The Story You Aren't Hearing About Israel

Did you hear about the two policemen who stopped to help a driver stuck with a flat--and were shot to death in the head at point-blank range?

Did you know about the 120-kilogram bomb planted in a parking lot adjacent to a shopping mall where thousands of people were milling about the stores, restaurants, and movie theaters?

No, of course, you didn't. These are just two everyday incidents of the ordeal confronted by people in Israel while the world and the political leaders look away. Outrages like these do not make it into the Western media, which exhibit the familiar phenomenon of monitoring only the conflicts that are the flavor of the month. And when they do turn to Israel, sporadically, it is with the excitement of thinking they can expose Israeli wrongdoing: the New York Times just drummed up a front-page story alleging the deliberate murder of innocent civilians by Israeli soldiers during the Gaza war, a poorly investigated report that turned out to be yet another urban myth and then was shamefully corrected by the Times only on the inside pages and only by blaming Israel for the false report. (Remember another urban myth alleging thousands of citizens massacred in the battle against terrorism in Jenin in 2002 when it turned out no more than 54 died, most of them combatants?)

Ordinary Israelis despair of the cruel bias. The policemen died because Israel eased restrictions on movement in the Nablus area of the West Bank. Hundreds survived in the attack on the mall near Haifa only because a woman reported hearing an explosion. Security found it was a detonator that expired without setting off a car bomb that would have lacerated the crowds with sharp metal and ball bearings.

The willingness to give a free pass to terrorism was, of course, manifest most luridly in the Gaza war. Hamas fired thousands of rockets with the short-term aim of murdering as many innocent civilians as possible in the service of the longer-term ambition to terrorize Israel.

Then, when Israel finally responded (with military restraint and humanitarian aid), it was faced with world demands for an unconditional cease-fire. Ironically, the fiercest criticism in the Arab world about Israel's conduct in Gaza stems from Israel's failure to achieve a decisive victory, for the Arab world rightly perceives not Israel but Hamas as a threat: It knows full well that Hamas is a fifth column for Iranian influence.

Once the cease-fire was achieved, the world lost interest in Israel. Except that now, in a fit of selectively lethal amnesia, it is on the verge of providing the selfsame murderous Hamas with a huge influx of funding that will rebuild the authority of a terrorist organization dedicated to killing Jews.

The tragedy for the Palestinians as much as the Israelis is that they do not have leadership strong enough to make peace. Hamas wants perpetual war: No one can doubt that it aims not to have a two-state solution but to have a "no state" solution--that is, to have the State of Israel stop existing. For its part, "moderate" Fatah is hopelessly corrupt and weak and seemingly incapable of reform or of enforcing law and order on its people. That is why an Israeli-Palestinian peace remains a dream today and why what Israel can offer the Palestinians is less than what any Palestinian politician is willing or able to attempt.

Even the language of peace is eroding. The Palestinians say they support two states for two peoples but refrain from saying that one of those is the Jewish people. Most recently, a major Palestine Liberation Organization figure, Mohammed Dahlan, asserted that the Fatah movement hasn't even recognized Israel thus far and that the Palestinian Authority's apparent "recognition" of Israel is to make the PA "acceptable" to the international community, in order to bring in international aid. Who can trust that?

There is justification for the widespread Israeli concern that if a Palestinian state were established, power in Gaza, and then in the West Bank, would soon fall into the hands of Hamas. After all, Hamas won 44 percent of the vote and the mayoralty in several major cities in the last West Bank election. Another unreported fact that reflects on what would happen if Hamas won: The most credible of the Palestinian-run news operations, the Ma'an News Agency, has posted three listings involving a total of 181 persons--all Fatah people--shot by Hamas in Gaza since December 2008.

The Fatah party is facing an election within a year, which may well be won by Hamas. If the Iranian-supported Hamas ultimately succeeds in its 20-year effort to be the principal voice of Palestinian nationalism, Israel will have a neighbor that truly speaks for Iran's goal of seeing Israel "wiped off the face of the Earth."

In a "unity" government, Hamas would undoubtedly be integrated in the security services, which would end Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation covering the majority of the West Bank cities. Hamas wants Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop negotiations with Israel and to embrace the political program that allows for "resistance" -- in other words, violence.

No wonder the Palestinian Reconciliation Conference in Cairo ended in failure. Even the lure of billions of dollars in aid has not brought Fatah Sunnis in Judea and Samaria, i.e., the West Bank, any closer to Shiite supporters of Hamas in Gaza. These are two parallel lines that cannot meet, and this division will persist.

And what of Israeli leadership? Now Israel has Binyamin Netanyhu trying to form a cabinet. The world may be skeptical about the will and political ability of a more conservative Likud government to make historic and dramatic decisions that involve painful concessions to the Palestinians in the interest of a two-state solution, but history suggests otherwise. It was Menachem Begin's Likud government that brought about the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. It was Yitzhak Shamir's Likud government that began the peace process at the Madrid Conference in October of 1991. Netanyahu's Likud party and its reservations should not be dismissed lightly, for it was Netanyahu who predicted way back in 1994 that handing over territories to Palestinians would lead to the creation of a fundamental Islamic terrorist base adjacent to Israel.

Israel has taken many risks for peace. The response has been rocket fire, terrorism, more incitement, more vilification, more shedding of Israeli blood, and less security, not to mention an ongoing historic campaign to defame, denounce, denigrate, and delegitimize Israel in every international forum.

Contrary to many reports, Netanyahu has asserted that he is not opposed to a two-state solution, provided it does not put at risk the national security of the Jewish state. The key component would be a record of Palestinian determination and ability to fight terrorism and to live in peace with Israel. Like so many experts, Netanyahu feels that the chances of an enforceable, comprehensive arrangement are low to negligible. In the meantime, as a matter of law and order, he intends to oppose illegal settlements, be they in the West Bank or among Bedouins in Sinai. His major priority would be to promote prosperity on the West Bank, creating an incentive for the Palestinians to make a commitment to peace. He notes that Palestinians in the West Bank remained calm during the fighting in Gaza and didn't engage in mass protests.

Therefore, Netanyahu will focus on improving Palestinian life by lifting roadblocks (100 so far) and reducing checkpoints (they have gone down from 50 to 15) and making other improvements on the ground for the Palestinian community. In this he is supported by dovish Israeli President Shimon Peres, who now has doubts about Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza without first having established a peaceful and democratic Palestinian party to which it could hand the territory. That Palestinian party does not yet exist.

A Palestinian state cannot be created by terrorism. It can be created through the reformation of political and economic institutions so that they reflect democracy, market economics, and real actions to confront terrorism. When there is an effective, Palestinian-based security force with counterterrorism capability in the West Bank, the Israelis will then be prepared to withdraw their defense forces and the Shin Bet from operating there. Hence the importance of the U.S. effort, led by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, to develop a decent Palestinian security force. The new units have been enforcing order in the cities of Jenin and Hebron, which had been basically lawless. But it is not enough to target car thieves and robbers. The critical counterterrorism ability of the Palestinian security forces is still limited; above all, they must have the will to target terrorist cells and their networks.

Two modest paramilitary forces have been trained to police crime and enforce public order, but not to uproot terror groups. In fact, the PA has increasingly offered safe haven to terror groups. Brig.-Gen. Radhi Assida, the PA National Security Forces (NSF) commander in Jenin, revealed to the Palestinian website Ma'an on January 24, 2009, that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's NSF had agreed to provide protection to four senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists wanted by Israel. Assida also confirmed that PIJ operatives continue to receive monthly salaries from the PA Interior Ministry, just like their colleagues in the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

In the interim, Israel must not wait on events. Israel would be wise (despite the risks) to allow even freer movement in the West Bank; it should help to create more jobs and a better standard of living. Yes, the West must press Israel on these issues, but it must also press the Arab states. They should underwrite the training of PA security forces and invest sensibly in housing and agriculture.

Peace will come only when the Palestinians are liberated from their age-old hatred of Israel and Jews. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for many times, there must be teaching, preaching, and celebrating, from childhood on, that hatred, disrespect, violence, terrorism, anti-Semitism, and war against Israelis and Zionists are unacceptable. Today, it is exactly the opposite.

A great Middle East authority, Prof. Bernard Lewis, recently pointed out in Foreign Affairs how easily the West is misled. In contrast to reports in English, he writes, "the discourse in Arabic--in broadcasts, sermons, speeches, and school textbooks--is far less conciliatory, portraying Israel as an illegitimate invader that must be destroyed." Israel cannot make peace with those whose first priority is to blow up Israeli women and children and who deny the nation's right to exist. As Lewis puts it, "There is no compromise position between existence and nonexistence."

The sad but realistic fact is that we are much closer to the establishment of two Palestinian states, one in the West Bank and one in Gaza, than to reaching a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

Comments

[joe107]

if the united states was attacked by rockets on a daily basis do you think they would hesitate for one second to defend itself. israel has been attacked since 2002 and just acted now

[chaos4700]

The Palestinians have been under attack since 1947. I think /they/ get the award for restraint, actually.

[Magenta]

Gaza citizens suffer far worse than the israelis even before the outbreak of the hostilities. Read for yourself.

Israel on Trial
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/opinion/04bisharat.html?th&emc=th

CHILLING testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel’s Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law...

• Imposing collective punishment in the form of a blockade, in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In June 2007, after Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed suffocating restrictions on trade and movement. The blockade — an act of war in customary international law — has helped plunge families into poverty, children into malnutrition, and patients denied access to medical treatment into their graves. People in Gaza thus faced Israel’s winter onslaught in particularly weakened conditions.

• Deliberately attacking civilian targets...An Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, avowed that “anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target.” [such as attacking mosques, hospitals, factories, schools, ministries etc]

• Willfully killing civilians without military justification.
International law authorizes killings of civilians if the objective of the attack is military, and the means are proportional to the advantage gained... Gaza government employees — traffic policemen, court clerks, secretaries and others — are not combatants merely because Israel considers Hamas, the governing party, a terrorist organization. Many countries do not regard violence against foreign military occupation as terrorism. 960 civilians were killed, including 121 women and 288 children...

[Fein]

"Ordinary Israelis despair of the cruel bias."

After Israel's latest Gaza monstrosity, the above quote starkly emphasizes their depraved indifference.

[BubbaC33]

It is interesting how so many folks posting here seem to forget that if Hamas had not fired rockets into Israel and if Hamas had not hidden among its own civilians none of them would have been injured or killed. The cowardice of Hamas put the people of Gaza in harm's way, not the IDF.

[chaos4700]

When Hamas starts flying F-16s and dropping bombs on Gaza, or firing white phosphorous on their own civilians, then this nonsense you spout will make sense.

[FCBarca]

Mort, your bias is quite clear...Defending Israeli's apartheid policies is a pretty common refrain from Jews in America and abroad...What you may not also read about or hear, however, is that a great number of Jews even within Israel are entirely against the occupation, against the killing of Palestinians and believe in going back to the Green line and adhering to UN242.

[BubbaC33]

I am Israeli and no one I know would agree to a return to the pre-67 war borders. And to be honest there is no reason to do such a thing. Prior to 1967 the PLO attacked us on a regular basis and in 1967 over 100,000 Arab soldiers massed on our borders. A return to the pre-67 war borders will only serve to bring back ahigher level of Arab adventurism and put us at risk of a major war.
No one with any sense of things would ever compare Israel to an aparthied government. The comparison is false, it just isn;t true. If Israel was the sort of govenrment you claim there would be no major Arab political parties, Arabs would not be as free or prosperous as they are inside Israel, and our policies would be much more harsh toward "palestinians" in the territories.

[chaos4700]

Lebensraum! It's like potato chips. You can't stop at list a little bit of stolen land.

[Magenta]

Israel, Iran and Fear

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/opinion/20iht-edcohen.html?th&emc=th

...Existential threats from Iran, from Hamas and Hezbollah, fromdemography are forever invoked. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses for now to support even the notion of Palestinian statehood....

... A core contradiction inhabits Israeli policy. While talking about atwo-state solution < at least until Netanyahu redux < Israel has gone onbuilding the West Bank settlements that render a peace agreement impossibleby atomizing the 23 percent of the land theoretically destined forPalestine.

As Ehud Barak, now the defense minister, remarked in 1999: ³Every attempt tokeep hold of this area as one political entity leads, necessarily, to eithera non-democratic or a non-Jewish state, because if the Palestinians vote,then it is a binational state, and if they don¹t vote it is an apartheidstate ...²

That¹s right. The population of Arabs in the Holy Land, at about 5.4million, will one day overtake the number of Jews. So a two-state solutionis essential to Israel¹s survival as a Jewish state. Persisting in the42-year-old occupation and the building of settlements gnaws at the veryfoundations of the Zionist dream.

Netanyahu now wants Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, who have recognized Israel, to go further and recognize it as a Jewish state, evenbefore he accepts a hypothetical Palestinian state. That¹s a sign of theIsraeli angst occupation has institutionalized.

[BubbaC33]

The threats Israel faces each and every day are real, to try to reframe them as existential is foolish.
A two-state solution has been in existence since 1922. Transjordan was formed to serve as a kingdom for the Hashemite family and a homeland for those Arabs unwilling to live in the Jewish state.
Israel holds the West Bank and the Golan for a very significant reason. The land in these two territories form the strategic depth necessary for the defense of Israel. And the West Bank provides the strategic height necessary for Israel to monitor missle attacks from Iran and other rogue nations. The Golan is Israeli territory, my friends and I paid for it in 1973 with the lives and blood of our comrades in the effort to stop the onslaught of the Syrian army.It was a desperate time and we paid the price for the Golan to forever stay in Israeli hands.

The capital of Israel is Jerusalem. That is non-negotionable.

[Magenta]

Any land that is occupied or conquered during war are not recognised as legitmate.

Israel does not own Jerusalem. This is the fact. And the Arabs wqho have lived there are decended from their ancestors who have lived in that region for over 14000 years.

Most of the Israeli Jews are immigrants overseas with no ancestral links to the lands in the Middle East.

[Freenation]

Yes this is one more feather in the cap of Israel's long history of interfering in US politics, right one more story which hopefully will not see light of the day in US MSM:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/jane-harman-recorded-on-w_n_188795.html

"Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington."

Thanks, HP

[Justtellthetruth]

Thanks for sharing that one. INCREDIBLE story. I hope they ALL go down for it.

[azbird]

Mort please excuse these ignorant people. they have made up their minds before and it is ugly. there are very few that understand Israel and their need to be safe. most of them are so biased against Israel and they have no idea what they are talking about. You keep up thr good work surely someone will finally recognize the truth

[Wozzeck]

If Western media has a bias against Israel why do you have such access to it?
"Zuckerman is also a frequent commentator on world affairs, both as an editorialist and on television. He regularly appears on The McLaughlin Group and writes columns for U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News"

[000Jade000]

You're wrong. All that we hear is Israel's side of the story. What we NEVER hear is the Palestinian's side.

Why no mention of illegal weapons used by Israel against Gazans in your article?

[azbird]

Actually you are wrong, check almost all the posts here. You all mention the palistinians over and over and over.

[GerhardWMagnus]

Compare body counts over any time period you want and Israel wins hands down. But of course they're the Big Victims here, right?

[FearlessFreep]

Just like 'nam.

[Freenation]

This is addressed to HP: why is this article being made front page story 2 times since it is being published and specially after receiving such negative feedback because of its one sided agenda...

Can someone explain please, I am sure there are many other articles which are worth the rerun than this waste of time...

Is this comment going to pass the moderation, I truly hope so...

[skialethia]

Excellent statement on something we've all observed but just gave hp a pass, like sheep.

[MountPanic]

So a Palestinian state can't be created by terrorism, but it's not a problem for Israel to to keep it down with terrorism?

Yeah, we get it, Mort.

Unfortunately, you don't.

[indyleftist]

Actually Mort we all heard the story of the mall bomb in Israel. It was covered by every single news outlet

Did you hear the one about the rate of women and children killed in Israeli's recent slaughter of the Gazan's?

[BubbaC33]

Any people killed during Operation Cast Lead were put in harm's way by Hamas, not the IDF. If Hamas had not fired rockets into Israel and the hidden among its own civilians to contiue the fight the innocents in Gaza would not have been harmed. The IDF went into gaza to stop the attacks on Israel, Hamas put civilians in the middle of the fight.

[Sentientbeing09]

Lies lies lies

[MartinVanBuren]

Free Gaza Movement: We are coming back, this time with a flotilla

Bethlehem - Ma"an - The Free Gaza Movement will return to the Strip with a "flotilla" of boats at the end of May carrying generators for hospitals and schools, medical supplies as well as journalists and politicians to observe the situation in the coastal area.

The team said it hoped to have supplies and sponsors organized by the end of April, and hope to set sail for the Gaza Strip between 25 and 31 May. The flotilla will include 5-10 boats from several nations.
Webmaster's Commentary:

The quiet courage demonstrated by these people, knowing what may well confront them on this journey, is something to be applauded.

The eyes of the world will no longer remain shut to the vicious desperation engineered by the Israeli siege.

And a note to the Israeli government: making these people into martyrs for attempting to deliver humanitarian aid will only raise an international chorus of condemnation against the lengths Israel has gone to destroy Gaza.

And this time, it will have financial consequences, which unfortunately appears to be the only thing the Israeli government understands.

[skialethia]

God bless them for their courage and keep them safe until they reach their destination and accomplish their goal!

[brooklyncitizen]

"Peace will come only when the Palestinians are liberated from their age-old hatred of Israel and Jews."

Well it is clear that you are part of the MSM....nice spin on facts and reality in this one . Does putting forth so much propaganda ever get tiresome?just curious.

statement.http://www.democracynow.org/2006/8/3/peace_propaganda_and_the_promised_land

[MartinVanBuren]

Free Gaza Movement: We are coming back, this time with a flotilla

Bethlehem - Ma"an - The Free Gaza Movement will return to the Strip with a "flotilla" of boats at the end of May carrying generators for hospitals and schools, medical supplies as well as journalists and politicians to observe the situation in the coastal area.

The team said it hoped to have supplies and sponsors organized by the end of April, and hope to set sail for the Gaza Strip between 25 and 31 May. The flotilla will include 5-10 boats from several nations.
Webmaster's Commentary:

The quiet courage demonstrated by these people, knowing what may well confront them on this journey, is something to be applauded.

The eyes of the world will no longer remain shut to the vicious desperation engineered by the Israeli siege.

And a note to the Israeli government: making these people into martyrs for attempting to deliver humanitarian aid will only raise an international chorus of condemnation against the lengths Israel has gone to destroy Gaza.

And this time, it will have financial consequences, which unfortunately appears to be the only thing the Israeli government understands.

[BubbaC33]

Israel does not stop every ship headed to Gaza, only the ones that are suspected of smuggling illegal weapons to Hamas. Stop trying to get weapons into Hamas and the navy will discontinue stopping ships headed to Gaza.