 by Noah Shack Government Relations Research Associate, Canada-Israel Committee “Could our resources have been more wisely used? Without a doubt, though it’s easier to criticize than to envision.” – David Symons, a ‘Gaza Freedom March’ participant. In response to an endless barrage of rockets being fired from Gaza onto civilian populations in southern Israel, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December of 2009.
On the first anniversary of that operation, 1,360 people joined Mr. Symons in Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March, the announced goal of which was to break the so-called blockade of Gaza. This small number was a far cry from the Million-Man March show of force that they hoped for. But more importantly, it appears that an obsessive condemnation of Israel edged out the welfare of Gazans as the core objective. If a repeat of this ill-fated campaign were planned for next year, a quick visit to Air Canada’s website shows that a single, round trip, economy class ticket from Toronto to Cairo would cost $1584.52. To be generous, let’s assume the average flight to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom Marchers cost around $1,000 per person. That’s nearly $1.4 million evaporated before a single protester touched down on Egyptian soil. According to its organizers, “the Gaza Freedom March will show the residents of Gaza that the international community of citizens has not forgotten them, and will call worldwide attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.” In reality, the action was barely picked up in the media with the exception of Iranian Press TV, which was only too happy to broadcast images of another regional government manhandling protesters in the streets. Not even the population of Gaza mobilized in response to this grotesquely expensive failed publicity stunt.
According to Maggie Young, a UC Berkeley student who was one of 84 marchers admitted to Gaza, the protest was primarily led and controlled by 500 men associated with Hamas.
Ha’aretz correspondent Amira Hass described it as “a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators,” noting that “there were no Palestinian women among the marchers – a slap to the many feminist organizers and participants, both women and men.” A popular blog sagaciously relates the following: “An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world’s problems can be solved through ‘awareness.’ Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it… This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges.” Would it not have been a better use of resources to send $1.4 million to initiatives already engaged in alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza? A successful global mobilization to raise millions of dollars for the Red Cross or UNRWA would surely enjoy more profile, and have the added bonus of actually impacting the situation on the ground for the people of Gaza. Instead, 1,360 people took a trip to Cairo to ring in the New Year, and returned home with nothing to show for it but some paltry awareness. The root of this misguided resource allocation is precisely as Mr. Symons elucidates: “it’s easier to criticize than to envision.” By focusing exclusively on criticizing and demonizing Israel, participants in the Gaza Freedom March have revealed their true objectives.
Their goal has far less to do with helping Gaza than with condemning Israel. The marchers are home, but their campaign against Israel continues. Those same people who opted to hold a self-aggrandizing protest rather than allocate funding to a worthy cause now decry the Government of Canada for seeking transparency regarding its aid to UNRWA, blaming a shady Zionist conspiracy no doubt. Never mind that Canada will continue to actually support the people of Gaza by providing much needed food, and over $300 million in other Palestinian aid projects. Easier to criticize than envision indeed. CIC H/T: Blazing Cat Fur
 KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday demanded a public apology from one of the most prominent Islamic scholars, who called for stoning President Mahmoud Abbas to death. Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said that if it is proven that Abbas had instigated Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip, he must be stoned. "During the debate raised over the UN's Goldstone Report that accused Israel of war crimes against Gaza, there were reports that Abbas encouraged Israel to launch its attack," Qaradawi said in a Friday khutba (sermon) at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque in Doha, Qatar. "There also were reports that he foiled a vote on the report by the UN Human Rights Council," he said, calling on the Arab League to investigate the matter. "If it is proven that Abbas instigated the Israeli war against Gaza, he deserves to be publicly stoned in Mecca because this would be a betrayal on his part," he added. Qaradawi emphasized, however, that he was not issuing a fatwa, or Islamic religious decree, against Abbas. He said his appeal was aimed at prompting the Arab League and other Arab and Islamic groups to launch an inquiry into Abbas's alleged involvement in the war. PA Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash strongly condemned Qara-dawi's statements against Abbas and demanded that he publicly apologize to the Palestinians for insulting their president. Habbash accused Qaradawi, who is a Qatari citizen living in Doha, of exploiting his status and the podium offered him in mosques for incitement and slander. The PA's official news agency, Wafa, noted that Qaradawi was the one who had issued fatwas allowing Hamas to kill innocent Palestinians in theGaza Strip. The agency said that the scholar was being ungrateful to Abbas, who was the one who found him a job in Qatar when the PA president was a senior government official in the emirate. JPost 
 by Daniel Greenfield Last decade it was the first year of a new millennium, and now it’s the first year of a new decade.
It is a decade that begins in the shadow of terrorism, in the shadow of Islam. Nidal Malik Hasan’s killing spree and Umar’s attempted attack on Northwest 253 mark an uptick in domestic terrorism, even as the suicide bombing struck CIA agents in Afghanistan to showcase one of the worst attacks on the US in Afghanistan. That they all took place within a short time of each other, under Obama, is likely no coincidence at all. Obama had his window to show whether he would be a capable leader or not. The terrorists took his measure. Now the real testing has begun, first with “lone wolves” and the testing phase is likely to be followed by a large scale organized attack. And naturally the government’s weakness toward terrorism has only helped the terrorists.
Former Gitmo detainees are helping Al Queda run their civil war in Yemen. Despite this Obama’s Attorney General insists on trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court, and Obama insists on exporting and importing Gitmo terrorists. Most Americans however want to see strong measures used against terrorists. 58 percent of Americans want to waterboard Umar. The surveys also show that a third of Americans think Al Queda is winning and that most support US control over security measures at foreign airports. 65 percent believe torture works. 58 percent think that Obama’s release of the CIA memos endangered national security. 63 percent blame political correctness for allowing Hasan to carry out his massacre at Fort Hood. Essentially the numbers suggest that a loose majority of Americans is to the right of Obama and the media on such basic issues. Barely a third rank the government’s response to the Airplane bombing positively. Those numbers mean that Obama has lost on national security. The question is how key will national security be in 2012. That puts the US into an Israel type scenario in which terrorists can help dictate the course of a US election, and in which the Obama administration might be tempted to cut behind the scenes deals with Al Queda to avoid an attack during the election season. Meanwhile in another setback for Washington D.C.‘s crusade against soldiers and contractors, the charges against the Blackwater security guards have been tossed out. A federal judge threw out all charges on Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007, saying the U.S. government had recklessly violated the defendants’ constitutional rights. Naturally the same people who celebrated when 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was scheduled for a civilian trial and Osama’s bodyguard Salim Hamdan was set free, are outraged over this. The bottom line is that the Blackwater guards responded to an attack and defended themselves. In the aftermath of which evidence was covered up, and the State Department chose to use them as a sacrificial goat. Continuing the roundup, Elder of Ziyon handily discredits the now commonly circulated claim that Israeli weapons caused birth defects in Gaza. The claim has been repeated on Al Jazeera and a lot of left wing blogs. Palestinian Arabs keep trying to claim that Israeli weapons in Operation Cast Lead caused all sorts of genetic mutations in Gaza. Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director of the Emergency Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, tells Palestine Today that there have been over 75 cases of babies born with heart defects in Gaza since Operation Cast Lead. A quick calculation shows that, in the US, about 0.9% of all babies are born with congenital heart defects (36,000 a year.) In Gaza, this would translate to over 500 babies born with such a condition every year. Perhaps those evil Israeli chemical and radiological weapons had a positive effect on Gaza children! But more insidiously, Hassanein claims that these weapons have caused Gaza men to have abnormal sperm, low sperm counts and, tragically, infertility. To many Arabs, this could be worse than birth defects, as it attacks the very source of their manliness, and nothing is more important than that. But indeed there are mutants in Gaza. They just weren’t caused by Cast Lead or Israeli weapons. They’re caused by MARRYING YOUR COUSINS. More at CFP
 Newspapers in Belgium are reporting that a number of Israeli Belgians have filed charges against Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus, Syria. The fifteen dual citizenship holders were either wounded themselves, sustained material damage, or lost relatives in attacks that triggered Operation Cast Lead a year ago.
The suits follow several attempts by anti-Zionists in Europe, who sought the arrest of Israeli political and military leaders for authorizing the counter terrorist operation.
It is in effect, turning the tables on them. An official of the Israeli organization that helped launch the suits said that the group hopes "to shatter the myth that draws a parallel between Israel and terror organizations such as Hamas." Indeed, false moral equivalence is rife.
All plaintiffs live in the south of Israel. They are the victims of rocket barrages coming down on the area from Gaza between June 2008 and January 2009. Two were wounded. All are suffering emotional and psychological trauma.
The suit names ten Hamas leaders in all: political chief Khaled Mashaal residing in Damascus, 'Premier' Ismaail Haniyah in Gaza, former 'Foreign Minister' Mahmud Zahar, and leaders of the 'military' division, Ahmed Jabri and Mohammed Def.
The cases took six months to prepare. So far six requests for their arrest have been issued, all based on clear evidence that Hamas leaders are linked to the terror attacks.
Arutz Sheva report attorney Mordechai Tzivin, representing the plaintiffs, told the French news agency AFP: "This is a first step in a broad offensive across Europe that will include Spain, Britain, Italy and other countries".
One of the Belgian attorneys involved, Roel Coveliers explains that indiscriminate attacks on civilians may constitute war crimes. "But that's up to the Judge to decide. We don't know if we will be successful in prosecuting the case in Belgium and get a conviction, but it's important to get an investigative Judge to take on the matter".
Filing the suit is only an initial step. A federal Judge will see if the complaints have standing. In the affirmative, an investigative Judge will be appointed.
Although ranging well within Israeli territory, Hamas' home made rockets are not particularly effective. Between 2005 and 2007 Hamas militants fired some 2,700 of the home made rockets on southern Israel. Towns like Sderot have come under constant barrages of fire which crippled the daily lives of the inhabitants, causing material and psychological trauma.
On December 27 Israel finally launched counter terrorist Operation Cast Lead.
In the days before the maneuvers some eighty Qassam rockets landed in the area. It still happens, albeit less frequently, but effectively not much has changed. A recent article by blogger/journalist Caroline Glick explains why little was accomplished. Even top IDF commanders acknowledged this week that the army will be forced to return to Gaza in due course.
Belgian attorney Coveliers does not think the Court will reject the request. Thus far he's received six of the fifteen dossiers from Israel.
Ironically the suits charge ten Hamas leaders of war crimes on the basis of the UN Human Rights Commission's report authored by Judge Richard Goldstone, who accused Israel of war crimes but mentioned, almost in passing, that Hamas rocket attacks on civilians also constitute violations of international law. With thanks to Politeia
 by Maayana Miskin Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke about the Goldstone Report at the opening of a memorial site in Jerusalem. Olmert, who oversaw the Cast Lead counterterror operation in Gaza which was the subject of the critical UN report, slammed the investigation and called to continue fighting terrorism worldwide. "During [counterterror] operations, it occurs that innocent people are hurt...
We must put the self-righteous and hypocritical campaigns in their proper place, and continue the war,” he said. The war on terror will continue “until all terrorist organizations are wiped out,” the former PM said. He called on Western leaders to understand that the war on terror must continue. Yesterday, President Shimon Peres issued harsh criticism of the Goldstone Report as well. In a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Peres called Goldstone “a small man with no real sense of justice.” Goldstone, not Israel, should be the one under investigation, Peres added. Source: INN
 The International Court came into being by virtue of the Rome Treaty in 2002.. To date, 110 states have signed on and a further 38 states have signed but not ratified it. The U.S. and Israel are among those who have yet to ratify the treaty.
The same year, Richard Goldstone delivered a speech at a Toronto synagogue arguing that it was in the interests of Israel and the U.S. that they sign on.
It was asked if Israel should sign on as she would never get a fair hearing. Goldstone vehemently disagreed.
Fast forward: In the days before to Operation Cast Lead, during a period when the Gazans were committing war crimes daily by firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, Dr. Abraham Bell in his article on International Law and Gaza set out the basic principles and subtitled his article The Assault on Israel’s Right of Self Defense.
But what do these principles and rules he set out mean in practice? Did Israel have no choice but to invade or could it just have used artillery and bombs, even unintelligent inexpensive bombs? Bruce Tucker Smith, JD, LL.M. (International Law), Lt Col USAFR (ret). who is currently a US military Judge, summarized his opinion as follows: “In short…Israel’s defense forces are entitled to use whatever means is at her disposal to search out and destroy terrorist operatives.
Nothing in international law precludes a vigorous, intense and effective military campaign to destroy terrorist operations. That means, Israel may use air and ground-artillery resources -as she will-against those Hamas operatives (I hesitate to us the word “military” - since Hamas is NOT a recognized military force.) which are used to inflict casualties upon Israel.
“That means Israel may use her army in large or small measure to attack any place or person that attacks Israel. 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.
 Who attacked the mosque in Gaza City in which 21 people allegedly died during Israel's counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead last winter in Gaza? The question was one of many debated Thursday night by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone and former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold at a special event hosted by Brandeis University and broadcast live over the internet. It was of particular significance because it was one of the 36 incidents named in the Goldstone Report as evidence that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza. The report, which comprised the findings of a fact-finding mission to Gaza led by the judge, was endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the day. "The one attack that affected me was an attack on a mosque where there were 300 people praying," Goldstone told the audience Thursday evening. "They were attacked by IDF ground forces, they fired a missile, 21 people were killed.
There was no question of ammunition being kept there, no secondary explosion. There was no basis in international law for the attack, even if ammunition was stored there, in fact -- there is no basis for bombing during a service," he said with what appeared to be anger. "Bomb it at night if you want, but there is no justification for bombing it during a service." Goldstone went on to say that he also could not understand the "complete demolition" of the American School in Gaza City, which he described as a bastion of anti-Hamas sentiment. "I still would love to know why the IDF chose the American School," he said. "Hamas hated that school. It made no sense." Gold responded with a flat denial that Israel had had anything to do with attacking the mosque at all -- and in fact, of the 36 incidents recorded in the Goldstone Report, "there are 12 that the Israeli army never heard of," he said.
"But I trust the Israeli legal system to get to the bottom of it," he assured the audience, listing investigations by the attorney general's office, the Supreme Court and the IDF as reasons that Israel does not need to launch another independent investigation, as urged by Goldstone. "As far as the mosque is concerned," Gold said, "the Israeli position has been that the mosque was not attacked by the IDF. The challenge is in reconstructing a reality that no longer exists," to figure out what really did happen there. "Do we know that munitions exploded in the mosque itself? Do we know who were the people who were in the mosque at the time, who were killed? There are many questions. But I am telling you this: Israel did not attack that mosque." The former Israeli ambassador's reply was rejected out of hand by the retired South African judge. "We found the remnants of the Israeli ammunition," scoffed Goldstone. "And the tungsten squares that were pulled out of the wall in my presence. It's like the story of the man charged with rape, and he denies he was guilty, because he says she consented..." The two men sparred for approximately 90 minutes, with generous amounts of time allocated for questions from students in the audience. Only once did hecklers interrupt, and that incident was quickly and firmly squelched by the moderator, who reminded the students that the school is devoted to enforcing the American Constitutional right to free speech.. Source: INN
 The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday in favor of endorsing the Goldstone Report on the Gaza war in full – 114 states voted in favor of the report, while 18 objected and 44 abstained. Discussions of the report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in the course of Operation Cast Lead, got underway Wednesday, with 15 envoys delivering speeches ahead of the vote. During the past 24 hours, Arab states attempted to reach a compromise with European and other countries that were unwilling to endorse the proposal.
Western states attempted to moderate the Arab proposal but failed to do so, as the Arab bloc decided to submit the proposal for a vote as is, while taking advantage of the automatic majority possessed by Muslim and non-aligned states at the UN. The text voted on call "requests the Secretary-General to transmit the report of the 'United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' to the Security Council, while granting Israel and the Palestinians three months in order to launch an internal inquiry into its charges. America's UN Envoy Susan Rice shunned the session and the United States is expected to veto the report in the Security Council later on. Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev also stayed away from the vote.
 As the UN General Assembly debated the Goldstone Commission's report on Wednesday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev charged that the report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes during last winter's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, was "irreparably tainted" and "bends both fact and law." Shalev warned that the "report and this debate do not promote peace - they damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region." Shalev told the assembly that report ignored "the reality of terror" from the 12,000 rockets and mortars fired by Hamas into southern Israel - "and the complexity of military challenges in fighting terrorists in urban warfare." She dismissed the Goldstone panel as "a politicized body with predetermined conclusions." "Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," Shalev said. "Time and again," Shalev said, "the report inverts Israel's unprecedented extensive efforts to save civilian lives as proof that any civilian casualties were therefore deliberate." Shalev also criticized the report for dismissing Israel's independent legal system, its investigations of misconduct in the armed forces, and its right to self-defense. Meanwhile, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman left Israel for New York Wednesday evening at the behest of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in order to assist with Israel's public relations campaign concerning the Goldstone Commission's report. Read more here,,,, Source: JPost
 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spelled out war crimes that Hamas committed before, during and after the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in Gaza 10 months ago.
In an interview published in the Washington Post on Saturday, he also said that Israel is “looking into” an independent inquiry on the Goldstone report. His spokesmen later clarified that his statement that does not mean that he wants a probe. The Prime Minister’s office said that the IDF already is probing two-thirds of the allegations against Israel as reported to the United Nations Human Rights Commission by Judge Richard Goldstone. It added that the probe was initiated by Israel for its own needs and not as a reaction to the Goldstone report. The Prime Minister told the Washington newspaper, “The best way to defuse this issue is to speak the truth because Israel was defending itself with just means against an unjust attack. Serious countries have to think about adapting the laws of war in the age of terrorism and guerrilla warfare. If the terrorists believe they have a license to kill by choosing to kill from behind civilian lines, that's what they'll do again and again. What exactly is Israel supposed to do?” He spelled out four specific war crimes that Hamas has committed: calling for the destruction of Israel, in contradiction to the U.N. charter, deliberate attacks on civilians, using Arab civilians as human shields and kidnapping IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been denied access to the Red Cross, a violation of the Geneva Convention. “Who gets accused of criminal behavior at the end of the day? Israel that sent thousands of text messages and made tens of thousands of cellular phone calls to Palestinian civilians to warn them to evacuate,” he said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also said, ”It is too early to say” anything on the apparent deal between Iran and Western countries on curbing development of its nuclear capability. “The issue is not merely the security of Israel but of the world,” he stated. Concerning the refusal of the Palestinian Authority to resume negotiations, he charged that pre-conditions set by the PA, including a freeze on building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria represents an “old technique [of] ‘Let's agree on what the results of the negotiations will be before the negotiations begin.’” In a separate interview, President Shimon Peres said that the media is mistaken by defining Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “right-winger.”
Asked by the Post about the President's remarks, the Prime Minister responded, “I think we do represent a consensus of the Israeli public. The popular explanation is that this conflict is about the territories captured in the 1967 war. So why did the conflict rage [when] there were no settlements?
The Arabs fought wars and terror campaigns in the 1920s, '30s and '40s against any Jewish state, and then they rejected the partition. Our presence in the territories is not the cause of the conflict but one of its results.” Source: INN
 by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Israel received support from a most unlikely source Tuesday, with a harsh condemnation of the Human Rights Watch group by its own founder, Robert Bernstein. Writing for The New York Times, he charged the group with “issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.” HRW was in the forefront of accusing Israel of war crimes in the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in Gaza, and has continually condemned Israeli retaliation for the thousands of Hamas rockets and other terrorist attacks on Israel. Bernstein emphatically stated that “Hamas and Hezbollah…go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields,” a situation that was stated as largely unproven in the recent Goldstone report for the United Nations Human Rights Council. Bernstein accused his own group’s leaders of knowing that “Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields.
They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve.” Bernstein, who was chairman of the group until he stepped aside in 1998, pointed out that HRW has condemned Israel more than any other country. Undermining the group's anti-Israeli stance, he stated that the Jewish State “is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government, a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties." “Meanwhile, the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent.” Bernstein echoed Israeli complaints that HRW has ignored “the plight of [Arab] citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide.” “These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere,” he wrote. “This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." In what was a virtual repetition of Israeli government statements from the past several years, he noted that “There is a difference between wrongs committed in self-defense and those perpetrated intentionally. “In Gaza and elsewhere where there is no access to the battlefield or to the military and political leaders who make strategic decisions, it is extremely difficult to make definitive judgments about war crimes. Reporting often relies on witnesses whose stories cannot be verified and who may testify for political advantage or because they fear retaliation from their own rulers." Source: INN
 The world is against Israel because of its own moral weakness and not because of alleged human rights violations, according to Rabbi Yaakov Medan, rabbi of Har Etzion Yeshiva, located in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. “Islam is strong, and it is convenient for people to go with strength,” the rabbi explained in an interview with Arutz-7. He added that the world’s preoccupation with individual rights, as well as the infiltration of Western culture into Israel, are “illnesses” that have led to “an erosion of obligations to the country and of the significance of Israel as a nation.” He added that one way of solving the problem is for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to "be more forceful” but added, "He is not strong enough.” The national religious rabbi pointed out that if the world really cared that Israel killed people and destroyed homes, it would have condemned China for its torture and murder of millions of people who believe in the Falun Gong religious movement. “What is important to the world’s countries is their need to identify with those who are strong, and today they are impressed” that Muslim dominance is growing. Rabbi Medan warned, “Islam is a real threat to Christian Europe, and the United States also is in danger, although further down the road.” He said it is not a coincidence that Turkey and the rest of Europe are on the attack against Israel, especially since the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in Gaza. "After the Six-Day War, in which the victor [Israel] was clear, the world and applauded Foreign Minister Abba Eban in the United Nations when he said that Israel never again will return to ‘Auschwitz borders' before the war," the rabbi emphasized. “After the Yom Kippur war, when the unjustifiable feeling was that we lost, third world countries’ relations with us deteriorated. Now we are considered weak, despite our strong economy and army.” Rabbi Medan explained that world leaders speak with the “elite” in Israel who are "ceasing to believe in our own rights here. We feel like a Byzantine state whose time is limited and that our end is to integrate into the European and American cultures. “As long as this lasts, the Arabs will be justified and we will be blamed as robbers and murderers.” Source: INN
 Iraqi forces have captured a member of Iran’s Al-Qods Force in Basra involved in transporting weapons for Shiite militias. The Long War Journal says this is the fourth Iranian operative arrested this month, who were supporting the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq that has launched many attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces. In somewhat related news, the leader of a 15-strong Iranian hacking group has stated that he works with the Iranian government and military.
The report says that the group attacked 1500 Israeli websites in reaction to Operation Cast Lead and hundreds of Danish websites following the publication of the cartoons mocking Prophet Mohammed.
There is evidence that Iran and Syria fomented some of the riots in reaction to the cartoon as well. Source: World Threats
 Roni Sofer
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special ministerial forum Friday night following the UN Human Rights Council's decision to turn the Goldstone Report probing Operation Cast Lead in Gaza Strip over to the Security Council.
"We will delegitimize the delegitimization," he said. Jerusalem is reportedly gearing to propel its vexation over the decision into diplomatic action, mainly on the allied US, UK and French fronts.
British Premier Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to Netanyahu, expressing their support of Israel's right to defend itself against terror, and urging him to order an "independent, transparent investigation of Gaza events."
The prime minister instructed the forum to prepare for a "lengthy fight"; one that would include an extensive campaign explaining Israel's right to defend itself against terror, as well as taking diplomatic, legal and other steps in order to undermine those who wish to delegitimize Israel's actions. "We are now setting out to delegitimize those who try to delegitimize us. We will not tolerate it and we will respond on a case by case basis," he said.
A source in the Prime Minister's Office described the plan as "a lengthy, uphill battle." Among the ministers taking part in the meeting were Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his deputy Daniel Ayalon, Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman, Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog and Minister Benny Begin. Senior Prime Minister's Office officials Uzi Arad and Ron Dermer and Foreign Ministry Director General Yossi Gal were also called upon, as were several other government officials.
 by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu The Israel Air Force and Hamas-controlled terrorists in Gaza fought another hit and run battle Tuesday night.
A Kassam rocket hit kibbutz fields, several hundred yards from a wedding celebration, and the IAF retaliated by bombing two smuggling tunnels. Arab sources said three people were wounded, one moderately, by air-to-ground missiles, although a French news agency reported that Arab sources said one person died in the raid. No one was wounded at the kibbutz, whose fields abut the Gaza separation fence, and no damage was reported. Witnesses in Gaza told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that F-16 jets hovered over Rafiah, which straddles the Egyptian-Gaza border, and destroyed at least two tunnels that are used to transport explosives and arms. Hamas has been using cement and other building materials, some of it approved by Israel and others smuggled in from Egypt, to rebuild its smuggling tunnel system that was severely damaged in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign 10 months ago. Source: INN
 What spurred the cancellation of this week's NATO air force exercise in Turkey was a delay in the delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles to Turkey by Israel, and not Turkish objection to Israel's conduct in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, an air force official told Turkey's Zaman newspaper on Wednesday. The source told the paper: "Turkey needs those vehicles in its fight against terror. What led to the recent crisis between Turkey and Israel was the delay in the delivery."The UAVs in question are the Israeli-made "Heron" surveillance drones. According to the report, Turkey purchased 10 UAVs four years ago, for the price of $180 million from the Israeli Aerospace Industries and a private company. The source said Turkish Chief of Staff Ilker Basbug expressed his concerns over the delay with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting last month. The source said Erdogan had promised to back any sanctions the Turkish military would impose on Israel for the delay, adding, "The General Staff asked Israeli authorities one last time about the delivery of the Herons.
Israeli authorities refused to give an exact date and said they planned to deliver the vehicles by the end of 2009, whereupon the General Staff decided to cancel the international part of the exercises.”
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu admitted on Monday that Operation Cast Lead was the reason for the cancellation of the joint military exercise. In response to a question by CNN, the minister said, "In the current situation, it is obvious that we condemn Israel's attitude." Israel was displeased with the cancellation, and Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said on Tuesday that the Turks must come to their senses. "The deterioration in ties with Turkey in recent days is futile and even harmless. I hope the Turks come to their senses." The minister added, "Turkey is an important ally, an important Muslim state with important strategic ties with Israel. This alliance is no less important to them than it is to us." Source: Ynet
 The Palestinian children's parliament determined during the trial that Abbas was not worthy of his position, and the 'prosecutor' accused him of high treason. "
Abu Mazen insisted that the report be pulled from the Human Rights Council's agenda despite the support of 33 countries out of 47, in a move that saved Israel," he said. "Abu Mazen's move is defined by the penal code and the Palestinian constitution as treason and action against the top Palestinian interests." Abbas was represented by a man who wore a picture of the leader on his face. He defended himself by saying, "Our need for new frequencies for my children's cell phone companies and Israeli and American pressure brought me to my decision. The decision was not ours because we are not represented at the council. Those who made the request were Pakistan and the Arab nations." After he had made this statement, a 'Palestinian representative in the UN' intervened and said that seconds before the vote Saeb Erekat asked him to relay an official message from Abbas requesting the vote be delayed. "I was stunned so I asked for this in writing and this is a picture I of the fax I received from the Mukataa in Ramallah. I won't be a scapegoat," said the mock-representative. Read more here,,, Source: YNet
 The United States and other countries are against a discussion on the report, but even if the Libyan initiative is curbed, the matter is expected to be raised during the periodical discussion on the Middle East on October 20.
Libya, which represents the Arab countries bloc at the Security Council, surprised the Arab countries and the Palestinians when it asked for a discussion on the report. Ynet has learned that other countries are also opposed to a Security Council discussion, both because of the political aspect and due to the fact that the report should be first discussed by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which was behind the initiative to probe the Israeli operation in Gaza. The Geneva vote has been postponed by half a year after the Palestinians pulled a resolution to adopt the Goldstone Report and condemn Israel. Diplomatic sources have said that the Libyan initiative will be opposed by several Security Council members, but that the issue may be voted on any case, although Libya may find it difficult to get the support of nine countries out of 15, as required. Behind the scene, the Americans are trying to come up with a compromise which will see the vote on the Goldstone Report held as part of the open periodical discussion on the situation in the Middle East. As far as Israel is concerned, this option is the lesser of two evils, as the discussion will deal with a variety of issues in the region. One possibility is that the sides will compromise on moving up the discussion on the situation in the Middle East. A State Department source said that the US had not changed its mind on the report, which the source said focused on Israel in an unbalanced manner in most of its recommendations. The American stand, which was to be expressed at the Security Council discussion Wednesday night, is that the report includes serious accusations which must be probed by both sides. Washington wants the discussion on the report to be held as part of the Human Rights Council in Geneva rather than at the UN headquarters in New York. The Obama administration supports an independent Israeli investigation into the war crime claims, for fear that the controversy over the Goldstone Report will disrupt the efforts of US special envoy George Mitchell to resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Source: YNet
 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for a "free referendum" in "Palestine," during his address to the United Nations General Assembly. He said that such a move would allow "all Palestinians - including Christians, Muslims and Jews" to live together in peace. The Iranian president also claimed that the "brutalities in Gaza have not all been published." "The international community is impatiently waiting for the murderers of the defenseless people of Gaza," he said, in reference to alleged war crimes by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. Ahmadinejad went on to say that his country was ready to shake all hands "that are honestly extended to us." He announced Iran's commitment to participate in building durable peace and security worldwide for all nations while defending the country's legitimate and legal rights, in an apparent reference to Iran's nuclear program, which was not mentioned in his speech. Ahmadinejad portrayed Iran as a defender of poor developing countries, lashing out at unbridled capitalism which he said has reached the end of the road and will suffer the same fate as Marxism. The US delegation walked out, and most of the hall was empty for the speech. Source: JPost
 By Ali Zahalka The Arab-Israeli leadership is increasing pushing us into anti-Israel radicalism. This extremism climaxed with the “Death to the Jews” chants during Operation Cast Lead. Here is what I have to say to those leaders: Look at what you’ve done. We did not cry out in the face of rocket attacks on southern residents that went on for years. We did not cry out in the face of the suffering of our brethren, Gaza residents, who have been brutally repressed by Hamas. Yet we cried out, of all things, in the face of an onslaught against the most radical element in the Arab world. The Arab-Israeli leadership won’t connect, heaven forbid, to the moderate Arab elements such as Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, or Jordan. These are of no interest to it. We saw Azmi Bishara, who left, and we saw where he went to. I don’t need to explain what Hamas is all about. The Egyptians and Palestinian Authority officials are doing it better than me. They ask Hamas how it can talk about victory when the war against Israel – which it sought and advanced – was managed on the backs and blood of thousands of Palestinians that were killed, wounded, or lost their property, while Hamas’ leadership stayed at fortified bunkers or in Damascus. Read more ...Source: Y Net News
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by Noah Shack
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