Stand for Israel

Col. Richard Kemp defends Israel

Richard Kemp, a British army colonel who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, looks at the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces during Operation Cast Lead and concludes: "The IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare." Watch his entire testimony before the U.N.

U.N. discredits itself and undercuts human rights

Alan Dershowitz attacks the recent U.N. report that accuses Israel of "war crimes" during Operation Cast Lead:

Richard Goldstone—the primary author of a one-sided United Nation’s attack on Israeli actions during the Gaza war—has now become a full fledged member of the international bash-Israel chorus. His name will forever be linked in infamy with such distorters of history and truth as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Jimmy Carter. The so-called report commissioned by the notorious United Nations Human Rights Council and issued under his name is so filled with lies, distortions and blood libels that it could have been drafted by Hamas extremists. Wait, in effect, it actually was!

Read on. The New York Daily News also has a good editorial on the debacle.

Iron Dome to the rescue

For over eight years Israel has been attacked by terrorist rockets. Israel has fought two wars -- in 2006 against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in 2008-2009 against Hamas in Gaza -- in an attempt to protect her people from this threat, and others.  Now, Israel has a new line of defense that could greatly lessen the threat posed by rocket attacks -- The Iron Dome:

The Iron Dome, under development by Rafael Defense Systems, is slated to become operational sometime in 2010 and to be capable of intercepting short-range Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon.

The Iron Dome uses an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor.

Reporting the truth

Breaking the Silence, supposedly a "human rights" organization, suffers from a lack of credibility. They publish anonymous "testimonies" about alleged abuses of the IDF during Operation Cast Lead, and are using these rumors to promote their anti-Israel agenda. The IDF is not pleased:

The IDF Spokesperson Unit regrets the fact that yet another human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world a report based on anonymous and general testimonies, without investigating their details or credibility.  Furthermore, this organization denied the IDF the minimal decency of presenting the report to the IDF and allowing it to investigate the testimonies prior to the report's publication. This was done while defaming and slandering the IDF and its commanders.

 

"The IDF did more to safeguard civilians than any other army"

Echoing this message written by Rabbi Eckstein following the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, a British Army Colonel testifies to the lengths Israel will go to to avoid civilian deaths in battle. Watch the video at Solomonia.

No Justice in Palestine?

Yesterday was Israel's 61st birthday, a day of joy and pride for the country that has been fighting for its existence since its inception.  I once had the privilege of meeting an Israeli soldier who spent her days meticulously watching the video screens that monitor the fence that is used to protect Israel's borders.  She had everything memorized; every rock, tree, and open space was cemented into her mind.  She rarely went on break, and spent hours in a little room staring at the screens. Any change of scenery was cause for alarm. It was an honor to know someone so dedicated to protecting her people. 

I wish the Palestinians were as dedicated to the welfare of their own people. Gruesome stories of "freedom fighter" terrorists using children as human shields were barely touched upon by the Western media during Operation Cast Lead in January.  One video taken by the IDF showed a school and children's zoo booby-trapped with explosives. 

So, it is no surprise to hear about the Palestinian man being sentenced to death for selling land to Israelis. 

The three-judge panel found the defendant guilty of violating PA laws that bar Palestinians from selling property to "the enemy." In its ruling, the court, which convened in Hebron, said that Brigith had acted in violation of a Palestinian "military law" dating back to 1979, which states that it is forbidden for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews.

The accused was also found guilty of violating a law dating back to 1958 that calls for a boycott against Israel, as well as another law from 1953 that bans trade with Israelis.

 This is not a new predicament:

In 1996, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mufti, Ikremah Sabri, issued a fatwa (religious decree), banning the sale of Arab and Muslim property to Jews. Anyone who violated the order was to be killed. At least seven land dealers were killed that year. Six years later, the head of the PA’s General Intelligence Service in the West Bank, General Tawfik Tirawi, admitted his men were responsible for the murders (Jerusalem Post, August 19, 2002).

On May 5, 1997, Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein announced that the death penalty would be imposed on anyone convicted of ceding “one inch” to Israel. Later that month, two Arab land dealers were killed. PA officials denied any involvement in the killings. A year later, another Palestinian suspected of selling land to Jews was murdered. The PA has also arrested suspected land dealers for violating the Jordanian law (in force in the West Bank), which prohibits the sale of land to foreigners (State Department. Human Rights Report for the Occupied Territories, 1997, 1998).

How can the world look at Israel as the road block to peace when Palestinians have a law that refers to Israel as "the enemy"? And the anti-Semitic 1979 Palestinian law forbidding Jews from buying land from Palestinians is abhorrent. There are Muslim Israelis living peacefully along side Jews in Israel, but a Jew cannot even own land in Palestinan controlled areas? 

Oh, and a note to Western leaders who are placing peace in the hands of "moderate" Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas: He is the one who gets to approve the death sentence. 

Of hospitals and human shields

We all know that Hamas is notorious for using its own people as human shields (including women and children). In Operation Cast Lead, the world was quick to blame Israel for the "collateral damage", charging Israelis with targeting schools and U.N. aid vehicles.

Being the amazing country that is it, Israel launched a investigation on itself (how many nations in the Middle East do that?) to hold any parties accountable for wrongdoing. 

They found that:

"The investigations showed that throughout the fighting in Gaza, the IDF operated in accordance with international law. The IDF maintained a high professional and moral level while facing an enemy that aimed to terrorize Israeli civilians whilst taking cover amidst uninvolved civilians in the Gaza strip and using them as human shields. Notwithstanding this, the investigations revealed a very small number of incidents in which intelligence or operational errors took place during the fighting. These unfortunate incidents were unavoidable and occur in all combat situations, in particular of the type which Hamas forced on the IDF, by choosing to fight from within the civilian population."

If Hamas investigated itself, what might it find?

1. The use of  human shields and militants shooting mortor bombs from a U.N. school
2. Hamas Prime Minister operating a control center against the IDF from within a hospital and using ambulances to transport weapons and operartives
3. Hamas using smuggling tunnels to get weapons into Gaza

Puzzled in Gaza

An intriguing report that contradicts much of what the mainstream media would have us believe about Israel's actions in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead:

From the mansions of the Abu Ayida family at Jebala Rayes to Tallel Howa (Gaza City's densest residential area), Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.

Seeing Al-Fakhora made it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that the UNWRA school had been hit by Israeli shells. The school, like most of Gaza, was visibly intact. I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby, and the Israeli missile's marks on the road outside the school were unmistakeable.

IAF strikes rocket launchers

Israel is taking seriously the post-ceasefire attack on its troops:

AF planes struck a Kassam rocket launcher in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, hours after two incidents of gunfire and mortar shell fire were reported against IDF troops in the area.

The strike was the first of the kind since Israel unilaterally implement a cease-fire at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday.

First ceasefire violations

Israel and Hamas declared a ceasefire on Sunday. But the violations have already begun:

Gaza gunmen fired at IDF patrols on Tuesday afternoon in two separate incidents that mark the first violations of the cease-fire declared Sunday by Hamas.

No one was wounded and no damage was reported in the two incidents, which took place near the Kissufim border crossing, in central Gaza, and in southern Gaza.