Evident Worldwide Coordinated Anti-Semitism

 

The fact that anti-Semitism is growing across much of the world is beyond debate any longer. There is the anti-Israel hatred throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds. That is largely been based upon verses in the Quran and continuing the atmosphere that the Jewish People are inferior and been relegated by Allah to be subservient to the Islamic peoples. In Europe anti-Semitism has been growing partially due to the influx of Islamic people from the Arab worlds of the Middle East and North Africa in mostly uncontrolled immigration. This has also allowed for the formerly quiet anti-Semitism which ran under the radar in the European culture which has become more accepted and thus has come out from the shadows and into the mainstream. The growing anti-Semitism in the United States is harder to reveal as it is very often downplayed, especially that which is coming from the far-left. The facade which has been the cover that the left cannot be anti-Semitic because so many Jews support the Democrat Party and leftist policies has started to break down with the recent linkage of the leadership of the Women’s March and their connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The political anti-Israel stance proposed by Linda Sarsour and the election in Michigan of Rashida Tlaib who wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag at her celebration party has seriously cracked the leftist anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism into the limelight. Expect the media to quickly move on and pretend that these were simply minor items which were overplayed and really meant nothing, but they are actually portends of what is coming in the near future.

 

One editorialist from Italy has had his finger on the pulse of what is changing the face of Europe and how it has permitted the old monstrous hatreds to resurface in Europe. Two of Giulio Meotti’s recent articles about these events are “Western suicide via anti-Semitism” and more recently “The goal: No Jews in Europe and no Jewish State in the Middle East.” The later article speaks of some of the more underhanded means through which the European government and the European Union are working to undermine the Israeli democracy making the actual desires of the Israeli people appear as if they are a minority. They also provide cover for the terrorist activities of the Palestinian Authority which operates through the PLO for deniability as well as for Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their continuous border rioting and use of incendiary kites and balloons destroying hundreds of acres of crops, forests, wildlife preserves and endangering thousands of Israeli civilians. These attacks have no military application and are totally to terrorize Israeli civilians and to destroy the Israeli economy damaging such as much as they are able. What is a further example of the slanting of the terrorism by the European media and governments has been their representing these terrorists as being militants as if they are righteous warriors fighting the good fight against the monstrous oppressions of Israel. Adding to their perfidy is their blaming terrorist attacks within Europe as caused by the Israeli occupation. The one item they have correct is that there is an occupation by the Arabs on lands which legally are reserved for the Jewish state under Article 80 of the United Nations Charter which places the enforcement powers of the United Nations behind the Mandate Systems set in place after World War I by the League of Nations with their source within the San Remo Conference amongst other treaties of that era.

 

Then there is the greatest enabler of the terrorist war on Israel, the United Nations General Assembly. We recently wrote about the refusal of the United Nations General Assembly to denounce the launching of rockets and border assaults by Hamas and Islamic Jihad since March of this year which can be read here. Another editorial written about this disgraceful action by the United Nations General Assembly was authored by David Singer titled In embracing Hamas, the UN has sold its soul to the devil which provides actual numbers and names some of the responsible nations in this disgraceful lack of action. The reality which makes all of these all the more appalling is that should the Europeans or the United Nations and all of the agencies of that body, especially the Human Rights Council, is were these acts perpetrated upon other nations than Israel, condemnations would be automatic and by overwhelming majorities such that it would matter little whether they demanded a mere majority or a super majority. But these acts under consideration are not being perpetrated against other nations, the normative nations, but instead are being perpetrated against the perfect target, Israel. Because Israel is the Jewish State, and do not believe the canard that Israel is a European colony as at least half of the population in Israel originated from the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia, India and other non-European nations and Israel is the restoration of an ancient people in their documented and well-known homelands recognized even by the Quran from its Mecca writings, this fact of its Jewishness is what drives the scorn and drive to eliminate Israel, and only Israel, from the community of nations.

 

The dichotomy which is Israel is that much of the world demands that their Jews leave and go to their own country, to go to Israel. Then they take every opportunity to do everything in their power to eliminate Israel from any consideration as a normative nation and instead treat her like a pariah. Yet, the majority of these same nations are more than willing to take advantage of the goodwill of Israel dispatching assistance unequaled by any other nation with the possible exception of the United States in some instances, whenever a nation suffers a natural or unnatural catastrophe such as earthquakes, typhoons, nuclear power plant disasters or similar disasters (see video of CNN coverage of the Haiti earthquake relief and her near speechlessness upon coming to the Israeli field hospital). These nations use many agricultural developments such as drip irrigation, plants capable of growing in arid conditions, crops that can use treated sewage waters and other such developments. They use cell phones and text programs developed in Israel. They enjoy other computer software, medical inventions, infant heart surgical methods offered to them without charge by Save a Child’s Heart which trains surgeons, provides entire departments for their hospitals and brings at risk children to Israel for treatment including from the Arab world where they route them through a third nation to protect the family. There are many other developments which originate in Israel and are used the world over but where using that which is made available to the world by Israel apparently does not carry over to their political votes at the United Nations or even the actions of their governments. Israel will continue to be what she is tasked by Torah, to be a light amongst the nations, it did not say we had to be liked or appreciated, just to do good without expectation of being appreciated, but it would be so nice if sometimes we got thanks through support when we are targeted because we are the Jewish State.

 

 

Lastly, we would like to present the facts of a recent terrorist attack which had personal ramifications. One of the people almost killed is related to a close friend. She was thirty weeks pregnant and the physicians were forced to do an emergency C-section and are still fighting to save the mother and the child, the child was in grave danger and eventually died from the wounds inflicted on both mother and infant. The situation was this past Sunday evening where a group of Israelis was waiting at a bus stop, something many people do around the globe without any fear or even the slightest apprehension. Arab terrorists drove by spraying the people in a drive-by shooting. The follow-up the next day gave little relief as the newborn was still in grave danger and eventually succumbed as noted above. We would like to ask for prayers for all those innocents who were shot simply for being Israelis. We call these shooters terrorists, but there are those around the world who call them militants and claim they are totally justified as they are largely shooting Jews.

 

Car of Drive-by Shooting from Security Video

 

This is not always the case as not all Israelis are Jewish and many are Arabs. The Israelis of every ethnicity, religious beliefs, origins and races all share the same rights. When you hear that the Palestinian Arabs are being neglected by Israel, there is a valid reason, they are ruled by their own governance and are not Israelis. The ones in the lands formerly occupied by Jordan until 1967 are ruled by Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority which Abbas refuses to allow elections knowing he would lose his position which has been very lucrative for he and his sons. The Arabs in Gaza are ruled by Hamas in a dictatorial regime which Israel released all claims back in August of 2005 and removed every Israeli, even reinterring the dead Jews for fear of their graves being desecrated, a fear which the results of Israel leaving Gaza proved accurate, and presented Gaza to the Palestinian Authority who lost it in a coup to Hamas in 2007. Since then Gaza has been a constant threat to the people of southern Israel with their threat capabilities growing to the point that Hamas rockets can now reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Eilat and everywhere inbetween. It was this threat which the United Nations just decided was not worthy of condemnation. This would also probably apply to the drive-by shooting which has endangered a number of Israelis including one close to our friend for whom we appreciate your prayers, allow us to thank you in advance.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Peace is an Israeli Leadership Obsession

 

The last few days have been excessively rough on the civilians in southern Israel. By most accounts, Hamas had launched well over two-hundred rockets, mortars and incendiary devices across the border targeting these beleaguered people. Every six hours or so Hamas announced that some part of their myriad of leadership councils, political wing or whatever had accepted a ceasefire. In response to each peace announcement, in Pavlovian fashion, the Israeli leadership breathed a sigh of satisfaction and called the military to stand down. Hamas kept this rouse of throwing up their arms and declaring peace followed by another series of rockets and incendiary balloons and such. Immediately after each barrage there was another claim of peace from Hamas through Egypt and the Israeli leadership called the military to stand down once more. The peace did finally emerge and appear to take place, for the time being until it doesn’t again.

 

What makes this Pavlovian response to anyone claiming peace for the Israeli leadership to immediately jump up and congratulate one another at reaching an agreement and telling the IDF to stand down so darn aggravating is that Hamas has used their seemingly trained response in order to get out of paying any price for shooting at Israeli civilians and also for shooting IDF troops who do as any troops do when told that a ceasefire has been reached, they take off their helmets and climb out of their position and stretch their legs and walk around. This also unfortunately makes some become viable targets. This has taught many an older soldier to warn the youth that they need to constrain their walking to places behind both cover and concealment for everybody’s health. So, by screaming peace, peace but giving no peace, Hamas had completed the final day of their assaults upon Israeli civilians without paying the price of an Israeli response. But the Hamas offensive has done more than that in that it has split the country into two very separate camps. There are those who believe that the government restraint was a saintly act and those whose desire after suffering these past months of constant threat to life and limb and with many, correction, most of the farmers anywhere near the Gaza border facing the complete loss of their crops and in some cases their equipment and in the worst cases, they suffered loss of lives and injuries. In Sderot alone, there were a number of injuries over the past months but the even more telling has been the numbers taken with shock including a number of pregnant women who either had contraction and birthing pains which subsided while less fortunate mothers went into full labor prematurely and were rushed to hospitals where they gave birth, in a few cases dangerously early. These are the injuries which are immeasurable in this the immediate frame of time. These are the injuries which last for a long time. Mothers and fathers who worry the premature delivery may have harmful effects upon their child or children. Should their worst fears be recognized, then the injury has now spread to the entire family who will love a challenged sibling all the more and provide all care necessary and provide them with an extra shelter of love, affections and protections. These are the potential real prices paid by Israelis.

 

What do we have to say about the price that Gazans have to pay from these encounters? We will not leave them out from our sympathies, though they will be tempered by the actions of the Gazans themselves. The Gazans are not required to run for cover and often do so four, five, six, a dozen times and more each night for weeks. Israel warns them of exactly what will be targeted and when and then strikes with precision hitting most often just the immediate target and nothing more. About one fifth of the new damage to Gaza each series are caused by their misfiring missiles which strike their own structures (see tracking data below). Of course, they immediately send out a news release such as for the one below demanding the world condemn Israel for striking a hospital and a refugee camp. Within a day or day and a half, the truth is revealed through finding which Iron Dome radar system tracked the actual rockets striking their targets. This time there was a tracing of the four rockets fired with one striking the hospital, one the refugee camp, one struck out in the Mediterranean and one struck close to Ashkelon. The problem is the claims by Hamas that Israel struck an operating hospital was headline banner news and the reality which came the next day barely resulted in a blip, let alone corrections and headlines that once again Hamas had fooled overanxious editors always so very eager to file anti-Israel articles and slow if not seldom in correcting their facts. The reality is not that the Israeli authorities do not counter the Hamas exceptionalist fake news stories which the Western media run with as if it were the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it is that their response to such with cold, hard facts is meaningless and often has been posted as Israel claims Hamas was wrong and Israelis now claim. Never mind that Israel is showing you the exact route the four simultaneously launched rockets from a four rocket launch MLRV system which are often fitted to the bed of a Toyota pickup truck. This is a known and recognizable Hamas mobile launch platform heavily used for its maneuverability and ease of hiding by placing a tarp over the launchers while reloading making it look similar to any other such vehicle with a load of produce, firewood or any other item covered over in the bed.

 

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 citizens of southern Israel were insisting on their government to take whatever steps were required to prevent Hamas doing the same series of attacks next year and the year after until the Israelis finally do act. The problem that the government sees is such an exercise with sending troops into Gaza would run into the tens or hundreds of millions and more importantly result in dozens of IDF soldiers dead and some couple hundred presumably innocent Gazan civilian deaths as well. This is where many people across all of Israel are upset, not just the people along the Gaza border. A growing number of people desire to have the entirety of Gaza removed, simply wiped away and the land reincorporated into Israel and the building of homes, farms and five-star hotels along the beachfront and Gaza to be transformed into the economic powerhouse area which is possible if your aim is not to murder every Jews on the planet starting with Israel, as is the hope expressed in the Hamas Charter. That is the core of the problem right there. Israel can never make peace with Hamas because Hamas does not have the words peace or ceasefire in their vocabulary when speaking to any non-Muslim nation. Peace in only permitted for those regions which are ruled by Islam, in particular, by Hamas. They will agree to a hudna which they will break as soon as they feel they are adequately armed to cause Israeli some new form of misery. In the past, it had been rockets but the Iron Dome made their rockets no longer acceptable in the price to performance ratio. That made Hamas have to come up with a new form of attack which the Iron Dome does not protect Israel against, and they found just that by attaching incendiary devices to kites and balloons which fell throughout the southern lands setting huge fires to wheat fields, flower crops, forests, wildlife preserves and quite a few civilian structures. Equally telling was their selected targets for their rockets, all were launched and landed nearest civilian neighborhoods with virtually none striking IDF bases. That is what Hamas aims to produce, dead Israeli civilians.

 

It does not stop there as they do everything possible to allow their civilians to be killed as by doing so they can cast Israel as terrible savages. They go so far as to take off the green bandanna from a dead terrorist’s head, remove all his weapons, ammunition and grenades, they literally strip them of anything which would imply they were a Hamas terrorist and then claim to the media and the world this was another killed civilian. This is possible with terrorists as they dress similarly to the general public with a few noticeable differences which make them obvious to any observer. As with the story depicted above, the mainstream media run with another Gazan murdered by the IDF when in reality it was a terrorist armed heavily just moments before he was stripped of every vestige of his military identity. When the names are officially tallied it always corrects many of such problems and a closer match for the IDF numbers. Israel even warns neighborhoods that buildings within their camp or neighborhood is going to be struck by IDF bombs or tank fire or striking force soldiers and they list an approximate time. When the IDF do attack, they bomb an empty warehouse, empty rocket manufactory, or an unused training field. Hamas hopes that they keep their attacks measured enough that any Israeli response is measured, and this was attained this time around, as Israel did not invade Gaza and go house to house. This had become the last hope and prayer of the farmers and residents of Southern Israel. The residents desired an IDF raid to assure that all Hamas and Islamic Jihad offensive capabilities were destroyed specifically and completely. These residents were left to await the next round of violence and crops destroyed and homes ravaged by fire or rockets very possibly starting again as early as this fall but almost guaranteed next spring or summer. This would be a travesty just as was the willingness of the Israeli government to cede Gaza to the Palestinian Authority who lost it in a popular overthrow of that government with near eighty percent of Gazans supporting either Hamas or Islamic Jihad. With such high level of support for Hamas, the entirety of the Gaza population could be treated as fellow conspirators.

 

Meanwhile, in Israel there will be questions demanding to know why Israel did not commit booting Hamas, Islamic Jihad and even their supporters from Gaza. The leadership from the Prime Minister through the Defense Minister, Security Cabinet and on down the line in the coalition and opposition will all agree that Israel cannot do anything which may aggravate President Trump and the Americans. We completely agree but we interpret this as meaning that nothing Israel does in her defense and in ending the Hamas tyranny of terror would, in any way, aggravate President Trump or the supporters of the Jewish State in America. But the Israeli government often includes others such as France, Britain, the European Union and even the United Nations. Such fearful leaders do not make for great leadership. At the Synagogue we were talking before services, and the United States came up a lot in the discussion. It was pointed out that our government had let us down and took the political measure and decided that doing nothing, or as close to nothing as possible, was the politically expedient path the entire way. They had likely decided that except in a mass breach of the border, nothing was to be conducted using manpower on the ground risking the lives of the soldiers. They also probably looked at their election numbers and decided that their votes from Tel Aviv far outweigh those in Sderot and the Gaza border communities. What they may not have figured is how many of the Zionist community and even mainstream people including middle of the road Israelis there are. This refusal to act could actually have profound consequences if elections come while such is fresh in everyone’s attention.

 

The one misgiving some Israelis will lament is how so many in Israel believe that you must vote for the political party to which you belong. If they have upset you, then your only recourse is to not vote thus denying your party of your vote. But what if another party offers somebody who you think would be a perfect Prime Minster, why not support them. Well, how can I vote against my party? Some treat this as if it were the law. So, the first and most obvious requirement for a leader who can replace Netanyahu is that they must be capable of swaying voters to vote outside their party. This would be possible if one party had such a leader and their list for Knesset Ministers was impressive enough to tempt people to either change their party or vote outside their party. Fortunately, it is easier to get Zionist and right wing people to vote their conscience and party be damned. So, the first requirement is to have a strong leader in the top spot. Likud will put forth Netanyahu claiming he is the man with the most experience. This is entirely true as he has been the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel. Yisrael Beiteinu will most likely have Avigdor Liberman once more at the top of their list. If it is starting to sound like we are in a rut, you have a good point thus far. There will be Zionist Union headed by Avi Gabbay with Tzipi Livni second on their list, Joint List which includes Hadash, the United Arab List, Balad, and Ta’al with someone chosen to lead which currently is Ayman Odeh, Yesh Atid lead by Yair Lapid who is a man possessed with being Prime Minister, Kulanu which is currently led by Moshe Kahlon, Shas being led by Aryeh Deri who many never got past his conviction for corruption, Meretz with their new leader Tamar Zandberg who very well might bring enough excitement for them to fain a few seats but with little chance of leading any coalition, United Torah Judaism being led by Yaakov Litzman and finally HaBayit HaYehudi or Jewish Home which would be led by Naftali Bennett as everything appears currently though there were some polls which depicted Ayelet Shaked bringing the party greater support though she claims she will not replace Bennett as long as he wants to lead the party. This is likely to mean that when elections are held everything might simply remain exactly as they are now.

 

Part II Tomorrow

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Defining the Difference

 

The difference between the Arabs and Israel is stark and completely accepted as defined by both sides. The Arabs, in the form of the Palestinian Arabs, admire and celebrate death. The Israelis take their love of life from Torah and their basically libertarian views. As a matter of fact, the Arabs have proclaimed this difference when they proclaim, as did Osama bin Laden, “We love death as you love life.” The terrorists have proven the validity of this time and again. Often when there is a terrorist attack, they refuse to stop after murdering one or two people, they often continue to attempt to murder more people until they are stopped, almost as if their main aim was their own death as being more important than the deaths of others. We have witnessed this on far too many occasions here in Israel. This was proven with the Gaza rioting, which has continued despite the agreement to a ceasefire, when they continue to charge the border fence and fly incendiary kites and balloons into Israel knowing that they may be shot. There is proof of the extent to which Israelis love life, which is that even the terrorists who are murdering others, or destroying large regions of fields and other lands, the IDF follow their instructions to aim to maim and not to kill. Israel prefers to take terrorists into custody rather than simply eliminating these criminal threats to our society. To put this into reference, the police in almost every jurisdiction in the United States, particularly in the major cities, are instructed that if they are required to use their weapons, they are to fire for center of body mass with the full intent of neutralizing, read kill, their target. There is no aim for their feet or maim the criminal when you must shoot, you are to kill them preferably with a minimum number of bullets, though often the officers neglect the directive to use a minimum number of bullets. Even in many European nations, you know, the enlightened people, also instruct their armed and Special Operations officers to shoot to kill and to do so as efficiently as possible. These districts almost appear to be more concerned with saving bullets than lives. In Israel, our forces are trained to shoot to end an attack but not to kill the terrorist.

 

Probably one of the most striking trials proving how seriously the IDF takes what they define as an improper shooting, especially when resulting in the death, even of a terrorist, was the fairly recent trial of Sergeant Elor Azaria who was convicted in the death of a terrorist he shot while he was in custody. The terrorist was not restrained and Sergeant Elor Azaria claimed that he suspected the terrorist was reaching to explode a bomb belt. His claims ran contrary to some comments he had made in the barracks after the shooting which placed that excuse in sufficient suspicion that he was convicted. The conviction was also political as there was the intent to impress upon IDF soldiers that they would not receive any leeway should their actions result in a death, be it a terrorist, criminal or even combatant. From things we heard, many soldiers were spooked by the result of the episode concerning Sergeant Elor Azaria’s shooting case and some even had confided that they were now apprehensive towards the use of potentially deadly force even when lives might be under threat. They were worried that should they shoot a terrorist who was stabbing people that they might be tried for using unnecessary force as it might be believed that the use of their firearm would be considered improper and that they might be expected to instead use their hand-to-hand training to disarm and subdue the terrorist. This was not a solitary case as Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner lost his command for striking a European activist with his rifle butt. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner was reacting to a series of provocations including one during this engagement where his finger was broken which we believe was caused by the person he eventually struck. He was taken from command and thus ending any chance for advancement largely due to the videos provided by the European activists who initiated this engagement with the IDF with the intention of provoking any violent result. Lieutenant Colonel Eisner had attempted to calm his men and took a position between them and the activists which resulted in his injury and this eventually lead to his striking the activist in order to back him out of his face where the activist had been shoving him and shouting and spitting in his face. There may have been more to the actions taken against Lieutenant Colonel Eisner for reasons not related to the incident, but that is for another time and the fact remains that he was punished for basically defending himself from further injury.

 

The Israeli political and military elite will use soldiers to actually perform search and destroy missions into areas of concern where rocket launchers and arms storage are located or region which are know as terrorist strongholds. On the surface, this appears to be an obvious means of performing such necessary maneuvers. The reality is that most western powers when similar operations are required only send their soldiers into such areas after reducing much of the area to rubble with air power. The most often implemented tactic is to use high explosive bombings followed by incendiary, read napalm, bombing making the area fairly cleared of any threats to their soldiers who are performing what are referred to as mopping-up sweeps. The IDF does use air power before sending in their soldiers but they do not drop bombs or incendiaries, they drop leaflets informing the civilians that there is about to be military operations in the area and that they should depart the area for their safety. The usual question which follows is asking does that not warn the terrorists that the IDF is coming with their soldiers. The answer is, of course it does but that is a risk the IDF takes, or at least the command takes with the lives and safety of the soldiers far down under their command. Colonel Richard Kemp is an observer who has given testimonies to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the European Union and anywhere else which would provide him with a forum where he has testified to the threats faced by Israel and the IDF and the extraordinary restraint and limited use of force with the full intent to minimize civilian casualties even at the cost of IDF soldiers’ lives. We have included some of his commentary below starting with his commentary of the recent Gaza demonstrations. Richard Kemp has been a commander in the British military as an Infantry soldier and officer as well as a commando commander. He has been a dependable human rights and observer of the conducting of war within the international rules of warfare. The last video is a speech given in Norway under invitation to clear the invectives which have been leveled against the IDF. He refers to studies done and other expert commentaries which have been conducted. All of his speeches below are worth hearing.

 

 

 

 

Israel and Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO and other Palestinian Arab efforts cannot be any more different in every way and means. When it comes to the lives of Israelis, the difference is to be expected. Of course, the IDF is formed to protect the lives of the Israeli civilians while the terrorists desire dead Israelis and go to great extents to kill Israelis, especially Israeli civilians as that increases the terror and fear factor. What becomes more difficult to grasp is that the IDF and the government behind them are more concerned with the lives of Palestinian Arabs than are the terrorists. The terrorists very often place their rockets and arms stores inside schools, including United Nations run schools, they place launchers and weapons stores within and near hospitals, while the Hamas main command bunker sits under Shifa Hospital. These are simply a few choice examples and there are many more including the fact that Hamas uses human shields including children as the United Nations concluded in their own research. Of course, this discovery does not lead to any condemnations from the Human Rights Council as there was no feasible way to blame Israel. The UN’s Human Rights Council has issued more condemnations of Israel than of all other countries combined. You cannot make these things up, it is not necessary when you have the United Nations General Assembly during their 2015 session adopting twenty resolutions singling out Israel for criticism with only three resolutions on the rest of the world combined. We could list a similar proclivity for the European Union adopting condemnations of Israel but we will simply limit it to a picture of the result of their adopting the BDS demands to label certain goods made within Israel. This is being done despite the fact that the Oslo Accords left Area C as completely under Israeli legal and security control and was expected to become part of Israel and is where all the so-called “settlements” are located, many are actual cities with all the requirements to make them legal, but why allow reality get in the way of condemnation and economic sabotage against Israel. The amusing result was people were found seeking these labels on wines, cheeses and produce as well as other products in order to purchase them.

 

European Union Labels for Products from Judea and Samaria

 

The difference is also in the expectations of the world as shown above. What it comes down to is very simple and can be expressed in the simplest of terms. The world expects the Arab groups dealing with Israel to act as barbarians while they expect that Israel fight them as the perfect example of human restraint. Where Hamas is expected to break every rule of law, Israel is expected to never cause any collateral damage. Part of that expectation was brought on ourselves when we used smallest possible charges when targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and leadership such that in a number of cases we struck their vehicle and succeeded in killing the Hamas officer in the rear seat, injuring the person sitting next to him in the back seat and left the driver barely injured. Hamas officers took precautions since this was operational by surrounding their vehicles with children which ended the targeting Hamas officers when in their vehicles. The world has simply set a diametrically opposite set of demands upon Israel and the Arabs set on the destruction of Israel. This allows for anything to be done if it will destroy Israel and almost no effort which has even the slightest violence which might even cause a boo-boo to be used in defending Israel. We have a name for such a double-standard; we call it anti-Semitism. When you have a separate set of standards which are applied only to the one Jewish State in the world and an unbelievable lenient set of rules only applied to the enemies of Israel and only when they are fighting or murdering Israelis, that is anti-Semitism. What is the difference when defined, anti-Semitism, nothing less.

 

Beyond the Cusp