Nidra Poller Gaza-Israel Dateline Paris Dispatch No. 9
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/56199/cat_id/326/Gaza-Israel-Dateline-Paris-Dispatch-No-9
Russians are stupid. They should send Hamas fighters into the Ukraine: they’re undetectable.
Media attention has shifted from Gaza to the Ukraine where more than 2000 people have been killed since April. How many civilians, soldiers, children? No breakdown is deemed necessary. But the situation is troubling, Russia is accused of invading, economic sanctions are traded like gunfire, the image of pan-European peace is tarnished.
And then there is DAESH. The mother of kidnapped journalist Steven Sotloff appealed by video to the Caliph, begging for mercy, pleading with the Caliph not to punish her son for acts of a government over which he has no control. Declaring that she has learned much about Islam, she asks the Caliph to follow the example of the prophet Mohamed who protected the People of the Book. Similar appeals have been made in the past, many kept private, others made public. Is there a single example of one that was successful? Allow me to express my doubts. [September 2–Steven Sotloff was beheaded, as promised] What works is money, prisoner release, arms, safe passage. Not appeals for mercy, not misconceptions about Islam.
The Daily Mail reports that a guard from one of the prisons where James Foley had been held was executed the day after Foley was beheaded. Was Abu Ubaida Almaghribi really guilty of giving information to British intelligence or was John-the-knife pissed off because the Brits identified him so quickly?
Meanwhile, some journalists were still foaming at the mouth in Gaza. A recent issue of Libération fell into my hands the other day. After reading a human interest story from the ruins of Shujaiyeh, I had a fleeting thought of inviting the author, Luc Mathieu, to face me in an honest public debate. That’s probably as hopeless as the heartfelt plea from Sotloff’s mother. Mathieu’s double-page spread of bitter complaints against a background of rubble is a variation on the theme of “Why did they destroy my house? I’m not Hamas…” No one is Hamas, no Hamas fighters were anywhere in reach, no rocket launch pads were on the rooftop and no tunnel entrances at ground level. Well, ok, maybe a little tunnel entrance, but it’s no reason to bomb us to smithereens. The stink of putrefaction and the smell of raw hatred rise in crescendo, accusations mount skyward against the unfair air raids and land with disgusting details of desecration by Israeli soldiers bivouacked in the al Mghani home during the operation. They made a hole in the wall for their sniper, smashed up everything in the kitchen, left their excrements in the room with the birdcages… the cages are empty now. There is no attempt at verification, no other side of the story, no hard facts… it’s not journalism. It’s take my word for it because the victims are howling in pain. So what is it doing in a newspaper and what is its purpose? To fuel hatred of Israelis. And, since there aren’t so many of them here in France, Jews will do. The article ends with an implicit justification for future attacks. “Saïd” (who requested his real name not be used) says he tried to enlist in Hamas but was rejected because he doesn’t know how to shoot. The journalist asks Saïd’s 17 year-old son if he’d join up. “I have just one thing to say: look around, look at our houses bombed to rubble. You’ll understand what I’m going to do.”
Echoes of another human interest story, “Mohamad, simple enfant de Gaza,” [Gilles Paris, Le Monde, October 11, 2000] a boy who loved birds, “killed by merciless Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.” Mohamed’s brother Iyad, who wanted to be a doctor or an engineer, says “as long as the others [Israelis] are there, we don’t have any future.”
What’s going on in Gaza these days? Nothing of interest for most media. Bitter quarrels between Hamas and Fatah? Not newsworthy. Fatah accuses Hamas of expropriating the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza throughout the operation and to this day. Well, you can’t report that because you already reported that the Israeli blockade and bombardment deprived Gazans of everything. Too complicated to go back and rectify. No new damage, no new victims, no news. What changed? Why did the merciless Israeli child-killers stop shooting? Did they suddenly become merciful?
No. Hamas stopped firing rockets. That’s all. None of the issues have been negotiated. Israel demanded an unconditional ceasefire and, after 50 days of combat, got it. Hamas can chatter about victory and the spoils, Abbas can boast about how the UN is going to give him what Israel selfishly withholds, the fact is the military operation was suspended. Calm replies to calm.
That doesn’t stop the demonization of Israel from skipping down the garden path. Gaza is an open-air prison, withdrawal doesn’t equal the end of the Occupation. The West Bank is Occupied. Hizbullah, too, justifies its warlike existence by an infinite combat against an indelible Occupation. Hamas is taking a pause and looking for ways to gear up for the next battle. As long as Israel is a Jewish state the conflict cannot end. Public opinion goes along with the narrative, Israel has to be accused of original sin: taking the land away from the “Palestinians.” The solution is always the same. Kill the Jews and take back the land.
Ah! Israel announces it is classifying 988 acres near Bethlehem as national land that will be available for construction of the Gvaot neighborhood. This becomes, “Israel is grabbing Palestinian land.” And the big guns fire up. Ban Ki Moon, Obama, the Europeans, opinion-makers, NGOs get back on their high horses, hollering that the bad guys are at it again. The U.S. is asking the Israeli government to back down. Never mind that the land never belonged to those that call themselves Palestinian today. Land for peace is the magical formula as long as Israel does the giving, but building homes for Israelis on land that will in any and all cases remain part of Israel is harmful to peace. Construction is the Israeli response to the kidnap murder of three yeshiva bochers, planned and executed by Hamas.
A friend visiting from NY recently walked in the door and said, “I’m a leftist but I agree with you on Israel,” and went on to suggest that Israel take a chunk of land in response to every attack from Gaza and/or Judea-Samaria.
Isn’t that land for peace?
What if Israel had given into international pressure to turn over the Golan Heights to Syria?
Relative quiet on the Gaza front and new threats on the Syrian border where the al Nusra Front has dislodged Assad’s troops, captured more than 40 Fijian UN peacekeepers, and ordered a Filipino contingent to lay down their arms. Reportedly disobeying orders from UN headquarters, 75 Filipino soldiers fought for seven hours before finally escaping to…Israel. But you wouldn’t know it from evasive reports that somehow manage to say they escaped without mentioning where they fled to. That’s understandable if you’re a media that had been hawking a Gaza ceasefire on Hamas terms, rattling off fake UN casualty figures, relaying dishonest UNWRA accusations against Israel, and giving credibility to cockeyed plans for replacing Israeli surveillance of the Strip with UN troops. And Ban Ki Moon? Having used up a year’s supply of outrage (against Israel) during the Protective Border operation he apparently had no fingers left to point at al Nusra.
Benjamin Netanyahu advised Western powers to stop systematically condemning Israel and concentrate on the real problem: DAESH.
Months ago the approach in France was sociologically merciful, with much talk of preventing misguided youth from running off to fight the jihad in Syria. Today the emphasis has shifted to preventing brutalized soldiers of the Caliphate from returning to pursue their savagery here. The more pragmatic British are preparing emergency measures to keep jihadis from coming back to “wreak havoc” in the UK. Returning fighters will be tracked and nabbed, foreign nationals will be barred, dual citizens will be stripped of their British nationality, and passports will be temporarily confiscated from British citizens. Not so harsh after all, when you remember that, in a not so distant past, traitors in wartime went before the firing squad.
Illegal immigrants arrive by the tens of thousands on European shores, a large percentage of them with no ID documents so that they can’t be deported to their native lands, but international law won’t allow us to protect ourselves from sworn enemies who are so brutal that they scare the Saudis! Furthermore, sharia law does not recognize nationalities and passports. Everyone belongs to the umma. A world without borders, governed by sharia law.
If we are to credibly defend ourselves, it would help if our leaders stopped saying DAESH has nothing to do with Islam. The intrepid British PM is still striving to render his citizens clueless. “As I have said consistently over the last few weeks, [ISIS] terrorists speak for no religion…They threaten Syrians, Iraqis, Americans and British people alike and make no distinction between Muslims, Christians or any other faith.” Barack Hussein Obama (at least he attended a madrassa) said “ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents” (but I guess he didn’t pay attention in class). What’s the purpose of these cotton candy definitions of Islam? Though moderate Muslims might use them to burnish their creds in the West they could get into trouble in Muslim countries. Say it in the streets of the Caliphate and your head will be separated from its pedestal. In fact, “that’s not Islam” has nothing to do with Islam; it’s a question of brute force.
Our leaders, journalists and miscellaneous kibitzers did not, as far as I know, graduate from Al Azhar. If they had, they would not make such statements. The history of Islam is bloodied from the first generation to this day by warring concepts of what is Islam. Whatever the intentions, “that’s not Islam” does not clarify the debate. The statement is inoperative, inappropriate, unsubstantiated, insincere, and dangerously misleading. When our leaders make such fatuous statements they deserve something more shut-your-mouth than proto-theological debate about radical and moderate Islam. “Excuse me, sir, how are you qualified to say what is and isn’t Islam?”
We are told that Western youths who run off to join the Caliphate don’t even understand Islam, don’t speak Arabic, don’t follow the rules. They drink, fornicate, dress in track suits, and engage in criminal behavior. Right. Like the early followers of the “prophet.” Once they get to the Caliphate, they straighten out, brotha’!
How did DAESH suddenly grow so powerful? Simple. It’s because we didn’t intervene immediately in Syria to help the good guys overthrow Assad. Because we did intervene in Libya, but it wasn’t the right way (though the media loved every minute of it as it was happening.) Because of the illegal American invasion of Iraq followed by the stupid disbanding of Saddam’s army. Because we supported Iraq in its war against Iran. Because we funded the Taliban to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. Then there was Mosadegh, there was the Shah of Iran, and there is the discourse that goes back, back, back, like a man falling from a cliff and smashing on the rocks below. That’s Islam….the rocks are Islam: we deserve to be punished because we did not recognize Mohamed as the ultimate prophet.
Details are emerging about the latest victim of “[ISIS] terrorists.” Steven Sotloff, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, showed “deep love for the Islamic world.” He had lived in Yemen, spoke Arabic, went knowingly to report from dangerous areas. From 2002 to 2004 Sotloff studied journalism at the University of Central Florida, stamping grounds of the infamous Sami al-Arian.
And now we learn that Steven Sotloff made Aliyah in 2008. Comments published by friends and colleagues give the impression that, soured on Israel, he chose immersion in the Arab-Muslim world, where he prudently hid his Jewish identity, claiming to be a secular Muslim. Did he sour on that adventure too? It is reported that he was fed up with the Middle East and ready to go back to Miami to do graduate studies. But he went back to Syria for just one more Big Story. Now the family spokesman, Barak Barfi, has addressed the Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi…in Arabic. “He said that as a brother of Islam, he was speaking in the name of Islam and did not agree with the Caliph’s actions. ‘Where is the mercy?’ he asked the Caliph.”
In every gruesome story of violent death, time plays a tragic role. If she had only let that clando taxi go by, if he had not walked into the apartment just when, if they had left ten minutes earlier…Steven Sotloff wanted to get one more story. The three hitch-hiking students got into that car and realized, one second later, they’d been kidnapped.
We seek solace. Like soldiers, they must not die in vain. The murder of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel led to discovery of the Hamas Rosh Hashanah massacre plan. Now the tunnel that went from Shujeiyah to a kindergarten in kibbutz Nahal Oz—one among more than 30—has been destroyed. Three teenagers were murdered, hundreds of children were saved. The slaughter of two American journalists, twelve years after the beheading of Daniel Pearl, is touching a nerve and, hopefully, awakening a healthy reaction of self-defense in the West.
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