The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Tenafly NJ, in a harrowing development, Palestinian militant group Hamas has released a video of Edan Alexander, a 20-year-old Israeli-American from Tenafly, New Jersey, pleading for help to secure his release. The video, published Saturday, has heightened calls for urgent action to free hostages still held in Gaza.
Continue reading Hamas Publishes Video of Hostage from Tenafly Pleading for Release
photo credit COGAT
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Consulate General of Israel in New York wishes to address recent reports concerning developments in Gaza and to provide essential clarifications regarding Israel’s resolute dedication to ensuring humanitarian aid and food security.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent hospitalization, shrouded in secrecy and with delayed notifications to key officials, has triggered criticism and calls for transparency on Capitol Hill. The 70-year-old Austin’s admission to the hospital on January 1, following an undisclosed elective medical procedure, has raised questions about the Pentagon’s handling of the situation. Both Republicans and Democrats are demanding answers regarding the delayed disclosure and the potential impact on the chain of command.
Former Professor Highlights a Little-Reported Fact About Gaza and 3 Moral Questions It Raises
By Michael Hausam 16 hours ago
In an article yesterday, former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz made a point about the ongoing Hamas attacks on Israel that is rarely covered in the media.
Despite the often-heard statement that the Gaza Strip is “densely populated” – a point repeatedly used to explain why Hamas fires rockets from busy civilian areas – the reality is that there are indeed parts of Gaza that are thinly populated. Take a look at this map:
The three moral questions that Dershowitz poses based upon this fact:
“Why don’t the media show the relatively open areas of the Gaza Strip?” He then poses a couple of answers. Firstly, it would reveal that Hamas could befiring rockets and building tunnels in these areas but has chosen not to. Or that Hamas won’t let the media access those areas. In either case, it would be something worth reporting.
“Why doesn’t Hamas use sparsely populated areas from which to launch its rockets and build its tunnels?” The answer here is crystal clear: Palestinian civilian casualties would decrease dramatically but the death of terrorist would do the opposite. Hamas uses civilians as shields – which their own battle manual mandates, completely the opposite of Israel. Simply put, this is a war crime and Hamas is therefore responsible for its own civilian deaths.
“Why does the United Nations try to shelter Palestinian civilians right in the middle of the areas from which Hamas is firing?” Why not use the sparsely populated areas for refuge? The result of this would be to deny Hamas the ability to use civilians as shields and lead to a dramatic reduction in the deaths of civilians. By not doing so, the UN supports precisely what Hamas intends: to force Israel to attack areas where UN-protected civilians are.
https://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/165097-alan-dershowitz-highlights-little-reported-fact-gaza-moral-questions-raises/
New Evidence Exposes Hamas Passing Off Terrorist Deaths As Civilian Deaths
IN NEWS, POLITICS, WORLD NEWS / BY SEAN BROWN / ON AUGUST 5, 2014 AT 2:49 PM /
It’s been widely reported that the majority of the deaths in the Gaza Strip have been civilians, with figures from Palestinian officials saying that 80% of the roughly 2,000 deaths during Operation Protective Edge have been non-combatants. However, Israel is now claiming they have proof that at least half of the people who have died were militants.
“There is research being done in the military, very professionally and reliably, (whose) conclusion is that at least 47% of the fatalities are terrorists, with photographs and names,” prominent former politician Tzachi Hanegbi said.
Hanegbi was speaking on Israel’s Channel Two Television about how their analysis of the death toll is far different from what the UN is reporting. He explained that Hamas fails to differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
An analyst for the pro-Israel group The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), Steven Sotsky, backed that claim, pointing out that there’s a disproportionate amount of Palestinian deaths with men aged 17-30. Sotsky said that while that age range for men only accounts for 10% of the total Palestinian population, it accounts for 44% of the fatalities thus far.
According to Sotsky, that trend wouldn’t exist if Israel were indiscriminately bombing civilians:
“Analyses of the casualties listed in the daily reports published by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a Gaza-based organization operating under Hamas rule, indicate that young males ages 17 to 30 make up a large portion of the fatalities, and a particularly noticeable spike occurs between males ages 21 to 27, a pattern consistent with the age distribution typically found among combatants and military conscripts.”
He details his analysis further by saying, “Data gleaned from the daily reports of the PCHR show that from July 8, the start of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge,’ through July 26, 404 out of 915 fatalities tallied from daily reports in which the ages were identified occurred among males ages 17 to 30, comprising 44% of all fatalities among a group representing about 10% of Gazans.”
Sotsky then notes that while females make up 25% of the population they only account for 10% of the casualties, and children make up 50% of the population but only account for 20% of the casualties.
https://madworldnews.com/new-evidence-exposes-hamas-passing-terrorist-deaths-civilian-deaths/
Young Palestinian Girls Carrying Rockets, Gaza, Hamas
The West’s Death Wish
Aug. 03
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
We’ve seen this movie before.
Israel is bombarded with rockets fired by Hamas-backed terrorists, flush with cash from international humanitarian aid efforts and the enemies of democracy lurking elsewhere, and hiding like the worst species of cowards among civilians in schools, mosques and hospitals: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4553643,00.html
Understandably, Israel defends itself by moving into Gaza to destroy the tunnel networks and rocket sites utilized to terrorize and murder its population, the only peoples living in a health Middle Eastern democracy, all the while proving humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Wouldn’t we do the same if, hypothetically, Canadian terrorists began raining rockets down on Michigan tomorrow?
Amazingly the West’s answer isn’t universally affirmative.
Not everyone understands or wants to understand. The international community intervenes in the Israeli-Palestinian… by attempting to grab Israel’s wrists and inquiring, in an almost mocking fashion, “why are you hitting yourself?” while Hamas breaks one brokered cease fire after another with impunity. The international media, in turn, focuses on the collateral damage behind Gaza’s lines (remember: Hamas terrorists hide their munitions and fighters behind human shields) and ignores the 3.5 million Israeli citizens living under constant threat of annihilation.
In a word, Save Jerseyans, the dynamic at work here is insane.
Deference to the “cause” of Hamas is so illogical, particularly in light of the latest broken cease fire, that I’m left to assume any support for Hamas is either (1) evidence of Antisemitism or (2) sufficient reason for a CT scan.
I think we’re seeing a LOT of both.
Young Palestinian Girls Carrying Rockets, Gaza, Hamas (Photo credit: IDF Blog)
Contemplate the “cause” as articulated by its supporters and draw your own conclusions. Hamas’s charter unequivocally calls for the destruction of Israel. Not the relocation of Israel, a “land-for-peace” swap with Israel, a political compromise with Israel, or even monetary reparations to be paid by Israel. All of the Jews in the Holy Land dead. That’s their stated goal. Again, you don’t have to take my word for it. They’ve written it down!
Homicidal actors always announce what they’re going to do before they do it. Hitler and his brown shirts were unabiguously violent anti-Semitic in the 1930s. Mass murders regularly disclose their rants online or to those around them in the run-up to the massacre.
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/08/israel-gaza-palestinian-rocket-attack/#sthash.FmX4QNqC.dpuf
Kerry’s Diplomacy Falls Short to End Gaza Fighting
By Sangwon Yoon and Terry Atlas Jul 27, 2014 8:04 PM ET
July 28 (Bloomberg) — Phil Mattingly reports on U.S. foreign policy and Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent global crises diplomatic efforts. Mattingly speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)
It took U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry five days in the Middle East to negotiate a 12-hour pause in the bloody fighting between Hamas and Israel.
Prospects for extending that humanitarian halt in the Gaza war had evaporated by the time Kerry landed in Washington shortly after midnight yesterday following a sleep-deprived week in which he served as a round-the-clock, Cairo-based diplomatic call center for Israel, Egypt and intermediaries to Hamas.
While Kerry said his effort was vital “for the sake of thousands of innocent families whose lives have been shaken and destroyed by this conflict,” trying to broker an end to the fighting may have been a long shot from the start.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-28/kerry-s-diplomacy-falls-short-to-end-gaza-fighting.html