31-May-10: Here's one of the flotilla "humanitarians" making a slashing gesture

That thing in his "humanitarian" "peaceloving" fist - just ignore it.

And for readers who have been wondering about the allegations that intercepting the "peaceloving" "humanitarian" Flotillers in international waters, the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994 states clearly that it is permissible under rule 67(a) to attack neutral vessels on the high seas when the vessels “are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture.”

31-May-10: If these be peace activists, then how does war look?

These images below come from IDF sources, and show individuals on the flotilla ship attacking IDF Naval personnel this morning with live fire and weaponry that includes knives, clubs and firebombs. The "peace" activists had evidently prepared their weapons well for this specific purpose.



Here's more...

30-May-10: A window into the real Gaza

As the "humanitarians" of the Free Gaza flotilla get ready to make their grand gesture, time for another gentle reminder of the double-talk, the hypocrisy and the outright lies that characterize the attacks on Israel (and this certainly includes the disgraceful Goldtsone Report) for defending itself, its people and its society from the jihadist onslaught led by the Gazan Hamas regime.

30-May-10: Non-violent Qassams... again

A polite reminder to those head-in-clouds pollyannas who preach to us Israelis from a safe distance away about the right ways to think about terrorists and their actions. Case in point: an article posted in the past hour on a popular current affairs blogsite: Gaza Freedom Flotilla Shows Awesome Power of Nonviolent Resistance
 
Last night (Saturday), another two Qassam rockets were fired into Israel by jihadists in the northern Gaza Strip, adding to a talley that exceeds 60 for 2010 alone.

One exploded within the jurisdiction of the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council (Israeli reports generally avoid mentioning specific locations to minimize the intelligence value to the terrorists). The other landed short, crashing into an unknown location within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Short-landings like last night's are common. The terrorists give every sign, and have done for years, that they neither care about nor control where their exploding missiles land. For their purposes it's sufficient that they are fired off in the general direction of where Israelis live and work. And if injuries or damage or deaths are caused to their own suffering sisters and brothers - well, they surely don't care, as the evidence has shown over the years.

Responding early this morning (Sunday), Israel Air Force jets destroyed a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip used for enabling terrorists to make their way into and out of Hamastan, and for carrying out terror attacks against Israelis, both civilians and Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The IDF's report this morning says they achieved precise hits and that planes returned safely to base. The IDF's policy has long been guided by Israeli government policy that holds Hamas responsible for what goes on in, and flies out of, the Gaza Strip.

Needless to say, there will continue to be those who view this constant barrage of Hamas-controlled and -inspired rocketry as an expression of non-violent resistance. We, on the other hand, in the face of plain terrorism, simply need to worry about taking care of our families and our society by every legitimate means.

28-May-10: Who's behind those "humanitarian" Gaza-bound ships?

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center  located in Herzliya, Israel, published this backgrounder today to throw some light on the motivations and organization behind the so-called humanitarian flotilla now crossing the Mediterranean for Gaza.

The Turkish IHH, which plays a central role in organizing the Gaza flotilla, is a humanitarian relief fund with a radical Islamic, anti-Western orientation. Besides legitimate philanthropic activities, it supports radical Islamic networks including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements. IHH was outlawed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in 2008 because of its role in Hamas' global fund-raising.

As part of its connections with the global jihad, IHH supported jihadist terrorist networks in Bosnia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya. This was manifested by logistic support for the transfer of weapons and money.

In 2006 the Danish Institute for International Studies reported that in the past IHH had connections with al-Qaeda and global jihad operatives. According to the study, Turkish authorities received information in December 1997 that senior IHH figures had purchased automatic weapons from radical Islamic organizations.

The office of the organization in Istanbul was raided and activists were arrested. During the raid, Turkish security forces found weapons, explosives, instructions for making IEDs and a flag with a jihad message. IHH purchased three of the nine ships in the flotilla - a passenger ship and two cargo ships. On May 21, Muhammad Kaya, head of IHH office in Gaza, said there was a plan to send flotillas to Gaza every month...

...In 2006, the Danish Institute for International Studies conducted a study which reported that in the past IHH had connections with Al-Qaeda and global jihad operatives. The well-documented study was conducted by Evan Kohlman, an American researcher who specializes in Al-Qaeda and related subjects. It deals with the involvement of Islamic charity funds and foundations in supporting terrorism... The Turkish authorities began investigating IHH at least in December 1997, after having received information that senior IHH figures had purchased automatic weapons from radical Islamic organizations. The office of the organization in Istanbul was consequently raided and activists were arrested. During the raid the Turkish security forces found weapons, explosives, instructions for making IEDs and a flag with a jihad message. An examination of the documents found in IHH office indicated that IHH members were planning to take part in jihad activities in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.

The study quotes a French intelligence report stating that in the mid-1990s IHH leader, Bülent Yildirim, was directly involved in recruiting “veteran soldiers” to organize jihad activities. According to the French report, a number of operatives were sent by IHH into war zones in Islamic countries to gain combat experience. The report also stated that IHH transferred money, “caches of firearms, knives and pre-fabricated explosives” to Muslim fighters in those countries.

The study also states that an examination of IHH’s telephone records in 1996 showed repeated calls in 1996 to an Al-Qaeda guest house in Milan and to Algerian terrorists operating in Europe (one of whom was notorious Al-Qaeda figure Abu Ma’ali [Abd al-Qadr Mukhtari], who operated in Bosnia). IHH’s name was also mentioned during the trial of Ahmed Ressam held in the United States in 2000 (Ressam was a senior Al-Qaeda operative active in Canada, who at the end of 1999 entered the United States in a car carrying 600 kilograms (1320 pounds) of explosives. He planned to carry out a mass-casualty attack at the Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.) The United States federal prosecutors called Jean-Louis Bruguière, a leading French investigating magistrate in charge of terrorism affairs, as an expert witness. He testified that IHH had played an important role in Al-Qaeda’s planned attack. According to Bruguière, IHH served as a cover for Al-Qaeda and acquired forged documents, enlisted operatives and transferred weapons.

We do not predict smooth sailing. [Has your local news source reported on the terrorist organizers who stand behind this flotilla? Thought not.]

28-May-10: While everyone's staring out to sea...

As the faux-humanitarian Gaza-bound flotilla makes its way to the Strip, residents of southern Israel get a reminder of where the real threats in this ongoing war originate. Some hours ago, around midnight, an incoming-missile ("Color Red") siren was sounded throughout the city of Sderot after a Qassam rocket was fired into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli security agents located the landing site of the rocket shortly after it fell. The Qassam exploded on a road in the Shaar Hanegev industrial zone, near Sderot. The blast lightly a nearby building and a parked truck. Fortunately no one was injured in the attack, which was not the intention of the jihadists from Hamas-controlled Gaza. [Reported by Ynet]

27-May-10: Tensions rising

With the eyes of the world's media focused on the 'humanitarian' flotilla now making its way toward the Gazan coast, here's a brief review of the past few quite tense days of jihadist activity in the area.

Tuesday, two days ago, a terror attack failed near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip. A donkey was fitted with an explosive device and sent into the area. The device blew up and the donkey was killed, but very fortunately no other injuries were reported. Associated Press reported that a terror group based hundreds of kilometers away in Syria claimed credit for the mutilation of the animal and the attempt to murder nearby Israelis. Their spokesman, named in the AP piece as Abu Ghassan, said some 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of dynamite had been heaped onto a cart drawn by the martyred donkey.

Later in the day on Tuesday, four mortar shells were fired into Israel from Jihadist Gaza. The IDF responded by targeting two tunnels in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. Both were known to be part of the terrorist infrastructure that brings weapons and ammunition into the Hamas enclave. Gazan sources said 15 people were hurt in the Israeli strike.

We referred to the events of yesterday, Wednesday, in an article called 27-May-10: Unreported attack

This evening, Thursday, it's reported that several Palestinian Arabs were injured as the IDF foiled yet another terror attack near the security fence close to the Kibbutz Nahal Oz community. Three Palestinians were spotted by IDF security attempting to plant an explosive device near the fence, taking advantage of the heavy fog and haze that has been impacting the entire country today. IDF aircraft were despatched to the air and opened fire at the terrorists. Shortly afterwards, several mortar shells were fired into the area from Hamastani Gaza, apparently in an effort to cover the evacuation of the wounded. Fortunately no injuries or damages are reported on the Israeli side. Sources in Gaza say that seven Palestinians were hurt in today's fighting

27-May-10: Unreported attack

Since no one was killed, it's almost entirely unreported outside Israel that another Qassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip last night (Wednesday) into Israel. It crashed to the ground and exploded just south of Ashkelon. Again unreported, a mortar was fired from Gaza last night as well, and fell and exploded inside the Hamas-regime-controlled Gaza Strip. As we keep saying, the absence of injuries or serious damage is NOT what the jihadists aim to achieve - they're simply not capable of making a greater impact... until they do, and that will happen as it always, eventually, does.

24-May-10: When SCOTUS gets fundamental matters as wrong as this...

We're not the first to note this. But the president of the United States, a man whose command of language is about as good as it gets for a politician in our generation, addressed the world in general and the bereaved parents of a man whose life ended at the hands of jihadists in particular, a few days ago.

Faced with the opportunity to honor the life of a decent man who was murdered in the name of apocalyptic religious zeal, Barack H. Obama opened a window into his private self.

Speaking as bereaved parents ourselves, the result is mortifyingly disappointing. More than that, it's gravely alarming.

Mark Steyn, in our view, gets the main points exactly right in this essay (we don't feel the need to agree with every word he writes) published two days ago.

May 22, 2010
One of Those Moments
The president has become the latest Western liberal to try to hammer Daniel Pearl’s box into a round hole.

Barack Obama’s remarkable powers of oratory are well known: In support of Chicago’s Olympic bid, he flew into Copenhagen to give a heartwarming speech about himself, and they gave the games to Rio. He flew into Boston to support Martha Coakley’s bid for the U.S. Senate, and Massachusetts voters gave Ted Kennedy’s seat to a Republican. In the first year of his presidency, he gave a gazillion speeches on health-care “reform” and drove support for his proposals to basement level, leaving Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to ram it down the throats of the American people through sheer parliamentary muscle.

Like a lot of guys who’ve been told they’re brilliant one time too often, President Obama gets a little lazy and doesn’t always choose his words with care. And so it was that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl upon signing the Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act. Pearl was decapitated on video by jihadist Muslims in Karachi on Feb. 1, 2002. That’s how I’d put it. This is what the president of the United States said:

“Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.”

Now Mr. Obama’s off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge. But he’s talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see. Furthermore, the deceased’s family is standing all around him. Even for a busy president, it’s the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving and true. Indeed, for Mr. Obama, it’s the work of seconds because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence.

Instead, he delivered the one above, which, in its clumsiness and insipidness, is most revealing.

First of all, note the passivity: “The loss of Daniel Pearl.” He wasn’t “lost.” He was kidnapped and beheaded. He was murdered on a snuff video. He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp. And the circumstances of his “loss” merit some vigor in the prose. Yet Mr. Obama could muster none.

Even if Americans don’t get the message, the rest of the world does. This week’s pictures of the leaders of Brazil and Turkey clasping hands with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are also monuments to American passivity.

But what did the “loss” of Daniel Pearl mean? Well, says the president, it was “one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination.” Really? Evidently, it never captured Mr. Obama’s imagination, because if it had, he never could have uttered anything so fatuous. He seems literally unable to imagine Pearl’s fate, and so, cruising on autopilot, he reaches for the all-purpose bromides of therapeutic sedation: “one of those moments” - you know, like Princess Di’s wedding, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, whatever - “that captured the world’s imagination.”

Notice how reflexively Mr. Obama lapses into sentimental one-worldism: Despite our many ZIP codes, we are one people, with a single imagination. In fact, the murder of Daniel Pearl teaches just the opposite - that we are many worlds, and worlds within worlds. Some of them don’t even need an “imagination.” Across the planet, the video of an American getting his head sawed off did brisk business in the bazaars and madrassas and Internet downloads. Excited young men e-mailed it to friends, from cell phone to cell phone, from Karachi, Pakistan, to Jakarta, Indonesia, to Khartoum, Sudan, to London to Toronto to Falls Church, Va. In the old days, you needed an “imagination” to conjure the juicy bits of a distant victory over the Great Satan. But in an age of high-tech barbarism, the sight of Pearl’s severed head is a mere click away.

And the rest of “the world”? Most gave a shrug of indifference. And far too many found the reality of Pearl’s death too uncomfortable and chose to take refuge in the same kind of delusional pap as Mr. Obama. The president is only the latest Western liberal to try to hammer Daniel Pearl’s box into a round hole. Before him, it was Michael Winterbottom in his film “A Mighty Heart.” As Pearl’s longtime colleague Asra Nomani wrote, “Danny himself had been cut from his own story.” Or as Paramount’s promotional department put it, “Nominate the most inspiring ordinary hero. Win a trip to the Bahamas!” Where you’re highly unlikely to be kidnapped and beheaded. (Although, in the event that you are, please check the liability-waiver box at the foot of the entry form.)

The latest appropriation is that his “loss” “reminded us of how valuable a free press is.” It was nothing to do with “freedom of the press.” By the standards of the Muslim world, Pakistan has a free-ish and very lively press. The problem is that about 80 percent of its people wish to live under the most extreme form of Shariah, and many of its youth are exported around the world in advance of that aim. The man convicted of Pearl’s murder was Omar Sheikh, a British subject, a London School of Economics student, and, like many jihadists, from Osama bin Laden to the panty bomber, a monument to the peculiar burdens of a non-deprived childhood in the Muslim world. The man who actually did the deed was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who confessed in March 2007: “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi.” But Mr. Obama is not the kind to take “guilty” for an answer, so he’s arranging a hugely expensive trial for KSM amid the bright lights of Broadway.

Listen to his killer’s words: “The American Jew Daniel Pearl.” We hit the jackpot. And then we cut his head off. Before the body was found, the Independent’s Robert Fisk offered a familiar argument to Pearl’s kidnappers: Killing him would be “a major blunder ... the best way of ensuring that the suffering” - of Kashmiris, Afghans, Palestinians - “goes unrecorded.” Other journalists peddled a similar line: if you release Danny, he’ll be able to tell your story, get your message out, “bridge the misconceptions.” But the story did get out; the severed head is the message; the only misconception is that that’s a misconception.

Daniel Pearl was the prototype victim of a new kind of terror. In his wake came other victims, from Kenneth Bigley, whose last words were, “Tony Blair has not done enough for me,” to Fabrizzio Quattrocchi, who yanked off his hood, yelled “I will show you how an Italian dies,” and ruined the movie for his jihadist videographers. By that time, both men understood what it meant to be in a windowless room with a camera and a man holding a scimitar. But Daniel Pearl was the first, and in his calm, coherent final words, understood why he was there:

“My name is Daniel Pearl. I am a Jewish American from Encino, California, USA.”

He didn’t have a prompter. But he spoke the truth. That’s all President Obama owed him - to do the same.

I mentioned last week the attorney general’s peculiar insistence that “radical Islam” was nothing to do with the Times Square bomber, the Pantybomber, the Fort Hood killer. Just a lot of moments “capturing the world’s imagination.” For now, the jihadists seem to have ceased cutting our heads off. Listening to Obama and Eric Holder, perhaps they’ve figured out there’s nothing much up there anyway.   

Mark Steyn, a National Review columnist, is author of America Alone. © 2010 Mark Steyn.

21-May-10: And once again, incoming terrorists

This afternoon, there's still more hostile action directed at Israeli civilians and communities from Hamastan, following on from last night's rocket attack.

The Israel Defense Force is reporting that soldiers eliminated two Palestinian Arab gunmen in an exchange of fire east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The two were spotted approaching the border fence near Kibbutz Nirim with weapons in their hands. Ynet is reporting that the IDF opened fire and the Gazan gunmen fired back. Thankfully no reports of injuries among the soldiers. The terrorists (to be clear about what the term means: armed men who seek to enter civilian communities for the sole purpose of killing and maiming them) were killed. Within Gaza, according to YNet, it's being said that the cell was affiliated with the al-Quds Brigades, the terrorist Islamic Jihad's so-called military wing.

Saturday night update (22-May-10): According to the BBC, Hamas officials confirmed that the two men were sent on an operation to attack Israel and clashed with soldiers near the border.

21-May-10: Once again: Incoming jihadist rockets

It's a lovely, sunny Friday morning here. Late spring, and just a day after the country took a day off to honour the festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). A perfect time (when isn't?) for the thuggish jihadists of Gazan Hamastan to send us a reminder of their devotion to a brighter and better future for us, for them and - especially - for their children.

One of their numberless Qassam rockets, fired from somewhere in Northern Gaza, crashed into Israel last night (Thursday night). It landed on the outskirts of Ashkelon, fortunately with not enough accuracy to achieve what they wanted it to achieve. But as we keep writing here, their purpose in using what are terrorist tools and not strategic weapons is to hit anyone and anything as long as it's Israeli. And even if, as happens routinely, the rocket falls short and hits someone or something on their side of the Gazan border - well, that's good too if it reminds people of how desperate, utterly desperate, the jihadists are for a better life.

The Israeli air force responded during the early hours of this morning with a precision air attack on three Gazan tunnels - one at the northern end of Gaza and two in the south. According to a statement released by the IDF spokesman's office this morning, the tunnels, located near the fence surrounding Gaza, are for bringing terrorists into Israel to attack Israelis. Every Israeli knows how threatening those tunnels are and why they are there.

The fact that this Hamas-backed rocket attack is barely covered, if at all, by reporters and editors outside Israel is not new. The Israeli countermeasures, as always, will get news coverage minus any meaningful context. Israel launches overnight air raids on Gaza (AFP) and Israel launches Gaza air raids (Straits Times) are just two familiar-sounding examples that, along with numerous other similar monodirectional reports, have gone to air in the past couple of hours.

The wearying reality is that global public opinion is encouraged, via partial and often wilfully inaccurate reporting, to accept the inevitability of Gazan rage and its explosive consequences. And not just its inevitability but its jutifiability. Israeli defensive measures against terrorist attacks on its civilians and communities, on the other hand, are deprecated and delegitimized. And the mounting human toll of rampant jihadism is swept under the rug.

Getting this issue wrong is why terrorism is on the rise and the security of ordinary people everywhere, not just in this troubled region, is on the decline.

10-May-10: Raining Gazan rockets again

More Qassam rockets fired from jihadist Gaza landed near the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Saturday night. Israeli aircraft late last night (Sunday) destroyed several Gazan tunnels in the Rafah area where Gaza borders on Egypt - no injuries to Gazans. The timing of the Gazan rockets is likely connected with the start of indirect discussions between Israel and the Abbas-controlled Palestinian Authority, being conducted as from yesterday via US mediators. Hamas, the terrorist regime that controls everything inside Gaza, is opposed to those discussions and has publicly warned against them. The Israeli army is quoted in the past hour saying Israel "holds Hamas solely responsible for what goes on in Gaza...[and] will not tolerate any attempt to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and will continue to operate against those who use terror." Some 50 terrorist rockets have been fired into civilian areas of Israel since the beginning of 2010.