Where is all this heading?

Fivish

Israel has always failed to rise to the bait, believing that everyone knows the truth. But they dont. They only know the propaganda and lies of the enemy. If the truth were known, 'settlements' would be legal, Israel would extend over the Jordan to the Hejaz railway and the Palestinians would be the Jews!

John Edwards

"..Despite the fact that this was based entirely on hearsay and rumour."

This sentence is false. Either the author of this article is lazy and stupid (i.e. did not read or could not understand the testimonies) or is a liar. The vast majority of the testimonies are first-hand accounts given by combat soldiers who took part in Cast Lead. Each of the published accounts (a number did not meet this criterion and were not published) were verified by cross-checking with two other members of the same combat unit.

Sheila

Quite. With You Know Who in the White House, the forces of evil sense a golden opportunity.

A storm gathers.

C. Gee

John Edwards:
If indeed the methodology for the report insisted on the verification by other members of the combat unit, why was this information not given to the IDF, which is committed to inestigation of all allegations of misconduct where there are supporting facts? Here is the IDF:

"ADDENDUM TO IDF SPOKESPERSON ANNOUNCEMENT

The IDF Spokesperson Unit requests that attention be given by the media to several methodological and ethical issues regarding this report:

1. The report, as given to the IDF less than 24 hours prior to its publication, is based on testimonies that lack critical identifying features:

a. No identification whatsoever was used for those who gave their testimonies, not even a first initial, as is customary throughout the media when a quote is given in anonymity.

b. There is no mention of rank or position at the time of the claimed incidents.

c. There is no mention of unit or unit type (regular or reserves).

2. The report makes no mention of the way in which the testimonies were gathered – it is not clear whether they were gathered directly via interview or indirectly via mail or e-mail. It is unclear whether there is one interviewer or more, or whether those who gave their testimonies were interviewed individually or in groups.

3. There is no mention of how the credibility of the testimonies was checked:

a. There is no way of knowing whether the testimony was given by a soldier or someone claiming to be a soldier.

b. There is no mention of time period (date and time) or specific location with regards to the incidents described in the testimonies.

Adam B.

John Edwards, how do you know these are first hand accounts? With anonymous and unverifiable "evidence", how do we know to believe this politically driven pressure group? Incidentally, how would you feel if you discovered that Israel was funding pressure groups which are undermining Britain's armed forces in Afghanistan? The UK government's role in this funding is an absolute outrage, and Israel should protest at the highest levels. Gordon Brown is a national embarrassment, and self-declared "friend" of Israel who is only too happy to stab Israel in the back.

Michael B

Hamas & Co. can fire thousands of munitions over a period of years into Israeli civilian centers - often from within their own civilian populations - and it's treated as little or nothing more than business as usual, part of the background noise. Whether it's Iranian backed Hezbollah in the north or Iranian/Syrian backed Hamas in the south, or Fatah's snipers and other tactics, it's treated much the same by the MSM, by the UN and ICJ, by coopted tranzi orgs and NGOs in general, by Hollywood's affected, by countless others: given a token nod, at best.

By contrast, the very same moralizers who absent themselves from concern over Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah & Co., including their use of children in tactical scenarios and within al-Dura styled hoaxes/libels, those same pretenders furrow their brow and pull their chin over every rumor and allegation orchestrated against Israel. In effect, Islamicist/Left alliances are allowed to morph into an Islamicist/West collusion, at least in terms of some populist sentiment and some prominent institutions as well.

A conscience, one that absents itself in the face of protracted malevolence and systematic mendacity in one set of cases and then turns around and evidences the most spiteful and presumptuous demands in another set of cases is no real or genuine conscience, it's more aptly thought of as a sentient cog in the machinery of media/propaganda and war in the larger sense, targeting Jews and targeting Israel.

De facto, minimally, that's what it is.

David Halterman

Robin Shepherd asked "where is the all heading?" It is simple. The world is getting ready to kill Jews again.

Partisane

Not only have the British media fixated on the allegations contained in the report, but they have actually misquoted them in order to make them sound worse:

http://www.justjournalism.com/media-analysis/view/problematic-quotation-of-israeli-soldiers

Original Tony

I am ashamed to have British blood in me when I read this type of article.

We have stabbed too many allies in the back to be considered fair minded anymore.

I hope Israel turns to other countries willing to arm her so that she can give a middle finger to the West...a sorry sate of beggars we have become.

Augustus

@ John Edwards

You miss the point entirely. The decision by the 'breaking The Silence' organization to publish such witness accounts brings into question whether that organization really does want a valid and serious investigation, such as that which the IDF normally, and is duty bound, to carry out. Also, the majority of the statements are anonymous and lack the essential details which would make a valid investigation by the IDF possible, either to confirm the details, or to ignore them. As mentioned, the IDF is duty bound to investigate
any allegations which are backed up by facts, such as those which they carried out immediately after Operation Cast Lead.

You state that published accounts were verified by cross-checking with other members of the same combat unit. But what those units actually were, or which type of unit they were (regular or reservist) was not published. Neither were the ranks published of the combatants. Also, how were the witness accounts obtained? Directly by interviews, or by post or email? And were they conducted individually or in groups? How were the bona fides of the interviewees investigated: One doesn't know whether each account is by a genuine soldier, or someone pretending that he was a soldier. No date, time, or place of action is ever stated. All these are methodical and ethical questions which the media should have asked regarding these soldiers accounts before publishing them. This isn't the first time that NGOs and the media treat Israel in this underhand and unprofessional way, and it won't be the last.

Andre

I am appalled and ashamed at British complicity in this anti-Israel chamade. If you're reading this and you come from Israel - ancient or modern - know this : I, an Englishman and a committed catholic adore Israel, pray daily for her survival and the safety of all who serve in the IDF. Her struggle is the fight of all decent people, her victory the triumph of good over evil. My country has turned its back on the g-d who served us, small wonder it eschews the land and the people that gave him flesh.

NotaSheep

I am afraid that with Obama in the White House, cowards & appeasers in power in Europe and Iran going nuclear, Israel will no longer exist in its current form within 5 years.

hadrian

The latest piece of anti-Semitism I got served up was that Sephardic Jews alone are 'authentic Jews' and the rest are mere false claimants deserving no quarter as it is 'those ones' who are the 'trouble'!!! You can see daily just where all this Anti-Israel, 'Hug- a-Hamas/ Hezbollah' is leading all too clearly!! And it seems 'Divide and Rule' is one strategy!

Alan Stoddart

We've read the BBC's selection of quotes from the 'Breaking the Silence' report, here are some they missed:

Essentially the point was to get them out alive, go in, to catch the armed men. the neighbor went in, the last armed man came out and was caught and passed on to the Shabak…
The explanation we got was that when the regular soldiers went in, they knew which houses were belonged to Hamas activists and which did not. A Hamas activist's house usually got shelled once or twice just to make sure…The reasoning was that Hamas houses posed much more of a threat because of potential booby-trapping, tunnels, combinations thereof, etc. That is why they were shelled, to prevent a whole arena of explosive charges, mortars and the like. One must constantly keep in mind that we were under enormous threat. All possible dangers – whether anti-tank fire, light arms fire, explosive charges, kidnapping, mortar shells – any scenario was definitely possible.

So 'wet' entry means closing in on the house and firing Lau missiles?
Yes. RPG, LAU. That's what we were prepared for. In fact, when we arrived at a house, it was intact, no one had fired at it, no one fired at Golani when they went in, they had no one to fire at. Just like the houses I saw where we'd been, which had not been fired at, and nothing was broken. No walls were broken to get in. The men must have taken the house 'dry.'

What was the state of the house, its contents?
We were in a house with very little furniture. There were some plastic chairs and
mattresses and the bedroom contained a bed, a closet and a kind of commode. I think Golani had searched the closet, taken it apart and thrown the clothes out to search, to make sure there was no explosive charge inside.

You didn't see any destruction beyond that? Just a normal military search.
Yes, there was no intentional destruction beyond the normal military search.
Anyway, in the second or third house the company took there were four people, the owner's family. We came there to take food and I saw the house. It was elegantly furnished and nicely built. It too was being looked after the way we did in ours. Men did not vandalize it intentionally. They made feasible military use of it only.
the army made considerable attempts to get people to leave.

"We cannot surprise them with our timing, they know when. We cannot surprise them with our location, they know exactly
where we're coming in. What we do have… is fire power."

I pretty much agreed with him.

We went in there house after house, going around each other every time.
99% of the houses were empty.

You enter houses with live fire?
No. The instruction was to get everyone out of the house or concentrate them in one room. Announce it through loudspeakers. Give it a few minutes, and if the person is not out after 2-5 minutes, whoever is left inside is a dead man.

We directed them towards a certain area hoping they wouldn't be hit there. In our
designated area we directed them southwards in the Gaza Strip towards where our forces were not present. We sent them south. We did not abuse them.

What officers?
Can't tell you. Who spoke to us? Except for our own brigade commander – who's a regular officer – there were officers from that base. I don't remember who talked to us, I can't name their official title, I really don't remember.

And civilians?
None there. As soon as the operation started, they all escaped into the towns.

So all the villages around there actually…
Were almost totally abandoned. I'm sure there were civilians here and there, but not many.

You didn't see even one through your binoculars?
None. I’m telling you, I saw none...

He said that whatever was destroyed can be rebuilt, but the life of a soldier once killed cannot be restored.

The first house we entered contained not a single enemy. We fired at windows and fire was not returned. So we went in and opened it the way we usually go at a house in Hebron: we go in, call out to the owner to open, gather all the males, shackle them, gather the entire family in one room and begin to search the house. This is not something that is usually done in war.

Rules of engagement are different here because no permission to shoot is necessary.
You see something you suspect – you open fire because you don't want it to get away.
That's why you have to make sure you don't hit just for the sake of hitting. He warned that we were going into a complex situation and if anything arouses our suspicion, we mustn't hesitate because the enemy hides among civilians. We must be more alert and if we detect with certainty that this will not jeopardize us, there's no sense in opening fire. On the other hand, if we have the slightest suspicion and are under time pressure – we should shoot. If not, we can report about it. We had constant reports about suspect women or pairs, stuff like that.

Before we entered, the air force threw flyers and people were supposed to get out of there. As for those who didn't get out, we were to shoot in the air or near their feet. But if someone would cross the red line, you were supposed to shoot him. Unless there's a special announcement, for there were humanitarian ceasefires all the time, when we were not shooting.

Don't catch me at my word, but it was obvious, the battalion commander made it very clear that obviously if someone's innocent, they're not to be touched.

Often a house that was suspect for tunnels or explosive charges was a house that was targeted with various phosphorus shells, thinking this would activate all the charges.
In other words, phosphorus was to serve as an igniter, simply make it all go up in
flames, which then ignited the explosive charges. And the tunnels. Everything was ignited.

No. I saw and heard and posters were being distributed, Israeli air force helicopters threw flyers and passed overhead with giant banners. Just think how risky it is for us to be so humanitarian.

Were guys resentful about this?
Sure. Even I was. I think it's stupid to warn them in advance. You know how many terrorists we missed this way? Lots. Lots. We know for certain that there were 250 men underneath the hospital. With certainty.

As for looting I can say I heard but didn't actually see anything. I can't really prove anything. I'm saying there was a feeling of lack of control, throughout the operation. Most of the commanding ranks wanted to maintain moral values, but soldiers… Again, I wasn't witness to such cases but I heard people talking, that soldiers shot at people here and there. Again, these are things I cannot prove.

At the end of the
day no military branch used all the force it could have unleashed there.

Raymond in DC

It's telling that Ha'aretz, already burned by falling for Breaking the Silence's earlier report, refused to publish until the facts could be substantiated - which they couldn't be. BS (seems to fit) took umbrage that the Jerusalem Report challenged both the facts and questioned the funding behind the group before a local groundswell behind the charges could build. (BBC of course won't let an opportunity to blast Israel to pass.)

It's long past time for groups like Peace Now and Breaking the Silence, so broadly supported by foreign governments, to register as foreign agents.

Noteworthy too that Human Rights Watch is taking flak from Natan Sharansky who inspired such groups in the first place. He's still got the kind of moral credibility that they've clearly lost.

Derek

The illegal revocation of arms licences by our government for the supply of spare parts to the Israeli navy and the government's funding of, and by implication support for, the smear campaign against the IDF by Breaking the Silence, are part of a larger picture of moral and political debasement in the present administration and among certain low life in the Civil Service. So, by way of further example, the Daily Mail reports online today of a policy brazenly admitted by the MOD of spying on wounded soldiers to verify that they are not malingering. In that connection, the newspaper writes "...The secret surveillance of claimants is being carried out under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), originally intended to help the police and MI5 monitor terrorists in the UK...Recent revelations that local councils have used the same legal powers to spy on residents for trivial matters such as littering or flouting school catchment area rules have provoked a fierce public backlash.

Powers available include videoing suspects in secret, bugging conversations with them, scanning their telephone records and even recruiting neighbours or colleagues to act as ‘intelligence sources’."

The fight against this trend, which is a movement against freedom, liberty, democracy, honest government, common decency, - the usual suspects in effect - is a battle in which all Englishmen of goodwill are engaged. The totalitarian forces outside the country and the "wannabes" in Britain are in the open and can be identified and whether in the guise of the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union or Spode's Black Shorts, we have been fighting them for centuries and all of them bear the same message for countries like Israel and Great Britain. The job now is to sweep away the paralysing atmosphere of political correctness. Fortunatley, the present government has bungled its time in office on such an unprecedented scale that they have made this task easier and people begin to see more clearly. Wherever there is common ground, we should join with our friends in Israel and the other free countries. Ecrasez l'infame!

John Edwards

The comments from "John Edwards" are not actually from me. I will probably comment on this issue later (after I have read the material in question). Rather amusing to have an imitator though. Things must be bad for the pro-Israel lobby if I have become a movement.

Corin

What was wrong with my previous post? It didn't say anything that other postings don't say. Oops sorry , it made some Biblical references. Mortal Sin!Or did the moderator not understand it?

So - as too a little child: The bad guys quoted caused a lot of pain to Israel but Israel still survived and ultimately was the stronger for it. Short-term pessimism, long-term optimism.

Tom the Redhunter

Once again, Melanie, you've hit the nail on the head.

So we see a pattern, do we not? Nations like Israel, the U.S., and U.K, who go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, get nothing but grief for their efforts.

Yet Hamas & Hezbollah act brutally and the "world community" yawns.

Now we learn that Breaking the Silence is funded by the anti-Israel Europeans, and at least one of it's soldiers wasn't even in combat. What a surprise. The charges are falling apart and will fall farther.

Lizzy

"Where is all this heading?" I fear we have arrived already and it is nowhere we wish to be.

Supposedly intelligent, decent people parroting the media's anti-Semitism without a thought as to what their words really mean. I've had personal experience of it recently, being told by a middle class acquaintance that the Israelis are terrorists and murderers. "I don't buy that," I replied and have been sniped at in subsequent conversations for saying so. Sheeples.

Terry, Eilat - Israel

Just a persoanl observation, but as the possibility of a Palestinian state becomes less & less possible due to the political situation on the Palestinian side, as more & more people question the viability of the two-state solution, as support for a two-state solution (regardless of Netanyahu's acceptence) among Israeli's drops, as the idea that the source of Middle-East problems can be solved by a Palestinian state rings ever more hollow, the anti-Israel hysteria mounts. In other words, as the reality that a Palestinian state is not a practical solution, that Palestinians will do nothing positive to create a state on their own & indeed, are not capable of creating a viable state, the ''true believers'' are becoming more & more irrational. Belief in a Palestinian state has become a theological question, a quasi-religious belief disconnected from reality.

Wilinsky

And here is the worst part of the story from the Jerusalem Post:

In response to the claims, Breaking the Silence presented the Post with its donor list for 2008. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv gave the organization NIS 226,589; the Dutch Embassy donated 19,999; and the European Union gave Breaking the Silence 43,514.

The NGO also received funding from the New Israel Fund amounting to NIS 229,949.

In 2007, Breaking the Silence received a total of NIS 500,000, and in 2008 it managed to raise NIS 1.5 million.

No wonder there is no real checking of the 'facts' by the British Gov before responding.

Pete Hoskin

Corin: sometimes comments don't get through for a variety of technical reasons, rather than not showing because of moderation. I suspect that has happened here, as I've looked through our system and can't find your original comment.

If any of your comments fail to show, you can email me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk and I'll do my best to look into it.

Alex

The three links in this paragraph are not working:

"And now we learn that Human Rights Watch – the long history of whose anti-Israel animus has been analysed by NGO Monitor -- has been seeking funding from none other than Saudi Arabia. A piece on the Wall Street Journal website reported:"

Seismic

Did you know Ben White recommends French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy in his 'beginners guide'?

http://tiny.cc/ZDNSa

Nannette

Alex,

The links you're looking for are:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124528343805525561.html

http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/fundraising_corruption_at_huma.php

and probably this NGO monitor piece:

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/human_rights_watch_hrw_

John W

Is it not right that the strong should be sacrificed for the sake of the weak?
Is it not right that the rich should be sacrificed for the sake of the poor?
Is it not right that any positive value in this world or the next should be sacrificed for the sake of the useless and the worthless here on Earth?

"The main line of pre-Kantian moralists had urged man to perform certain actions in order to reach a goal of some kind. They had urged man to love the object which is the good (however it was conceived) and strive to gain it, even if most transferred the quest to the next life. They had asked man to practice a code of virtues as a means to the attainment of values. Kant dissociates virtue from the pursuit of any goal. He dissociates it from man’s love of or even interest in any object. Which means: he dissociates morality from values, any values, values as such." - Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels.

Fortunately, there is a solution-

http://tinyurl.com/c9alxh

C. Gee

John Edwards:
You do not disavow the statements of the other John Edwards. As part of the pro-Israel lobby I can say that the John Edwards movement is not yet a threat. In fact, to call every Guardian and BBC poisoned anti-Israel Brit a "John Edwards" would be useful.

John

We in the UK have absolutely no right to criticise any other countries human rights. Our own history does not bear looking into and we are still today practicing torture etc in war zones.

Elke

What about that picture The New York Times published as being about a Palestinian boy being assalted by Israeli soldiers? It turned out that the pic was about an Israeli boy being protected by Israeli soldiers from a Palestinian attack. The boy's father saw the pic and wrote to BBC saying he was Israeli and he could remember well that day when his son was attacked. You see this story on honestreporting.com

Drakken

I can tell you exactly why your Quisling Govt is ready to throw Isreal under the bus. Your Govt fears civil unrest by the religion of pieces and the backlast that will result.

wonderer

John W, the spelling is an indication of the intellectual merit of your tiny url contribution: "Must Jesus BARE [my emphasis]the cross alone?". I ask you!

In the Wilderness in America

David Helterman: "The world is getting ready to kill Jews again."

This is a sad and tragic statement, but one that is more and more looking like it's true. I pray it's not, but Israel has to defend itself vigorously because the world is rapidly becoming anti-Semitic. Even in the U.S., we are accepting appeasement of terrorist groups such as Hamas as inspired diplomacy.

Paul

I agree with andre's sentiments. I can only add to it by saying that although the British government, who have also ushered in an age of persecution of Christians, have turned away from Israel, it is the British who are doomed. Israel will prevail.

Yehuda

There is a clear parallel between, on one hand, the efforts of the Arab League, the "Palestinian Authority", various NGO's,and many European governments and their collaborating media, to delegitimise The State of Israel, not its actions, as a means to render Israel defenceless and to lay the groundwork for the retrospective justification for the coup de grace which they hope to achieve; and, on the other hand, the Nazis' campaign of vilification and delegitimisation of the existence of the Jewish People, as a justification for the final solution.
Today's enemies of Israel and quasi-Nazis, however, have not soberly thought through what the consequences would be for themselves were their scenario for Israel ever to be actualised.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

I agree with Andre, I think they need more people like him in Britain, they need strong Christians in their society and communities, the British forget their culture, their religion and that is why G*d is angry of them, bad economy, drunk people, bad weather and the Swan Flu, the bells are ringing, it is Sunday and it is time to go to Church
Shalom!

John W

wonderer correctly points out that Xcowhoy2 misspelled '"Must Jesus BARE the cross alone?".' [The full stop is redundant, BTW.]
It looks like Xcowboy2 took it from a Christian website [laughs] but that was just Xcowboy2's first draft!

See his corrected version-

http://tinyurl.com/c5qsgt

Features a hilarious clip of that abysmal duffer Rowan Williams.

An unmissable video!

Augustus

In raising questions regarding possible criminal acts of war determining the mental state of the actors is fundamental. A mistaken allocation of force is not a crime, a deliberate effort to terrorize is. Overall,
the 08/09 Gaza campaign was a textbook example of a measured application of force to achieve
legitimate military benefits. That Israel failed in its declared objective to stop Hamas rockets firing into southern Israel was more the product of a political decision
to halt the offensive before it had achieved a decisive result.

The Palestinians could never recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people without making obvious the absurdity and
injustice of their claim to a
'right of return', i.e. the claim of millions of them to have refugee status and a right to live in a land purported to have been taken from them in 1948. Well, if you were a young refugee in 1948 of say 18, you would have to be 79 today to have a legitimate claim to refugee status. So, in fact, they are only supposed refugees
who have never lived in the state of Israel. Only Palestinians, it seems, are allowed to enjoy an expansive definition of 'refugee' that includes generations born in other lands. Thus against all logic there is a swelling, rather than a diminishing, number of Palestinian refugees. whether confined to miserable camps in Syria or Lebanon, or having achieved comfort in Jordan or the Gulf states, all of them assert - and the PA asserts on their behalf - the right of return to a land none, if any, have ever set foot in.
This is war by demograhics. If all these Arabs were to settle in Israel there would no longer be a Jewish state. The Jews would become a small minority in their own country, politically dominated by Arabs and Sharia law. The result would not be two states for two peoples, but two states for one people (the Palestinians), and the Hamas spokesman Khaled Mashal has said as much: "We reject the so-called Jewishness of Israel, and we warn against any Palestinian or Arab leniency in this regard, because it will mean the denial of the right of six million Palestinian refugees to return to their homes."

logdon

Drakken is right.

All those votes. All the promises to rein in the bombers. For Labour the choice is a no brainer even if it means the destruction of Britain.

As for the Guardian stance? Whenever there's an article on the ME or Islam, for a bit of fun I lob in a fact grenade couched in uncompromising terms then wait for the pin heads to react.

The trick is not to join in, defend or add, but to revisit to see how long the uproar lasts.

After a few insults, they end up fighting amongst themselves over the tiniest of semantics.

It's almost as if the various factions in Life of Brian were being brought to life, all squabbling like overindulged schoolchildren on one Guardian page.

Which is essentially the reality of that ridiculous discredited rag.

PS

Didn't get far with Coulson did they?

ahem

Where does this all end? Something on the order of WWI again, I suspect.

Jingu knawe

Imagine if the Israeli people were the Palestinians and the Palestinians were the Israelis, then the British would like Israelis, here in Britain they like needy people, even inside the immigrants who live in their country they have favourism and they prefer the ones who are drunk, terrorist or homeless better then the hard working, educated intelligent peaceful ones, I do experience this all the time as an African immigrant who is not needy, if they see strong non needy people they discriminate them, the British think the Israels are not needy but the other countries are the ones who need help, which is wrong we all need help sometime, since Britain is not so rich and powerful anymore many modern British are not so bright and they are very jealous against successful, hard working honest people i really think it makes them feel low even they are already low and they lost the empire long time ago, now a days good is bad and bad is good for so many people from this part of the world and there is nothing I or Melanie can't do about except Melanie can write and I pray for change and understanding

War is Peace

StandWithUs- are they supposed to be impartial?

Rob Farrington

Thanks for providing the link to Standwithus.com.

Of course, the BBC has especially strict criteria when it comes to their sources. It's just their criteria aren't the same as would be applied by actual, you know...journalists.

They are, and always have been for as long as I can remember, more concerned with demonizing Israel than reporting the truth.

I have a good mind to calculate what percentage of the license fee is spent on 'news' reporting and then demand half of it back, since we're consistently given only half of the story, at best.

Miranda Rose Smith

Evil, ugly, horrible things happen in war. Some of the Breaking the Silence allegations may be true. Areas torn by war, riots or natural disasters are also areas where scary, exaggerated stories circulate, and circulate fast.
Publicity-hungry or pacifistic soldiers, in countries with a free press, will sometimes lie about atrocities. Does the name "John Kerry" ring a bell?
It is the duty of responsible journalists in a war zone to check out such stories, particularly when they are dealing with a country as beleaguered and civilized as Israel.
I don't believe this flood of unsubstantiated anti-Israel stories is merely the behavior of irresponsible journalists who like a juicy story. I believe it is part of an organized campaign to demonize and isolate Israel, to kill any sympathy anyone may have for Israel, to have an excuse to cut off sales of vitally needed weapons to Israel, possibly to try Prime Minister Netanyahu as a war criminal. Of course, once the prededent is set that its a war crime to shoot back when Arabs are shooting at you, the Arabs will be free to walk in and take over Europe.
European governments are backing Breaking the Silence and the BBC is trumpeting their allegations from the housetops. They can't stand the sight or the thought of Jews standing on their own two feet in their own country, though they don't mind Jews who are sweetly and properly grateful for being tolerated and don't squawk too loudly when they arn't tolerated. They dream of a world where there is no Israel, and rose-colored glasses do no come in bifocals because no one reads the fine print in dreams. Also, they want to curry favor with the Arab states, who have the oil. They don't realize that if they ever get their wish and Israel is destroyed, G-d forbid, Europe, where they live, is next on the Islamofascist hit list.

Liz

I would have though it's obvious why all this is happening. Gordon Brown is deflecting the monumental failure of his tenure as Prime Minister onto Israel. By doing so he is also appeasing his preferred constituency (the Moslems)and is thus achieving a double wammy. However, before Mr Brown receives further brickbats, can anyone tell me whether David Cameron has been remotely vociferous in his defense of Israel? I would also like to ask contributors, realistically speaking, to whom should Israel now turn for support, given that they are the pariahs of the New Order in Europe.

tiki

To Nota Sheep; You think Israel will not excist in its current form in another 5 years. You might be right. Israel only grew bigger and stronger when the whole world was ganging up against her and became soft and weak when everybody pretended to be her friend. Israel doesn't do compliments very well.

David Revelman

In Australia the national broadcaster, the ABC, propagated exactly the same anti-Israeli smear.

Drakken

Question?
So if the NGO's and various news organizations who continualy vilify Isreal and spout Trans-Jordan propaganda, doesn't that mean that they are in fact enemy combatants, thus not entitled to protections in a combat zone? A very interesting conumdrum wouldn't you agree?

daniel

Melanie,

Have you read the testimonies of the soldiers on the website of Breaking the Silence? The thing which struck me is that there is not much there.

All the attrocities reported are rather mild for an army at war. So if journalists would do their job and read them, they would realize it is a non-story.

But the whole thing is based on people not doing their jobs. On them not reading what is actually there and not knowing how people behave in war.

Why should an army be ashamed for telling its soldiers their lives are more important then the lives of an enemy population?

Unless it concerns Israel, this is actually considered normal.

G D River

Estimated worldwide nuclear stockpiles, 2009

Country: Total Warheads: Population

Russia:13,000 / 142,000,000
United States:9,400 / 307,000,000
*Israel (undeclared):100 - 400 max / 7,400,000
France:300 / 65,000,000
China:240 / 1,332,000,000
United Kingdom:185 / 62,000,000
India:60 / 1,167,000,000
Pakistan:60 / 167,000,000
North Korea:10 / 24,000,000

Dependent on the true number of undeclared nuclear warheads, Israel could be the 3rd most powerful nuclear state in the world if possessing the maximum estimated number of WMD. In that event she would be twice as powerful as the UK with a demographic just over only 1/10th the size of Britain’s.

Undeclared nuclear states (from Wikipedia)

Nuclear weapons and Israel
Israel is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refuses to officially confirm or deny having a nuclear arsenal, or having developed nuclear weapons, or even having a nuclear weapons program. Israel has pledged not to be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the region, but is also pursuing a policy of strategic ambiguity with regard to their possession. In the late 1960s, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yitzhak Rabin informed the United States State Department, that its understanding of "introducing" such weapons meant that they would be tested and publicly declared, while merely possessing the weapons did not constitute "introducing" them. Although Israel claims that the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona is a "research reactor", or, as was originally claimed, a "textile factory," no scientific reports based on work done there have ever been published. Extensive information about the program in Dimona was also disclosed by technician Mordechai Vanunu in 1986.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Federation of American Scientists, Israel possesses around 75–200 weapons. Imagery analysts can identify weapon bunkers, mobile missile launchers, and launch sites in satellite photographs. Israel may have tested a nuclear weapon along with South Africa in 1979, but this has never been confirmed (see Vela Incident).
On May 26, 2008, former US president Jimmy Carter stated that Israel has “150 or more nuclear warheads” at a press conference at the annual literary Hay festival in Wales.

GDR