27-Jan-10: Saving lives, getting criticized: same old same old

The Jerusalem Post's Shmuel Rosner hits the nail on the head with blog comments addressing the nonsensical and offensive criticism of Israel's successful efforts to save lives in Haiti.

Some excerpts (the whole article is here):

Here's the Electronic Intifada criticizing the media for its positive spin of this humanitarian effort: "A few media outlets have pointed out the discrepancies in Zionist self-congratulation".

And the estimable NYT showing very little understanding of Israel's true feelings by claiming that "Israelis have been watching with a range of emotions, as if the Haitian relief effort were a Rorschach test through which the nation examines itself. The left has complained that there is no reason to travel thousands of miles to help those in need - Gaza is an hour away". "Range of emotions" meaning what? That 99% support the effort and 1% complain about Gaza? That 99% feel proud about this humanitarian effort and 1% feel the need to politicize even the simplest act of compassion and demonstrate, yet again, that they've lost their collective minds?

Anyway. Since this the why-Haiti-but-not-Gaza nonsense is gaining traction, maybe some reminders are necessary. Here we go:
1. Because Haitians never bombed Israeli towns.
2. Because the government of Haiti never declared that it wanted Israel to be eliminated.
3. Because no Haitian suicide bomber was caught trying to reach an Israel bus stop of cafe.
4. Because while Gazans' suffering should not be belittled, I don't remember any report claiming that 100,000 Gazans are dead because of Israeli blockade. Not even the Goldstone report.
5. Because it's easier sending rescue workers and doctors in uniform into a place in which Israelis in uniform are well received.
6. Because no Israeli soldier is being kept hostage in Haiti, and there's no standing Haitian demand for the release of hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails.
7. Because Haiti had no way of stopping the earth-quake and the government of Gaza can easily make life better for its people by changing course.

CNN, reporting from the devastated eartrhquake zone on Day 6, pointed out that no one other than the Israelis, had managed to get a properly functioning hospital clinic together in Haiti as of the day of the report. The Israelis, and only the Israelis, were out there successfully leveraging medicine and humanitarian values to save lives.

Skeptics are welcome to step into any Israeli hospital (any one - without exception) and walk into the pediatric ward. From our experience (unfortunately we have a lot of that), many and often most of the children and families getting the benefit of world-class Israeli medicine are Arabs. No Israeli, whether Arab or Jew, thinks this is odd.

10-Jan-10: Ignoring racist hatred is at the heart of terror's success

For all the endless discussions and editorials about the need to find "root causes" for terrorism, and calling for greater understanding of the societies that spawn it, one point remains central and essential to any analysis of terror's threat to civilized society: it is based on hatred.

The Wall Street Journal makes a useful contribution to the analysis by focusing on tragically-little-known facts about how hatred operates in our part of the world, and beyond it.

Islamic Christianophobia

The world ignores the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.

Wall Street Journal editorial, published 7th January 2010

In Egypt, seven Coptic Christians were murdered yesterday by a Muslim gunman as they filed out of a midnight mass in the southern town of Nag Hamadi. In Pakistan, more than 100 Christian homes were ransacked by a Muslim mob last July in the village of Bahmaniwala. In Iraq that same month, seven Christian churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul in the space of three days.

Such atrocities­and there are scores of other examples­are grim reminders that when it comes to persecution, few groups have suffered as grievously as Christians in Muslim lands. Fewer still have suffered with such little attention paid. Now a new report from the non-profit ministry, Open Doors USA, shines a light on the scale of oppression.

In its annual World Watch List, Open Doors ranks eight Muslim countries among the 10 worst persecutors of Christians. The other two, North Korea (which tops the list) and Laos, are communist states. Of the 50 countries on the list, 35 are majority Muslim.

Take Iran, which this year ranks as the world's second-worst persecutor of Christians. Open Doors reports that in 2009 the Islamic Republic arrested 85 Christians, many of whom were also mistreated in prison. In 2008, some 50 Christians were arrested and one Christian couple was beaten to death by security officials. At least part of the reason for the mistreatment appears to be the result of Muslim conversions to Christianity: Apostasy carries a mandatory death sentence in Iran.

In Saudi Arabia (No. 3), all non-Muslim public worship is forbidden. The state forbids the building of any type of non-Muslim house of worship, and Christian expatriates in the kingdom must practice their faith in private. The same goes in the Maldives, where the report notes that all citizens must be Muslim; "the handful of indigenous Christians are forced to believe in complete secrecy." Similarly in Mauritania, conversion to Christianity or any other religions is formally punishable by death.

Little wonder, then, that once-thriving Christian communities in the Muslim world have now largely voted with their feet by fleeing to safer havens, often in Europe or the United States. That's true even in religiously important communities such as Bethlehem, where the Christian majority has largely fled since the arrival in the 1990s of Yasser Arafat's repressive government and the ascendancy of Islamist groups such as Hamas. By contrast, Christians practice their religion freely and openly in Israel, just a few miles distant.

It might seem natural that at least some attention would be paid in the West to the plight of these Christians. Instead, attention seems endlessly focused on "Islamophobia," not least at the U.N.'s misnamed Human Rights Council. In November, much of Europe went berserk over the Swiss referendum to ban the construction of minarets (though not of mosques). But the West's tolerance for its large Muslim populations stands in sharp contrast to the Muslim world's bigotry and persecution of its own religious minorities. That's a fact that ought to be borne in mind the next time Westerners berate themselves about their own supposed "intolerance."

10-Jan-10: Show and tell

Yesterday (Saturday) another three Qassam rockets crashed into Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. They landed in Israel's Sha'ar Hanegev region. Fortunately there are no reports of injuries or damage. On Thursday night, for the first time since the Cast Lead campaign of a year ago, a Hamas Katyusha rocket was fired into the area of Ashkelon, landing just south of the city.

Saturday's volley of Qassam rockets came just after a Hamas announcement that it has managed to smuggle new types of weapons into Gaza despite Israel's and Egypt's blockade. JPost quotes an Izzadin al-Kassam Brigades spokesthug saying the group has "thousands of fighters and good weapons capable of harming Israel." Reinforcing just how ready these people are for more war, the Islamic terrorists published photographs of their new in-place weapons, including missiles with a double warhead, 107mm caliber missiles designed to penetrate fortified structures, and a new type of armor-piercing RPG missile.

7-Jan-10: Gazans remind us again of their warm wishes

Far from everyone's attention, two additional explosive projectiles arrived in Israel in the last hour, close to the optimistically named Kerem Shalom crossing (kerem means vineyard, and shalom means peace) courtesy of the Gazan Palestinian Arabs. Fortunately there are no reports of damage or injury. This, of course, is the opposite of what the terrorist thugs aim to achieve.

UPDATE 7-Jan-10: It's now mid-morning, Thursday.The tally has risen to seven mortars so far. 3 exploded in various parts of Israel's Negev region close to the Gaza Strip. 3 more landed near Kerem Shalom. And one failed to cross the Gaza border, presumably landing on top of some hapless Gazans. No reports of injuries at this stage. Israeli authorities have now closed down the Kerem Shalom crossing point. The immediate effect, plainly one that serves the thuggish regime in Gaza if past performance is a guide, is that dozens of trucks laden with aid on the road into Gaza from Israel are now left standing and waiting. These would be the trucks and the humanitarian aid that some of Israel's more shrill critics claim don't exist. The claim for instance that "the beleageured people of Gaza, who have been cut off from aid by Israel... in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks" are suffering makes some sense only if you ignore the fact that the crossing point through which the trucks pass is precisely the target of Gazan missiles like today's.