Douglas Murray: A Time of War

 When we planned this episode of Honestly, I thought we would be looking back at the past year from a slightly quieter vantage point. We were going to release it on October 7. But quiet is the last thing happening in the Middle East right now.

Swastika Flag on Gaza Border

Video Of The Week - Nazi Propaganda In Palestinian Incitement - https://tinyurl.com/yy4opcym

     A Nazi swastika flag raised on the Israel-Gaza Strip border, Friday, Aug. 2, 2019.

6-8-2019 - by Algemeiner Staff - https://tinyurl.com/y6jhrcdr

Israel continued on Tuesday to call out Hamas for the placing last Friday on the Gaza border fence of a Nazi swastika flag by Palestinian demonstrators.

“When #Hamas-led rioters in #Gaza raise the #Nazi flag, they expose their true intention — to annihilate the Jewish State. But Hamas will never have its way,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted.

On Monday, it was reported that Hamas had instructed rioters to not use the swastika “so that the Israeli occupation cannot take advantage of it.”

Elad Strohmayer — spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC — tweeted on Tuesday, “Hey #Hamas, I get your concern about your PR but banning Nazi symbols just won’t do it. As long as you call for the destruction of the Jewish State, using swastikas is simply you being honest. It’s not the swastika that makes us think you want to kill all Jews, it’s your charter.”

The findings of research show that the PA schoolbooks' attitude to Jews, Israel and peace is based on three fundamentals: De-legitimization, demonization and indoctrination to violent struggle instead of peace. Based on these fundamentals, a narrative has been built that presents the conflict in a distorted manner historically, and does not leave any hope for ending it in a peaceful coexistence of the two parties involved.

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‘Terrorists in Suits’

 Over 100 links revealed between terrorists and BDS groups

For the full article go to “WIN” - https://tinyurl.com/yd8f4f82

 February 3, 2019

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) released its “Terrorists in Suits” report on Sunday, revealing over 100 links shared between the internationally-designated terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with at least 13 anti-Israel BDS promoting NGOs.

Elaborating on a previous report, the ministry reveals how Hamas and the PFLP are utilizing a network of NGOs promoting boycotts against Israel as an additional tactic in their ultimate goal of dismantling the State of Israel. These organizations have successfully placed over 30 of their members, 20 of which have served time, including for murder, in senior positions within BDS-promoting NGOs.

The report documents how boycott organizations and terrorist designated organizations raise finances together, share the same personnel, and showcases that contrary to popular belief, these officials have not abandoned their support for terrorism, but instead, continue to maintain organizational, financial, and active ties with terrorist groups.

Funding from Europe, philanthropic foundations

The Israel-boycott organizations in question were also shown to have received millions of euros in funding from European countries and philanthropic foundations, while gaining access to additional funds through financial, crowdfunding and banking systems.

Examples of terrorists working in support of organizations that promote the boycotting of Israel include Leila Khaled and Mustafa Awad.

Khaled became infamous for hijacking two civilian airliners, Flights TWA 840 and El Al 219, and to this day remains active in the internationally-designated terrorist group the PFLP. She has fundraised for, and promoted, anti-Israel boycott NGOs both in Europe and South Africa. In 2011 she was found to have taken coordinated actions for a terrorist cell planning on attacking sites in Jerusalem. Furthermore, in October 2018 Khaled was quoted in an interview saying, “Palestine will be liberated through resistance in all its forms, first and foremost through armed struggle.”

Awad, is currently serving time for his involvement in several terrorist organizations, including serving as a member of the PFLP and received training from Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah. He also represented Samidoun in Brussels, an organization known for promoting boycotts against the State of Israel and advocating for the release of Palestinian security-prisoners in Israeli jails, including those convicted of murdering civilians in terrorist PFLP attacks.

Connections to Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Another instance includes the BDS National Committee (BNC), the Ramallah-based leadership of the global Boycott movement toward Israel, consists of 28 Palestinian boycott groups. The lead member of this coalition is the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF), which includes five internationally-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The American fundraising platform Donorbox recently suspended the BNC’s account after finding the group did indeed maintain ties to terrorist groups.

Over the past year, and following MSA activities to expose NGO terror ties, several European countries have announced the reexamination and decrease in funding granted to organizations which promote boycotts against the State of Israel.

The report also showed how members of terrorist organizations operate under the guise of “boycott activists” to gain access, and meet with, senior Western government officials and exert pressure to release convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons.

Removing the ‘mask’ of the NGOs

The new report aims to decidedly remove the “mask” of NGOs promoting BDS by exposing in an in-depth study the true nature of this scheme, the ministry said.

“Terrorist groups and the anti-Israel boycott campaign have united in their goal of wiping Israel off the map,” Erdan said. “Terrorist groups view boycotts as a complementary tactic to terror attacks. Following the exposure of over 100 links between terrorist groups and leading BDS organizations, I urge all governments and financial institutions to investigate the activities of these BDS organizations, and immediately end all funding and support which they provide to them.”

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THE GRAVE DANGER OF MEDIA BIAS

Video of the week - Hamas's Accomplishments in 13 years! ! https://tinyurl.com/yahyzbvj

 JPost, by Adam Milstein  20-8-2018

For the full article go to; https://tinyurl.com/y777hsct

This past May, the Los Angeles Times ran the headline “A Baby Girl Dies in the Haze of Gaza,” which told a story about eight-month-old Palestinian Layla Ghandour, who was allegedly killed by inhaling tear gas used by Israeli defense forces. This story was tragic and upsetting. It was also untrue. The New York Times and other major outlets published similar stories, framing Israel and Israeli soldiers as child-killing villains, amplifying Hamas’s false narrative about Layla’s death.

Following this wave of coverage, Layla’s cousin admitted that Hamas paid his relatives to lie to the media about Layla’s cause of death. In reality, Layla died from a preexisting blood condition. Of course, the family of a deceased baby deserves any rational person’s sympathy, but when the media falls prey to Hamas propaganda that uses the death of an innocent baby to degrade Israel, no one, except for Hamas, wins. Even today, this story continues to be available for a wide audience to read and reference, without any disclaimer that it is based on falsified information. 

Then, amid this summer’s Great March of Return protests, each one a violent attempts to cross into Israel’s borders and kill civilians, the LA Times reported on June 18 that “about 130 protesters have been killed by Israeli troops.” In fact, the group of “protesters” consisted of a significant number of armed and active Hamas combatants. The Times ignored this fact and the intent of this march, as prior to this coverage, a senior Hamas official had admitted that most of the Gazans who died in the protests were Hamas members, terrorist operatives with the intention of killing innocent Israeli men, women and children.

This misinformation matters because media outlets have great power. They shape the way we understand the world and, ultimately, drive our behavior. It is no exaggeration to say that their activity can have life-and-death implications. The pattern in coverage of the New York Times and LA Times is a case study that drives home a critical point for society.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the New York Times, Washington Post and other media outlets neglected their obligation to disseminate truth and remained virtually silent as Nazi Germany carried out the mass murder of Jews in Europe, relegating stories about Jewish genocide to short briefs on their back pages. While Jews starved in ghettos and concentration camps, watched their family members perish and were stripped of their humanity, they wondered where the world was. The press remained largely indifferent and the reluctance of editors of major outlets to report widely and consistently on these horrors contributed to consequences that the world will never forget. Newspapers and radio news broadcasts failed to fulfill their part in educating the American public about the horrific crimes committed by the Germans.

The role of journalists is to shine a light where there is darkness, to tell the stories of the powerless and hold the powerful to account. 

We must hold the media accountable for honest reporting. We must reject and condemn stories that spread inaccurate information and newspapers that fail to broadcast corrections as dramatically as they broadcast untruths. If journalists fail to understand that antisemitism is a deeply embedded bigotry that persistently impacts their understanding of the world – and a hatred that is central to Hamas’ political actions – they cannot accurately report on actions at the Gaza-Israel border. A story pinning the death of an innocent Palestinian baby on Israeli soldiers should raise a red flag. Journalists must present facts and a careful understanding of the nuances that shade coverage of complex situations. A headline taken out of context should not be tolerated.

Media bias and misreporting are more than just a nuisance. They blur our vision for a better world. When we cannot see clearly, we risk our values, our democracy and ultimately, our humanity. 

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Why does the media encourage Hamas violence against Israel?

The Washington Examiner - By Alan Dershowitz – 16-5-2018

For the full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/y8mttfyr

If this were the first time that Hamas deliberately provoked Israel into self-defense actions that resulted in the unintended deaths of Gaza civilians, the media could be excused for playing into the hands of Hamas.

The most recent Hamas provocations — having 40,000 Gazans try to tear down the border fence and enter Israel with Molotov cocktails and other improvised weapons — are part of a repeated Hamas tactic that I have called the “dead baby strategy.” The goal of Hamas is to have Israel kill as many Gazans as possible so that the headlines always begin, and often end, with the body count. Hamas deliberately sends women and children to the front line, while their own fighters hide behind these human shields.

Hamas leaders have long acknowledged this tactic. Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated as far back as 2008, “For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy, ‘We desire death like you desire life.’”

Hamas used this tactic to provoke two wars with Israel in which their fighters fired rockets from civilian areas, including hospitals, schools, and mosques. When Israel responded, it tried its best to avoid civilian casualties, dropping warning leaflets, calling residents of potential targets and dropping nonlethal noise bombs on the roofs of houses that were being used to launch rockets and store explosives. Inevitably, some civilians were killed, and the media blamed Israel for these deaths, despite the precautions it had taken.

The same was true when Hamas built terror tunnels used to kidnap Israeli civilians. The entrances to these tunnels were in civilian areas as well, including mosques and schools. Using their own civilians as human shields, while targeting Israeli civilians, is a double war crime. Yet, the media generally focuses on the reaction of Israel to these war crimes, rather than the war crimes of Hamas.

The cruel reality is that every time Israel accidentally kills a Gaza civilian, Israel loses. And every time Israel kills a Gaza civilian, Hamas wins. Israelis grieve every civilian death its army accidentally causes. Hamas benefits from every death Israel accidentally causes. That is why it encourages its women and children to become martyrs.

Calling this the “dead baby strategy” may seem cruel because it is cruel. But don’t blame the messenger for accurately describing this tactic. Blame those who cynically use it. Blame the media for playing into the hands of those who use it by reporting only the body count and not the deliberate Hamas tactic that leads to one-sided body counts.

It is true that Gaza is in a desperate situation and that it is wounded. But the wound itself is self-inflicted. When Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, removing every single soldier and settler, the territory could have become the Singapore on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a beautiful area with a large seacoast. It received infusions of cash and other help from Europe. Israel left behind agricultural equipment and hot houses.

But instead of using these resources to feed, house, and educate its citizens, Hamas built rockets, terror tunnels, and Molotov cocktails. It threw dissenters off the roof and murdered members of the Palestinian Authority who were willing to recognize Israel and negotiate with it. Hamas rejects the two-state solution or any solution that leaves Israel intact. The only solution for it is violence, and the events at the fence these past days are a manifestation of that violence.

Would any country in the world allow 40,000 people, sworn to its destruction, to knock down a border fence and attack its citizens living peacefully near the border? Of course not. Could Israel have done more to reduce casualties among those trying to breach the border fence? I don’t know, and neither do the legions of armchair generals who are criticizing Israel for the steps it took to prevent a catastrophe among the residents of Kibbutzim and towns that are proximate to the border fence.

One thing is crystal clear: Hamas will continue to use the ”dead baby strategy” as long as the media continues to report the deaths in the manner in which it has reported them in recent weeks. Many in the media are complicit in these deaths because their one-sided reporting encourages Hamas to send innocent women and children to the front line. Perhaps Israel could do a better job of defending its civilians but it is certain that the media can do a better job of accurately reporting the Hamas strategy that results in so many innocent deaths.

There is a marvelous cartoon that illustrates the difference between Hamas and Israel. It shows an Israeli soldier standing in front of a stroller with a baby in it, shielding the baby. Then it shows a Hamas terrorist standing behind a stroller with the baby in it, using the baby to shield him. This cartoon better illustrates the reality that is occurring at the Gaza fence than most of the “objective” reporting by the media.

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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE GAZA DEATHS?

Video Of The Week - USA Embassy Opens in Jerusalem - https://tinyurl.com/ybze7yyf

By Melanie Philips 14-5-2018

For the full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/y866lqze

The toll in today’s Gaza riots (according to the Hamas) currently stands at around 55 Arabs dead (amongst whom, say the Israelis, are at least ten Hamas terrorists); that toll may well rise with further riots threatened tomorrow and the day after.

The people who caused these deaths are the Hamas themselves. But the people at whose door these dead Arabs should also be laid are the BBC and those in the rest of the British and other media who have acted their part in the script the Hamas has written: to cause as many Gazans to lose their lives as possible, the younger the better, so that the western media will portray Israel as wanton and disproportionate killers.

The media has duly obliged by calling what’s been happening at Gaza’s border with Israel, today and previously, “unarmed” demonstrations or “protests against the US embassy move”. It was nothing of the kind. As I wrote here yesterday, by the Hamas’s own lights this is an attempt by tens of thousands of Arabs to storm the border in order to invade and destroy Israel.

If they do break through, no-one can be in the slightest doubt that they will massacre the Israelis. In the words of the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar: “Tear their hearts out”. This is not a metaphor.

Facebook pages affiliated with Hamas are uploading maps that show the proximity of the riots to Israeli communities. “There’s no other way to understand these pictures than as a threat against these communities,” says the IDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis.

That’s why Israel has built extraordinary defences to protect its most vulnerable citizens who live close to the border. And it is a lie to say, as the media continue falsely to report, that this great mob is unarmed. They are using petrol bombs, IEDs, flaming kites.

Their tactics have been described by Israel’s security service, the Shin Bet. Captured Gazans have told them that Hamas has warned its members to stay away from the security fence during the riots lest they get shot, while actively encouraging Palestinian civilians — particularly children and teens — to approach the border. “There is a prohibition for Hamas operatives to approach the border from a fear that they will be killed or captured by IDF troops, unless the security fence falls; and then they must enter, armed, into Israel under the cover of the masses and carry out terror attacks”.

And surprise surprise, Iran (which has been funding and training Hamas for some time) is behind this:

“From the information we have, it appears Hamas is encouraging and sending protesters to the border fence in order to carry out violent acts and damage security infrastructure. In addition, it was found that Iran is providing funding to Hamas in order for it to carry out these violent activities along the Gaza Strip’s border fence,” the Shin Bet said.

For the media to portray this as a protest – moreover an unarmed protest – is to perpetrate a lie that is beyond wicked. Those 55 dead Arabs, and however many more will be sacrificed tomorrow and the next day as cannon fodder on the basis that the western media will report this as “unarmed protest”, are therefore being killed for the BBC and other media who have been dutifully playing their role in this infernal propaganda charade.

The British government is scarcely any better with its morally obtuse behaviour. “We are concerned by the reports of violence and loss of life in Gaza’, said a spokesman. “We urge calm and restraint to avoid actions destructive to peace efforts”.

Oh really. When did the British government voice its concern at the threatened invasion of Israel and slaughter of its citizens? I must have missed it. The British government has a moral duty not only to support Israel against this invasion but also to tell the British people the truth about what is happening and why Israel is being forced to take such action. It has not done so.

Instead, Mrs May’s government continues to help the Arabs weaponise the issue of Jerusalem – and therefore delegitimise Israel’s existence – by refusing to accept today’s game-changing US embassy move to Jerusalem; and furthermore is opposing and undermining the US-led attempt to neutralise the Iranian regime that daily threatens Israel with genocide.

Now also we can see the profound antisemitism of Amnesty International and others. Amnesty tweeted today: “We are witnessing an abhorrent violation of international law and human rights in Gaza… This must end immediately”.

What Amnesty means is that Israel’s self-defence must end immediately. We must therefore conclude that Amnesty would be unmoved by the inevitable consequence: the invasion of Israel and slaughter of Israelis. For Amnesty, it seems, Jewish lives don’t matter.

And that goes for everyone else demanding that Israel now desists from doing what every other country on earth would do if facing a potential mob of 250,000 invaders bent on conquest and mass murder: defending itself as best it can.

Not a word of condemnation of the Hamas for attempting a violent invasion. Instead, Amnesty screams that Israel is breaking international law. Israel is breaking no law by defending itself. It is Hamas which is guilty of multiple war crimes in using unarmed Arab civilians as cannon fodder behind whom it hides its weapons.

An estimated 40,000 Arabs took apart in today’s riots. It’s being claimed that Israel killed a disproportionate number. All deaths are to be regretted, especially of the young who are being so cynically used; but 55 dead out of an attack force of 40,000? That’s a disproportionate number, all right: disproportionately low.

But here’s the really revolting thing about the west’s Israel-bashers. What really gets them is that no Jews have been killed today. They think it’s outrageous that 55 Arabs were killed and not one Israeli. So just how many Jews need to be killed in order to even up this debauched notion of equivalent worth?

Jews have died in their millions over the centuries at the hands of those who simply hate Jews. Hamas are the latest manifestation of this evil. But in Israel, the Jewish people now has the means to defend itself; and it goes to enormous lengths to guard every life because so many have been lost.

Yet these Israel-bashers complain that this is somehow not cricket, that the Jews need to die – because it’s not fair that they are killing their would-be killers instead. So they portray the Jews as the killers and their genocidal Arab attackers as their victims. Just how disgusting is this?

At times like this we can see how these parts of the west are signing their own death warrant. Well guess what – in Israel, the Jewish people said “never again”. This is what that looks like.

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Lock, Stock and Blame Israel

Video of the week -Gaza "Peaceful" Demo 2018- https://tinyurl.com/ya2qj9yw

MiDA, By Daniel Krygier 02/04/2018

For the full article go to – https://tinyurl.com/yctmrn99

The international community that demanded Israel retreat from Gaza, now attacks Israel for defending its border against Hamas, whose assault on Israel they qualify as “freedom of expression.”

International reactions to the recent Hamas-organized Gaza border aggression against Israel follow the predictable script.

The purpose of Hamas’s “March of Return” was to erase the border and to flood Israel with Gaza Arabs. Israel did what it had to do to defend its border and its citizens. The international community though, turns reality upside down, portraying Israel as the “villain” and the Islamist attackers as “victims.”

The attack on Israel’s border also destroyed whatever remained of the cherished leftist fairytale of “extremists on both sides undermining peace”.

The EU especially once again found itself on the wrong side of history. EU’s Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini summarized the endemic international hypocrisy against Israel with the Orwellian words, “Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are fundamental rights that must be respected.”

Threatening Israel’s internationally recognized border and attacking Israeli soldiers with machine guns and Molotov cocktails hardly qualifies as “freedom of expression.” The only “freedom of assembly” that Gaza’s terrorist-regime permits is violent incitement against Israel and Jews. By contrast, the EU and most of the world ignore the Kurdish people’s freedom of expression and national freedom as well as countless other oppressed nations worldwide.

Once again, Mogherini emphasized EU’s long-adopted anti-Israel policy of “do as we say, not as we do”.

“The EU mourns the loss of life. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. The use of live ammunition should, in particular, be part of an independent and transparent investigation. While Israel has the right to protect its borders, the use of force must be proportionate at all times.”

What is the “proportionate” response to Islamist machine guns, Molotov cocktails and rocks according to the EU? In the case of the EU itself, the answer is obvious. Nine terrorists were killed during and after the Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015. France also bombed Islamist targets in Syria.

The same year, Danish police killed an Islamist radical who murdered a Jewish security guard and another civilian in Copenhagen. In July 2016, German police killed a 17-year old Afghan Muslim who attacked train passengers in Würzburg with an axe and a knife. During the London Bridge attack in June 2017, British security forces killed three Islamist terrorists. In March 2018, French police killed an Islamist extremist that attacked a supermarket in the French town Trèbes. The list goes on and so does the hypocrisy.

Neither the UN nor the EU called for an “independent and transparent investigation” in any of these cases. Only Israel is accused of “disproportionate” force, despite facing far more serious and frequent threats than any other Western democracy.

The same international community that demanded that Israel retreat from Gaza, now hypocritically attacks Israel for defending its border with Gaza against Hamas, an Islamist enemy openly seeking Israel’s destruction. Israeli civilian lives in border communities would have been seriously threatened, even if only a small number of armed terrorists would have managed to penetrate Israel’s border with Gaza.

Israel does not only have the right but a duty to defend its citizens like any country in the world.

The Pope joined the international linguistic pogrom against Israel by claiming that “defenseless” Arabs are killed in the Holy Land.

In reality, at least ten of the 17 killed Gazans were armed Islamist terrorists. However, in the international “Blame the Jews” game, there is little demand for verifiable facts.

Hamas systematically and cynically exploits it to the limit. Gaza’s Islamist rulers reportedly sent a 7-year-old Arab girl to the border with the hope that Israeli soldiers would unintentionally kill her and cause international condemnations of Israel. Thankfully, Israeli soldiers discovered the girl in time and took her out of harm’s way.

While extremists exist in all societies, their respective status differs dramatically. In 1994, the Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron. An overwhelming majority of world Jewry condemned this heinous terror attack. On January 29 2017, the Christian white supremacist Alexandre Bissonnette murdered six Muslim worshippers in Quebec. The overwhelming majority in Canada and the free world condemned this heinous terror attack.

While extremists like Goldstein and Bissonnette are despised fringe elements in the Jewish and Christian worlds, extremists are in power in much of the Islamic world and looked upon as role models by millions of Muslims. There are no city squares or streets in Israel named after Baruch Goldstein. By contrast, “moderate” PLO names city squares and streets after terrorists who murder Jews.

Israeli children are taught in a spirit of mutual respect and coexistence. By contrast, Hamas and PLO brainwash their children that Jews are “sons of apes and pigs” and that Israel must be destroyed.

In Israel, children dream about becoming pilots, sport stars or entrepreneurs. In the territories ruled by PLO and Hamas, terrorists who murder Jews are praised as “heroes” and their families receive cash stipends.

It is therefore hardly surprising that many brainwashed Muslim children dream about becoming shahids or “martyrs” who die while murdering Jews.

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Violence At The Security Fence

Video Of The Week - 'Israel is simply defending itself'- https://tinyurl.com/y9uhswwf

The Israeli military on Saturday night identified 10 of the 15 people 

reported killed during violent protests along the Gaza security fence 

as members of Palestinian terrorist groups, and published a list 

of their names and positions in the organizations.

On Friday, some 30,000 Palestinians took part in demonstrations along the Gaza border, during which rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops on the other side of the fence, burned tires and scrap wood, sought to breach and damage the security fence, and in one case opened fire at Israeli soldiers.

The army said that its sharpshooters targeted only those taking explicit violent action against Israeli troops or trying to break through or damage the security fence. Video footage showed that in one case a rioter, whom the army included in its list of Hamas members, appeared to be shot while running away from the border. The army in response accused Hamas of editing and/or fabricating its videos.

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According to the Israel Defense Forces (Arabic link), eight of the men killed were members of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. One served in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and another was affiliated with “global jihad,” it said, apparently referring to one of the Salafist groups in Gaza.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas publicly acknowledged that five members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were among the fatalities.

The army did not provide evidence for its identifications. Most could be independently verified with photographic evidence of the operatives wearing uniforms or receiving a military-style funeral from the terror group in question. Others could not be immediately substantiated. At least one appears to be partially incorrect.

The IDF identified Hamdan Abu Amsha as belonging to Hamas, yet in his funeral he was wrapped in a flag belonging to a different terrorist group, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and a Fatah-affiliated Twitter account claimed him as “our martyr.”

Palestinians carry the body of Hamdan Abu Amsha, said killed a day earlier by Israeli fire during a mass border protest along the security fence, in Beit Hanoun in the northern of Gaza Strip, on March 31, 2018. (AFP/ MAHMUD HAMS)

The army said that at least one of the Hamas members, Sari Abu Odeh, was part of the group’s elite Nukhba force and that another, Muhammad Abu Amro, served in its tunnel operations. (The IDF’s Arabic spokesman provided more details in Arabic via Twitter.)

The IDF identified one of the two Hamas members who shot at Israeli soldiers on Friday evening and attempted to breach the security fence, before they were shot dead, as 23-year-old Mussa’b al-Saloul.

Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers released these images of members of its military wing who it acknowledged were among 15 Gazans it said were killed by Israeli fire during clashes along the security fence on Friday, March 30, 2018.

Palestinian media reported that the bodies of the two gunmen were captured by Israeli soldiers. The IDF would not officially comment on this claim.

The oldest operative identified was Jihad Farina, 35, a company commander in Hamas’s military wing; the youngest was 19-year-old Ahmad Odeh, who served in the terror group’s Shati Battalion, the army said.

Palestinians hurl stones toward Israeli soldiers during a protest near the Gaza Strip border with Israel, in eastern Gaza City, Saturday, March 31, 2018. (AP/ Khalil Hamra)

Hamas claimed those killed were taking part “in popular events side-by-side with their people.”

Thousands attended funerals in Gaza Saturday for 14 of those killed — two were buried on Friday — with mourners holding Palestinian flags and some chanting “revenge” and firing into the air.

“Where are you, Arabs? Where are you, Muslims?” mourners chanted at one funeral, calling on the Arab and Muslim world to intervene. A general strike was held in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said on Saturday that all those killed were engaged in violence, adding that Gaza health officials exaggerated the number of those wounded and that several dozen at most were injured by live fire while the rest were merely shaken up by tear gas and other riot dispersal means.

Manelis said on Friday evening that the army had faced “a violent, terrorist demonstration at six points” along the fence. He said the IDF used “pinpoint fire” wherever there were attempts to breach or damage the security fence. “All the fatalities were aged 18-30, several of the fatalities were known to us, and at least two of them were members of Hamas commando forces,” he said.

The Palestinians’ march to Gaza’s border with Israel on Friday was the largest such demonstration in recent memory, calling for Palestinians to be allowed to return to land that their ancestors fled from in the 1948 War of Independence. It was dubbed the “March of Return.”

A picture taken on March 30, 2018 shows Palestinians taking part in a demonstration commemorating Land Day near the border with Israel east of Gaza City. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)

The death toll from Friday’s protest was provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which also added that some 1,400 Palestinians were injured during the protests, over half by live rounds. Israeli authorities have no way to independently confirm the casualty reports.

Manelis warned Saturday that if violence drags on along the Gaza border, Israel will expand its reaction to strike the terrorists behind it. The military has thus far restricted its response to those trying to breach its border, but if attacks continue it will go after terrorists “in other places, too,” he said.

Manelis reiterated that Israel “will not allow a massive breach of the fence into Israeli territory.”

He said that Hamas and other Gaza terror groups were using protests as a cover for staging attacks. If violence continues, “we will not be able to continue limiting our activity to the fence area and will act against these terror organizations in other places too,” he said.

Hamas is an Islamist terror group that seeks to destroy Israel. It seized control of Gaza from Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in a violent coup in 2007.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (C) shouts slogans and flashes the victory gesture as he takes part in a tent city protest near the Gaza border on March 30, 2018 to commemorate Land Day. (AFP PHOTO / Mohammed ABED)

The army has remained on high alert even as the violence appeared to abate Friday evening, amid fears of persisting attacks, including infiltration attempts and rocket fire.

Protest organizers have said mass marches would continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. Palestinians mark that date as their “nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands left or were forced to leave during the 1948 War of Independence. The vast majority of Gaza’s two million people are their descendants.

At previous peace talks, the Palestinians have always demanded, along with sovereignty in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Old City, a “right of return” to Israel for Palestinian refugees who left or were forced out of Israel when it was established. The Palestinians demand this right not only for those of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are still alive — a figure estimated in the low tens of thousands — but also for their descendants, who number in the millions.

No Israeli government would ever be likely to accept this demand, since it would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Israel’s position is that Palestinian refugees and their descendants would become citizens of a Palestinian state at the culmination of the peace process, just as Jews who fled or were forced out of Middle Eastern countries by hostile governments became citizens of Israel.

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Gaza’s Latest Lesson in Self-Inflicted Misery

Video of the week:  Kuwaiti Arab says Israel is Legitimate:  https://tinyurl.com/yd7h9uo3

From the Commentary, by Evelyn Gordon - https://tinyurl.com/yb5p5dsg

Observing developments since Hamas and Fatah signed their latest reconciliation deal in October is an object lesson in just how much of the Palestinians’ misery is self-inflicted–or to be more precise, inflicted by their two rival governments.

The first thing that happened after implementation of the deal in early November was that prices of merchandise imported to Gaza plummeted by up to 25 percent. Having your money go 25 percent further is an obvious boon to anyone, but especially for impoverished Gazans. Prices fell because, for the first time in a decade, Gazans weren’t paying taxes to two different governments–the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza–but only to one. As part of the reconciliation deal, Hamas handed control of Gaza’s borders to the PA and dismantled the tax collection checkpoints it had set up at the border crossings.

This long-overdue relief didn’t last long. Earlier this month, I pointed out that, since Hamas would remain the dominant military power in Gaza even after the deal was implemented, it wasn’t clear how anyone could stop it from extorting taxes again once it had gotten what it wanted from the deal. I overestimated Hamas’s patience. Though the PA has yet to fulfill most of its promises to Hamas, the latter has already resumed collecting taxes.

True, the checkpoints are gone, but Hamas found another method to seek the rents on which it survives. It simply summoned several hundred businessmen to appear in its offices and demanded payment of tax on everything they have imported to Gaza since the reconciliation was signed. After all, Hamas needs that money; it has rockets and tunnels to build. So who cares that Gazans will once again be paying inflated prices they can ill afford?

The reconciliation was also supposed to bring another benefit: the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which has been closed almost continuously for the last four years. Since Israel allows only limited traffic from Gaza through its territory, Rafah’s closure has meant that leaving Gaza is virtually impossible for most Palestinians.

Israel and Egypt have restricted traffic from Gaza for the same reason: Hamas’s incessant efforts to undermine both countries’ security. In Egypt’s case, Hamas has cooperated enthusiastically with Islamic State’s affiliate in Sinai, providing money, weapons, training, medical care and refuge in Gaza for terrorists fleeing Egyptian security forces. An open border would simply have made it easier for Hamas to supply all these services, as Israel can attest. Israel allows thousands of Palestinians to enter its territory from Gaza every month for business, medical care or transit to another country, and Hamas has exploited that traffic to smuggle everything from cash to explosives.

Once Hamas handed control of Rafah over to the PA in early November, as mandated by the reconciliation deal, Rafah was supposed to reopen. And in fact, it did open for three days two weeks ago, and was supposed to open for another three days this past weekend. But after Islamic State’s horrific attack on a Sinai mosque last Friday, Egypt abruptly announced that Rafah would once again be shut for “security reasons.” As the daily Israel Hayom explained, citing a senior PA official, “Egypt’s security forces suspect that some of the terrorists involved in the attack, as well as other wanted individuals, fled Sinai and entered Gaza via underground smuggling tunnels belonging to Hamas, with the knowledge of senior Hamas officials.” Given Hamas’s track record, that would hardly be surprising.

Incidentally, this track record conclusively disproves the widespread fallacy that Hamas is primarily concerned with the Palestinian cause rather than the cause of global jihad. An organization concerned with Palestinian well-being would strive to preserve good relations with Egypt in order to ensure that Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world remained open. Only an organization that prioritized global jihad way above Palestinian wellbeing would offer extensive aid to Islamic State, even at the price of having Rafah almost permanently closed.

Finally, there’s the minor detail of Gaza’s electricity crisis–a topic I’ve covered extensively in the past. Gaza has been down to four to six hours of power per day for months now, ever since the PA stopped paying for Gaza’s electricity last spring on the not unreasonable grounds that since Hamas was ruling the territory de facto, it should also cover the territory’s expenses. The reconciliation deal requires the PA to resume paying for Gaza’s power. But the PA and Hamas are embroiled in a dispute over which of two steps called for by the deal comes first: the PA’s resumption of the payments, or Hamas’s handover of control of civilian affairs in Gaza. Meanwhile, Gaza remains without power.

Granted, one benefit of the reconciliation does seem to have survived the first month: Gazans with permits to enter Israel are thrilled that, since Hamas dismantled its checkpoint at the border, they’re no longer subjected to lengthy Hamas interrogations every time they leave and every time they return. But we’ll see how long that lasts. After all, Hamas knows who the permit holders are, so there’s nothing to stop it from simply summoning them to its offices for interrogation, just as it summoned the businessmen to pay taxes.

Meanwhile, much of the world will doubtless continue to blame Israel for Gaza’s woes. That will make many self-described humanitarians feel good about themselves, but it will do absolutely nothing to ease Gaza’s misery.

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