Moses said to the people in his final charge "I put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life...Be strong and resolute..for the Lord will not forsake you" Deut. 30 and 31. Former US National Debate Champion and Ordained Rabbi tackles issues of Public Policy, Israel, Islamic Terrorism, Antisemitism, Jewish Wisdom and the Chicago Bears
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Protests at Gaza a violent violation of Israel border
Protests at Gaza a violent violation of Israel border The Protests in Gaza included violent violation of the Israel border, typical of Hamas. This is harmful to the Palestinian people and illustrates why there cannot be a new Palestinian state with the present leaders of Hamas and Fatah. Such a state would launch terrorism at the border with Israel. The U.S. would defend itself against actions like this by Mexicans or Canadians. There is no right of return for Palestinian refugees, just as there is no return for the same amount of Jewish refugees from Arab lands. "
I am speaking of the actions of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, who controls the Gaza strip. Hamas began last Friday with what they call a six-week campaign for the “right of return.” The one thing Hamas has grossly miscalculated is that Barack Obama and his Islamist sympathizing policies and actions no longer rule the day in America. Hamas is one of the most violent established Islamic jihadist groups in the world. Their charter has called for the destruction of Israel, and they are a listed terrorist group. Hamas is funded by Iran, who can provide them more largesse since Obama so kindly blessed the Iranians with billions of dollars in cash and the lifting of economic sanctions. The leadership of Hamas is in the country of Qatar, which is known to support Islamic jihadist groups financially.
Hamas has been rather quiet, but for whatever reason, a dog whistle went out, probably from Iran. And they have stepped up their belligerence, once again. Without a doubt, Hamas, by way of Iran, may feel emboldened because Iran has well established themselves in Syria along with their other terrorist proxy militant force, Hezbollah.
However, with all of this, the landscape has changed to the better for Israel. No longer does PM Benyamin Netanyahu have to be concerned with support or backing from the United States. And even as the United Nations went into an emergency meeting, PM Netanyahu is not concerned with a Samantha Power as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations backstabbing Israel. Current U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, has already evidenced her resolve and focused determination to stand up to the dictators, despots, autocrats, and theocrats that dominate the United Nations.
Last week, Hamas bussed in more than 30,000 people to include women and children, which they continually use as human shields, to conduct their protest. It was yet another example of this terrorist group trying to create an incident and use leftist media propaganda to advance their delusional and deadly objective. Because of Hamas’ provocations there were reported 17 killed and 1,000 injured. None of this would have happened if there had not been the violent instigation by Hamas. They allowed the employment of burning tires and rocks being thrown. There were also shots fired across the Israeli-Gaza border.
U.N. Secretary-General Guterres wants an impartial and transparent investigation to occur, I can surmise this easily. In the era of rules-based international order, what we have here is a designated Islamic terrorist organization that threatened and conducted violence against a recognized nation-state. We should be simply denouncing the actions of Hamas, and the international community should be doing everything possible to isolate Hamas, who also counts the Muslim Brotherhood as a supporter. Instead, we have groups like Human Rights Watch, who was reportedly concerned, over the number of Hamas supporters killed and Israel’s use of lethal force.
I find it disconcerting that we are still dismissing the actions of a terrorist organization who exposes innocent women and children. I believe that we have entered a new phase where we are no longer “concerned” about proportional response to Islamic jihadist groups and their actions. What would Human Rights Watch prefer, that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) throw rocks back? If Hamas is so belligerent as to fire shots across the border into Israel, if Hamas is so bold as to foment violence with a sovereign state, Israel, on its border, then they will receive a response necessary to protect that State – not some arbitrary fairness doctrine proposed by some leftist organization.
I have been to Israel and to the area near the border with Gaza. I have been to the town of Sderot and seen the collection of expended rockets and missile ordnance. I have been to the playgrounds and seen the bomb shelters. Yes, Israeli children have playgrounds with bomb shelters. That, to me, is disturbing and appalling.
Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has called for a period of mourning and stated that Israel was responsible for the violence. This is yet another example of the level of obtuse and obstinate behavior from Abbas, realizing that Israel and the Jewish people were about to enter a very Holy time, Passover.
Hamas indeed did not get the memo. Obama is gone, and President Donald Trump is not sympathetic to the violent nature of Islamic terrorist organizations. Also, the naming of Ambassador John Bolton as the new National Security Advisor should send a clear message to Hamas, Hezbollah, Mahmoud Abbas, and Iran: their activities will not be tolerated. PM Netanyahu does not have to worry about any threatening calls from previous Secretary of State, like Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom exhibited favoritism to the Arab people who have commandeered the title of “Palestinian.” And if you are a student of history, you know how and why that term was introduced into the region by Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Things are different now, and militant Islamic jihadists and their state sponsors must recognize that their violent, terrorist actions will be met with a resolute, and tough, response. Perhaps we need to resend that memo.
Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. Mr. West is a Senior Fellow at the Media Research Center to support its mission to expose and neutralize liberal media bias.
Palestinian Casualties Are No Accident for Hamas
The organizers of a march on Israel's border are spoiling for a fight.
By
Eli Lake
87
Corrected
A Palestinian protester flings a rock toward Israeli defense forces on April 2.
Photographer: Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Leave it to Hamas to make nonviolence violent.
This is what happened over the weekend as thousands of Gazans swarmed the Israeli border crossing on what they called a "march of return." It's not just that the Israeli Defense Force claims to have video showing peaceful marchers interspersed with militants wielding Molotov cocktails and burning tires. The organizers of this civil disobedience, Hamas, are themselves devoted to bloodshed.
As the Qassem Brigades helpfully announced on Sunday, five of the 16 marchers killed during the march were members of this Hamas militia -- which shares a name with the short-range rockets its members launch at Israeli towns and cities. You may remember them. In 2014, their kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers sparked the last major war between Israel and Hamas.
In case the point was missed this time around, the statement from the Brigades promises: "The blood of the pure martyrs will not go to waste. The enemy will pay a price at a time and place and in a way that the resistance decides.”
None of this is to say that Gazans do not have legitimate grievances. They face a triple blockade from Israel to its north, Egypt to its south and the Palestinian Authority, that last year sought to choke off the strip from the electric grid in Israel. The fact that at least 16 Palestinians were killed in the march compounds this suffering.
And that suffering demands attention from people of conscience. But this attention should not treat the arsonist like the fire victim. The arsonist is the march's organizer, Hamas. For this group, any Palestinian casualties in the march were a feature and not a bug. Like its tactics in previous Gaza wars, where it launched rockets from apartment buildings and schools, Hamas seeks Palestinian casualties to earn legitimacy for its armed struggle.
Other nonviolent movements have also sought to show the brutality of the oppressor to a global audience. Gandhi's 1930 Salt March comes to mind. But the analogy falls apart this time because unlike Gandhi's independence struggle for India, Hamas remains committed to the violent negation of the world's only Jewish state. Gandhi didn't send armed thugs to walk alongside civilians. And yet the reaction from many in Europe and America was to treat this Hamas provocation as an expression of Palestinian civil disobedience.
Take European Union foreign policy chief and engagement enthusiast Federica Mogherini. She called for an independent investigation into Israel's use of live ammunition. "Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are fundamental rights that must be respected," she said.
Bernie Sanders struck a similar note. He tweeted: "The killing of Palestinian demonstrators by Israeli forces in Gaza is tragic. It is the right of all people to protest for a better future without a violent response."
Let's start by noting that the organizers of the march, Hamas, do not allow Palestinians to "protest for a better future." As the sovereigns of Gaza, Hamas authorities arrest Palestinians for spreading rumors online. They have cracked down on male barbers for cutting women's hair. If you are deemed a "collaborator," Hamas has been known to drag your corpse behind a motorcycle.
All of that aside, even if Hamas were committed to nonviolence -- which it clearly is not -- its aims should horrify Western progressives and conservatives alike. Hamas does not seek a two-state solution; it seeks to replace the world's only Jewish state with one ruled by fanatics. The title of the weekend's event, "The March of Return," is a giveaway. The idea is that every Palestinian family and its descendants have a right to return to the Israeli territory that Palestinians fled during the 1948 war for independence. Such a return would overwhelm the existing Jewish majority.
And this is why it's so dangerous to treat last weekend's march like the Arab Spring or the brave demonstrations in Iran a few months ago. The march which has been discussed in Palestinian civil society for months was hijacked by Hamas, an organization that during nearly 11 years of rule has brought death and deprivation to Gaza.
