RUTHFULLY YOURS

Why is Hamas putting its weapons in the middle of homes, schools, hospitals and mosques in the first place?

Palestinian violence has been persistent in violating all rules of engagement, despite the signed Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995, Article XIV of which states that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall be completely demilitarized.

Now that the dust has begun to settle in Gaza after Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, it is again easy to feel sorry for the beleaguered Palestinians. As everyone knows who looks at The New York Times and CNN, the lingering images are incontestably painful, and continue to look “asymmetrical” and “disproportionate.”

How could Hamas have been the aggressor when so many more Arabs than Israelis were killed? Surely the side with greater civilian losses must always be in the right. How could it be otherwise?

The people of Gaza (together with those many Israelis still forced to live under terrorist rocket attacks) are indeed victims of regional violence. But their victimization was not caused by any outside enemy. On the contrary, Palestinian suffering remains the direct result of a criminal Hamas leadership. Why is Hamas putting its weapons in the middle of homes, schools, hospitals and mosques in the first place?

Moreover, this Palestinian leadership sits safely away from Gaza, either tucked away in Qatar or the comfortable parts of Europe. “Martyrdom” is always welcomed, as long as it is someone else’s.

Israeli soldiers inspect a concrete-reinforced tunnel that was dug by Hamas from Gaza to Israel, in preparation for a terror attack, August 3, 2014. (Image source: IDF)
Contrary to carefully scripted outbursts from Hamas, Israel’s defensive responses were never gratuitous or contrived. Unlike their adversaries, Israelis receive absolutely no joy from killing others. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and related terror groups operating from Gaza, on the contrary, always seem to take calculated steps to ensure that Israeli reprisals will kill or injure Palestinian noncombatants. By directing elderly women and young children to those areas in Gaza from which lethal rockets will intentionally be launched into Israeli homes, hospitals, and schools — with the knowledge that the Israelis will have to return fire to the places from which the fire originated — Palestinian leaders openly violate the most elementary restrictions of the laws of war. Under international law, holding civilians in front of one as a shield is specified as a crime.

When Hamas fires its last rocket and Israel drops its last bomb, the extent of Gaza’s devastation will become clear. An early estimate is that some $5 billion will be necessary to rebuild residences and infrastructure destroyed in the recent conflict. The first step is to take United Nations Relief and Works Agency out of the equation.

UNRWA, the U.N.’s 65-year-old, internationally funded welfare organization for Palestinians, should be commended for providing much needed shelter and aid to displaced Gazans during the crisis. But given several revelations during the current conflict between Hamas and Israel, UNRWA should have no role in any negotiated arrangement regarding Gaza’s reconstruction.

On three occasions rockets were found in UNRWA schools, closed for the summer, and at least once they were returned to Hamas. On another occasion, the UNRWA accused Israel of targeting civilians sheltering in a school when in fact those deaths were caused by a Hamas rocket that fell short. And on another occasion it accused Israel of targeting a shelter and civilians when in reality terrorists outside the facility were hit and civilian bodies possibly planted at the scene.

UNRWA has condemned the rockets found in its schools, but it has not condemned Hamas’ firing rockets from in and around its facilities, or any other locations such as residential areas, hospital parking lots, and hotels. All these have now been documented, often reluctantly, by journalists who have left Gaza, who have also made it clear that they were subject to Hamas surveillance, harassment and intimidation. Instead, UNRWA and its spokesman Chris Gunness have tweeted accusations, voiced hollow defenses, and cried on television.

UNRWA’s many responsibilities should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, as a means of strengthening the PA practically, politically, and in the eyes of Gaza’s residents. UNRWA employees should be made PA employees and international funds redirected to support its programs. This would be one of the timeliest means of rebuilding the PA in a region where it has been weakest, Gaza, and a way to begin the long overdue process of dismantling UNRWA.

There is a time in a nation’s history when a decision of immense and fundamental importance must be made. Such a decision means embarking on a new direction that alters everything that has gone before. It is a veritable crossing of the Rubicon. That decision now confronts embattled Israel.

A great alliance exists between two peoples who share principles of democracy, the rule of law, freedom of religion and speech, and human rights. That alliance and friendship between the American and Israeli people largely remains, exemplified by the support of Congress, despite the policies of the current administration.

Like the United States, Israel respects the rights of minorities. It has an independent judicial system, which protects the rights of individuals and operates under the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.” Israel, like America, features regularly scheduled elections that are free and fair and open to all its citizens, regardless of religion, race, or sex. What a contrast exists between it and the grim horrors and butchery endemic among the failed Islamic states that surround it.

But American voters elected Barack Hussein Obama as their president – not once, but twice. Tragically for both the Israeli and American people, this president has set his face against Israel and seems to embrace the very Islamic foes who plot the extermination of the Jewish state.

At the same time that Israel’s request for a shipment of hellfire missiles to replace those expended during the defensive struggle against Hamas has been denied, the requests of Israel’s Muslim and Arab enemies are speedily and unquestionably granted by Obama and the State Department.

More than a year ago, James Foley, an American photojournalist was reported missing in Syria. Numerous reports claimed he had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. A new video has surfaced that appears to show Foley being beheaded alive by ISIS.
In the ISIS produced video, which is titled “A Message to America,” a man identified as Foley is seen on his knees, dressed all in orange, in the desert. He has a small black microphone clipped to his collar.
Standing over him is man dressed all in black, including a black turban that covers everything but his eyes.
The Islamic State opens with video of President Obama announcing military action against ISIS in Iraq. ISIS then accuses the president of being on a “slippery slope against Muslims.”
“Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty & safety under the Islamic caliphate,” The black-clad terrorist warns, “Will result in the bloodshed of your people.”
Obviously under duress, Foley than calls on his “friends, family members and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government.” Foly is forced to blame the U.S. government and the airstrikes for his execution. That is what “hammered the final nail into my coffin,” he says.
After Foley is brutally beheaded alive, ISIS brings out another man the group claims is American journalist Steven Sotloff. If Obama doesn’t listen to their demands, ISIS promises to murder him next.
The video, which is extremely disturbing and graphic, can be viewed here.

A reported Israeli Air Force targeted strike on a Hamas terror chief in Gaza on Tuesday left the group threatening a harsh response.
The strike came right after rockets slammed southern Israel breaking a 24-hour cease-fire between the terror group and the Jewish state that followed several days of quiet.
After one of the first volleys, IDF aircraft bombed a house in the coastal enclave’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, possibly killing senior Hamas rocket commander, Mohammed Yassin Dalu, 50, Israeli Army Radio reported.
Neither Israel nor Hamas have announced the identity of the target, as of midnight.
Unconfirmed Israeli emergency service reports said 11 people were hurt or killed in the attempted assassination.
Dalu, who headed Hamas’ rocket division was also targeted in a 2012 attempt, according to Channel 2 News.
Hamas, in a statement released after the strike, said the IDF’s move was, “opening the gates of hell,” and vowed that the “price will be very heavy.”

The brouhaha surrounding the wedding reception of a Jaffa couple on Sunday evening is yet another example of ideology gone haywire. In this case, it was right-wing extremism on display, though turning private matters into political causes is something at which the radical Left excels as well.

When word got out about the upcoming nuptials of Mahmoud Mansour (an Israeli Arab) and Morel Malka (an Israeli Jew who converted to Islam), the Organization for the Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land, Lehava, went into action. Posting the couple’s wedding invitation on its Facebook page, the group called on the public to demonstrate outside the banquet hall in Rishon Lezion where the festivities were to be held, “wielding banners and bullhorns.”

Both threats against the groom and messages of congratulations ensued.

Fearing that violence would erupt during the festivities — particularly at this time of tension due to the war in Gaza — the groom petitioned the Rishon Lezion Magistrates’ Court to prevent the protest.

Judge Iryah Heuman Mordechai ruled that the protest could take place, but only at a distance of at least 200 meters away from the hall. She also ruled that the sides in the dispute could not contact each other, including via Facebook, for 90 days.

A few hundred people turned up at the event to condemn or support the couple, who hired 14 bodyguards for a high fee. Dozens of local police officers were also there to keep the peace. In the end, members of the “banners and bullhorns” crowd who tried to approach the hall were stopped; six were detained. Supporters waved balloons and posters wishing the couple well.

On Monday, politicians across the political spectrum weighed in on the wedding.

President Reuven Rivlin posted a congratulatory message on his Facebook page, wishing the couple “health, peace and joy.”

Health Minister Yael German sent a personal telegram stating: “On this, your day of rejoicing, I want to congratulate you and give you support. May you have many years together of happiness, love and tolerance.”

Finance Minister Yair Lapid admitted he would not want his son to marry a non-Jew.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/tennessee-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand?f=puball

Primary: August 7, 2014

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U.S. Senate

Bob Corker (R) Next Election in 2018.
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Albeit belated, and ever grudgingly, the non-Muslim world has been compelled to acknowledge ISIL’s ghastly, murderous jihad rampages against both the Christian and Yazidi religious minorities of northern Iraq.

Even now, however, no U.S. television network has been willing to air the explicit testimonies of both Yazidi and Christian refugees from these jihad depredations about the following salient issue: how local Sunni Muslims, their erstwhile “neighbors,” not only aided and abetted ISIL, but were more responsible for killings, other atrocities, and expulsions than the “foreign” invading jihadists. For example, Sabah Hajji Hassan, a 68-year-old Yazidi, lamented,

The (non-Iraqi) jihadists were Afghans, Bosnians, Arabs and even Americans and British fighters. But the worst killings came from the people living among us, our (Sunni) Muslim neighbors. The Metwet, Khawata and Kejala tribes-they were all our neighbors. But they joined the IS [Islamic State; ISIL], took heavy weapons from them, and informed on who was Yazidi and who was not. Our neighbors made the IS takeover possible.

The Yazidi Hassan’s observations independently validated this prior, concordant assessment (video here) by an Christian refugee from Mosul:

[Unnamed Christian refugee]: We left Mosul because ISIL came to the city. The [Sunni] people of Mosul embraced ISIS and drove the Christians out of the city. When ISIS entered Mosul, the people hailed them and drove out the Christians. Why did they expel just the Christians from Mosul? There are many sects in Mosul. Why just the Christians? This is nothing new. Even before, the Christians could not go anywhere. The Christians have faced threats of murder, kidnapping, jizya [deliberately humiliating “poll-tax,” per Koran 9:29, imposed upon non-Muslim Jews/Christians/Zoroastrians, vanquished by jihad, along with a slew of other “sacralized” debasing regulations] This is nothing new. […] I was told to leave Mosul. They said that this was a Muslim country, not a Christian one. I am being very honest. They said that this land belongs to Islam and that Christians should not live there.

[Interviewer]: Who told you that?

[Christian refugee]: The people who embraced ISIS, the people who lived there with us…

Writing about Israel is a booming field. No news agency, be it ever so humble, can avoid embedding a few correspondents and a dog’s tail of stringers into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, to sit in cafes clicking away on their laptops, meeting up with leftist NGO’s and the oppressed Muslim of the week.
At a time when international desks are being cut to the bone, this is the one bone that the newshounds won’t give up. Wars can be covered from thousands of miles away, genocide can go to the back page, but, when a rock flies in the West Bank, there had better be a correspondent with a fake continental accent and a khaki shirt to cover it.

Writing about Israel isn’t hard. Anyone who has consumed a steady diet of media over the years already knows all the bullet points. The trick is arranging them artistically, like so many wilted flowers, in the story of this week’s outrage.

Israel is hot, even in the winter, with the suggestion of violence brimming under the surface. It should be described as a “troubled land.” Throw in occasional ironic biblical references and end every article or broadcast by emphasizing that peace is still far away.

It has two types of people; the Israelis who live in posh houses stocked with all the latest appliances and the Arabs who live in crumbling shacks that are always in danger of being bulldozed. The Israelis are fanatical, the Arabs are passionate. The Israelis are hate-filled, while the Arabs are embittered. The Israelis have everything while the Arabs have nothing.

Avoid mentioning all the mansions that you pass on the way to interviewing some Palestinian Authority or Hamas bigwig. When visiting a terrorist prisoner in an Israeli jail, be sure to call him a militant, somewhere in the fifth paragraph, but do not mention the sheer amount of food in the prison, especially if he is on a hunger strike. If you happen to notice that the prisoners live better than most Israelis, that is something you will not refer to. Instead describe them as passionate and embittered. Never ask them how many children they killed or how much they make a month. Ask them what they think the prospects for peace are. Nod knowingly when they say that it’s up to Israel.

The Islamic State is turning into a huge public relations problem for groups like the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its allies. For years they have insisted that Islam is a religion of peace that has nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorism committed with alarming regularity in its name, and that the people responsible for linking Islam with terrorism were not Islamic jihad terrorists, but “Islamophobic” opponents of jihad terror. But then comes along a group calling itself The Islamic State, committing unimaginable atrocities and presenting each one as an authentic embodiment of Islamic texts and teachings, and the deception campaign at which CAIR officials have labored so assiduously for so many years, and with such great success, is in danger of crashing around their uneasy necks.

Take, for example, the recent revelation that, according to the UN News Centre, “some 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons may have been forced into sexual slavery.” A similar kidnapping by Islamic jihadists in Nigeria recently horrified the world, but much overlooked was the fact that such behavior is sanctioned by the Qur’an. According to Islamic law, Muslim men can take “captives of the right hand” (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 33:50). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war” (33:50). 4:3 and 4:24 extend this privilege to Muslim men in general, as does this passage. “Certainly will the believers have succeeded: They who are during their prayer humbly submissive, and they who turn away from ill speech, and they who are observant of zakah, and they who guard their private parts except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they will not be blamed” (Qur’an 23:1-6).

These passages have not gone unnoticed. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that meant Muslims would take slaves. In a subsequent interview he elaborated:

Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels. Spoils, slaves, and prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels. Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is agreed to by all scholars—there is no disagreement on this from any of them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.