Arafat. Five of Fatah's leaders are alleged to be responsible; the very strong implication is that the five include Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the PA and the head of Fatah and its terrorist arms. (See "Fatah leader wants probe of missing $2b.)

Now we realize that these claims are probably, as Abu Toameh points out, connected to a general conference of Fatah due to take place in March. It's part of a political process that might result in Fatah elections. Or not, since their last elections took place 18 years ago.

To be clear: though we're aware of the stupendous sums of money missing over the years from the Arafat-controlled coffers of the Palestinian Arabs, and we know - as you do - of the unimaginably lavish lifestyle lived in Paris by his wife/widow, funded by Gaza's impoverished masses, we're not in any position to confirm or deny that $2 billion has gone missing. But then neither are you.

Unlike us, however, you keep taking money from well-intentioned, humanitarian donors and giving it to the people who are being accused. And you do so on the basis that the problems are created and perpetuated by Israel.

The reality, as most Israelis know, is the opposite. We know that if the Palestinian Arabs had more to protect in their lives (health, homes, jobs, a future for their children), their interest in making painful compromises for peace would be greatly enlarged. But their leaders ensure they don't. And UNRWA sucks billions of dollars of governmental foreign aid in the quest to perpetuate Palestinian Arab misery, and not (as many erroneously believe) to solve it.

The issue is not an academic one; it's literally a matter of life and death. A new study which we mentioned here last month (see "Giving foreign aid to terror-dependent regimes is an unbearably expensive deal") and which none of you has seen fit to draw to the attention of your constituencies, demonstrates some deeply disturbing trends. By analyzing data on Palestinian homicides and foreign aid to Gaza and the West Bank, Stephen Stotsky shows that (1) as aid increased to the Palestinian regime, so too did the numbers of people, both Israeli and Palestinian Arabs, killed by Palestinian Arab terrorists and (2) there is an inverse correlation between an increase in foreign aid and Palestinian economic growth. In other words, the more foreign aid given to the Palestinian Arabs, the less their economy grows. Astonishing and appalling - and yet hidden from public scrutiny and ignored by you.

(By the way, if any of you has studied the full 2005 report of the EU's money watchdog, OLAF, dealing with Palestinian Arab misapplication of European aid funds, would you mind sharing it with us? The brief official summary of the report spoke rather cryptically of "consistent indications to support the hypothesis that... some of the assets of the PA may have been used by some individuals for other than the intended purposes." The full text of the report, as far as we know, has never been released. The report is frequently quoted as evidence that EU funds were not applied to Palestinian Arab terror, but we believe the exact opposite is the case; the fact that the report has never been released is disturbing, to say the least.)

We ask you to express concern - to be just a little worried - about this latest claim of another missing couple of billion dollars. Before you go back to your donors, tell them and us what steps you are taking to verify that past, present and future funding has been spent as you claimed it was spent. Tell them and us why it doesn't seem to matter that Fatah, an organization that openly engages directly and indirectly in terror right up until today and that has an unelected leadership, even has two billion dollars to lose.

Where do you imagine that money came from? And if you don't care to know, tell us and your supporters that too.

Sincerely,
Frimet and Arnold Roth - Jerusalem

11-Jan-08: The latest from the south

A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian Arab terrorists from the northern Gaza Strip landed in Israel's western Negev area this morning (Friday). It landed in open territory, causing no casualties or damage. This, of course, was not the intention of the murderers who have very little interest in where their rockets land or in who gets injured. Their object is to damage Israel and its Jewish population by all and any means. This may not sound like a politically correct statement but it is absolutely and uncontroversially true. And one day, the hopelessly inaccurate but very lethal devices will cause a disaster - it's only a matter of time.

11-Jan-08: Behind the polite public facade

Military and terrorist attacks against Israel have long been part - and only part - of the hostile environment in which we live. The international diplomatic sphere where the combatants prefer suits and ties over helmets and uniforms is frequently as poisonous and as hostile.

To illustrate: two Katyusha rockets were fired into northern Israel on Tuesday. The IDF, which has a pretty reliable track-record of figuring out where the shots are coming from, says they came from Lebanon. As we noted on Tuesday: "18 months ago, Katyushas were fired by the Lebanese-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists nearly 4,000 times into northern Israeli towns and cities, killing 43 civilians and causing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to evacuate the region for several weeks."

So when Israel says these latest Katyushas came from Lebanon - probably fired by Israel's extremely well-equipped Hizbollah enemies, whose forces are dug in throughout southern Lebanon - this would be regarded by most people as self-evident and non-controversial.

But not necessarily if you're the diplomatic agent of an active player in the terrorism industry. Like for instance the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, one Giadalla Ettalhi.

This person became the president (the presidency rotates monthly among members based on alphabetical order in English) of the UN's Security Council ten days ago when Libya acquired a seat on the 15-member council; it will remain a member for two years. In the sessions over which Libya's man presided, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Cohen led efforts for the past 48 hours to extract a condemnation of the rocket attack. He called it "a grave violation of UN resolution 1701 and a threat to world peace and security." That's the resolution that ended the 2006 war on our northern border.

But according to the New York Sun, Ettalhi, making the most of his new powers, resisted the adoption of a Security Council statement condemning the attack on Israel.

In the end, "after two days of hand-wringing" (see "Libyan Envoy Sparks Criticism at Security Council") the resolution passed earlier today. In it, the Council "strongly condemned the rocket attack launched against Israel on 8 January from Lebanon." In YNet's reporting of the story, Libya's efforts to curb the statement, claiming that the Security Council should instead denounce Israel's sorties over Lebanon, were rejected, and Ettalhi was forced to read out the statement himself.

Libya's recent return to international gatherings comes despite its involvement in the terrorist bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two of its intelligence agents were convicted of engineering the murders and Libya was ordered to pay $2 million per victim as compensation. Far from the media's attention, the Lockerbie victim families say they have yet to receive what Libya is supposed to pay. The chairman of a group called Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 says Libya "should not be fully recognized as coming into civilized nations" until it pays up. Thje victims and their families unfortunately have no seat or voice at the Security Council.

10-Jan-08: The growing daily toll

Yet another Palestinian-Arab Qassam was fired into Israel by Gaza Strip-based terrorists today, the second day of the Bush visit. This one struck the grounds of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, almost landing on top of its cafeteria building. Light damage was caused to several of the kibbutz's buildings, including the cafeteria and the medical clinic. Fortunately there were no injuries this time - not the intention of the terrorist thugs.

Yesterday, very far from the headlines and the action around the Bush entourage, southern Israel absorbed a barrage of at least 10 Qassams and 12 mortar shells. Two Qassams scored direct hits on residences in Sderot, damaging the buildings. A woman and her two-year-old son were in one of the houses at the time of the attack; they managed to take shelter in the building's mandatory protected room. The Pal-Arab Qassam penetrated the ceiling and landed on the boy's bed causing extensive damage.

You'll only get so far looking for coverage of these, and earlier, terrorist attacks on Israel in parts of the mainstream media. The BBC, for instance, has virtually ceased reporting on Palestinian rocket attacks while continuing to focus close, frequent attention and detailed coverage on Israeli military operations against the terrorist forces in Gaza. Honest Reporting points out that "in 2007, there were almost 1,500 rocket and mortar attacks targeting Israeli civilian populations, resulting in on average, one strike every ten hours. The BBC chose to publish only six articles focused on the attacks during the entire year. During the same period, fifty-six articles concerning Israeli military operations against Gaza were published."

It's called agenda-driven reporting. And any connection with the fine art of objective journalism is entirely accidental.

9-Jan-08: Major media event cont.

And this afternoon (so far), five more Qassam strikes to add to this morning's nine.

One struck a private residence in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Another landed right in the center of Sderot. YNet says four people were injured including a 17-year-old girl who suffered shrapnel wounds to her arm and a boy who was hurt while attempting to take cover. A 60-year-old man arrived at hospital after reporting chest pains in the wake of the attack.

Police are on every corner this afternoon and evening in the close-to-center parts of Jerusalem from where we write about This Ongoing War. The atmosphere, as a result, is somewhat tense here, compounded by the backed-up traffic, the off-limits streets, the cordoned sidewalks and footpaths (see picture) and disruptions of various other kinds to ordinary Jerusalemite lives.

The practical justification for this major anti-terrorism effort is self-evident, unfortunately. But some aspects are not, as our friend Marc Luria points out in his op-ed in yesterday's Jerusalem Post, "Tell Olmert and Barak to finish the fence..." Marc addresses George W. Bush in an open letter and makes some points we haven't seen anywhere else:

...Although it has been incredibly effective, [the security barrier erected by the government of Israel in the past several years] is only about 60 percent complete. The Defense Ministry stopped building it a few months ago because it had used up the 2007 fence budget, which had been cut in half; and the budget for 2008 is less than 2007. Optimistic reports put the finish date in 2010, but the finish date has been two years away for the last six years. I believe that unless you push Olmert to finish the fence earlier, your plans for a peace settlement in 2008 are unlikely to succeed. The lack of a fence will mean that additional Israeli withdrawals will result in more terror in Israel, which will derail the peace process. It happened over and over again in 2001 and 2002. The lack of a fence will make it more likely to happen in 2008 and 2009... We don't really need any help in building the fence. The government can allocate the money - probably less than another $600 million. The Defense Ministry has the know-how, and the route is basically planned... Fortunately, aside from one enclave, most of the remaining route is within a few meters of the Green Line, so the legal obstacles should be few. All I am asking of you is to tell Olmert and Barak to finish the damn fence already. There's no need to go public with this - just tell Olmert you want to go back to your ranch and you don't want to hear about suicide bombers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Oh, and one more thing. Israel has sent over 7,000 policemen to Jerusalem to guard you during your visit. That's great, and I'm sure you will be safe. But at the same time, the government also announced that it would stop funding the guards on buses. After all, there haven't been any bus bombings in a couple years - perhaps because of these guards. Please tell Olmert you don't want to hear about bus bombings, either. At least until the fence is completed, he should keep the guards on the buses.

Marc's argument makes a lot of sense to us. The security barrier gets an enormous amount of negative media coverage, which perhaps is why so few column inches have been devoted to how astonishingly effective it has been. Not as a tool for creating better and warmer neighbourly relations - that's unfortunately going to have to wait until better times in the future. But effective as a preventive measure against terrorist intrusions into the lives of ordinary Israelis and into civil society in this country. The security barrier, plus Israel's military vigilance and the proactive stance of its security forces have led to a dramatic reduction in loss of Israeli lives.

This amounts to compelling logic. But only if saving innocent lives is a consideration that speaks to you.

9-Jan-08: Preparing for a major media event

By no coincidence at all, the increased heat on our northern front is matched this morning with lethal weapon attacks on our southern front. Bush is coming to town, and the media are here. 9 Qassams and at least 2 mortars have crashed into Israel's western Negev so far this morning (Wednesday) hours before President Bush's arrival at Ben Gurion airport.

Three landed around in the grounds of Kibbutz Zikim. Another two hit outside the beleagured Israeli city of Sderot. (Today's NY Times has some of the background to life in that sad place: At Gaza's Edge

And according to YNet, a short while later another Qassam fired from northern Gaza landed near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council, two mortars landed near the security fence separating Israel from the Strip, and three more Qassams hit Sderot about half an hour ago (around 10:00am). Fortunately no injuries or property damage are reported so far.

In our part of the world, where jihadists treat the lives of their families, neighbors and enemies with approximately equal contempt, this is what is sometimes meant by show business. They're showing just how hatred trumps every other consideration. The expectations here are that so long as the Bush caravan - with its myriad officials and reporters - is in town, the danger will remain especially elevated. And if the terrorists manage to provoke some nice photo-op defensive measures by Israeli forces, then so much the better for them.

9-Jan-08: Northern exposure

Two Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel from southern Lebanon early yesterday (Tuesday) morning, in an apparent reminder to whoever is paying attention that the Bush presidential visit, starting later today, is not the only Middle East show currently in town. Terror is a constant in this neighborhood and has very little to do with occupation, colonialization, nationalistic aspirations or much else other than hatred and jihad.

The Israel Defense Forces have an early warning system to prepare residents in northern Israel in the event of incoming terror attacks like this one. But it appears the heavy skies and winter weather prevented it from operating yesterday. Residents of the northern community of Shlomi were lucky that this time the rockets crashed more or less harmlessly. No injuries, and light damage: shrapnel from one of the 107mm rockets struck a wall of a house, causing minor damage and a street was damaged. This was not the intention of the murder-minded Iranian-backed terrorists who fired them. Shlomi is located just a few miles south of Israel's border with Lebanon, and has a long history of suffering terrorism from across the fence.

The Washington Post quotes a senior Lebanese army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, helpfully denying the rockets were fired from Lebanon. Such reports, said the Lebanese, are "baseless and completely fabricated". A roadside bomb explosion in southern Lebanon yesterday, presumably also baseless and also fabricated completely, injured two soldiers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

We have pointed out before that Katyushas are fired from mobile launchers and lack a guidance system. Perfectly capable of the most irresponsible form of lethal harm to anyone in the neighborhood, and conducive to a fast getaway before the authorities come looking: an essential part of the terrorists' arsenal. 18 months ago, Katyushas were fired by the Lebanese-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists nearly 4,000 times into northern Israeli towns and cities, killing 43 civilians and causing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to evacuate the region for several weeks.

Baseless and fabricated indeed.

7-Jan-08: The unbearable lightness of thuggish hatred

You raise people in a religiously-inspired environment of poisonous wall-to-wall hatred and this is what you get:

Palestinian caught with knife says wanted to 'murder Jews'
Jericho resident detained near Rishon Lezion, tells detectives ' I couldn't find work in Israel and I do not have a stay permit, so I decided to murder Jews'
A 29-year-old Jericho resident suspected of planning a stabbing attack was apprehended by Rishon Lezion police Sunday evening near the Beit Dagan Junction in central Israel. The Palestinian said he had entered Israel in order to "murder Jews" because he could not find work. He was later transferred to Shin Bet custody. During a search of the man's body security personnel found a large kitchen knife, which was apparently meant to be used in the planned attack. The police station in Rishon Lezion received word of a man wandering near the Beit Dagan Junction at the entrance to the city, where numerous bus stops are located. Patrol cars were dispatched to the scene and the Palestinian was apprehended. "I couldn't find work in Israel and I do not have a stay permit, so I decided to murder Jews," the Palestinian told the police officers as he was being handcuffed.

Again: I couldn't find work in Israel so I decided to murder Jews. Rishon Lezion is a suburb of Tel-Aviv.

5-Jan-08: Raining rockets

After Friday's seven Qassam firings into Israel, seven more Qassams struck the southern Israeli city of Sderot during the Sabbath - an eighth landed near Sderot around 7:45pm. Emanating from the jihadist-controlled Gaza Strip, one of today's rockets struck a Sderot road, damaging a car. Several civilians were hospitalized during the day and treated for shock including a young girl and an elderly woman.

One of Friday's rockets struck the yard of a private residence in Sderot, causing property damage and causing shock to a woman living in the home. In addition, Israel Radio reports that a 14-year-old boy was injured and treated at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. Jihadist terrorists also fired eight mortar shells into Netiv Ha'asara on Friday afternoon. No injuries or damage were reported.

4-Jan-08: Never a let-up... the terror keeps coming

It's in the nature of terrorism that it just keeps coming unless and until it gets stopped. Gazan terrorists keep firing Qassam rockets into Israel: two more this morning. Fortunately they landed away from homes or factories this time. No injuries, no damage, but Gaza's terrorists intended a different outcome. (And fired 25 of them yesterday.)

In Nablus where the PA's 'forces' have been allegedly imposing law and order, the IDF located and destroyed a rocket-manufacturing workshop. This morning's reports say the search was aided by pinpoint intelligence and that by the time they were found, the rockets were in advanced stages of assembly.

Finding and neutralizing the terrorists' arsenal required the deployment of ground forces and the use of some impolite language. (And maybe more.) Predictably, the reports emanating from the Palestinian side focus on claims that 25 people were injured in the IDF operation. Like this: "Nablus Mayor Jamal Muhaissen said the Israeli operation was meant to "strike the security plan" which the Palestinian forces implement to crack down on trouble makers. "This operation is unjustifiable," Muhaissen told reporters." And like this: "The Palestinians expressed their discontent with the IDF's operation in Nablus, particularly since Palestinian police were already deployed in the city."

We're still looking for a news channel that has reporters alert enough to ask: "So how come, if the PA are deployed throughout the city, only the Israelis manage to locate the hidden lethal weaponry?"