Israel Indicted For Self Defence

(originally published February 19 at old blog site)



Excellent article here, courtesy of FrontPage magazine:




Indicting Israel for Self-Defense

By P. David Hornik FrontPageMagazine.com
Wednesday, February 04, 2009


The ceasefire announced by Hamas on January 18, never a sterling example of the genre, further deteriorated on Sunday as over 15 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza. That night, when Israeli planes struck back at Hamas targets, many Palestinians reported that Israel had telephoned them warnings to evacuate. There were no casualties in the strike.


Again on Tuesday evening, after a Grad rocket hit the Israeli city of Ashkelon during the day, Palestinians in the town of Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border received recorded telephone messages from Israel stating that “people who work in tunnels, live near them or are giving logistical help to terrorists should evacuate the area immediately.”


Israeli air strikes on the tunnels followed, again with no reports of casualties. During Operation Cast Lead, Israel reduced Palestinian casualties with such measures as disseminating warnings in leaflets or SMS messages and dropping small, harmless bombs on rooftops before attacks.


It prompted former British colonel Richard Kemp to say that

“I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza.”

Nevertheless, it was reported on Monday that a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague had announced plans to investigate claims by Palestinian groups that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza by using phosphorus shells in populated areas.

In 2004 the ICC condemned Israel for building its security fence—believed by  security officials to have saved hundreds of lives—after waves of terror from the West Bank.

And the news about the ICC came hard on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that a Spanish court, after granting a petition by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, was planning to try seven Israeli security officials for “crimes against humanity” in the 2002 assassination of Hamas kingpin Salah Shehadeh.

Fourteen civilians were also killed in the strike. Shehadeh had masterminded the killings of hundreds of Israelis and was preparing a mega-attack at the time. The seven Israeli officials include a former defense minister and two former chiefs of staff.

Israel, then, is between a rock and a hard place.


From its complete disengagement from Gaza in August 2005 till Operation Cast Lead was launched in late December 2008, 6500 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza at predominantly civilian Israeli targets with only small, tactical Israeli responses.

Yet the world went along its way. There were no Security Council sessions, ICC investigations, or threats by European countries to put Hamas leaders on trial.

The suffering of Sderot residents never became a chic cause on campuses where “the Palestinians” continued to be lionized.

Then came Operation Cast Lead, and all hell broke loose. To even mention Israel’s extraordinary measures to avoid harming civilians was to be an embattled polemicist citing esoteric facts.

But when some unclear number of Palestinian civilians—inevitably, given Hamas’s use of them—were nonetheless killed or wounded, it was Israel that was in the hot seat. Although some European leaders like German chancellor Angela Merkel and Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg showed Israel some degree of understanding, by the time Israel ended the operation on January 17 its diplomatic support had dwindled to zero.


And the ICC announcement is only the most dramatic instance so far of legal fallout from the operation. The expected wave of “lawfare” against Israeli soldiers and officers prompted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to set up a special team to defend them headed by the justice minister, with legal and intelligence experts already gathering evidence related to the fighting in Gaza.


In 2005 Israeli general Doron Almog barely escaped arrest on war-crime charges in Britain when he was warned by the Israeli embassy not to disembark from his plane at Heathrow Airport. And just last week Israeli colonel Geva Rapp had to flee Britain for fear of an arrest warrant for defending his country.


With the war also having sparked fierce anti-Semitic eruptions particularly in Venezuela and Turkey, the worldview of Israel’s outgoing government—one of the factors behind the seemingly inhuman “restraint” in the face of the rockets—appears more wobbly than ever.

It was a worldview in which Israel could expect reason and understanding from the nations in light of such facts as: Israel had withdrawn from Gaza and it was no longer occupied; Hamas is a terrorist organization that specifically targets civilians while using its own civilians for cover; and any country—yes, even Israel—has the right to self-defense.


The fact that, notwithstanding all that, the war has galvanized both heightened anti-Israeli lawfare and heightened anti-Semitic agitation has not been lost on the Israeli populace—which has, for instance, drastically cut back on tourism to once-popular Turkey. And as the rockets continue to fall, the need for a more sober outlook—one perhaps closer to traditional Jewish understandings of Israel’s role in the world—is likely to prevail in the February 10 elections.

Facing Facts About Hamas

Despite the Liberal media trying to portray Hamas as a band of doe-eyed young 'freedom fighters', the truth is far uglier.

In fact, Hamas is a radical Islamic group which openly states it aims to kill all Jews, all over the world.

This is not mere rhetoric.

Iran funds and backs Hamas to the tune of millions of dollars every year, and Hamas has killed thousands of Israelis with suicide bombings and missile attacks.

Hamas repeatedly denies the right of Israel to exist. Its beliefs are stated in the official Hamas Covenant or Charter. Here are a few highlights:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” - The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory

and:

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

One of the most ominous aspects of the Charter is this Hadith:

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. “

The implication is clear: Allah promised that the Jews will be murdered, and the Hamas “aspires to the realisation of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take.”

Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood

Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded by Nazi sympathiser, Hassan Al-Banna. The Muslim Brotherhood spawned a number of radical Islamist movements including Al-Qaeda.

The Hamas Charter states:

“The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times.

It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam."

Hamas statements about Jews:

Hamas openly states it wants to kill all Jews, all over the world. Hamas is both a terrorist group and a radical Islamist movement, and its official Charter cites the Quran:

Quran condemns Jews to extermination:

Palestine’s blessing is linked to destruction of the center of global corruption [Jews of Israel], the snake’s head. When the snake’s head of [global] corruption is cut off, here in Palestine, and when the octopus’s [Jew's] tentacles are cut off around the world, the real blessing will come with the destruction of the Jews, here in Palestine, and it is one of the splendid real blessings in Palestine.”

[Palestinian cleric ,Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 13, 2008]

Muhammad’s promise: Jews will be killed

“Regarding the Jews, our business with them is only through bombs and guns… the prophet [Muhammad] promised that we will fight you, with Allah’s help, until the tree and stone say: “Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

[Nizar Rayan, Hamas religious and military leader, Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Jan. 1, 2009. Note: Rayan was killed on Jan. 2, 2009]

Extermination of Jews – good for humanity:

In an article promoting the continued use of suicide terror in the official Hamas newspaper:

From Al-Rissala, (Hamas weekly) April 23, 2007Eventually everyone will know that we did this only because our Lord commanded so that people will know that the extermination of Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”

Kill A Jew, Go To Heaven

A poster that Hamas posted on its web site taught that killing a Jew is enough to grant the rewards of Heaven.

Text on Hamas poster: “I will knock on Heaven’s doors with the skulls of Jews, Hamas terror wing: “Ezz Din Al Kassam”]

Resurrection dependent on Muslims killing Jews

Hamas goes even further in its religious packaging of genocide. Hamas teaches that the redemption of all of humanity, the anticipated Islamic “Hour” of Resurrection, will happen only when Muslims are killing Jews and the remaining Jews will be exposed by the trees and stones.

Hamas write in Article 7 of the Hamas Charter:

“Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet [Muhammad] said: ‘The time (of Resurrection) will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 0 Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!’”
- Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6985

So there can be no doubt here. Hamas is committed to the slaughter of Jews and indeed, to other non Muslim ‘infidels’ as well. And these are not just empty threats.

For eight years, Hamas has been sending suicide bombers and missiles into Israeli civilian areas. Countless Israelis are dead because of Hamas terrorism.

Yet the British media would have us believe that Hamas is some type of legitimate ‘resistance’ movement! It ignores the fact that Jordan bans Hamas completely.

Hamas shares the same goals that the Nazis tried so hard to implement.

The question surely is: Why are so many people trying so hard to deny it?

The Voice Of Truth

Amidst all the hypocrisy surrounding Israel's strikes on Hamas last year, one person has quietly and consistently defended Israel.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, has stated, time and again, that Israeli actions in Gaza were ethical and necessary. Last week he told the UN that the Israeli Defence Force took more precautions during Operation Cast Lead than any military in the history of warfare.

Col. Kemp made the comment in an address to the president of the UN 'Human Rights Council', Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, at its special session on the Goldstone Report in Geneva. Kemp spoke on behalf of UN Watch, an NGO that monitors UN activities.

Here's his speech in full:

I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK government's Joint Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.

Hamas, like Hizbullah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.

The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.

More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas's way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: The IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Thank you, Mr. President.