Hasbara For Israel

November 19, 2012

Hiroshima on My Mind

By: Tzvi Fishman

Published: November 16th, 2012

Photo Credit: Yori Yanover (based on "Dr. Strangelove")

The Spokesman for the IDF is constantly announcing that the Israeli Air Force is doing pinpoint bombing in order to protect innocent civilians. Prime Minister Netanyahu also says that Israel deserves praise for the care it is taking not to injure innocent civilians.

Apparently to them, these “civilians” are “innocent” even though they house grad rocket launchers in their homes, and it’s their fathers and brothers who are doing the firing. In the meantime, we are bombing evacuated warehouses and underground tunnels, and the Gazans keep firing away, not at all worried about being hit. In the 200 plus forays our fighter bombers have made over Gaza, maybe 20 people have been killed and a couple dozen wounded. Peanuts. So the innocent civilians keep shooting away.

Whose approval are we trying to win? Has America or the United Nations applauded us on our great sense of morality and fair play? Has France or Russia? You’ve got to be kidding. In their heart of hearts, they think that we’re jerks. No one fights a war this way.

Calculations of the death-toll from the Anglo-American bombing of Dresden in February 1945 have varied widely. Figures have ranged from 35,000 through 100,000 and more. The German city of Dresden had a population of three quarters of a million people, plus hordes of anonymous refugees from the Eastern Front. It was destroyed in one night by Allied aircraft armed with more than 4,500 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs. The devastated area amounted to around 13 square miles – not much different from the size of Gaza. The victims weren’t Nazi soldiers but innocent civilians. No one said a word.

Toward the end of World War 2, following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan, knowing that thousands of American soldiers would be killed. To avoid this, American airmen dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, immediately killing 66,000 innocent civilians. Then they dropped the “Fat Man” bomb over Nagasaki on 9 August, killing 40,000. Six days later, the Japanese surrendered without the loss of one American soldier in Japan. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki. Once again, no one said a word.

If you ask me, it’s time we took a lesson from the goyim. Before even one of our soldiers steps foot in Gaza, instead of bombing vacant warehouses and tunnels, we should level a few eight-story buildings filled with “innocent civilians.” That will stops the rockets, believe me.

Too Many IDF Reservists

By: Jewish Press News Briefs

Published: November 17th, 2012

While the IDF has authorized the call up of up to 75,000 reservists, over 100,000 reservists have asked to serve in Operation Amud Anan.

The telephones in the IDF Reserve Center are ringing off the hook, and the soldiers manning phones are trying to explain to the reservist volunteers that the IDF has enough soldiers right now.

A Moment of Truth in Israel

By: Daniel Greenfield

Published: November 18th, 2012

Photo Credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90

Seven years ago the Israeli government decided to forcibly evict the Jewish residents of Gaza and withdraw all bases and forces from the area. The experts, some with the government and some with the media, assured everyone that it would be for the best and that withdrawal would actually improve the security situation in the country.

It was put about that resources and lives were being wasted protecting Israelis living in Gaza, while those Israelis insisted that their presence in Gaza was protecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The experts laughed at them. Now the experts are keeping an ear open for air raid sirens because as it turned out, those farmers and teachers, those men and women growing lettuce in greenhouses and building homes on hilltops, from which rockets are being launched, were the ones protecting Tel Aviv.

"They are now being asked to relinquish these accomplishments for the greater good," the government press release said of their houses and farms, of their synagogues and greenhouses. And the greater good was served. The greenhouses were turned into Hamas training camps and the synagogues were burnt to the ground. Rockets fly into the air from the ruins of broken houses.

No longer will your sons have to die in Gaza, the experts said. A month later rockets were falling on Sderot. A year later Gilad Shalit had been kidnapped and Israeli soldiers were back again, dying in a Gaza that was now run by Hamas.

Among the bundle of promises from the Sharon government, was that the Gaza withdrawal was part of an oral agreement with the United States limiting further withdrawals and concessions. That agreement lasted for another few years until Obama took office and no one in his administration could ever remember such an agreement or accept its validity.
Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/daniel-greenfield/a-moment-of-truth-in-israel/2012/11/18/0/?print

What To Do In Case of Rocket Attack

By: Jewish Press News Briefs

Published: November 17th, 2012

This graphic illustrates what you need to do if a rocket siren goes off in your area.

Removing the Evil from Our Midst

By: Harry Maryles

Published: November 19th, 2012

Photo Credit: Wissam Nassar/flash90

I am so sick of these people. OK… I know they are Baalei Chesed. They are renowned for helping their coreligionists in a myriad of ways. They provide food and shelter and all manner of kindness to those in need. And there are many in their camp who qualify. They bend over backwards to help in any and every way they can. Their network of Chesed is widely known and respected. And it is why they are so popular among their own. Especially the devout. But despite their vaunted devotion to God, they have become an evil people in their perceived service to Him.

Hamas can do Chesed all day long for its people. It doesn’t matter. The reason their people suffer is no one’s fault but their own. They perpetuate that status with their deadly antagonism towards Israel. An antagonism that includes daily indiscriminate bombardment of Israeli population centers from Gaza. Their Chesed does not extend to non Muslims. To Hamas, we are all infidels requiring either conversion, subservience to them, or elimination. That is the nature of their hatred of the Jew - who adds insult to injury by occupying Palestine.

Let us not make any mistake about this. To Hamas and other Islamists, Jews are not only occupiers, they are infidels who have usurped what they believe is their Muslim God given right to the land. Until they achieve the goal of taking it back, they will use all means at their disposal to accomplish it. Including the rockets they fire indiscriminately into Israel. Human life means nothing to them in that goal. Not even their own.

That’s why they place their rockets bases in school yards and other civilian population centers in Gaza. They use their own people as human shields. And the devout Islamist civilian allows them to do it. They all want to be martyrs for the cause. There is no greater achievement in life than to die for God. Getting Palestine is such a goal. I will never forget the sight I once saw on the TV News of a Muslim mother expressing her joy that her son blew himself up in a suicide attack against Israel.

Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/haemtza/removing-the-evil-from-our-midst/2012/11/19/0/?print

How to End the Israel-Hamas War

By: Barry Rubin

Published: November 19th, 2012
Latest update: November 18th, 2012

Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90

Originally published at Rubin Reports.

A lot of people have asked the purpose of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas. Some, including those supposedly expert on the region, have been mystified. They cannot seem to figure out what is going on or what the goal of this Israeli operation could be.

The answer is simple. Given the premise that Hamas is in a permanent state of war with Israel and will attack Israel whenever it can get away with it, Israel needs to do three things.

First, show Hamas that it cannot daily attack Israel and Israeli civilians without a cost.

Second, show Hamas that the cost is unsustainable and that it needs to keep the peace or suffer massive losses to its governmental, economic, and military infrastructure. This includes a personal cost to those who have taken the lead in attacking Israel and especially to those who have organized terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Third, remove from Hamas the means of making war by destroying its rockets, missiles, and other weaponry. Of course, they will rebuild but it is better to have an enemy that must start over again from near-zero than one that is adding thousands of weapons onto the thousands it already possesses, including the addition of more advanced arms and especially longer-range missiles.

Ending the current fighting in the Gaza Strip is also simple. There are two requirements: an international willingness to do it and an important decision from the new Egyptian government.
Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/analysis/rubin-reports/how-to-end-the-israel-hamas-war/2012/11/19/0/?print

Winning ‘Defensive Shield’ Will Be Messy and Lengthy, But We Must Win, Now

By: Meir Indor

Published: November 19th, 2012

Israeli tanks have been deployed along Gaza border for an invasion on November 16, 2012.
Photo Credit: Uri Lenz/ Flash90

Assuming that the term “Pillar of Cloud” wasn’t selected at random by an IDF computer (which does in fact happen sometimes), we have a problem. I have to hope that the name refers not to a strictly aerial operation, but to aerial bombardment preceding the entry of infantry and armored forces on the ground in Gaza, just as the pillar of cloud and fire preceded the Children of Israel in the wilderness.

If indeed the latter is the true meaning of Operation Pillar of Cloud (the Hebrew name for Operation Pillar of Defense), then it is going to run into opposition from Amram Mitzna and other high-ranking leftist officers, who already this week came out against a ground invasion to put an end to the terrorism. They claim that the right tool for the job is aerial bombardment—and even that, only so long as it is restrained and limited to very specific targets, as in the assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari this week.

No Ceasefire, My Son, Finish the Job!

By: Tzvi Fishman

Published: November 19th, 2012

Israeli soldiers along the border are preparing their tanks for a possible ground operation inside the Gaza Strip.
Photo Credit: Gili Yaari/ Flash90

Dear Son,

It was good speaking with you and hearing that you are in excellent spirits. Please call home from time to time when you can. And try to fill your free time with Torah learning. We are told that Joshua was reprimanded by the angel in charge of the armies of Israel for neglecting to study Torah during breaks in the battle. We are the Nation of the “Safra and Sefer,’ the Sword and the Book. When we engage in battle, we give 100% to the fight. But whenever we have free time, the obligation to meditate on the Torah day and night returns in full measure. I know, it isn’t easy in your present situation, not knowing when the order to enter Gaza will come, but Torah study is as important as cleaning your rifle and making sure that your machsaniot are all loaded with bullets.

For the meantime, I will try to send you a Torah thought each day. I noticed an abridged “easy reader” copy of ‘Robinson Caruso” in your room, and remembered you saying that you wanted to improve your skills in English, so I’ll write these letters in English, and that way you can learn Torah and improve your English at the same time.

If you have access to a radio, I’m sure you are hearing a lot of talk about the supreme effort of the Israeli Air Force not to injure “innocent civilians.” You already know what I think about that. We are not engaged in a match of badminton. This is war. The Hamas isn’t merely a handful of terrorists. Gaza is a terrorist state. The people living there identify with Hamas and with its constantly vocalized oath to destroy Israel. They “voted” Hamas into power. Hamas and all of the citizens of Gaza seek our annihilation. This is a war of state against state.

Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/felafel-on-rye/no-cease-fire-my-son-finish-the-job/2012/11/19/0/?print

Actions of Pride....

This is in a football match between Beitar Yerushalaim and the Arab group of Sahnin, who didn't want to have Israeli symbols, like the Israeli flag, put up in the game.

So Ben Ari decided to let them know that this is the state of Israel, and Israeli symbols will be put up just about everywhere.

You can see Ben Ari here after about 43 seconds.

See the Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETbQQSUH-yA&noredirect=1

Gaza 2012: Proportionality and Collective Punishment

November 19, 2012 | Eli E. Hertz

It would be a denial of reality to assume that only a small group of terrorists could be involved in the thousands of documented acts of terror in the past 10 years by Palestinian Arabs. In the seven years since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets directly at civilian populations in Israel. It would be reckless to assume that these acts of terror are isolated, undertaken independently, without the direct involvement of the Palestinian populace and the leadership they opt to elect.

Israel often is portrayed in the media, by Western leaders, human rights activists and the many different organs of the United Nations as inflicting disproportionate and collective punishment on many Palestinians for the deeds of a few terrorists.

Ironically, the prohibition of imposing "collective penalties [punishment] ... intimidation and terrorism" that Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention [1] talks about, should be applied in this case to the millions of innocent men, women, and children of Israel that are collectively being punished day-in and day-out by Arab terrorists for "offenses" they never "personally committed." As to the "terrorism" Article 33 speaks about; it is the Israelis that fight to prevent Palestinian terrorism, and not the other way around.