Terror's Victims

This video brought me to tears.

Then to read this:

Thousands in Gaza Celebrate Jerusalem Terror Attack, Palestinians Distribute Sweets - Ali Waked
Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem school in which eight people were killed. In mosques in Gaza City, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving. Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby. Hamas issued a statement saying it "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation." (Ynet News)

So barbaric and uncivilized.

Israelis do not celebrate Arab deaths nor do they target unarmed civilians.

Yet they are condemned by the media and treated as moral equals to this culture of terrorism, head chopping, and death worship.

A "joke" describing Israel's relationship with the media.

The death of bacteria?

Statement by Israeli Ambassador to UN Human Rights Council - Amb. Itzhak Levanon
I cannot compete with the exaggerations, distortions and inaccuracies I have heard here. The truth is that the Hamas terrorists took over Gaza by force and established an irredentist entity. They have smuggled lethal weapons into this territory with the sole purpose to kill Israelis. Since the beginning of this year, in only two months, they have fired 671 missiles at civilians, women and children. They received these missiles from countries in the Middle East, such as the Iranian-made 122mm Grad missile. Hamas is committing war crimes and collectively punishing a population of a quarter of a million citizens living in Ashkelon, Sderot, the Negev, and Netivot. They call for the physical destruction of my country and translate these words into deeds. They brought al-Qaeda to Gaza, a fact confirmed by Mahmoud Abbas.
    The truth is that in the 12 resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli situation that have been passed by this Council, not one has made even passing mention of the relentless aggression against Israel. Not one of them has called explicitly to halt the deluge of Kassam rockets and Grad missiles. Not one of them attempted to recognize that Palestinians do not have a monopoly on suffering; not one of them acknowledged that the children of Israel have the same right to safety as Palestinian children. Not one of them attempted to empathize with the cries of an Israeli mother protecting her children, or the fear and trauma experienced while running to a bomb shelter, know that only 30 seconds separates you from death. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

******

The Way of Terror and the Response - Alan Baker (Toronto Star)

• Day after day we are treated to footage on our TV screens of what we are told is a "cycle of violence." The equation, so glibly presented through the media, between pure, deliberate terror on the one hand, and the attempts to prevent it on the other, is misguided, misleading, and creates an utterly false and unfair equivalence.
• Hamas and the other terror organizations functioning under its control and supervision in Gaza are involved in directing the daily rocket firings, which willfully and deliberately target Israeli homes, schools, hospitals, religious seminaries, and kindergartens for the singular purpose of terrorizing and killing as many Israelis as they can.
• Death is their only motive. That is the way of terror. They fire 40 or 50 rockets every day in the hope that all will kill. It is deliberate and indiscriminate, and it is directed to terrorize a civilian population. It is not merely illegal and immoral, but it is a violation of the most basic norms and principles of international law. As such it is a war crime of the first dimension, going against all accepted norms of civilization.
• Israel does not willfully and deliberately target civilians, schools, homes and hospitals. Israel has no reason to harm any Palestinian wishing to live peacefully. Israel is obliged - through a very basic need for survival - to defend its citizens against the very terrorists who are actively engaged in firing the rockets and operating the suicide bombers, and only them.
• If there were no daily, deliberate rocket-fire against Israeli towns and villages; if the industry of importing missiles, weapons and ammunition from Egypt were to be stopped; if the ongoing and prevalent industry of terror-planning, rocket-building, ammunition-manufacturing, and jihadist religious incitement and glorification were to give way to normal industries and economic growth; if the psyche of hatred and terror that prevails over Gaza were to give way to a psyche of peaceful coexistence, then Israel would have neither justification nor need to respond to terror and to defend its citizens.

  The writer is the Israeli ambassador to Canada.

If the Palestinians laid down their weapons, there would be peace.  If the Israelis laid down their weapons, they would be dead. 

Comments

[Leora]

If the Palestinians laid down their weapons, there would be peace. If the Israelis laid down their weapons, they would be dead.
Haven't we heard this before? Haven't we said this before? Is this just preaching to the choir? Is anyone listening? Or is it just 'cycle of violence' and dismissed.

Maybe if you had repeated Jack's "joke" someone would read it. Maybe.

[Gail]

I hear you and understand your frustration, Leora. I am hoping to reach people outside the Jewish community who will give a damn. Even if not, Israelis come by and read here and it is good for them to know that American Jews care. And even if that does no good, this serves as a record for the future. Someone may come along and dissect the internet one day, researching reactions, looking for...something. My voice will be there, for whatever it's worth.

[Leora]

Keep blogging.

[draftervoi]

Yo. American non-Jewish atheists care, too. The endless rain of rockets, the suicide bombings, the all-or-nothing rhetoric of Hamas... While there may be a "cycle" of violence, it's pretty clear that there is no willingness to negotiate anything by the Palestinian leadership. While I would support a two state solution, I would not advise any state to assist in the creation of a new hostile state by ceding territory.

[DON]

I'm likely wrongon this,as I frequently am. But I am of the opinion that the American Jews are not yet convinced of your viewpoint. I appears to me that they are more interested in political postering in American politics than in saving the Jews. If I'm correct in my observation, why is that?

[Gail]

Don, some Jews are sincere, if misguided, pacifists. Others learned to relate to the Democrat party in their youth, believing Republicans to be bigotted against minorities. They have a certain thought pattern that is very difficult to break.

Jewish leftists, like all leftists, misperceive the real enemy, and what seems so freaking obvious to me is not obvious to them. It is extremely frustrating. More and more are getting it, in my opinion, but some diehards are very vocal and tend to drown out everyone else.