Israeli military sorry for dead citizens in Gaza

My friends, something of a contrast here.

On the one hand you have Hamas deliberately targetting Israeli citizens in their plans for ridding the globe of Israel as per their Charter (the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, 18 August 1988):

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

On the other hand you have the Israeli military who, despite Hamas fighters wearing civilian clothing while fighting Israeli troops and using schools, mosques and crowded residential areas for cover intentionally making it hard to keep ordinary residents out of harm's way, are trying to avoid hitting noncombatants:

Capt. Orr, 25, felt that aborting some of his targets for fear of harming civilians were among his proudest achievements.

"The ones I remember are when I have locked in on a target and I fire and then at the last second I see a child in my cross hairs and I divert the missile," he said. "That leaves a mark."

..."We work very hard to keep civilian casualties as low as possible," he said. "Each missile we shoot is pinpointed to the very meter we want it to go."

It's worth reading the whole article, and then thinking about what people mean when they repeat the leftist mantra, "we are all Hamas now".

The Gaza Tunnel Business - who profits?

My friends, whenever I read about the tunnels used to smuggle goods between Egypt and Gaza I can't help but imagine the plucky PoWs of Stalag Luft III digging Tom, Dick and Harry to reach freedom in The Great Escape.

Well, as usual in these things, when you delve deeper than the superficially anti-Israel bias of the BBC you find the real facts behind their version of the truth.

Geoffrey Paul expands on this at the new Jewish Chronicle blog:

"A lot of people are going to lose out financially if the Gaza tunnel business is closed down. Unlike the BBC, I have a friend on the other side of the Israel/Gaza border and he tells me that the whole economy of the region will suffer if Hamas can no longer collect $2,500 for building a tunnel, plus the “tax” extracted for the goods which pass through those tunnels on the way from Egypt to Gaza. The goods – they can be anything from rockets to nappies – are assessed by Hamas tax collectors on their way through the system, the going rate being more for cigarettes than, say, for fruit or vegetables (rockets, of course, are tax free). Then there is a fee due to those who own the land close to the Egyptian border who allow tunnels to be built under their properties. The highest payment is demanded for passing a human being through from one side to the other. I have not seen them and therefore cannot vouch for the claim that there could be – or could have been – as many as 600 tunnels running from the Egyptian side of the border to the Gazan exits. Certainly, some of the tunnels exposed by the IDF have been fitted with sophisticated electronic travelators (you know the moving belts you hop on to get to your departure gate at Heathrow). I am not a bit surprised by the assessment that the value of goods smuggled through the tunnels during the past two years have approximated $600 million a year. Who will compensate the Hamas “tax collectors” for their loss of revenue (not to mention their colleagues on the Egyptian side who have waved the contraband assignments on their way) ? Most delighted of all if the tunnels go will be the two or three Beduin families which used to have a monopoly on cross-border smuggling in the Egypt-Gaza area using the celebrated “ships of the desert”, known less poetically as camels."

Hamas: In Their Own Voices

My friends, the video below is a compilation of MEMRI TV clips that aired prior to the current Gaza crisis. It includes statements by Hamas leaders calling for the annihilation of Israel and of all Jews, for death to America, and for the Islamic conquest of the world.

Featured are Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, Hamas MPs Mushir Al-Masri and Fathi Hamad, Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal, Palestinian Legislative Council acting speaker Sheikh Ahmad Bahr, and Hamas clerics Wael Al-Zarad and Muhsen Abu 'Ita.

Viewers will also witness Hamas military training for adults and children, anti-American speeches at rallies including burning of the American flag and calls of support for "The Afghan Mujahidin", Hamas Al-Aqsa TV children's shows, and more.

Probably worth bearing in mind next time you see deluded liberals waving around "We Are Hamas Now" banners.

So being anti-Israeli isn't the same as being anti-Jew?

Really, my friends, really?

"In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish defense group, said it had seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of Israel's offensive against Gaza. The group said it had recorded 20-25 incidents across the country in the past week that it believed were connected with Gaza, including an arson attempt on a synagogue in north London on Sunday.

"London police are investigating the attack, in which suspects splashed flammable liquid on the door and set it on fire.

"Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said that in another incident last week a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting "Jew" and "Free Palestine" at passers-by."

You decide.