Amazing, the ever-vigilant Israeli police manage to stop every single Jew who tries to visit the Temple Mount with a prayer book/siddur, an Israeli flag, or with any sign or clothing that could be remotely associated with Judaism or Israel… yet these 2 Arab children dressed in full Hamas terror outfits along with toy guns managed to openly walk in and around for a photo op in front of everyone.

Simply inconceivable.

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Someone pointed out on the Muqata Facebook page that these children dressed as terrorists are terrorists. But they aren’t — yet.

Right now, these children are victims of child abuse by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and their own parents.

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Israel also granted 500 Gazans access to the Temple Mount today, as a goodwill gesture for their Eid al-Adha holiday.

Perhaps the police let these kids walk around as Hamas terrorists so those Gazan visitors would simply feel more welcome and at home.

Gaza terrorists were undoubtedly anxious late Saturday night upon failing to carry out a rocket attack on southern Israel, due to quick-trigger backfire on the launching pad.

According to Arab media reports, the operatives tried to launch two rocket attacks towards Israel: but both rockets went off too early, during takeoff.

It was a case of premature explosion on the launching pad.

No details were made available regarding possible casualties resulting from the backfire.

There have been cases in the past when women and children have been injured as a result of such “work accidents.”

One of the disturbing points few in the media discussed back in 2005, when the Israeli government was strong-arming its 8,000 or so citizens off their lands in the Gaza Strip, was the fact that no one was entertaining the possibility of letting the Jews of Gaza become citizens of the Palestinian Authority. In fact, one of the things government agents took care of early on in the process was to disarm the residents of Jewish Gush Katif, so that they, too, wouldn’t dream of staying and defending themselves on their own.

Now one of the Israeli politicians who voted 4 out of 5 times for the program to exile the Jews of Gaza, including the dead and buried, then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), has begun to ask that very question, this time regarding the Jews of Judea and Samaria: how come no one is talking about transferring the Jewish communities, along with their people, over to Palestinian Authority rule, as a legitimate Jewish minority with equal rights? Why is everyone insisting the area must remain free from Jews?

In a video he posted this weekend, Prime Minister Netanyahu is asking why everyone around the world is convinced Jewish settlements are such a threat to peace. Because while no one would seriously claim that the nearly two million Arabs living inside Israel are an obstacle to peace, having close to half a million Jews living in Judea and Samaria makes peace impossible.

“It’s called ethnic cleansing,” Netanyahu says on the video, noting that while Israel’s diversity “shows its openness and readiness for peace, the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one pre-condition: No Jews.”

On Friday, State Dept. Press Office Director Elizabeth Trudeau used her daily press briefing to rebut Netanyahu’s accusation, although a careful reading of her attack on the PM reveals she didn’t really answer his main argument.

The reporter who cited the Netanyahu video did a good job of digging up the key points, saying the PM is “talking about settlements and talking about the Palestinians wanting to have a state that has no Jews in it at all and saying that this is ethnic cleansing. And he also says that that demand is outrageous, that it’s even more outrageous that the world doesn’t find it outrageous. And then he says some otherwise enlightened countries even promote this outrage.”

Trudeau responded: “We obviously strongly disagree with the characterization that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank. We believe that using that type of terminology is inappropriate and unhelpful.”

She explained that “settlements are a final status issue that must be resolved in negotiations between the parties,” and the next line out of her mouth was: “We share the view of every past US administration and the strong consensus of the international community that ongoing settlement activity is an obstacle to peace.”

So, to reiterate, 1. Shame on you, Mr. Netanyahu for using bad words; 2. We will deal with the status of those Jews in Judea and Samaria when everything else has been resolved; 3. Jews living in Judea and Samaria are a menace to peace.

Why? What if the PA and the Israelis decide that they want Jews living in a free Palestinian State, carrying Palestinian passports and enjoying equal rights? How then would today’s settlements have been a threat to peace?

Trudeau continued with the familiar, regurgitated statements about the thousands of new settlement units being built (we wish) and the vicious demolitions of illegal Arab structures in accordance with Israeli law, which the US should respect but doesn’t. She then announced that the US is “engaging in direct conversations with the Israeli Government on this. … We’ll have our conversation with our Israeli allies and friends and we’ll see where that goes.”

Not everyone in Israel is happy with the Netanyahu video. MK Ayman Odeh, Chairman of the Joint Arab List, accused the PM of revising history. And MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Camp) said that with one video Netanyahu managed to wipe out her accomplishments in the Sharon government, guaranteeing that the clusters of settlements would remain part of Israel as part of a two-state solution.

Israeli rightwingers will probably start drilling the PM on Sunday, after they emerge from their Shabbat rest. They won’t be happy with the fact that the PM has so openly entertained the possibility of a Palestinian State as a given fact. But the points Netanyahu made were sound and they could go a long way in stirring the presidential campaign’s foreign policy debate.

The IDF has begun building a 70 kilometer long subterranean barrier along the Gaza border.

The concrete barrier, which is expected to take years to build and cost NIS 2 billion, will go to depth of a few meters underground and include advanced tunneling detection systems in case Hamas tries to dig below the wall.

The hope is that the barrier will block Hamas’s terror tunnels from crossing the border from Gaza, though Hamas has previously built tunnels that go dozens of meters underground into Israel.

The Khan Younis Court dismissed several PLO candidates from the lists competing in the municipal elections in the southern Gaza Strip, Ma’an reported Thursday morning. The court’s decision came after several appeals had been filed against PLO lists in and around the cities of Khan Younis Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Journalist Dov Lieber tweeted in the early AM: “Palestinian court postpones local elections set for October,” which he attributed to AFP. Apparently, the court in Ramallah has followed the disqualification of PLO candidates in Gaza by postponing the elections altogether.

The Gaza court decision wipes the PLO out of the competition in nine municipalities out of 25 in Gaza.

Dr. Fayez Abu Eita, a spokesman for the PLO, said the decision to drop his movement’s candidates from local lists was tantamount to a “massacre by the Hamas court.” He said the PLO was running “lists of the finest people, qualified specialists and professionals,” and so when Hamas realized they had no one of equal quality to run against them, they ordered their court to “drop them under false and fabricated pretexts” which were both “illogical and illegal.”

Abu Eita added: “They wanted to compete with themselves after the overthrow of these lists.”

Abu Eita called on the Central Election Commission to assume their responsibilities over what he described as the failure of the election process, stressing that all the appeals were illegitimate, intended solely to thwart any challenges to the Hamas candidates.

{Originally posted to the IPT website}

Arguably, more humanitarian aid flows into Gaza than ever before. And strong evidence indicates that Hamas chooses to divert significant amounts of construction material that should be used to rebuild housing in order to gear up for future terrorist attacks against Israel.

And so a flotilla aimed at drawing attention to Palestinian suffering hopes to set sail shortly and make it to Gaza by Oct. 1.

Its message: Israel is to blame for everything. It should willingly embrace suicide for its people by ending a naval blockade on Gaza that stops Hamas from importing even more weapons of war. The Women’s Boat to Gaza‘s message for Hamas?

Nothing.

The boats will carry women only, in an attempt to put forth a more peaceful message, organizers say. Think of it as a sort of Lilith Fair on the sea for Israel-hating women.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has decided to launch the Women’s Boat to Gaza because we believe that it is essential to highlight the vital role women play not only in the resistance movement, but in the survival of the Palestinian people as a whole.”

The ships will carry no aid, organizers say. Ending the blockade is the sole mission. Organizers insist it is illegal but offer no support for the claim. They ignore a United Nations investigation conducted after a 2010 flotilla ended violently. Passengers on the Mavi Marmara attacked Israelis troops who raided the ship to stop it from reaching Gaza.

“Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza,” the investigation found. “The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law.”

But the blockade does not stop legitimate aid from reaching Gaza residents. It adds a measure of control. Aid to Gaza is peaking, especially since the recent rapprochement between Israel and Turkey opened the door to direct Turkish deliveries – 25 trucks daily – including food, toys, medicine and more.

That blockade isn’t going away anytime soon, so the flotilla’s actual benefit to the people of Gaza is minimal at best.

There are things the passengers can do to help, however, if their agenda truly is about improving life for Palestinians and not some feckless attempt to discredit Israel.

Start by condemning Hamas political leaders for making jihad a priority over improving living conditions. As much as 95 percent of cement meant for rebuilding Gaza gets diverted to tunnel building. The Los Angeles Times also described a concern among some Gaza residents that the money that does go toward home construction benefits Hamas insiders and mosques first.

This is no Israeli spin. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad frequently acknowledge deaths and injuries to its fighters due to tunnel collapses during construction.

What benefit do any of these death holes bring to Palestinians today?

The boat women also can demand that Hamas stop indoctrinating Palestinian children with messages glorifying violent jihad and martyrdom. It has been going on for years. Simply put: It is indefensible.

Finally, a flotilla of women hoping to improve life for Palestinians in Gaza should say something about the treatment of women under Hamas rule. Something is amiss in a society when women riding bicycles creates a stir. Women in Gaza also cannot dance or smoke in public or have their hair done by men.

If Hamas were pressured into adopting a more peaceful agenda, Israel’s justification for the blockade would crumble. Perhaps the boat women know this is a losing battle.

As Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh showed last month, the Hamas charter has never been altered despite years of spin alleging the terrorist group somehow is now willing to live side-by-side with Israel.

Hamas sees the land encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories as a religious trust “until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except Jihad. The liberation of that land is an individual duty binding on all Muslims everywhere. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad.”

Abu Toameh also pointed to a statement last month from longtime Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook that promised, “The Zionist entity will not be part of this region. We will continue to resist it until the liberation of our land and the return of our people.”

“Abu Marzouk did not talk about building new schools and parks for the Palestinians,” Abu Toameh wrote. “When he talks about ‘serving’ the people, he means only one thing: recruiting Palestinians to Hamas and jihad against Israel and the Jews.

It is worth noting that previous flotilla efforts and land-based convoys worked closely with Hamas officials, with leaders from the terrorist group greeting the international travelers. And the women’s flotilla could be no different. The Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition is among the groups endorsing the flotilla.

Al-Awda advocates “the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed property,” according to the organization’s website. The group’s logo is a picture of the map of Israel and a key.

In the June Facebook posting at right, Al-Awda co-founder Zahi Damuni refers to Hamas terrorists in Israeli custody as “our prisoners.”

The Women’s Boat to Gaza effort coincides with other Gaza-focused campaigns. IHH, a Turkish charity with ties to Hamas and a suspected al-Qaida funder, announced plans to deliver meals to 600 Gaza families in a program called “Martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla.” IHH organized the 2010 flotilla in which 10 passengers on the Mavi Marmara died after attacking the Israeli troops enforcing the Gaza blockade.

At least it’s real assistance. There’s a lot that Palestinian advocates can do to improve living conditions in Gaza. To do so, however, they must be willing to face some uncomfortable realities about why the quality of life has grown worse since Israel withdrew more than a decade ago. They can continue hating Israel and still acknowledge Hamas’s failings.

It’s their choice.

Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, interviewed B’Tselem Spokesperson Sarit Michaeli on Monday on J-TV, a new YouTube channel “providing weekly content on Current Affairs, Jewish Wisdom, Movers & Shakers and Jewish Food.” As the conversation progressed, the host pushed Michaeli on the fact that her group devotes much more attention to the Israeli side, while most Arab violations of human rights are given a pass. Michaeli didn’t argue the facts, noting that B’Tselem does condemn major human rights violations by the Arabs in both Gaza and the PA, but that, being an Israeli organization, it is more dedicated to teaching Israelis about wrongs committed by their own government.

At some point, Mendoza asked her if B’Tselem has condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization and Michaeli said that when Hamas attacks Israeli civilians it certainly commits acts of terrorism. Yes, the host insisted, but are they a terrorist organization? Maybe a part-time terrorist organization? No matter how many times he tried, the B’Tselem spokeswoman would not go on the record condemning Hamas as a terrorist group. Instead she accused Mendoza of joining Israeli extremists who wish to associate B’Tselem with anti-Israeli politics. The more he pushed, the more she stuck to repeating that mantra.

Sarit Michaeli’s injured leg / Screenshot

Sarit Michaeli was injured by a Border Guard rubber bullet during a riot in which she participated in Nabi Saleh, back in 2013. She actually filmed her own bleeding leg as she was lying on the ground. Being a British person, host Mendoza did not have the DNA to conclude Monday’s encounter with a rubber bullet to the guest’s leg, even if she weren’t calling in on Skype, so he just hung up on her.