In the midst of all the political problems we face, life has to go on for the disabled in Israel. I wrote three weeks ago about a village, Aleh Hanegev, that cares for the disabled of all ages 24/7. See blog http://haifadiarist.blogspot.com/2010/05/drumming-on-heart-strings.html
I received a comment from one reader complaining that “Aleh encourages parents to institutionalize their severely disabled children thereby denying them the warmth and love of family living that is every child's entitlement. It siphons off precious government and charitable funding that could be channeled instead toward assisting these children while they live with their parents and siblings.
While the rest of the enlightened world has been progressing away from institutionalization (actually shutting them down) because of its proven detriment to children condemned to live there, Israel has actually been promoting and expanding this obsolete option.
Parents of disabled children, like myself, must fight an uphill battle to win even paltry government assistance because of Aleh's detrimental influence.”
This made me think, was there any justification for this point of view? Then I received the following letter from the parent of one of the disabled living at Aleh Hanegev
"I would like to share with you my personal experience with Aleh Negev, a rehabilitative village for severely disabled young adults in Israel’s southern region.
I raised my son, who suffers from a degenerative form of epilepsy, in the US until the age of 16.5, battling to find stimulating day programs and appropriate therapies. In doing so I gave up a career and moved to 3 different countries, until I found Aleh Negev in Israel.
I never thought the day would come that I would have to make the tough decision to place my son in a home. I truly and maybe naively believed that I would be able to care for all his needs as long as I live.
But fate had a different plan for me. My son was deteriorating, and he lost the ability to speak, walk or care for himself.
He needed to be fed, changed and cared for 24 hours a day, while undergoing debilitating seizures at any time.
I found myself dependent on unreliable caregivers whom I could not trust with my son, and I realized that this solution, although very convenient for me at times, was not the best care possible for my son.
I came to Aleh Negev as a tourist, and I saw a place where dedicated, hardworking people take care of the most severely handicapped children in a loving and supporting professional environment. These people are indeed blessed to be a part of this wonderful project.
My dilemma was extremely difficult, but I decided to bring my son to Aleh Negev and move to Israel with my family to be near him.
Aleh Negev provides these unfortunate children with state of the art, outstanding care that I have not seen anywhere else.
As a responsible parent, I think I made the best choice for my son, and for the rest of our family.
Aleh Negev gives me the peace of mind of knowing that my son is receiving the best care possible: that he is in a stimulating and caring environment, in a place where all his needs are taken care of, in a comfortable setting and a loving surrounding. "
There is no specific solution to this parental conflict, each case must be treated as an individual case.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Turkish Government Collude with IHH
Once again "Pallywood" productions have produced a blockbuster. however as with bhollywood and Bollywood, it is all based on fiction, not fact.
As the truth begins to be accumulated, we see a very different picture from the original story line that was put out by the "Free Gaza activists" (surely terrorists?)
A full analysis of the facts that have now come to light show that:-
1. An initial analysis of statements taken from passengers aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara after it was towed to the port of Ashdod show that operatives belonging to the radical Islamic Turkish IHH led the violent confrontation with the IDF.
2. The statements confirmed that the violence met by the IDF soldiers was not spontaneous but rather an organized, premeditated action carried out by a hard core of 40 IHH operatives (among the 500 passengers). The operatives, who acted according to a clearly-defined internal hierarchy, boarded the ship in the port of Istanbul without undergoing a security inspection (as opposed to the other passengers, who boarded in Antalya after a full inspection).
3. The IHH operatives’ preparations included handing out walkie-talkies as they boarded the ship, taking over the upper deck, setting up a situation room for communications, and a briefing given to the operatives two hours before the confrontation by IHH head Bülent Yildirim, who was on board the ship and commanded his men. IHH operatives wore ceramic vests and gas masks, and were armed with large quantities of cold weapons which they had prepared from equipment found on board (knives, axes, metal cables, metal pipes used as clubs, wrenches, etc.). They were also equipped with box cutters which had been prepared on the upper deck in advance.
4. The passengers, including the IHH operatives, stated that there were close relations between the organization and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and that the Turkish government was involved in preparations for the flotilla. The statements reinforce the original assassment that the objective of the flotilla was not merely to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but focused on provocation and a violent confrontation with Israel.
For a full analysis read :-
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e110.htm
As the truth begins to be accumulated, we see a very different picture from the original story line that was put out by the "Free Gaza activists" (surely terrorists?)
A full analysis of the facts that have now come to light show that:-
1. An initial analysis of statements taken from passengers aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara after it was towed to the port of Ashdod show that operatives belonging to the radical Islamic Turkish IHH led the violent confrontation with the IDF.
2. The statements confirmed that the violence met by the IDF soldiers was not spontaneous but rather an organized, premeditated action carried out by a hard core of 40 IHH operatives (among the 500 passengers). The operatives, who acted according to a clearly-defined internal hierarchy, boarded the ship in the port of Istanbul without undergoing a security inspection (as opposed to the other passengers, who boarded in Antalya after a full inspection).
3. The IHH operatives’ preparations included handing out walkie-talkies as they boarded the ship, taking over the upper deck, setting up a situation room for communications, and a briefing given to the operatives two hours before the confrontation by IHH head Bülent Yildirim, who was on board the ship and commanded his men. IHH operatives wore ceramic vests and gas masks, and were armed with large quantities of cold weapons which they had prepared from equipment found on board (knives, axes, metal cables, metal pipes used as clubs, wrenches, etc.). They were also equipped with box cutters which had been prepared on the upper deck in advance.
4. The passengers, including the IHH operatives, stated that there were close relations between the organization and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and that the Turkish government was involved in preparations for the flotilla. The statements reinforce the original assassment that the objective of the flotilla was not merely to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but focused on provocation and a violent confrontation with Israel.
For a full analysis read :-
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e110.htm
Friday, June 4, 2010
Problem in Gaza is more a Shortage of Work than a Shortage of Food
Reporter Steffen Jensen from Denmark and has just placed his report June 1st, after a visit to Gaza. We don't get too many independant reports of what is going on in the Gaza strip and many interviews are often monitored by Hamas. Nevertheless this makes interesting reading
Judging from the media, the situation in Gaza is desperate, everything is about to collapse, and the community is on the brink or at the level of a third world country.
Israel’s closure of the border to the Gaza Strip has continued for three years, ever since the Palestinian coalition government collapsed, and Hamas, during the subsequent civil war, sent Fatah packing. The Palestinian society's immediate downfall has been prophesied numerous times in the media. People have nothing to eat, we sometimes know. The UN must from time to time to stop food distribution, either because their stocks are running low, or because they cannot get diesel for their trucks, and therefore cannot carry food in. And so on.
Yesterday I drove into the Gaza Strip. I don't do this as often as before, when it involved a quick entry by car in the morning and a quick exit by late afternoon. Now it is such a slow procedure, that when I finally get down here, I end up staying for almost a week. The Israelis often also close the Gaza Strip to all foreign journalists, so that no one can get in or out (once in) for several days or weeks. That’s why there can be a long period between my visits.
This time, I had expected to see real suffering, because with all the fuss in recent days about bringing tons of humanitarian relief in - so much that people actually sacrificed their lives for it - there certainly had to really be a deep, desperate situation in the Gaza Strip. No food. Long lines in front of UN food stocks. Hungry children with food bowls.
But this was not the picture that greeted me.
When I drove through Gaza city yesterday morning, I was immediately surprised that there are almost as many traffic jams as there always have been. Isn’t there a shortage of fuel? Apparently not. No one is saving it. Gasoline is not even rationed.
Many shops were closed yesterday; Hamas has declared a general strike in protest against Israel's brutal and deadly attack on the Turkish flotilla with pro-Palestinian activists on board. It was thus difficult to estimate how many products were on the shelves. Therefore I went over to the Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp. Here is one of Gaza's many vegetable markets that sell much more than just fruits and vegetables.
I will not say whether in better times there was a larger product range than yesterday, but there was certainly no shortage of vegetables, fruits or any other ordinary, basic foods. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes - mountains of these items in the many stalls.
I must admit I was a little surprised. Because when I call down here to my Palestinian friends, they tell me about all the problems and deficiencies, so I expected that the crisis would be little more obvious.
And the first woman we interviewed in the market confirms this strange, contradictory, negative mindset:
"We have nothing," she said. We need everything! Food, drinks ... everything! "
It didn’t disturb her in the least that she stood between the mountains of vegetables, fruit, eggs, poultry and fish, while she spun this doomsday scenario.
Another woman, Ifka Abu Nahal, who originally comes from a rural district, is more in contact with reality. She says that the crucial problem is the overconsumption of water, which is leading to the sinking of the groundwater table. This means that the saltwater of the Mediterranean is forced in, thus polluting the groundwater, which is already too saline. This makes it unpleasant to drink, and will eventually destroy the agricultural soil.
When I drove through Gaza city yesterday morning, I was immediately surprised that there are almost as many traffic jams as there always have been. Isn’t there a shortage of fuel? Apparently not. No one is saving it. Gasoline is not even rationed.
Many shops were closed yesterday; Hamas has declared a general strike in protest against Israel's brutal and deadly attack on the Turkish flotilla with pro-Palestinian activists on board. It was thus difficult to estimate how many products were on the shelves. Therefore I went over to the Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp. Here is one of Gaza's many vegetable markets that sell much more than just fruits and vegetables.
I will not say whether in better times there was a larger product range than yesterday, but there was certainly no shortage of vegetables, fruits or any other ordinary, basic foods. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes - mountains of these items in the many stalls.
I must admit I was a little surprised. Because when I call down here to my Palestinian friends, they tell me about all the problems and deficiencies, so I expected that the crisis would be little more obvious.
And the first woman we interviewed in the market confirms this strange, contradictory, negative mindset:
"We have nothing," she said. We need everything! Food, drinks ... everything! "
It didn’t disturb her in the least that she stood between the mountains of vegetables, fruit, eggs, poultry and fish, while she spun this doomsday scenario.
Another woman, Ifka Abu Nahal, who originally comes from a rural district, is more in contact with reality. She says that the crucial problem is the overconsumption of water, which is leading to the sinking of the groundwater table. This means that the saltwater of the Mediterranean is forced in, thus polluting the groundwater, which is already too saline. This makes it unpleasant to drink, and will eventually destroy the agricultural soil.
She also says that the poor economy is the greatest problem.
“There is a great deal of unemployment. There’s no work to be got in the Gaza Strip. This means that many people do not have on income, but are instead forced to live on handouts from their relatives. So they can’t afford to buy the goods that are actually available. They can stand there and look at the meat, but are not able to buy it, “she explains.
One thing that will really surprise many people is that only the vegetables here are grown in the Gaza Strip. With the exception of watermelons, all the fruit comes from nowhere else but from . . . Israel! Yousuf al-Assad Yazgy owns a fruit and vegetable outlet here in the market. All his fruit is imported from Israel.
"Not all fruit and all vegetables come from Israel. Ours do. They come from Israel. But in the Gaza Strip there is not very much fruit cultivated - mostly tomatoes, potatoes and vegetables. So here with me are the vegetables and watermelons from Gaza. All the fruit comes across the border from Israel," he explains, but also says that there can be long periods when the border is closed, during which, therefore, fruit does not come in.
"Not all fruit and all vegetables come from Israel. Ours do. They come from Israel. But in the Gaza Strip there is not very much fruit cultivated - mostly tomatoes, potatoes and vegetables. So here with me are the vegetables and watermelons from Gaza. All the fruit comes across the border from Israel," he explains, but also says that there can be long periods when the border is closed, during which, therefore, fruit does not come in.
Another supply route is the smuggling tunnels down in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under the border to Egypt. A very large part of the goods in the retail establishments here in Gaza come from Egypt and are smuggled in.
On the way out of the Shati camp we stop at a small grocery store. Not any fancy, expensive business. Just a small, humble local store. The proprietor Sun Mohammed Abu Nada says they would not be able to do business if it were not for contraband goods from Egypt.
He takes us on a brief tour of the shelves and shows everything that comes from Egypt. It turns out to be much more than half of the goods: 75-80 per cent, I would estimate. Several other products - including long-life UHT milk - come from Israel, but are also smuggled through tunnels from Egypt.
This detour via the Sinai desert and the smugglers’ tunnels naturally does not make the goods any cheaper, a fact which does not escape the notice of Muhammed Abu Nada.
The products are more expensive, he says. Many people cannot afford to buy them, or only to buy certain things sometimes. But all the while even such a small, poor-looking grocery store on the outskirts of a refugee camp still has so many relatively expensive smuggled goods on the shelves, it shows, nevertheless, that at least many of the customers must be able to afford to buy them. Otherwise, the merchant of course could not even afford to invest in unsold inventory.
On the way out of the Shati camp we stop at a small grocery store. Not any fancy, expensive business. Just a small, humble local store. The proprietor Sun Mohammed Abu Nada says they would not be able to do business if it were not for contraband goods from Egypt.
He takes us on a brief tour of the shelves and shows everything that comes from Egypt. It turns out to be much more than half of the goods: 75-80 per cent, I would estimate. Several other products - including long-life UHT milk - come from Israel, but are also smuggled through tunnels from Egypt.
This detour via the Sinai desert and the smugglers’ tunnels naturally does not make the goods any cheaper, a fact which does not escape the notice of Muhammed Abu Nada.
The products are more expensive, he says. Many people cannot afford to buy them, or only to buy certain things sometimes. But all the while even such a small, poor-looking grocery store on the outskirts of a refugee camp still has so many relatively expensive smuggled goods on the shelves, it shows, nevertheless, that at least many of the customers must be able to afford to buy them. Otherwise, the merchant of course could not even afford to invest in unsold inventory.
I have not written this story to maintain that there are no problems in the Gaza Strip, because that would be untrue. There are problems. Many problems indeed. But it is not lack of food that primarily concerns people down here. The biggest problem is the lack of jobs and a sustainable domestic economy.
There is a shortage of construction materials, cement, and everything in the construction and public works area. However, this shortage has given rise to a whole new industry. Poor Palestinians dig through the many lots and ruins of houses and factory buildings destroyed in the war. Here they find all sorts of things that can be reused. Even many of the stones and much of the concrete can be used.
But there is a shortage of real work and actual Palestinian development, which their brothers on the West Bank are currently experiencing with help from the West, and which could do much to improve the situation in the Gaza Strip. And this economic development must come from within. There will never again be a situation where almost 150,000 workers from the Gaza Strip can travel into Israel every day, and bring money back to help the local economy (something that Israel was actually once criticized for). That was stopped by the wave of terrorism and suicide bombers in the 1990s and the beginning of the decade after 2000.
But in order to start this kind of economic development with the help of the West, Israeli cooperation is needed. And that means that the Hamas government must soften its total and inflexible rejection of negotiations with Israel, not to mention recognition of that country’s right to exist. There is a perception, even though there is still a very long way to go, that among certain circles in Hamas, there are tendencies to show greater flexibility.
In order to cultivate this tendency among the Islamists, it is probably also necessary for us in the West to soften our total rejection of the idea of having contacts with Hamas. Even though our own Danish diplomats in the region, like other EU diplomats, do not want to have contacts with Hamas, a dialog is necessary.
If no calming of the situation whatsoever starts, there is a risk that the even more militant and fanatic jihadist groups, which already are growing in the Gaza Strip, will begin to pressure Hamas from the side, and force that organization to eliminate any possibilities for political compromises, and instead protect its Islamist credentials.
Update 8:00 p.m. (Gaza time)
The Israeli army announced here this evening, that it has loaded the emergency assistance to Gaza from the six Turkish activist ships onto 20 trucks, in order to drive it into the Gaza Strip. The cargo consists, among other things, of “various types of medicine (past their expiration date), clothing, carpets, hospital equipment and toys.”
Apparently, the Israelis have not been willing to accept that building and construction materials, including cement which was also on board, be sent along.
However, the Israelis can save themselves the trouble. Hamas has announced that they will not accept any emergency assistance from the ships, and have blocked Israel’s attempt to deliver the emergency help.
There is a shortage of construction materials, cement, and everything in the construction and public works area. However, this shortage has given rise to a whole new industry. Poor Palestinians dig through the many lots and ruins of houses and factory buildings destroyed in the war. Here they find all sorts of things that can be reused. Even many of the stones and much of the concrete can be used.
But there is a shortage of real work and actual Palestinian development, which their brothers on the West Bank are currently experiencing with help from the West, and which could do much to improve the situation in the Gaza Strip. And this economic development must come from within. There will never again be a situation where almost 150,000 workers from the Gaza Strip can travel into Israel every day, and bring money back to help the local economy (something that Israel was actually once criticized for). That was stopped by the wave of terrorism and suicide bombers in the 1990s and the beginning of the decade after 2000.
But in order to start this kind of economic development with the help of the West, Israeli cooperation is needed. And that means that the Hamas government must soften its total and inflexible rejection of negotiations with Israel, not to mention recognition of that country’s right to exist. There is a perception, even though there is still a very long way to go, that among certain circles in Hamas, there are tendencies to show greater flexibility.
In order to cultivate this tendency among the Islamists, it is probably also necessary for us in the West to soften our total rejection of the idea of having contacts with Hamas. Even though our own Danish diplomats in the region, like other EU diplomats, do not want to have contacts with Hamas, a dialog is necessary.
If no calming of the situation whatsoever starts, there is a risk that the even more militant and fanatic jihadist groups, which already are growing in the Gaza Strip, will begin to pressure Hamas from the side, and force that organization to eliminate any possibilities for political compromises, and instead protect its Islamist credentials.
Update 8:00 p.m. (Gaza time)
The Israeli army announced here this evening, that it has loaded the emergency assistance to Gaza from the six Turkish activist ships onto 20 trucks, in order to drive it into the Gaza Strip. The cargo consists, among other things, of “various types of medicine (past their expiration date), clothing, carpets, hospital equipment and toys.”
Apparently, the Israelis have not been willing to accept that building and construction materials, including cement which was also on board, be sent along.
However, the Israelis can save themselves the trouble. Hamas has announced that they will not accept any emergency assistance from the ships, and have blocked Israel’s attempt to deliver the emergency help.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
An Israelis Commando's View of the Flotilla Operation
These thoughts were received from one of the commandos who took part in the operation to stop the flotilla of boats from the FreeGaza movement. These are his thoughts.
Why on Earth we didn't demand an urgent meeting of the Security Council first I'll never know?
Turkey vowed that the shipments were inspected and pronounced safe. They vowed that there would only be Peace Activists on board the flotilla. So where did the 50 trained terrorists come from..?
Was it the Tooth Fairy who placed the crowbars, pick-axe handles, commando knives, flak jackets, gas masks, night vision goggles, catapults and axes aboard..?
Why did Israel bow to Turkish pressure and return ALL the dead bodies to Turkey, when it was clear they had in their hands three dead Al Qaidia members from Yemen and the rest were from other Arab countries.
We should have withdrawn OUR Ambassador, not wait until Turkey withdrew her's. Yet Turkey blandly announced yesterday, 'All Israel has to do is open up the Gaza Blockade and we promise a return to good relations again..!'
Yeah, Right..! Good relations..? (And pigs will fly)
The Turks have enjoyed over 600,000 Israelis holidaying in Turkey every year. Multiply six hundred thousand by, say $2,000 dollars per family unit and you'll understand why Turkey wants it's cake and eat it.
Sadly, they've recently elected a Fundamentalist Shariah Government and are edging into the Iran-al Quaida Camp and the Turkish army is getting very antsy about that.
Since Kamal Attaturk in the early 1900's, the Army has had a history of crushing Muslim Extremism in Turkey and the time is ripe for them to do that again, as the government well knows; and they too are really antsy about their health...and they get a reminder every single waking moment, cos they don't read Arab script in Turkey.
Attaturk made sure of that and converted Turkish into European script...... Anyway, from all of us in the IDF, thanks for your support. We need all the help we can get.
Why on Earth we didn't demand an urgent meeting of the Security Council first I'll never know?
Turkey vowed that the shipments were inspected and pronounced safe. They vowed that there would only be Peace Activists on board the flotilla. So where did the 50 trained terrorists come from..?
Was it the Tooth Fairy who placed the crowbars, pick-axe handles, commando knives, flak jackets, gas masks, night vision goggles, catapults and axes aboard..?
Why did Israel bow to Turkish pressure and return ALL the dead bodies to Turkey, when it was clear they had in their hands three dead Al Qaidia members from Yemen and the rest were from other Arab countries.
We should have withdrawn OUR Ambassador, not wait until Turkey withdrew her's. Yet Turkey blandly announced yesterday, 'All Israel has to do is open up the Gaza Blockade and we promise a return to good relations again..!'
Yeah, Right..! Good relations..? (And pigs will fly)
The Turks have enjoyed over 600,000 Israelis holidaying in Turkey every year. Multiply six hundred thousand by, say $2,000 dollars per family unit and you'll understand why Turkey wants it's cake and eat it.
Sadly, they've recently elected a Fundamentalist Shariah Government and are edging into the Iran-al Quaida Camp and the Turkish army is getting very antsy about that.
Since Kamal Attaturk in the early 1900's, the Army has had a history of crushing Muslim Extremism in Turkey and the time is ripe for them to do that again, as the government well knows; and they too are really antsy about their health...and they get a reminder every single waking moment, cos they don't read Arab script in Turkey.
Attaturk made sure of that and converted Turkish into European script...... Anyway, from all of us in the IDF, thanks for your support. We need all the help we can get.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Lynching Attempt on the High Seas
I received this letter from an eye witness to the attempted lynching and hostage taking of an Israeli who was part of the operation.
O.K. So Hamas (Turkish Branch) comes up with a brilliant idea. 'We send 5 ships loaded with 'humanitarian aid' from Turkey and sail right in to Gaza, ignoring the Israeli Navy and their orders to dock in Ashdod...' Turkey recently elected a Conservative Pro-Shariah Law Government which has become more and more anti-Israel during the past year, when once we had extraordinary relations with them. Over 60% of Israeli Tourism was to Turkey (very cheap and great holidays) Now Israelis have been warned to cancell Turkish trips and get out of Turkey.
After four days of Media Frenzy, the boats arrive off Israel's coast.
They are stopped. Israeli boats and helicopters surround them. The Israelis then make their first and tactical error. They hover over the first two ships, drop commandoes onto the first one and that goes quietly, then drop onto the second boat. Now remember, they were unarmed. No rifles. Only batons and a pistol stuck in the back belt is all.
As the second wave of 9 Israelis landed on the second boat, each one was surrounded by five of six Hamas terrorists and beaten severely with iron crowbars. Three were stabbed and one was hit in the face with an iron pellet from a catapult.They were all down and being slaughtered when the second wave dropped in over them, opening fire immediately with their weapons that this time they took with them, killing 9 Hamas immediately and arresting all those on deck wearing face masks, battle gear and carrying cold steel weapons.
Nine Israelis are in hospital, three of them on the 'critical list.' All badly hurt by 'Peace Activists' bringing Humanitarian Aid to Gaza.On the deck of that boat there were 50 crowbars, 20 knives, 4 catapults and 5 automatic pistols. Someone needs to explain to me why Peace Activists need to wear flak jackets and face masks and have all those cold steel peace equipment..?
The boats were all boarded peacefully and turned around to dock in Ashdod. There everyone was disembarked. Palestinians were sent back to Gaza. Foreigners were either flown back to Turkey or boarded a vessel for Turkey, which was standing by in Ashdod Port. All the Hamas Fighters on board the 2nd boat were arrested, There were clear video shots of what happened on the 2nd boat deck, so everyone still alive who participated in the violence is now in jail.
Everyone has 20-20 Hindsight. As for me, I would have gone on board with Tasser shock guns and water canons.
The Israeli High Command fell for Hamas's propaganda. They really thought 'Peace Activists' and be careful, otherwise it will be 'Israeli Atrocities' all over the Media. When the 3rd wave dropped down and saved the solders being beaten to death with iron bars, killing nine of them, THAT is what appeared on every news station in Europe. Turkey called for an Emergency Meeting of the Security Council. The U.K.. Germany, Spain and Turkey all condemened Israel as War Criminals. Turkey has withdrawn its Ambassedor.
There's still one boat out there somewhere. It had engine trouble. It should arrive tomorrow. This time we know what to expect.
***** Bottom line, Hamas want pressure brought to bear in Israel to open the Gaza Border to free traffic for everyone, but NOT recognise Israel. They know fully well that if they can get that, they can restart the waves of suicide bombings and terror again. Well SCREW 'EM if they can't take a joke. No-one's starving in Gaza. No-one needs 'humaitarian aid.' They need employment and to be able to earn a living. Hamas makes sure that won't happen. We are now very comfortable with the fact that there's relative peace here, no 5,000 rockets coming over for 5 years on the trot, no stabbings or suicide bombings in bus stations and supermarkets every day. Peace and quiet.
It's tough on the people of Gaza. Sorry about that. I'd rather it was that way than Hamas' formula for a better future (for whom ?)
O.K. So Hamas (Turkish Branch) comes up with a brilliant idea. 'We send 5 ships loaded with 'humanitarian aid' from Turkey and sail right in to Gaza, ignoring the Israeli Navy and their orders to dock in Ashdod...' Turkey recently elected a Conservative Pro-Shariah Law Government which has become more and more anti-Israel during the past year, when once we had extraordinary relations with them. Over 60% of Israeli Tourism was to Turkey (very cheap and great holidays) Now Israelis have been warned to cancell Turkish trips and get out of Turkey.
After four days of Media Frenzy, the boats arrive off Israel's coast.
They are stopped. Israeli boats and helicopters surround them. The Israelis then make their first and tactical error. They hover over the first two ships, drop commandoes onto the first one and that goes quietly, then drop onto the second boat. Now remember, they were unarmed. No rifles. Only batons and a pistol stuck in the back belt is all.
As the second wave of 9 Israelis landed on the second boat, each one was surrounded by five of six Hamas terrorists and beaten severely with iron crowbars. Three were stabbed and one was hit in the face with an iron pellet from a catapult.They were all down and being slaughtered when the second wave dropped in over them, opening fire immediately with their weapons that this time they took with them, killing 9 Hamas immediately and arresting all those on deck wearing face masks, battle gear and carrying cold steel weapons.
Nine Israelis are in hospital, three of them on the 'critical list.' All badly hurt by 'Peace Activists' bringing Humanitarian Aid to Gaza.On the deck of that boat there were 50 crowbars, 20 knives, 4 catapults and 5 automatic pistols. Someone needs to explain to me why Peace Activists need to wear flak jackets and face masks and have all those cold steel peace equipment..?
The boats were all boarded peacefully and turned around to dock in Ashdod. There everyone was disembarked. Palestinians were sent back to Gaza. Foreigners were either flown back to Turkey or boarded a vessel for Turkey, which was standing by in Ashdod Port. All the Hamas Fighters on board the 2nd boat were arrested, There were clear video shots of what happened on the 2nd boat deck, so everyone still alive who participated in the violence is now in jail.
Everyone has 20-20 Hindsight. As for me, I would have gone on board with Tasser shock guns and water canons.
The Israeli High Command fell for Hamas's propaganda. They really thought 'Peace Activists' and be careful, otherwise it will be 'Israeli Atrocities' all over the Media. When the 3rd wave dropped down and saved the solders being beaten to death with iron bars, killing nine of them, THAT is what appeared on every news station in Europe. Turkey called for an Emergency Meeting of the Security Council. The U.K.. Germany, Spain and Turkey all condemened Israel as War Criminals. Turkey has withdrawn its Ambassedor.
There's still one boat out there somewhere. It had engine trouble. It should arrive tomorrow. This time we know what to expect.
***** Bottom line, Hamas want pressure brought to bear in Israel to open the Gaza Border to free traffic for everyone, but NOT recognise Israel. They know fully well that if they can get that, they can restart the waves of suicide bombings and terror again. Well SCREW 'EM if they can't take a joke. No-one's starving in Gaza. No-one needs 'humaitarian aid.' They need employment and to be able to earn a living. Hamas makes sure that won't happen. We are now very comfortable with the fact that there's relative peace here, no 5,000 rockets coming over for 5 years on the trot, no stabbings or suicide bombings in bus stations and supermarkets every day. Peace and quiet.
It's tough on the people of Gaza. Sorry about that. I'd rather it was that way than Hamas' formula for a better future (for whom ?)
Monday, May 31, 2010
A Well Thought Plan
I am taking the opportunity to reprint an article by Ari Bussel who sends "Postcards from Israel" from time to time. http://web.me.com/bussel/Site/ISRAEL/ISRAEL.html
I feel that he is echoing the views of some many here in Israel, I would welcome your comments
At 10 PM Pacific Standard Time the news started coming in. First it was two dead, then 16 later 20. Bloomberg reports “Israeli Forces Clash With Gaza-bound Ships; Reports of 10 Dead.” Al Jazeera in English: “Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet, up to 16 people reportedly killed and dozens injured after troops board ships trying to break Gaza siege.” Israeli Debka site in Hebrew, among the very first to report the news: “At least 20 dead and tens wounded in the vessels of the flotilla to Gaza during the IDF’s boarding. The IDF soldiers who were attacked by cold weapons started firing.”
The IDF Spokesperson announced in a press release “IDF FORCES MET WITH PRE-PLANNED VIOLENCE WHEN ATTEMPTING TO BOARD FLOTILLA:”
“IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.”
The response to the breaking news was immediate, as it was pre-planned for weeks, possibly months: Turkey called the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. The Turkish Government announces that the Israeli aggression against the flotilla will bring about horrendous results whose end is unforeseen. Hamas calls the Arabs of Judea and Samaria and the Palestinians of Gaza to go out (to protest) for a Day of Rage. In leading role is Turkey, now overseeing and coordinating the attack against Israel. Viva Palestine has done its job organizing the flotilla. From here, the powers to be take over.
All that needed was a cue, and the ball started rolling. There was nothing spontaneous, just a well-thought, well-rehearsed and well-executed plan. The next few hours will show if Israel, too, has had a plan it could immediately put to action. Let us pray this is the case.
This was not the first flotilla aiming to reach Gaza. Yet with each execution, the level of sophistication had increased, each time the level of daring had expanded. This time around, children were brought as human shields. One is only left to wonder if dead bodies were boarded onto the ships prior to departure. [Palestinians used exhumed bodies before to show the effects of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, so it will not be the first time, nor beyond their normal modus operandi to do the same.]
This is how wars break. A ruse is used, which then leads to an avalanche. The cost, whether in human life or otherwise, is meaningless to the organizers of the convoy to Gaza. Their goal was to break the naval siege at all costs, or in the alternative to cause as much harm to Israel as possible, both on the international public diplomacy front and on the domestic resistance / fifth column of Israeli Arabs. In either case they are the victors.
One would remember the Palestinian terrorists taking over the Church of Nativity. There was no respect to the holy place. It served a purpose, thus whether desecrated or defiled, they did not care. Likewise now, there is meaning to human life, the goal of humiliating and hurting Israel is worth more than the means used to achieve it.
This will not die down. The flotilla to Gaza was the match that was needed to be lit. The Middle East was getting ready for this day.
The real question is not whether or not Israel has a plan of action, now that the vessels (most or all) have been stopped and taken over. Rather, it is: Does Iran – via her cronies, Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria and Turkey – have the urge to wipe Israel off the map now, or is she still waiting. It all boils down to Iran’s will and determination. For if Iran were ready, then the war would start in the next few hours, Israel will be bombarded with rockets and missiles from all fronts.
The looming war was generally accepted for some time now. It was only a question of time. In the meantime, a game was played, primarily by Israel (“the International community needs to act against Iran”), the USA (forcing upon those who were clearly uninterested “Proximity Talks”) and Russia (supplying advanced weapon systems and overall reclaiming its spot as the bully no one dares say a word against). On the other side, Turkey, Brazil, Syria and Hizbollah continued their preparations, laughing at the meager efforts by a weak global leadership and the Nobel Peace Laureate, the head of the US-Superpower.
Despite Israel’s legitimate claims for being right, the only images that will be seen in the coming hours and days and later remembered are her brutality against children and humanitarian aid convoys; her soldiers boarding vessels of peace and starting to shoot; her top spokesmen (the Foreign Minister and his Deputy) following the lead of the Minister of Defense who said the convoy will be stopped at all costs. Israel, the aggressor, the occupier, the country committing a bloodbath in Gaza – to use the phraseology of a leading Israeli reporter – has this time crossed all red lines. It is indeed just for Israeli Arabs to set their march onto Jerusalem and for the Palestinian People to declare their nationhood. The world, finally, will not allow it to go on, and one after another, the members of the world community will say “Yes” when asked to vote for the formation and declaration of the new Palestine.
Oh cry Israel, for whatever you do you are found guilty. Facts and figures, logic and justice no longer hold. We are in the midst of a fantasia, where a flotilla that was never needed in the first place and could only result in bloodshed (present or future – had it been allowed to reach its intended destination) ushers in the new war. When will we wake up from this nightmare?
I feel that he is echoing the views of some many here in Israel, I would welcome your comments
At 10 PM Pacific Standard Time the news started coming in. First it was two dead, then 16 later 20. Bloomberg reports “Israeli Forces Clash With Gaza-bound Ships; Reports of 10 Dead.” Al Jazeera in English: “Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet, up to 16 people reportedly killed and dozens injured after troops board ships trying to break Gaza siege.” Israeli Debka site in Hebrew, among the very first to report the news: “At least 20 dead and tens wounded in the vessels of the flotilla to Gaza during the IDF’s boarding. The IDF soldiers who were attacked by cold weapons started firing.”
The IDF Spokesperson announced in a press release “IDF FORCES MET WITH PRE-PLANNED VIOLENCE WHEN ATTEMPTING TO BOARD FLOTILLA:”
“IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.”
The response to the breaking news was immediate, as it was pre-planned for weeks, possibly months: Turkey called the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. The Turkish Government announces that the Israeli aggression against the flotilla will bring about horrendous results whose end is unforeseen. Hamas calls the Arabs of Judea and Samaria and the Palestinians of Gaza to go out (to protest) for a Day of Rage. In leading role is Turkey, now overseeing and coordinating the attack against Israel. Viva Palestine has done its job organizing the flotilla. From here, the powers to be take over.
All that needed was a cue, and the ball started rolling. There was nothing spontaneous, just a well-thought, well-rehearsed and well-executed plan. The next few hours will show if Israel, too, has had a plan it could immediately put to action. Let us pray this is the case.
This was not the first flotilla aiming to reach Gaza. Yet with each execution, the level of sophistication had increased, each time the level of daring had expanded. This time around, children were brought as human shields. One is only left to wonder if dead bodies were boarded onto the ships prior to departure. [Palestinians used exhumed bodies before to show the effects of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, so it will not be the first time, nor beyond their normal modus operandi to do the same.]
This is how wars break. A ruse is used, which then leads to an avalanche. The cost, whether in human life or otherwise, is meaningless to the organizers of the convoy to Gaza. Their goal was to break the naval siege at all costs, or in the alternative to cause as much harm to Israel as possible, both on the international public diplomacy front and on the domestic resistance / fifth column of Israeli Arabs. In either case they are the victors.
One would remember the Palestinian terrorists taking over the Church of Nativity. There was no respect to the holy place. It served a purpose, thus whether desecrated or defiled, they did not care. Likewise now, there is meaning to human life, the goal of humiliating and hurting Israel is worth more than the means used to achieve it.
This will not die down. The flotilla to Gaza was the match that was needed to be lit. The Middle East was getting ready for this day.
The real question is not whether or not Israel has a plan of action, now that the vessels (most or all) have been stopped and taken over. Rather, it is: Does Iran – via her cronies, Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria and Turkey – have the urge to wipe Israel off the map now, or is she still waiting. It all boils down to Iran’s will and determination. For if Iran were ready, then the war would start in the next few hours, Israel will be bombarded with rockets and missiles from all fronts.
The looming war was generally accepted for some time now. It was only a question of time. In the meantime, a game was played, primarily by Israel (“the International community needs to act against Iran”), the USA (forcing upon those who were clearly uninterested “Proximity Talks”) and Russia (supplying advanced weapon systems and overall reclaiming its spot as the bully no one dares say a word against). On the other side, Turkey, Brazil, Syria and Hizbollah continued their preparations, laughing at the meager efforts by a weak global leadership and the Nobel Peace Laureate, the head of the US-Superpower.
Despite Israel’s legitimate claims for being right, the only images that will be seen in the coming hours and days and later remembered are her brutality against children and humanitarian aid convoys; her soldiers boarding vessels of peace and starting to shoot; her top spokesmen (the Foreign Minister and his Deputy) following the lead of the Minister of Defense who said the convoy will be stopped at all costs. Israel, the aggressor, the occupier, the country committing a bloodbath in Gaza – to use the phraseology of a leading Israeli reporter – has this time crossed all red lines. It is indeed just for Israeli Arabs to set their march onto Jerusalem and for the Palestinian People to declare their nationhood. The world, finally, will not allow it to go on, and one after another, the members of the world community will say “Yes” when asked to vote for the formation and declaration of the new Palestine.
Oh cry Israel, for whatever you do you are found guilty. Facts and figures, logic and justice no longer hold. We are in the midst of a fantasia, where a flotilla that was never needed in the first place and could only result in bloodshed (present or future – had it been allowed to reach its intended destination) ushers in the new war. When will we wake up from this nightmare?
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Lies the Media and NGO's Tell About Gaza
Below are notes from Gaza accumulated by Tom Gross – May 25th. I believe everyone should be aware of what the newspapers DON'T print.
In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mid East, has been full of stories about “activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials.”
The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)
Yet the BBC and other media fail to report on the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets.
No, this would spoil their agenda. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy. If we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.
Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)
But the way the BBC and other prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel’s fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state – which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.
STEAK AU POIVRE AND CHICKEN CORDON BLEU
If you drop by the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook for Gaza and the West Bank, you can “dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu”.
The restaurant’s website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza.
And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don’t tell their readers about them).
Please take a look at the pictures on the above website. They are not the kind of things you see in The New York Times or CNN or in Newsweek, whose international edition last week had one of the most disgracefully misleading stories about Gaza I have ever seen, portraying it in terms which were virtually reminiscent of Hiroshima after a nuclear blast.
In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this information (which is up on the club’s own website), I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.
In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the “after effects” of a previous “emergency Gaza boat flotilla,” when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops.
And please see here for more pictures of Gaza’s “impoverished” shops.
STARVED OF WATER AND BUILDING MATERIALS?
While Western media, misled by corrupt and biased NGOs, continue to report on a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports on the Olympic-size swimming pool that opened in Gaza last week.
As reader Joy Wolfe of Manchester, England, a subscriber to this list, points out to me in an email: “How does an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid build an Olympic size swimming pool and create a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?”
Another reader, Barry Shaw, writes from the Israeli town of Netanya:
“Gaza City recently opened an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Netanya does not have a municipal Olympic pool. Neither does Ashkelon, or Sderot. Gaza City is part of the Palestinian territory operated by the Islamic terror regime, Hamas. Netanya has been hit by repeated Palestinian suicide attacks, car bombings, and terrorist gunmen that have left over fifty of its citizens dead and more than three hundred injured. The Palestinians receive record amounts of international funding. The victims of Palestinian terror get nothing.”
Another subscriber, Michael Horesh, points out, “The Financial Times of London, a leading media beacon in international money matters and no friend of Israel, observes that ‘Branded products such as Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Snickers and Heinz ketchup are both cheap and widely available in Gaza… [as are] Korean refrigerators, German food mixers and Chinese air conditioning units.’”
AN INDUSTRY OF LIES
While middle class Palestinians plead poverty and receive excessive amounts of international funding, elsewhere in the world (in places like Congo and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) millions of children really are dying of starvation and disease, all but ignored by those very same governments and aid agencies that pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the Palestinian coffers.
Of course, there is a whole industry of people (UN and EU staff, NGO workers, journalists) who make their living and have a vested interest in continuing to propagate lies about Gaza and West Bank.
As the boats of “humanitarian aid activists” (including a number of European politicians and journalists) left Turkey on Saturday I wonder if they understood what the crowd was chanting.
The crowd shouted: “Intifada, intifada, intifada!” “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Mohammed will return!”
GAZA’S OLYMPIC-SIZED SWIMMING POOL
The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports (May 18, 2010):
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=285242
“Gaza – Ma’an – Gaza’s first Olympic-standard swimming pool was inaugurated at the As-Sadaka club during a ceremony on Tuesday held by the Islamic Society.
“Gaza government ministers, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, leaders of Islamic and national governing bodies, as well as club members and athletes were among those at the opening ceremony, where Secretary-General of the Islamic Society Nasim Yaseen thanked the donors who helped realize the project.
“Yaseen praised the As-Sadaka club for a number of wins in international and regional football, volleyball and table tennis matches.
“As-Sadaka athletes performed a number of swimming exercises in the new pool to mark its opening.”
WHO BURNED DOWN THE SUMMER CAMP?
A UN-run summer camp for Palestinian children was burned to the ground on Sunday and the UN staff threatened with murder. Tens of thousands of Gazan children were due to attend the camp this summer, as they have every summer in recent years.
This is a rare occasion when the international media did report on Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence, although most downplayed any criticism of Hamas or other Islamists in their reports.
***
“A SUMMER PROGRAM OF ARTS AND SPORT”
The BBC reported online:
Masked gunmen have attacked a UN summer camp being set up for children in the Gaza Strip, UN officials say.
The attackers burned tents and destroyed other equipment after tying up a guard. They also left a letter threatening the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), John Ging…
“The armed men torched the camp, which contained recreational equipment and swimming pools, and completely destroyed it,” UNRWA spokesman Abu Hasna told journalists.
The camp is one of dozens of beach facilities set up by the UN offering a summer programme of arts, sport and other activities for some quarter of a million children in the Gaza Strip…
***
“TEACHING SCHOOLGIRLS DANCING AND IMMORALITY”
CNN explained that the Islamists of Gaza object to the fact that boys and girls were due to participate in activities together at the camp:
CNN began its online report: “A U.N.-sponsored summer camp in Gaza was burned Sunday hours before it was due to open, witnesses said, blaming Muslim extremists who apparently object to boys and girls going to camp together.”
***
Reuters also reported:
“About 20 men, some carrying assault rifles, tore up large plastic tents and burned storage facilities at the site, where tens of thousands of children are due to attend camp sessions…
“Two days earlier, a previously unknown militant group, The Free of the Homeland, issued a statement criticizing the camp’s organizer, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for, ‘teaching schoolgirls fitness, dancing and immorality.’”
***
The Al-Jazeera report online adds:
“Dozens of armed attackers also vandalized bathrooms… and assaulted a guard and tied him up… the men also left a letter with four bullets, threatening the agency’s Gaza director and sending a chilling message to the camp’s organizers.”
FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND NGOS IGNORE HAMAS’S WORSENING HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD
In an editorial, The Jerusalem Post reflects on the atrocious human rights situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, and notes that “an iron curtain of a strict theocracy is slowly descending on Gaza, but many human rights proponents still prefer to depict it as the embattled bastion of freedom fighters…
“Both foreign governments and NGOs, in their inaction, are signaling to Hamas that domestic oppression by its tyrannical regime is tolerable so far as the international community is concerned,” said the paper.
DOZENS MORE WEST BANK ROADBLOCKS TO BE DISMANTLED
Following a meeting between IDF OC Central Command and Palestinian security officials yesterday, Israel has announced the further dismantling of 60 roadblocks and the easing of travel throughout the West Bank. Most West Bank roadblocks have been dismantled since the government of Benjamin Netanyahu assumed power in Israel last year.
The Israelis explained that the success of the Palestinian security forces in fighting terror led to the decision to ease restrictions.
The IDF pointed out, however, that it will “continue to operate firmly against terrorism while sustaining liaison and coordination with Palestinian officials, in order to maintain the life routine and security of all residents” of the West Bank and Israel.
SHIMON PERES ATTACKS THE GUARDIAN’S BLATANT LIES
Israeli President Shimon Peres yesterday accused the British paper The Guardian of telling blatant lies about Israel in a front page story that slandered Israel in general, and Peres in particular.
It is quite something when the president of a country sees the need to criticize a foreign newspaper for failing to maintain elementary journalistic standards – failing to ask for his response before publishing a massive defamation of him, for example. But such are the depths to which The Guardian sunk yesterday. (As I noted on this email list, The Guardian recently had to apologize for running a notorious organ trafficking libel about Israel.)
Additional Israeli government sources added that “documents that Guardian journalist Chris McGreal – who has a long track record of writing anti-Israel pieces – used to run his story are completely fabricated.” (The alleged documents come from a new book by a publicity-seeking anti-Zionist American researcher.)
The story concerned an alleged offer to sell arms, including nuclear warheads, by Israel to South Africa in 1975. Quite why The Guardian decided this is now lead front-page breaking news 35 years later, is beyond me, given how much real current news there is in the world.
Of course, The Guardian has nothing to say about the arms sales by Britain and many other Western countries to Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s. Could its continuous singling out of Israel perhaps be because Israel is a Jewish state?
In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mid East, has been full of stories about “activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials.”
The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)
Yet the BBC and other media fail to report on the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets.
No, this would spoil their agenda. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy. If we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.
Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)
But the way the BBC and other prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel’s fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state – which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.
STEAK AU POIVRE AND CHICKEN CORDON BLEU
If you drop by the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook for Gaza and the West Bank, you can “dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu”.
The restaurant’s website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza.
And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don’t tell their readers about them).
Please take a look at the pictures on the above website. They are not the kind of things you see in The New York Times or CNN or in Newsweek, whose international edition last week had one of the most disgracefully misleading stories about Gaza I have ever seen, portraying it in terms which were virtually reminiscent of Hiroshima after a nuclear blast.
In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this information (which is up on the club’s own website), I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.
In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the “after effects” of a previous “emergency Gaza boat flotilla,” when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops.
And please see here for more pictures of Gaza’s “impoverished” shops.
STARVED OF WATER AND BUILDING MATERIALS?
While Western media, misled by corrupt and biased NGOs, continue to report on a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports on the Olympic-size swimming pool that opened in Gaza last week.
As reader Joy Wolfe of Manchester, England, a subscriber to this list, points out to me in an email: “How does an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid build an Olympic size swimming pool and create a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?”
Another reader, Barry Shaw, writes from the Israeli town of Netanya:
“Gaza City recently opened an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Netanya does not have a municipal Olympic pool. Neither does Ashkelon, or Sderot. Gaza City is part of the Palestinian territory operated by the Islamic terror regime, Hamas. Netanya has been hit by repeated Palestinian suicide attacks, car bombings, and terrorist gunmen that have left over fifty of its citizens dead and more than three hundred injured. The Palestinians receive record amounts of international funding. The victims of Palestinian terror get nothing.”
Another subscriber, Michael Horesh, points out, “The Financial Times of London, a leading media beacon in international money matters and no friend of Israel, observes that ‘Branded products such as Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Snickers and Heinz ketchup are both cheap and widely available in Gaza… [as are] Korean refrigerators, German food mixers and Chinese air conditioning units.’”
AN INDUSTRY OF LIES
While middle class Palestinians plead poverty and receive excessive amounts of international funding, elsewhere in the world (in places like Congo and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) millions of children really are dying of starvation and disease, all but ignored by those very same governments and aid agencies that pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the Palestinian coffers.
Of course, there is a whole industry of people (UN and EU staff, NGO workers, journalists) who make their living and have a vested interest in continuing to propagate lies about Gaza and West Bank.
As the boats of “humanitarian aid activists” (including a number of European politicians and journalists) left Turkey on Saturday I wonder if they understood what the crowd was chanting.
The crowd shouted: “Intifada, intifada, intifada!” “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Mohammed will return!”
GAZA’S OLYMPIC-SIZED SWIMMING POOL
The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports (May 18, 2010):
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=285242
“Gaza – Ma’an – Gaza’s first Olympic-standard swimming pool was inaugurated at the As-Sadaka club during a ceremony on Tuesday held by the Islamic Society.
“Gaza government ministers, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, leaders of Islamic and national governing bodies, as well as club members and athletes were among those at the opening ceremony, where Secretary-General of the Islamic Society Nasim Yaseen thanked the donors who helped realize the project.
“Yaseen praised the As-Sadaka club for a number of wins in international and regional football, volleyball and table tennis matches.
“As-Sadaka athletes performed a number of swimming exercises in the new pool to mark its opening.”
WHO BURNED DOWN THE SUMMER CAMP?
A UN-run summer camp for Palestinian children was burned to the ground on Sunday and the UN staff threatened with murder. Tens of thousands of Gazan children were due to attend the camp this summer, as they have every summer in recent years.
This is a rare occasion when the international media did report on Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence, although most downplayed any criticism of Hamas or other Islamists in their reports.
***
“A SUMMER PROGRAM OF ARTS AND SPORT”
The BBC reported online:
Masked gunmen have attacked a UN summer camp being set up for children in the Gaza Strip, UN officials say.
The attackers burned tents and destroyed other equipment after tying up a guard. They also left a letter threatening the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), John Ging…
“The armed men torched the camp, which contained recreational equipment and swimming pools, and completely destroyed it,” UNRWA spokesman Abu Hasna told journalists.
The camp is one of dozens of beach facilities set up by the UN offering a summer programme of arts, sport and other activities for some quarter of a million children in the Gaza Strip…
***
“TEACHING SCHOOLGIRLS DANCING AND IMMORALITY”
CNN explained that the Islamists of Gaza object to the fact that boys and girls were due to participate in activities together at the camp:
CNN began its online report: “A U.N.-sponsored summer camp in Gaza was burned Sunday hours before it was due to open, witnesses said, blaming Muslim extremists who apparently object to boys and girls going to camp together.”
***
Reuters also reported:
“About 20 men, some carrying assault rifles, tore up large plastic tents and burned storage facilities at the site, where tens of thousands of children are due to attend camp sessions…
“Two days earlier, a previously unknown militant group, The Free of the Homeland, issued a statement criticizing the camp’s organizer, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for, ‘teaching schoolgirls fitness, dancing and immorality.’”
***
The Al-Jazeera report online adds:
“Dozens of armed attackers also vandalized bathrooms… and assaulted a guard and tied him up… the men also left a letter with four bullets, threatening the agency’s Gaza director and sending a chilling message to the camp’s organizers.”
FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND NGOS IGNORE HAMAS’S WORSENING HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD
In an editorial, The Jerusalem Post reflects on the atrocious human rights situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, and notes that “an iron curtain of a strict theocracy is slowly descending on Gaza, but many human rights proponents still prefer to depict it as the embattled bastion of freedom fighters…
“Both foreign governments and NGOs, in their inaction, are signaling to Hamas that domestic oppression by its tyrannical regime is tolerable so far as the international community is concerned,” said the paper.
DOZENS MORE WEST BANK ROADBLOCKS TO BE DISMANTLED
Following a meeting between IDF OC Central Command and Palestinian security officials yesterday, Israel has announced the further dismantling of 60 roadblocks and the easing of travel throughout the West Bank. Most West Bank roadblocks have been dismantled since the government of Benjamin Netanyahu assumed power in Israel last year.
The Israelis explained that the success of the Palestinian security forces in fighting terror led to the decision to ease restrictions.
The IDF pointed out, however, that it will “continue to operate firmly against terrorism while sustaining liaison and coordination with Palestinian officials, in order to maintain the life routine and security of all residents” of the West Bank and Israel.
SHIMON PERES ATTACKS THE GUARDIAN’S BLATANT LIES
Israeli President Shimon Peres yesterday accused the British paper The Guardian of telling blatant lies about Israel in a front page story that slandered Israel in general, and Peres in particular.
It is quite something when the president of a country sees the need to criticize a foreign newspaper for failing to maintain elementary journalistic standards – failing to ask for his response before publishing a massive defamation of him, for example. But such are the depths to which The Guardian sunk yesterday. (As I noted on this email list, The Guardian recently had to apologize for running a notorious organ trafficking libel about Israel.)
Additional Israeli government sources added that “documents that Guardian journalist Chris McGreal – who has a long track record of writing anti-Israel pieces – used to run his story are completely fabricated.” (The alleged documents come from a new book by a publicity-seeking anti-Zionist American researcher.)
The story concerned an alleged offer to sell arms, including nuclear warheads, by Israel to South Africa in 1975. Quite why The Guardian decided this is now lead front-page breaking news 35 years later, is beyond me, given how much real current news there is in the world.
Of course, The Guardian has nothing to say about the arms sales by Britain and many other Western countries to Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s. Could its continuous singling out of Israel perhaps be because Israel is a Jewish state?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)