FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Palestinians and their friends continue to claim that Israel is ‘strangling’ the Gaza strip in an act of collective punishment, and that Israeli and international sanctions are causing widespread hunger and hardship.

But look at what the IDF found in just 36 hours:

IDF forces have uncovered seven smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip within 36 hours.

Military officials said Thursday that the tunnels, which were unearthed near the village of Dahaniya in the southern Strip, were used by terror organizations to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza.

The tunnels were found about 1.5 kilometers from the border fence. According to IDF sources, they were all active and had been used by terror groups to smuggle weapons until recently.

A senior officer said several months ago that the smuggling attempts in the southern Gaza Strip have become “import-like, both in terms of their extent and legitimization.” — YNet [my emphasis]

Someone is paying for the weapons and explosives (at premium smuggler’s prices), someone is paying for the labor and materials to dig the tunnels and manufacture the rockets, and someone is paying the terrorists who launch the rockets.

The priorities of Hamas are clear: fight Israel regardless of the cost to Gaza residents.

We also should keep in mind that all of these tunnels go somewhere — Egypt. Surely the Egyptian authorities, whose nation is at ‘peace’ with Israel, must notice some of the activity.

Meanwhile, it is not incorrect to say that a state of war exists between Israel and Hamas:

Earlier Thursday, nine Kassam rockets were launched into the western Negev, including four that struck Sderot. In response, the IDF bombed two Kassam launchers in northern Gaza…

Also Thursday, the IDF shot and killed five terrorists who were spotted planting bombs along the Gaza security fence. — Jerusalem Post

Technorati Tags: Israel, Hamas, Gaza

Rumors that have been circulating in Israel for some time have now hit the mainstream press:

The September 6 raid over Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site reported Friday. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two strategic US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a nuclear site under construction.

The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.

The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed. — Jerusalem Post [my emphasis]

If this is true, it would be the first time since 1945 — at least, as far as I know! — that a nuclear weapon has been employed operationally.

On October 17, I received a copy of an email (in Hebrew) that was circulating in Israel. In addition to the above, it said that at least one Israeli plane was damaged by Syrian antiaircraft fire, but returned safely to base. And it added that

The target included three nuclear weapons, which had been shipped in pieces by sea from North Korea and assembled by North Korean technicians in Syria.

Technorati Tags: Syria, North Korea, nuclear weapons

Part of the program of delegitimizing the Jewish state is an attempt to deny a historical connection between Jews and the land, in particular the Temple Mount.

In recent years, the Muslim Waqf, which was given physical control over the Mount by Israel in 1967 in an attempt to address Islamic sensitivities, has conducted construction activities which have done great damage to archaeological artifacts (see my earlier articles here and here) which could attest to Jewish provenance.

The Israeli government has shown remarkable ‘restraint’ (read: fear of Arab violence) in allowing this to go on. Now some private citizens are trying to stop it:

JERUSALEM, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ — A group of 150 Israeli citizens, which represent a broad cross section of the Israeli public, have initiated an unprecedented criminal prosecution of WAQF (Islamic trust) leaders in Jerusalem — alleging that Islamic officials have engaged in the deliberate destruction of ancient Jewish relics on the Temple Mount. The indictment was filed in the Jerusalem District Court today by means of a private law suit. The private indictment is first of its kind in Israeli legal history and utilizes a seldom applied section of the criminal code. If convicted, the WAQF officials face years in prison.

The legal action, which is led by Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, accuses members of the Islamic Trust (“the WAQF”) of the intentional demolishing of priceless Jewish artifacts, including the remains of the Second Temple.

In recent months the WAQF has brought in bulldozers and heavy digging equipment to carry out “renovations”. Israeli archaeologists who have sifted through the discarded earth were shocked to have discovered a great number of Jewish artifacts brutally trashed by the bulldozers. A wall from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple is believed to have been completely pulverized.

The court papers contend that the recent accelerated destruction is part of a four decade long campaign by the WAQF to eradicate all evidence of the historical Jewish connection and claim to the Temple Mount.

The idea that the Jews have nothing to do with Jerusalem was a favorite theme of Yasser Arafat, and the controversial Barnard faculty member Nadia Abu El-Haj’s book ‘Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society’ argues that Israel has improperly interpreted the archaeological record to justify her existence.

It is of course exactly in keeping with the Palestinian attitude toward truth that they would on the one hand deny a Jewish connection to the land and at the same time destroy evidence of it!

Update [1 Nov 2154 PDT]: Sources at Barnard College leak that El-Haj has received tenure. More proof that politics has replaced scholarship in the academic world.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Jerusalem, Waqf