Check out this statement by AFP:
GAZA CITY (AFP) — The Israeli military killed three Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, bringing to 12 the death toll in one of the bloodiest 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory in recent months.
The rest of the article is an example of the constant anti-Israel bias of the French version of the AP. But they seem to have forgotten that a very short time ago—June, in fact—even more Palestinians were killed in a single day.
By Palestinians.
Hamas officials reported that a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the house of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, causing damage but no injuries. That attack came just hours after Monday’s brutal infighting that killed 17 Palestinians.
Which makes their lead a bit, well, inaccurate. And the killings? They’d be called atrocities if the IDF did them.
After sundown Monday, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza. They then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit by 45 bullets.
[…] The bloodiest clashes of the day took place in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Fatah and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire near Beit Hanoun Hospital, killing a Hamas supporter. The battle then moved to the hospital, where three men from a Fatah-allied clan were shot dead.
At Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, combatants fired mortars, grenades and assault rifles.
But by all means, AFP, fire up those anti-Israel engines and forget about the death toll of the summer’s “infighting” between Hamas and Fatah. How many died? Dozens? Hundreds? Does it really matter, when they weren’t killed by Israelis?
Huh. I just thought of the new Israeli Double Standard Time koan: If a Palestinian isn’t killed by the IDF, did he really die?
Nothing hard to understand here, Meryl. At such time as it may be appropriate I shall reveal fully the Bensky Bifurcated Theory of Middle East Political Analysis. For the nonce, suffice it to say that when it comes to Israel history began this morning so whatever happened yesterday, not to say last summer, doesn’t count. Thus AFP is perfectly in order.
So why isn’t the IDF doing the killing? How can anyone think these people are ever going to be at peace with their Jewish neighbors? How many more Jews need to die?
I know this isn’t popular to say, but if Israel want’s to be at peace with their neighbors, only one thing is necessary. To be so strong that our Palestinian ‘friends’ accept that they will die if they attack.
Now maybe someday things will be different. But for now, not only does a good fence make for good neighbors, but a strong IDF is also critical.
Remember folks, Israel was safest and the borders of Israel encompassed the most land under the leadership of David. And how did he accomplish this? He sent his army out to fight. The line from the Bible goes something like…
“In the Spring when the armies go out to fight,…” That’s not an exact quote but it’s close.
And before Bathsheba, David won every fight, every battle he was involved in. That’s right, every one.
That’s God for you. He helps out his friends.
Israel should be a lot more agressive. and I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that we Jews made a big mistake. But the God of the Bible continues to love us, and to perfer us over people who don’t know him.
And he answers prayers. Our prayers. And notice, the Arabs in say, Jordan, don’t spend a lot of time killing each other. My point: A Palestinian is safer in Egypt or Jordan than living in Israeli land. (But it’s not Jews who kill them, it’s other Arabs! And when does that happen? When they are in Israel. This is no accident!) That’s because God wants Israeli land to be under Jewish control, he wants Jews managing the country, and, for example, he wants Israel looking at Europe and to have sufficient strength to stand up to anything that assemblage of post-Christians (people who have abandoned their faith,) can attempt.
That’s what God desires of Israel; To be strong. To be courageous. And tolerating Hamas,… well, that’s just not high on his list.
And our God, the God of Israel isn’t asleep. His arm isn’t shorter. Fact is, look at all these IDF conflicts with Palestinians; Notice how well the IDF does, that’s no accident. The same G*d who managed Samson, he is hard at work still — and he hasn’t changed, not one whit.
He still favors Israel, he still wants our love and for us to respect him.
WE Jews didn’t make a mistake. Speak for yourself, but don’t go speaking for me about that Jesus guy.
My messiah has yet to come.
Don’t think you’re fooling me for a second, Jules.
“To be so strong that our Palestinian ‘friends’ accept that they will die if they attack.”
That won’t work, either. Have you heard of this thing called “suicide bombing?” It’s all the rage with your Palestinian friends.
Mr Tatterdermalian first, and then a comment to Ms. Yourish, if I may, I have a question and also, one or two comments:
What makes you think that suicide bombers are “[my] Palestinian friends?”
I don’t think I wrote anything that would give that impression, and I certainly don’t think of them as friends of Israel or as friends of mine.
As you saw, I used the word “friend” in quotes, trying to offset the common meaning of the word.
But also, I wasn’t discussing suicide bombers. And because of them (suicide bombers,) it’s now impossible for Israel to enable/facilitate communities where Arabs who want to be at peace can associate with Jewish people.
In other parts of the world where war’s and other types of strong conflict have occurred, usually, in 50 years or so, the children of the combatants may go to the same schools, or live in the same communities and get to know each other and sure enough, good things happen.
But you know, G*d wasn’t kidding when he forecast that the descendents of Jacob and Esau would always fight. (Read Genesis, chapter 25, beginning in verse 23. It’s a short passage.)
But you know, I think He didn’t say some important things, when G*d doesn’t tell us something, it’s to help us, not to hurt us! What he didn’t say is that the descendents of Esau would be the bad-guys, that they would be forever causing problems. That they would be cursed. And that they would work for God’s enemy. (Look at Islam if you doubt this characterization. Look at the people who follow this abomination.) Does anyone doubt this? Look at how they live — yesterday I read that they were putting their hands in blood. Is this what you want for yourself or your neighbors? Not me!
For example, “Palestine” (that’s not it’s real name,) wasn’t important to them UNTIL the Jews owned it as Israel. Suddenly Arafat was telling us lies and half-truths about the Arabs of olden times, etc… (If it’s true that he was a closet gay, well, that just fits.)
Always, the children of Esau do things, not to advance themselves or others, but to destroy Jews and the achievements of the Jews. In fact, we live in a world where the central thesis of the Arabs is that to be anti-Israel is what matters.
If anyone doubts this, look for a moment at their great universities or their recent contributions to peace and justice.
Oh, that’s right. That’s not what they are about.
Anyway, in other parts of the world it’s possible for people whose parent’s who have had conflicts to sit down and share a meal, or maybe to date someone from the other side.
But between the Arab and the Jew, suicide bombing and other terrorism has made this impossible.
And G*d’s forecast is true in another important way, a way that we should not forget!
For G*d not only forecast dissension and war between these two peoples, he also said that the children of Jacob would rule over the children of Esau. In the verse above, he put’s these remarks in terms of the older and the younger, making clear that the descendents of Esau would serve the descendents of Jacob.
And one more thing. This is really important!! The God of the Bible, writing in these verses, (above,) said one other thing. HE SAID THAT THESE PEOPLE WOULD BE SEPARATED. That they would not live together.
So Mr. Tatterdemalian, I didn’t mention suicide bombing or other forms of terrorism, but since you bring it up, I am trying to show:
1) Don’t be surprised. The God of the Bible forecast this dissension long ago.
2) That we would always be “on top”. That the Jew would rule over the children of Esau.
3) And, while others may reject God’s counsel, I think we have his clear statement that the Jew and the Arab (here I refer specifically to the children of Esau,) that they will never live together. That they will be separated.
Now, with this, I think, comes responsibility. We have to be people who are fair and decent, and who treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. While staying within God’s guidelines, we should try to be separate and yes, to help them establish themselves, but not in ways that require lot’s of interaction with Jews or the nation of Israel.
Yes, I understand how cruel and evil this sounds. This is the dilemma, isn’t it. We want to be good and when we do, we get “suicided” — hah! And when we are self-protective, we look at ourselves and are ashamed at how Hitlerean we are. I don’t have an answer. (But I do think that recent Israeli governments have done pretty well to manage these problems and deal with this dilemma.)
Myself? I lean towards self-protection and counting Jews as more important that the children of Esau — your milage may vary.
Finally, the ‘world’ seems not to care about Jews. For example, I notice that among older Americans, people who grew up in a Christian America, they care plenty about Israel, even non-Christians. But younger people, who have not grown up in a predominately Christian society don’t care so much for Israel or the importance of helping Israel protect itself.
(Notice: People who honor God naturally honor Israel. People who don’t care so much for God are not so concerned with Jews or Israel.)
One last thing:
Ms. Yourish: I assumed I wasn’t fooling you.
If you don’t want me around — this is your community — and you have the right to enforce standards you think appropriate.
But in fairness, if you do decide on this course, I hope that you will update your policies page stating that you do not accept Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah.
I like it here and I considered leaving when I realized you didn’t want me around, but whether you like it or not, I am a Jew and this place just fits.
Still, I try to respect others — if you bump me, I hope you will be clear about this and update your rules and policies; But I suppose I can live without browsing over to this site.
If this is my last post, I want to thank you for your efforts at promoting Israel and Jewishness.
However my thanks is without substance, whereas I am certain that the God of the Bible thanks you because he’s made promises that he’s still in the process of fulfilling.
Imagine that. One day Jews will be like the sands of the sea, the sands of the oceans. How many grains of sand is that…
Say, Jules, you know what I don’t have to do? Explain myself to you in any way, shape or form. Nor do I have to change my commenting rules to suit your tastes. My blog, my dime, my rules.
You will not proselytize on my blog. That will be cause for denying you from commenting here. End of discussion.
And oh, yeah—stop pretending you’re a Jew. I’ve never believed you on that count.
In the words of Jesus himself, “tl;dr.”
Meryl,
It is certainly your blog and your rules. You have every right to object to proselytizing, and can of course ban those whom you feel are not contributing in a productive way.
That being said, I might suggest that it could be counterproductive to refer to Jesus as “that Jesus guy”. After all, those of us who are Christians are called to die rather than denounce him, so such dismissive phrasing is painful to hear, even if it is only used in response to particularly nutty Christian posts. It might be better to just rise above the circumstances to promote mature Jewish-Christian dialog.
I know, we can always go somewhere else, but we value what you have to say.