The Media and Anti-Israel Anti-Zionist Slanted Coverage

Read or listen to news reporting which emanates from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), AFP (Agence France Presse), AP (Associated Press), CNN (Cable News Network), Reuters, Fox News, UPI (United Press International), Yahoo, Google, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, or even if your news comes with a laugh as you get your news from Comedy Central, or the myriad of smaller news agencies, television news, radio news, political talk shows, print media or even blogs including Beyond the Cusp, as all of these rely on the major news reports and other media to provide the meat and gristle on which we all prey upon to survive and provide the best commentary and even historical references and other interesting color as well as opinions and positions well backed up with facts. The problem comes when you are covering Israel and trying to report relatively fairly, though our Zionist roots tend to make our writings have a slant, often the opposite than many of the news reports, due to their omitting valuable and necessary information or taking the word of terrorist leaders without any filter or validations and pass these propaganda as raw unadulterated news, one needs to carefully provide balance and factual backup of your positions. Here at Beyond the Cusp we often refer to our views as being pro-Israel and pro-Zionist as we made Aliyah almost two years past and have enjoyed our new nation and have found the people to be very accommodating, friendly, helpful and finally finding other Jews who feel as we do about Israel and the problematic situation our dear nation has had foisted upon us. As we are all damaged when Israel is damaged and we feel that it is bad enough that so many news sources report about Israel always in a biased, strongly negative light and then we are told that all we need do is talk more forcefully and then our voices will be heard and Israel will have a positive side that might go a far way to negating the perceived negative slant. The difficulty with this suggestion is when Israelis speak more forcefully the reporters write the quote relegating them to have come from someone who appeared as a desperate Israeli, anxious Israeli, enraged Israeli, or simply called a crazed Israeli which negates everything related as the reporter introduction makes sure to discount any pro-Israel opinions by only using the most wide eyed and loud Israeli and pit their frenzied Israeli opposite a Hamas Fatah spokesperson who is telegenic and calm or they simply just have the Hamas or Fatah spokesperson alone with no intelligent counter either way. Last summer’s coverage of Operation Protective Edge and the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) review looking for violation of human rights both have glaring deficiencies which no factual based reasoning could do without, namely facts. Let’s just look at the simple and obvious slanted coverage and review.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission made the slanting of their report easiest to explain as their biasing of their review was by obvious omissions. Their review began on June 13, 2014 omitting the previous months’ provocation which included the kidnapping of three teens by Hamas operatives who then killed the youths burying them in a shallow grave near their Arab community. The review also omitted the ramping of rocket firing out of Gaza which had reached intolerable levels of several hundreds a day reaching Tel Aviv area which was another escalation. Had Israel not had Iron Dome systems ringing Tel Aviv and other areas of heavy population areas intercepting these rockets, including a number of newer rockets with obviously greater range and warheads than during previous confrontations, the Israeli casualties may easily have outnumbered those suffered by Gazans as a number of the largest missiles with as high as one thousand pound warheads would have struck central downtown Tel Aviv and taken down fifty plus story buildings. This too did not manage to be recorded in the ramping of the threats out of Gaza. By starting on June 13, 2014 and concentrating their review on the start of the Israeli response to the ramped up rocket fire into Israel and by their slanting through starting point they managed to make the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and others rockets fired into Israel to be a response to Israeli unprovoked invasion and not Israeli actions being in response to the kidnapping followed by the increased rocket launches into Israel. Their study further counted the resulting casualties in a manner which portrayed the lack of Israeli casualties pitted against the numbers of Gazan casualties as another sign that Israel was using disproportional force. The reality was completely due to Israel using disproportional defense of their civilians with the Iron Dome missile interception system which intercepted Hamas and friends rockets with an unbelievable rate ranking its success at approaching perfection well over ninety percent with the few rockets which got through being unable to cause multiple deaths was due to the Israeli investment in rocket and bomb shelters and hardening schools and other places where children might otherwise have simply become victims. By concentrating on simply casualty figures the UNHRC was ignoring the fact that the Israelis had invested in defensive measures which kept their people safe while Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Islamic State and others invested their money on rockets, weapons and tunnel construction which they intended to utilize in a night of mass terror in Israel. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) found unbelievable and unestimated number and existence of tunnels both as an interconnected assault system under Gaza itself and infiltration into Israel with many of the tunnels having dug numerous branches such that it provided multiple exits and deploy points in Israel. They found IDF uniforms with proper unit markings, handcuffs and large plastic locking straps which can also be used as handcuffs along with syringed and sedative drugs which could be used to make anyone captured into a manageable subject barely conscious thus easier to take hostage, maps of the Israeli communities they were probably going to take hostages, these maps included identifying buildings where the most valuable hostages would be located such as schools, day care centers and other similar denotations, motorcycles which would permit the deployment of terrorists and maps of Tel Aviv and bordering areas. They found plans in the tunnels which described in detail a horrific and well thought out plan which would have added to the confusion after a massive rocket assault on Rosh Hashanah attacking the very synagogues in Tel Aviv where the largest were denoted on the maps, the Jewish New Year’s celebration. Israel dodged a bullet by locating and searching the tunnels thus averting a disaster if this plan had been launched during the High Holidays.

So, by omission of the attacks by making the study by the UNHRC begin with the first volleys of artillery and tank fire followed by IDF forces going into Gaza, the UNHRC turned a defensive effort into a calculated assault with an intent to destroy as much of Gaza as they could by the IDF, IAF (Israeli Air Force) and the Israeli Navy. The UNHRC also investigated on site and took every Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Gazans who were chosen for the interviews by the Hamas governing body as unbiased sources while on the Israeli side the UNHRC had specific NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) from whom they asked for representatives for their witness accounts as their debriefing of official spokespersons. The problem comes from the NGOs they questioned all being under the funding umbrella of the New Israel Fund or directly funded by the European Union and individual governments. These are NGOs whose main raison d‘être is to denounce the IDF and any right leaning or actual nationalist or Zionist politician and have an especially deep hatred of Prime Minister Netanyahu and guilt by association any government coalition he heads. These NGOs are almost universally funded by outside entities including anti-Israeli NGOs most often from Europe or the United States, European governments and wealthy individuals and their organizations who particularly hate Israel or simply hate Jews such as George Soros. The UNHRC refuses to use random or official entities to procure information and seek out those who will further their intents to demonize Israel. Thus the UNHRC always will produce a severely biased and derogatory study of Israel, the only nation that the UNHRC bylaws demands that they pass a resolution denouncing Israel for the crime-de-jour before addressing anything else the UNHRC is investigating.

The European and world media entities listed at the top of the article did a similar attitude check during the coverage of Operation Protective Edge. Their reporting hardly ever mentioned the three teens kidnapped and murdered and only obliquely referenced the massive increased ramping of the rockets and mortars launched at Israeli population centers usually claiming that Israel responded to rocket launchings always intoned to imply that the rocket launchings were not a huge deal. One has to wonder how these same broadcasters would cover merely three rockets per day being fired into their home nation’s cities by terrorists who ruled a neighboring enclave as Gaza is to Israel. We all know they would be hailing their heroic forces which would have received orders to go into the neighboring enclave and raze it to the ground and those instructions and orders would have followed an intensive series of artillery and bombing runs designed to completely eradicate the entity and the world would have thought nothing of it. If you doubt that there would be an intense reaction to such just read about how the English reacted initially to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast and around London and you will read about the British calling up reserve troops and placing them at almost every corner in Belfast and the use of heavy equipment in their fight against the IRA. Meanwhile the slant of the coverage was to incessantly keep a running total as provided by official spokespersons for Hamas, like they would never lie, and report on Gazan casualties while stressing that there have been almost no casualties in Israel implying disproportional force used by the Israelis. They never divulged the why almost no Israelis were being casualties. The reason actually was a form of disproportional planning and investment in civilian protections. Hamas and friends had a system of bunkers and tunnels that they could have given shelter comfortably to every living thing in Gaza and still managed to get their people through the tunnels to where they could best attack Israel always with the intent on striking civilian targets inside Israel. When the largest hospital in Gaza was struck the media was very quick to blame Israel sighting their own eyewitness accounts of a projectile striking the hospital and then implied directly that it had to be an Israel projectile. Within minutes the Hamas spokespeople were disseminating that the Israelis had struck a Hospital on purpose and for no reason as there was no military target there. They never requested the IDF look into how the hospital was struck and if they had they would have been shown the four rocket series launched from that location and that the four rockets diverted from their firing location and one struck somewhere in Ashkelon, one struck the Shati Refugee Camp, one went out over the Mediterranean Sea and one struck the al-Sifra Hospital. These trajectories were given in care of the Israeli projection systems mapping (see below map) used for immediate return fire on the location from where the rockets originate.

Radar Trajectory of barrage launched from within Gaza depicting strike points including the short round strike on the Shifa Hospital which Israel blamed by Hamas and Media accepted Hamas talking point unchecked

The biggest piece of omission was the real reason for the disparate numbers of casualties and damage to infrastructure. This was due to a form of disproportionate defense systems provided for the protection of their civilians. As denoted earlier, Israel has a series of shelters and all new residential structures are required to have one room in the units made as a rocket shelter which is fortified to provide what is deemed adequate protection and all large buildings have such rooms easily accessible to those working inside while schools and such are also fortified against rockets nearly universally in Israel. There is a similar system in Gaza which is better known as the terrorist bunker and tunnel systems but the Gazan civilians are not permitted to take shelter within. But such is not the main reason for the difference in these numbers as there was a force multiplier which rendered the vast number of rockets fired out of Gaza ineffective as they were intercepted by the Iron Dome System which track the rockets and determines if they are heading for an area where civilians are likely to be and those it intercepts with an accuracy and percentage beyond expectation. But there is also the attitude difference which was pointed out by the Israeli Prime Minister when he was asked well after the fighting had ended and in an interview by Israeli media which was made available for the asking, still waiting, still? Anyways, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated simply that, “We use our rockets to protect our civilians while Hamas uses their civilians to protect their rockets.” But there is more. While Israel placed the Iron Dome Batteries strategically just outside civilian areas such that they would have the most advantageous angle for intercepting Hamas and friends’ rockets. The Iron Dome systems were the only combat units stationed anywhere near civilian centers unless intelligence predicted a strike was imminent. This stationing IDF units and indirect fire stations such as mortars, rockets, missiles and artillery units outside of built up areas was intended to provide all military targets as far as possible from civilian centers such that any rockets fired at Israeli military would not pose any threat to the civilian population. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Fatah, al-Qaeda and the rest of the merry bands of terror entities operated exclusively from civilian areas as shown in this video below

There is one final item and for a change we will try to keep it short. It has to do with the lie that Gaza is the most heavily populated area on earth. How many times have you heard that reported or alluded to in conversations with asides like, Reporter Bob, isn’t it crowded with people all in a closed in area there is Gaza? –Reporter replies, Why, yes, attractive anchor person, you can hardly move in places it is so tight and people at every turn wherever you look (camera pans a large group of Gazans standing around looking innocently going about who knows what but it sure is crowded as camera return to reporter Bob, and that picture about says it all as this is the scene wherever you go. What you never quite figure out is how come whenever they go to reporter Bob he is not surrounded by Gazans getting in the way of the camera as they go about fighting their way through people packed like sardines in a can. Truthfully, if we were to compute density of people during the work week Tel Aviv with its skyscrapers has a higher density than does Gaza City. The reality is very different because as Israel places their military out in the open away from civilians, Hamas and friends lace their military units amidst civilians and often right next to schools, hospitals, hotels where the media stay (as in above video) and also try to gather as many kids near their rocket launches in an attempt to get as many civilians killed as possible. I can hear the propaganda question already of well isn’t Gaza so built up that there is nowhere for the Hamas soldiers to operate? Soldiers?!, we reply. Hamas and friends terrorist forces have places to operate outside of the two or three large metropolises but they choose their locations to endanger the maximum number of civilians as possible. Why would one of the complaints made about the blockade of Gaza in order to keep weapons out also prevents the farmers from getting their goods out to market easily. So, there are farms in Gaza which implies there are open spaces in Gaza. The argument that if they operated outside the cities in the farm areas, then the farmer’s crops might get damaged is a divergence committed to excuse their risking lives of people making the crops worth more than the lives of Gazans. So, crops are to be protected and civilians are worth less than crops, what an argument but the reporters just report that there is no place else for the rockets and command centers to be set up as Gaza is the most densely populated on the plant. Well, yes, if you do not consider Hong Kong, Singapore, Vatican City, The Maldives, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Nauru, Taiwan, Barbados, Malta, Monaco and finally Gaza, yep, the most densely populated place on the planet except for those top ten and that one in the pesky one holding down slot eleven pushing the most densely populated area on earth down to number twelve, oops. If they are instead talking about Gaza City by itself well then we need to compare cities, well it did not make the list of the top fifty cities for population density. Well, I looked hard to find a list which placed the Gaza Strip as the most densely populated nation and the best it came in at on one and only one list at third and otherwise always twelfth give or take a couple of slots and more leaning at even further down the list than twelfth. But what about open spaces you ask? How about my handy-dandy map of the Gaza Strip showing the built-up population-dense areas versus open lands as a picture is worth a thousand words and I promised to keep this short.

Display shows large open areas with little population where Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other combatants could operate without threat to the population.

All done. Hope I was brief enough and did not stray off too far from the point and thanks for visiting.

Beyond the Cusp

The Threat Facing Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Others in Gaza

 

This summer may prove to end differently than previous summers; it may end without the usual rocket attacks ramping to a crescendo eventually forcing Israel to mount an offensive to put an end to the rockets raining down on Israeli civilian areas. This came to mind that the summer rocket season may have started as a rocket was fired into Israel instigating an Israeli response. Those of us who follow the news in Israel are well attuned to the Hamas and friends usual offensive play out. It starts with a single rocket followed by an arrest to show the European and other Western media that Hamas is a real governing body that does what they can to interdict terrorist activities, especially rockets launched into Israel. There will be a few weeks where one or two rockets are fired on Israel with a smattering of arrests of supposed rocket launchers. The one item missing from actual governance is there are never any arrests of those running the production of the rockets. Also, before launching at Israel, Hamas holds some tests firings into the Mediterranean Sea of their newest rocket designs to test their accuracy and range. If this ends up being a normal summer, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the rest will start to fire a rocket a day after the first few weeks of slowly ramped up rocket firing into Israel. Within the next three weeks there will be increases in rocket launches into Israel initially forcing Israel to deploy Iron Dome interception batteries around the civilian areas to protect the population. The launches soon reach tens of rockets per day to eventually hundreds of rockets, many fired in barrages, eventually forcing an Israeli military response into Gaza. Then will begin the Great Hypocrisy.

 

The comparison is easy to make if the media were not attempting to sensationalize the story and make it all about how Israel is causing disproportional civilian casualties. There will be daily releases of each day’s body count as well as a running body count intended to depict Israel as inflicting such harm while there really was no need as virtually no Israeli had been harmed by anything Hamas, Islamic Jihad et al had done. So what if a few rockets are launched at the Israelis as most do not strike built up areas and those that might are intercepted with amazing success by the Iron Dome systems. That lead story sets up the body count comparisons. So, exactly what causes such a high body count within Gaza and such a comparatively low casualty count in Israel? Israel has an extensive warning Code Red System in place where as soon as rockets are fired, using advanced tracking radars the Israelis plot its most probable strike profile and then sound Code Red alarms off in any area which potentially could be struck and the Israelis head into shelters and safe rooms until the threat subsides. This alone would make for a minimized number of casualties within Israel. Secondly, Israel deploys the Iron Dome Intercept Systems around the civilian areas where it will serve the most effective. These systems track the rockets very carefully and can with great accuracy compute their trajectory and determine whether or not each rocket will strike within urban or other populated areas. These systems will compute which battery needs to intercept rockets determined to strike populated areas and then the Iron Domes fire an intercept rocket and intercept the rockets with an unbelievable over ninety percent success rate thus adding another layer of protection.

 

On the Hamas ruled Gaza areas the story is quite different. The first thing to remember is that Israel pulled every Israeli civilian, police and military personnel out of Gaza during the disengagement intended to permit the Arab Palestinian Authority, their presumed governance, to take control of the area and prove their ability to run an efficient governance. This experiment gave almost immediate results which were less than promising as the well-armed and United States trained Arab Palestinian Authority armed forces were unable to prevent the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror entities from launching a coup which sent the Arab Palestinian Authority troops running for their lives into Israel and eventually back to their protected areas in Judea and Samaria. The showing of force put up by the Arab Palestinian Authority troops who were trained in Jordan by United States Special Forces and armed with modern weapons by the United States proved to be of little value when it came to protecting Gaza and its Arab Palestinian Authority governance. They were almost as pitiful as the Iraqi troops have proved in fighting ISIS, and this may prove problematic in the near future. This means that Gaza is a self-ruled entity which is governed by a coalition of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist representatives who are intentionally kept separate from the actual terror acts they willingly permit to be launched and financed by the Gaza leadership, which is only loosely allied with the actual government. So, we need to remember two items. First is that Gaza has been a separate area outside of any Israeli influence since the disengagement in August of 2005. Second is that Gaza has its protection and governance provided by terrorist government provided mostly by Hamas and Islamic Jihad which also runs their police and military units as well.

 

With Hamas and Islamic Jihad responsible for protecting the civilian population of Gaza, one might inquire exactly what kind of protection is provided by their governing bodies and their military forces which term is loosely applied to the terrorist forces which wear face concealing ski masks and often parade through Gaza City shooting AK 47s and other weapons into the air as a show of force and meant to impress upon the civilians exactly who is in charge in Gaza, as if they need constant reminders and cowing. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and company (HIJ) have an extremely unique system in place to protect the Arab and other civilians within their jurisdiction; they initially rely on Israel taking extreme care in choosing their targets when they strike such that the possibilities for human losses are minimized. The recent strike was a perfect example as Israel struck a rocket making facility and storage area, otherwise known as a Hamas government building of importance, at an hour which was most likely to prove it to be unmanned and thus having the least possibility for civilian casualties. This is the first line of protection provided by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and company, a complete reliance that Israel will minimize the possibility of civilian casualties. It must be noted that should this actually highly effective manner in which Israel provides for the safety of the Arab population in Gaza, then it can be counted on that there will be press conferences and memos sent to every media agency listing the name, number of unfortunates who now have no means of support and everything required for a fully fleshed out story about the horrors under these incessant Israeli strikes which appear to have no rhyme or reason and just come out of the blue. This rendition of the events will be copied studiously by the reporters as they would not want to have to explain to HIJ how and why their story did not include the entirety of the story line and Heaven forbid should the fact that the responses by Israel are to the provocations of the rockets raining down on their civilian populations. It can never be reported that HIJ have been launching rockets into Israel targeting civilian targets in hopes of maximizing casualties. If it proves necessary to report that HIJ have been firing rockets into Israel, such mention must come after the coverage of the Israeli strike and be framed as much as possible as a retaliatory strike for the Israeli initialized cycle of violence. HIJ know exactly what story must be made the central pillar of the coverage and this is largely predicated on the idea that Israel started the violence, while Arabs are being murdered by Israeli strikes there have been almost no Israeli casualties and most hypocritical is that Israel has not positioned any of the Iron Dome batteries in Gaza to protect the civilians in Gaza, especially in Gaza City and the refugee camp located on the outskirts of Gaza City. There is also never any question of why there are Arab refugees held in Gaza as refugees but not permitted citizenship or freedom, very peculiar, are not these so-called refugees part of the Arab Palestinian population which needs to be repatriated with the rest of the Arab Palestinian population such as that of Gaza? Sometimes one just has to go, ‘Huh??!??’

 

Once the rocket fire by HIJ out of Gaza and striking in Israel with many targeted at civilian population centers and Israel is launching return fire with the intent of destroying the launch site, then HIJ immediately apply their second level of protection for their Arab population. This is a very interesting system used by HIJ as it makes one wonder how it is supposed to minimize the number of Arab residents injured or killed, especially children, during periods of exchanges of fire with the Israelis using highly accurate artillery in counter-fire modality. Counter-fire modality is a highly technological achievement which can be found in the arsenals of most advanced nations. The manner in which this functions is almost automatic and with minimal human input other than to interdict to prevent a return fire for some reason. The event train of counter-fire technology is very simple to explain and much harder to accomplish. Upon the firing of a rocket, artillery round or mortar fired the radars intercept its trajectory and which type of projectile is being tracked. These radar systems are so pin-point accurate in their calculations and so fast that human response of similar complexity would take hours, but that is why we have computers and advanced systems. The computers use the trajectory and type of projectile to compute both its likely area it will strike and even more accurately the exact location from which it was fired. This second set of coordinates are then automatically fed to the fire and control module of an artillery piece which then targets the location and fires a return round meant to destroy the firing location and equipment preventing its further use. All of this computing, targeting and firing of the return counter-fire takes less than fifteen seconds until the computed and counter-fired round strike its target. The HIJ system employed to prevent casualties is allowing and even encouraging children, often under age ten, to stand around the firing battery so they can see how it works. This evil use of children just to provide media coverage pictures of a slaughter, the more gruesome the better and children killed is putting the cherry on top as such guarantees front page top of the fold coverage of the inhuman carnage caused by Israel. The eventual story and caption to the article will completely ignore the five ton artillery piece having been rendered a twisted wreck at the center of the carnage as the pictures will be ever so carefully framed so as to not include the weapons which was central to the attack.

 

The hypocritical and inhuman use of women and children goes much further. When HIJ knows of a coming Israeli air strike, something requiring the most minimal of intelligence work as the Israelis will first send a drone or strike aircraft to pass over the location and environment around it dropping leaflets warning of the coming air strike advising the people to be elsewhere for the immediate future. Upon such warnings the HIJ controlled radio station will make a call for women and children to protect the building or whatever target by ringing the roof or target location with their bodies such that upon reaching the location to make the strike the IDF pilot will see the civilians and abort the strike mission. Once again HIJ is depending on the humanity of the Israeli soldiers and airmen and directly risking their civilians’ lives. Another defense of the people provided by the HIJ leadership is their placements of their rocket launchers, mortar tubes and artillery pieces. It is a rule of warfare to place such tools of war distant from places where civilians are gathered, especially if such place is purported to be a safe zone by their government, but HIJ commanders and operatives intentionally place these weapon systems adjacent to civilian designated shelters counting on the human carnage which such acts potentially can cause when counter-fire systems are being utilized by the other side, a practice often employed by forces to destroy such enemy position and a known system used by Israel. The HIJ forces have been known to place rocket and mortar launching systems on the roof of buildings being utilized for displaced civilians to be cared for, schools and even hospitals. Israeli counter-fire systems are given the coordinates for schools and hospitals and these locations and close proximity require a human to interject and permit such strikes only if the location has multiple launchers or other extenuating circumstances which might make firing necessary. These officers make their decisions with the full knowledge that every such decision will be reviewed by a panel of ranking officers which will include non-infantry and line officers and may include lawyers from the JAG offices. Such consideration likely caution the officers making such decisions to opt for the most passive of responses and not risk a strike going bad.

 

The final hypocrisy is the HIJ commanders place the majority of their troops and leadership underground in their bunker and tunnel systems. If instead of being utilized to strike more effectively at the Israelis the HIJ commanders would allow for Gazans to also take refuge in these sheltered areas there would be far fewer civilian casualties. Unfortunately the HIJ commanders would rather have a larger than necessary body count so as to be able to point to the fact that the Gazans have died as a result of Israeli actions than have Israelis died from anything HIJ had succeeded in doing. The implication is that Israel does not care and ruthlessly murders innocent Arab Gazans as all one need do is view the disparity in the numbers of casualties. Never mind that the Israeli forces attained the highest percentage of combatant to civilian ratio than any other modern day army in recent history and far superior ratio than the drone strikes ordered by United States Presidents Bush or Obama where the ratios approached nine-to-one civilian to combatant kill ratios. That is nine civilians killed for every combatant killed in the United States drone strike program since 2010 while during Protective Edge Israeli actions in Gaza killed at a one-to-one ratio, a far better average than the United States drone strikes which President Obama had lauded as one of the best and most effective programs available to strike terror targets. Meanwhile, a review of the media coverage of the Protective Edge military intervention from last summer we find some telling trends. The main theme was ‘disproportionality’ which accused Israel of using disproportionate force. This was a farce in that the HIJ forces fired a greater number of rockets, artillery and mortar rounds intended for Israeli population centers than Israel fired or bombed in Gaza. Israeli strikes were clearly intended for military targets and safeguards were taken in an attempt to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. It was in order to minimize Civilian casualties which led to the Israeli ground troops going into Gaza rather than continuing to use aircraft and counter-fire ordinance. Had Israel honestly not cared about loss of life in Gaza she could have indiscriminately fired into Gaza City where most of the HIJ firing locations were placed and simply leveled all of Gaza city and the bordering refugee camp, Arab Palestinian refugee camp. Israel did not need to send her young men into urban areas to fight the most dangerous and difficult of all forms of warfare. This also is why the Arab casualty count was so high and needlessly so. Despite the lie that Gaza is so heavily populated that HIJ forces have no choice but to fire from urban areas as no open areas exist, this is disproven when one also remembers that the HIJ spokespeople often criticize Israel for not doing enough to allow for the Gazan farmers to get their produce to market. Farmers? That means farms, right? That means open fields if I remember what farming requires. We covered this in the article “Gaza, Hamas, Corrected Falsehoods, Frightening Realities”. There is a short video exposing the placement of rocket launching sites to endanger civilians, this time reporters staying in one of Gaza’s hotels, and has a small map showing the urban areas versus the open areas where according to the rules of war is where one is supposed to place their artillery, rockets and mortar tubes.

 

But there may be a wholly different war this summer and it has nothing at all to do with Israel initially. There have been threats against Hamas, which will mean all of HIJ, made by ISIS claiming that they have been too light and easy in their so-called war with Israel. That is ISIS’s complaint, not mine. ISIS has promised HIJ that they will soon be replaced by real Islamic warriors who fight for the glory of Allah, not wimps such as those forces so ineffective against Israel who are unable of even keeping up a continuous level of assault. So, ISIS is threatening to come in and firstly make sure that the Gazans and the members of HIJ meet the strict standards if ISIS in their observance of the proper and righteous form purported by ISIS. What will be interesting should this calamity strike the people of Gaza, I am less concerned about the holy and Islamic members of HIJ as their stringent observance of Islam has to be beyond question, at least which is what I have understood their statements to prove. Maybe ISIS has a different measure of Islamic purity than the various members of HIJ, though I am a bit concerned for the members of the nationalist and secular Fatah members. There is a definitive possibility that ISIS will arrive just in time to judge the efforts made by HIJ as they should be getting close to hitting their stride and launching over a hundred projectiles a day into Israel. Past experience has taught the world that this is where Israel draws the line, seventy-five or so missiles a day, potentially understandable, moving towards one-hundred, not as easily explained away and may require avoiding public appearances and microphones, over one-hundred a day, well now you’ve gone and gotten Israeli leaders undivided attention. This will be made obvious as speeches will ring forth from the podium of the Knesset. You will know you are in a dire situation when the Prime Minister takes to the floor and demands an end to the rockets raining from Gaza or else. After that warning a simple launching of that two-hundred-fiftieth rocket and loose the IDF and the dogs of war. Then again, ISIS might actually mean that their forces in the Sinai Peninsula are going to be tasked with replacing HIJ this summer. They might need Gaza to hide from the Egyptian forces which Egyptian President Sisi (the opposite of ISIS) is reaching the end of his rope, a wholly different meaning than that will have for former Egyptian President Morsi in the near future. ISIS forces may believe they can hide in Gaza as that would place them beyond the reach of the Egyptian army, or at least that may be their assumption. Either way it sounds like HIJ may have some real problems heading their way and then ISIS will find that should Egyptian President Sisi really wish to strike them, their being in Gaza will be of no help as Israel will have no complaints for Egypt sweeping ISIS from Gaza would probably be looked upon favorably by the Israeli government. They might even place the IDF strategically around Gaza just to assure that no ISIS fighters or members of HIJ cross into Israel seeking sanctuary. Perhaps a sign put in place stating ‘No Vacancies’ would be helpful. Looks like any way one slices it, Gaza is in for a rough and tumble summer.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Lessons of Carthage, a Teaching Moment for Israel

Any serious study of military history will include the Punic Wars and the lessons which should be taken from the entire series of events and their resultant outcomes and ramifications into the future. The first peculiarity of the Punic Wars is the fact that there were three wars between two of the greatest powers of their time and definitely the strongest forces around the Mediterranean Sea. The initial Punic War was fought as Rome attempted to settle islands in the Mediterranean Sea which were already part of the Carthaginian Empire which was largely based on trade with a strong emphasis on water based trade routes. This resulted in Carthage having a very powerful naval forces which was capable of placing superior numbers of ships with skillful and experienced crews against superior ships of Rome which were only defeated due to their lesser numbers and less experienced crews. Still the Romans managed to severely damage the Carthaginian naval power. Much of the First Punic War was fought in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea with negligible land based fighting except for the battles for control of Sicily which resulted in a Roman crushing land based victory. In the interim period between the first two wars, the Romans seized the opportunity of the troubles and violent conflicts within Cartage taking not only Sicily but also seizing Sardinia and Corsica.

The Second Punic War included the one item almost everyone remembers, the crossing of the Alps with elephants by the Carthaginian General Hannibal. Hannibal’s victories across the northern lands leading to Rome were brilliant victory after victory for his forces defeating the Roman legions. The cost of these battles and the loss of his elephants and almost all of his siege equipment meant that Hannibal was unable to execute the coup de grâce by taking Rome itself. The eventual defeat of Hannibal’s armies came when the Roman Commander Quintus Fabius Maximus utilized a strategy of engagement without fighting. He would position his forces as if preparing to engage Hannibal who would organize his forces and attempt to engage at which point Quintus Fabius Maximus would retreat with his legions into the countryside. The main actual engagement by Quintus Maximus forces were reserved to inhibit and prevent any scrounging by Hannibal’s skirmishers denying Hannibal of the necessities to feed and resupply his troops with necessities which eventually forced Hannibal to retreat. Also forcing Hannibal to retreat home was an offensive by Rome by sea placing troops in Africa threatening Hannibal’s capital and homelands which assisted in his decision to give up his conquest of Rome after fifteen years of mostly success against Roman forces but never quite being able to score that final knockout as the Romans continued to field legion after legion as they were able to replace lost troops seemingly without end. Before peace was finally agreed Hannibal had fallen in battle leading to a void in the leadership of Carthage and a power struggle which forced their suing for peace which Rome accepted also being weary of war and the necessity for tending the homelands and the demands of the people for peace and restoration of order and infrastructure.

Then we come to the Third Punic and final Punic War. This was the most unequal engagement as Carthage not only never recovered fully from the Second Punic War and had also faced skirmishes with Numidian raiders during the intermediate years. Rome, in keeping the peace, was assigned by treaty as the enforcer for resolving any conflicts and had been favoring Numidia over Carthage which alienated the people of Carthage. Rome also desired to avoid any potential for conflict in the future and when it became obvious that Carthage was again building military capabilities, Rome started making increasingly difficult demands under threat of war. The final demand was for the Carthaginians to destroy Carthage the city and move it inland and away from the coast ending their naval capabilities. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Carthage refused and Rome had their war to end all Carthage wars. Rome defeated Carthage after a three year siege of the city of Carthage before finally breaching the city walls. The reputed result according to some descriptions from poetic history described the ruins or the city of Carthage was there was no stone or brick left standing upon another and the lands surrounding the city for miles was salted and unable to be productive for the future. Needless to say, the destruction of Carthage was complete and Carthage remained silent through the rest of history and is a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia.

Israel could be said just fought the Third Gaza War against and answering to Hamas aggressions. The First Gaza War from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009 was also referred to as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world and by Hamas as the Battle of al-Furqan. The war was preceded by steadily increasing rocket fire into southern Israel reaching the major cities of Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time during the conflict. The war ended with an agreement partially arranged with outside assistance which included the United States. The Second Gaza War from November 14, 2012 to November 21, 2012 was called Operation Pillar of Defense (Pillar of Cloud is the literal translation) by Israel. The initial launch of the war was in response to the launch of over 100 rockets at Israel from within Gaza during a 24-hour period along with an ambush of an Israeli Jeep on the Israeli side of the Gaza fence. In both of these wars Israel was determined to have gained through military success and resulting from their military victory the Israelis gained a period of quiet from the rocket fire from within Gaza. The victory for Hamas was in media reports and propaganda war damaging Israel’s reputation across the globe. The main difference between the two sides is most stark when you understand what their respective goals are and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to attain those goals. Israel simply desires peace and quiet and an end to rockets launched into their civilian areas and attempts on infiltrations in order to murder and kidnap Israelis, either civilian or military personnel, with the kidnappings to be used to trade for the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons with emphasis on the release of those whose crimes included the largest numbers of Israelis murdered, almost universally the Israeli casualties are civilians from these attacks which are almost never launched against the IDF. Hamas desires media coverage which paints Israel as monsters that kill indiscriminately and are willing to place as many Gazan civilians in compromised locations in order to maximize the numbers of Gazans injured and killed so that the media has pictures to transmit to the world and they complement these with press releases claiming Israelis target only civilians. The Hamas accusations ring hollow and are closer to projection of their acts onto the Israelis than it is valid and truthful but the media is largely glad to paint Israel in the worst light possible. Further, media in Gaza are subjected to censoring by Hamas minders and often threaten journalists who report damaging truths sometimes ejecting them and placing them on a ban lists never permitted to report from within Gaza in the future.

The recent conflict which actually could reignite at any moment as no peace has been signed and the two sides agreed ceasefire has recently been extended for an additional thirty days until the end of October in order that a peace can be negotiated, theoretically. The reason that such is highly unlikely is because the two sides have only been able to agree to meet towards the end of October and past performance has not indicated any great degree of agreement or cooperation between the two sides. Eventually an agreement will hopefully be reached and signed at a ceremony probably held on the East Lawn of the White House, with President Obama looming over the proceedings grinning like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and Vice President Biden wandering around trying to decide where best to stand, while the two parties, who are to sign the agreement, taking positions as far apart as possible without appearing too obvious, eyeing each other warily wondering whether the signing can be pulled off before a disagreement or wrong move is misinterpreted and the entire signing blows up into a shouting match with both sides accusing the other of perfidy and subversion. In the present Hamas threatens repeatedly to return to firing rockets if Israel continues to refuse to meet their every demand, but at least they utilize differing intervals which makes it less predictable and removes any chance for overwhelming boredom. This also is why there are many who hold doubts as to whether the ceasefire can ever lead to an actual armistice or will we wake overly early one morning in the darkness to the sound of the Code Red sirens and the raining of rockets upon our cities renewed. We can ponder on our way to the shelters, as long as it does not interfere with our hopefully quick enough haste as we all have a varying amount of time but all of them measured in seconds, whether the resumption was something an Israeli leader or IDF commander made to the press or did Hamas’s leaders Mashal or Haniyeh just have indigestion during the night and really did not wish to suffer alone. Such a situation is just one more reason that the Israeli leadership, both the military and the politicians though it is difficult to know which should garner the majority of the blame, could and should have taken the lessons of the Punic Wars and the additional carnage, deaths, and destruction heaped on the Roman populace all because their politicians and military leaders were unwilling to take the reins and saddle up and finish what had been started once and for all as they eventually were forced to do after two additional, unnecessary and extremely destructive wars.

There was unity, well as close to unity as is possible in Israel, as over 80% of Israelis in most polls desired, many demanded, the retaking of Gaza and putting an end once and for all with Hamas and Islamic Jihad ending the raining of rockets and wars fought every two or three years. The military was tasked with drawing up sets of plans and their relative cost, projected losses, estimates of Gazan deaths, time frame for length of each scenario and whatever other particulars the Prime Minister and his inner cabinet (war cabinet) had requested or desired. The leadership of the IDF had whomever is tasked with such planning to give them their estimates and the other particulars and also a briefing on the overall strategies and conceivable ramifications likely including reactions by the United Nations, United States, European Union and the rest of the alphabet of NGOs, alliances, compacts and even individual countries and gave them a short time frame, as it is expected by the Command level officers that such plans and their respective costs and eventualities have all been worked out and hashed and rehashed a million times adjusting them to the most recent intelligence and thus all that was required was the summation briefing to be prepared. This all happened in relative quiet and without alarming the public and the briefing for the Prime Minister and his Inner Cabinet was held and everything was probably ignored as I doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu ever actually desired or would permit the retaking of Gaza as such would cause him extreme discomfort wherever he would travel after Israel did such an, as the rest of the world believes, unthinkable act of cruelty, wretchedness and inhuman brutality. The exercise of having the IDF command work up the briefing was to be able to use that as a balm to soothe the anger and grating disbelief when the backlash came from a public that is sick to death of the repeated wars and the incessant rockets raining down in ever increasing numbers and over increasing range culminating in timeframes measured more in months than years in a crescendo of thousand rockets per week before the leadership finally releases the IDF to take the offensive and silence the rockets at least temporarily. The decision reached was that the cost in lives, equipment, world image, reputation, perception and treasure was too great to bear. The cost analysis considered by the Israeli leadership very probably did not do a cost comparison which included on the ledgers in favor of ending this revolving door of off and on wars the cost of the future wars which if the government continues to balk from responsibility and retake Gaza will continue endlessly at ever shorter intervals of calm and have costs of which eventually will come the cost we cannot bear, the end of Israel under a rain of rockets no amount of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 1, 2, 3 or whatever and any other defensive systems. Sometimes the only real defense is a completed offense and if it makes Israel unpopular and denounced, at least we will remain alive which comes before what the idiots around the world think.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad et al refuse to take the responsibility for bringing devastation down on Gaza, making the lives of innocent Gazans horridly difficult. The only crime one can hold the Gazan civilians responsible for was electing Hamas to govern their lives. They may refuse any accusation that they knowingly elected a leadership which would bring these wars down upon them with all the destruction and misery they entail, but because they continue to allow the Hamas government to rule and have not taken any actions to demand new governance they have brought this upon themselves. Where that may sound cruel, it is not as cruel as the actions of the Gazans erupting with joy whenever Hamas realizes and murders Jews to feed the overarching and wanton desire of both Hamas and the rest of the terrorists as well as the majority of Gazans to murder Jews. For Hamas this desire goes further and aims at all of the Jews wherever they reside in their desire to eradicate them starting with Israel and then to continue on that path even if it costs the lives of every civilian who has not picked up a weapon and joined Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The responsibility is as Prime Minister Netanyahu has attempted to explain to a world which does not care to listen; it is the fault of Hamas and the rest of the rocket firing terrorist entities which control Gaza by threat of death. This was demonstrated perfectly and clearly after the first lengthy ceasefire was agreed upon when Hamas executed dozens of Gazans without any trial and without making or proving any charges simply claiming that these were Gazans guilty of not supporting Hamas by collaborating with Israel. Does anybody in the world, let alone in Gaza, honestly believe that the approximately dozen members from Fatah actually were guilty of collaborating with Israel? These were victims of Hamas chosen because they chose to side with Abbas and were no more guilty of whatever crime Hamas claimed than are the Hamas members who are arrested and at times executed in the West Bank in Ramallah by Abbas and Fatah which he commands. There can never be fair and open elections as long as the only candidates running must be vetted and approved by terrorist organizations which includes the West Bank as much as it does Gaza. The last elections which were held under international supervision had Hamas receiving the majority of the votes while Fatah, or the Palestinian Authority, coming in a distant second. This was part of the reasons for the eventual coup by Hamas taking control over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas blocked election for the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority as he knew he would lose the election to Haniyeh and Hamas would take control and never relent and all future elections would result in larger Hamas victories. The same situation exists currently and simply because of the conflict Hamas brought down on Gaza. Where the destruction in Gaza should and would cost Hamas votes, Hamas controls Gaza and would control the vote counting, thus they win. In the West Bank Hamas is favored easily over Fatah as Hamas is now viewed as strong and Abbas as weak as he appeared to make statements which were seemingly controlled out of Washington DC and he appeared swayed by the United States and their pressures. This is partly true as his government depends on the billions of dollars they receive every year which originates in the United States though much of it takes circuitous routes to reach the Palestinian Authority while Hamas receives only indirect monies from the United States and will continue receiving these funds as they are actually diverted from UNRWA by Hamas. This is the unfortunate truth and we can expect that before any elections are held for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority either Hamas will be disallowed the right to have a candidate or Abbas will have retired to the French Riviera living comfortably on the billions he has stashed away and having a great view of the Mediterranean, something he has been denied seeing from his office in Ramallah. Just for truth in reporting, Haniyeh is a multi-millionaire and Mashal is a multi-billionaire; and who says terrorism doesn’t pay.

Beyond the Cusp