Thursday, 8th January 2009
Britain turns ugly
9:12am
So let’s get this clear. You produce claims that Israel is slaughtering hundreds of civilians in ‘carnage’ in Gaza, even though the vast majority of the dead are said by both Israel and the UN to be Hamas operatives. You ignore totally the Hamas operatives and you focus instead emotively on the dead children and grieving parents.
You make no mention whatsoever of the fact that Hamas are hiding their arsenals in and under civilian houses and apartments, in schools and hospitals and ambulances and mosques, thus making the inhabitants targets for Israeli forces trying to destroy the infrastructure of terror; instead you blame Israel for the deaths of those inhabitants. You fail to report that Hamas are herding Gazan civilians, including children, into buildings from where they are firing missiles at Israeli soldiers in order that the...
Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Weblog awards
10:39pm
I am gratified – and somewhat amazed – to find I have been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2008 Weblog Awards in the Best UK Blog category. You can find details here.
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The hysteria that dare not speak its name
10:07pm
A video clip has been doing the rounds on the net, apparently first surfacing on LiveLeak, purporting to show the horrific aftermath of an Israeli air strike on civilians in Gaza. Apparently as the result of an alert blog poster, it was suddenly realised however that this amateur footage showed nothing of the sort. It actually showed the horrific aftermath of an accidental explosion in 2005 of a pick-up truck loaded with Hamas rockets (destined for the attempted murder of Israelis) at a rally in Jabaliya refugee camp, in which about 15 Gazans were killed and dozens wounded. Oh dear. Various anti-Israel websites who had leapt with enthusiasm on this apparent evidence of Israeli perfidy were forced to acknowledge they had been had.
But now just look who also fell into the trap: France 2, the French...
Depravity and double standards
8:40pm
An excellent analysis by David Horowitz in the Jerusalem Post ponders the tragic dilemma facing Israel:
...Hamas gunmen are commandeering ambulances and taking children out with them to battle, according to Israeli security sources. At every moment, with every use of firepower, there is the potential for Palestinian civilian casualties. As they mourn the loss of five soldiers, IDF commanders are well aware of the mounting Palestinian civilian casualty toll. They are bitterly cognizant of the reality in which Israel is blamed internationally for every such death - ratcheting up the international protests and the international pressure for a cease-fire. This impacts Israel's leverage as it seeks acceptable terms for a halt to the fighting - no matter that it is Hamas that has deliberately located its offensive capabilities in the heart of the Gazan populace.
Tuesday, 6th January 2009
Human shields killed? Let's blame Israel
11:18pm
As soon as it was reported earlier today that around 40 Gazans (later reduced to 30) had been killed when the Israelis fired on an UNRWA school in Gaza, the usual suspects could scarcely conceal their joy. At last! An Israeli massacre. The BBC straightaway parroted the Hamas/UN line – that hapless Gazan ‘refugees’ had taken shelter from the bombs in the school, only to be struck by Israeli missiles which had scored a direct hit on the school.
But according to the Israelis, something rather different had happened. Palestinians had fired mortar bombs from the school grounds at the Israeli forces; the troops had returned fire – and had ignited booby-trapped bombs at the school, causing the horrific casualties. As the Jerusalem Post reported:
According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching...
The Hamas Broadcasting Corporation (ctd)
1:33pm
Last night’s BBC TV News at Ten featured a highly partisan report about Gaza by Jeremy Bowen. Making no mention of the direct hit yesterday by a Hamas rocket on a kindergarten in Ashdod (which was empty for fear of precisely such an occurrence) Bowen concentrated heavily on the growing civilian casualty toll among Palestinians, making no acknowledgement of any Hamas operatives among these figures. The piece de resistance of this item was a report from Gaza’s Shifa hospital by a Gazan BBC producer, Rushdi abu Alouf. He claimed that ‘hundreds of kids, women and children’ had been brought to the hospital for medical treatment. Undoubtedly there are many casualties -- tragically, including children -- and the hospital is obviously under pressure. This though may help explain some of that pressure:
...Hamas
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