Christians in Israel: Pluses and Minuses

Malcolm Lowe
July 31, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4520/christians-israel

Go to Nazareth and you can easily find the mini-mosque. It displays a large poster of Koran quotations denigrating Christianity and urging Christians to convert to Islam.
Overlooked is a fundamental difference between the two regimes. Israel is a state governed by the rule of law. The Palestinian Authority, like most other states in the region, is a personal dictatorship. Arafat started the fashion of simply disregarding the laws.
What is needed in Israel is a central policy unit with the brief of developing long-term policies both to integrate Israeli Christians and to engage with the great variety of Christians in foreign countries.

Israel is rightly seen as a place in which Christians enjoy a safer life than in all other countries in the region. When the Pope visited Jerusalem recently, however, two major Israeli newspapers published op-ed articles by guests who questioned that view. Both articles are available in English. Both contained some errors of fact, but their greater fault lies in mistakes of broader perspective. Nevertheless, there is a need for improvement in Israel's dealings with Christians.

Clergy from various churches at a Christmas reception in Jerusalem. (Image source: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)

Israel and the Region

Writing in the mass circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (May 26), and quickly translated for its English website Ynetnews.com (May 30), Farid Jubran headlined his article: "Christians' life in Israel not so wonderful." For sure, he admitted at the outset: "The Christians' situation in the Middle East is difficult. In Iraq, Syria and Egypt, churches are torched and Christians are slaughtered over their religion as a matter of routine. In some parts of Syria the Islamic Sharia laws have been applied, Christians are forbidden to conduct ritual ceremonies in public and special taxes have been imposed on them."

Yid With Lid

Another big lie being told by TV talking heads about the 23-day-old Gaza conflict is; if Israel destroys Hamas it could be replaced by something worse. Anyone who believes that to be the case has no idea of the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood offspring. Just like ISIS the stated ultimate goal of Hamas is a worldwide Muslim caliphate living under Sharia law. The only difference between the goals of the two groups is their names.

The assumption by causal observers is that if Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Abbas moderated Hamas will too.  Whether or not Fatah has moderated can be disputed but if we start with that premise being true that statement ignores the fact that all terrorist groups, indeed even all Palestinian terrorist groups are not alike. Fatah's goals are more political and secular; Hamas is a radical Islamist group with religious/political goals.

No home for Israel in the Democratic Party

Gidon Ben-Zvi

It's official: The Democratic Party has abandoned Israel to its fate. This development ‎has nothing to do with that most ancient of hatreds, anti-Semitism. Rather, in an age ‎when a compelling narrative increasingly trumps a cold, hard history lesson, Israel's ‎version of the events leading up to Operation Protective Edge, while factually sound, ‎is a snoozer.‎

The results of a recent Pew Research Center poll revealed the largest partisan gap in 40 years on the issue of supporting Israel.‎

Conducted July 8-14, the week Israel began its air operation against Hamas in ‎the Gaza Strip but before its ground invasion, the poll asked 1,805 respondents: "In ‎the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side to you sympathize with ‎more -- Israel or the Palestinians?"‎

The poll found that respondents considering themselves conservative Republicans ‎supported Israel by 77 percent, compared to 68 percent of moderate Republicans. ‎Among Democrats, 48 percent of moderate Democrats supported Israel, compared ‎to 39 percent of liberal Democrats.‎

In other words, 61 percent of liberal Democrats either sympathize with Hamas, a ‎group of war criminals designated as a terrorist organization by, among many other ‎countries, the United States, or are utterly apathetic to the plight of a small, faraway ‎democracy whose millions of citizens are being forced to flee for their lives under ‎daily, sometimes hourly, rocket fire.‎

IDF will destroy terror tunnels 'with or without cease-fire

IDF calls up additional 16,000 reservists • Three IDF troops killed in booby-trapped UNRWA clinic in Khan Younis, raising IDF death toll to 56 • Defense minister: We will reach all tunnels, even if it means going into areas not previously entered.

Lilach Shoval, Yael Branovsky, Daniel Siryoti, Yoni Hirsch, Shlomo Cesana, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies

An Israeli soldier inside a tunnel in southern Gaza, Wednesday | Photo credit: Ziv Koren

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces will dismantle the Hamas tunnel network in the Gaza Strip "with or without a cease-fire."

Speaking at the start of an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv as Operation Protective Edge entered its 24th day, Netanyahu said that "the IDF will continue to operate in Gaza with full force. The soldiers are completing their mission to neutralize the terror tunnels."

"Using their tunnel capability, Hamas could have kidnapped and murdered civilians and soldiers by simultaneously attacking from multiple tunnels. It is this capability that we are destroying," the prime minister said.

"As I said at the start of the operation, there are no 100 percent guarantees, but our forces are making impressive gains in the field. The operation is moving ahead at full speed as we speak. So far we have neutralized dozens of terror tunnels and we are determined to complete this mission, with or without a cease-fire.

Why Hamas is Still Holding Out

There are six differences between Israel and Hamas that have a role to play in addition to the bravery and initiative of the IDF.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar

 

Before the start of Operation Protective Edge, an entire bevy of so-called "experts" appeared on Israeli media informing us of the weak state of Hamas, how its oxygen supply is cut off because the smuggling tunnels from the Sinai are closed and Egypt has turned against it, as has Saudi Arabia; it cannot pay salaries, it wants to preserve the state it has created in Gaza at all costs - and so one and so forth.
Because of that, they concluded, its power of resistance is limited and since we have the Iron Dome to protect us, our decision makers can act judiciously, using our military power – particularly from the air – which is immeasurably more massive than that of Hamas. Even the world is on our side, they said, and surprisingly, supports us.
Now, after four weeks of air attacks and two weeks of a ground operation, Gaza has seen over 1,200 of its people killed and 7,000 wounded, and has not capitulated, has not raised a white flag, continues to launch rockets to Tel Aviv and the south, and the Gazan population has not rebelled. Just imagine what would happen to Israel's government if something like that, G-d forbid, happened here. It has suddenly become clear that all the "weakness factors" attributed to Hamas – the closed smuggling tunnels that Sisi sealed, Saudi Arabia, money and state – do not have the effect the "experts" predicted for the organization. Perhaps Hamas is not exactly the organization these "experts" painted for us.
Unfortunately, our mistakes result from continuing to look at the enemy through our own cultural lenses: we need money, a strong army, protection from rockets, friends in the region and international approval, and we think that if Hamas has none of these, it will be as weak as we would be if we lacked them. There is no greater error than that line of thought, because Hamas is the product of a vastly different culture where the strength and weakness factors are totally different from ours.

One of Hamas’ main command bunkers located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City

Robert Spencer
Western reporters know this, but don’t give it much attention. Why not? Why, that might offend Hamas, as it would reinforce Israeli claims that they’re deliberately trying to provoke civilian casualties. And we can’t have that, now, can we? “Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed,” Tablet, July 29, 2014:

The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war. So why aren’t reporters in Gaza ferreting it out? The precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital would seem to qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk.
So why isn’t the fact that Hamas uses Shifa Hospital as a command post making headlines? In part, it’s because the location is so un-secret that Hamas regularly meets with reporters there. On July 15, for example, William Booth of the Washington Post wrote that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” Back in 2006, PBS even aired a documentary showing how gunmen roam the halls of the hospital, intimidate the staff, and deny them access to protected locations within the building—where the camera crew was obviously prohibited from filming. Yet the confirmation that Hamas is using Gaza City’s biggest hospital as its de facto headquarters was made in the last sentence of the eighth paragraph of Booth’s story—which would appear to be the kind of rookie mistake that is known in journalistic parlance as “burying the lede.”
But Booth is no rookie—he’s an experienced foreign reporter, which means that he buried the lede on purpose. Why? Well, one reason might be that the “security sources” quoted whenever the location of the Hamas command bunker is mentioned—which, as evidenced by this 2009 article by the excellent and highly experienced foreign correspondent Steven Erlanger of the New York Times, happens every time there’s a war in Gaza—are obviously Israelis, not members of Hamas. It might be hard to believe the Israelis, the simple logic might run, since they obviously have an investment in arguing that Hamas is using hospitals and schools as human shields.

Three IDF soldiers killed at booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic

H Robert Spencer 
The international media will probably report this as a craven Israeli assault on a health clinic. In reality, the UNRWA clinic housed the opening of a jihad weapons smuggling tunnel. Here again, we see the UN being used by the jihadis — did UN officials know about this? This makes three UN schools and a health clinic aiding active jihad warfare — no one at the UN was aware of or on board with this? There needs to be a full investigation, and the defunding of the UN if it is found to be enabling war against a sovereign state. But this is the age of Obama, and there will be no such investigation.
“3 IDF soldiers killed in booby-trapped UNRWA clinic,” by Mitch Ginsburg, Times of Israel, July 30, 2014:

Three IDF soldiers were killed on Wednesday in Gaza in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed the opening of a tunnel, the IDF’s Gaza Division commander, Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein, said.
Two of the three were named as Staff Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, of Rishon Lezion, and Staff Sgt. Omer Chai, 21, of Savion.
The three troops, part of the elite Maglan unit, were taking precautionary measures in efforts to limit damage to the structure before eliminating the tunnel, when the explosives detonated in the small building.
The troops had sent in sniffing dogs and a small robot to minimize damage to the structure, located in Khan Yunis, but explosives rigged to the building detonated, toppling part of the building on top of the soldiers.
Fifteen soldiers were injured. IDF soldiers evacuating the wounded came under fire from Palestinian fighters. All of the fatalities and injured were eventually brought back to Israeli territory.

Obama's Gaza Game

Sultan Knish blog on Jul 31, 2014
While Israelis are fighting and dying, families huddling in bomb shelters and soldiers going off to face death, the men and women in suits and power suits moving through the great halls of diplomacy are using them as pawns in a larger game.

During the Cold War, Israel was a pawn in a larger struggle between the US and the USSR. Now it is back to being a counter in a larger game.

Israel’s function within the great halls of diplomacy was always as a lever on the Arab states. It was not an end, but a means of moving them one way or another. When the Arab states drifted into the Soviet orbit, the “Special Relationship” was born. The relationship accomplished its goal once Egypt was pried out of the Soviet orbit. It has lingered on because of the emotional and cultural ties of Israel and the US.

Now Obama is using Israel as a lever to push Egypt back into the Islamist camp. Egypt’s rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood broke the Arab Spring. Political Islam, which seemed to be on the ascendance, is back to being a freak show represented by terrorists and Turkey’s mad mustachioed dictator.

Egypt was where Obama went to begin the Arab Spring. Egypt is still his target. Israel is just the lever.

The reason Israel was never allowed to truly win any wars was because it was being used as a lever. By being a “good lever” during the Cold War, it could damage Egypt enough that the latter would come to the negotiating table overseen by the US and move back into the Western sphere of influence.

Islamic Jizya: ‘Protection’ from Whom?

Raymond Ibrahim On July 31, 2014 

Is jizya—the money non-Muslims historically paid their Muslim conquerors—meant to buy them “protection,” including from outside enemies, as modern Western academics maintain?  Or was it simply extortion money meant to buy non-Muslims their lives, as Islam’s scriptures mandate?
The word jizya appears in Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (emphasis added).”
In the hadith, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, regularly calls on Muslims to demand jizya of non-Muslims:  “If they refuse to accept Islam,” said the Islamic prophet, “demand from them the jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay jizya, seek Allah’s help and fight them.”
Keeping the above in mind, consider the following July 18 report from Reuters:

One Million Ceasefires

Daniel Greenfield On July 31, 2014 

If you like cease-fires, then this is a great time to be alive. Those Israelis who weren’t shot in the head by Hamas terrorists (whom Andrew Sullivan insists weren’t real Hamas terrorist, trading in his obsession with Sarah Palin’s rogue pregnancy for a new conspiracy theory) or killed by a Hamas rocket, encounter almost as many cease-fires in a given day as terrorist attacks.
A cease-fire comes along every few minutes and it can last anywhere from a minute to an hour to a few hours until Hamas once again begins firing rockets or swarming through tunnels to attack Israelis.
“War, what is it good for?” The Temptations sang. The obvious answer is that wars done right keep you from having to keep fighting.
But cease-fires with Hamas aren’t good for that or anything else.
Hamas violates its own cease-fires. It declares cease-fires and then denies that it declared them. It seems to have almost as many positions on cease-fires as John Kerry does on Iraq.
Israel’s unilateral cease-fires with Hamas are as worthless as its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza which allowed Hamas to take over the area. The cease-fires don’t stop the fighting. They don’t bring an end to the violence.
That’s what war is for.

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: PCHR "human rights" group follows Hamas instructions

PCHR is one of the three "human rights" groups that the UN relies on to give statistics on the dead and wounded in Gaza.

A week ago, their reports would mention the names of some of the dead who were clearly members of terrorist groups. For example, in this dispatch from July 22:

At approximately 21:00, medical sources at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared that Mohammed ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Eshtaiwi, 27, a member of Palestinian armed group, from Um al-Nasser village, died of wounds he had sustained on Saturday, 19 July 2014, during an armed clash with Israeli forces.

At approximately 12:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Saleh Mohammed Saleh Badawi, 29, a member of a Palestinian armed group, in al-Zaytoun neighborhood. He was instantly killed.

At approximately 13:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Mohammed Khamis al-Ghalban, 23, a member of a Palestinian armed group, in al-Sha’af neighborhood, killing him.

At approximately 00:35, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Ahmed Ameen Abu Hassira, 30, a member of a Palestinian armed group. He was instantly killed.

But since then, PCHR counts the terrorists - but no longer names them.

Caroline Glick's Capitol Hill briefing

Carol Brown

Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor at The Jerusalem Post, the author of The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. She was scheduled to speak on Capitol Hill a couple of weeks ago, however her speech was delayed until this week because the war broke out.
In the embedded video below she speaks for the first 35 minutes, after which there is a Q&A that is just as substantive as her talk.
Glick covers a range of urgent topics including the war between Hama and Israel, U.S. foreign policy, and European economic boycotts against Israel. She explains how the Obama administration is supporting Hamas all the way down to pushing Hamas’s ceasefire proposal as their own. She speaks of the enormous and complex pressure Israel is under, fighting two wars on two fronts: Hamas on the ground and the West’s threat to destroy Israel’s economy if she continues to defend herself and fight Hamas.

IDF: Cement used by Hamas for tunnels could build 100 kindergartens

GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Turgeman says 'we are only a few days away from destroying all terror tunnels.'

Omri Efarim

Published:  07.30.14,  Israel News

"With the amount of cement Hamas used to build these tunnels, it could have built two hospitals, 20 clinics, 20 schools, and 100 kindergartens," said GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman on Wednesday.


On the 23rd day of Operation Protective Edge, Turgeman said he believed "we are only a few days away from destroying all the terror tunnels."

GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman (Photo: AFP)

The GOC Southern Command said "the fighting continues, we have killed dozens of Hamas' elite soldiers and arrested dozens of Hamas fighters. Every day that passes we are closer to achieving our goal of destroying the tunnels."
Turgeman noted that "it is important to remember that this is a significant operational and engineering challenge. Hamas has been working on these tunnels for four years and in two weeks we have managed to demolish all of its tunnels."

Safe From Hamas, Italian Reporter Reveals Truth About Gaza

Rachel Levy

Published: July 30th, 2014

Gaza family weeps after two members were killed in a Hamas missile misfire from a concealed launcher at the Al-Shifa hospital, July 28, 2014. Ten children died and 30 people were wounded in the incident, which Hamas tried to blame on Israel.
Photo Credit: Emad Nassar / Flash 90

Far from the camera's eye, Gaza’s children are injured and sometimes even die, every time Hamas terrorists misfire a missile intended to kill other children in Israel.

But operatives quickly scramble into the scene and clear away the debris from the failed launch, before international cameras are able to snap a shot of the bloody mess.

Reporters are warned and sometimes roughed up. Photographers too. They understand the deal; they’ve been through this before and they know the rules of the region.

In Syria, dozens have died.

Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati, however, swallowed his fear and waited for the opportunity to tell the truth. When he left Gaza, he took his morals along with him and posted that truth in a tweet on the Twitter social networking site.

gabrielebarbati
Out of #Gaza far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris

The reference is to an alleged attack on the Al-Shati “refugee camp” and the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, both of which were blamed on Israel. An Iranian-made long-range Fajr rocket misfired upon launch at the Al-Shifa hospital, killing and injuring numerous civilians shortly after 5pm on July 28, including many children.

Within 30 hours, 2,395 people had re-tweeted his post and 703 had marked it a ‘favorite.’

Surprised? We are not! UN says more rockets found at one of its Gaza schools

For third time during Operation Protective Edge, caches of rockets found at a UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip • UNRWA spokesman condemns those responsible for placing civilians in harm's way, but does not specifically blame any party.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

The entrance to a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip | Photo credit: AP

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency on Tuesday said it had found a cache of rockets at one of its schools in the Gaza Strip, and deplored those who had put them there. It is the third time in recent weeks that rockets have been found at UNRWA schools in Gaza.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness condemned those responsible for placing civilians in harm's way by storing the rockets at the school, but he did not specifically blame any particular party.

Hamas military top dog: Our fighters are eager for death

Robert Spencer
On this (and this may be the only thing), Hamas and the IDF are in complete accord. In any case, this is just another statement of the Islamic jihadists’ oft-repeated desire for death. A Muslim child preacher taunted those he has been taught to hate most: “Oh Zionists, we love death for the sake of Allah, just as much as you love life for the sake of Satan.” Jihad mass murderer Mohamed Merah said that he “loved death more than they loved life.” Nigerian jihadist Abubakar Shekau said: “I’m even longing for death, you vagabond.”
Ayman al-Zawahiri’s wife advised Muslim women: “I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death.” And as one jihadist put it, “We love death. You love your life!” And another: “The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death.” That was from Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah.

What Obama Really Wants in Gaza

Daniel Greenfield On July 30, 2014 

While Israelis are fighting and dying, families huddling in bomb shelters and soldiers going off to face death, the men and women in suits and power suits moving through the great halls of diplomacy are using them as pawns in a larger game.
During the Cold War, Israel was a pawn in a larger struggle between the US and the USSR. Now it is back to being a counter in a larger game.
Israel’s function within the great halls of diplomacy was always as a lever on the Arab states. It was not an end, but a means of moving them one way or another. When the Arab states drifted into the Soviet orbit, the “Special Relationship” was born. The relationship accomplished its goal once Egypt was pried out of the Soviet orbit. It has lingered on because of the emotional and cultural ties of Israel and the US.
Now Obama is using Israel as a lever to push Egypt back into the Islamist camp. Egypt’s rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood broke the Arab Spring. Political Islam, which seemed to be on the ascendance, is back to being a freak show represented by terrorists and Turkey’s mad mustachioed dictator.
Egypt was where Obama went to begin the Arab Spring. Egypt is still his target. Israel is just the lever.

The casualty war

Israel charges Hamas manipulates casualty figures in quest for world sympathy

by Felice Friedson, The Media Line

Palestinians mourn next to the grave of a relative in Beit Lahiyah in the northern Gaza Strip on July 28. Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters

This story originally appeared on themedialine.org.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas extends far beyond the urban warfare playing out in the cities and towns of the Gaza Strip; the Israeli cities targeted by waves of Palestinian rockets; and the seek-and-destroy mission of locating and eradicating the elaborate and intricate network of tunnels revealed to extend deep into Israeli territory and beneath southern Israeli communities.

Beyond the shooting war, there is a war of images seeking to justify the actions of the players in the eyes of the world. To accomplish this, Hamas seeks to create the belief that most – more than 80% -- of the 1,137 Palestinians who died during the first two weeks of fighting are noncombatant women and children --read innocent victims of outrageous Israeli aggression. Israel, on the other hand, asserts that the process of identifying the dead is manipulated in order to predetermine the conclusion that Israel has relentlessly slaughtered innocents rather than admit the obvious use of civilian human shields and the commensurate benefits to the Hamas narrative of a high body count.

Hamas calls for reinforcements

 Israel Matzav
Hamas keeps telling us that they're 'winning,' but they're faring badly enough that they have now called on Hezbullah to deflect some of the IDF's might by attacking Israel from the North.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, who serves as Khaled Mashaal’s top deputy and who is currently based in Cairo, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday that the organization hoped that the Lebanese Shi’ite group would engage Israel from the north.

“We hope the Lebanese front will open and together we will fight against this formation [Israel],” Abu Marzouk told RIA Novosti.

“There’s no arguing that Lebanese resistance could mean a lot,” Abu Marzouk said.

Last week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to support "the resistance in Gaza in any way necessary" in its fight against the IDF.

Nasrallah made the statements in a phone call with Mashaal and the leader of Islamic Jihad Ramadan Salah.

Talk of Hezbullah joining in is just that - talk. Hezbullah still remembers what it suffered and what Lebanon suffered in 2006, when there was still a colorable argument that Hezbullah was not the same thing as Lebanon. Given Hezbullah's position in the Lebanese government, that argument can no longer be made.

IDF Launches New Offensive into North, Central Gaza

Gil Ronen

The Israel Defense Force began to advance toward “new targets” in the Gaza Strip Wednesday morning, ignoring US President Barack Obama's reported attempt to strongarm Israel into an immediate ceasefire.

IDF Radio, which reports the military advance, said that “it can be estimated that the IDF received permission from the political echelon to advance forward in various sectors in northern and southern Gaza."

The advance is into more densely populated areas, it said, and the movement is being accompanied by fire, and receiving close air support from aircraft. Two soldiers have been lightly injured, so far, from antitank fire, and a explosive charge was also activated against a tank. No one was hurt.

The IAF struck dozens of terror targets in north and central Gaza overnight.

The IDF struck over 80 targets in Gaza overnight. These included two mosques that served senior Hamas terrorists for observation and other terror-related purposes. 

Iran General: We Will Hunt Down Israelis House To House

REZA KAHLILI July 30, 2014

The deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed revenge against Israel for its ongoing military incursion into Gaza, which has already killed hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis.
"You [people of Israel] are trees without any roots which were planted in the Islamic lands by the British," Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said at this week's Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, Fars News Agency reported. That statement referred to the Balfour Declaration, which led to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the eventual creation of the state Israel in 1948.
"We will chase you house to house and will take revenge for every drop of blood of our martyrs in Palestine," Salami said. "and this is the beginning point of Islamic nations awakening for your defeat."
The deputy commander promised that Palestine will no longer remain calm and cited a statement by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic regime: "Imam [Khomeini] with the statement that Israel must be wiped from the face of the Earth gave a true message to the world. This message enlightened the Muslims and became the concept on the streets of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine."

Middle East and Iraq's Christians under attack

DR. WALID PHARES July 30, 2014

By now, all Christians living in the second largest city of Iraq, Mosul, have been removed, their belongings stolen, their houses seized, their churches burned or transformed into Mosques by an army brandishing black flags with Koranic inscriptions on them.

Christians fleeing north for their lives were told by the fighters identifying themselves as the army of the Islamic state that they had four choices: Convert to Islam, pay a Jizya tax and live under the protection of the Islamic state, leave the city, or die.

This is happening in 2014, in the post-American-occupation of Iraq, after several legislative elections across the country, and at during the age of YouTube and Instagram.

Ironically, though, this barbaric wave of jihadists identifying themselves as the "Islamic state" claim they are at the core of a new caliphate, one that - according to the declarations of ISIS - will bring back the glory of the early conquering caliphs.

Gaza on the Pacific

DEROY MURDOCK July 30, 2014

To understand why Israel fights in the Gaza Strip, try this thought experiment:
Imagine that Mexicans loudly and violently demand that America vacate the territory that Mexico previously controlled in the U.S. southwest. To make their case, Mexican revanchists brutally attack American diplomatic posts, assassinate U.S. officials, and even kidnap and kill American athletes at the summer Olympics. Despite such bloodshed, these Mexicans gain supporters among anti-American governments and elites worldwide.
Caving into this pressure, America gives the Mexicans San Diego. Dubbed "land for peace," Washington's concession would let Mexicans manage that city and show how they might govern if granted a "right of return" on even larger, previously Mexican lands.
While most Americans leave San Diego quietly, the U.S. military ejects holdouts from their property and removes them just before the Mexicans move in.

“Shloshim”

Shloshim means 30 in Hebrew, and and it is now a significant 30 days since the funerals of the three students who had been kidnapped and murdered by terrorists because they were Jews.

 

 

 Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shayer and Naftali Fraenkel

~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight there was a major ceremony at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem to mark this day that terminates the formal mourning period for the boys’ families.

It was incredible and powerful, because it touched not just the families, but all of us. We had taken these boys into our hearts.

~~~~~~~~~~

What was stunning was the understanding that ran throughout of the intrinsic connection between the murders of the boys and the war we are currently engaged in with Hamas.  It has been a process that we have witnessed, and now consider with a sense of certainty:

The boys were grabbed – they disappeared.  An emergency phone call by one of them to the police was considered a prank, and so was not promptly followed up.  This allowed the kidnappers/murderers to get away – although it was very quickly determined by authorities that members of Hamas were involved. 

Gaza as the EU's Second Front

David Archibald

As Glenn Reynolds has reminded us, the EU has been the major funder of the Palestinians in Gaza and is well aware that 250 million Euros-odd a year of their funding goes to buying weapons for attacking Israel.  Eleven years ago, European Union Parliament member Ilka Schroeder noted that the Europeans saw themselves as the future global power and that, in effect, their support for the Palestinians should be understood as a proxy war by the Europeans against the United States.  That sounds bizarre but the Europeans have done it before.
Decades ago the Europeans realised that their anti-business regulations made them uncompetitive with the United States.  Instead of improving themselves they decided to hobble American industry using global warming as the pretext.  Thus the baseline year for determining change in emissions of carbon dioxide is 1990.  That is the year that communism fell apart in Eastern Europe and coal consumption there plunged.  So meeting the emissions reductions the Europeans demanded of others would be a shoe-in for themselves.  Twenty years have passed since then and now the United States is also led by people who got their anti-Americanism with their mother’s milk.  The EPA is attempting to hobble American industry without any goading from the Europeans.

What would Hamas do without Hillary Clinton to rationalize its behavior?

By Carol Brown

 

Jorge Ramos of Fusion TV recently interviewed Hillary Clinton. In discussing the war between Hamas and Israel, Clinton managed to say at least half a dozen outrageous things in a span of just 2 minutes.
When asked the now familiar and misguided question about whether Israel has responded to Hamas in a disproportionate way, Clinton seized the opportunity to tout how when she negotiated a cease fire “it held until just this month. And then Hamas, which has its back against the wall, decided to fire rockets into Israel.”
As quick aside. Can we stop with “proportionality” already? Israel (and the West) is in a fight for its life. The enemy is Islam. The opponents are terrorists. Anything less than wiping them out as quickly and efficiently as you can is madness.
But back to the interview.
Hillary admitted that Hamas's tactic of maximizing civilian casualties worked for her:

But I and everybody who has seen these terrible pictures on TV hope there can be a cease-fire and try to end the killing and try to prevent the unbelievable heartbreak that we see happening.

First, Clinton’s self-absorption and opportunism were on full display.
Second, what’s up with Hamas having its back against the wall? What in the world was she trying to say? By suggesting that Hamas was in some kind of untenable position and therefore had to start firing rockets was ludicrous, legitimized a terror organization, and legitimized their actions.
But she was just warming up.

Beheadings of Infidels, Halal Sex Products and "Muslims Don't Like Dogs"

Soeren Kern

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4514/infidel-decapitations-halal-sex-products

The Vatican failed in an attempt to cover up the contents of a prayer by a Muslim cleric at an interfaith "Prayer for Peace" service held in the Vatican garden on June 8. Departing from a pre-approved script, the imam recited verses 284-286 of Sura 2 from the Koran, the latter part of which calls on Allah to grant Muslims victory over non-Muslims.
Danish police raided a mosque in the Vibevej district of Copenhagen after a passerby allegedly saw weapons being carried into the complex.
"We now have hundreds of jihadists and thousands of sympathizers. This naïve Cabinet's inaction is inviting an attack in the Netherlands." — Geert Wilders, Dutch Freedom Party.
Conference attendees called on the Spanish government to sponsor an official study aimed at finding ways to bring European food standards into compliance with Islamic Sharia law.

Austria accused Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of stirring up trouble on June 19, when he urged thousands of cheering supporters in Vienna to reject "assimilation."
Erdogan was rallying support for his candidacy ahead of Turkish presidential elections in August, and expatriate Turks have become a significant bloc of voters after changes to the electoral system now allow them to cast votes abroad.
Around 268,000 people of Turkish origin live in Austria, according to government figures, of whom nearly 115,000 are Turkish citizens.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who had expressly warned Erdogan not to undermine efforts to integrate Turks into Austrian society, criticized the latest comments:

THIRD Rocket Arsenal Found At UN School In Gaza

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/29/THIRD-Rocket-Arsenal-Found-At-UN-School-In-Gaza

by Jordan Schachtel 29 Jul 2014, 12:08 PM PDT 115 post a comment

The United Nations Relief & Works Agency For Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced Tuesday that another rocket stockpile has been found at one of its schools in Gaza. This instance marks the third time since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge that a weapons arsenal has been found at an UNRWA school in Gaza.

UNRWA has yet to place blame on any individuals or organizations for placing the weapons stockpile within a children’s school. The UN body refused to do so on the past two previous occasions as well.
The UN body, after both previous findings, has handed the rockets it had found back into the possession of “the local police," otherwise known as the terrorist group Hamas.
This week, UNRWA supplies and building materials had been found in Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure, which has been used to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks on the State of Israel.

Obama sticks it to all of us by praising American Muslims for their contributions to America. Just an historical point: the first mosque in this country was built in 1934 in Iowa. So we can surely say there were no Muslims fighting for this Christian country in the Revolutionary, Civil, Spanish-American or the First World War. The only Muslims earlier, were those dealers on the slave ships who unloaded their wares on our shores and then returned to Africa to load up again.

 

Obama's prayer rug must be wearing thin over the past 6 1/2 years. Perhaps another visit to Islamist Turkey or even to Iran is being scheduled to replace it.

 

Alan

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/obama-thanks-muslims-for-building-the-very-fabric-of-our-nation

UNBELIEVABLE AND DISTURBING -- Obama Thanks Muslims For “Building The Very Fabric Of Our Nation”…

Grooming Jihadists

Samuel Westrop

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4521/grooming-jihadists

"These boys were groomed [at the Al Manar Centre] ... so that they are satisfied that what they go to do is right ... once they're groomed, all it takes is someone to say come and I'll take you." — Source close to the Yemeni Community, Cardiff, U.K., as reported in The Telegraph.
All these preachers share one thing in common: they are favorites of the two leading government-subsidized Salafi charities in Britain.

The British government, on June 26, banned Sheikh Mohammad Al Arifi from entering the United Kingdom, after reports in the British media linked the Saudi preacher to the radicalization of British youth now fighting for ISIS in Syria.
Arifi's sermons at the Al Manar Centre in Cardiff in particular, have been linked to the radicalization of three young British Muslims: brothers Nasser and Aseel Muthana and their friend, Reyaad Khan.

Saudi Islamist preacher Muhammad al-Arifi (right) at an iERA stall in London

This ban demonstrates the British government's growing acceptance that Islamist preachers actually do play an important role in driving Muslim youth toward terrorism.

The Mathematics of Bias

According to Hamas, after twenty days of conflict, 1,050 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombings. Hamas is notorious for outright lying, but for the sake of argument I’ll go with their number.

By every account, the Israeli Air Force, Armored Corps and Artillery Corps have massively bombed Gaza over the past 3 weeks. Also, according to everyone, Gaza is a very densely populated area, with over 4,000 people per square kilometer. Think for a second what a single bombing run would do to a single square kilometer if the intent was to indiscriminately kill civilians. After a single day of conflict, you would have thousands of Palestinian casualties. But you don’t. All you have is – at most – 263 civilian deaths caused by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Mathematically speaking, this is a testament to the superhuman efforts undertaken by the Israeli army to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties. Put a different way, Hamas’ statistics prove the precise opposite of what they claim. They prove the humanity, not the brutality, of the IDF.

Click here to read more: http://www.simchajtv.com/the-arithmetic-of-bias/

--
Yisrael Medad
http://www.simchajtv.com/the-arithmetic-of-bias/

Rice repeats Obama demand that Israel accept “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”

Robert Spencer Jul 28, 2014 
Once again, the Obama Administration shows no sign of recognizing the fact that Hamas intentionally mounts attacks from civilian areas, deceptively labels military casualties as civilians, and tries to provoke civilian casualties that it can use for propaganda purposes. How long before Obama comes out openly for Hamas?
“Susan Rice: Gaza death toll ‘alarming,’” by Jonathan Topaz, Politico, July 28, 2014:

National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Monday said the civilian death toll in Gaza is “alarming.”
Appearing on MSNBC, the top White House adviser first said that the Obama administration “fully supports” Israel’s right to defend itself against threats like those from Hamas.

Iran’s Proxy War Against Israel

Majid Rafizadeh On July 29, 2014 

While the mainstream media has focused solely on Hamas and Israel in the current ongoing war, there has been less attention given to the major role that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been playing in ratcheting up the conflict with its military assistance to Hamas fighters, including Iranian-built Fajr 5 and M-75 with ranges of approximately 75 kilometers.
These are missiles and rockets that can target cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
It is worth noting that the export of arms as well as military and weaponry assistance by the Islamic Republic to Hamas is legally prohibited by the United Nations Security Council, written in UN Resolution 1747.
Although Iranian leaders often deny that they are supporting Hamas militarily, some, including former Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, admitted that the Islamic Republic has been supplying military aid and technology to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. On the Iranian parliament’s website, Larijani stated, “We are honored to provide the Palestinian people with military aid, while all Arabic countries do is hold meetings. Palestinian people do not need lectures and meetings.”
In addition, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Mohammad, Ali Jafari, admitted that Iran is supplying weapons to Hamas and other groups: “Iran provides technical assistance to all Muslims who fight against world arrogance.”

Hamasbara and Media Terrorism

Daniel Greenfield On July 29, 2014

The media war between Israel and Hamas is a disproportionately unequal one. It’s unequal because Israel must maintain its credibility, while Hamas and its media allies never worry about their credibility.
In an instant messaging news cycle, Israel responds to accusations of atrocities with an investigation while Hamas and its Hamasbara allies in the media package together bloody photos from local stringers along with a narrative and turn it into an instant story.
By the time the Israeli investigation nails down the real story, as with the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun, the Hamasbara is already moving on to the next atrocity.
Every Israeli statement is pored over and examined from every angle. A Tweet by an Israeli police spokesman was spun by BuzzFeed troll Sheera Frenkel into a claim that Hamas had not kidnapped and murdered the three Israeli boys. The story was then repackaged by New York Magazine for a post that had over 200,000 social media shares. The post was dishonest and untrue… but that didn’t matter.
Meanwhile Al-Monitor’s Laura Rozen participated in the attacks against Israel by accusing Haaretz’s Barak Ravid, who had revealed the Kerry ceasefire terms favorable to Hamas, of being a liar who was passing along false Israeli claims.

I am angry, thus this post

Gaza's Small Size Justification for Hamas Housing Rockets in Schools - Hillary lying as usual‏ 

This is the ethical and moral clarity of our leaders-are you kidding me? At least finally the real positions of Hillary and the entire Obama administration is out in the open-finally transparency-I cannot tolerate what I see and hear.  This kind of thinking speaks to the decline of human decency-those who continue to support her and this kind of thinking need not read my blog any more-you are intolerable!

Thanks NG for this post

You want to vomit when you hear this stupid woman and people want her to be president. Hell NO! She has no moral compass

Israel is very small too and has a larger population and still does not store rockets in its hospitals, schools and synagogues!!! Hillary is Insane! Or anti-Semite 101!

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/07/28/Hillary-Gazas-Small-Size-Justification-for-Hamas-Housing-Rockets-in-Schools

Reality check The State Of the World, Like It Or Not

Nurit Greenger | July 29, 2014

There isn’t one major mainstream newspaper in America, and the New York Times is leading the list, Europe, and maybe even Latin America that has not, is not, and will not blame Israel for the Arab-Palestinian woes, whether it is their 66 years old refugees’ status, or for Jews stealing their land and homes, the cause of Islamic hostilities against the West, crimes against humanity, supporting apartheid, etc.

Interestingly enough though, there is no newspaper that mentions that Israel’s hospitals are treating, free of charge, Arab-Palestinian from Gaza with treatment that they cannot receive in Gaza, i.e. cancer, organs’ transplants, heart operations, plastic surgery, etc., ALL free of charge; and 70% of Gaza electricity, 100% of their water and fuel supply, and a large percentage of all their food comes from Israel and they do not pay for it, because Israel cannot collect payments due. Over the last 14 days, thousands of mortars and rockets landed in Israel from Gaza, all fired on civilians’ areas in order to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Worthy mentioning, also terrorists have been trying to infiltrate Israel to kill and kidnap Israelis.

Did your MSM report this?

Blast at Gaza hospital was result of failed rocket launch, IDF finds 

COGAT chief tells Palestinian Maan news that the explosions at Shifa hospital, Al-Shati refugee camp were caused by failed Islamic Jihad rocket fire • Israeli doctors offer rebuttal to claims in Lancet medical journal of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti, Meytal Yisur Beit-Or

Aerial photo of the area around Shifa hospital in Gaza | Photo credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Rockets launched toward Israel by Gaza terrorists failed and hit Shifa hospital and Al-Shati refugee camp within Gaza on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, told the Palestinian Maan news agency on Monday that the deaths of several children in Al-Shati camp and the damage at Shifa Hospital were caused by a failed Islamic Jihad rocket attack against Israel. The rockets were fired from the direction of Tel al-Hawa in Gaza.

Israel strikes house of Hamas Gaza leader, digs in for long fight

Israeli officer says bombing Haniyeh's house "does not bother him" • Israeli tank shells hit Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down • Terrorists fire rocket at central and southern Israel before dawn Tuesday, one rocket is intercepted over Ashdod.

Reuters, Meital Yasour Beit-Or, and Israel Hayom Staff

Israeli artillery fire at targets in the Gaza Strip, Monday | Photo credit: Reuters

Fighting in the Gaza Strip continued on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel needed to be prepared for a long conflict in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh before dawn on Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties, Gaza's interior ministry said.

Credit: Reuters

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland told Ynet that the bombing Haniyeh's house "does not bother him. I do not think this attack is important, I do not think attacking buildings is important."

An Israeli military spokeswoman had no information on the report but was checking for details.

Later Tuesday, Gaza's power plant was forced to shut down after two tank shells hit one of three fuel tanks, said Jamal Dardasawi, a spokesman for Gaza's electricity distribution company. The shelling sparked a large fire and a huge column of smoke was seen rising from the site. Dardasawi said 15 workers were trapped inside by the fire and that the damage would take months to repair. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, did not comment on the explosion at the plant, but told The Associated Press that Israel's latest strikes signal "a gradual increase in the pressure" on Hamas.

Obama's humanitarian cease fires

Boaz Bismuth

Perhaps there was someone in Jerusalem who agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama's (strange) demands for a "humanitarian cease fire without pre-conditions," and his consent (really, thank you so much Mr. President) for Israel's demand to make a Gaza a weapons-free zone, but only within the framework of a future final-status accord.

Israel, it must be remembered, already agreed to six cease-fire proposals since the onset of Operation Protective Edge, including the Egyptian proposal that preceded the ground incursion. Hamas violated every single one. Incidentally, it was Hamas on Monday that perhaps solved the Israeli dilemma whether to say yes to the American proposal or not. The terrorist organization from Gaza, with its resumption of attacks on Monday, made Obama's proposal, much like Secretary of State John Kerry's proposal on Friday, unrealistic. If Obama wants to blame anyone, with all due respect let him turn to Hamas.

Hamas does not want a cease-fire. It continues to fire at Israeli population centers, and leaves the IDF without a choice: We are not stopping until we have victory, a clear one. Extremists of Hamas' ilk are not a rare breed in this neighborhood. God help us if they do not understand that the IDF's only option is victory.

It's terrorism, stupid

Steve Emerson

Secretary of State John Kerry's push for a cease-fire in Gaza last week was so flawed it managed to unite Israel's fractious political leadership in opposition while simultaneously being lambasted by the Palestinian Authority.

The proposal called for negotiations on Hamas demands, including opening border crossings into Gaza and relaxed boating restrictions off the Gaza coast. In addition, its language reportedly elevated Hamas -- a designated terrorist organization -- to equal footing with Israel. Then, President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday to make "clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 cease-fire agreement."

In other words, Obama demanded that Israel institute an immediate unilateral cease-fire even while Hamas continues its terrorist operations against Israel. True to form, Hamas escalated its attacks on Monday.

Don't give them money

Prof. Efraim Inbar

The developing international consensus to offer Gaza an economic package in order to convince Hamas to agree to a cease-fire is immoral and a strategic folly. It is also unlikely to be effective.

One of the main reasons for Hamas harassing several million Israelis by launching thousands of rockets and sending terrorists into Israel by tunnels, apart from the desire to kill Jews, was to rock the boat in order to get out of its dire economic conditions. Getting paid for stopping to shoot at Israeli civilians looks like the "protection money" collected by the mafia.

The morality of pouring money so that Gazans can live better is questionable as long as Hamas does not stop its terrorism against Israel. Unfortunately, establishing a clear connection between economic aid and political compliance is not on the agenda of the "peacemakers."

It is true that Gazans are suffering. Nevertheless, it is wrong to argue that the Gazans should not suffer the consequences of Hamas actions. Unfortunately, Hamas was popular among the Gazans and continues to be so. Moreover, all polls show support among Gazans for violence against Israelis. What moral justification exists for helping people that support an organization intent on destroying the Jewish state, which is actively engaged in killing innocent Israeli citizens?

10 IDF soldiers fall in battle, no cease-fire in sight

IDF death toll rises to 53 • Five IDF soldiers killed by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated into Israel through tunnel near Nahal Oz • Four soldiers killed in mortar strike on staging area near border • One soldier killed in RPG attack in southern Gaza.

Israel Hayom Staff

A wounded Israeli soldier is evacuated from the Gaza border area, Monday | Photo credit: Albert Sadikov / JINI

After a spate of deadly Hamas attacks on Monday, it appears there is no end in sight for Operation Protective Edge. In Monday's attacks, ten Israeli soldiers were killed, raising the IDF death toll during the operation to 53.

On Monday night, a group of Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israel through a tunnel under the border near Nahal Oz. The terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF position, killing five soldiers. In an ensuing exchange of fire, one of the terrorists was killed, while the rest escaped back to Gaza.

The terrorists reportedly tried to abduct the body of one of the dead soldiers, but this attempt was thwarted.

The soldiers killed in the incident were identified as Sgt. Daniel Kedmi, 18; Sgt. Barkey Ishai Shor, 21; Sgt. Sagi Erez, 19; Sgt. Dor Dery, 18, and Sgt. Nadav Raimond, 19.

Deep Pink

Here he is

There he goes:

Another snap.

As reported

Rice's remarks were briefly interrupted by a heckler, who later gave his name as Tighe Barry, 50, from Los Angeles. He said he had flown to Washington from California to attend the meeting and belonged to an organisation called Jewish Voices for Peace.  "The truth is, Israel is killing innocent people in Gaza," he yelled during Rice's speech, before he was quickly and forcefully wrestled out by security. "Stop the bombing, stop the killing, stop the hate."

Hamas Strategy Relies on Deaths of Civilians

Steven Shamrak  News

Michael Oren

The displacement, injury and death of civilians in war always tragic, and the current fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is no exception. But unlike the vast majority of conflicts in history, Operation Protective Edge, as Israel calls it, is one in which images of civilian suffering play a central - and potentially decisive - role in the outcome.

And the reason is simple: More than a military strategy, Hamas has a media strategy. Calculatingly, Hamas employs primitive military tactics to mount a sophisticated media campaign that can threaten Israel 's basic security. And in conducting that offensive, Hamas can count on one of the world's most powerful weapons: the international media...

Presbyterian Church USA Criticizes Israel, Ignores Christian Persecution

Raymond Ibrahim
CBN News

http://www.meforum.org/4763/presbyterian-church-ignores-christians-criticize

The Presbyterian Church USA recently withdrew $21 million worth of investments from Israel.

Days before the recent Israel/Hamas conflict erupted, the Presbyterian Church USA withdrew $21 million worth of investments from Israel because, as spokesman Heath Rada put it, the Israeli government's actions "harm the Palestinian people."
Soon after, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and was asked if he was "troubled" by the Presbyterian Church's move. Netanyahu responded:

It should trouble all people of conscience and morality because it's so disgraceful. You know, you look at what's happening in the Middle East and I think most Americans understand this, they see this enormous area riveted by religious hatred, by savagery of unimaginable proportions. Then you come to Israel and you see the one democracy that upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities, that protects Christians—Christians are persecuted throughout the Middle East. So most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of civilization and moderation. You know I would suggest to these Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice, one is, make sure it's an armor plated bus, and second, don't say that you're Christians.

It's difficult—if not impossible—to argue with Netanyahu's logic. Indeed, several points made in his one-minute response are deserving of some reflection.