Israel and the Surrender of the West
The most interesting voice in all the fallout surrounding the Gaza flotilla incident is that sanctimonious and meddling voice known as “world opinion.” At every turn “world opinion,” like a school marm, takes offence and condemns Israel for yet another infraction of the world’s moral sensibility. And this voice has achieved an international political legitimacy …
Hamas is a threat to the Palestinian cause
It’s a pity that Israel, while substantially loosening its grip on Gaza, will continue to enforce a blockade when, with just a little imagination, it could insist on a deal with the activists once again steaming its way:
Rival Gaza summer camps covet young minds
A battle for the hearts and minds of children in the Gaza Strip has broken out with competing summer camps. Both the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Islamic organization Hamas run camps for the region’s children–but the activities are somewhat different.
Man awaiting deportation allegedly threatened Harper
Canadian security officers are questioning an alleged member of the Hamas terrorist group who was captured after escaping from a Toronto immigration centre where he allegedly made threats against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other G20 leaders.
In Gaza, Hamas is still the obstacle
Having welcomed Israel’s pledge to immediately ease the blockade of goods into Hamas-ruled Gaza, the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers on Monday warned that the current situation in Gaza is “unsustainable and unacceptable and not in the interests of anyone concerned.” It is a fine sentiment, but there remains an immutable obstacle to any lasting relief to the Gaza predicament. It is not Israel. It is Hamas.
Israel is legal and justified
What did they expect? Israel wasn’t about to let a bunch of politically-motivated provocateurs breach its three-year blockade of Gaza under the propaganda smokescreen of “delivering humanitarian aid.” Contrary to monotonous Palestinian-sympathizer yammering, neither the blockade nor its conduct in international waters is “illegal.”
Hamas official: Palestinians should fire at Israel from West Bank
Palestinians should initiate rocket attacks on Israel from the West Bank, Israel Radio quoted Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar as saying in an interview on Sunday, saying that such as move was necessary.
In Gaza, Hamas is still the obstacle
Having welcomed Israel’s pledge to immediately ease the blockade of goods into Hamas-ruled Gaza, the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers on Monday warned that the current situation in Gaza is “unsustainable and unacceptable and not in the interests of anyone concerned.” It is a fine sentiment, but there remains an immutable obstacle to any lasting relief …
Israel’s naval blockade pitches and rolls with the Law of the Sea
Reactions to the Israeli seizure of the Gaza-bound flotilla have shared two traits: They have virtually all invoked international law, and they have virtually all been marked more by their rhetorical excess than their knowledge of international law.
Israel’s critics have levelled the phrases “war crimes” and “piracy,” while its supporters have invoked the spectre of …
Hanging on to the flotilla myth
It is possible for intelligent people to disagree over the way Israel stopped the flotilla that set out for Gaza from Turkey last month. Even after what we have learned about the “humanitarians” on board in the past two weeks — that many were in reality thugs lying in wait to ambush Israeli commandos — …
Despite All Evidence, Most Media Reporting that Flotilla was a Humanitarian Mission
Israel is at war, and if Israel were to be defeated, much of the world would not shed wet tears. What would happen after such a defeat? No one can seriously doubt that Hamas has genocidal intentions.
Abdallah Jarbu, Hamas’s Deputy Minister of Religion, recently asserted that Jews “want to present themselves to the world as …
It’s time to stop demonizing Israel
Of course, my position hasn’t changed. As I said the day it happened, during a fierce debate in Tel Aviv with one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ministers, I continue to find the manner in which the assault against the Mavi Marmara and its flotilla was effected off the Gaza coast to be “stupid.”
If I’d had any …
What About Hamas’s Siege of Gaza?
As Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla ship convoy that was on its way to the Gaza Strip, Hamas security officers stormed the offices of five non-governmental organizations, confiscated equipment and documents, and ordered them closed indefinitely.
Ever since it seized control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas has imposed a reign …
The fatal Gaza Flotilla was not humanitarian
Israel and Egypt have imposed an embargo on the importation of weapons and certain dual-use items into the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel has allowed regular convoys of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, provided Palestinians access to medical care, continued to provide most of Gaza’s electricity, and transferred funds for the ongoing activity of international organizations and …
The ‘activists’ wanted violence: Wiesel says we must honestly assess who is to blame
I waited a week to write this commentary. I needed to gather more details about the unfortunate Gaza incident that caused the death of nine pro-Palestinian peace activists and instantly provoked the almost universal condemnation of Israel.
Yes, at first, the news was devastating to those who believe in Israel’s commitment to democracy. Is it possible, …
The making of ‘martyrs’
In our topsy-turvy contemporary world, where fashionable opinion can be counted upon to turn any moral issue upside down, Israel has again been singled out for expressions of indignation and loathing. This is because she stooped to defending herself again, against a scheme designed to break the embargo that prevents the Hamas terrorist organization from …
Failing ‘the Israel test’
The confrontation off Gaza this week demonstrated that the world waits to pounce on Israel when it breaks the rules — and when it doesn’t break the rules, the world pounces anyway.
This is the illogical and unfair reality of Israel’s position in the geopolitics of contemporary opinion. As soon as the first news of the …
UN condemns Israel first, investigates later
I don’t suppose the world needs to remember Rwanda to note how sluggish in the face of imminent horror the United Nations is and can be. If that is not a sufficient cue, we could bring in other examples of areas of great threat or immiseration or both: Darfur, Tibet, Chechnya, North Korea, Zimbabwe, the …
Terrorists at the helm
Turkey’s Islamist prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, knows better than most why Israel found it necessary to confront that phony “peace” flotilla off Gaza Monday.
Certainly he knows that the convoy was organized and manned by the Foundation for Human Rights & Humanitarian Relief — as bloody-handed a terrorist gang as exists in the Mideast.
Known by its …
An Assault, Cloaked in Peace
PEACE activists are people who demonstrate nonviolently for peaceful co-existence and human rights. The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace. On the contrary, the religious extremists embedded among those on board were paid and equipped to attack Israelis — …
The Freedom Flotilla fraud
What was supposed to be a routine Israeli maritime boarding and inspection operation is turning into a propaganda victory for the Islamist terror group Hamas. The main lesson learned from the incident on the ship Mavi Marmara is: Don’t bring a paintball gun to a knife fight.
The initial frenzy of denunciations of the operation in …
Another rush to judgment
The deaths and injuries on board the Gaza flotilla once again demonstrate how easy it is for radical supporters of terrorism to provoke a democracy into committing acts that will incur the condemnation of the international community.
Let there be no mistake about the goal of the flotilla. It was not to provide aid to Gaza.
The …
Jenin on the high seas
If Israel truly had wanted to “massacre” the Hamas sympathizers and fellow travellers aboard a six-ship Gaza-bound flotilla, the operation would not have been complicated. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would have used the trusty North Korean solution: Torpedo the ships and watch them sink to the bottom of the sea.
Even Israel arguably would have …
Israel was Right to Board the Gaza Flotilla
Israeli commandos mishandled the situation but Israel was right to storm a ship bound for Gaza. Leslie H. Gelb argues why.
Israel had every right under international law to stop and board ships bound for the Gaza war zone late Sunday. Only knee-jerk left-wingers and the usual legion of poseurs around the world would dispute this. …