April 3, 2018
Palestinian assaults on Israel's border provide perfect example of
anti-Israel media bias
Dear Friend of FLAME:
Did you see this headline in Saturday's New York Times?
Israeli Military Kills 15 Palestinians in Confrontations on Gaza Border
Of course, what really happened was this: Palestinian Terrorists Attack Israel's Gaza Border, 15 Dead
Imagine if the U.S. border to Mexico were being attacked by 40,000 rioters
whose goal is to overthrow the United States and reclaim Texas, Arizona,
New Mexico and California. What if they were hurling Molotov cocktails, rolling burning tires and trying to cut
holes in the border fence? How would our country respond?
We'd probably respond with leaflets and loudspeakers warning the militants
to stay away from the border. If they didn't stop rushing the border, we'd
use tear gas, then rubber bullets. If they persisted and tried to tear down
the border fence, we'd respond with live ammunition, and some would
die. Which is exactly what happened when the terrorists attacked Israel
last week.
The Israel Defense Forces have identified 10 of the 17 people killed as members of Hamas or other Palestinian terror groups. This was no
family picnic or peaceful demonstration.
Nor was it a protest against Israeli border policies. Rather, as Hamas
leaders told the protesters, the so-called March of Return marked a "new
phase in the Palestinians' national struggle on the road to liberating all of Palestine, from the river to the sea" (in other
words, conquering Israel).
In fact, if Hamas had other, more practical goals—like relaxation of
restrictions on access to Gaza's borders—it should be protesting and attacking Egypt. Egypt controls the Rafah crossing to
Gaza, which was open for less than 30 days in 2017, compared with some 280
days for the Erez crossing from Israel.
But this is not about borders, imports or foreign policy. The "March"
symbolizes Palestinians' determination to flood Israel with five million descendants of refugees from Israel's war of independence, when the
Jewish state was attacked by four Arab armies.
Indeed, ninety-eight percent of these Palestinian descendants have never set foot in Israel. They are the world's only descendants of refugees who claim rights to land in their
forefathers' homeland after a war.
Which brings us to this week's FLAME Hotline-featured article—a
brief analysis of Palestinian motivations behind the March of Return
written by David Horovitz, editor of the Times of Israel. Horovitz
lists the many outrageous Palestinian demands you won't read about
in the New York Times or virtually any other mainstream media.
I think you'll find Horovitz's brief review of the conflict over Gaza
useful as you speak to friends—as I did over Saturday dinner—who know
nothing about Hamas's strategy and behavior and little more about Israel's
enlightened, restrained response. I hope you'll forward this article to
friends, family and fellow congregants.
I
hope you'll also quickly review the P.S. immediately below, which
describes FLAME's latest hasbarah campaign—exposing Palestinian lies
intended to dispossess Israel of its rights to a state in the Holy
Land. I hope you agree with and will support this message.
Best regards,
Jim Sinkinson
President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)
P.S. |
As you may have read, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other
Palestinian leaders spread blatant lies in the U.N. and other forums almost
daily—about Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in general,
about Palestinian origins, Palestinian refugees and many other factual
matters. No wonder FLAME has created a new editorial message—"Palestinian Mythology"—which is about to run in mainstream
magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined
readership of some 10 million people. In addition, it is being sent to
every member of the U.S. Congress and President Trump. If you agree that
this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge
you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public
opinion—and U.S. support of Israel—comes from individuals like you, one by
one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able—with
$500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax
deductible.) To donate online, just go to
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Just in case anybody forgot what Hamas's 'March of Return' is really all about
Gaza's terrorist rulers make no secret of their agenda. They are out
to destroy Israel. Suicide bombers, rockets, and tunnels have
failed. So now it's mass marches on the border
By David Horovitz, Times of Israel, March 31, 2018
Just in case anybody forgot, Israel unilaterally withdrew
from the Gaza Strip to the pre-1967 lines in 2005. It uprooted thousands of
Israeli settlers from their homes. It dismantled all military
infrastructure in the Strip. It has no physical presence there. It makes no
territorial claims there.
Just in case anybody forgot, Hamas, an Islamist terrorist organization that
avowedly seeks the destruction of Israel, seized power in Gaza in 2007 in a
violent takeover from the forces of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas.
Having attempted to terrorize Israel into capitulation with its strategic
onslaught of suicide bombers in the Second Intifada, it has, since grabbing
hold of Gaza, continued its efforts to terrorize Israel by firing thousands
upon thousands of rockets indiscriminately across the border.
Were it not for the Iron Dome rocket defense system, much of Israel would,
as Hamas had hoped, have been reduced to rubble.
Hamas has also been incessantly digging attack tunnels
under the border—another terror avenue that Israel appears to have
gradually been closing off with new technology and underground barriers.
Just in case anybody forgot, Hamas has cynically and relentlessly exploited
Gazans—a large proportion of whom have supported it in elections—by storing
its rockets near or even inside mosques and schools, firing rockets from
residential areas, and digging tunnels from beneath homes and civilian
institutions. It has subverted all materials that can be utilized for the
manufacture of weaponry, necessitating a stringent Israeli security
blockade whose main victims are ordinary Gazans.
Organizing and encouraging mass demonstrations at the border in the
so-called "March of Return" to face off against Israeli troops, while
sanctimoniously and disingenuously branding the campaign non-violent, is
merely the latest iteration of Hamas's cynical use of Gazans as the human
shields for its aggression.
Just in case anybody forgot, demanding a "right of return" to Israel for
tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants
is nothing less than a call for the destruction of Israel by demographic
means. No Israeli government could accept this demand, since it would spell
the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Israel's position is that
Palestinian refugees and their descendants would become citizens of a
Palestinian state at the culmination of the peace process, just as Jews who
fled or were forced out of Middle Eastern countries by hostile governments
became citizens of Israel.
Just in case anybody forgot, the late prime minister Ariel Sharon
oversaw the wrenching withdrawal from Gaza out of a declared desire to set
Israel's permanent borders, and did so unilaterally because he concluded
that he could not reach a negotiated agreement with the Palestinian
leadership. Had Gaza remained calm, and Sharon remained healthy, it is
likely he would have ordered a pullout from much of the West Bank as
well—paving the path to Palestinian statehood.
The rise of Hamas to power in Gaza, three rounds of bitter conflict, and an
awareness that Israel would be isolated and unable to function if Hamas
were to take over in the West Bank—with every location nationwide, notably
including the airport, within range of rudimentary rockets—have buried
unilateralism and rendered Israelis consensually terrified at the prospect
of relinquishing adjacent territory. Thus Hamas, which purports to serve
the Palestinian interest, doomed the prospect of Palestinian independence
for the foreseeable future.
Organizing and encouraging mass demonstrations at the border in the
so-called "March of Return" to face off against Israeli troops, while
sanctimoniously and disingenuously branding the campaign non-violent,
is merely the latest iteration of Hamas's cynical use of Gazans as the
human shields for its aggression.
But Hamas, of course, is not interested in Palestinian independence. Again,
it strives for the elimination of Israel.
So, finally, just in case anybody forgets the context for Friday's
latest escalation of violence, they need only listen to Hamas's Gaza chief
Yahya Sinwar setting out the ultimate goal. As he put it in an address to
Gazans at the border on Friday, "The March of Return will continue…
until we remove this transient border." The protests "mark the beginning of
a new phase in the Palestinian national struggle on the road to liberation
and 'return'… Our people can't give up one inch of the land of
Palestine."
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