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Resources updated between Monday, August 4, 2014 and Sunday, August 10, 2014

August 9, 2014

In its attack on Israel, UN speakers never mention Hamas "tunnels"

On August 6, 2014, the United Nations convened the entire global community for an unusual day-long "informal" session of the General Assembly. The purpose: to demonize the Jewish state and emasculate its right of self-defense.

The UN formula for ravaging Israel by ignoring the criminal actions of its foes – and the foes of the civilized world – is breathtaking.

Not one of the UN speakers – the Secretary-General, the representative of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the UN's MidEast envoy, the head of UNRWA – even uttered the word "tunnel."

Israel was denounced for destroying "homes and neighborhoods" and "civilian infrastructure." But the fact that Israel had destroyed an extraordinary labyrinth of 32 terror tunnels deep underground – running for miles, jam packed with explosives, opening near Israeli towns, and built for the sole purpose of killing Jews – somehow just got left out.

Terror tunnels also did not make it into repeated references to "root causes." Hamas' promise to kill Jews and "obliterate" Israel did not count as a root cause of the conflict either. At the UN, "root cause" is reserved for the Israeli "occupation" – that is, the non-existent Jews that have not lived in Gaza for eight years.

Part of the reason that Palestinian hate-speech does not make it on to the UN agenda is that the UN has no definition of terrorism. In UN circles, Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a welcome member of the Palestinian "unity" government...

The Continuing United Nations War Against the Jews Article

ISIS terrorists

"A cleric read the verdict before the truck came and dumped a large pile of stones near the municipal garden. Jihadi fighters then brought in the woman, clad head to toe in black, and put her in a small hole in the ground. When residents gathered, the fighters told them to carry out the sentence: Stoning to death for the alleged adulteress. None in the crowd stepped forward, said a witness to the event in a northern Syrian city. So the jihadi fighters, mostly foreign extremists, did it themselves, pelting Faddah Ahmad with stones until her body was dragged away. 'Even when she was hit with stones she did not scream or move,' said an opposition activist who said he witnessed the stoning near the football stadium and the Bajaa garden in the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State group. The July 18 stoning was the second in a span of 24 hours. A day earlier, 26-year-old Shamseh Abdullah was killed in a similar way in the nearby town of Tabqa by Islamic State fighters. Both were accused of having sex outside marriage. The killings were the first of their kind in rebel-held northern Syria, where jihadis from the Islamic State group have seized large swaths of territory, terrorizing residents with their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including beheadings and cutting off the hands of thieves..."

Women Stoned to Death in Syria for Adultery Document

August 8, 2014

UN General Assembly meeting on Gaza, August 6, 2014

As the terrorist organization Hamas breaks yet another ceasefire, it operates with the firm belief that it will be protected on the international stage. That's because the modern United Nations has become an instrument of war, just seven decades after it was founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."

It is time to face an ugly truth: The U.N. encourages terrorism. U.N. enablers on the ground in Gaza and U.N. broadcasters in the diplomatic comfort zones of Geneva and New York are partners in incitement to genocide against Israel, the Jewish state.

Think back to Rwanda, where a radio station broadcast that Tutsis were "cockroaches." The message received was that killing was justified, that Tutsis deserved what they got. Such broadcasts were criminal.

The demonization of Israelis by the United Nations is similarly venomous, regardless of the diplomatic facade.

On July 30, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Israel of "attacking sleeping children." On July 23, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israel exhibited "disregard for...the right to life." She alleged that it "was shockingly evident for all to see in the apparent targeting of...children playing." On July 14, U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl told the press that Israeli crimes included "attacks against...civilians."

Alleging that Israelis are baby-killers is not some throwaway line. It's incitement.

This incitement goes hand-in-hand with the repeated blood libel coming from U.N. sources. The ancient and vile accusation that Jews use the blood of the innocent for religious rituals has been only slightly modified in U.N. circles, where Jews are portrayed as simply out for blood, period.

Following his effusive praise for Hamas' financial-backer, Qatar, Ban Ki-moon said on July 20, "Gaza is an open wound. We must stop the bleeding now." On July 25, from Cairo, he said: "The people of Gaza have bled enough..." At an Aug. 6 special session of the General Assembly, speakers from more than two dozen countries railed about "the shedding of innocent Palestinian blood."

Claiming that Israelis are bloodthirsty is not idle chatter. It's anti-Semitism.

The Hamas Charter makes plain that its intent is to kill Jews and "obliterate" Israel. As recently as July 10, Hamas made the Rwanda comparison itself, playing a song about Zionists on Al-Aqsa TV that encouraged viewers to "exterminate the cockroaches' nest."

As with most attempted genocides, the process of demonizing the Jewish state and concomitantly tying its hands behind its back whenever it tries to defend itself did not happen overnight. U.N. High Commissioner Pillay has spent her entire six-year tenure promoting the racist "anti-racism" Durban Declaration and the idea that Israelis are racists.

These days, the criminal hatemongering from U.N. quarters is dressed up as law. The allegation now repeated nonstop is that Israeli actions in Gaza have been "disproportionate."

Actually, international humanitarian law requires that on a case-by-case basis the "expected incidental loss of civilian life" must be proportionate to "the military advantage anticipated." The U.N. has already concluded – without having any knowledge of the necessary specifics – that Israel's actions have been disproportionate by comparing the numbers of civilian casualties among Israelis and Palestinians.

On July 31, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said: "By looking at the number of civilian casualties, it should be apparent that Israel's return of force was disproportionate." On July 21, Ban Ki-moon also tied "proportionality" directly to the fact that "most of the death toll has been among the Palestinian people."

The logical consequence of this fallacious reasoning is that in order for Israel's response to Hamas to be proportionate, it should let Hamas rockets fall on Israeli civilians. According to the U.N., the law requires more dead Israelis.

It also did not occur to these U.N. geniuses to compare the numbers of Palestinian civilian deaths to the millions of Israelis who have lived within 15 seconds of death from Hamas rocket fire day-in and day-out, year-after-year. The right of self-defense is not the exclusive prerogative of the dead. Actually, the point of a right of self-defense is to prevent death.

Moreover, fictitious U.N. "proportionality" tests are a mug's game. In 2004, Israel killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi without a single civilian casualty. Rantissi was responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths and injuries and labeled a "specially designated global terrorist" by the State Department. The U.N. reaction? Then U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the targeted "assassination" a violation of international law.

U.N. actors may not hold the guns in their hands, but they are engaged in warfare just the same.

Where is the Obama administration in this sickening perversion of first principles? Working hand-in-glove with the U.N.

On July 28, the president agreed to a unanimous Security Council "presidential statement" on Gaza against the strong objections of Israel. The statement doesn't mention Hamas, or rockets, or tunnels. It doesn't identify the only party that has rejected or broken every cease-fire. And it lumps Israel together with a terrorist organization by demanding the same from "all parties." On the plus side for team Obama, it "commends the Secretary-General and Secretary John Kerry."

Why should Palestinian and other Arab terrorists end their six-decade-long campaign to destroy the state of Israel when this global monstrosity has their back?

Gaza & the UN war criminals Article

August 7, 2014

Palestinians militants from various armed factions, including Hamas, attend a news conference in Gaza City.

Hamas said on Thursday it had executed several Palestinians on suspicion of helping Israeli forces during the month-long Gaza conflict.

"The spies were executed after they were caught red-handedly informing on the whereabouts of the resistance (or) disrupting the work of resistance men and defusing ambushes prepared against the enemy," Al-Majd, a pro-Hamas website, quoted an unnamed member of the Islamist group's security services as saying.

It did not elaborate on the number of people executed.

Meanwhile, Palestinian newspaper al-Quds reported that Hamas has executed its former spokesman Ayman Taha, who was arrested on suspicion of spying for an Arab country and financial corruption.

According to the report, a firing squad executed Taha in Gaza on Monday.

Hamas says executed Palestinians suspected of spying for Israel Document

On August 5, 2014 U.S. senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, demanding an investigation into the actions of the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) during Israel's defensive operation in Gaza.

The text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Secretary Kerry:

We write to express our profound concern with the troubling role the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) has played during the ongoing crisis in Gaza, including multiple instances of weapons found at UNRWA schools as well one-sided statements from UNRWA leadership that unjustly condemn Israel. For instance, on July 14, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl stated that Israeli security forces are acting "contrary to international humanitarian law" and also called Israel's Gaza blockade "illegal."

As you know, UNRWA admitted on July 17th, July 22nd, and July 30th that it found rockets belonging to Hamas on its property. We commend UNRWA's quick condemnation of these incidents, but are concerned with the ultimate fate of these rockets, which UNRWA claimed to have turned over to the "local authorities" or have gone missing. We fear that this means these rockets may have found their way back into Hamas' hands.

We urge the State Department to launch an independent investigation into these incidents and to call on the United Nations leadership to hold UNRWA accountable, including by reprimanding or dismissing the UNRWA staff responsible as appropriate, as well as asking the U.N. to ensure that these incidents never take place again.

In the course of your investigation, we ask you to examine the fate of these rockets, what measures the U.N. took to secure UNRWA property, and how the U.S. intends to work with the U.N. to make sure incidents like these are never repeated.

As you know, the United States is the largest donor to UNRWA and has contributed almost $5 billion to the organization since 1950. The United States taxpayers deserve to know if UNRWA is fulfilling its mission or taking sides in this tragic conflict.

We look forward to your reply.

Senators Kirk, Cardin and Rubio demand investigation into UNRWA actions Article

August 6, 2014

Iraqi Yazidi women who fled ISIS take refuge in the Kurdish city of Dohuk. Around 40,000 other Yazidis have been forced to the top of a mountain by the militants

"Some 40,000 Iraqi refugees face starvation after being forced into hiding on a barren mountain top by a circling band of bloodthirsty jihadists.

They must now decide whether to descend and risk being slaughtered or hope their attackers are defeated before they die of thirst or hunger, officials said.

They were driven from the town of Sinjar by ISIS over the weekend and have already been forced to bury at least 20 children who succumbed to the harsh conditions on Mount Sinjar.

Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said: 'There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads.

'There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State. It's a disaster, a total disaster.'"

Up to 40,000 Iraqis forced to choose between dying of thirst... or slaughter by extremists Document

August 5, 2014

Hussein Abd al-Qader Muhaisen (Abu Ubeida), operative in the Al-Quds Battalions, the military wing of the PIJ

The findings of the current examination

1. This document is the second in a series of publications of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) examining the names of the Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge. The goal is to ascertain the identity of terrorist operatives and non-involved citizens, and to examine the ratio between them.

2. To date, the ITIC has examined the first 300 names on the Palestinian Health Ministry's lists. In its second examination, the ITIC examined another group of 150 names of Palestinians killed between July 12 and July 19, 2014, in the order in which the names appear on the Palestinian Health Ministry's lists (see Appendix C). The present examination also includes Palestinians killed during the first two days of the IDF's ground operation in the Gaza Strip (which began on July 17, 2014).

3. Based on our examination of the second group of 150 names on the Palestinian Health Ministry's list, we reached the following findings:

  • a. We identified 69 names of Palestinians killed as terrorist operatives (for details about them see the table in Appendix A). In addition, we identified two terrorist operatives killed during the period that the Health Ministry's list refers to, but whose names do not appear on the Health Ministry's lists. We identified 71 terrorist operatives in total.

  • b. Of the 71 names of terrorist operatives that we identified, we found 39 photos of operatives (for photos of operatives, see Appendix B).

  • c. We identified 66 names thatappear on the Health Ministry's second list as non-involved civilians.

  • d. Fifteen names of dead Palestinians that appeared on the list have not yet been identified. At this stage we cannot determine whether they were terrorist operatives or non-involved civilians.


  • 4. Of the 137 names of those killed who have been identified (about 90% of the names on the list that was examined), 71 were terrorist operatives, comprising about 52% of the names. In addition, 66 non-involved civilians were identified, comprising about 48%.

    
5. Below is a breakdown of 71 terrorist operatives identified by us, by organizational affiliation:

  • a. 39Hamas / Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operatives

  • b. 16PIJ / Al-Quds Battalions operatives

  • c. Sevenoperatives of Fatah terrorist networks

  • d. Fouroperatives of an independent terrorist network by the name of the Al-Mujahedin Battalions

  • e. One Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) operative

  • f. Four terrorist operatives whose organizational affiliation is unknown

  • Examination of the names of Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge - Part Two * Article

    August 4, 2014

    "Saudi authorities on Monday beheaded a Nepalese housemaid convicted of murdering a two-year-old boy by slitting his throat, the interior ministry said...

    The ministry said the maid was executed in the northern city of Arar without providing further details of the crime.

    In a second execution on Monday, Saudi national Hamad al-Ahmadi was decapitated in the holy western city of Medina for stabbing his wife to death while she was asleep, another ministry statement said.

    The latest executions brings to 17 the number of death sentences carried out this year in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

    Saudi Arabia beheaded 78 people in 2013, according to an AFP count."

    Saudi beheads Nepalese maid for toddler murder Document

    Jason Rezaian and Yeganeh Salehi

    Journalists Jason Rezaian and Yeganeh Salehi Held in Secret Detention Center

    "The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned that the journalists Jason Rezaian and Yeganeh Salehi, who were detained in Tehran on July 22, 2014, are being held in an unknown location. Except for a phone call to their families the day after their detention, the two journalists have not been allowed any contact with the outside world.

    The Campaign reported earlier that the detainees' names are not registered in any of the Tehran prisons or in any official records of the Judiciary. In addition to Rezaian and his wife, a photographer and her husband were also arrested on the same night. The photographer's husband was released on the night of July 28."

    Journalists Jason Rezaian and Yeganeh Salehi Held in Secret Detention Center in Iran Document