Hamas And Holy Days

While the UN passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza for Ramadan, they made no effort to have one imposed for Yom Kippur.

Not that Hamas would have honored it in any case, as they certainly have a lack of respect for anyone else holy days, much less their own. The latest conflict, as you may remember, kicked off on October 7 with Hamas committing a massacre and kidnapping during a Jewish Holiday of Simchat Torah.

Sure enough, Hamas just did rocket attack during Yom Kippur  today.

Arutz Sheva: Rocket fire disrupts Yom Kippur silence in Ashdod

Sirens were sounded in the city of Ashdod and the surrounding area on Wednesday evening, at around 8:50 p.m., as Israelis observed Yom Kippur - the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Residents of the area reported hearing explosions.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit stated that five projectiles were fired by Hamas terrorists from the northern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.

No urgent resolution nor condemnation from the UN for this latest attack during the holiest day for Jews. 

Funny, that.

Hamas And The Big Lie

I've noted before how Hamas is falsely inflating its casualty statistics.

Their stats were statistically highly suspect, going up in a practically perfect linear fashion, and do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. 

Now even the UN has caught up and finally owned up to the fact that Hamas' Health ministry is making it up as they go along:  

USA Today: United Nations cuts estimate for deaths of women and children in Gaza in half

Still, the false figure persists in news reports and op eds parroting the false number and using it to vilify Israel.

Verily, the pro-Hamas propaganda goes round the world which the truth is still lacing up its boots.

Sure China, We'll Discuss Doing That Right After Recognition Of An Independent Taiwan, Ok?

Reuters:  China's foreign minister says admitting Palestinian state to UN is move to rectify injustice

China's foreign minister Wang Yi on Saturday said efforts to admit a Palestinian state into the United Nations were a move to rectify a prolonged injustice, state media Xinhua reported.

. . .

"A prompt admission of Palestine into the United Nations is a move to rectify a prolonged historical injustice," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

 At least the Biden Administration did cave to the Islamist Democrat vote and actually did the right thing and vetoed this latest bit of rewarding ongoing acts of Hamas terrorism.

But sure thing Wang, right after recognition of Taiwan's independence is made by China and Taiwan gets a seat in the United Nations, I'm sure we can discuss rectifying "injustice", as counterfactual as that is,  in the Middle East.

 I'll note Taiwan that Taiwan has a far better claim to independent statehood and hasn't been firing rockets at, committing acts of terrorism, mass murder, or rape of its neighbors while China backed Hamas sure hasn't been holding back in those areas.

Hamas Health Ministry Admits Their Casualty Numbers Are "Flawed"

The credulous and anti-Israel world takes Hamas Health Ministry causality reports as gospel.

Even though this is the same Hamas-run Health Ministry that outright lied about the casualty count when the Hamas rocket hit the Al Shifa Hospital parking lot (500 claimed when they tried to pin it on Israel when in reality it was less than 50).  The same Hamas-run Health Ministry whose casualty reporting is statistically rather suspect - with casualty numbers that increase perfectly linearly daily throughout the conflict.

Well, the Hamas Health Ministry just admitted they have some flaws.  As in a lot of flaws, as in massively overstating casualties sort of flaws.

FDD: Hamas-Run Gaza Health Ministry Admits to Flaws in Casualty Data

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for 11,371 of the 33,091 Palestinian fatalities it claims to have documented. In a statistical report, the ministry notes that it considers an individual record to be incomplete if it is missing any of the following key data points: identity number, full name, date of birth, or date of death. The health ministry also released a report on April 3 that acknowledged the presence of incomplete data but did not define what it meant by “incomplete.” In that earlier report, the ministry acknowledged the incompleteness of 12,263 records. It is unclear why, after just three more days, the number fell to 11,371 — a decrease of more than 900 records.

Prior to its admissions of incomplete data, the health ministry asserted that the information in more than 15,000 fatality records had stemmed from “reliable media sources.” However, the ministry never identified the sources in question and Gaza has no independent media.

In other words, potentially half of the 33,000 Health Ministry reported casualties that the Arabs and the world uses to claim Israel is committing "genocide" may be entirely made up propaganda by the Health Ministry.

This would reduce Israel's terrorist to civilian death ration to below 1:0.5 from the current 1:1.8.

Global average ratio of terrorist to civilian death in urban combat is around 1:9, with the US military being  around 1:5 or 1:7 by comparison.

In short, Israel is likely now running the most civilian-safe intense urban combat campaign in recorded history - against an enemy using civilians as human shields, deliberately emplacing itself and fighting from civilian locations, and providing no shelters for the civilian population.  

The Islamists and their fellow travelers claims of genocide in this conflict are simply so much bushwah, and should be treated as such.  Those making such claims are either an outright pro-Hamas idiot or just a credulous idiot - pick one.

Anyone that claims there is a "Gazacaust" or "genocide" occurring in Gaza needs to go find the nearest tree and apologize for being a waste of oxygen.

So Biden Just Threw Israel Under The Bus for Islamic Votes

The Biden administration form the outset wasn't happy about Israel defending itself from the Hamas October 7 attack.

Remember the first tweet after the attack form the Biden administration was a stern notice that Israel was not to retaliate:

Now, fearing they may loose the Muslim vote in Michigan and thereby lose enough votes to have Michigan go to Trump, they just threw Israel under the bus in the UN Security Council. 

The resolution the Biden Administration refused to veto would, if enacted, give Hamas time to rebuild and refortify its positions by requiring a ceasefire during Ramadan - the same ceasefire Hamas had rejected as they refused to release the hostages - and leaves the Israeli hostages (including Americans) in Rafah with their captors.

If it is actually enacted, I bet Hamas will continue to fire rockets at Israel and perform other attacks,  and then  Israel will be blamed for breaking the ceasefire when it responds to Hamas attacks. 

Shame on the Biden Administration and for the other members of the security council that voted for this resolution for this craven appeasement of terrorists for domestic political gain.

Hamas HQ Found Under UNWRA Gaza Headquarters

Hamas had a major bunker and tunnel complex right underneath the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza - even getting electricity for it form UNRWA.

NPR: Israel says it discovered tunnels under U.N. agency's Gaza headquarters

Of course UNRWA is claiming to be deaf, dumb and blind stating they haven't been at that the location since October 12.

The massive complex had clearly been there for far longer than October 12 - you can't build a bunker like that surreptitiously under another building in that amount of time, and it is pretty clear people at UNRWA headquarters knew exactly what was going on while it was being built and this adds to the already extensive proof of the close connections and cooperation and participation of UNRWA with Hamas.

A Ceasefire or "Pause" Only Benefits Hamas

It's the very typical scenario:  Hamas, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Hizb'Allah or Fatah attacks Israel.  Israel then responds and the attacking Arab party then cries for a ceasefire, uses the ceasefire to rearm and reequip and dig  then does another attack and it repeats.

One should note that the October 7 attack occurred after a prior ceasefire with Hamas.  That ceasefire was not the first, there had been numerous ceasefires all previously broken by Hamas whenever it felt it could get away with it. Once Hamas starts to lose it asks for another ceasefire until its ready for the next round.

We will note the current request for a ceasefire from Hamas and its fellow-travelers worldwide sounds different depending on whether its asked for in English or Arabic.

In English it claims to want a ceasefire for humanitarian grounds.

In Arabic, they proclaim what we know to be true  - that they intend to use the ceasefire to rearm, rebuild, and repeat the atrocities of October 7.

Quite simply the answer should be No to any pause or Ceasefire.  

Israel has it right in refusing to continue this same sordid dance of a ceasefire to save Hamas every time they start losing.

Hamas may end the current hostilities by surrendering anytime it wants to do so. 

And Obama Gives The Back Of His Hand To Israel As A Hanukkah Present

Legal Insurrection: UN Security Council Passes Anti-Israel Resolution, U.S. Abstains

Nice - instead of vetoing a pernicious, counterfactual, and one-sided resolution against Israel, the Obama Administration abstained, allowing it to pass.

More than just declaring"settlement" illegal, the way it is drafted would make Israeli control of the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem and any territory retaken after 1949 illegal as well. In short it's a one-sided anti-Israel resolution that normally would not have passed as the US, as an honest broker would have vetoed it.

Instead, Obama now that the election is over, decided to get back at Netanyahu and screw Israel.

January 20, 2017 and the end of this reign of error can't come soon enough.

UNESCO Beclowns Itself

On the day after Yom Kippur, in a decision akin to announcing today that the earth is flat or that the Titanic is unsinkable, UNESCO has decided to declare that the Temple Mount and Western Wall have no connection to Judaism.

The Jerusalem Post: UNESCO votes: No connection between Temple Mount and Judaism

Denying 3,000 years of history to push an anti-Semitic, pro-palestinian agenda is hardly going to lead to a just result. Instead reinforces the truth that the UN is not an honest broker for peace, and it further reveals that the Arabs and their supporters in the UN still are pushing not for peaceful co-existence, but for denying historical and archaeological facts and advocating, supporting and moving for the elimination of Jews and Judaism from the Land of Israel and Jerusalem in particular.

UNESCO's Credibility Drops Even Farther

The UN and its sub-organizations generally have an anti-US and anti-Israel bias that can be shockingly apparent at times.

For example, UNESCO in an act of impressive historical revisionism, just passed a resolution claiming that Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs are Muslim holy sites, not Jewish.

At the last minute they at least redacted from the resolution a statement that the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was not a Jewish Holy Site but was solely a Muslim holy site. How nice of them.

They did however in the resolution call on Israel to respect “respect the pre-1967 status quo”. Note the word pre. Pre-1967, the old city of Jerusalem was in Jordanian hands and Jews were forbidden to enter, and they were also forbidden from visiting Rachel's Tomb, the Tomb of The patriarchs and Josephs Tomb. Nice.

At least they didn't go full turnip and claim that Joseph's Tomb the same holy site that Muslims just firebombed was solely a Muslim holy site.

If anyone wonders why Israel and America tend to distrust the UN as an institution, well, this contemptible resolution is yet another sign for you.

Hamas Uses Ceasefire To Kidnap Israeli Soldier

After US and UN pressure induced Israel to put into effect another mutual ceasefire, yet again Hamas violated it almost immediately, waiting all of an hour and thirty minutes before violating it.

That's 5 ceasefire agreements violated by Hamas since July 15.

This time however they have used the ceasefire to launch an attack and kidnap an Israeli Soldier and kill at least two others.

Second Lieutenent Hadar Goldin, 23 was kidnapped in the attack.

I think we're well beyond the fool me once stage. Israel should keep going until the job is done.

The next time the US State Department, Obama, and the UN demand a ceasefire, Israel should tell them to stuff it.

I'm So Glad The UN Has Managed To Solve All The World's Problems.

They must have, as they've taken time out of their busy diplomatic schedule to lambaste Detroit for daring to shut off water to scofflaws in the city that aren't paying.

Oh, half of all the water department accounts in Detroit are delinquent. That along with the extensive history of corruption in squandering and diveritng the funds form the half and the suburbs that do pay is why the water department is in such bad shape.

The Detroit News: UN says Detroit water cutoffs may violate human rights

According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, free water (or to be truthful, water paid for by others) is a human right.

Funnily enough, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights doesn't list free water as a human right.

Curiously, the Detroit News did not quote the part from the news release where ther UN further beclowned itself by claiming that “If these water disconnections disproportionately affect African Americans they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties the US has ratified,” Farha added.

Hard to see how it could be disproportionate, since the city is majority African American, and it will be African Americans doing the shut offs for non-payment by the freeloaders, and one can expect the shut-offs to be likewise proportional.

Just glad to see the UN Human Rights Council Is focusing on the real important human rights violations of the day, even if they only exist in the vile prog's and Tranzis fevered imaginations.

Falking Up: UN Special Rapporteur Displays His Crazy And Bias To All

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur (You know he's "special" when they give him a french title), prominently displayed to the world the bias and crazy he's been about for a long time. This time however, the world actually took notice and he may have to answer for it.

Falk, after the Boston Bombings as reported in the NY Daily News esxcused the attacks as of course America had it coming:

Now he rationalizes the Islamist radicalization of the brothers Tsarnaev by writing: “The American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the postcolonial world. In some respects, the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks, and these may yet happen.”

He added: “As long as Tel Aviv has the compliant ear of the American political establishment, those who wish for peace and justice in the world should not rest easy.”

Yes, really, he said it.

Of course, prior to this latest episode, Flak had gotten away with the following without any sanction or loss of status at the UN, so he probably figured this latest statement was no big deal and he could play to his appreciated leftist audience of bien pensants:

Falk has called Israel’s leaders Nazis, accused them of genocide and suggested former President George W. Bush ordered the destruction of the twin towers. He has posted a cartoon of a dog wearing a yarmulke with a Star of David, eating a human carcass and urinating on Lady Justice.

Did I mention this clown is a product of all the best schools in America:

Falk obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB)from Yale University, and a Doctor of Laws (SJD) from Harvard University.

He's also Professor Emeritus - or is that Professor Embarrassus - at Princeton. Apparently, American self-loathing is an educational by-product of attending these institutions.

All that education apparently turned him into an anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, Marxist-loving terrorist-apologising 9/11-truther nut-bag.

Falk became influenced by a group of radical graduate students and young faculty members who were interested in the work of Karl Marx, C. Wright Mills and Herbert Marcuse. His move to Princeton University, where the teaching of law was linked to politics, international relations and other social sciences allowed Falk to integrate his professional expertise in international law with his ethical and political values.

Those are apparently the desired qualifications for an appointment by the UN as a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights.

At least this revealing episode may disabuse those who believe in the quaint notion that when the UN reports on Israel or America it is doing so in an unbiased manner.

Consistent with that UNbias, Mr. Falk still as of this date retains his position as Special Rapporteur.

UN Chief Bemoans State Of The Entire Arab World, Blames Israel

From the Times of Israel: UN chief blames Israel for Arab world stagnation

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appeared to hold Israel partially responsible for lack of progress in the Arab world.

“Development in the Arab region has also been held back by protracted conflict, injustice and occupation. The stalemate in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis is especially troubling,” Ban stated in a message to the Third Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, currently taking place in Saudi Arabia.

Uh-huh. So the 22 Arab states' myriad failures and lack of progress and development are due to a tiny state that only borders a handful of them? Got it.

This kind of pandering and idiocy affirms yet again that the UN is hardly an honest broker or impartial body in the Middle East.

France To Recognize Palestinians As A State, Surrender And Collaboration To Follow.

Ah the French.

France to recognize Palestinian state at UN

With the announcement, France becomes the first major European country to come out in favor, dealing a setback to Israel. The timing of the announcement appears aimed at swaying other European nations.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament that France has long supported Palestinian ambitions for statehood and “will respond ‘Yes’” when the issue comes up for a vote “out of a concern for coherency.”

Wonderful to see the French values of socialisme, anti-sémitisme, et arabisme in full flower.

Assuming the UN goes ahead and upgrades it to a non-member state it raises all sorts of questions as noted by Legal Insurrection, especially as the palis are claiming their state in territory they do not control (Jerusalem), do not have a coherent government (Hamas and Fatah are still rivaling each other and not a viable government) and will be a state born with its founding documents proclaiming the desire to destroy another state. What could possibly go wrong?

Not Syrias About Truces

The Detroit Free Press: Syria truce collapse shows limits of diplomacy

The U.N. tried to broker a halt to fighting over the four-day Eid al-Adha Muslim feast that began on Friday, one of the holiest times of the Islamic calendar. But the truce was violated almost immediately after it was supposed to take effect, the same fate other cease-fires in Syria have met.

Interestingly some international idiots are trying to spin this as the United States fault:

The U.S., meanwhile, is averse to sending strategic weapons to help the rebels break the battlefield stalemate, fearing they will fall into the hands of militant Islamists, who are increasingly active in rebel ranks. [See Benghazi as Exhibit A as to why that fear is well founded]

"There has been a lack of desire to take the tough decisions," said [Salman] Shaikh [director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank].

"In Washington, they've only been focused on the narrow political goal of their own elections, trying to convince a war-wary public inside the U.S. that we are actually disengaging from the conflicts of the Middle East," he said.

But wait, I thought they were all for a nice multi-polar world with America not acting like a cowboy and all that?

At least they didn't pin the blame on Israel for it. The again ,its rather hard to make Israel look like the bad guy in the region when Syria can blithely kill 35,000 of its own citizens without causing much of an uproar among the likely suspects in the UN and elsewhere.

Another video showed destruction inside the Sheikh Moussa mosque in Harasta. Windows and doors were blown out, glass and debris scattered across the mosque's floor. The narrator broke down as he was heard saying: "Where are the Muslims? Our mosques are being bombed and no one cares."

When its Muslims doing it to other Muslims, the world yawns. It just doesn't fit the narrative of the Muslims as the poor leftist proletariat being oppressed by capitalist colonialist Israelis or Americans as the case may be.

You won't see much if any activity on campuses about Syria's genocidal campaign against its own people, nor a national conference for activism against Syria and other Arab dictators' homicidal tendencies against their own people.

Some UNintentional International Irony

The UN just appointed Iran to the bureau overseeing the global arms control treaty.

You can't make this up.

FoxNews.com: When the UN wants to negotiate a global arms control deal, it turns to ... Iran

Critics say asking Iran to help craft a treaty aimed at stopping arms proliferation to terrorist groups and rogue states makes a mockery of the talks. Just two weeks ago, the UN Security Council accused Tehran of shipping arms to Syria, and Iran is also suspected of hiding illegal nuclear weapons facilities from international watchdogs.

“It defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers.”

- UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer

“Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told FoxNews.com.

Let's see - Libya was on the Human Rights Commission as Gaddafi was massacring his own people, Syria was similarly put on the UNESCO Human Rights Commission when it kicked off its own crackdown and massacre, and is still pushing to join the regular UN Human Rights Commission. Saudi Arabia is appointed to the UN Women's rights commission when they don't even let women drive. Now Iran, a top weapons smuggler and nuclear proliferator is on the Global Arms Treaty Bureau.

I know the soft power advocates keep pushing the position that putting a major issue violator on the commission that is supposed to punish or at least identify those issue violators is supposed to shame it into compliance with international norms, but that theory sure hasn't worked yet.

The UN has verily gone from tragedy to farce.

Even worse, the Obama Administration is eagerly participating in this charade:

The conference is taking place after the Obama administration moved in 2009 to support holding the event – reversing the position of the Bush administration, which opposed a UN General Assembly resolution launching the treaty process in 2006.

Just great. So, how's that smart diplomacy working for you lately?

Now Who Could Have Predicted This?

Syria ignores cease-fire plan

From The Detroit News:

Syrian troops defied a U.N.-brokered cease-fire plan on Tuesday, launching fresh attacks on rebellious areas

Could anyone other than UN diplomats really believe the Syrian government was going to honor that ceasefire plan?

Of course, when the UN has decided that this time, unlike Libya, their actions will be confined solely to diplomatic hand-wringing, such defiance is not unsurprising.

On Tuesday, Annan insisted his peace initiative remains "very much alive" — in part because there is no viable alternative.

The U.N. has ruled out any military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and several rounds of sanctions and other attempts to isolate President Bashar Assad have done little to stop the bloodshed.

Too bad for its citizens that Syria lacks any commercially viable oil resources.

Irony Rich Headline Of The Day: Syrian government to lead humanitarian visit

The Detroit Free Press: Syrian government to lead humanitarian visit

The U.N. humanitarian chief said a Syrian government-led mission will visit Homs, Hama, Daraa and other cities at the center of the country's uprising starting this weekend, accompanied by U.N. and Organization of Islamic Cooperation staff who will assess humanitarian needs.

As intense fighting continues, Valerie Amos again appealed to the Syrian government to provide unhindered access for humanitarian organizations so they can identify urgent needs and provide emergency care "in a neutral and impartial manner."

Considering the Syrian government is the cause of the "humanitarian needs" in those cities, having them run the tours is pretty ironic. At least they'll know what issues they've caused and can point out the problems so the UN can continue to "gather information on the humanitarian situation."

I hear the residents of those cities replied: "Thanks, but no tanks!"

Surely UN can't be Syrious?

Via the indispensible Michael J. Totten: Syria to Join the UN’s “Human Rights Commission”

Really, while Syria is busy shooting down its own people in droves, the UN dictator's club is busy electing it to the Human Rights Commission.

Luckily, since the main (and almost sole) effort of the UN HRC seems to be condemning Israel, Syria should fit right in.

Oh, and under the Barack Obama administration, in a reversal from the Bush administration, the US is now supporting, legitimizing and approving this charade of a "Human Rights Council".