TERROR TUNNELS: THE CASE FOR ISRAEL'S JUST WAR AGAINST HAMAS

by Alan M. Dershowitz

September 12, 2014

Hamas quickly produces photographs of dead babies to be shown around the world, while at the same time preventing the media from showing its rocket launchers in densely populated areas.

Unless Hamas's "dead baby strategy" is denounced and stopped -- by the international community, the media, the academy and all good people -- it will be coming soon "to a theater near you".

If Hamas's dead baby strategy works, why not repeat it every few years? And why shouldn't other terrorist groups, like ISIS and Boko Haram, adapt this strategy to their nefarious goals as Hezbollah has already done?

On June 13, 2014, the commander of the Gaza Division of the Israel Defense Forces took me into a Hamas tunnel that had recently been discovered by a Bedouin tracker who serves in the IDF. The tunnel was a concrete bunker that extended several miles from its entrance in the Gaza Strip to its exit near an Israeli kibbutz kindergarten.

The tunnel had one purpose: to allow Hamas death squads to kill and kidnap Israelis.

 The commander told me that Israeli intelligence had identified more than two dozen additional tunnel entrances in the Gaza Strip. They had been identified by the large amounts of earth being removed to dig them. Although Israeli intelligence knew where these entrances were, they could not order an attack from the air, because they were built into civilian structures such as mosques, schools, hospitals, and private homes. Nor could Israel identify their underground routes from Gaza into Israel, or their intended exit points in Israel. Israeli scientists and military experts had spent millions of dollars in an effort to develop technologies that could find the underground routes and intended exits for tunnels that were as deep as a hundred feet beneath the earth, but they had not succeeded in finding a complete solution to this problem. The planned exits from these tunnels in Israel were also a Hamas secret, hidden deep in the ground and incapable of being discovered by Israel until the Hamas fighters emerged. At that point it would be too late to prevent the death squads from doing their damage.

I was taken into the tunnel and saw the technological innovations: tracks on which small trains could transport kidnapped Israelis back to Gaza; telephone and electrical lines; crevices beneath schools and other civilian targets that could hold explosives; and smaller offshoot tunnels leading from the main tube to numerous exit points from which fighters could simultaneously emerge from different places.

My goal is to show that Israel's military actions in defense of its citizens have been just, and that they have been conducted in a just manner. They are no less just than the military actions being conducted by the United States and its allies against ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. And they have been carried out at least as justly, with a lower percentage of civilian-to-combatant casualties.

Yet Israel has been unjustly condemned from too many corners, thus encouraging Hamas to continue its despicable and unlawful dead baby strategy. For the sake of justice and peace, the world must stop applying a double standard to the nation-state of the Jewish people.

[1] Different acronyms have been used to refer to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] and simply the Islamic State [IS].

For the full article see the link below:

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4695/hamas-terror-tunnels

JOURNALISTS THREATENED BY HAMAS FOR REPORTING USE OF HUMAN SHIELDS

By LaHaV HARKOV  07/31/2014  Jerusalem Post

http://tinyurl.com/po3ou4s

Foreign correspondents asked to leave enclave for social media posts on Hamas' utilization of civilian sites to attack Israel.

The international press in Gaza has hardly reported on how Hamas has operated in this round of fighting, and photos or video of Hamas fighters from recent weeks are rare.

The reason became apparent this week as several journalists reported being threatened and even expelled from Gaza for highlighting that the terrorist organization used civilian sites to attack Israel.

Reporters from Italy and the US corroborated the IDF’s explanation for explosions near the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and by a playground in the nearby Shati refugee camp on Tuesday – that it was the result of misfired rockets by Gazan terrorists.

One altered his report, however and another waited to leave Gaza, because he feared retribution from Hamas. Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati tweeted a photo on Tuesday as he went through the Erez crossing into Israel.

Barbati then tweeted the following in Italian and English: “Out of Gaza far from Hamas retaliation: Misfired rocket killed children [yesterday] in Shati.

Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.”

He followed that tweet with another: “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not Israel behind it.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Middle East correspondent based in Egypt, Tamer El-Ghobashy, tweeted a photo of rubble with the explanation: “An outside wall on the campus of Gaza’s main hospital was hit by a strike. Low level damage suggest Hamas misfire.”

Soon after, El-Ghobashy deleted the tweet, similar to his Wall Street Journal colleague Nick Casey, who tweeted a photo of a Hamas official using Shifa Hospital for media appearances last week and then deleted it.

El-Ghobashy then replaced the tweet with the same photo and the text: “The outer wall of Gaza City’s main hospital was struck. Unclear what the origin of the projectile is.”

He wrote that he deleted the first tweet because it was speculative. However, he presumed that the IDF struck a UN school in Beit Hanun a week earlier, which the IDF Spokesman’s Office denied – and did not delete that tweet.

The French newspaper Liberation published an article last week which detailed how Hamas interrogated French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abu Dagga and threatened to throw him out of Gaza – all at Shifa. The article was later removed at Abu Dagga’s request.

They interrogated Abu Dagga and insisted that he worked for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, even though he said he worked for French media and an Algerian radio station. He was instructed to immediately leave Gaza without his papers.

Pro-Palestinian activists and journalists, including Fadi Arouri from Al-Ayyam, reported on Wednesday that RT (formerly Russia Today) correspondent Harry Fear was told to leave Gaza after he tweeted that Hamas fired rockets into Israel from near his hotel.

In another tweet from last week, Fear called Al-Wafa Hospital “the hospital with human shields.”

These expulsions only work when Hamas allows journalists to leave Gaza. Last week, Huffington Post Middle East correspondent Sophia Jones tweeted: “The Israeli side of the border with Gaza was briefly open today, but Hamas did not let journalists leave Gaza.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson said the Israeli government is aware of the phenomenon but does not know how widespread it is.

He said that, while he does not expect reporters to put themselves directly in the line of fire, danger “comes with the turf” for conflict reporters, and “it is inconceivable that there is zero visual footage of Hamas, as if they don’t exist.”

On the Israeli side, Hirschson said: “The Foreign Ministry in particular, but the IDF Spokesman as well, have been very open and loud in our insistence that foreign media should be let into Gaza.

Years ago the army wouldn’t let them in because it’s dangerous, but now we say ‘they’re adults, they know it’s dangerous and this is their job.’

HAMAS’S ATTACK TUNNELS: ANALYSIS AND INITIAL IMPLICATIONS ’

s Attack Tunnels: Analysis and Initial Implications

Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi; 22 Jul 2014

http://jcpa.org/hamas-attack-tunnels/

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, delivered a revealing speech on March 23, 2014, in which he stressed the strategic importance of the Hamas attack tunnels, which, he argued, have changed the balance of power with Israel, when taken together with his organization’s military build-up. In the meantime, the IDF’s war against the tunnels continues. On Monday IDF forces thwarted another terror attack after two groups of Hamas operatives (numbering about ten) infiltrated from Gaza to Israel through a tunnel, apparently on their way to carry out a mass casualty attack at Kibbutz Erez and/or Kibbutz Nir Am.

Since Operation Protective Edge began, IDF forces have foiled several other attempted attacks by Hamas near Kibbutz Sufa and Kibbutz Nirim that also made use of attack tunnels, while uncovering and blowing up dozens of tunnels in Gaza along its border with Israel. These tunnels penetrate deep into Israeli territory, sometimes reaching a length of 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles).

Hamas has accumulated a great deal of experience in using the tunnels for operational purposes. Since 2000, hundreds of tunnels have been dug along Gaza’s border with Egypt, providing a lifeline for Hamas’s military buildup. The tunnels have been a main conduit for Palestinian imports from Egypt on a scale of millions of dollars annually, and for smuggling military supplies (from ammunition to missiles) and the construction materials needed to build the network of attack tunnels in Gaza.

Importation through the tunnels (it was in Egypt’s political interest that this be referred to as “smuggling”) was fully controlled by the Hamas government, which levied a tax on the items and used its huge profits to accelerate its military buildup and preparation for hostilities with Israel.

During the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, Hamas made use of attack tunnels that were dug opposite IDF positions along the Philadelphi Route. These tunnels enabled Hamas to lay powerful explosive charges beside the IDF positions in an effort to destroy them. On June 25, 2006, a joint Hamas/Jaish al-Islam (an al-Qaeda affiliate) unit infiltrated from Gaza to Israel through a tunnel whose opening was about a hundred meters from the border in Israeli territory, near the Kerem Shalom crossing. In that attack, an officer and a soldier were killed and the soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted.

Hamas built tunnels to smuggle weapons under the Philadelphi Route from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. In recent years it has also dug attack tunnels from Gaza into Israel.

Hamas, Hizbullah and even North Korean Tunnels

Based on Hizbullah’s experience in the Second Lebanon War, and with the assistance and guidance of Iran, Hamas has also made use of the tunnels to build an underground network of missile launchers. During the Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah greatly expanded its underground fortifications in Southern Lebanon with the aid of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and even North Korean engineers, who also provided guidance in how to incorporate the tunnels into Hizbullah’s military doctrine.¹

Tunnel warfare provided armies facing a technologically superior adversary with an effective means for countering its air superiority. For example, a tunnel is opened only briefly to launch rockets and then immediately closed to prevent detection of the launchers’ location by the IDF. The concealment of these launchers in tunnels, in the heart of the civilian population, makes it very difficult to detect them in real time and attack them.

The rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during 2012-2013 was a golden age for Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood.  During the tenure of President Mohamed Morsi and his foreign policy adviser Khaled al-Kazaz (a resident of Canada), missiles and a great deal of ammunition moved through the tunnels to Gaza, along with the materials needed to construct plants and manufacture missiles.

In addition to receiving close to half the budget of the Palestinian Authority, the economic aid the Hamas government received from international actors, including European countries, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, has helped it channel significant resources to its military buildup and the construction of the attack tunnels.

Also of help to Hamas were Israeli and international human rights organizations, which constantly pressured Israel to allow the entry of cement and iron into Gaza for purposes of civilian construction. In reality, these materials mainly went into building the attack-tunnel network, instead of houses for the Palestinians.

The attack tunnels create a new equation in the power balance between Israel and Hamas. They give Hamas an ability to infiltrate Israel and carry out strategic attacks involving mass killing, along with an ability to launch missiles from locations concealed within civilian population centers that serve, in effect, as human shields. Should Hamas retain in the future 20 tunnels, and dispatch 50 operatives in each, they could deploy 1,000 men behind Israeli lines. The tunnels would allow Hamas to wreak havoc if they are left in place.

Hizbullah’s tactics, learned from Iran, have been replicated in Gaza, particularly the use of the tunnels to provide “breathing space” in waging the military campaign. The Hamas-Hizbullah-Iranian aim is to cause as much harm as possible to the civilian population and weaken Israel by damaging its economy. Like Hizbullah, Hamas in the current round has tried to strike strategic targets in Israel and inflict mass casualties, including

the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the chemical plants in Haifa, and Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Despite the reconciliation agreement with Fatah and the establishment of the unity government, one of Hamas’s objectives in the war is to ignite another intifada on the West Bank aimed ultimately at the toppling of Palestinian Authority rule and instituting a Hamas takeover of the Palestinian national movement. This current round of fighting highlights the importance of continued Israeli security control of key areas of the West Bank to prevent a Hamas takeover of the Palestinian Authority, and the maintenance of minimal defensible borders should a Palestinian state be established.

- See more at: http://jcpa.org/hamas-attack-tunnels/#sthash.LIRwAKep.dpuf

Defaming the IDF on Remembrance Day

Michael Dickson, May 4^th 2014

http://tinyurl.com/pmvz5aj

The air hangs heavy in Israel on Yom HaZikaron.

Poignantly, Israel commemorates the re-establishment of the State with the pain of memorializing thousands of fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. The sirens wail and the nation comes to a halt. It’s a collective tribute to those heroes who have fallen so that we Israelis may live in freedom. And thus, Yom HaZikaron flows into our Independence Day celebrations.

This year, as Israelis pay tribute to their servicemen and women, a very different event will be taking place on Independence Day in London. Yachad – the British version of lobby group J-Street – together with the New Israel Fund, will be hosting “Breaking the Silence”, a notorious anti-IDF group. No one serious would suggest that Israel is beyond criticism but this is strange yet deliberate timing. Should we surmise that if Israel-bashing is a year-round sport, why should this night be different from any other?

Israeli soldiers stand still as a siren sounds nationwide during a ceremony marking Memorial Day at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. Photo by REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

If past experience is anything to go by, the audience will be treated to a flurry of half-truths and accusations aimed solely at blackening the name of Israeli soldiers. Indeed, “Breaking the Silence” has made its name by promoting a distorted and unfair portrayal of the IDF via its website and tours.

Breaking the Silence is hypocritical about its aims and even its name. If it wanted to present a true picture of the IDF, it would not blatantly omit the context of terrorism, the goals of Israel’s enemies, the deadly rockets fired from Gaza. It would not omit how the enemy hides behind Palestinian civilians and attacks Israeli civilians. It would raise awareness about the moral dilemmas the IDF faces. But instead, it omits this vital context in its reports, which often consist of anonymous, unverified testimony. Instead, their representatives embark on worldwide campus tours, meet with political leaders and speak at the UN in order to lobby and punish Israel.

There isn’t even any “silence” to “break.” Israel is an open and democratic society that regularly criticizes its own actions, and anyone is free to present complaints and findings to government officials and the courts.

Funders of Breaking the Silence include Christian Aid and OXFAM, who have both launched vitriolic anti-Israel campaigns, as well as the European Union, which has funded them for years to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to “contribute to an atmosphere of human rights respect and values” and “to promote prospects for peace talks and initiatives.”

The EU is deceiving taxpayers if it is telling them that the funds used to support this organization help promote peace. (It’s worth reading Jake Wallis Simon’s Daily Telegraph expose of what he calls “a radical group”.)

Indeed, as Haaretz writer Amos Harel has written:

  “Breaking the Silence…has a clear political agenda, and can no longer be classed as a ‘human rights organization.’ Any organization whose website includes the claim by members to expose the ‘corruption which permeates the military system’ is not a neutral observer. The organization has a clear agenda: to expose the consequences of IDF troops serving in the West Bank and Gaza. This seems more of interest to its members than seeking justice for specific injustices.”

The truth is, as the hosts of the London event should know, no army faces the same kind of complex regional strategic threats as Israel’s Defense Forces. Few armed forces inculcate the need for the highest of humanitarian values and compassion for those in the conflict zone in their soldiers training (“in Hebrew: tohar haneshek”). And this, when facing off against the asymmetric warfare perpetrated by some of the worst terrorist groups like Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad who fight out of uniform and embed themselves deliberately among civilians.

Let’s say an event similar to the Yachad-New Israel Fund evening was held in London on Remembrance Sunday weekend, when British fallen soldiers are remembered. What would we say about an event aimed at smearing the actions of the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan? We would likely say that it was ill-timed at best, and seditious at worst. The Breaking the Silence event should summon up a comparable response.

And let’s lay to rest the accusation that sometimes comes as a defense of these type of events: criticism of Israel is fine. No-one is stifling debate. (To the contrary: does anyone really claim that there is notenough criticism of Israel?). Israel is a robust enough democracy to take on the debate.

But here’s a question for supporters of Yachad and the New Israel Fund: Is it too much to ask you, on Independence Day, to celebrate Israel? Yachad’s motto mimics J-Street’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace” slogan. But doesn’t being pro-Israel mean celebrating as well as criticizing, at the very least at this time of year?

After all, these organizations profess to love Israel but don’t you sometimes – just sometimes – have to show that love rather than relentlessly bash Israel? One look at the events, the statements, the social media posts of these Jewish organizations who are ultra-critical of Israel, yet claim to care about Israel, gives a different impression than one of love. If anything, it’s like the love of a wife-beater: “I love you”, he says as he hits his wife; “I love you” he says as he pushes her down the stairs. A relationship built on criticism alone, surely, is not a healthy one.

And yet, it is this kind of a relationship that certain groups are espousing to young people on university campuses, to high-school students, to the Jewish community and to the wider public. Conditional love of Israel based on their arrogant view that only they know what is best for Israel’s future. It is a worrying position that aims to link the next generation’s relationship to Israel to positions which may be very wrong and over which Israel, in any case, only has partial control.

As we approach Israel’s Independence Day, there is much to celebrate. The thriving, modern and diverse democracy, 3,000 years old and 66 years young, that we see today did not just happen. It came about because of the actions of determined individuals, the Zionist pioneers and those who supported them. It came about through immense personal sacrifice in the face of incredible odds and opposition. And it came about due to the bravery and sacrifice of our soldiers who consistently put themselves in harms way so that my family and countless others in Israel can live freely.

We owe it to them to celebrate their service with gratitude, especially at this time of year.

Not a Matter of Religion

Published on: June 20, 2013

Brothers Milad and Muhammad Atrash, Arab Muslims from the Galilee, volunteered to defend their country by enlisting in the IDF

http://www.idfblog.com/2013/06/20/not-a-matter-of-religion/

Over the next few minutes, the Golani Brigade’s soldiers who drafted in March of this year will swear allegiance to the State of Israel and commit to do all they can to protect it. Muhammad, an Arab Muslim resident of the Galilee village of Dabburiya, is one of them. Like his friends, he’s excited for the ceremony to begin.

The ceremony begins. As the brigade commander finishes his speech, the soldiers quickly run to their commanders, their families and their friends who have come to show their support and encouragement.

When Pvt. Muhammad Atrash's turn comes, he doesn’t look for anyone in the audience. “My parents wanted to come, but I convinced them not to,” he explains. “Jerusalem is very far from our home, we don’t have a car and it’s an hour-long drive.”

The commander tells Muhammad to stand in front of him. Instead of the Hebrew Bible, the young soldier picks up a Quran, decorated with Gold ornaments. He swears his allegiance to the State of Israel, holding the book tightly and smiling.

“I’m mostly trying to feel the experience, because It’s my first time ever in Jerusalem,” he says.

In his brother’s footsteps

For Muhammad, 18, this is an important step in his unique relationship with the Israel Defense Forces – which began a year and a half ago, when his older brother, Milad, 19, chose to enlist.

“While still in high school I asked my family, ‘Why don’t we, the Muslims, enlist?’” Milad recalls. “‘Why do the Jews, the Druze and the Bedouins enlist, while we don’t?’ They explained to me that Jews serve because it’s their country, that the Druze [community] had signed agreements with the IDF and that we have a lot of Islamic movements that oppose military service in the IDF.”

Milad’s response? “I told them I don’t care about that. I want to join the army to protect my village, my country,” he says.

Seeing another side of Israel

Five months later, Milad started his military service and arrived at basic training. “Because I didn't knew anything about the army, I packed a bag for 4 months!” he says with a smile. “After four days my commander told me I was going back home for the weekend.”

For Milad, enlisting in the IDF meant spending time in parts of Israel with which he was unfamiliar. “I didn’t know how to get home,” he says of that first weekend. “I left the base at 8 a.m. and only got home at 10 p.m. I had never been so far from my village.”

Later, Milad became the soldier assigned to the integration of minorities in the local northern recruitment center, a position that allowed him to provide assistance to soldiers facing the same challenges as he had. In two weeks, he will start his officers’ training course.

It seems that Milad passed his sense of commitment to Israel’s defense on to his younger brother. When Muhammad graduated high school, he considered immediately pursuing his academic studies – until his older brother convinced him that the army was the best solution for him.

“After a few conversations with Milad, I understood that this was what I wanted: to enlist, to contribute to my country,” he explains.

Muhammad faced some particular challenges at the beginning of his service, in part because he did not speak much Hebrew. “In the first two weeks, I didn’t understand the commands at all [or] what the rest of soldiers were speaking about,” he recalls. “I had already learned some writing in Hebrew, so I would write to my army friends whatever I wanted to say. At first, it was very hard, but slowly I learned it all.”

Courage under peer pressure

Muhammad says that during his service he has never had to face any case of racism, nor has his older brother. However, the brothers say that their military service was not always well received back home in their home village.

“People in the village talk behind our backs,” explains Milad. “And when our mother washes our uniforms we make sure she does it inside the house so that our uniform won’t be stolen.”

“Despite it all, I go back to the village with my uniform on,” says Muhammad without hesitation. “So far, I haven’t gotten any comments, and even if people stare I don’t notice. I’m fine with it.”

Some of the Atrash brothers’ friends also objected to their military service. “I no longer have friends from my village,” Milad says. “All of my friends decided to end our friendship, but that’s all right. I’m making some new friends here, in the army. They also stayed away from Muhammad because he’s in the army.” Muhammad agrees.

“At first my mom was afraid of [my] enlisting in the IDF,” Milad continues, “but she saw it makes me happy, so she is happy, too. Now she tells my brothers to enlist. I’m trying to convince my cousins to enlist,” he smiles.

Muhammad makes it clear that he would encourage others from his background to serve in the IDF. “It doesn’t matter where they serve – contribution is the most important thing. For me, for example, it doesn’t matter if I serve in Judea and Samaria or on the Gaza border and will have to confront Muslims from the other side of the fence. We are guarding our country, we have to protect it and it doesn’t matter who’s the other side is – Arabs or not, Muslims or not. In the end, everyone protects his or her family.”

What I Saw During Operation Pillar of Defense

By Nira Lee

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/what_i_saw_during_operation_pillar_of_defense.html

Four years ago, watching the coverage of Operation Cast Lead from the comfort of my dorm, I was a conflicted college student. As supportive as I was of Israel, I still found it painful any time I heard about civilian casualties in Gaza. What I saw portrayed in the media didn't add up: on the one hand I knew that the IDF was engaged in careful efforts to prevent civilian casualties, despite Hamas's strategy of fighting from amongst its own civilian population. Yet the media made it seem like the IDF was actively targeting civilians.

Back then, I understood Israel's efforts at protecting civilians as a something akin to a talking point -- I had no personal involvement in the conflict. Yet I had no idea how true it is until I myself participated in last week's Operation "Pillar of Defense" as an officer in the IDF.

When I moved to Israel and enlisted, I joined a unit called the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is devoted to civilian and humanitarian issues.

As an International Liaison Officer in the Gaza office, my job primarily entails coordinating transfers of goods, aid, and delegations into Gaza. I work closely with representatives of the international community, and although our perspectives may differ, we maintain relationships of mutual respect born of a common goal; I am here to help them succeed in their work improving the quality of life in Gaza.

While the day-to-day work is challenging in Gaza, I learned over the past ten days that the true test comes with crisis. At exactly the point where most militaries would use the heat of war to throw out the rulebook, we worked harder than ever to provide assistance wherever and whenever possible.

The eight days of Operation "Pillar of Defense" have been some of the hardest I have ever known physically and emotionally. The college student from Arizona would never have thought it possible to work 20 hours a day, fueled only by adrenaline and longing for just an hour of sleep on a shelter floor -- wearing the same filthy uniform because changing, much less showering, wouldn't allow me to get to a shelter in time when the next rocket barrage hit. And no, wearing the green uniform does not mean that you aren't afraid when the sirens sound.

Had you told me four years ago that there were IDF officers who stayed up all night under a hail of rockets, brainstorming ways to import medical supplies and food to the people of Gaza, I am not sure I would have believed you. But I can tell you it is true because I did it every night.

What amazed me the most was the singular sense of purpose that drove everyone from the base commander to the lowest ranking soldier. We were all focused completely on our mission: to help our forces accomplish their goals without causing unnecessary harm to civilian lives or infrastructure.

It is harder to explain the emotional roller-coaster -- how proud and relieved I felt every time a truck I coordinated entered Gaza, and how enraging it was when we had to shut down the crossing into Gaza after Hamas repeatedly targeted it. Or how invigorating it was help evacuate two injured Palestinians from the border area, only to be informed minutes later that a terrorist had detonated a bomb on a bus near my apartment in Tel Aviv.

So after all that I see and do, nothing frustrates me more than the numbers game that is played in the media. The world talks about "disproportionate" numbers of casualties as the measure of what is right and wrong -- as if not enough Israelis were killed by Hamas for the IDF to have the right to protect its own civilians from endless rocket attacks.

In my position, I see the surgical airstrikes, and spend many hours with the UN, ICRC, and NGO officers reviewing maps to help identify, and avoid, striking civilian sites. One of our pilots who saw a rocket aimed at Israel aborted his mission when he saw children nearby -- putting his own civilians at risk to save Gazans.

At the end of the day, what these "disproportionate numbers" show is how we in Israel protect our children with elaborate shelters and missile defense systems, whereas the terror groups in Gaza hide behind theirs, using them as human shields in order to win a cynical media war.

What's really behind the headlines and that picture on the front page? Every day, I coordinate goods with a young Gazan woman who works for an international aid organization. Last month we forged a bond when we had to run for cover together when Hamas targeted Kerem Shalom Crossing -- attacking the very aid provided to its own people.

During the eight days of Operation "Pillar of Defense", not one passed without a phone call, just to check in. "Are youok?" I would ask. "I heard they fired at your base. Please stay safe", she would reply. And every night I made her promise to call me if she needed anything. These are the things that the media fails to show the world, just as they underplay how Hamas deliberately endangers civilians on both sides of the border -- by firing indiscriminately at Israel from Gaza neighborhoods.

Maybe stories such as these make for less exciting headlines, but if they received more attention there would perhaps be more moral clarity, and thus more peace in the Middle East.

ISM Exposed: How the ISM Sucker-Punched the IDF Again

By: Lee Kaplan
Published: April 18th, 2012
I’ve spent the last eight years of my life as a journalist under cover and reporting on the inner workings of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), in the United States and abroad. I’ve been through their training orientations and I have their training manuals. I operate a website where it lists the history, tactics, and media manipulations of the ISM and their leadership. I’ve also been responsible for the deportation of over 200 ISM activists from Israel, including some of their North American leadership.

At their orientation sessions in the US and UK in which I posed as an ISM volunteer, we were instructed that our purpose was to harass the IDF in any way possible in order to frustrate their anti-terror operations. We were informed that the ISM coordinates with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, which were constantly apprised of our locations in the villages. If we encountered armed terrorists while in the West Bank or Gaza, we were told, simply say hello to them and move on, as they were keenly aware that we were there to assist them.

In a recorded interview at the Ohio State national conference, Adam Shapiro, a co-founder of the ISM, personally told me there are plain-clothed Palestinian handlers at every ISM demonstration that direct the activities. I was also told about how ISM activists serve to draw sniper fire down on IDF soldiers when desired. Lisa Nessan, one of those ISM trainers, told me at an ISM Georgetown conference that standing as a human shield in front of an armed terrorist as he threw rocks or shot at an Israeli soldier was indeed considered “nonviolent.” Joseph Carr, a.k.a. Joseph Smith, another ISM trainer, told me in a recorded phone interview how he and Rachel Corrie retrieved the dead body of a Hamas terrorist in Gaza from a combat zone only weeks before she was killed by an IDF bulldozer.

When asked whether he feared arrest by the IDF back then he blithely replied ‘no’ because he knew that Arab snipers would be there to fire at them. Rachel Corrie, who was trained by the ISM and had read their manual, also knew that Arab snipers would shoot at the IDF soldiers driving that bulldozer had they exited it to remove her.

The ISM uses a motto coined by the late Malcolm X – “By any means necessary” – in implementing what they consider to be revolutionary tactics in bringing down the Jewish state, which they see as a first step in bringing down Western democracy. Lying and media manipulation are encouraged and elevated to an art form. Talk of ‘nonviolent resistance’ is solely for media consumption, since the ISM promotes armed revolutionary ‘resistance’ against Israel by serving as human shields for terrorists.

And so, it is in this context that for two hours leading up to the two minute video of Colonel Shalom Eisner striking Danish ISM activist Andreas Ayas, the ISM used their bicycles, bodies, and even physical assaults to obstruct the IDF in a closed military zone and prevent anti-terror operations. Earlier in the day, Colonel Eisner was struck by a stick-wielding ISM activist, leaving him with a couple of broken fingers.

11 seconds into the video Colonel Eisner can be seen ordering the ISMers to disperse, one of them to his right with a baseball cap. The Colonel is holding his weapon like a stick to create a line that should not be crossed. He holds the weapon in a way that suggests his hand is injured. Ayas has his back to the camera, and is facing the Colonel in the foreground.

The film is then manipulated by editing. The ISMer with the baseball cap walks behind Colonel Eisner to break up the dispersal line the Colonel set up with his weapon. ISM activists routinely mingle among the soldiers and police in attempts to separate and free their comrades that have been arrested, as this video in Hebron shows. The ISM activists are trained to scream bloody murder, tug on the soldiers, and create mayhem before the cameras. Most of all, they do not allow the police or soldiers to create a line. They faithfully followed the script in this episode.

At 13 seconds, the film has been edited to show Ayas defiantly facing down the Colonel instead of dispersing as the other ISMers are seen doing. A casual viewer might think Ayas was just standing there. The Colonel’s eyes widen as Ayas challenges him verbally and refuses to move. This fits the ISM playbook, as the activists are told the soldiers cannot and will not hurt them for fear of punishment; and in the unlikely event that they do, cameras will be there to grab an edited Kodak moment for their weekly propaganda videos on YouTube. The Colonel, faced with an unrelenting and unmoved agitator and trying to hold the line with a couple of broken fingers, struck Ayas. The Danish consul may be demanding an explanation, but Colonel Eisner did nothing more than the Danish police do to unruly anarchists, as this video shows.

At 26 seconds we see Ayas in the foreground of the shot sporting only a cut lip with no serious injuries and fleeing toward the camera. However, in the same frame we can also discern Colonel Eisner trying to restrain the man with the baseball cap, who moved to where Ayas had been standing and refused to disperse. The Colonel attempts to arrest him but due to his hand injury cannot hold him, and another ISM activist grabs the man in the baseball cap and helps him escape. The interloper is arrested by other soldiers, while Colonel Eisner is relegated to a spectator’s role as he clearly cannot use one of his hands. The rest of the video shows female ISMers breaking the line and interfering with the soldiers again; another anarchist tactic is to send women in so it can be claimed the soldiers abuse the fairer sex. Be that as it may, anyone caught interfering with an arrest or even touching a police officer elicits an uncompromising response in any Western country. The end of the film shows a woman that had been arrested sitting next to the male ISM activist who had run interference on Colonel Eisen’s arrest, and the Colonel chatting with them.

As mentioned, ISM activists like Ayas are told during training not to fear or even respect IDF soldiers. They are told that the soldiers really have no authority over them and are under orders not to hurt them, and the activists are thus encouraged to challenge the soldiers at every turn. If instructed by soldiers to back up ten feet, we were trained to back up only five feet, in order to maintain a consistent and intense level of interference. In training we were told that the soldiers are allowed to detain us but not arrest us, and that the soldiers must call and wait for police, a wait that facilitates a getaway. We were told to photocopy our passports so that if detained, we could slip away. Our training emphasized that when in closed military zones, such as the one in which Ayas was struck, and if ordered to disperse or leave the area, that we must refuse and demand to see the soldier’s orders in writing.

This elaborate tutelage has essentially turned interference with the IDF into a titillating game for college anarchists in America and Europe, who are recruited for “summer vacations in Palestine” to mess with the IDF soldiers. In a perverse type of package deal, they can get that “revolutionary” experience and raise hell without the risk of being shot – as in Tiananmen Square or Tehran – or even endure the rough handling of an American police officer. Interfering with the IDF and aiding Arabs in attacking them has bestowed upon ISMers cult status within American universities, and now one university even has an ISM chapter dedicated to prepare students for such missions. Andreas Ayas wannabes are recruited every week on US and UK campuses, and Colonel Eisner was merely another pawn – and victim - in the ISM’s game plan.
These ISM activists from the US and Europe do more than just abuse free speech to interfere with the IDF, nor are they starry-eyed pacifists. They represent a definite security risk to Israel and are documented terrorist confederates. The ISM even organized an event called the Tel Rumeida Circus, which performed juggling and fire tricks at checkpoints to distract the IDF soldiers and facilitate the smuggling enterprise.
A Rogue’s Gallery
Paul LaRudee, one of ISM’s major organizers in the US, was caught and deported from Israel after I tipped off the Israeli government to the fact that he was traveling to Israel under an assumed name, Paul Wilder. Until that point, he had been slipping in and out of the country, regularly meeting with members of Hamas. After exhausting the appeals process in Israeli courts, he went on to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah during the 2006 war.

Paul LaRudee continues to hobnob with Hamas, having recently visited Hamas in Gaza to receive a medal the group had awarded him. He was among those arrested on the Mavi Marmara, where he was justifiably struck by Israeli personnel who were struggling to subdue him. Because their actions were justified, these personnel were not vilified in the media nor reprimanded by the government. But the only difference between them and Colonel Eisner is that their actions weren’t depicted in a grossly-manipulated video.

Here are a few more ISM activists I succeeded in getting deported from Israel.
Brian Malovany trains new ISM recruits on how to harass IDF soldiers. His father told me ISM is a cult. Brian managed to reenter Israel by obtaining an Irish passport. ISM encourages obtaining multiple passports and identities so as to be able to reenter Israel and continue the harassment of the IDF and support for the terrorist groups in their ‘resistance’.
Joseph Carr has boasted about entering Israel four separate times from four different entry points to continue his “revolution” against the Jewish state after being banned from the country. Carr has been linked to the deaths of members of ISM, as he suspiciously managed to capture their deaths with photographs, and has dubbed the deaths as “worth the price of the revolution.”
Deppen Webber was Paul LaRudee’s replacement until I got him deported from Israel only a few months ago. He is not Jewish. Webber turned up in Beirut just weeks ago, where he was helping Hezbollah organize the Global March to Jerusalem. ISM’s support for Hezbollah is patent, and in the US it works with Hezbollah-linked groups, especially in Shiite mosques.

Jeff Pickert was deported after my last visit to Israel because he was tasked with fomenting riots in a new Arab village in the West Bank that was intended to be the next Bi’ilin. Pickert was linked to a PFLP safe house in Chicago and was involved in the flotillas enterprise. He is now touring American campuses and churches on behalf of the ISM, recruiting for more ISM recruits.

I got Jonas Moffat, a professional ISM agitator, deported for security violations. He is the founder of the Tel Rumeida Circus and now has a sinecure, touring the globe to try and destroy Israel since he can no longer do so from within. Like other ISM activists, he assumed an alias so that he could reenter Israel, harass the IDF, and foment riots even after banishment and deportation.

ISM activities are not just limited to harassment of Israel’s security forces: they are behind boycotts of Israel; they are allied with neo-Nazis in the US, with Arab irredentist groups that are fronts for terrorists – particularly Hamas – in the US, and with Iranian interests. The ISM’s purpose is to destroy Israel’s sovereignty as a nation “by any means necessary” – by flooding the country with international anarchists who can create scenes such as those depicting Colonel Eisner.

Colonel Eisner, a hero of the 2006 war with Hebozllah in Lebanon, was set up by the ISM through video manipulation, and the Israeli government is once again falling all over itself just to fall into the trap. It appears that Israel’s leaders have short memories, as it was not so long ago that an IDF Navy SEAL, armed with a paintball gun, was literally disemboweled on an ISM flotilla ship and thrown overboard into the sea by ISM-affiliated activists on the Mavi Marmara. Colonel Eisner did nothing less than that Navy SEAL in protecting the People of Israel. And this disrespect of our soldiers and police must stop.

Colonel Eisner says he overreacted? The real overreaction was by the politicians and the media, who do not seem to fully apprehend ISM’s tactics and training and the context in which the episode took place, and who fear indiscriminate and sweeping condemnation by other nations. But Colonel Eisner’s contrition is understandable considering the unnecessary reprobation he received from Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF brass, who shot from the hip. But the fact is, it is the government that owes him an apology, as much as they owe an apology to that Israeli Navy SEAL for sending him on his mission with a paintball gun.
Colonel Eisner’s actions should not be considered a punishable offense, as they are an inevitable consequence of the monstrous worldwide campaign and solidarity network designed to defame Israel and the IDF. His actions should be understood as nothing less than the sensible application of self-defense in the course of maintaining order and preserving security, while under constant threat and stress. And it is the Israeli Foreign Ministry that should be asking for an explanation from the Danish Foreign Ministry: Why are you sending us your anarchists and subversives when you won’t even tolerate them on the streets of Copenhagen?

Lee Kaplan is an investigative journalist who has been published internationally and interviewed on over 200 radio programs and on television as an expert on the ISM. He is currently working on a book about the ISM and how it is part of the global war on terror. He can be reached at leekaplan@StoptheISM.com.