Middle East Terrorist Scams and the Western Naivete that Empowers Them

August 26, 2011 - 10:24 am - by Barry Rubin

 

By Barry Rubin

Rockets from the Gaza Strip continue to pound Israel. And much of the Western media blames: Israel. I want to explain again how this system works.

What follows is a seven-point pattern that goes something like this: Someone shoots at your spouse, you punch the attacker, he yells, “Ceasefire!” then kicks you in the groin and takes some more shots at your spouse. You try to defend yourself. The police stand by doing nothing and then declare you to be the aggressor for breaking the ceasefire.

If this sounds like an exaggeration, I sincerely wish that it was! (Scholarly disclaimer: Of course many politicians and media outlets do see through this but the pattern discussed below is a very widespread one.)

1. Terrorist group attacks Israeli civilians.

2. As Israel seeks to retaliate, the group declares a ceasefire.

3. Western media announce ceasefire.

4. But rockets continue to be fired into Israel against civilian targets. Responsibility is usually taken by smaller groups allied with Hamas, like Islamic Jihad. This allows Hamas–and Western media–to deny that Hamas has any responsibility and thus there is no need to take actions against it. Nobody notes that Hamas is now allied with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the latter does not condemn the attacks but only condemns Israel.

(Note: Western media only report it when the PA condemns a terrorist attack and that at times gets more coverage than the attack and the Israeli victims.)

(Additional note: In late 2008, Hamas launched a war of rockets, missiles, mortars, and attempted cross-border attacks on Israel, breaking an existing ceasefire. When Israel retaliated, many accused Israel of aggression.)

(Another additional note: It is generally forgotten that because of Israel’s self-defense against the Hamas attacks the PA broke off negotiations with Israel and three years later, despite constant missreporting that the lack of talks is Israel’s fault, that policy continues.)

5. Israel retaliates against rocket-firing teams, weapons’ workshops, arms-smuggling tunnels, rocket storage places, and leaders of groups firing rockets. Some civilians are killed and this becomes the main point of Western media stories. Since the numbers and identities come from Hamas, they maximize numbers and civilians, concealing terrorists’ being killed and at times reclassifying terrorists as civilians. Note that when civilians are killed by Western airstrikes, as in Afghanistan or Libya, it is emphasized that these are regrettable accidents. With Israel it is implied that such action is purposeful or at least careless.

6. Western media report that Israel “broke” the “ceasefire.”

7. Continued attacks on Israel are thus blamed on Israeli action.

Think that’s an exaggeration? Here’s the Washington Post:

“A tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip was punctured Wednesday by a deadly Israeli airstrike that triggered rocket and mortar fire at Israel.”

Political result:

Anti-Israel politicians, media, and experts blame Israel for being aggressive and using “disproportionate force,” a phrase
that only seems to be applied to Israel in the world.

More moderate politicians, media, and experts decry the cycle of violence for which both sides are responsible.

Coming soon to a UN Near You: The September UN Scam! Here’s a wonderful indication of what’s going on:

A pro-Palestinian Oxford University law professor has warned the Palestinian leadership that it must do the unilateral independence declaration at the UN properly so it can claim all of Israel later.

 

Should Israel Embrace Glenn Beck?

Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011 11:08 AM

By Alan Dershowitz

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All decent people, whether on the left or the right, should support 

Israel’s right to exist as the democratic nation state of the Jewish people.

All decent people should support Israel’s right to defend its civilians
 from terrorist attacks.

 All reasonable people should favor a just peace that assures
Israel’s ability to thrive in a dangerous neighborhood and to defend its borders.

These issues should not divide decent people along ideological or political lines.
Israel’s existence and right to defend itself should be bipartisan issues,
 not only in the United States, but in all democratic countries of the world.

The reality, however, is very different. The Jewish state is demonized
by the hard left in America, by virtually the entire left in much of Europe,
and by most of the left and right in Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. 

Its right to exist is denied by a 

high proportion of Arabs and Muslims, and most of the
Arab and Muslim nations do not

 have diplomatic relations with Israel.

In many circles, anti-Zionism easily morphs into anti-Semitism, 

and in some countries Jews are afraid to walk the streets wearing 

any clothing or symbols that identify them as Jewish.

The general assembly of the United Nations has become the 

world’s new Der Sturmer, whose podium hosts, and many of 

whose audience members cheer, virulent anti-Semites such as
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Defenders of Israel, even those critical of some of Israel’s policies,
are banned from speaking at universities, are attacked personally by the hard-left media and are treated as pariahs by their academic colleagues.

It is against this sad and increasingly dangerous background that one 

must evaluate Glenn Beck’s visit to Israel. I disagree with much of
Beck’s politics and with 

virtually all of his conspiracy theorizing. Yet I admire his courage in putting

 his body in the line of fire. 

I believe him when he says:

If the world goes down the road of dehumanizing 

Jews again, “then count me a Jew and come for me first.”

At a time when old friends and allies who should be supporting the 

Jewish state are abandoning it in droves, Beck’s willingness to
 stand up for Israel must be accepted with gratitude. I, for one, do not question his motives. I

 believe they are genuine.

One need not accept all of Beck’s positions on Israel — and I certainly do not —

 in order to agree with him that support of Israel is one of the great
 moral issues of the 21st century.

Those who thoughtlessly attack Israel no matter what it does and thoughtlessly defend Israel’s enemies regardless of what they do, are making peace far more difficult.
They incentivize terrorism by Israel’s enemies and disincentivize compromise on all sides.

I will wait to hear precisely what Glenn Beck says during his visit to Israe
l before I evaluate it. Just as I feel free to criticize the Israeli government when
 I think it is wrong, I certainly feel free to criticize defenders of Israel when I think they are wrong.
 But I will not prejudge Beck until he is given a full opportunity to express his views.

I certainly admire Beck’s decision to go to Israel far more than the decision of so
many so-called artists and intellectuals who call for a boycott against the
Jewish state without even bothering to go there and see for themselves.

I welcome the support of religious Christians who love Israel for religious reasons.
I abhor the ignorant and misguided efforts of other Christians, s
uch as Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, who misuse their faith against the Jewish state.

I hope that more Christians will follow in Beck’s footsteps and take the time to visit Israel.
They will see Christianity thriving in Israel while at the same time being dismantled and destroyed in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Egypt, and in other areas in which Islamic fundamentalists have taken over.

Christian religious sites are preserved in Jerusalem and other areas under Israeli control.
When the Jordanian government controlled parts of Jerusalem, it destroyed many historic religious sites sacred to both Jews and Christians.

Nation states are entitled to engage in Realpolitik so long as they do so

 within the limits of acceptable morality.

 Realpolitik requires accepting support from, and sometimes giving support to, nations and people who are not in complete 

agreement over policies.

Consider Nelson Mandela’s alliances with some of most brutal dictatorships 

(Libya, Cuba, Syria) and supporters of terrorism (P.L.O., Iran) while he was

 engaged in his just struggle against the evils of apartheid.

I do not recall the left condemning Mandela for doing what he had to do.

 But the same left was unforgiving in Israel when it was forced to make some

 strategic military deals with South Africa, while strongly opposing its
apartheid policies.

I do not mean to compare dictatorial, terrorist, or apartheid regimes with
Glenn Beck, only to make the point that the Jewish state is often subjected to a double standard when it comes to the support it receives or gives.

Many Israelis will welcome Glenn Beck’s support. Some will oppose it.

 Others will wish his views were more consistent with their own. 

This is as it should be in a democracy.

The fact is that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that would allow

 Glenn Beck to express his views, without censoring them or even knowing in
advance what he was going to say. 

This too is as it should be in a democracy.

© Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Stick a fork in Gadhafi, He's done

Today it appears that Ghadafi is finished as the Grand wizard of Libya.

In the ‘70’s he emulated Castro, he talked about liberation and promoted an African Union.

While, like any politician, he kept some views from the “conservatives” to incorporate into his political philosophy, he intended, like Saddam, to drag Arabia and maybe the Africans into the 20th century.

The West, represented by the U.S. hated him because of the concern over his leftist pronouncements, and his confiscation of property.

The Arabs hated him because he wasn’t an Islamist.

The perfect storm was being brewed.

Several things are at play, one, the Arabs rioting across the Middle-East are not freedom fighters.

At the most optimistic, they are being controlled by radical Islamists.

It seems that there is a somewhat moderate Muslim here and there.

However, when the “nation building” starts, they are nowhere to be seen.

The Islamists are taking power in all of the “Arab Spring” events.

They hate Jews.

They hate Americans.

Another significant factor in the “Arab Spring” tumult is the fact that the dictators, who are really tough, ruthless, very bad guys, are not able to stop the rebels.

In the religious schools in Arabia, the children are taught from an early age to hate Jews first, and almost everyone else, too.

They are taught the glories of violence and mayhem and death, on behalf of Islam, Palestine, and so on.

By the time they are adolescents they are primed for murder and suicide, so many volunteer for suicide missions that terrorist groups have to turn them away.

Historically Arabs have always had a xenophobic outlook and a superiority complex.

Millions of Arabs have come to realize that they can topple their “infidel” governments.

How can they be stopped?

They can’t, as Ghadafi and Mubarak and others are learning.

They were successfully trained NOT to fear death.

The replacements for Mubarak and Ghadafi are going to be worse for everyone than they were.

By the way, there are protests going on in Israel at the same time as Ghadafi is fleeing for his life and Arabs are firing shoulder held rocket launchers into the air in celebration of their victory over the government. “Allah Akbar” they scream.

The Jewish unrest is nothing like the Arab Spring, of course.

Protests In Israel

Dozens of activists occupy a four-story building abandoned since 1999, and call on the Tel Aviv municipality to make use of empty buildings in the city.

By Ilan Lior Tags: Israel protest Israel housing protest Tel Aviv Israel real estate

Dozens of housing protesters squatted an abandoned four-story building in Tel Aviv Monday. The building, on Dov Hoz street in central Tel Aviv, is owned by the municipality and hasn't been populated in 12 years.
In the past few weeks activists have been cleaning the building, which used to be a school and a dormitory, and hung banners saying "The People's House – housing, community, culture," "A liberated building" and "The city closed, the residents open."

	The building in central Tel Aviv, August 22, 2011
	Photo by: Daniel Bar-On

A message that was posted on the building's wall read: "We, a group of young people in our thirties, who work, study and live in Tel Aviv, have decided to take it upon ourselves to return the building to its original purpose: a space for social and community activities and housing… We are not trying to take over the building for personal reason and we are not claiming any ownership over it."
The activists claim that the municipality is "waiting for the building to crumble so it can demolish it and build more buildings for the rich only. We will not let that happen."
Hadash MK Dov Khenin joined the protestors, and called on the municipality to make use of the hundreds of buildings standing vacant around the city. "It is outrageous that there is such a housing shortage in this city," he said. MK Nitzan Horowitz (New Movement-Meretz) also joined the sqautters and showed his support.
Tel Aviv municipality responded by saying that the act is illegal and constitutes a criminal offense, and that the squatters are risking their lives as the building is dangerous.