Is it yet again be left to Israel to do something about this terrifying threat.   And will she yet again be criticised and pilloried by those who don;t have the guts to do it, as she was when she took out Iraq’s nuclear threat?

This warning from Pilar Rahola is a timely one, but it anyone listening?

Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist. She is a passionate defender of the United States and Israel and an indefatigable fighter against anti-Semitism. All these despite being ideologically from the left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. She is the recipient of major awards by Jewish organizations.�
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Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist? Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? An finally, the million dollar question:Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn’t care.
And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: “We want freedom for the people!” Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.
The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don’t inform, they propagandize. When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren’t any accusations left to level against her. At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.
And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: “Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel.”
In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos exchanged Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70’s and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel. And so on and so on.
This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it’s a symbol.
Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us will cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. And yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.

And then it says it is anti Israel because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference.

Conclusion:
I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not as anti Israeli as my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against  hatred towards the Jews and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles. Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and leftist, I have a triple moral duty towards Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.

The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn’t want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.

It should be widely used as it clearly and specifically analyses both the legal and practical aspects of the flotilla

Condemn Israel – Then Investigate

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Condemn Israel – Then Investigate
by Elliot Chodoff

The world has put on its usual show this past week, roundly condemning Israel for intercepting the Gaza-bound flotilla, and then calling for an investigation of Israel’s actions. Normal legal processes, such as investigating prior to condemnation, don’t apply. The verdict is already in: condemn Israel, let’s not be confused by the facts.

(An investigation will find that Israel did not use methods that are acceptable to international bodies like the UN. For example, rather than hailing the ship and boarding it, Israel might have utilized the quietly criticized, but otherwise accepted, N. Korean tactic of a submarine-launched torpedo to sink the ship. This would have spared the world the drama of “peace activists” having to try to smash the skulls of IDF naval commandos with steel rods. Alternatively, Israel could have adopted the Iranian post-election crowd control method, raking the ship’s deck with machine gun fire. It worked for Ahmedinejad; barely a peep was heard from the UN and its assorted organs, and Iranian protest has become a thing of the past.)

A number of points bear noting:

- Israel blockades Gaza
It is a blockade, neither a siege nor proxy occupation. Blockade is a legal form of warfare, and does not constitute collective punishment (according to the Geneva Convention). The blockade was not imposed as a result of the Israeli disengagement, but rather as a response to Palestinian belligerency as expressed in cross-border terrorist attacks, ambushes of military patrols, rocket fire into Israeli towns, and the holding of Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Blockades are legal actions; even the UN allows itself the option to impose them (UN Charter, Article VII, Chapter 42).

Further, the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, compiled in 1994, states (emphasis added):

SECTION II: METHODS OF WARFARE
Blockade
93. A blockade shall be declared and notified to all belligerents and neutral States.
94. The declaration shall specify the commencement, duration, location, and extent of the blockade and the period within which vessels of neutral States may leave the blockaded coastline.
95. A blockade must be effective. The question whether a blockade is effective is a question of fact.
96. The force maintaining the blockade may be stationed at a distance determined by military requirements.
97. A blockade may be enforced and maintained by a combination of legitimate methods and means of warfare provided this combination does not result in acts inconsistent with the rules set out in this document.
98. Merchant vessels believed on reasonable grounds to be breaching a blockade may be captured. Merchant vessels which, after prior warning, clearly resist capture may be attacked.
99. A blockade must not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral States.
100. A blockade must be applied impartially to the vessels of all States.

(http://www.icrc.org/IHL.nsf/52d68d14de6160e0c12563da005fdb1b/7694fe2016f347e1c125641f002d49ce!OpenDocument)

Which one of these rules did Israel violate? (Hint: None!) It should be noted, that paragraph 98 states that after resisting capture, the vessel may be attacked. The Israeli Navy could legally have fired on the ship after the “activists” on board resisted.

- Blockades may be enforced in international waters
According to The Commander’s Handbook on the Law Of Naval Operations” (US Department of Defense, 1 Jul 2007), a ship is considered to be running the blockade when it leaves port, not when it crosses into blockaded waters. (I am indebted to David Olesker for pointing this out at: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=394803501556)

- Blockade runners are engaging in an act of war and are subject to attack
“Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral states may not be attacked unless they are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture,” says the San Remo Manual.

So much for the law. While even Israel’s friends refer to the operation to stop the flotilla as a “botched raid”, I disagree. While the outcome was certainly far from optimal, “botched” implies something very different. The commandos were sent into what they knew was going to be a difficult and confusing situation, with orders to use minimal force to protect innocent “activists.” They met a violent mob and nandles them rather well.

A few points are worth consideration. First, the mission was to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza. This was successfully accomplished. Second, five of the six ships stopped were boarded without incident.

Next, the commandos were armed appropriately for this mission. They were charged with taking control of the ships and those on board, and did so, using minimum force considering the circumstances. I have yet to read or hear a better alternative plan. Had they gone in with greater force, the results would have been worse.

Emerging information points to the fact that those who resisted on the Mavi Marmara were paid, trained, Islamic mercenaries and not simply not “activists.” This group was divided into squads, apparently had firearms that were thrown overboard when the fighting ended, were well trained, possibly ex-military. Most important, some at least, were on the trip planning to die as martyrs.

As more information comes to light, both legal and factual, it becomes clearer that the real error that Israel committed in the eyes of the world was in attempting to protect its population from the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The world would much rather see Iran shipping weapons to Hamas in Gaza, as it does to Hizbullah in Lebanon in flagrant violation of UN resolutions and despite the presence of UNIFIL, than have Israel act legally in its own defense.

For years, the Egyptians have been strongly condemning Israel for erecting the security fence in the West Bank. But now Egypt is quietly building its own wall along its border with Gaza and does not want to hear any complaints. The Israeli barrier was built with the chief goal of halting suicide bombings and other terror activities against Israelis. The Egyptian fence, on the other hand, is being constructed to stop Palestinians living in Gaza from entering Egypt. Israel does not want to reopen its borders with Gaza and that is regrettable and painful, but also understandable. But what one cannot understand is the negative attitude of the Egyptians and the rest of the Arab regimes toward the misery of their Palestinian brothers. The Arab rulers want Gaza to remain Israel’s problem alone.
The ironic part is that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is now defending Egypt’s right to build a separation wall. This is the same Abbas who, for years, has been condemning Israel’s “Apartheid Wall” and urging the world to force Israel to tear it down. (Hudson Institute-New York)

It is interesting to note that while the Viva Palestina convoy is held up in Eqypt, another group of protestors is heading for Gaza on what they call “a march of peace”       What a shame these misguided do-gooders don’t actually try to do something positive for the Palestinian people and try to persuade their leaders that the best option is to make peace with Israel and move forward to improving the quality of life of the people they have forced to live as refugees for the past 61 years.

Below I have included the Arutz Sheva report of the Egyptian blockade.   Again I ask you to spread the word about this Egyptian action and to pose the question as to why no-one bothers to react and only accuses Israel of a blockade, when in fact it is only through Israel that the supply lines are constantly open, contrary to what the pro Palestinian lobby would have the world believe.

SELECTIVE OUTRAGE
A subject for an objective academic study
By Maurice Ostroff

China’s Grisly PracticesWith the launching last month of David Matas and David Kilgour ’s book “Bloody Harvest” every fair minded person must wonder why there has been no public outrage at its gruesome revelation of wide-scale harvesting of organs from live prisoners of conscience in China. The authors estimate that 41,500 organ transplants using Falun Gong prisoners have been done in the past five years. Their vital organs were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.

http://albany10.cityspur.com/2009/12/22/bloody-harvest-estimate-that-41500-organ-transplants-using-falun-gong-prisoners/

This is not merely a journalist’s report that can be taken lightly. Matas is a lawyer who received the Order of Canada for his human rights work, and Kilgour, a is former crown prosecutor and former Member of Parliament.

The allegations are not new. According to the British Medical Journal of Nov 24, 2001 prisoners in China can be executed for crimes such as black market activities, in addition to murder. Ambulances wait at the site of the executions and the fresh organs from healthy young persons are harvested, to be transplanted into recipients from abroad. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121712/

10,000 African Albinos in hiding
And why, one must ask, is there no outrage at reports by the International Federation for the Red Cross and Crescent societies, that 10,000 Albinos have gone into hiding in East Africa because of the common belief that body parts of albinos have magical powers?

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/732206–east-african-albinos-flee-murder-dismemberment

India’s Black Market in Organs
And are we too indifferent to express outrage at India’s black market organ scandal as reported in Time magazine of Feb 1, 2008, revealing an organ transplant ring that has been harvesting kidneys from poor Indian laborers, sometimes against their wishes? Doctors pay $1000 for the kidneys and sell them for $37,500. Another massive transplant ring in Punjab was uncovered in 2003. Police there believe at least 30 of the donors, died, despite promises that they would receive excellent post-operation medical care. Some donors were forcibly brought to clinics at gunpoint and forced to undergo operations that they didn’t want.

On Feb 09, 2008 Live.com reported that Amit Kumar, the well known Indian trafficker in human organs who was arrested, claimed that the 3,000 kidney transplants he was involved in were a social service.

Even Britain
In 2000, pathologist Dick Van Velzen at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool confessed to removing hundreds of thousands of organs from children’s bodies and storing them in hospitals all over the country. In addition to over 2,000 hearts, there were a large number of brain parts, eyes taken from over 15,000 stillborn foetuses and perhaps most disturbingly of all, a number of children’s heads and bodies. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/198499-The-Deadly-Trade-of-Child-Organ-Trafficking

Gaza’s Grisly Trophies
And there was not even a hint of outrage when Mideast Dispatch Archive reported on May 11, 2004 that body parts of six murdered Israelis were paraded around in Gaza as trophies by Palestinian mobs, including members of the PA security forces. Some even played football with body parts in the street. One disembodied head was placed on a table so television cameras could film it close up.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000188.html

But there is no lack of outrage when Israel is in the dock
How does one explain the glaring difference between the mild media reactions to the above well documented reports and the immediate frenzied response to the unsubstantiated inference that the IDF harvested body parts of Palestinians, in the article by Donald Bostrom in the Swedish Aftonbladet? And how does one explain the instant fame acquired by the author whose name suddenly achieved over 400,000 Google results.

Bostrom’s own words confirm that his accusations are based on flimsy inferences rather than evidence. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post on August 20, he said critics “think I’m accusing the IDF of stealing organs. That’s not what I’m doing. I just recorded the Palestinian families saying that.” He went on to say “I don’t think there is a connection between the New York thing and what happened in the West Bank in the 90s.” Astonishingly, Mr. Bostrom nevertheless used the NY story in his leading paragraph together with a prominent photograph of one of the accused, a bearded Mr. Rosenbaum. More egregiously, Mr. Bostrom omitted to tell his readers that there were only five Jews among the 44 people arrested in the NY corruption and organ brokering scandal, including two New Jersey mayors, an assemblyman, and a city deputy mayor. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418651681&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Evidently, when Israel is in the dock, an accusation doesn’t need to meet even the minimum requirements of journalistic integrity to be widely accepted.

The tenuous nature of Bostrom’s accusations are all too obvious when one considers that he refers to hearsay incidents in 1992, to infer that the IDF harvested organs in the Cast Lead operation in 2008-9

Exaggeration
In enjoying his new fame, Mr. Bostrom is evidently not averse to exaggeration. On receiving an award for excellence from the National Federation of Algerian Journalists he casually increased the number of Palestinians victims whose body parts had been harvested, to more than 1,000.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/News.php/2009/09/25/bostrom-israel-harvested-body-parts-of-m

Prof. Hiss
Most of the articles that followed Bostrom’s, see a conspiratorial link between the IDF in 2009 and the unrelated 1990 incident in which Professor Hiss, who was then head of Israel’s forensic institute admitted that he had harvested organs from cadavers without permission of their families. This incident closely resembles the Dick Van Velzen case in Britain cited above.

Israel’s Health Ministry responded that the guidelines at that time were not clear, but that they have been severely tightened and strictly enforced since then. Although Professor Hiss still works as chief pathologist, he was dismissed as head of the forensic institute.
Israel’s attorney-general Rubenstein at the time decided not to indict him since “there is no suspicion of corruption or profiteering on the part of Prof. Hiss, and the only interest he had was the advancement of medical research.”

There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with Rubenstein’s decision. Former Health Minister Dahan said he was sure that there was room for a criminal investigation but that there was at least one encouraging result, namely, that the questionable practices in the Forensic Institute would not continue.

Disgusting as this episode was, it is dishonest journalism to draw a false link from it to the IDF’s behavior in Operation Cast Lead.

Journalistic standards
Even one of Israel’s severest critics, Matthew Cassel, assistant editor of The Electronic Intifada, cannot close his eyes to the obvious defects in the Bostrom article. Cassel regards Bostrom’s baseless organ theft accusations as a propaganda gift for Israel. He wrote

“I support uncovering human rights violations and war crimes wherever they occur, especially in Palestine, where I have worked for many years. I do believe Bostrom’s intentions were to do much the same but that his process was highly irresponsible. The problem is not that he is accusing the State of Israel of wrongdoing, but that he is making accusations of what would amount to extremely serious war crimes while providing absolutely no evidence to support his claims..

.. The editors at the Swedish daily Aftonbladet who published this piece, should’ve sent it back to the author and told him to investigate the issue further until he found evidence to corroborate his claims.”

Conclusion
Like all types of incitement to hate, this example of reckless journalism, is harmful to peace efforts. Like real viruses and computer viruses they spread and mutate and acquire long lasting lives of their own. Predictably, Boström’s story has spawned cartoons of Jews stealing body parts and drinking Arab blood. Algeria’s al-Khabar newspaper has fantasized Jewish-directed gangs of Algerians and Moroccans capturing children for harvesting of their body parts. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/print.php?newid=307494

Even Al Jazeera Magazine has been infected with the hysteria. In a December 3, article it refers to an international Israeli conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs and repeats a Pravda story that Israel has brought some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the occupied entity over the past two years in order to harvest their organs.

Take for example the furore over the allegation that “Israel harvests the organs of Palestinians”

The story blew up in August 2009 when a Swedish newspaper alleged that the IDF was deliberately killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs.

While the article itself, for those who bothered to read it, rather than the screaming headlines around the world, made it clear this story related to what was alleged to have happened in the late 1980s and 1990, there was no doubt that when the story took wings it clearly gave the impression that this was now happening in the Gaza conflict, and appeared to allege it was exclusively Palestinian organs being taken.

In December 2009, Israel confimred there had been organ retention of skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from dead bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives, in the late 1980s  and 1990, but that this practice is now illegal and no longer occurs. However, not surprisingly, Israel denied (and noted that there was no evidence to support) the story’s original claims that Israeli soldiers were deliberatly killing Palestinians for their organs or that Israel was kidnapping Palestinians and ‘harvesting’ their organs.

The furore that this “revelation” has caused is a clear example of the double standards I am talking about.   For I doubt if researchers would find many countries that have not retained organs for positive purposes and resuarch, with or without the permission of families, yet when has this ever given rise to such indignation and media mania.

The story has developed into a typical Chinese whispers one, with the allegations taking wings and new dimensions throughout the world, particularly in the Arab media.  And now it has been extended to Israel being accused of “importing 25,000 Ukranian children to steal their organs”!!!

The saddest thing is not that this type of story is circulated, but there are plenty of people out there all to willing to believe it!

Gazan Child Healed in Haifa

The fairy tale ending – Halla can see, she reacts to her surroundings, she smiles, she laughs, she’s putting on weight and doing all the things that a ten month old baby should be doing. With all the expenses being met by the Peres Peace Center all her overjoyed parents need to do is take her back home.

This beats all the negative ideology being spewed out on the Gazans radio, TV and newspapers.

It poses the question “Do you recognise Israel?”

Can you imagine that question being asked about any other country in the world?  Shame on Sky for having such a question on their site.

Other gems that have popped into my mailbox today are a horrendous review of the anti Israel activity on American campuses.  Jewish and pro Israel students are intimidated and discriminated against, and university staff can have open season on demonising israel in their classes.    Add to that a current tour of the US by two girls who have refused to serve in the IDF and are now travelling to campuses throughout America to tell their story which includes a series of lies and misinformation about Israel.   Anyone should have the right not to serve in the army but not to go round the world committing treason against their homeland.  Next stop for some of these traitors will be South Africa where they are being given prestigous platforms to spread their poison.

Next up is the infamous Ilan Pappe.  Having left Haifa University, with a false claim that he was forced out, he is now our misfortune at Exeter University.    He has committed the ultimate act of disloyalty by being the first Jew to speak at the annual rally held in the village of Araba marking the ninth anniversary of the October riots that took place in 2000 in the Arab sector.

Over here in the UK we have the disturbing prospect of a speaking tour of a 14 year old Palestinian boy  and his mother who will allege the boy was tortured in an Israeli prison.  One of their stops will be Liverpool which is getting more than its share of pro Palestinian events, having just hosted an exhibition of paintings by children of Gaza.   It is time for us to hit back with the art work of the traumatised children of Sderot and other parts of southern Israel

Next is the disturbing news that an invited guest from Israel, due to speak at a JNF event, is not coming because of a threat of potential legal action against him.   If we allow this type of thing to take hold it really is the thin end of the wedge.   An attempt to have Ehud Barak arrested last week fortunately failed when it was ruled he had immunity.

My final example is a YouTube video of a screaming mob of pro Palestinian demonstrators stealing Israel goods from the shelves of a Tesco store in Wales and dumping them on the forecourt covered in tomato ketchup.   Quite why they were allowed to continue their publicity stunt for some time is quite beyond me and I think Tesco security staff have a lot to answer for.

It seems we are being targetted on all sides and it really is time to fight back