Red Flags Facing Israel in Every Direction

 

With Mahmoud Abbas one week threatening to quit and hand Netanyahu the keys and the next week announcing that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be issuing Palestine Passports in six months, what is Israel to expect and react without appearing ridiculous? Perhaps that is the entire objective of Abbas’s schizophrenic actions. Then there is the situation with the European Union with their two pronged assault on Israel, one economic and the other territorial. The economic assault has been prevalent in the news with their vote demanding separate labeling of all products coming from east of the Green Line. This will next morph into a demand that any product with X percent, eventually becoming any amount even having a single item from east of the Green Line. The inevitable end result will be a complete embargo of all Israeli goods as a precaution of any part having come from the ‘Zone Which Must be Free of all Jews’ as the Great and Powerful European Union has so decreed.

 

The territorial assault has even been ruled illegal by courts but when you are ‘The Great and Powerful European Union’ such trivialities hold no power over their edicts of what must be as they said so. This territorial assault has been the European Union’s building of Arabs from within the PA areas homes and other structures and land from within Area C which the Oslo Accords reserved to be completely under Israeli control. The Oslo Accords stipulated three zones which the parties agreed to their stipulations. Area A was given to complete PA control, both security and administrative; Area B was given to joint security jurisdiction with PA having administrative control and Area C under complete security and administrative control. The intent of the Oslo Accords was for Area A to result as an Arab state, Area C was to be annexed into Israel upon settlement and Area B was to be negotiated between the two parties, the PA and Israel. The whole idea of the Green Line which was actually the armistice line drawn when the combined seven Arab nations’ armies were unsuccessful in their efforts to completely eradicate the nascent Jewish State during the hostilities during 1948 and 1949. During this war which Israel euphemistically calls its War of Independence, the war was initiated by the aforementioned Arab armies which were perched on the Israeli borders, the current borders with Lebanon and Egypt, all of the Gaza Strip, and along the eastern shores of the Jordan River as these were the determined borders from the British Mandate and reconfirmed by the United Nations. The so-called occupied territories or disputed territories were according to all treaties including those signed by the Arab League by King Farouk recognizing the Jordan River as the legal and internationally recognized eastern border of Israel. So that raises the question of exactly who is occupying whose lands?

 

Should there be any moves by the PA to declare a state in any parts of Judea and Samaria, the actual given name throughout history of the so-called West Bank, other than in Area A, and especially and expressly in Area C, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war as that would entail taking lands which are considered to still be contested. This was what their rioting and forced occupying of almost all of Hevron as well as every desecration of Jewish holy sites and structures such as the ancient synagogues which they claim will destroy the al-Aksa Mosque despite there being miles from the Temple Mount and some not even located within Jerusalem. These accusations of Israeli or Jewish attempts or even intentions to destroy Islamic holy sites is one of the best and most egregious examples of projection as this has been their modus operandi exampled by their numerous desecrations of Kever Yoseph (Joseph’s Tomb) and destructive excavations on the Temple Mount destroying antiquities from the last three thousand plus years of Jewish artifacts. This has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt by the finds made in Operation Sifting which is an attempt to salvage even the smallest of antiquities out of the rubble piles where the crushed remains dug from beneath the Temple Mount by PA excavations.

 

Then there are the constant terror attacks which are either not given any coverage by the world’s media or is given such a slanted and misleading coverage as to be beyond credulity. An example comes from a stabbing attack near the Old City’s Yafo Gate from yesterday where the Arab attackers murdered one Israeli, severely injured a second Israeli and one Israeli was accidently shot and killed when Border Police officers were attempting to end the attack in which one of the attackers was killed and the other injured and taken into custody. The coverage was so slanted that Israeli officials have felt it necessary to register complaints over the network slanting of the news. CNN reported the attack reporting there were four dead without differentiating between attackers and victims with a banner stating “four dead in violent stabbing at Jaffa Gate” but CBS was not to be outdone in this false implications when their screen titles with two strangely amorphous or simply misleading as with the initial title. CBS began coverage with the title “2 Palestinians killed after stabbing attack in Jerusalem” and later changed to read “2 Israelis dead after stabbing attack in Jerusalem; 2 Palestinian Assailants Killed” which was slightly less ambiguous or misleading but there is no excusing the initial reporting title. These are far from the first of the litany of misleading titles and reports with one of the more famous the Jerusalem reporter on a split screen reporting that the Arab ‘Palestinian’ shot dead was running unarmed and definitely did not have a knife which he reported repeatedly even after being told that the video was in the split screen and it showed the Arab charging baring a knife over his head in his raised hand and still the on the scene reporter refused to change his slanted reporting. This was so telling of who and how reports from Israel and especially reports from areas where terrorism is a definite threat and the average Western, especially European, reporters feed their feelings of trepidation hiring local reporters willing to report from these ‘dangerous’ locations which more often than not are Arabs and too often they have a slanted view which taints their reports. This sits just fine as the reporters themselves find such reporting believable and in tune with their line of reporting, thus much of Europe and the world, especially those relying on the BBC, AFP, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and even at times and becoming more prevalent with FOX, are receiving slanted news on which they then base their feeling on the conflicts in Israel. They are all guilty of slanted reporting which is far more often than not against Israel and supporting the ‘under dogs’ Arabs despite their being supported by the entirety of the Arab world, much of the Muslim world, and by many from Europe and other Western nations and solidly by the European Union. Even the leftist media in Israel is just as guilty as any in the international arena.

 

 

Slanted and Biased News Headline
Ignoring the Jewish Israeli Victims
Appearing to Claim the Palestinians
Were Killed Randomly and Not Because
of Their Stabbing Terror Attack on
Israelis Near the Jaffa Gate
And the Revised Presumably
More Realistic Title Below

 

Since the Duma arson attack and the following detention and rumored mistreatment of even some minors in efforts to force confessions and fortunately there will be a trial which will hopefully bring into public review exactly what techniques were used to gain any confessions or not get a confession from many who still might be called to attest to the methods used. If the rumors which have circulated turn out to be true, then waterboarding would have been hazing compared to the techniques used here which came closer to the methods of Tomás de Torquemada. Where we would prefer to keep my faith and belief that the state is honorable and would not act in any way dishonorably which is something the recent reviews by a select board of former and active commanders and select officers who are responsible for similar review of troops in combat who reviewed the past war in Gaza which presented a report which lauded the IDF actions and gave special note to the review internal to the IDF and their review procedures in cases of accusations or internal reporting of misuse of power or other abuses. We will need to wait and see what develops but an open and transparent review would go a long way to belay our doubts and fears.

 

There is one thing that we feel great embarrassment and sorrow when we hear about acts of violence by fellow Jews against other Jews especially as well as when such violence is directed at Arabs who are innocent of any aggressions against Jews as such actions work against any possibility of settling our differences peaceably. If it proves out that Jews were behind the Duma arson attack which murdered an entire family, we support the prosecution to the highest charges and highest sentencing upon a conviction for each offender. Equally important, if it proves that no Jews were found to be guilty and that evidence points elsewhere that Israel not permit the PA to whitewash an investigation and do whatever is within their abilities to find and bring the actual perpetrators to justice just as they would prosecute any Jew responsible for such a horrendous crime. Any crime of such viciousness must be researched and investigated to the utmost depth and chase down every potential lead until every last detail is known and all involved are persecuted. There is no reason for murdering an infant and an entire family no matter what the reasons and those involved must be brought to justice. The same needs to go for these terrorists who have been attacking Israelis need to be brought to justice and made to serve their entire term ending these releases just to have Abbas and friends kick us in the face for yielding to his demands. We, meaning all of Israel are fed up with the world always demanding Israel make concessions until we have no concessions left, period. How about instead of asking Abbas for some promise he never plans to keep or honor, we simply demand that he state explicitly exactly what terms would he be willing to accept for an end to all hostilities and borders such solution would demand to satisfy all the Arab demands.

 

Perhaps having Abbas advertise exactly what terms would be acceptable to him would finally present the real reason there has been no peace and there can never be peace as long as Abbas or any of his minions are involved with the peace process as they refuse the process and demand all or nothing. It is time they were told either they compromise or they will receive nothing and be removed from power along with all the rest of the people behind thus intransigence allowing calmer and more reasoned and rational minds to come to the fore who can reach a compromise. If they also prove unable to make peace, they too can face the same answer as above and continue the willowing until somebody is found willing to reach a fair peace. The only solution to the Arab Israeli situation will require honesty from the Arabs, their speaking honestly, and finally the settlement of the Arab Israeli conflict which will require a desire from the Arabs and reasonable demands from the Arabs otherwise Israel will be left with little choice but to reclaim all the presumably contested lands which were recognized at the time of her birth with her eastern border being the Jordan River and not the Armistice lines reached with the Arab world after the six plus national armed forces stood ready to do battle the morning of her independence where Israel managed to survive losing much of Judea and all of Samaria to Jordan who occupied these lands from May 1948 through June 1967 when Israel regained these lost lands and has been attempting to manage a peace treaty with the Arabs who remain intransigent, refusing to compromise on their maximalist demands. Until the Arabs compromise, they should be made to lose land and eventually their continuing to refuse to compromise from their demand to replace Israel choosing to fund a terrorist state over a normative functioning state, then they will destroy any hope of there having a functioning state, there will only be the functioning state of Israel.

 

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