24-Apr-16: What the fate of a pre-teen Arab girl says about the grip terror has on her society

Dima Al-Wawi: Tried and failed to kill Jews and now doomed to life
as a jihadist role-model [Image Source]

Many hundreds, maybe more, of news reports and Tweets today celebrate the release today of a twelve year-old girl, arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli authorities to a term of four and a half months. 

When she was arrested on February 9, 2016, all the news reports we saw agreed [for instance Al Araby and Times of Israel] that the child was 16. That was shocking enough for us to include her in a post here on our blog ["09-Feb-16: The unthinkable things Palestinian Arab society wants for and from its children"] in which numerous other children of about that age had been intercepted trying to murder Jews. 

This girl child is free again today. The relevant authorities here in Israel agreed to shorten her sentence by six weeks for reasons no one is talking about. 

The general flavor of today's reports and Tweets is captured by headlines like these:

• After three months of detention in Israeli Jail, Dima Al-Wawi 12 y-o is finally free!! She is just a child..
• Dima Al-Wawi, 12 years old, the youngest female Palestinian prisoner, is finally free! #FreePalestineDetainees [From the PLO's official tweet]



The mother, via Aljazeera. The honest answer to her 
dishonest and disingenuous question is "Yes, of course, Can stab, can kill
and have done so numerous times in the past eight months
of vicious Arab-on-Israeli jihadist violence". All with the explicit blessing 
of their parents, president, imams and society. [Image Source]

• Israel frees youngest Palestinian prisoner [Associated Press]

We have written before about the exceptionally ugly process underway in which children are encouraged and incited to get involved in acts of terror against Israelis by the PA, Hamas and Palestinian Arab society. Not for nothing, we see these people as being in the grip of a death cult. 

There's no Arabic-language messsage today (as far as we can tell after searching around) that fails to sound a note of triumph. This rather sad-faced twelve year old girl is going to be paraded around as a hero whether she wants it or not. 

It does not have to be that way. After all, this child is more than just a prisoner who was freed. She pulled a knife on a couple of Israelis and tried to kill them. That's not a legal statement but a straight-forward observation of what happened. It's captured on video. She formed the intention, to the extent a child can, to murder.

To be clear about this, it's not only Palestinian Arab children who kill or try to kill. Sometimes - though not so often - it's because they really, really want to. Sometimes it's because people older and more powerful than them require that they do it. Civilized society has views on what that means and what we ought to do about it. 

For instance, the phenomenally-well-funded Human Rights Watch have this on their"Children's rights" page:

A symbol whether she wants to be or not [Reuters]

Millions of children... are forced to serve as soldiers in armed conflict... Young and immature, they are often easily exploited. In many cases, they are abused by the very individuals responsible for their care. We are working to help protect children around the world, so they can grow into adults.

And even when forced in the most violent way into joining the ranks of the jihadist terrorists, child victims - like thousands of Nigerian children [see "Boko Haram escapees find life at home can be filled with distrust, rejection", AP, today] - arouse mixed feelings, unjustifiably most of us would say, in their own community. 

But that's not how Palestinian Arab society views children and terrorism. 

We have noted before that, since they use the term "easily exploited", the people who run HRW are surely enraged by what's being done to Palestinian Arab children by the religious, educational and political leaders of their communities. But if they are, and if they know what has been done by her own society to this Al-Wawi girl and to hordes of others as young as she, we're surely not seeing any sign of it. Again we ask: If anyone knows of HRW condemnation of the fostering among Palestinian Arab children of martyrdom/murder as supreme values, please click here to enlighten us.

Some months ago, we quoted here [20-Oct-15: Children and what a soulless society can do to them] the words of an acclaimed leader of oppressed people:

In the hands of her father today: a future foretold [Telegraph UK]

 "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." - Nelson Mandela 1918-2013, addressing the launch of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Pretoria, South Africa, May 8, 1995 [source]

The question needs to be asked: where is UNICEF? Or Save the Children, or Terre des Hommes, or the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement or even the dishonorable Amnesty International (on whom we have not yet entirely given up hope)? Or the other well-funded, high-profile public interest organizations that purport to care for the welfare of children but that take so little interest in the unfolding tragedy of the children of the Palestinian Arabs and the terror-obsessed jihadists cheating them of their future?

14-Nov-15: Friday's lethal attack destroyed an Israeli family preparing for their daughter's wedding

Site of the Friday afternoon murders, near Otniel [Image Source: EPA]

Some additional aspects of the tragedy ["13-Nov-15: Again: Israeli lives extinguished by Pal Arab terrorists"] we reported here Friday afternoon, just before the peace and spirituality of the Sabbath arrived.

Times of Israel reports that Rabbi Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son Netanel, 18, were murdered in the shooting attack around 3:00 pm Friday near the Jewish community of Otniel. They along with other members of the family, residents of the Kiryat Arba community, were driving from their home to Meitar, near Be'er Sheva, for what sounds to us, from the vague description in the news reports, to be a Shabbat Hatan, the celebration of the upcoming wedding (set for November 17) of their daughter and sister. She was evidently not in the family van. Instead of a welcome, joyous and presumably long-awaited celebration, the Litmans and their family and friends have had to arrange a funeral for the father and son in Jerusalem tonight.

The other family members in the van were the wife and mother, a 16-year-old son and three young daughter aged 11, 9 and 5, according to Haaretz. All were lightly hurt with bruises and shrapnel injuries. Based on our familiarity with Jewish custom, the fourth daughter preparing for her wedding was very likely spending the Shabbat in or near her home with friends.

Haaretz says the gunman was waiting by the side of the road for any Israeli vehicle to drive by. Investigators found 14 bullets had been fired at the Litmans. The shooter fled, and a search has been underway since last night, focusing on the Palestinian Arab towns of Yatta and Dhahiriya.

Times of Israel says Ya’akov Litman, the driver, was wounded by the gun fire, swerved into the opposite lane, and crashed into rocks at the side of the road. Netanel called rescue services but was then also shot dead. A Channel 2 news report quoted by the news site says that after this, one of the gunmen came closer and fired additional bullets after killing the father and son.

A younger son then called the Magen David Adom hotline to report the attack, reporting as well that a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance had just driven past the scene of the attack, and had deliberately ignored them and failed to stop. (Israel is said to be filing a protest with the International Committee of the Red Cross about this. Israelis are holding their breaths waiting for a robust response from Geneva. Not.) Haaretz says the MDA team reached the scene soon afterwards, pronounced the father and son dead at the scene, and rushed the other family members to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.

There are reports tonight that the murders were celebrated publicly by Hamas via social media.

13-May-15: On being sorry to admit what's plainly true

Originally posted here, and based
on the Edward Ruscha image

Hypocrisy and double standards happen to be on our minds at the moment. 

We started writing this blog in 2006. It reflects some thoughts we want to share as ordinary citizens of Israel whose primary concern is to get on with raising our children (and more recently, to the extent possible, helping them raise their children) while coping with the realities of trying times and often-challenging situations. 

Terrorism looms large in the list of matters on our minds. The reasons are not hard to figure out, and are embodied by the photograph over on the right of every page of this blog under the heading "Our daughter Malki 1985-2001". And with a focus on terrorism (those who do it, those who help them do it, those impacted by it) comes a deep sense of disquiet about the often-appalling aspects of media reporting and analysis, and the double-talk on display almost everywhere by public officials and especially by politicians.

Evelyn Gordon, whose writings we admire, has an article on the Commentary Magazine site this week that highlights just the kind of concern that gets us so steamed up. Here's part of what she writes:

It’s not hard to find examples of double standards against Israel... [S]uch incidents are made possible not by the rabid Israel-haters, who remain a small minority, but by all the “good” people who know better yet are too intimidated to speak out. Nowhere is this more evident than in the so-called human rights community. 

She then drills down onto the example of a senior Red Cross official, Jacques de Maio, the head of its delegation to what it calls “Israel and the Occupied Territories”:

Not only does he realize that Israel isn’t the Great Satan it’s generally portrayed as by “human rights” activists, but he’s even willing to say so occasionally – which makes him far braver than many of his colleagues. Yet even this braver-than-average member of the human rights community feels so intimidated that whenever he does say something positive about Israel, he feels the need to apologize. So you get astounding statements like this tweet from last November: “It may seem provocative, but I would contend that humanitarian access in Israel & OT is, comparatively, outstandingly good.”The mind simply boggles. It’s “provocative” to state the simple fact that Israel, like any Western democracy, allows humanitarian aid groups relatively unfettered access? ...Yet if that’s the truth, why should it be “provocative” to say so? Shouldn’t it be as natural for human rights organizations to praise countries for enabling their access as it is to criticize them for not doing so? But of course, when it comes to Israel, it isn’t. After all, in the “human rights” community to which De Maio belongs, the loudest voices are people like Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth, who famously criticized Israel last month for sending the world’s largest medical team, 30 percent of all foreign medical personnel, to help victims of Nepal’s earthquake... So De Maio apologizes for telling the truth. And untold numbers of his less courageous colleagues choose the easier route of not telling it at all... So all the people worldwide who truly need humanitarian assistance [Syria, for instance] will continue having their pleas for help go unheard, because the only “human rights” activists raising their voices are the ones obsessed with Israel. The others are too busy proving, yet again, that all that’s needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. [Commentary Magazine, May 11, 2015]

We have some additional thoughts to share on this, but a bit short of time at the moment.

22-Nov-14: What youths and children are good for

The children are always innocent.
But what of the people who educate and equip them?

We posted here some weeks back ["07-Nov-14: In reporting terror, what the perpetrators and their victims are called is part of the war"] about the practice in some parts of the media to use descriptive words like "youth" and "man" in highly subjective ways. A pedestrian mowed down by a murder-minded Arab in Jerusalem is called a "17-year-old man"; the victim was, of course, an Israeli. Meanwhile, a "20-year-old youth" attacked police; he is, of course, a Palestinian Arab. There are other instances of this tendentious form of news reporting in that post. They lead us to say (as we did) that

those of us deeply irritated by the way news editors often spin an entire report via the judicious choice of specific words can't help suspecting there might be a little something on display here about agenda-driven reporting and editing.

Take a look at a report currently on the front page of the Palestinian news-site Maan:

A Palestinian youth was attacked and beaten by a group of Jewish settlers at Damascus Gate near the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem on Friday night, a local political activist who was present at the time of the incident said. 22-year-old Ahmad Yaqub al-Ghoul lost consciousness as a result of bruising and bleeding he suffered after three Jewish settlers described as being in their 20s hit him... [Maan]

This Palestinian Arab "youth" is 22 and the attackers "in their 20s" are not men, youths or boys but merely "settlers",

Over at Israel National News, they have some insights today into what is being done to youths - real youths, children below the age of thirteen - in the Arab quarters of Jerusalem. It's sickening:

• Yedioth Aharonoth interviewed Jerusalem's youngest Arab terrorists last week, providing a unique look into the minds of those who have forgone their studies and futures for the pursuit of violence. Even more Arab children join them in their attacks after the school bell rings.
• Salah, Hassan, Riyad and Ahmed of Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood - just a handful of the many Arab children aged eight to 13 who, instead of going to school and learning, mask their faces and assault police officers with potentially lethal rocks every single day. 
• "We are ready to die as martyrs, we have nothing to lose," says one Arab child terrorist. "Our heads aren't in studies at all, we are always planning what to do against the police."
• "Today I didn't go to school because I want to continue our struggle as a response to the murder of the martyr Ibrahim al-Akari," one 13-year-old said, referring to the Hamas terrorist from Shuafat who murdered two Israelis with his van earlier this month... And the commitment to violent attacks shows no signs of slackening, with one child saying "all of us here are ready to sacrifice our lives and die as martyrs."
• Another child... "Today the only thing I think about is throwing rocks at police..." 
• One rioter at the tender age of eight pledged more violence, and was quoted saying "inshallah (Allah willing) we'll succeed in liberating Palestine and Jerusalem."
• "Me and my friends every day plan what to do during the day against the police. We've thrown molotov cocktails, fireworks and rocks. I'm proud of these acts."

The child abuse industry that produces outcomes like those gets pathetically little exposure, and even less understanding, outside the Arabic-speaking world. [See "3-Mar-13: Incitement to terror: Understanding the Palestinian Arab official view on what children are good for"]

Television programs directed at children in pre-school, elementary and high schools make this plain to anyone willing to wade through the Arabic sources. A small proportion of them are translated to English, like a gem (we selected it literally at random) called "When we die as martyrs" from which these screen shots below come. It's impossible to watch the whole 3 minute atrocity and remain ambivalent. The children's sweet voices coupled with the murderous hatred of the words put in their mouths by instructors and parents make for classical cognitive dissonance - the screen shots alone don't come close to conveying that.

Universal Children's Day took place just two days ago, on November 20. The annual event might have been the perfect opportunity to shine a bright light on the programming, the brain-washing, the hate-focused preaching, the terror-friendly education that are all indispensable ingredients in the process of producing terrorist youths. But of course they were not. 

In a post we wrote just before UCD ["02-Nov-14: Understanding what they really mean when the terrorists say children are their main concern"], we quoted an impeccable Arab source who notes that the principal Palestinian Arab terror groups, Hamas and Fatah. long ago discovered that children are one of the most effective tools in the fight against Israel - especially because of the damage it causes to Israel in public opinion terms. And by blaming Israel for "deliberately" targeting children and women, they can count on the readiness of the mainstream media in the West to endorse the claims without question.

Not for the first time, we are left wondering why UNICEF, Save the Children, Amnesty, Terre des Hommes, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and so many other well-funded, high-profile, public-interest organizations with children at the heart of their agenda take so little interest in this unfolding tragedy. 

02-Nov-14: Understanding what they really mean when the terrorists say children are their main concern

Palestinian Arab child photographed at Hamas "victory" event
in Nablus, August 29, 2014 [Image Source: AP]

Universal Children's Day takes place on November 20, less than three weeks from today. 

The annual event was initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1954 as a way of encouraging states to "to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children" and similar blah blah. But also "to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world's children" which is a worthy and concrete goal.

Even the most cursory look at things that are done to children in many parts of the world serves to persuade of the need to take their welfare very seriously. Think of the millions of children cheated of education and forced into child labour, slavery, prostitution and pornography. And then there's the recruitment and training of child soldiers, a matter that has occupied us here on this blog often. 

The UN adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1958 and then the Convention on the Rights of the Child exactly 31 years later, on November 20, 1989. That convention is going to be 25 years old later this month. Pretty soon now the formalities, the issue of new postage stamps and theme posters and similar actions by civil servants are going to render the occasion even more meaningless than it probably is already. So allow us please to share a handful of observations about children in the Palestinian Arab world.

First some notes from a brief analysis triggered by the wave of violence that is currently on view here in Jerusalem from where we produce this blog. The Israeli Arab journalist and analyst, Khaled Abu Toameh ["Palestinians:Stop the Children's Intifada!", October 29, 2014] writes:

Nearly half of the Palestinians arrested by Jerusalem Police over the past few months are minors. Some of them are as young as nine. These children are being sent to throw stones and firebombs, and launch fireworks at policemen and IDF soldiers, as well as at Israeli civilians and vehicles, including buses and the light rail in Jerusalem. Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian groups are using children from east Jerusalem and the West Bank in what appears to be a new intifada against Israel... The exploitation of children in the fight against Israel has attracted little attention from the international community and media. Human rights groups and United Nations institutions have chosen to turn a blind eye to these human rights abuses. Instead of condemning those who exploit the children and dispatch them to confront policemen and soldiers, these groups and institutions are busy denouncing Israel for targeting minors.

Pre-teen Pal Arab girl poses at Nablus "victory" rally
organized by Hamas, August 30, 2014 [Image Source]

He says most of the children detained by police for involvement in the violence are released to house arrest. Those aged between nine and 13 are referred to social welfare authorities and not detained. More quotes from Abu Toameh:

• Hamas and Fatah had long discovered that children are one of the most effective tools in the fight against Israel - especially because of the damage Israel sustains in the court of international public opinion.
• This strategy works out well for Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Fatah. At the end of the day, they can always blame Israel for "deliberately" targeting Palestinian children and women -- an allegation that the mainstream media in the West often endorses without asking questions.
• Moreover, the Palestinian groups know that the children who are being sent to confront Israeli soldiers and policemen will not be held accountable...
• These children are victims of a campaign of indoctrination and incitement that is being waged by various Palestinian groups... through the media, mosques, educational institutions and the fiery rhetoric of leaders and activists...
• There are also reports that Fatah and Hamas activists in Jerusalem have been paying children small sums of money to throw stones and firebombs at Israelis and block roads in several Arab neighborhoods... Palestinian groups often reward the families of the children by hiring lawyers and paying fines imposed on them by Israeli courts. As a result, the families are less motivated to stop their children from risking their lives... 
• The time has come for the international community and media to pay attention to their disturbing conduct and demand that Palestinian groups stop hiding behind children... The adult activists who send and encourage children to take part in violence should be held accountable, not only by Israeli authorities, but also by their own people and international human rights organizations. If these adults want an intifada, they should be the first to go out and confront Israeli policemen and soldiers.

Life Magazine, June 12, 1970

We mentioned above that the recruitment and training of child soldiers into the Palestinian terrorism machine is a matter that has occupied us often here on this blog over the years. Here are some links to past posts to bookmark and read when you can:

• 03-Jul-06: Marketing Suicide to Children
• 13-Aug-06: People Who Love Death... and What This Means for the Rest of Us
• 27-Mar-08: Palestinian infanticide
• 09-Jan-13: Yet another reminder why war against terrorists is different from conventional warfare (includes some revealing insights into the damaging role played by Dr Hanan Ashrawi in deflecting much-needed criticism of Palestinian Arab society's treatment of its children)
• 24-Jan-13: Sacrificing the lives of an entire generation of adolescents on their altar of hatred, the thugs of Hamas boast of plans to create a children's army
• 27-Jan-13: Hamas' new army of children: Will the UN's and foreign funders' role in this scandal be critiqued by the news-reporting media?
• 29-Apr-13: Hamas demonstrates importance of solid education
• 04-May-13: So you thought the people who raise children to become "the fertilizer of their land" could sink no further?
• 18-Jun-13: They want their children to become killers and they say why. The rest of us are left with questions
• 15-Jan-14: When a society praises itself for turning its children into human bombs, whose problem is that?
• 27-Jan-14: In Gaza, a death cult celebrates its graduating class
• 21-Jul-14: War, civilians, children: what the terrorists of Hamas can teach us
• 30-Jul-14: The ordinariness of utter evil (includes one of the most chilling video interviews we have ever seen - a Palestinian Arab mother speaks from the hospital room where her child's life is being saved by Israeli doctors, and tells of her deepest hopes)
• 08-Oct-14: Children, innocence, rhetoric and savagery

Not for the first time, we are left to wonder aloud why UNICEF, Save the Children, Amnesty, Terre des Hommes, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and so many other well-funded, high-profile public interest organizations are taking so little interest in this unfolding tragedy. It's happening right under their noses. And, as the famous cover (above right) from LIFE magazine, published more than 40 years ago reminds, they can hardly claim this is some sort of new phenomenon.

24-Jan-13: Sacrificing the lives of an entire generation of adolescents on their altar of hatred, the thugs of Hamas boast of plans to create a children's army

Children at today's graduation ceremony in terrorism-addicted Gaza [Image Source]

Via an extraordinary news report by the Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh that appears in today's Jerusalem Post, Hamas announces that it is creating military schools to cater for children of twelve years old and up.

Understanding (a) why this happens and (b) how Hamas can flagrantly manipulate the education and upbringing of generations of Palestinian children towards war and terrorism, and encourage them to undertake the killing of civilians (which is essentially the sole form of hostile action in which the Hamas ranks have engaged in their entire history) without being excoriated by Arab and Western leaders who care about children wherever they are, is a large part of comprehending why this ongoing war goes on and on.

Hamas to establish military academy for schoolkids 

Haniyeh says inaugural Gaza school will prepare kids as young as 12 to establish Palestinian state "from the river to the sea."
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH | Jerusalem Post | 01/24/2013 18:42
Hamas is planning to establish a military academy in the Gaza Strip for training and educating schoolchildren. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced Thursday that the new military academy, the first of its kind in the Gaza Strip, would prepare the children for the "phase of liberating Palestine." He said that children in grades 7-9 could join the academy and graduate with a Diploma or Bachelor of Arts in military affairs. Haniyeh was speaking during a ceremony in the Gaza Strip marking the birth of Prophet Mohamed. More than 10,000 schoolchildren attended the ceremony, which included a "military parade" by some of the teenagers. He said that he has instructed the Hamas-run Ministry of Education to lay plans for the establishment of the military academy. Haniyeh said that the new academy would educate and prepare children for the establishment of a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea." The decision to establish a military academy follows Hamas's announcement that it would create its own "Defense Ministry" in the Gaza Strip. The announcement was made shortly after the IDF's Pillars of Defense Operation in the Gaza Strip last November.

An AP report adds that today's parade in Gaza (image above) marked the graduation of the first cohort of 3,000 Palestinian Arab teenagers to graduate from a Hamas high school military training program that commenced in September 2012. Called "Futuwwa" (meaning 'youth'), this is an elective course now offered in all of Gaza's high schools. Hamas officials boast that 3,600 Gazan children participated. (Should we be asking what became of the 600 who signed up but did not graduate?) AP's Ibrahim Barzak writes that the highlights of the rally included children holding mock weapons, crawling commando-style on the ground and taking up fighting positions in front of thousands cheering from the stand.

Sounds like the right time to mention Red Hand Day that is marked on February 12 of each year. It's a day that serves as an occasion to encourage political leaders to be aware of the fate of children forced to serve as soldiers in wars and armed conflicts. Wikipedia says

The aim of Red Hand Day is to call for action against this practice, and support for children who are affected by it. Children have been used repeatedly as soldiers in recent years including armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire, Myanmar, Philippines, Colombia, and Palestine... Red Hand Day was initiated in 2002 when the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict entered into force on February 12, 2002. This protocol was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in May 2000 and currently has signatures from over 100 different states. A number of international organizations are active against the use of children as soldiers. These organizations include, for example, the United Nations Child Fund (UNICEF), Amnesty International, Terre des Hommes or the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

So which of these do we imagine is going to be the first to condemn Haniyeh and Hamas? Yeah, right.

Above and below: From today's Gaza schoolchildren 'military' rally [Image Source]

 [Image Source]

[Image Source]

Few things in life are as sickening as the manipulation, exploitation and weaponizing of children.

Hamas has developed world-class specialization in the field, rivaled only by the ability of its terrorists in the killing of the other side's children. The murderer of our daughter was a Hamas agent. Now free and living an unhindered life of celebrity in the Arab world, she has repeatedly boasted publicly of the pride she and her peers take in such abominations.

23-Jan-12: Caught some more terrorists

In Jerusalem today, the police along with Shin Bet agents arrested two senior Hamas people: Muhammad Totah and Khaled Abu-Arfa. Ynet calls them "activists from east Jerusalem", while reports from Egypt describe them as "law-makers" without actually pointing out how out of date that affiliation is: the Palestinian parliament has held no sessions since 2007.

The interesting part is that Totah and Abu-Arfa have been taking refuge inside the International Committee of the Red Cross building at 8 Nabi Shu'eib Street in east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood  for the past 18 months. (Those facts are confirmed by the ICRC, according to this report.) 

There had earlier been a third member in their little party, another Hamas man by the name of Ahmad Attoun. He was lured out and arrested several months ago.

This source reported back in March 2011 that the Hamas fugitives were themselves personally involved in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in 2006. They were to be deported from Jerusalem in summer 2010, but fled instead to the Red Cross building in Jerusalem on 1st July 2010 where they

"held court on a daily basis with no protest from their hosts... During that time, they've held a number of press conferences and met with foreign dignitaries, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Every Friday, dozens of East Jerusalem residents gather at the Red Cross to hold prayers as a show of support."

The Jerusalem Post says today that the Hamas fugitives had been quite open about their goals with their Red Cross hosts. They notified ICRC officials from the first that they planned to hold protests on the Red Cross premises to draw attention to "their situation". 

Evidently no one inside the Red Cross objected. Instead:

"The Red Cross has provided the politicians with a room inside the building where they can sleep and keep their belongings, a bathroom, electricity for their large protest tent, and a water cooler, it is understood. Family members came daily to bring food and clothes." [JPost]

Ten months ago, when the CBN report was first published, a spokesperson for the Red Cross, Cecilia Goin, said "hosting" the Hamas fugitives was "in line with the organization's humanitarian mission". She made no reported comment on the terrorist nature of the Hamas mission, which to us seems a bizarre and disturbing omission for a humanitarian body's official representative.

The ICRC has a relatively proud history - with some question marks. Started in 1863 as "an independent and neutral organization" and based today in Geneva, its mandate stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. With 12,000 people in 80 countries, its work is funded by donations. The ICRC's sole objective is

"to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife. It does so through its direct action around the world, as well as by encouraging the development of international humanitarian law and promoting respect for it by governments and all weapon bearers."

Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) ambulance
destroyed by Arab marauders near Jerusalem's central post
office, February 1948 [source]

The ICRC's activities in our part of the world have not been without controversy. 

For decades, the ICRC refused admission to the Israeli Magen David Adom organization, Israel's national emergency service. The ostensible reason was that MDA uses a Jewish symbol, the star of David. The MDA request to join came in 1931, and was accepted only in 2006 - seventy-five years later. 

In 1929, the ICRC approved the use of the the Red Crescent and Red Lion and Sun. The Jewish star was evidently a step too far.  

In a March 2000 letter to the International Herald Tribune, Dr. Bernadine Healy, then president of the American Red Cross, wrote:  "The international committee's feared proliferation of symbols is a pitiful fig leaf, used for decades as the reason for excluding the Magen David Adom — the Shield (or Star) of David." In protest, and starting in 2000, the American Red Cross withheld millions in administrative funding to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Meanwhile elsewhere in the area: Ynet reports this afternoon that undercover agents arrested two Hamas terrorists near Jenin in the Fatah-controlled West Bank earlier today. The two were in possession of an improvised weapon which, according to the suspicion, they planned to use in a shooting attack on Israeli vehicles.

16-May-11: On humanitarian aid, prisons and deprivation

A representative of the Hamas regime (the gentleman with the club)
exchanges views with the Gazan public, 15-May-11 [Source: AP]

There is no shortage of good reasons why living in Gaza under Hamas rule is something most of us strongly prefer to not do. The place is a nightmare of religious intolerance and tyranny, political persecution and sovereign malfeasance.

Starvation however is not one of its major problems notwithstanding that we were told the exact opposite by people who knew exactly how much they were bending the truth. In fact, many of the claims that have been made about the alleged suffering of the people living in Gaza are either wrong, or mostly wrong, or hopelessly-spun politically and therefore completely distorted. For instance, when the Islamist political elite of Gaza famously posed in the almost-dark of their parliament building [photograph here] blaming Israel for the gloom, daylight could clearly be seen shining in through the curtained windows as anyone unblinkered by  malice could see in the photos.

A year ago, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron called Gaza "a prison camp" (while visiting Turkey, which makes sense if you understand how some politicians think). Well, it is - if you are kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He is imprisoned in a black and unvisited hole, far from the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross or anyone else, a prime example of the illegalities and atrocities a failed, rogue state-let is capable of executing when it knows no one is going to call it to account.

Presenting Gaza as a pathetic and helpless victim is central to the myth of the aid convoys and their 'humanitarian' aid. And the latest of the 'humanitarian' ships arrived in the area this morning. An Associated Press report says:

Israel blocks Moldovan-flagged ship from Gaza  The Israeli military says it has blocked a Moldovan-flagged vessel leased by a Malaysian anti-war group from reaching the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel maintains a naval blockade of Gaza and restricts goods transferred overland to the Palestinian territory, citing concerns they would be used to attack Israel. The military said Monday that it ordered the ship to return to an Egyptian port where it had been anchored for several days. But it said the vessel disregarded the order, prompting it to fire warning shots into the air. The ship then changed course to return to Egypt. The Malaysian group, the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, says its ship was fired at when it tried to reach Gaza. The military denied firing at the ship. Perdana said no one was injured.

It's a major story in Malaysia at this hour. We wonder whether the 'anti-war' 'peace' activists there know that, largely thanks to the access they had for several decades to high-quality Israeli health care, life expectancy in the Gaza Strip (2010 figures) stands at 73.9 years, which is better than Malaysia's. Not that we expect the 'activists' to be so interested in statistics. Ideological fury is so much more satisfying.

We compiled some additional facts about life in Gaza that are not normally publicized and posted them in an earlier blog entry of ours ["3-Jun-10: So how urgent was the need for humanitarian aid for the Gazans?"] We will be surprised if you don't find at least some of them surprising. Also keep in mind that at least since June 2010, Israel has permitted practically all non-military or dual-use items to enter the Gaza Strip. Whatever.

Which brings us to a unique window in the suffering of Gaza. The video below is made in Gaza by Gazans. View it if for no other reason than it may help reveal what really stands behind the rising tide of 'aid' and 'humanitarian' vessels being prepared to sail on Gaza - and Israel.

29-Nov-10: Finally the neighbors are caught washing some of their dirty laundry

For years, we Israelis have been subjected to the terrorist threats and attacks of the jihadist regime of the Mullahs of Teheran and their agents in Hamas and Hizbullah. The Iranian ambitions always extended beyond this tiny country, and now - finally - its extent is front-page news throughout the world today.

Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years ago, played a crucial role in the 2007 assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity. The missiles could for the first time give Iran the capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe or easily reach Moscow, and American officials warned that their advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. [Source: The New York Times] 

Iran's Moslem cousins have known this and more for a long time. They, more than almost anyone except perhaps the Israeli government, have been anxiously lobbying for the power of the jihadists in Teheran to be curtailed - one way or (ahem) another. The British newspaper The Guardian, known in our circles for its vitriolic and unceasing attacks on and demonization of Israel and Israelis, published some insights today into how Arab political leaders view the Iranians when the flashlights are off and the cameras are not rolling. It's a revelation. You can get a sense of what follows from the header: Arab states scorn 'evil' Iran: US embassy cables reveal Tehran's reputation as a meddling, lying troublemaker intent on building nuclear weapons

• King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged Iran's foreign minister to "spare us your evil" in a meeting that reflected profound Arab hostility to the Islamic Republic.
• The Saudis and smaller Gulf states, plus Egypt, Jordan and others, complained bitterly about Tehran's nuclear ambitions, its involvement in Iraq and its support for Hezbollah and Hamas.
• The Teheran regime has "no business meddling in Arab matters", the Saudi monarch is quoted telling Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister. 
• "Iran's goal is to cause problems," the Saudi king says. "There is no doubt something unstable about them... May God prevent us from falling victim to their evil... The bottom line is that they cannot be trusted." 
• The leadership of the United Arab Emirates feared being "46 seconds from Iran as measured by the flight time of a ballistic missile".
• Abu Dhabi's crown prince and deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, called Iran an "existential threat" and feared "getting caught in the crossfire if Iran is provoked by the US or Israel". 
• Bin Zayed said the US should send in ground forces if air strikes were not enough to "take out" Iranian nuclear targets. 
• The UAE the foreign minister says Iran is "a huge problem that goes far beyond nuclear capabilities. Iranian support for terrorism is broader than just Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran has influence in Afghanistan, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and Africa."
• Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa says Iran is "the source of much of the trouble in both Iraq and Afghanistan" and argued forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear programme "by whatever means necessary. That programme must be stopped. The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it."
• Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said of Oman called Iran "a big country with muscles and we must deal with it." 
• A senior Omani minister singled out Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar as the three Gulf countries that would probably want the US to attack Iran.
• Kuwait's military intelligence chief says the Iranian jihadists are supporting terrorist groups in the Gulf and extremists in Yemen. 
• Yemen and Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuse Iran of supplying weapons and money to the Houthi rebels in Yemen's Saada region.
• Qatar, the wealthiest country in the Gulf region, is an outspoken critic of Iran in private while maintaining cordial public relations with it - and with the US.
• The Qatari prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, says "Iran is clever and makes its opponents dizzy... Iran will make no deal. Iran wants nuclear weapons... They lie to us, and we lie to them".
• Jordan and Egypt are also deeply hostile to Iran. Egypt's intelligence head Omar Suleiman calls Iran "a significant threat to Egypt … supporting jihad and spoiling peace".
• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak calls the Iranian president Ahmadinejad an extremist who "does not think rationally... Iran is always stirring trouble". 
• Mubarak has "a visceral hatred for the Islamic Republic [of Iran], referring repeatedly to Iranians as 'liars', and denouncing them for seeking to destabilise Egypt and the region. He sees the Syrians and Qataris as sycophants to Tehran and liars themselves."

And since we're suddenly being exceptionally candid with each other, some further insights from the NY Times by way of those Wikileaks:

• The Saudis are the chief financier of terrorist groups including al-Qaeda.
• Qatar, described as "a generous host to the U.S. military" by the NY Times, was the "worst in the region" at counter-terrorism efforts (says a State Department cable from December 2009). 
• Qatar's security service was "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the United States and provoking reprisals."
• The US has tried, and failed, to prevent Syria from supplying arms to the Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Hizbollah's weapons stockpile and particularly rockets and missiles has swelled hugely since the 2006 war with Israel. 
• Just one week after Syrian President al-Assad promised a senior State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hezbollah, the United States found that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the terrorists.
• And finally (at this stage) from The Guardian again: The Iranian Red Cross (technically its Red Crescent society) smuggled Iranian weapons and Iranian agents into Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. 

Welcome to the neighborhood. The double-talk and the deception about who is doing the terrorism, about the scale of their terrorist weaponry and about the size of the danger - well, how shall we put this? It's all far worse than the news channels and the politicians have been telling us for years. But not nearly as bad as it's going to get.