Boker tov, Boulder!

Yes We Can: Bomb Gaza and Win the War

Someone sent me Ted Belman's post, Bomb Gaza. Win the War. I thought maybe my parking lot idea was taking off, but it turns out that other people have had similar thoughts on their own. The difference is that they've gone to the trouble of actually finding out about it, while I have only spewed my frustration to no avail.

Belman links to a article called International Law and Gaza: The Assault on Israel's Right to Self-Defense by Avi Bell. Now Avi (Abraham) Bell is not a housewife blogging in her pajamas; he teaches law at Fordham University and Bar-Ilan University and directs the International Law Forum at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. But let's listen to what he has to say anyway.

Here's the money quote:

International law requires states to take measures to bring Palestinian war criminals and terrorists to justice, to prevent and punish Palestinian genocidal efforts, and to block the funding of Palestinian terrorist groups and those complicit with them.

Bell makes clear that Israeli self-defense is legal, regardless of the legal status of the Gaza strip:

If Gaza should be seen as having independent sovereignty, Israel's use of force is permissible on the grounds of self-defense. On the other hand, if Gaza is properly seen as lacking any independent sovereignty, Israel's use of military force is permissible as in other non-international conflicts.

You want to talk international humanitarian law> Then get conversant in its two most basic principles, the rules of distinction and proportionality.

The rule of distinction requires aiming attacks only at legitimate (e.g., military and support) targets. The rule of distinction includes elements of intent and expected result: so long as one aims at legitimate targets, the rule of distinction permits the attack, even if there will be collateral damage to civilians.... By contrast, the Palestinian attacks are aimed at Israeli civilians and therefore violate the rule of distinction. Moreover, one of the corollaries of the rule of distinction is a ban on the use of weapons that are incapable, under the circumstances, of being properly aimed at legitimate targets....

The rule of proportionality places limits on collateral damage. While collateral damage to civilian and other protected targets is permitted, collateral damage is forbidden if it is expected to be excessive in relation to the military need. All reported Israeli strikes in the latest round of fighting have been aimed at legitimate targets and none has caused excessive collateral damage. Legal advisors attached to Israeli military units review proposed military actions and apply an extremely restrictive standard of both distinction and proportionality, in accordance with expansive Israeli Supreme Court rulings....

Moreover, like distinction, the rule of proportionality relies upon intent. If Israel plans a strike without expecting excessive collateral damage, the rule of proportionality permits it, even if, in retrospect, Israel turns out to have erred in its damage estimates.

Here's another legal truth, amazing to behold:

... Israel is under no legal obligation to engage in trade of fuel or anything else with the Gaza Strip, or to maintain open borders with the Gaza Strip ... it may withhold commercial items and seal its borders at its discretion...

A favorite criticism of Israel is that it commits "collective punishment." Bell explains why "none of Israel's combat actions and retorsion may be considered collective punishment," as that distinction is dependent upon the nature of the penalties imposed. The legalese here could put you to sleep, but this example will help us a great deal:

Numerous states suspended trade and diplomatic relations with South Africa as punishment for apartheid practices.

Did the Israel-bashers complain that that was unfair collective punishment? No, they favored and promoted it. [Holding Israel to a different standard, or the opposite end of the same standard, is, to my way of thinking, both hypocritical and antisemitic. -Yael]

As for the biggest of all anti-Israel BUZZwords, OCCUPATION, Bell teaches us that legally, occupation entails exercising the functions of government. Obviously,

Israel does not exercise the functions of government in Gaza, and ... has not substituted its authority for the de facto Hamas government.

Another money quote (is it legal to assert more than one?):

Military superiority over a neighbor, and the ability to conquer a neighbor in an extensive military operation, does not itself constitute occupation.

So there's no reason to feel guilty. The goyim allow military superiority! Now, NOTA BENE:

If Israel were indeed properly considered an occupier, under Article 43 of the regulations attached to the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, it would be required to take "all the measures in [its] power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety."

Thus, those who contend that Israel is in legal occupation of Gaza must also support and even demand Israeli military operations in order to disarm Palestinian terror groups and militias.

And finally, here's something I think we all knew, but need to be reminded:

Under ... the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, it is a crime to bomb public places (such as city streets) with the intent to kill civilians, by persons who are non-nationals of the state of which the victims are nationals.

There's more, but I think you get the gist of it now and have many more tools of convincement than you did before. You may now proceed to Belman's post and the considered opinion of Bruce Tucker Smith, JD, LL.M (International Law):

Criticism leveled at Israel for her response to terrorist attacks by Hamas in the Gaza says more about those who criticize Israel than it does about the legality of the reprisals.

Can Israel respond to Hamas’ attacks? In what strength? By what means? These questions are traditionally answered in the salons of international legal debate, by an examination of the status of the combatants.

We therefore ask: What is Gaza? What is Hamas? Answer these questions honestly, and there is little room for discussion or debate about the legality or legitimacy of Israel’s military responses to date… or her options in the future....

Israel may use her army in large or small measure to attack any place or person that attacks Israel. [Write it on your hand if you think you might forget again. -Yael] That means Israel can bombard Hamas targets as militarily necessary to render it impotent against a subsequent wave of Israeli soldiers. Although politically preferable, nothing in international law absolutely requires Israel to use “smart” munitions in its operations against Hamas.

If Hamas attempts to shield its operations with truly innocent civilians or children — it is Hamas and not Israel, who has committed an atrocity –an actionable war crime – of the most heinous proportion!”.

In sum: Israel is free to employ ALL munitions, tactics, equipment and personnel in her arsenal to defend herself against the outlaw Hamas terrorist organization. Short of the intentional targeting and murder of truly uninvolved and innocent civilians, Israel can (and should) operate as freely as she desires to protect her territorial sovereignty and the lives of her citizens.

Amen. And let it be so.

Israel is and always has been in the right -- rationally, morally, historically and legally [with the one exception being ethnic cleansing disguised as "Disengagement"]. The big problem we have is a lack of national self-confidence. And by "national" I don't mean just the State of Israel; I mean Am Yisrael, the nation of the Jewish People.

All we need is some Yes-We-Can attitude (you may have noticed lately how very effective that can be). So dig deep, boys and girls. I know you can. We can. Yes we can.

L'Chayim

All that hate, and not a drop to drink. According to Carl in Jerusalem, they're running out of safe drinking water in Gaza.

The Hamas jihadis have advised the people of Gaza to boil their water because they have run out of chlorine with which to purify it. According to a report on Israel Radio's 8:00 news, about one third of the wells in Gaza are already untreated, and there is no chlorine with which to treat the rest when the current supply runs out.

I thought the United States was not going to abandon the people of Gaza.

Oh never mind, Mr. Witten, the IDF is arranging a shipment of chlorine into Gaza.

It's crazy when you think about it. The IDF making sure Hamasniks have safe drinking water in Jew-free Gaza.

It's good to hear your voice

Longtime pro-Israel blogger Meryl Yourish does podcasts for SNN (Shire Network News). I didn't know.

How cool is that? You can listen to them here. No, sorry, they're here.

(M, I didn't forget, I still owe you a fountain pen or some such.)

Beware Arab "protests"

Omri's got a must-read post - LA Times: Qassam That Critically Wounded 10 Year Old Boy Was Part Of Palestinian "Parallel Protests".

You read it and you still can't believe it. This is the LA Times:

.... As Israelis watched nervously from across the border, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip staged parallel protests Monday against the Jewish state, placing a few thousand placard-waving demonstrators along the main highway and firing 11 rockets into Israel.

See also this al Reuters video of protest aftermath.

Speaking of such, Yossi Haimov's condition was still "serious" as of yesterday.

Doctors managed to save Haimov’s badly injured arm in a complex surgery earlier in the week. However, they said Wednesday, Haimov will have to undergo more operations when his condition allows. Even with the operations, [he] will remain disabled in one hand, they said.

Ten years old.

And the last we heard of Osher Tuito, he had regained consciousness and was breathing on his own, after one of his legs had to be amputated as a result of one of these Arab "protests." He is eight years old.

I've been blogging maimed and murdered children for a long time. I keep all their names and faces somewhere in me. Danielle Shefi was five years old when Palestinian terrorists shot her in the head in her parents' bedroom on a Shabbos morning; she would have been eleven years old by now. I hope her brothers Eliad and Uriel, and her mother Shiri, have all recovered from their bodily wounds. After a certain point, you don't hear anything anymore, and all you can do is keep praying.

Only 91 million radical Islamists

Abe Greenwald via Solomonia:

A new Gallup poll is being touted as a "challenge" to western misperceptions of Islam. The survey was done on three continents and took six years to complete, and as the French news agency AFP reports, we've all been a little alarmist over here:

"About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews."

Seven percent of 1.3 billion leaves us with . . .
91 million radical Islamists. And to think we were concerned! That piddling handful is nothing that can't be taken care of with a little dialogue, a few billion in American aid, and some proper education. I'm feeling audaciously hopeful.

While at Solomonia check out Global Cooling. Mary Madigan writes:

Things change, they always have. We're living on a ball of rock that's blasting around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour, while spinning at the speed of 1000 mph. The ride is bound to be a little bumpy.

Well put.

Hey Mary, is that you? Didn't I meet you in Richmond?

Ron Yahya is survived by his wife and four children

Funny thing about Dhimmedia. They act like the loss of Hamas terrorists is the same as the loss of a quiet and modest husband and father of four. It's not. I never met Ron Yahya, but he means something to me, he was part of my Jewish family and my world of Western civilization, a world of repairing and building and bringing value to life.

The Hamas terrorists who tear down civilization, who celebrate fear, death and destruction, who purposefullly murder innocents, are the very antithesis of everything I hold dear. These "militants" and "fighters" that the Dhimmedia is so absorbed with, these dead terrorists, they should all rot in hell.

AFP: Ten Palestinians, Israeli killed in Gaza flare-up

GAZA CITY, Feb 27, 2008 (AFP) - Ten Palestinians, including at least six militants, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday while Palestinian rockets killed an Israeli in a sharp escalation of violence. The deadliest attack occurred in the southern town of Khan Yunis where five Hamas fighters were killed in a raid which also wounded one person, medical sources told AFP.

Hamas then claimed responsibility for what was the first killing of an Israeli by Gaza rocket fire since May 2007 -- before the movement seized power in Gaza in June -- saying it had been to avenge the death of its militants.

Student Killed in Kassam Attack: Roni Yahya, 47, father of four

(IsraelNN.com) Roni Yahya, 47, a father of four, is the man who was killed by a Kassam rocket in Sapir College Wednesday. Yahya was from Moshav Bitcha, a Yemenite moshav (agricultural community) Bitcha, located near Ofakim.

Yahya was mortally wounded when a rocket landed near him in the Sapir College parking lot. He died of his wounds shortly afterwards. A second man was wounded in the attack.

Yahya underwent a kidney transplant several years ago, after he quit working as a cement truck driver due to a kidney ailment. A neighbor told Ma'ariv/NRG that Yahya was attending a course given by the National Insurance Institute in Sapir College, when the rocket struck next to him.

Avner Mori, who heads the Mechavim Regional Council, said that Yahya was "a quiet and modest person whom I saw at the synagogue every morning." Mori added: "This is a sad day for the moshav and the regional council. We will do everything to aid the bereaved family."

CJHSLA + BtB = FAX CAMPAIGN (a matter of some urgency)

Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of LA (CJHSLA) and this blog are joining forces in a FAX campaign to preserve, protect and defend the American legal system from Arab influence.

Here follows an abbreviated scoop from earlier in this blog, and the FAX numbers for your letter.

• Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1990, Leslye Knox of Georgia sued the Palestinians for sponsoring a 2002 terrorist attack in which her husband was killed in Israel. In 2006, a federal judge ordered the PA and PLO to pay Knox and other relatives nearly $174 million in damages.
• In another case, the children of Yaaron Ungar (killed in Israel in a 1996 terrorist attack) were awarded $116 million in U.S. courts. The Palestinian Authority has not paid in either case.
• The Palestinian Authority has the money - the world just gave them $7.4 billion in December - but Palestinian officials say that such lawsuits threaten to drive them into bankruptcy. Thus they are furiously lobbying the State Department to assist them in “vacating” the Knox judgment by submitting a “Statement of Interest” on their behalf… because of “international ramifications.”
• The United States is undoubtedly in an awkward position. On the one hand, we are giving the PA hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and on the other hand, our courts are legally awarding hundreds of millions of those dollars back to American taxpayers, those tax payers who are seeking justice for family members murdered by Palestinians.
• Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has tried to sidestep the issue, writing that “the United States is not party to these enforcement proceedings.” But the Palestinians have “lawyered up” with American lawyers and are prepared to litigate. (Apparently, they don’t mind spending on legal fees.)
• In December, U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero put the United States on the spot. He gave the government 45 days to respond as to whether it would indeed issue a “Statement of Interest” in the Knox case. Then, at the government’s request, Marrero extended the deadline until the end of February, which is now rapidly approaching.

Will the U.S. join the side it’s on? Or will it intervene on behalf of the Palestinians against its own citizens who seek justice in U.S. courts? It’s hard to believe it’s even a question.

See this WaPo article 2/12/08 for more.

Remember: You don't have to be eloquent or long-winded, you don't have to go over the history of this whole mess. You can simply say that - Regarding the Statement of Interest in the Knox case - you will not tolerate our government forfeiting our rights or betraying our interests... in order to futher Palestinian interests and meet Palestinian demands.

Or you can simply make it known that you're upset and you oppose either the State Dept. or the Justice Dept. taking the side of Palestinians against American citizens.

If the USA has a conflict of interest in the State Department giving money to the Palestinians and American courts taking it away by finding on behalf of victims of terrorism, then we must stop all aid to the PA and PLO.

Those in power should make no mistake: We Americans side with the victims of terrorism... not the perpetrators.

-----------------------------

President George Bush FAX 202-456-2461

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, DOJ FAX 202-514-2001

Condoleeza Rice / State Department FAX 202-647-2283

----------------

If you want to continue, these are Devorah's suggestions:

Alan Makovsky, Majority staff member, House Committee on Foreign Affairs FAX 202-226-3581

Howard Diamond, Deputy Chief of Staff for Congressman Gary Ackerman FAX 202-225-1589

via Matthew Zweig to the Attn of Congressman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen FAX 202-226-7269

Elise Aronson, Chief of Staff for Congressman Jim Saxton
FAX 202-225-0778

Jason Steinbaum, Chief of Staff for Congressman Eliot Engel
FAX 202-225-5513

Tom Stallings, Chief of Staff to Congressman Trent Franks
FAX 202-225-4099

Zahava Goldman, legislative assistant to Congressman Henry Waxman FAX 202-225-4099

Lester Munson, Chief of Staff for Congressman Mark Kirk
FAX 202-225-0837

Don MacDonald, Staff Director for Congressman Brad Sherman FAX 202-225-5879

--------------------

If you want to continue further, you can send a copy to the American attorneys who are representing the Palestinian Authority and PLO:

Richard A. Hibey and Mark J. Rochon
at the Washington DC law firm of Miller & Chevalier

FAX 202-626-5801

Wednesday Kassams cont'd: ONE ISRAELI KILLED, 10 Injured

An Israeli killed, 10 injured
in ongoing heavy Palestinian missile-mortar barrage Wednesday
February 27, 2008, 5:31 PM [10:31 A.M. EST in USA)

DEBKAfile’s military sources report 30 Qassam missiles and dozens of mortar shells crashed ... into Sderot, Shear Hanegev and Zikkim south of Ashkelon Wed. afternoon, Feb. 27.

A man of 40 was killed and a 20-year old critically wounded beside a car in the Sapir College campus which took a direct hit as did a home in Sderot and the Off Kor factory outside the town.

Ten people were injured and dozens suffered shock.

The barrage followed the Israeli airborne rocket attack, which killed 7 members of Hamas’ armed wing driving on a bus to a Hamas military facility near Khan Younes in the southern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources reported that three of the seven dead were senior members of the Hamas Qassam Brigades’ missile unit and were bound for a training session at a southern Gaza facility.

.... Hamas threatens to continue shooting missiles in response to Israeli targeted attacks. DEBKAfile military sources report Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians were initiated before and continue day after day whether or not Israel strikes back. Their extremist leaders based in Damascus resist all international attempts to mediate a halt in their offensive.

Monday, a nine-year old Israel boy was seriously injured by a Qassam rocket which hit a group of children playing in Sderot.

On the West Bank, a wanted Palestinian was killed and 4 were injured, two seriously, resisting arrest by an Israeli counter-terror unit in Nablus. The group was suspected of plotting a large-scale terror attack in central Israel.

Two were on the list of Fatah armed wing members granted Israeli amnesty, provided they renounced violence.

Arutz Sheva adds:

The rocket bombardment began with three waves of attacks at 3 PM, when the "Color Red" rocket warning alert was sounded in Sderot and environs. Eleven rockets were fired, one of which slammed into a chicken processing plant in Sderot, and others fell in the vicinity of the town. Though the rocket slammed into the factory's dining room, causing very heavy damage - dozens of workers had left the dining room shortly before the rocket hit - no one was directly hurt by shrapnel. Several victims were treated for shock.

This is at least the third time the poultry plant has been hit by a Kassam rocket. November 2006, Yaakov Yaakobov was killed when a rocket hit the factory, and last month, a fire was started when a Kassam hit the plant.

Around 3:30 PM, yet another Kassam rocket was fired at Israel, landing in the Eshkol region of the western Negev. No casualties or damage were reported.

In two other waves of attacks by 4:30, another ten rockets were fired at Israel, slamming into Sderot, S'dot Negev, and adjoining areas. A house in Sderot suffered a direct hit, with no reported injuries.

And get this, boys and girls: Haaretz has a new poll, announced today.

64% of Israelis say the government must hold direct talks with the Hamas government in Gaza toward a cease-fire and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

Less than one-third (28%) oppose such talks.

Dhimmedia is eating it up: CNN, UPI, al Reuters, CBS/AP ...

The "Islamic System" Advances: Iran's "Great Victory"

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that, 18 days before parliamentary elections to the majlis, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the first time threw all his weight and authority behind his country’s nuclear program and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

His words clearly celebrated the failure of the United States, the West at large and Israel to stall Tehran’s nuclear ambitions - whether by military force or sanctions.

Tuesday, Feb 26, the supreme ruler told Iranian officials: “One example of an advance by the Islamic system has been the nuclear issue, in which the Iranian nation has honestly and seriously won a great victory.”

For the first time, he echoed Ahmadinejad’s intransigent position and praised his role in advancing the nuclear issue as “outstanding.”

.... Transparently pouring scorn on the US and Israel, the supreme ruler said: “Those people who used to say Iran’s nuclear activity must be dismantled are now saying we are ready to accept your advances, on condition that it will not continue indefinitely. This was achieved by perseverance.”

Palestinians Are a "Race" of People & Their Cause is Just

Yid with Lid:

Freelance Israel Hater John Dugard is at it again. This hitman for the UN Human Rights Commission has published a report under the auspices of the UN which says UN Report: Palestinian Terror is Understandable:

"common sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."

The report calls for an end to the Israeli occupation, citing the country's checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement, house demolitions and the "Judaization" of Jerusalem .... while Palestinian terrorist acts are deplorable, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."

Common sense dictates? I think it was Will Rogers who said the problem with common sense is that it ain't too common. " Dugard kind of reminds me of the days when people in the US would blame rape victims for being raped (or Saudi Arabia today).

.... Dugard has written that "Israel's laws and practices in the [Palestinian Authority (PA)] certainly resemble aspects of apartheid. Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group, Jews, over another racial group, Palestinians, and systematically oppress them?"

The Associated (with terrorists) Press is handing out candy:

See also Anne Bayefsky's new article, Dithering on Durban II:
Why hasn't the U.S. distanced itself from the U.N.'s platform for antisemitism?

Jerusalem — Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced on Sunday that Israel will not participate in Durban II, the U.N.’s most recent platform for anti-Semitism and the demonization of the Jewish state. Livni called upon the international community to refuse “legitimacy to hatred, extremism, and anti-Semitism, under the banner of the ‘fight against racism.’” After announcing Israel’s decision to boycott the 2009 conference, she asked “like-minded countries” to do the same.

Three days before 9/11 a United Nations “anti-racism” conference held in Durban, South Africa concluded with a poisonous declaration that Palestinians were victims of Israeli racism — the only state sponsor of racism of which the U.N. was conscious. Durban II is the follow-up conference dedicated to the implementation of that first declaration.

Livni’s call for allies is a shameful reminder that the United States has yet to declare that it will not participate in the planning and lead-up to Durban II, which begins in Geneva in a few weeks time. Moreover, the Bush administration has also not made it clear that it expects any future administration will stay away from the conference itself.

On the contrary, Secretary of State Rice responded to a pointed inquiry by Senator Norm Coleman during a Senate hearing on February 13: “We have not tried to make a final decision on this.”

In Jerusalem on Sunday, Livni was joined on the stage by State Department representative Greg Rickman, who was therefore forced to follow Livni’s invitation with an awkward silence and comparatively empty commitment to “confront anti-Semitism head on” before hundreds of Jewish community leaders from 40 countries....

Read it all. It seems not too early to weep for what the "Bush legacy" has become.

If you click on the continuation below, I give you brief tour of a few the UN "bodies" that happily play host to antisemitic parasites like John Dugard. Feel free to skip it ... or instead see Wikipedia on the United Nations System, "the whole network of international organizations, treaties and conventions that were created by the United Nations."