01-Oct-14: Gaza's rockets and how Palestinian Arab sentiment about them points to where we are heading

By popular demand, children are thoroughly integrated within the
Islamist Palestinian Arab strategy: scene at a Hamas
event in Nablus, August 29, 2014 [Image Source: AP/Nasser Ishtayeh]

A reminder (one of several we could offer) of why this blog has the name that it does.

Or Heller, in an article published yesterday by IsraelDefense.com, says the rocket people in Hamas have just fired off a test rocket for the fifth time since Operation Protective Edge ended a month ago. Their launch site is where the now-destroyed Israeli agricultural community of Netzarim (a mango plantation, a vineyard, hothouse-cultivated yams and cherry tomatoes, an etrog plantation - plus day care centers, kindergartens, a primary school, a kollel, a yeshiva) used to be.

Hamas seek to restore the rocket lathes, of which 50 percent were destroyed during the fighting in Gaza. In the IDF, they monitor the situation and say that this is not new rockets with new ranges. Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon also addressed the issue of Hamas' rocket stockpiles, saying that the IDF destroyed 80% of the rockets and mortars in Gaza... Today about 20 percent remained of the rockets and mortars stock (that existed) at the beginning of the operation; then there were about 10 thousand rockets and mortars... Ya'alon made these comments at a conference, "Military and Political Lessons of Operation Protective Edge," that was hosted by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University.

Quoted in a syndicated JNS report from yesterday, emanating from the same conference, Ya'alon implies that preventing local production of Gazan rockets is on the IDF's agenda:

“The success of Operation Protective Edge will have to be measured in time. We need to see how we prevent Hamas and other groups from growing stronger.” According to Ya’alon, most of the rocket-manufacturing facilities in Gaza were destroyed during the operation, something that will “make it harder for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to return to their course of rearmament as they did after [the battles of 2008 and 2012]

This July 2014 image of children playing next to Hamas rocket launchers
was a key piece of PM Netanyahu's speech to the UN General Assembly
this week.

The consensus view is that there are now about 2,000 rockets still in Hamas hands in Gaza. Will they keep re-arming? Everyone says yes. The Arabs of the Gaza Strip are overwhelmingly in favour. Not only that but they still strongly support the firing of Gazan rockets from deep inside their own residential neighborhoods, placing their own lives and those of their children in jeopardy. The evidence is in a Palestinian Arab opinion poll, the results of which were published on Monday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research based in Ramallah:

...An overwhelming majority of 80% supports the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel if the siege and blockade are not ended. Support for launching rockets drops in the Gaza Strip to 72%. A majority of 57% believes that launching rockets from populated areas in the Gaza Strip is justified and 39% say it is unjustified. Among Gazans, belief that it is justified to launch rockets from populated areas drops to 48% while increasing in the West Bank to 62%. [PSR Palestinian Public Opinion Poll Number 53, published September 29, 2014]

The Hamas Al-Aqsa satellite television channel screened this video clip in mid-August when 

morale among Gazans was a major issue. It takes a look inside Gaza's indigenous 

rocket-making industry. The Arabic commentary is explained in English here.

Jonathan Tobin who writes sharp and incisive commentary for Commentary Magazine provides some context for this public opinion finding in a column ["Human Shields Aren’t Rethinking Hamas"] he posted yesterday:

So long as Hamas’s human shields are ready to vote for more war, any further efforts toward peace are doomed to failure. While President Obama unfairly accused Israelis of not being willing to work for peace, this is a reality that most Israelis have accepted, albeit reluctantly. It’s something the administration, as well as those left-wingers eager to save Israel from itself, need to come to terms with. [Commentary Magazine]

Another insight from the same Tobin piece:

Though enthusiasm for Hamas is not unanimous, it remains more popular than its Fatah rivals. Why? Because the unchanging dynamic of Palestinian politics is that whichever party spills the most Jewish blood will always have the upper hand. Since its inception a century ago, Palestinian Arab national identity has been inextricably tied to the war on Zionism. [Commentary Magazine]

So long as there is a Hamas, there will be new and ever more powerful rockets.

2-May-14: Overnight rocket attack on southern Israel: no injuries, no damage, no reporting

An incoming Qassam rocket attack was reported in Israel's Eshkol region at about 21:30 last night (Thursday). First online reports were sketchy, and there was no Tzeva Adom siren to alert the people living in the targeted area; the siren typically gives between 30 and 60 seconds of warning. The IDF later confirmed the assault that originated in Gaza, saying there were no injuries or damage. The explosion happened in open fields. This, it goes without saying, is never the intention of the terrorists who fling these lethal devices over the fence in the hope of achieving something, anything, painful on the Israeli side.

As for most of the news reporting media (AFP is a small exception this time), the gravity of last night's attack failed to rise to the level of news-worthiness, and is therefore largely unknown to the world, other than to the relative handful who focus on ongoing terrorism of this kind. The cumulative effect of non-reporting is devastating: reading the comments section of many news channels and weidely-read blogs makes clear that for many people with a hostile outlook on Israel, the military responses by the IDF that sometimes come after indiscriminate rocket attacks appear to be unprovoked, unjustified and overkill. This is largely because of the poor job our side does in explaining what it means to be living within the reach of a well-armed army with zero scruples.

The diligent editors at Independent Media Reports and Analysis, an Israeli source (H/T Love of the Land), point out that the existence of rockets in Gaza is itself a violation of formal commitments to which the PA signed up. Yes, everyone paying attention knows there are already tens of thousands of rockets embedded in Gaza by its Hamas overlords. And yes, not even Israeli government voices raise the issue of how flagrantly the Palestinian Arab side ignore, let alone openly breach, what they have agreed to do and not do.

But as IMRA's timely comment, coming in the week that the PA and the jihadists of Hamas fell into each other's arms, puts it:

The commitment not to have rockets in the Gaza Strip is not some obscure, arcane and insignificant commitment. It's a core commitment. And it is high time that Israeli officials make this crystal clear. "Quiet for quiet" is not enough for the PA. If the PA controls the Gaza Strip then the rockets must go. 

Because if not, then who needs agreements and understandings between hostile parties?

For the record, the IDF says there have been more than a hundred rocket attacks on southern Israel since the start of 2014. Most by far go unnoticed outside the attack zone.

23-Apr-14: On the road to... what?

Zahar, rifle and unkissed baby:
Powerful combination in theirvalue system

Now that Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah/PLO/PA and Hamas have decided to spend the next five weeks pursuing "unity" and exploring how to do good things collaboratively, we feel there's value in going back for a short refresher of the views of that senior figure in Hamas who appeared in a post of ours yesterday ["22-Apr-14: Not quite your average foreign minister or baby-kissing politician"]. The brief excerpt below is from an interview published this week in the web magazine, Al-Monitor.

Interviewer:  Has Hamas truly abandoned armed resistance while other parties insist upon continuing it? 

Mahmoud al-Zahar:  Anyone who claims so must be drunk. How has Hamas abandoned the resistance effort? What are the manifestations of it doing so? Where have we prevented the launching of rockets? The last time three men were martyred as they fired rockets, did we stop them..?  

Interviewer:  What about the re-emergence of the armed Qassam Brigades in the West Bank? 

Mahmoud al-Zahar:  An occupied community has the right to defend itself. I do not want to go into the details, yet negotiations did not yield any results until now. Now in Gaza we kicked the occupation out and the people should opt for another choice. We [publicly] declare this choice and we are not ashamed of it. The project of resistance has to be adopted with all its tools to end Israeli occupation.

Knowing what this man says and possibly believes, thinking that an outcome that is somehow good and conceivably includes something close to peace might result means a person (a) thinks Zahar is lying when he makes statements like these; (b) believes Zahar, thinks he means 'resistance' when he says 'resistance' but hopes it will all work it alright in the end somehow; or (c) is convinced Zahar and the other ideological zealots of Hamas will be outsmarted and out-outmaneuvered by the efficient pragmatists of Fatah who, in turn, seriously want peaceful relations with Israel.

Optimistic we're not.

19-Jul-13: Incoming Gazan rockets crash into southern Israel again tonight

Ynet reports that two in-bound Qassam rockets from Gaza exploded in southern Israel's Eshkol region around 10 o'clock tonight (Thursday) - another source says 9:46 pm. No injuries or damage are reported at this stage.

Residents in the target area were alerted by the Tzeva Adom missile warning system and have been told to stay in their shelters.

A third Gazan rocket, according to Ynet, crashed and exploded on the Hamas side of the border - another in a long line of "fell shorts" - earlier on Thursday. It's not known (almost never is) whether any Gazan homes or people were hit.

16-May-13: Another Gazan rocket seeks, but does not find, Israeli victims on Wednesday

AFP calls it an 'uptick':

Over the past two months, there has been an uptick in rocket fire on southern Israel after more than three months of complete quiet following a deadly confrontation in November which ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce.

They report that something explosive - either a mortar or a rocket - was fired in the customary indiscriminate way into southern Israel during yesterday afternoon, the festival day of Shavuot. Israel police say it crashed into the frequently hit Eshkol region; fortunately, no damage, no injuries. This is an accidental result - the terrorists who control huge arsenals of rockets and mortars and store them in Gaza under Hamas control have no interest at all in who or what is hit. Their goal is to sow terror, and if there are actual injuries or damage, then that's cream on their pie.

29-Apr-13: And yet again, second time in two days, more rocket fire into Israel from Gaza

The missile-rich terrorists of Hamas-controlled Gaza directed their rocket fire at civilian targets in Israel again this past night (Sunday), managing only to harmlessly hit open fields in an unpopulated area of southern Israel's Eshkol region, near Ashkelon [source].

The last time a Gazan Qassam rocket was fired at an Israeli civilians - and missed - was 24 hours earlier. Missing is, of course, not the intention of the terrorists. They risk their lives in such attempts on the basis that the potential reward, measured in terms of Israeli lives and property, justifies the dangers.

On the ground, the population of southern Israel may find it difficult to buy into the image of relative calm propagated in news stories. Associated Press, for instance, in reporting on yesterday's attack, reports that

Rocket fire from Gaza has declined since a military campaign in November, before which militants were firing rockets on an almost daily basis and launching other attacks on Israeli towns across the border. Sporadic fire still persists however. [USA Today/AP]

A contributor to a Hebrew-language online forum this morning summarizes how that 'sporadic fire' feels from the vantage point of the Israelis who find themselves the targets. These are all from April alone:

April 2 - Mortar fire on Eshkol region
April 3 - Rocket explodes near Sderot
April 4 - Rocket explodes in Eshkol region
April 7 - Three incoming rockets; one explodes in Shaar Hanegev region
April 9 - Roadside bomb explodes adjacent to the security fence separating Gaza from Israel, damaging a tractor
April 16 - The Tzeva Adom anti-missile alert is heard twice; outcome not known
April 17 - Two rockets explode in or very close to Eilat
April 19 - Two rockets explode in Eshkol region
April 21 - A rocket explodes in Eshkol region, prompting the Chinese Xinhua news agency to write that this has "broken the quiet that had reigned the region since November"
April 28 - Two incoming rockets (we had reported one) on southern communities; one explodes in Sdot Negev region just as thousands of Israelis were "outside in parks and forests celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer with traditional bonfires" [AP]. 
And overnight in the Eshkol region again, as we reported just now.

28-Apr-13: Rocket fire from Gaza yet again

Shortly before midnight on Saturday night, terrorists in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket into southern Israel. Times of Israel says it landed in an open area in the Sdot Negev region, and that children celebrating Lag B’Omer in the area were instructed by police to return to their homes. So far, there are no reports of casualties or damage.

19-Oct-12: Noted linguist arrives in war zone, looks other way

A Qassam rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, exploding around 9 pm in a field in the southern Eshkol region. According to this source, no damage or injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, scholar and activist Noam Chomsky, arrived in Gaza today on his first-ever visit. Ynet says he called for an end to Israel's "siege of Gaza". He also expressed the opinion that "the Palestinian people have a right to live peacefully and in freedom".

There is no indication that he called for a cessation of indiscriminate (or even discriminate) rocket fire on Israeli school-buses, homes, farms or children. Nor is he on the record saying to his hosts that the Israeli people have a right to live peacefully, or even... a right to live.

Then again he's not young and has been very busy. And his comments might have been taken out of context, or somehow placed into someone else's context by mistake.

Chomsky will be attending a conference at the Gaza Strip's Islamic University. He entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing in co-ordination with the Egyptian authorities.

28-Jul-12 [UPDATED]: The Games have begun but over here the 'games' are continuing as usual, and one of the runners is injured

No special athletic prowess required or expected: ordinary Israelis
in Beer Sheva running for their lives to the nearest shelter after 
an incoming rocket alert is sounded [Image Source]

With the attention of much of the world's public and news media directed at the Olympics, there have been four rocket attacks on southern Israel this evening, Saturday. 

We're much more highly motivated on this subject than most people, and therefore know more or less where to look to find reports about these firings. Most people don't. They therefore have no idea that this happened and keeps happening more or less daily. How can people understand the defensive measures Israel's military takes if basic information about ongoing constant terrorist attacks goes unreported in the news media?

Two Gazan rockets crashed and exploded in the Eshkol region on Friday. (Reminder that the precise location of rocket landings is generally held back in these reports. Knowing the outcome is usable military intelligence that no sane person on the Israeli side would want to share with the terrorists of Gaza.) 

Then this evening (Saturday) two more crashed into open fields in the vicinity of Sderot, a city - not a town, not a village - in southern Israel that has the misfortune of being located very close to the Gaza Strip. The alarms were sounded (we're referring to the anti-missile Tzeva Adom warning system) causing the usual fear and anxiety in thousands of homes throughout southern Israel who somehow fail to get used to the indiscriminate firing of lethal weapons in their general direction. As a result, a woman of 29 suffered injury as she ran to a rocket shelter, and was hospitalized in Ashkelon [Ynet]. The Palestinian Arabs are saying that the terrorists are "a previously unknown militant group in Gaza called the Al-Furqan Brigades" and that they claimed responsibility in a statement. 

Two more Qassam rockets fired from the northern part of the Hamas-infested Gaza Strip hit open fields in the Eshkol region again, tonight [Ynet]. Fortunately no injuries, no property damage, and no consequences up until now (as far as we know) to the people who fired them. That might yet change.

UPDATE: Sunday morning, and the GANSO website reports on these terrorist attacks in its customarily laconic way:

MU, 29 JUL: Overnight, 3 HMRs and 1 Grad fired from Gaza toward the Green Line. No injuries reported.

Interpretation: Three "home-made" rockets, which is what GANSO regularly calls Qassam rockets, were fired into anywhere in Israel (the fire is almost always indiscriminate) during the night, plus one GRAD. We have not seen any reports from the Israeli side describing the fourth of last night's rockets as being a GRAD. But the GANSO people, based in Gaza and presumably with their own close ties with the neighboring terrorists, should be believed. To get a sense of the ideological thinking behind what GANSO does, check out this backgrounder, courtesy of EoZ. And remember that they are funded by the European Union.

22-Jun-12: More 'ceasefire' rocket attacks on southern Israel this morning

Our sources in the south reported Tzeva Adom incoming-missile warnings around 11 this morning. We see from this Times of Israel report that two more Qassam rockets were fired from the Hamas-infested Gaza Strip in the general direction of southern Israel's Eshkol region at about that time. Fortunately no injuries to human beings or damage are reported but this, emphatically, is not why the terrorist rocket persons endanger their own lives. It's Jewish blood they seek, and, with a religious dispensation, they are virtually fearless. They will stop only when someone stops them from the Israeli side. The Times of Israel reports as well that the remnants of a significantly more-powerful Grad missile were discovered in the Be’er Tuvia area this morning, close to the city of Ashdod (which is further away from Gaza than the beleagured city of Ashkelon is). Israeli security forces are unable to say when that missile landed.

20-Jun-12: Those rockets keep coming, and the news coverage outside the immediate area is practically zero

Scene at a Border Police base last night
shortly after one of yesterday's dozens of
incoming rockets got "lucky" and hit some
Israelis. [Image Source]

Incoming-missile sirens have been wailing across much of southern Israel almost non-stop throughout the hours of darkness and at about hourly intervals during this morning (Wednesday). It's continuing as we type these words.

Irrespective of whether Israelis have been killed or injured or terrified, it's a nightmare - a taste of what full-scale war-by-terrorists is going to be like as the war waged by "our" terrorists gets more sophisticated, with longer-range rockets, more accurate missiles and other outcomes that result from them having better and more technology. "Our" terrorists are caste from the same mould that is producing other people's terrorists - everyone else's terrorists. Their weaponry and methodology are similar and getting more similar all the time.

Perhaps this - the realization that the threat which Israel is attempting to blunt - is what prevents editors and their journalists and reporters, analysts and photographers - from properly covering - at street level, ground level - what hundreds of thousands of people living right across southern Israel are living at this moment.

Who knows? Whatever the explanation, this means it's practically impossible for anyone living outside the immediate region (other than the determined few who tune in to the various blogs and news services created by Israelis) to a real sense of the terror being inflicted round the clock on half of the state of Israel and its residents by the Islamic Jihadists, the Hamas thugs and the other sub-divisions of the global armed-to-the-teeth Islamist hatred movement.

19-Jun-12: Mid-afternoon report: Ten incoming Gazan rockets attacked Israeli territory in the past hour

Fields in southern Israel's Eshkol region this afternoon [Image Source]. The terrorist groups
compete with each other in the frequency of their indiscriminate rocket firing; no one has the slightest
concern that they are about to run out of missiles. In fact, their holdings are vast.

There's some understandable confusion at this stage over exactly what is happening in the fog of the latest chapter of this ongoing war. There's a report from Walla (Hebrew) that no fewer than ten terrorist rockets were fired into southern Israel in the past hour alone, most of them crashing into the Eshkol region, as we reported earlier today; a total of 14 rockets since the start of the day. And there are more of them, as well as almost constant missile siren soundings as we write these words.

Haaretz quotes an assertion made by Hamas - evidently in some public relations panic about being left behind in the action - that its rocket crews fired ten rockets today. It says they were long-range Grads which are a performance step up from the more customary Qassams.

The IDF has said its forces are in action, but unlike the pressure on the Gazan Palestinian Arabs, the Israeli defence forces have no compelling need to shout about their weapons or their hits.

19-Jun-12: Gaza attacks continue: two additional Qassam rockets explode in southern Israel

Around 3:00 this afternoon, two more Qassam rockets, fired by the terrorist gangs in the Hamas-ridden Gaza Strip, crashed and exploded in southern Israel's Eshkol region. They are the third distinct volley of the day - so far. JPost's count for the day is ten rockets till now, and counting, and says that unlike past practice, Hamas - which rules the Gaza Strip with an iron fist - is claiming credit for the rockets. You can see a Hebrew report here, posted at 2:50 pm this afternoon, with a representation of the Hamas announcement. This might be a counterstrike to the credit claims made yesterday by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad which sought credit for the lethal attack on an Israeli construction crew Monday morning.

Ynet reports that today's 3 o'clock rockets landed in open fields and as far as we can tell, there are neither injuries nor damage to property. Israeli forces are currently engaged in pin-point attacks on select parts of the Gaza Strip in order to bring the indiscriminate rocket firing to a halt. 

4-Jun-12: Gaza's rocket men are firing them off into Israel again tonight

It's late Sunday night here, and a day before the 45th anniversary of the start of the Six Day War of 1967.

The Times of Israel and Ynet both report that a Qassam rocket was fired by terrorists from the Gaza Strip around 9:40 this evening. It exploded at an undisclosed place somewhere in the open fields of southern Israel's Eshkol region. No damage or injuries are reported.

25-Feb-12: New week, new rocket attacks on southern Israel tonight [UPDATED]

The Sabbath is barely over and we have the first incoming Gazan Palestinian Arab rocket of the week. A Ynet report of half an hour ago says a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area of the Ashkelon Coast region. No injuries or damages are reported so far.

We're still collecting information about Friday night: the IDF Spokesperson's Unit filed a note saying there were five overnight rockets into southern Israel from the terrorist-infested Gaza Strip. More details when we know them.

UPDATE Saturday 10 pm Israel time: There's another attack in the past few minutes. Ynet reports a second rocket this evening, again exploding in the Ashkelon Coast region (where, the IDF points out, some 13,500 people live). Initial reports say no injuries, no property damage - but this is a lottery, and relying on the odds of no damage, no injury next time - and of course there is going to be a next time - is not a policy upon which a self-respecting government under terrorist attack can rely. We can expect military measures from the Israeli forces in the coming hours.

UPDATE Saturday 11:30 pm Israel time: Ynet says yet another Gazan Qassam rocket crashed into an open area of the Eshkol region in the past hour. No injuries or damage are reported so far.

23-Feb-12: Thursday evening rocket attack on southern Israel [UPDATE]

Ynet says a Qassam rocket was fired from the northern Gaza Strip into southern Israel this evening. It crashed into the Shaar Hanegev region, and so far there are no reports of injuries or property damage. A Hebrew forum reported incoming-rocket sirens (Color Red or Tzeva Adom) at about 7:10 pm. The IDF Spokesperson's unit tweeted that the area where the rocket struck is home to some 6,000 civilian Israelis.

UPDATE Friday morning 1:00 am - A second overnight rocket despatched by Gazan terrorists has crashed into the Eshkol region of southern Israel. The rocket attack came at about 11:00 pm Thursday night, according to Ynet. The IDF Spokesperson's united tweeted that some 11,000 Israelis live in the Eshkol region. JPost says no injuries or damage are reported.

UPDATE Friday noon - Ynet says two additional rockets were fired indiscriminately (as they always are) into Israel from the Gaza Strip at about 2:30 this morning. Both exploded in the Eshkol region, like the single rocket of 3 hours earlier (see above). Fortunately, again, there are no injuries or damage reported. The IDF Spokesperson's office is reporting that the overnight incoming rocket total for Thursday night stands at 5. We're only aware of four at this point.

29-Dec-11: Who decides on the stories that get major headlines and prominence? And why?

Boy searches for shrapnel on Israel's Moshav
Sde Avraham after a rocket fired from Gaza
exploded near a moshav home, March 2011. This photo
was a leading contender for news image of the year, 2011
[Image Source]

Few people, even among those who follow the events in the Middle East closely, will be aware of the state of the frequent and ongoing rocket attacks on southern Israel. No, we don’t mean those of last month or last year, but this week.

Fewer will be surprised to see what the major news media consider to be the really important news from Israel this week. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

On Friday, two mortar shells fired into southern Israel exploded in open areas in the Eshkol region.

This past Saturday evening (Xmas Eve), it was reported that terrorists from Gaza were active again with their deadly missiles. They fired two Qassam rockets into Israel that crashed into the western Negev region, with one exploding in an open area in the Ashkelon Coast region, and the other in an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. No injuries or property damage were reported, but this was certainly not the outcome the terrorists intended.

Then on Monday, this report says there was another Qassam rocket attack on southern Israel’s Gaza Belt region, a few kilometers from the Hamas-run Gaza terrorist enclave. This one crashed into open land in the Sha'ar HaNegev region and again – to our great fortune - no one was injured and no damage was reported.

Today (Wednesday), a Qassam rocket once again crashed into open space in Israel’s Sha'ar Hanegev region during the morning. Initial reports said the rocket was misfired and landed inside Gaza but it now appears it did in fact make it across the border and into the lives of ordinary Israelis. Then late this evening, a second Qassam rocket struck in roughly the same place. Fortunately, there are no reports of injuries or damage which means, in the eyes of those who did the firings, they were a failure, and therefore simply prelude to more and more and more attempts at a better, more bloody outcome.

Meanwhile the BBC via its website and the BBC World global radio service has been focusing to an astonishing degree for the past several days on an Israeli story that, in its own words, is about a tiny handful of malefactors and the response they are encountering from Israelis of every stripe. We’re not saying the reports of a certain extreme kind of orthodox Israeli Jews being rude and offensive to people living in the same town as them is not newsworthy. It is, or would be if the coverage included any journalistic insights. Reports of young Hassidic men in Beth Shemesh acting boorishly (yes, boorishly – no guns were fired, no punches were thrown, no houses burned down and no crowd-control devices were needed by the authorities) are interesting if you place them in a context (we won’t do it here or now). But there is precious little insight or understanding in the reports we have seen. Meaningful analysis of the socio-demographic or even political kind is far more challenging and much, much less interesting to the people who edit the BBC’s news than statements like this one:

“Many Israelis believe the country's character is at stake. They resent the fact that most ultra-Orthodox men don't work or serve in the army. Instead, the government gives them subsidies to carry out religious studies. One man here told me Jewish religious extremism posed a bigger threat to the country than Iran.”

Now do we know why BBC’s widely heard World Service news featured this as its main world news story for most of yesterday? Does its gravity come anywhere near to any of the following other stories of the past week, basically chosen at random?

• Iraq: 57 were killed, at least 179 people wounded, in simultaneous terror attacks on Baghdad this past Thursday. 14 locations were attacked simultaneously.
• Syria: More than 200 people including many women and children were killed by their own defense forces in a single day late last week on the eve of a visit by international observers monitoring Syria’s compliance with an Arab League peace plan. Syrian troops rounded up and shot civilians, and looted and destroyed houses according to The Washington Times. This was the deadliest week so far in a rebellion against Assad that started in March. The UN says it has exacted more than 5,000 lives so far. Nine more Syrians were killed by the Syrian Army today (Wednesday). Yes, the international observer group is there but so what? It’s an unfolding story drenched in blood, evil and intrigue. Yet most people in most places have only the vaguest sense, if at all, about what is going on. Foreign news agencies like the BBC are forbidden by the murderous Assad regime in Damascus from reporting directly from Syria. Most people don’t know this either.
• Gaza: The head of the Hamas terrorist organization, nominally the prime minister of the Gazan part of Palestine (the result of a forced and bloody power grab in 2007), has embarked on a grand tour of the Arab world. It’s the first time a Hamas leader has done this. Such minor news coverage as there is paints this as a kind of triumphal celebration of the new standing of the officially-outlawed Hamas terrorist regime in a post-Arab-spring world… a world in which repressive Arab rulers are replaced by Islamist, Moslem Brotherhood organizations – like Hamas. He will be feted in Sudan (today), then Qatar (which owns Al Jazeera), Turkey (the subject of this dismaying Christian Science Monitor expose of its current slide into authoritarianism), Tunisia and Bahrain at least. We’re wondering if any of the reporters who interview him will ask Ismail Haniyah to explain what he meant in a speech last week when he said that Hamas is working for interim objectives that include the “liberation of Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem" the long-term "strategic" goal of his terrorist movement is, in plain language, eliminating all of Israel:
• Saudi Arabia, a family-run business/state featuring fantastical wealth driven by fossil-fuel riches and a despotic, misogynistic ruling family, announced an unexpected budget surplus of more than $80 billion for 2011. (The finance ministry was expecting to post a deficit of $10.7 billion.)
• Nigeria: Islamists murdered no fewer than 39 people in Xmas Day attacks on two churches. We have blogged (“Tentacles again in west Africa, and the toll is shooting upwards” and other reports) about the admitted perpetrators, the horrifying Boko Haram, after some of their previous massacres. Most people, including most reporters and their editors outside of Nigeria (population: 170 million), have never heard of them. They need to know. There’s a process going on, and it extends far, far beyond Nigeria.
• Somalia: Again and again, the gang-raping and stoning of women by Islamist thugs gets reported, though not often enough and not with adequate prominence. But where is the journalistic analysis that lets readers see the close connection between these bestial practices and the religion professed by the perpetrators? Does this being an African story make thoughtful reporting superfluous and un-needed? 

And if our focus is on how various societies treat their women, do the street protests in Israel's Beth Shemesh community rank higher, lower or at the same level in news reporting terms compared with, say, reports about how the military in Egypt has been routinely carrying out forced virginity tests on women arrested in the Tahrir Square protests? Yes, the BBC mentioned it. And it might stop now that a court has condemned it. But given the widespread journalistic enthusiasm for the events in Cairo this past spring, the virginity test practices got nowhere near the news prominence of the absurd Hassidim-taking-over-Israel confection.

We’ll close with an image (below) that, to our minds, got less exposure than it deserves. Additional words are not really needed. It’s an image captured in Gaza this week: a graduating class of young women, the future of their community, the wombs that will create the next generation of Palestinian Arabs. 

Graduating class of women in Hamas-controlled Gaza this week

15-Nov-11: Terrorists keep sending rockets into southern Israel; IDF leaders may have reached the limit of their tolerance levels

Ynet reports that  two more Qassam rockets, indiscriminately fired yet again by the terrorists of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into the general direction of Israeli population centers, exploded in the Shaar Hanegev region. One struck a warehouse near a kindergarten. AP says the warehouse was destroyed and fortunately the kindergarten was unoccupied.

A second rocket exploded in an open area shortly after. Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries - but the terrorists planned a different outcome and must be disappointed... and will surely keep trying until they are stopped permanently.

Ynet adds:

Dudi, a father whose son attends the kindergarten, estimated there were only seven seconds between the alarm and the explosion. "The rocket hit the outer wall," he recounted. "It's very frightening for a father who has a child in kindergarten, despite the fact that they are fortified. Some two hours before the hit the kids left the kindergarten, and some of them play in an adjacent playground. If, God forbid, the rocket would have landed then there would have been chaos. " As it turned out, a few teenagers were playing outside when the rocket landed. They ran for cover in a nearby fortified area and were miraculously spared injury.

The Chief of Staff of the IDF, Lt-General Benny Gantz warned the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee today behind closed doors that an Israel mission to stop the men with the rockets is needed. He is quoted saying what large swathes of the Israeli citizenry have said for years: "We cannot tolerate repeated cycles of violence in Gaza."

The Haaretz report of his closed-door comments quotes his view that "recent rounds of escalated violence and the injury of both lives and the daily routine of citizens of Israel's south are leading to a reality in which the IDF will have to take significant, aggressive action in the Gaza Strip."

2-Oct-11: Signs that our neighbours know we're in the middle of High Holyday season

Israeli servicemen on duty during the High
Holyday season enjoy a platter of apples dipped in honey,
a traditional symbol of the Jewish people's constant hopes
for a better, sweeter, more peaceful year. [Source]

Israel almost entirely shut down over the past three days. Wednesday night through Friday night were Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and a time devoted to family, prayers and introspection. And the Sabbath followed immediately on Friday night, making for a three-day interlude of holiness or vacation, depending on your outlook.

Our Palestinian Arab neighbours along with the Arab states surrounding Israel have never shown any inclination for respecting the Jewish people's religious sensitivities (remember the co-ordinated massive attacks by multiple Arab armies on Israel on Yom Kippur 1973?). Hardly a surprise then that the past several days have seen several civilian-focused rocket attacks by the terrorist gangs of the Gaza Strip.

• Tuesday, two rockets fired from Gaza exploded in the Sha'ar Hanegev region of southern Israel. One exploded next to an electricity line, causing damage to property. The second landed in an open field. [Source] Both were intended to kill civilian Israelis and cause maximum damage to non-military targets. 
• Thursday evening, yet another Qassam rocket fired by the jihadist terrorists of the Gaza Strip landed in an unspecified open area inside Israel. No injuries or damages are reported. [Source] 
• Saturday: In Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, a gang of Palestinian Gazan Arab terrorist jihadists was spotted by Israeli intelligence in the act of preparing to launch multiple long-range rockets into Israel. The Israelis called in Israel Air Force fire of the pinpoint variety for which the IDF is famous. Though the potential for collateral damage in the heavily populated area from which the terrorists love to fire is great, the IAF achieved a direct hit on the gang members. Ynet says they are connected with Hamas. There are three of them, and all are injured, one critically. The IDF says the same three were behind the Thursday rocket firing and previous such terror attacks. The official Chinese newsagency rather ingenuously says the three (it calls them "a group of people") were attacked by "an Israeli reconnaissance drone [that] fired at least one missile". Reconnaissance drones carry sensors but no weapons, but if the terrorist thugs were stopped, we're more than happy to accept the Chinese distortions.

Daily rocket fire directed at Israeli civilians is not exactly what we have been praying for these past three days. But if an alert, rapid, accurate and effective defence force is part of the divine plan for protecting our land and our people from the barbarian practitioners of terror in the coming year, we'll accept that as a blessing too.  

21-Aug-11: There's a Gaza ceasefire. No there's not.

Iron Dome anti-missile battery near Ashkelon
(click to enlarge) [Source]

Associated Press, in a syndicated story published an hour ago, says authoritatively:

"Gaza militants agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to stop spiking violence, a Hamas official said Sunday, after a deadly attack on Israelis near the Egypt-Israel border set off a three-day round of Israeli airstrikes and rocket barrages from Gaza."

The ceasefire is said to have taken effect at 9 this evening, Israel time. It's now 10:20pm, and in the past hour (says YNet) the terrorist bombing of southern Israel has continued unabated. [For what it's worth, Haaretz says the Gazans meant 9:00pm according to their clocks. Unlike Israel, they do not have daylight saving time. We'll see.]

Four Gazan terrorist rocket launchings, all of them pointed at anything Israeli, have taken place since 9. Two were flung in the general direction of the hard-hit coastal city of Ashkelon, with one being intercepted and destroyed in midair by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. One landed in the Hof Ashkelon region. A fourth Qassam exploded in an open space in the Shaar Hanegev region around 10pm. In addition, three mortar shells were fired into the Eshkol region during the same hour, and at 10:15 pm the Color Red missile alarm was heard in the streets of Sderot (we still do not know the outcome).

Haaretz tonight is quoting Israeli sources who say Israel's low-key strikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours were "an intentional move aimed at allowing Egypt to mediate a cease-fire, as well as out of fear for the defense and diplomatic relationship with Egypt". We wonder how well the pregnant wife of Yossi Shushan who was killed Saturday night in one of the GRAD rocket attacks on Beer Sheba appreciates the strategy.