Troubles Begin in Thinking Islam Must be Repaired by Islam

 

There is a theme that in order for Islam to find some means of coming to grips with modernity and make the changes necessary for it to coexist with the non-Islamic world instead of seeking to destroy all which is not Islam must be managed by those within Islam and not the remainder of the world. This is a great concept for those of us who are not Muslims as it frees us from any obligation to work to assist Islam in finding a new path. It allows those who are not Muslims to simply wipe their hands of the problematic situation and leave all the heavy lifting for those within the sway of Islam. Imagine if we had decided that the problem caused by the Nazis had to be solved by those who were part of the Nazi party et al. Where would such an idea, if followed by France, Britain, Canada and the United States have led? Well, it would probably not have been very pretty. There were those within the United States who thought that the entire Nazi war was a European problem and that it should be left to the Europeans to hash it out. Their logic was quite appealing as the United States just finished fighting a European War called, you will love this one, The War to End All Wars. These Americans, and many others who were on the fence or just tired of European catastrophic endeavors and waring for supremacy over one another, simply desired to be left at peace and unbothered with the world even if it was heading for Armageddon and going to Hades in a Handbasket. They were winning the popularist debate and had most Americans believing the European War was no business of the United States, as it would never come to American shores, it was not their problem. Well, the attack on Pearl Harbor blew all that thinking right out of the water and propelled America into the war. Those who claim that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and many in his Administration and the Congress and other leaders of business and society knew the attack was coming and did nothing to prevent it are missing the point. Had these leaders of the United States, both governmental and private, known about the coming attack, what were they supposed to do? Plead with Japan not to strike Pearl Harbor? The Japanese had already decided; so that was not going to work, as they would not alter their plans. Call for a draft before the attack and try to get some workable defense in place all but instantly? That would never have flown in Congress and even had they drafted the entire population, there would not have been sufficient pilots or aircraft to stop the attack. Once the Japanese decided to strike, the war was coming to America and there was nothing that could prevent that; so any venturing into excuses and what ifs is a waste.

 

There is a message in the run-up to America entering World War II, namely that some things are inescapable and the sooner this is realized, the sooner the problem can be addressed, solved, or, if necessary, eliminated and all at far less cost in treasure and manpower. Imagine if Britain had listened to Winston Churchill’s warnings when he was telling them of the coming conflagration and the inevitability of war with the Nazis. Imagine if instead of sending Neville Chamberlain to the Munich conference the British had sent Winston Churchill. The conference would not have reached any agreement, Czechoslovakia would not have been gifted to the Nazis, and just maybe Germany would have been stopped as France and Britain kept their mutual defense pact with the Czechoslovakian friends instead of simply whimpering as the Nazis were gifted half and rolled over the remaining half soon thereafter without any response from Czechoslovakia’s so-called allies. Hitler would have been stopped cold as soon as he had entered Czechoslovakia instead of months later after building his war machine using the existing arms factories he conquered as part of taking Czechoslovakia. Instead the war came after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in which the Nazis and Soviet Union divided up Poland between them and rolled across their respective borders crushing the Polish cavalry and military meeting in the middle and that was the end of Poland with their prisoners taken to their respective conquers’ camps and many were simply executed as the Nazis and Soviets both viewed the Polish people as inferior and unworthy of consuming oxygen. This led to the most devastating war in which an unbelievable number of the resultant casualties were civilians far exceeding the totals and percentages of previous wars (see comparison between World War I and II below). It is startling that many historians look at World War II and realize that much of the death and destruction could have been avoided and the leaders of nations who could have intervened early and, by taking the bull by the horns, have stopped Hitler cold preventing his attempt at world conquest and the eradication of the Jewish People. What if the world is approaching another of those critical points where unfolding history is about to hit a divergence and the next couple of years, maybe months or even weeks, could decide the entire future of humanity? We could not be more serious.

 

World War II Surpassed World War I
Civilian Deaths Against Military Deaths

 

Manchester, Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando, Nice, and decades of terrorist activities in Israel plus any others anybody cares to fill in are but the latest wave of Islamist attempts to conquer the world in the name of Allah in order to fulfill the prophesy from the Quran, the part written in Medina to be exact (for more on the bifurcated Quran, please read our short article as an introduction Which Quran, Mecca or Medina? which has included numerous helpful links in the comment section added by our readers). The initial Islamic attempt in world conquest began in the year 622 under Muhammad for the first decade and then Rashidun and then the Umayyad caliphs covering the first wave of Islamic expansion (see map below). This has been followed by other waves with near continuous aggressions of varying degrees. Some of the history might be of interest to many Westerners.

 

Islamic Expansion

 

If one were to ask most Americans when was the first terrorist attack on the United States in the modern era, meaning the past one hundred years, what would be your guess. Most people would likely claim it was the attack on the World Trade Center which then requires asking which attack. Too many would then answer the one on 9/11, of course. That is the state of history knowledge for far too many Americans. The truth is there was one before the 9/11/2001 hijacking of four American airliners crashing two, one each, into the World Trade Towers; one into the Pentagon and the last one was crashed by the passengers into a field not far outside of Pittsburgh upon learning of the intentions of the hijackers. There was a first attack on the Towers on February 26, 1993, when Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil drove a truck filled with 1,336 pounds of explosives into the parking garage under Tower One with coconspirators Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj all led by the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. But even that is not the initial attack since the start of the Twentieth Century as for that we need go back to June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, at 12:15 AM when Sirhan Sirhan Assassinated Democrat Party frontrunner candidate for President of the United States Robert F. Kennedy. The public was told that Sirhan was insane and simply was out of control, crazy, demented or anything other than terrorism by a Palestinian sympathizer born in Lebanon who identified with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian cause and murdered Robert Kennedy because he supported Israel. Yes, the truth will set you free and the assassination of Robert Kennedy was an act of terrorism aimed at Israel and the United States by an Arab Palestinian supporting terrorist.

 

But when it comes to conflicts with Islam and the United States there is an even earlier precedent. The United States fought two wars with Islamic forces known as the Barbary Pirates who were stealing ships through piracy demanding tribute from the owning nations and taking the crews as slaves. The major slave trade in the Mediterranean was called white slavery to differentiate it from the rest of slavery in the African continent where the Arabs and Muslims played a critical role in acquisition of the African natives which were then transferred to the coast where they were bought by European slavers and then sold to ship captains who would transfer them for trading across the world. The Barbary pirates collected tributes from every nation and got more and more greedy and at some point, the United States came to the decision they were not going to be blackmailed any more. Under President Thomas Jefferson, probably the greatest of all isolationists of the Founding Fathers, the United States Navy and Marines fought the Pasha of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli after refusing to pay the demanded tribute of $225,000, which led to his declaring war on the United States. You could say that President Thomas Jefferson obliged him.

 

But wait, there’s more. After the United States had somehow managed to win the war of 1812 against Britain, the Barbary Pirates thought that the United States would be vulnerable and began their piracy again, demanding ransoms. The Regency of Algiers Mohamed Kharnadji who was followed by Dey Regency of Algiers Omar Agha insisted the United States resume paying tribute this time to Algiers as their ships now ruled the seas. President James Madison showed the same resolve as had Thomas Jefferson and again the Barbary Pirates were defeated. What is of interest, the Barbary Pirates never signed an actual surrender but instead insisted that any surrender was but a Hudna. Traditionally, a Hudna lasts a decade or until the forces of Islam believe they are capable of defeating their enemies. The Barbary Hudna lasted significantly longer than a decade but it appears that it is coming to its end and they believe that the United States is primed to fall right along with Europe, Israel, India and the remainder of the world is all ready for harvest and they are out to pick it clean.

 

Why, you might inquire, are they so dependent on using terrorism as a way to defeat the world? Well, the world has only themselves to blame for making it appear that terrorism is the route they can ride to total victory. They watched how through terrorism and a campaign of lies and propaganda they believe they are on the verge of destroying Israel and how the Europeans have all but folded before them with terrorism and infiltration leading the way. It is simply appearing to be working and so they will ride it for all it is worth. As long as the world remains in a coma ready to surrender over enduring any struggle, then Islam will continue to surge. The continued reaction to every terror attack by the European elite is to blame Israel and the growing anti-Semitism spreading across Europe, even ahead of and in excess to the numbers of Muslim refugees joining the already present Muslim populations. The excuse that the anti-Semitism is driven by Muslims sounds hollow when percentages of those holding numerous anti-Semitic tropes far exceeds the percentage of Muslims residing in most European nations with amongst the most threatening being Sweden, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. What has been amongst the most disturbing trends are the numbers of people in the developed world who blame Israel and Jews for the terrorism when it strikes their country. There are many who claim if only Israel would give the Palestinians and the Arabs what they demand, then their own nation would be fine and the terrorism would stop. Making this even more distressing is that many of these people know that what the Arabs and the Palestinians demand is all of Israel and the Jews within murdered to the last man, woman and child and they have little problem with such a sacrifice if it would keep them quiet for a few decades, enough to last for their lives as they care not about the future, just about the now and their future. Beyond their lives, they could not care less. The willingness to sacrifice Israel is made all the more evident when votes are taken in various United Nations agencies and in the General Assembly where European nations consistently abstain rather than support Israel against false claims and demands to wrench lands from Israel through votes most recently in UNESCO. The developed world can decide to end this awakening of Islam now or pay a horrific price once the majority of Muslim nations have developed nuclear weapons programs with each maintaining and equipping ICBM’s with twenty, fifty, hundred, three hundred, a thousand or more warheads. At what point will Europe and the United States awaken to the reality that Islam is incapable of taming Islam. The reason why is basic, the pacifists cannot prevent those intent on war from violence through passivity. Islam does not require every Muslim to Jihad, but every Muslim is required to either pay, house or otherwise support those who do commit to Jihad, or at the very least, lie in order to facilitate and occlude any evidence of Jihad. And the bad new is that Greater Jihad is warfare and violence to expand Islam until Islam is the only religion worshiped on Earth and Lesser Jihad is self-improvement and the juxtaposition of the two is Taqiyya (see below for definition). Lastly, there are those few true lunatics who feel if they cannot rule the entire world, then there should be no world for anybody in which to rule.

 

Taqiyya defined in plain and simple easy to understand terms

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What a Difference Media Perception Makes

 

We would all agree that dead civilians in a war zone are tragic but inevitable. We would all agree that militaries should take all reasonable efforts to minimize the threat and danger to civilians while continuing to strike military assets. Finally, we would probably agree that militaries should also take precautions in their movements and weapons placements and storage of armaments such that they allow for little or no threat of danger to civilians. But should we use different scales when deciding which military forces are taking appropriate efforts as different societies have different standards and place varying importance on the safekeeping of their civilians and about targeting civilians. That last one is a bit trickier and perplexing, right? Let us make it a little easier. Should Israel be judged more harshly for dead Palestinian Arabs when fighting Hamas attacks in a conflict with Gaza than the United States should be judged for dead Iraqi and Syrian Arabs in their fighting the Islamic State (ISIS)? Reading reports in the mainstream media one would believe that the Israelis intentionally target Arab civilians in Gaza while the United States has avoided civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria attacks. This is possibly because the mainstream media supports targeting Israel and attempting to display the IDF and Israeli efforts as immoral and lacking in any precautions against killing civilians while President Obama ordered strikes in Syria and Iraq had to be above all suspicions, completely moral and resulting in minimal civilian deaths. In a Reuters report“At least 352 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday.” That is correct, three-hundred-fifty-two civilians killed in United States led strikes since 2014, which makes for an average of approximately one-hundred per year or approaching ten per month. In another statement released and used by Reuters with photo credited as “AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File” showing residents carry the body of several people killed in airstrikes during fighting between Iraq security forces and Islamic State on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, statement released Sunday, April 30, 2017, the Pentagon said investigations conducted during the month of March reveal that coalition airstrikes killed 45 civilians, mostly in and around the city of Mosul. The Pentagon added that in each incident “all feasible precautions were taken,” but the strikes still resulted in “unintentional” loss of civilian life. There have been no explosions of editorials demanding explanations from the United States military or government demanding they make reparations or prove they had taken sufficient measures to prevent civilian deaths. There have been no calls for the United States to be brought before The Hague to answer charges for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. How can this be and where are the Human Rights groups with highly inflated or differing numbers or an official United Nations count that also would likely disagree with the official Pentagon numbers claiming multiple numbers were in fact killed. Do not expect there to be any such events being committed against the United States. There also have been no reporters confronting American officers in headquarters or in the field demanding to know why so many Iraqi and Syrian Arabs have died and no Americans have died. Simply, you probably did not even know of these deaths until reading this article. Now comes the time to wonder why.

 

March 24, 2017 file photo, residents carry the body of several people killed
in airstrikes during fighting between Iraq security forces and Islamic State
on the western side of Mosul, Iraq. In a statement released Sunday, April 30, 2017,
the Pentagon said investigations conducted during the month of March reveal
that coalition airstrikes killed 45 civilians, mostly in and around the city of Mosul.
The Pentagon said in each incident “all feasible precautions were taken,”
but the strikes still resulted in “unintentional” loss of civilian life.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

 

Let us return to the seven weeks from July 8, 2014 through August 26, 2014 and the Israel Hamas (Gaza) War. The numbers of civilian casualties released about this conflict varied greatly depending whose numbers you wish to believe. Here are the particulars; the Gaza Health Ministry reported 1,617 Palestinian civilians killed with 10,626 Palestinian militants and civilians wounded; the United Nations Human Rights Council reported 1,462 Palestinian civilians killed; Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 761 Palestinian civilians with 428 uncategorized males aged 16-50 killed as well as at least 23 Gazans executed by Hamas. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reported that there were 5 Israeli civilians dead (3 killed directly by rocket fire, 2 died of heart attacks after hearing warning sirens), 1 Thai civilian in Israel killed and 87 Israeli civilians wounded. Granted, no matter whose numbers one uses, the number of Israelis affected pales in comparison and this was the number one question the mainstream media asked incessantly for an explanation. This had nothing to do with their lack of knowledge as to the answer, it had everything to do with painting Israel as a monster who worries about their own people but have no regard for the Arabs residing in Gaza. Many reporters acted as if Israel was directly responsible for the protection and care for the people in Gaza as if they were Israeli citizens. Almost none of them displayed any knowledge that starting in August 2005 and completed on September 9, 2005 Israel removed every Israeli, razed everything with the exception of the Greenhouses left for Gazans to use to produce crops and the synagogues as to have bulldozed them would have been a desecration and the IDF removed their last personnel. Those Synagogues were desecrated far worse in the ensuing days by the Arab Palestinians and the greenhouses were stripped bare and used to make weapons and rocket launchers, not grow crops. Hamas took control of Gaza in a coup lasting June 10 through 15 of 2007 and immediately reissued their declaration of intent to destroy Israel and kill every Jew on the Earth. All this history was ignored and the disparity in civilian deaths was the sole news worth reporting. Why was this, one might query.

 

Well, it was all about what one reporter blurted out in her moment of excitement and whose interview has been scrubbed from history, or at least the internet, where she actually asked, “Where are the dead Jews, I mean, why so many dead in Gaza and none in Israel?” Well, why not simply answer that very question. Despite the vast majority of Hamas rocket and artillery strikes targeting civilian structures to include largely schools, kindergartens, pre-schools, day care facilities, and residential neighborhoods, Israel was fortunate to have been protected by the Iron Dome Batteries which are one of the finest anti-rocket and projectile interceptors the world has ever seen. The Iron Dome determines the projected strike point of any rocket, artillery or mortar fired and if it will be close to any civilian or military built up areas it launches its interceptors, which has over ninety-percent efficiency in taking out its target. There was one major failure of the Iron Dome systems where three interceptors were fired at one of the Hamas larger rockets and all missed. This rocket was headed for the center of Tel Aviv and would have been catastrophic. The easy explanation was a huge puff of wind blew it out into the Mediterranean Sea in the last few seconds, or there is the description and entire story as told by the Iron Dome Battery in question of this incident commanding officer as we reported back when this happened in our article ”How to Fight Terrorist Fanatics Unless You’re Israel”. The reason so few Israelis died is because Israel has built shelters everywhere and requires all new residential structures to have a built in shelter in every apartment, home, row house, etc. as part of the building codes and when the sirens sound in any area the Israelis will drop whatever they are doing and head directly to their closest shelter. If an Israeli is out and does not know where the closest shelter is on their own, they are easy to find, just follow everyone else. Hamas, on the other hand, uses their civilians to protect their rockets and the launchers and often will call in women and children and place them on the roof of any building they wish to protect knowing the Israelis will not bomb such a target. Israeli pilots are required to call headquarters and get clearance before dropping ordinance and there are officers using drones to oversee most missions who will check the target before allowing ordinance release.

 

There were other completely ridiculous question asked by reporters during the Gaza War and here are a few samples. “Why does Israel not provide Iron Dome Systems to the Gazans?” and “Why has Israel refused to build bomb shelters in Gaza?” As we mentioned, apparently the reporters were not informed that Gaza, is for all technicalities, an independent country and Israel has surrendered all connections and ties to Gaza. The one Israeli connection with Gaza is the blockade, which is more of an inspection for incoming goods to assure that there are no weapons or military useable goods such as weapons grade steel, explosives or other dual-purpose items that could be used in a military means. Israel permitted tons of cement and rebar into Gaza for the reason of humanitarian aid to permit the rebuilding of the homes damaged in the wars. Well over three-fourths of these goods were utilized to build the Hamas tunnel and bunker system underneath Gaza and tunnels into Israel itself. These bunkers are also used to protect the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist fighters but the Gazan civilians would be shot if they entered these bunkers as Hamas and the other terror groups desire maximum civilian casualties which they utilize in the media to paint Israel as a monster while pretending they are too poor because of the blockade to provide protection. What probably would surprise many to know is that Israel continued the daily transfer of aid into Gaza of food, medical supplies and other non-military aid in the tons of material per day. Below is a video of one such transference and here is an article giving the Israeli side and the proof of Israeli assistance to Gazan civilians including setting up a field hospital to treat injured individuals from Gaza. This was one fact which one would have thought might have attracted at least the slightest of curiosity with Israel sending tractor-trailer trucks by the dozens across into Gaza in the midst of a war and perhaps some wonder at how this could happen and not be shot at by Hamas. Well, here is a surprise, Hamas and Islamic Jihad would on some days target the aid deliveries and once it was of such a severe nature that Israel was forced to skip one day’s shipments, as the risk was too great. Additional aid was sent across the next day to make up for the loss of daily aid. What was truly amazing was the fuel was included in these shipments despite that Hamas could fuel their vehicles, as the fuel was also necessary to produce electricity. Even the electricity aided Hamas and the other terror groups but to deny Gaza electricity would have placed a greater burden on the people. Israel also continued to deliver electricity through the shared electrical grid and provided water, clean water, through the interconnected water system. Everything Israel had been providing to the people of Gaza before the war continued to be delivered as best as possible throughout the war and continued after the war. The reports of Israel starving Gazan or refusing them medical treatment are all propaganda spread by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the anti-Israel mainstream media. They all know that they are repeating or stating lies but as long as there are those who choose to believe anything they are told that Jews are acting with malice and committed to evil deeds, then the terrorists, Arab sources and far too many in the mainstream media will all continue to feed these people grist for the mill.

 

 

People often ask what Israel could do to prevent these misfortunes from befalling the people of Gaza. The unfortunate answer is that Israel is already doing as much as she can to relieve any suffering by the Gazans. One difficulty is that Hamas will regularly refuse to permit Gazans from seeking additional and often-necessary medical treatment in Israel as that can be used to claim that Israel refuses to provide medical aid. The truth is when Hamas and other terror leaders’ families require advanced medical treatment, guess where they are treated? The answer can be found here, here, here, here, here and one possibly repeat here. Israel is not the monster reported all too often in the news. Israel cares deeply about her own people but also is concerned for the well-being of those who are her sworn enemies. This confuses many in the media so they simply paint a picture they can be happy with, not that the truth would accept. The aid sent during the war is likely one of the most positive proofs that Israel is anything but what is too often reported, sometimes in Israeli mainstream news as well. The truth is worth digging for even if one had to suffer through some news slanted in the other direction, sometimes getting a variety of views helps clear the vision. The diametric opposite treatments of Israel compared to the news about the United States and civilian casualties is striking. We do not mean to impugn the United States in any way as they too make the most honest of efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

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