Arafat's Body exhumed

Yasser Arafat's body has been exhumed, in an effort to determine whether he was poisoned.

There is a good chance that those doing the testing decided on the results before they started.

TimGOz's prediction:  There will be some trace element detected at some slightly abnormal level, which will be hailed as "conclusive proof" that he was poisoned.  The Arab world will hail this as proof.  The rest of the world will see this as a beat up.

A course in Map Reading

The team at 5 Minutes for Israel have issued some helpful advice for the Auckland nutters - a course in Map Reading.

This helps explain the map they showed on all their posters.

Tom Scott lies again

Tom Scott has returned to his base.  Complete lies.

This is his fourth cartoon on Israel in a week.  In that time, was there nothing else in the world?  900+ people died in Syria during that time.  This is Israel criticism ad nauseum.

He is blatantly distorting the facts.  90% of Israelis agreed with Military action during Operation Pillar of Defense.

Of all his cartoons on the Gaza operation, not one has mentioned the Motorcycle killings.  Why doesn't he mention that people of Gaza are not free from Hamas?  Where are the protesters against Hamas violence?

Bibi is about to face an election.  We'll see if Tom Scott is accurate then.

Not Election related

I've already dismissed any relationship between the Gaza conflict and the upcoming Israeli elections.

This announcement that Ehud Barak is retiring, pretty much nails it.

Strangely, even Gwynne Dyer in the Manawatu Standard also agrees.  

So here we go again, perhaps? Netanyahu is still the prime minister, and the next elections are due in January. What better way to ensure success than to go and bash the Palestinians again? A week later, with close to 150 Palestinians and three Israelis dead, and still counting, his re-election is assured: Israelis overwhelmingly support the current military operation.

That's the case that is made against Israel. Does it hold water? Well, actually, no, it doesn't.

Note - I usually struggle to find common ground with Mr Dyer, and for the bulk of this article, I am still struggling.

Inside Auckland Anti-Israel Protests

Quite predictably, as soon as any event occurs within Israel or Gaza, we see demonstrations from pro Palestinian groups.

Now I support freedom of speech, and I definitely believe they have a right to protest peacefully.

Lets have a look at the official text promoting the protests in Auckland:

Global Peace and Justice Auckland is organising a march this Saturday to protest Israel’s assassination of a Palestinian leader in the Gaza strip and the deadly rocket attacks in which many Palestinians have lost their lives.

Global "Peace" and Justice.  Most would assume this means rejecting violence

The protest will gather at Aotea Square from 2pm and march to the US Consulate in Customs Street

What has the US Consulate got to do with any of this?  Nothing.  But they don't have anywhere else better to protest, so how about the "Great Satan".

where a protest rally, including the throwing of old shoes will take place. (Throwing shoes is a traditional way of showing disgust at US/Israeli policies in the Middle East following the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the then US President George Bush in a 2008 media conference)

Throw shoes.  Fine.  But why flag burning?  This comment is from the public facebook page of the event:

 No - burning flags symbolises Violence.  You are symbolising burning a country, and it's people.  It is not a peaceful symbol.  See also the comment regarding media.

These latest Israeli attacks continue the brutal victimisation of the Palestinian people of Gaza who are effectively locked in the largest open air prison in the world and treated like animals through an inhuman Israeli blockade.

Remember that one border of Gaza is actually on Egypt's side.  Hamas has total control of Gaza, and even state that it is no longer occupied.  I would have thought dragging bodies through the streets of Gaza from motorbikes is the most inhuman thing we will see

Israeli justifications for the attacks are hollow. It is Israel’s racist policies and vicious mistreatment of Palestinians which are at the heart of this conflict. Israel policies alone pose the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East and in the world.

The "greatest" threat.  This is an unmeasurable and unjustifiable position.  It is code for "Israel is a demon and must be destroyed".  If you are talking about bad threats, how about Syria - 38,000 people killed there!

One of the posters on the even facebook page agrees:

Actually the hippies are hardly in attendance any more.  Just the extreme left.  Hippies that want peace have realised how pro-war these rallies are.  I talk more on the facebook page below

As well and blockading Palestinians in Gaza Israel maintain a military occupation of the West Bank while destroying Palestinian homes and farms to make way for Jewish-only settlements - all in defiance of international law and numerous UN resolutions.

The organisers do not need to justify this with any facts or links.  No need to define "International law" or remind us that the resolutions are from the defunct UNHRC. It's also interesting to note that no other organisations are brought to account by this group, such as Hamas' abuse on civilians and use of civilian areas for military purposes.

Israel still tries to use the Holocaust as some sort of justification for their brutal treatment of the Palestinian people and in doing so the Palestinian people have become the second victims of the Holocaust.

There is no reference to the "justification" they refer to, and in doing so they make an offensive comparison.  There are no gas chambers or concentration camps.  The only ones using this imagery is the protesters

GPJA applauds the Palestinian fighters who organise to resist the destruction of their right to self determination.

This is a clear support call to violence.  Clearly acknowledging that offensive missile attacks beyond the borders of Gaza are not just condoned, but are applauded.

Saturday’s protest will focus on the US consulate because the US has supported Israel every step of the way in its brutality towards Palestinians.

Now, back to the facebook page.  Up front the protesters state that "racism" will not be tolerated.  I think they may have been embarrassed by comments like these:

Promoting the destruction of all Israel, is of course, OK:

This is why so many of the protesters hold Union "approved" billboards.  Too often the blatant anti-semitism shows through, which is highly embarrassing to the organisers.

Back to Syria, Joe Carolan was not so happy - calling the Syrian Guy "Mossad" and "Mysogynist"

But he has a point.  Does Joe support Hezbollah or FSA?  Apparently both.  And now they are calling Assad an Israel supporter!

Then it starts getting quite confusing.  This poster is determined that supporting Iran, Hezbollah and Assad is a bad thing (at least I think that is what he is saying).

He goes on to say that Palestine needs an "Islamic" solution:

This conveniently ignores the plight of Christian Palestinians (or other denominations), that are being pushed out or persecuted by hardline Muslims like Hamas.

I find it interesting that the protesters also have complaints about the media.  The "Zionist controlled" media:

That's interesting when you consider the dominance of left wing journalists. 

At the end of the day, I support the rights of the protesters to free speech.  Ironically it is much more than the rights that Hamas give to those they are protesting for.  I do get concerned when they are promoting violence, not just in Israel, but to would be terrorists throughout the world, such as we have seen in the UK, France, Turkey, Argentina, USA, Thailand, etc etc etc.

I'm very glad the numbers were small, and they can hardly muster any support from MPs who are seeing through their insane obsessions.

Greens on Gaza conflict

The Greens were very quiet on Gaza, compared to their previous stances.  Neither the Australian or New Zealand Greens took public stances at the Anti-Israel rallies. 

In Australia, Christine Milne of the Greens tried to table a motion to "Lift The Blockade on Gaza".

Andrew Bolt rightly pointed out that the blockade is only on weapons, which Hamas seem to have no problems getting anyway.

Given the absolute pasting the Greens had in NSW elections over solely their poor handling of Palestinian issues, you would think they would just keep quiet.

In New Zealand, that is exactly what they did.  No Blog Posts, although we may see some this week with the security council vote.

The closest we had to a comment was a couple of small Press Releases from Kennedy Graham.

Tom Scott - "Victory" in Gaza?

Tom Scott comes out with a post which I just don't get.

What is he trying to say?

Is he trying to show the irony of Hamas' "Victory" chants at a cost to themselves? (good)
Or, is he trying to show that Hamas have scored a Victory, and their will is not bent even after a pummelling. (bad)

I really don't know.  I hope the first one.

India Hangs Last Surviving Mumbai Terrorist

In amongst all the news from Gaza, we almost missed the hanging of the last surviving terrorist from the 2008 attack in Mumbai

This is the same group that also murdered a Rabbi and his family.

The murder of Chabad Jews was significant - it shows the ugly face of anti-semitism that is harboured by terrorists.

This is also an interesting contrast to Israel, who doesn't use Capital Punishment against terrorists.

Tom Scott on Obama and Israel

A very poor post from Tom Scott.  His favourite topic of Israel is getting a hammering this week.

Oh, give me a break.  Obama helped secure the ceasefire.  What's he going to do, praise Hamas terrorism and condone the use of Human Shields?

What is Tom Scott trying to say here?  I think the criticism is getting to him, because all of his cartoons are very cryptic these days.

Ceasefire in Gaza!

Ceasefire in Gaza is announced!  Israel stops immediately, Hamas about 3 hours later.

Whilst this is a good thing in the short term, it is surely just a matter of time before Hamas rearms and launch their next round of terror.

Also, I expect that either Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt  will be rewarded by accepting aid packages or similar support.  This would be essentially rewarding terrorism.

Bus blown up in Tel Aviv

Just heard that a bus has been blown up in Tel Aviv.  This is the first for some time.

Not much more information at this stage

Luc Hansen - pwned

I really don't comment much on Kiwiblog, compared to others.  And I seldom direct posts towards others personally.  After being provoked, I couldn't hold myself back tonight though.

BTW – what was your take on the “motorbike corpses”?

I heard an unconfirmed report that one of them was actually murdered for owning pornography. Apparently some wanker emailed him some home made nudist porn on Saturday night to make him feel good.

They forgot that its illegal in Gaza

Firstly, I would like to apologise to the men murdered murdered by Hamas today, and their families.  The demonic rule of Hamas in Gaza is really no laughing matter, and I genuinely feel bad about using a reference for the sake of humour.

However, people who read the endless one-eyed spurious comments of Mr. Hansen will recognise the humour in this. 

For those that don't, Luc Hansen is a self professed nudist, who took his young children to nudist beaches.  He often brags about his sexual exploits, and he also bragged on Saturday night about sending messages to Gaza.

PWNED! :-)

Stuff accepts report from Nutjob

Stuff today produced a "report" from a Kiwi in Gaza

It was very one sided - ridiculously so.  David Farrar at Kiwiblog has identified that the author was actually a nutter from "Kia Ora Gaza"

Now I am not suggesting the views of Ms Webb-Pullman should not be reported, as she is able to report first hand.

But surely the media have an obligation not to present her as a disinterested freelance journalist!

She is a long-standing political activist for the communist regime in Cuba, the revolutionary leftist Zapatistas, and the Kia Ora Gaza and NZ Palestine Human Rights Campaign. She disputes that Israel even has a right to exist as a legitimate state, and people can judge this statement for themselves:

 And unsurprisingly, it's not the first time she has been outed.

She was also interviewed by TV3 this morning.

Hopefully Stuff print a retraction.  I'm forwarding this to HonestReporting!

Hamas Justice

Reported and filmed by CNN.  A body was dragged through Gaza city yesterday.  Apparently a "collaborator".  No word on any actual trial or crime.

Not the first, apparently there have been 6 (unconfirmed).

This is Hamas Justice. 

Tom Scott's take on Operation PoD

This is Tom Scott's submission for Operation Pillar of Defense

It's a little bit less blatant than his past attempts.  One could even suggest that he is not taking sides, although he appears to be trying to diminish the impact of the rockets.  At least he is accurate in showing that they are launched from within densely populated areas.

The Humanitarian Situation in Gaza today

Had this forwarded to me today.  The references are mainly UNRWA, so it looks fairly reliable.

Interesting points to note when people say that Israel is withholding Medical Supplies, Water or Electricity.  Also regarding food and housing, it is also interesting.  A completely diametric view as shown by Anti-Israel supporters.

The Humanitarian Situation in Gaza

November 18, 2012

Crossings

1. Israel is making a major effort to maintain the fabric of civilian life in Gaza, despite the situation of current hostilities. The IDF opened today the Kerem Shalom crossing for movement of food, medicine and other goods from Israel despite the ongoing rocket attacks on the Israeli population and previous attacks on the crossing.

2. The Erez crossing was open today, as on every other day of Operation Pillar of Defense. Seventy foreign journalists entered Gaza today by way of Erez. Twenty Gazans entered Israel for medical treatment, and twenty-three foreign nationals, representing NGOs who until now had been prevented by Hamas from leaving the Gaza Strip, departed.

Food and Housing Security

1. Gaza is not experiencing food scarcity. Israel is not blocking entrance of goods into Gaza, except for weaponry and dual-use materials. Construction materials can be imported to Gaza under the supervision of international organizations.

2. Israel is continuing the yearly supply of five million cubic meters (1,320,860,250 gallons) of water to Gaza, despite the rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns.

3. UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) reports (17.11.12) that despite some displacement of families due to hostilities, "there hasn't been any need to provide emergency humanitarian assistance or to open UNRWA facilities as emergency shelters."

Medical Care

1. Between January – October 2012, approximately 14,500 patients and their accompanying chaperones entered Israel from Gaza for medical treatment.  99% of the medical requests by Palestinian residents of Gaza were approved by Israel.

2. The World Health Organization has reported a ten-day slowdown in referral process for Gaza patients due to disagreements between the Ramallah and Gaza Health Ministries.

3. Gaza hospitals are currently operating at 80% capacity (17.11), slightly higher than routine periods.

4. Israel is not blocking entrance of medical supplies into Gaza. Requests submitted by the international community are answered within 24-72 hours of submission, almost always positively, and Israel has opened the Kerem Shalom passage for transit of medical materials and other goods, despite the danger to personnel at the crossing.

5. At present, there is a shortage of some medical supplies in Gaza due to disagreements between Hamas and the PA, and budgetary difficulties of the Palestinian Authority.

6. UNRWA reports that all of its 21 health centers are open and functioning. Of UNRWA's 12,000 staff members in Gaza, only one person has sustained injuries in the hostilities, and those are minor.

Electricity

1. Israel is supplying 125 megawatts of electricity to the Gaza Strip from the power station in Ashkelon despite the rocket attacks on Israel's population, and on Ashkelon itself.

2. Gaza continues to suffer from power outages due to a deliberate policy of Hamas, which opposes import of fuel from Israel. As a result, the Gaza power station is operating at 20% capacity.

Operation Pillar of Defense

Operation Pillar of Defense has started.  Apparently the media is reporting this is because of the killing by Israel of the Terrorist leader Ahmed Jabari.  The fact that Hamas had escalated rocket activity in the last month had been completely ignored by all outside of Israel.

Can you imagine the gall of people who say "Israel broke the Truce".  What Truce, where you are able to rain missiles on innocent civilians?

The usual response in the media is that Palestinian rocket fire is harmless.  Supposedly small homemade firecrackers.  Well one of those rockets killed 3 people, including a baby.  And they are landing in Tel Aviv!  That is some serious distance.  These are Grad missiles smuggled from Iran.  Cynically fired from underground sites within densely populated areas.  Hamas will do whatever they can to provoke Israel and attempt to make more martyrs.  Nobody complains that they are putting their own people in the firing line.  To do so would risk death from their own leaders.

Iron Dome is intercepting about one in three.  I guess that is something.

Locally, cynical people are referencing the upcoming Israeli election.  Firstly, the operation is being undertaken by the IDF, not the government.  And it has bipartison support.  There is only so much terror activity that civilians will put up with.  Whilst protecting citizens would definitely be a popular topic, this can hardly be taken just to win political points scoring.  If anything, this is a risk to government if the military operation goes bad.  The Lebanon operation in 2006 was politically bad for the Olmert government

However, speaking of elections, any word on Palestinian elections?  People seem to forget about those.  If you want to be cyncial about anything, remember that only the other week, Mahmoud Abbas renounced his right to live in Sefad, to the anger of Hamas.  Next week, Palestine go to the UN to recognise Statehood.  How does it look if they are firing rockets wanton into Israel.

This operation is being documented in Social Media like never before.  Hamas and the IDF are tweeting each other.

And right on cue, if you search twitter for "Israel" or "Gaza" you will see a war going on.  My facebook account has been awash with Memes.  I'm not going to reproduce any here - in essence I don't feel they achieve anything but whip up more fervour.

Hamas are keen to promote the idea of Israel as "baby murderers", and that is the majority of what is posted under the Gaza hashtags are such.  Again, just to get the emotions going to try and promote and justify their own atrocities.  Given they are attempting to generate their own martyrs (in the name of God!) is disgusting and despicable.

Antisemitism and the Left - The common ground of hatred

This week, Maia from the Hand Mirror wrote a post about Antisemitism invading Left Wing activities.  (Also picked up by Kiwiblog here).

I'm very surprised it's taken so long for someone to notice.  Well actually - this has been written about for a long time, but it has kept continuing.  No doubt it will still continue.

I can't count the about of antisemitic material that is either tolerated, defended or, in some cases actively promoted within the left.  Admittedly it is usually the extreme left.

Conspiracy theories in the Occupy movement?  Yes, I knew about that.  The occupy movement was such a vast disparate group of souls, many who wanted to create invisible enemies to hate and blame.  Of course they were to forget the movement started in Israel (not Wall St!).

I've seen defense of Iranian Holocaust denial seminars, and there has been the acceptance of the most vile genocide calls (all in the name of 'Palestine').  This has been seen by elected Left Wingers like Keith Locke and Bryan Peppergill.

And now, there is surprise - Neo Nazis marching and demonstrating with the Occupy Movement!  If you read my posts this year, you will see that we have neo-nazis Greta Berlin in the BDS movement and the Skull marching on Nakba day.  This should not be a surprise.

We are told they are supposed to be completely different ideologies - and they are.  But there is on thing in common:  Hate.

The extreme left carry so much hate and anger toward anything which could be seen as conservative.  It is a baseless hatred.  They hate the person - or in many cases a phantom.

The extreme right neo nazis carry this same kind of baseless hatred.  (Hamas also promote baseless hatred). 

These groups follow the ideology that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Maybe this is the wake up call the left need.  I expect (sadly), that I will be documenting similar events for many years to come.