Jerusalem: 'Playing for Mime' (original photography)

Playing for Mime (Dave Bender) Click on the image for the full-size photos.

Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: Local street-theater artist, "The Purple Man," freezes, until passersby drop a coin or two into his guitar case. They he plays for another 15-seconds, until he again goes rigid.

Last I heard the cops ran him off for drawing too big a crowd and causing a public disturbance [sigh].


Friday morning at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market: a beggar with a headset microphone and tambourine wishes passersby a good, peaceful Sabbath. (Dave Bender)

Ha. Haha. Like Friday shopping at Mahane Yehuda isn't a public disturbance, anyway...


Friday at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open air market, a veteran hawker sells trinkets from a rolling cart. (Dave Bender)


A hero of the Revolution now shops for Shabbat. (Dave Bender)

Just imagine the things this elderly Russian immigrant has seen in his lifetime, including what he experienced in the service of the Soviet Red Army in order to merit those battle pins and medallions.

Shabbat Shalom, and have a great weekend.

'I Occupied Your House in Gaza'

This editorial cartoon appeared in 1956 in a Swiss newspaper. Then Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the dog in one panel, here represent "fedayun" cross-border Sinai terror attacks into Israel. Israeli David Ben Gurion, pre-state Zionist leader and Israel's first and longest-serving Prime Minister turns a repeated blind eye, until he - finally - retaliates after repeated provocations. Note the peanut gallery representing Arab and international opinion. My how things haven't changed a whit. Note my lack of surprise.

Such an image appearing in a Swiss media outlet? Now that's a surprise.
(Image H-T: Sina)
---
Yes, it's all over the intertubes. I'm posting it anyway; it needs to be read, and re-read because it's about the clearest, simplest thing out there at the moment about the conflict between Israel and Hamas - from one who's taking part in it:

An Open Letter to A citizen Of Gaza
I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your
By: Yishai G (reserve soldier)

Hello,

While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.

I am that someone.

I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.

I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.

Read the rest.

'It'll Take Awhile:' A Bitter, Poignant Requiem For Gaza

Author and colleague Judy Lash Balint, in a recent, and bitterly poignant post writes:

"At the Jerusalem think tank where I work, one of the offices has been dark for almost two months. Noam (not his real name), the bright, articulate, British-born researcher in his mid-thirties, was called up for routine reserve duty back in early December. We all missed
his dry wit and pithy insights as he spent almost a month brushing up on his army training. Noam returned to the office full of amusing stories about life in a tent in the desert with his old buddies, and promptly went about picking up the threads of the work
he'd left a few weeks earlier.

"Less than ten days later, the Gaza war broke out and Noam and his platoon were among the first of the more than 6,500 reservists who received emergency call-up orders, known here as Tsav Shmoneh. That made sense, Noam, said, since they were the most up-to-date in their training...

Read the rest and weep for all that was done by Israel to no avail, and for all who suffered in the name of an evanescent "peace."

'Scuse my dust...

'Bout time for some changes around here... many of the old links down the side will return, as I shake some of the dust off of the blog. Stay tuned.

Israel, Hamas, Don Corleone & Blanche Dubois

In an incendiary op-ed, Jonathan Mark of the New York Jewish Week says Israel not only lost the battle with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it abjectly surrendered, and on someone else's timetable to boot:

"This war was supposed to re-establish Israel's deterrence. That was supposed to be the lesson. Instead, the lesson is that Israel quits before the rockets do.

"Israel has established in Gaza exactly what it established in the Hezbollah war: That Israel can go three weeks and only three weeks, and then Israel looks at its watch (or at the European Union's watch) and goes home, job incomplete."

Read the rest for the Godfather and A Streetcar Named Desire references.

And as they say, "in related news:"

Gaza Doctor: Hamas Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll - 600 Killed, Mostly Fighters, Not 1,300 - Yossi Bar (Maariv-Hebrew)
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra Thursday quoted a doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City saying that, despite Hamas and UN claims, most of those killed in Gaza were young men who were members of terror groups.
"The number of deaths was between 500-600...most were young men between 17 and 23 who were recruited into the ranks of Hamas, which sent them to be slaughtered," he said.
Journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi confirmed that only 600 people were killed, and not 1,300 as was widely reported, based on hospital visits and discussions with families of the victims.
"It was strange that the non-governmental organizations, including Western ones, repeated the number without checking, but the truth will come to light in the end," said the doctor.
"It's like what happened in Jenin in 2002," he said. "At the beginning they spoke of 500 dead; afterwards it was clear there were only 54 dead, at least 45 of them fighters."

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Hamas Shot from Civilian Neighborhoods - Rod Nordland (Newsweek)
Israel blames Hamas for using housing areas, hospitals, schools and mosques to launch attacks into Israel or against its soldiers, provoking defensive counter-fire that it says is responsible for most of the civilian casualties.
Every one of the residents interviewed in eastern Jabaliya insisted that there had been no provocation from the area, no resistance fighters, and no rocket launchings.
"There aren't any tunnels around here, we are not resistance," said Najah Abd Rabo. Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road.
Talal Safadi, an official in the leftist Palestinian People's Party, said that Hamas fighters were firing from positions all around Al Quds Hospital in the Tal-al Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.

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Hamas Confirms Executing Fatah Collaborators - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
PA Minister of Social Welfare Mahmoud Habbash accused Hamas on Wednesday of confiscating 63 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid while they were on their way to UNRWA in Gaza.
He also said 19 Palestinians were murdered in cold blood by Hamas during and after Israel's Gaza operation, while more than 60 others were shot in the legs.

'Our Neighbor and Why We Have to Kill Him'

Read this story, all of it. And then maybe understand what we're up against:

Our neighbor lives in the house in which our grandfather used to live. He claims he bought the first part of the house from a Turki, and later the second part from a British bank, but that doesn’t make the sale any less illegal: my family lived in that house for hundreds of years and we don’t accept the documents of sale. Now he’s living there. He is the son of monkeys and pigs.

The problem is that he’s not just brazen, he’s also strong, although he is a tiny guy.

The whole neighborhood hates him. He’s a thief and possessed by the devil. But he seems to be able to beat everyone. We tried to force him out of the house together, but it didn’t work. He has bulletproof windows, and the roof is made of inflammable material.

All we think about is him. Our own home is in ruins because all our efforts, all our money and ideas and energy are devoted solely to destroying our neighbor’s house. We’re utterly convinced that we will be perfectly happy just as soon as we’ve killed him and his house is a heap of smoking rubble. We live for one thing only: our neighbor’s demise. It’s a noble ambition for which we’re all willing to die.

Must reading.

(H-T: Treppenwitz)

'The Children's Brigade' (original music video)

Sandy Cash is a stunningly talented singer and songwriter, and a veteran mainstay of Israel's English-speaking folk music scene (and a very active scene it is, too).

Detroit-born and raised, she's also an old jamming friend, and it's wonderful to hear her clear and powerful voice after too many years.

This is the first time I can remember her tackling as horrific an issue as Palestinian child abuse - otherwise known as inculcating tots through teens to love and seek death, ideally via a suicide bombing or attack against Israelis. She writes:

"Palestinian society is raising its children on a steady diet of hate, and teaching them that the total destruction of Israel is imminent. This song is a lesson in the most intractable challenge of the 'peace process.'"

"The Children's Brigade"

This is a video that deserves to be forwarded far and wide.

The Apology That Will Never Come

"We Have Love And It Will Win/Gush Katif and Samaria." (Photo: Dave Bender)

The sticker in the photo above was put out by opponents of Israel's Disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of Samaria in the summer of 2005. Jewish residents of the aforementioned areas tried to "market" their opposition to the traumatic national step not with anger and rancor, but via a message of faith, trust, hope and love. So much for that in a world ruled by money, guns and realpolitic.

By the way, go on and guess where and when I shot that photo. Go on, I'll wait...

It's the door of an shrapnel-riddled civilian apartment building in a poverty-stricken area of Israel's northern coastal city of Nahariya, just south of Lebanon.

The holes in the wall are from an exploded Katyusha rocket that Hizbullah fired at the town. A dozen feet away from the building is a synagogue that also sustained damage in the barrage - one of some 4,000 that hit the city in the summer of 2006.

I'm reminded of that photo by what Nadav Shragai, writing in Haaretz. He gives vent to what I, and I am certain many others, are feeling more and more deeply these last few weeks: 
Now, after the war and just before the election whirlwind sucks in our politicians once again, it would be appropriate for many of them to go out of their way and visit the mobile-home sites where those uprooted from Gush Katif live. This way they can tell them one small thing: I'm sorry.  

Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert, Shaul Mofaz and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel Defense Forces and the police should do this - they, their agents and everyone else who initiated, implemented and aided in using force to uproot 10,000 people from their homes in Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, maliciously and without any real purpose.

Everyone who saw some good in the evil of the disengagement and evil in the good of Gush Katif has turned light into darkness and darkness into light. At the very least, they are obligated to make this small apology. 
Read the rest.

And I add my own mea culpa for placing my trust in all the military, academic and media "experts" I've interviewed over the years, leading up to and following the expulsion in the summer of '05 that confused black with white. Truth with lies, and honor, love, valor and elemental human decency, with squalid greed, fear and baseless hatred.

And you, dear reader?

The Gaza Riviera and What Might Have Been

Sderot billboard: "Who's next in the lottery?" sits above "Eli's steakiya," and across the street from the beleaguered town's City Hall - also the target of hundreds of Kassam rocket strikes. The red words between the Coke caps: "Lucky corner." Eh... maybe not so much. (Photo: Dave Bender)

David Suissa is an LA PR maven, who also happens to be pretty credible teacher and commentator on the Jewish mysticism front.

Here's a sad "parallel history" musing, about what might have been the future of the Gaza Strip, had the Palestinians taken the high road after Israel's pullout in 2005:

"...the other day, as my mind was numb from yet another report from the Gaza war zone, I saw something that made me go off on a wild dream. It started with the sight of two Israeli soldiers as they drove into Gaza in an armored personnel carrier, and as I watched the soldiers, I recalled how much Israelis love to go to the beach.

"As if I was hallucinating, I then imagined the same two soldiers in their beach clothes, in a convertible roadster, with a surf board sticking out and the music blasting, and instead of going to war, they were going to meet their buddies for a day of partying on the beach.

"They were going to the jetsetters' newest fun spot: the Gaza Riviera.

"By now, my mind was losing control. Images started flooding in. I saw this fabulous strip of hotels and casinos right by a sparkling ocean. I imagined thousands of proud Palestinians working with smiles on their faces to serve the thousands of tourists from around the world who were coming to their little strip of ocean paradise.

"Behind this paradise, I saw a bustling economy, where the highest quality produce was grown and exported; where entrepreneurs built software companies, banks and advertising agencies; where a university attracted students from around the world; where local culture and the arts thrived; and where you could take the Orient Express train to Beirut, Cairo and, yes, even Tel Aviv."

But that would have assumed they ever stop missing a chance to miss a chance.

This, by the way, is no idle wishful thinking. The average Israeli is "game" in more ways than one (sorry) to work and fork over millions of dollars into Palestinian coffers, both for goodwill, and for a "normative" life.

Not that I personally supported the venture - financially or ideologically - but the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government did. So the PA opened and ran the Oasis Casino in Jericho (yes, THAT Jericho, where the dice were to have been tumblin' down, instead of walls) - until, of course, the bloodlust for dead Jews got the better of them:

"The Oasis Casino, which sometimes had a daily turnover of close to a million dollars, was built in Jericho after the signing of the Oslo Accords, over ten years ago. In 1999, it made a profit of $54 million from the close to 2,900 people who visited the casino daily - 99% of them Israelis.

"The casino shut down in late 2000, a month after the PA started the Oslo War, after its roof was used for terrorist gunfire attacks at Israeli targets. The building was heavily damaged by Israeli retaliatory fire, and though it was later refurbished, it has never re-opened.

Here's a WaPo travel article on the place.

Gaza: The Downside of Firing Mortars at Israel (Shocking 'Darwin's Surprise' Video)

The downside of firing mortars at Israel? That'd be when they stop going up:

Cast Lead 'Leathernecks'

Shahar Golan has an edge, interesting blog, and great post about a cadre of Israeli tv hard news reporters, who apparently all went to the same leather good shop on their last visit to Turkey ("GREAT prices... ask for Hakim and tell him I sent you"):

http://frgdr.com/blog/2008/12/29/tonight-evening-news-cast-lead-leather/

H-T: Harry, who also does Jerusalemite.

Pro-Israel Rallies Worldwide (Photos)

Pro-Israel Rallies Photos:
http://www.jr.co.il/rally/world/index.html

(H-T: Jacob Richman)

Hamas School, Petting Zoo Snuff Porn (Graphic Videos - updated)

Ok. Now alla'you'se sick, twisted freaks that got off on that title can shove off back under the rock.

All the rest: watch the two following videos and let's have a show of hands if you -- by this point -- are still unable to wrap your heads around the idea, that yes, Hamas has, does, and will inculcate and murder Palestinian children and even cute furry animals, just to win a PR victory over the Jews:


IDF unit discovers school and petting zoo wrapped with primacord fuzing, ready to blow. (update: the wires were connected to - sit down for this one - 200 kilograms of explosives)


Film clip from Palestine Media Watch showing -- as far back as 2002, long before the current fighting -- official Palestinian Authority TV was spoon feeding toxic martyrdom messages to children and toddlers. (Personal note: I worked with PMW at the time this video was produced, and can personally attest to the scruplous measures taken by the translators to ensure the accuracy and correct nuance of the Palestinian-dialect Arabic)


Official PATV clip. (Personal note II: Now, just for comparison and for the record, my kids, who have been taught in the standard officials Israel religious state school system have never been taught anything remotely like this. When I go to PTA meetings, the feltboards and display cases are filled with the usual stuff we all grew up with, worshiping life, joy, learning and peace).

Makes you want to go wash your eyes out, and knock back a stiff drink just to lose this memory, huh?

'One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other'

I don't often write about the Holocaust, but David Harris, director of the AJC has a really good post at his blog about remembrance, and forgetting, and about Israel and the exploitation of the murder of European Jewry by the detractors of both:

"...As Israel pursues its military operation against Hamas, reparations are under way around the world for Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

The two are not disconnected.

A Catholic cardinal - and leading Vatican official - refers to Gaza as a "concentration camp."

A Greek newspaper entices readers with the banner headline "Holocaust," referring to Israel's alleged actions in Gaza.

A Brazilian newspaper publishes two cartoons - one of Hitler wearing an armband emblazoned with the Star of David and swastika, saluting, "Heil Israel!"; the other of a Star of David casting a shadow in the form of a swastika over the Gaza Strip.

On his website, white supremacist David Duke reacts to the Gaza crisis by lamenting that Hollywood portrays Jews as Holocaust victims rather than perpetrators.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calls on Venezuela's Jewish community to denounce the "Holocaust" being committed in Gaza.

Posters equating the Star of David with the Nazi swastika are ubiquitous at anti-Israel rallies around the world.

A demonstrator in Holland confidently asserts that "Anne Frank would be turning over in her grave" if she saw what was happening in Gaza."

Read the rest.

Shabbat Shalom From Eilat

The mountains of Eilat (Landscape photos: Pria Bender)

Kassams & Kids: Closer Than You Really Want To Know

Imagine this was a sign on your street:


"Slow - Children Crossing." Rocket-shrapnel riddled street sign in Israel.

Gaza rocket ranges into Israel (so far...):

Click on the image, or here for this, and similar full-sized interactive maps.

(H-T: DoubleTapper)

Noted US Christian Broadcaster Hurt In Kassam Strike (VIDEO ADDED)

Kassam Blast Knocks American Broadcaster to Ground from Israel Always on Vimeo.

Earl Cox is a highly-regarded broadcaster, who has worked tirelessly for Israel's sake for decades. He has worked for two decades in four U.S. Administrations. He is also a friend and colleague, and I have assisted his efforts in Israel in the past, as a recording technician.

This afternoon in Sderot, he was blown off his feet into a concrete bus stop when a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza slammed down close to where he was standing. He and an assistant were "sore and shaken up," in the wake of the attack, according to a colleague, who communicated the details to me.

Earl Cox (on the bench inside bus stop) and aide at the moment of the Kassam impact near them.

This is the release his organization sent out a short time ago:

"SDEROT, ISRAEL --- International Christian broadcaster and columnist, Earl Cox, today lived through what Jews in southern Israel live through each day. Cox, who is known as "the voice of Israel to America," was in Sderot, an Israeli city on the Gaza border, identifying some of the many humanitarian needs of the people living in this area where warning sirens and rocket blasts are a part of everyday life. Cox and his crew experienced a first hand taste of this terror today; not once but twice. As he and his crew were preparing to film a video report when the siren sounded alerting everyone of incoming Kassam rockets. All scrambled for cover. The rocket landed so close to Cox and his crew that the shock waves from the blast threw him and one of his aids against the wall inside one of the 50 portable bomb shelters placed in and around Sderot by Israel Always and Operation LifeShield. Thanks to this shelter, Cox and his crew escaped serious injury.

"Shortly after this first blast, Cox and others on his Israel Always team experienced a second rocket attack and had to scurry for shelter this time finding only an unprotected building. Fortunately they again escaped injury.

"The Israel Always team will remain in southern Israel until the end of Israel's war with radical Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Since beginning his campaign in support of Israel more than ten years ago, Cox and his organization have raised huge sums of money to help meet humanitarian needs in Israel."

Earl and Kathleen are directly responsible for raising money for such reinforced bus stops that saved Earl's and the others in the film's lives. I am certain that this event will only spur them on to greater goals for Israel's sake. Find out more about LifeShield here: http://www.israelalways.com/lifeshield.html

My thoughts and prayers are with Earl, Kathleen and all in Israel for their steadfastness and valor in the face of personal danger.

Click here for more reports about Sderot and Gaza.

What it's Like Prepping for a Gaza Op (exclusive story & audio)

For all the new readers (especially Doubletapper) who are visiting my blog: This is a personal - maybe even too personal - journal of what it's like "getting the call" after 01:00 to prepare for an incursion into the Gaza Strip.

I wrote it over the course of several weeks after a terror bombing at a gambling parlor/bar in the town of Rishon Letzion, near Tel Aviv in 2002.

I recorded the introduction to the linked audio soon after an IDF foray to try to rescue IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

I hope you'll agree that I did my best to be fair and objective interviewing one of the soldiers, a Canadian immigrant, despite the circumstances. My deepest thanks to him for his honest, personal responses. Comments and questions are welcome.

(The audio and written accounts reveal no sensitive IDF material, and were cleared at the time by senior officers)

Audio: Preparing for the Gaza War

The call came...

...My concern rises to the surface like a half-forgotten bad dream tailing me out of my slumber.

"This is a 'tzav-8' call-up. You need to arrive at the base by 9:00 am," she says, asking if I understand the instructions and other pertinent details. I mumble my assent, hanging up the phone as I fall back into a chair.

Stunned, I told my now-awake wife that no, this wasn't a drill and that no, they weren't kidding. Suddenly taken aback in a rush of confusion and inchoate fear, I drag down the dusty, readied backpack from the crawlspace over the bathroom, mentally going over the list of needed last minute supplies.

Later, deep in the heart of the night, we finish packing the bag, both finally comprehending that I was Gaza bound, and though uncertain, likely en route to harms way.

I arrived at the sprawling Negev-area base later that morning. Hundreds of friends and acquaintances - all brothers in arms - were already there, milling in and out of ragged lines, signing in and signing out on rifles, gear and webbing. Guys in the unit I hadn't seen appear for duty in years, aged and way past enlistment age were there, trying on wrinkled fatigues and lacing up stiff boots. Reports said we were at well over a 100 percent show rate. Fairly amazed, proud, and somewhat abashed at the plain show of patriotism, I went from group to group, catching up on news since our last term of service together.

The knowing looks between us as we backslapped and traded stories of times gone by wordlessly said it all. Our unit, together with many others, was preparing to go into operation against the Palestinian terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip...(more here)

What Part Of 'Exploiting Hospitals For Cover' Isn't Clear?

Two hard news items that may help in clarifying the question, and providing the answer for the moral cretin audience:

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Hamas Officials Hiding in Gaza Hospital Maternity Ward - Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
Palestinian sources said senior Hamas officials have been spotted more than once wandering around the maternity ward of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital and even using the hospital to hold press conferences, on the theory that it offers a safe haven from Israeli fire.
For the same reason, Hamas forces have taken refuge near buildings that serve as headquarters for various international organizations, such as the Red Cross and the UN.

---

Hamas Steals Aid Supplies for Its Own Hospital for Gunmen - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Hamas has set up an independent hospital in Gaza to treat its wounded and is pilfering a significant portion of the medicine allowed into the Strip, senior defense officials said Monday.
Nevertheless, the Defense Ministry said it would continue facilitating the transfer of food and medical supplies into Gaza since the humanitarian convoys play a key role in garnering international legitimacy for the IDF's operations.

More here.

Hamas Body Armor

(Courtesy: Cox & Forkum)

More here.

How To 'Reach Out And Touch Somebody' In Gaza

How the Israeli Army manages how to know who, where and how to warn non-combatant Palestinians in Gaza when to get the hell off the phone and out of the building before the Hellfires drop, is eerily similar to the movie, "Eagle Eye:"

"[Apparently] the Israeli Army has "figured out how to separate the civilians from the weapons: call the neighbors and give them ten minutes warning.

"Apparently, by Friday Israel had made at least 9,000 (nine thousand) such phone calls.

"The numbers prove how efficient this has been: prior to the ground invasion, more than 600 targets had been destroyed, fewer than 500 Palestinians killed, and fewer than 100 of those were civilians even by Palestinian and UN reckoning."

Also as apparently, this blogger is an IT ubergeek - NOT that there's anything wrong with that. Jus' sayin'.

For the rest'a'us, let's take a deeeep breath, and read the next paragraph together aloud:

"Israel clearly has created a sophisticated GIS (geographic information system). A system that records tens of thousands of buildings, their location, and their distance from each other. Then there's a database with the names of the tens of thousands of families who live in the buildings, and the phone number of each family. The system has the ability to identify all the families and phone numbers that could be affected by an attack on any given building. Finally, given the numbers involved, there must be a system that automatically makes concurrent phone calls to dozens of families, since everybody has to have the same ten-minute warning.

"Ah, and someone put tens of thousands of piece of information into that database.

"Such a system costs real money, takes time to set up, and since it is obviously operating close to flawlessly, it was tested, fiddled with, tested, fiddled with, and tested again. The purpose, I remind you, is to save the lives of thousands of Palestinians who happen to have murderous neighbors.

Ahh, right, that last sentence.

Turns out there's a pretty cool and constructive use for that paranoid, slacker fever-dream of a plot that that pretty much made up Eagle Eye, after all.

Who knew? Clearly not the PatriotActophobics who made the film.

Read the rest.

Latest Twitters On The Fighting & 'Hamasochism'

Latest Twitters on the Fighting in Gaza & 'Hamasochism'

• http://twitter.com/israelconsulate
• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=israel
• http://twitter.com/qassamcount
• http://twitter.com/Muqata
• http://twitter.com/ASoldiersMother

---
Contrast & Compare:

Exhibit A)
Israeli doctors mobilize to save a Palestinian baby's life: http://tinyurl.com/9ahb2v

More about this here.

Exhibit B)
From Richard Landes:

"Would Hamas secretly blow up its own people in order to blame Israel? Certainly, their ideology would justify such a move. As Hamas representative Fathi Hamad said last February, “Palestinians have created a human shield against the Zionist bombing machine.”

For the Palestinian people, death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire life. [Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) Feb. 29, 2008]

"As if to illustrate both the international reach of this Islamic ideology of death and martyrdom and it’s repugnant quality (at least to a Western liberal), a Saudi cameraman filmed live the “making of a martyr” when the doctors pulled the plug on a girl in a Gaza hospital. Could she have lived, had Hamas allowed her to go to Egypt in one of the many unused ambulances waiting at their southern border? We will never know."

'We didn't mean to, but we lied to our kids'

From Daniel Gordis:

"Why should children living in uncontested Israeli territory grow up being taught that in the playground, when the siren goes off, you run into the caterpillar, and hope that the rocket doesn't kill any of your friends who don't make it in time?

"These weeks, with the question of whether or not Jewish sovereignty means anything at all, there is really only one question. As Joshua said to the angel (Joshua 5:13), "are you for us, or for our adversaries?" Do you believe that Jews in Sederot have a right to live without bomb-shelter caterpillars in their playgrounds?

"Do you understand that the only point of having a Jewish state is that Jews should no longer live - and die - at the whim of those who hate us just because we exist?"

And this from Victor David Hanson at NRO:

"There is something especially nauseating about the latest Middle East war — scenes of worldwide Islamic protests with photos of Jews as apes, protesters (in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida of all places!) screaming about nuking Israel and putting Jews in ovens, parades of children dressed up with suicide vests and fake rockets, near constant anti-Semitic vicious sloganeering, Gaza mosques stuffed with rockets to be used against civilians — all to be collated with creepy Hamas rhetoric about the annihilation of Israel. This is the world in which we now live."

Latest Gaza Map & Updates

White words in upper caption: [IDF] control of Kassam firing areas. Israel has returned to take control of [former Israeli] communities in northern Gaza.

Ynet News map (cleared by IDF censors) of Israeli Army incursion into the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip. Latest reports say the IDF has also succeeded in deploying forces across Gaza, effectively cutting the territory in two (blue arrows above the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps). IDF officials say that is in order to thwart movement of armed Palestinian forces from one area of fighting to another.

Shooting Israel

Pyramid Power. Click on the image for the hi-rez view. (Dave Bender)

Here are really, really, impressive "amateur" photographers of Israel by others.

Got any faves of your own? Send 'em to me for posting. I can't get enough of this stuff.

'Aid2Gaza:' Succinct. Comprehensive. Guess who's the owner?

Aid2Gaza. Succint. Comprehensive. Veddy Brrrritsh. Oh, and you'll never guess who puts it out:

"This is a website, maintained at the Israeli Embassy in London, which aims to give as much information as possible on all the international aid being sent into Gaza.

"We’ll post updates from Israel’s COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) office, OCHA, UNRWA, USAID, ICRC (International Red Cross Red Crescent) and WHO information, as well as individual and group actions from the grassroots ,like the Free Gaza Movement."

And daring. Did I mention daring - aka "Hutzpadik?"

This week in Israel: Margot Dudkevitch on Gaza (Exclusive Podcast Interview)

Thanks and a shoutout to the whole freakin' world that's been clicking on the following link. Umm, here's a heads-up, folks: It's from 2006 - same place, similar situation - and, unfortunately, is a dead audio link. Sorry 'bout that - I'll try to get her on the line soon for an update:

Friday, June 30

This week in Israel: Margot Dudkevitch on Gaza (Exclusive Podcast Interview)

Israeli tank crew viewing an explosion in the Gaza town of of Beit Hanun (archive)

Hear Margot Dudkevitch, an Ozsraeli defense affairs and territories commentator, and former Jerusalem Post territories reporter as she takes look at this difficult week in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

'No More War! No More Bloodshed!' (More Israeli Animation!)

From Israelity:

"An Israeli animation is now creating a buzz on the Net. It got 160,000 views in just two weeks, and a special review at Aniboom – the world’s biggest animation site. It was also featured on YouTube Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands and Israel.

It’s an animation music video for the Israeli alternative rock band, Eatliz. Called “Hey”, the 3D animation took almost two years to make, with a crew of 15 animators."

While I could do without the indie "bash a hole in the drumhead and cymbals, and scream" music, it's engaging, and pretty in a Eurostyle kinda' way ("...not that there's anything wrong with that" - Google Czech and Hungarian animation for more).

The project is the brainchild of Guy Ben-Shetrit, a freelance animator who has worked for commercials, TV programs and computer games. Ben-Shetrit is the founder and composer of Eatliz, wrote the featured song, directed the movie, and was the lead animator. (He quit his job and took a year off work to complete the project.)

The video, which is going to be featured in the next issues of animation and design DVD magazines Stash and IDN, is a weird Sci-Fi fantasy journey taken by a little girl and her special pet friend, a huge toad.

This is the second animation music video by Eatliz – the first “Attractive” was directed by Yuval and Merav Nathan. The film won Best animation category in Israel’s annual animation festival, Asif.

'Yesterday As Good As Tomorrow' (Israeli music video)

One of my favorite Israelis performers; one of my favorite songs evah':



Yeah, we can quibble over some of the over-literal translations, but still, this one so gets me where I live.

I utterly condemn Israel's disproportionate response!

"I condemn Israel's disproportionate attack on Hamas because, so far, it has only lasted four days and I would like to see a proportionate response that terrifies Hamas for seven years, the years that have filled Sderot and neighboring towns with nightmares, death, amputations and trauma coming from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza."

Read the rest.

Israeli paratrooper parablogging from Gaza

Parabursts are here.

New full-length film about Sderot - watch the trailer here (updated)

From 12 Tribes Films' e-burst:

"The world today is mostly focused on criticizing Israel for it's attack on the terrorist forces in Gaza. Instead of criticizing Israel, the world should be asking what took Israel so long to respond to the 8 years of rocket attacks on its civilian population! Now is the time for us to show as much support and understanding for Israel as possible.

"This Sunday, January 4th, join thousands of people worldwide in watching QASSAM, the powerful movie about people in Sderot, and share in their experiences over the past 8 years!

Click here to see the trailer for Qassam."

Update - Avi sez':
Get yer' virtual movie tickets here:
http://israelwecare.weebly.com