UN report: Hamas killed BBC reporter’s baby in Gaza — not the Israelis as was reported worldwide

Will the many, many mainstream media outlets that reported that Jihad Misharawi’s son was killed by the Israelis run retractions and apologies? Don’t hold your breath.

“UN Reports the Truth: Hamas Killed BBC Reporter’s Baby in Gaza,” by Chana Ya’ar for Israel National News, March 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The United Nations has issued a report with unusual courage and accuracy that plainly tells the tale of Israel’s Pillar of Defense counter terror operation – and exposes the lies of Hamas, told to a grieving father and his BBC bureau chief.
In what has become typical of international media, The Washington Post and a BBC bureau chief last November accused and convicted the Israel Defense Forces in a heartrending, angry piece without verifying their information after a fellow editor in Gaza lost his baby son in rocket fire that struck his home.

The front page photo of an Arab stringer for a world-class news network, clutching his dead baby son in his arms, tears running down his cheeks, became a powerful icon of the tragedy of the conflict.

It was used by Hamas as propaganda to blacken Israel’s name in the media and politically in the international arena as it fought to defend its southern population against Gaza’s missile fire.

But apparently very few questioned the source of the rocket fire – certainly not the grieving father, Jihad Misharawi, who at his son’s funeral blamed “the Jews” – nor did BBC Middle East bureau chief Paul Danahar, who came to Gaza to support his colleague, or The Washington Post, which printed the story, written by Max Fisher and “foreign staff”, with photos, published on the front page.

Photos of the damaged home were duly posted, along with a photo of the little child, who is indeed beautiful, and the heartbreaking photo of a grieving father carrying what appears to be his dead son wrapped in shrouds.

“An Israeli round hit Misharawi’s four-room home in Gaza Wednesday, killing his son, according to BBC Middle East bureau chief Paul Danahar, who arrived in Gaza earlier that Thursday,” Fisher reported in his article along with the paper’s “foreign staff” on November 15. “Misharawi’s sister-in-law was also killed, and his brother wounded. Misharawi told Danahar that, when the round landed, there was no fighting in his residential neighborhood.

“We’re all one team in Gaza,” Danahar told me,” Fisher wrote, “saying that Misharawi is a BBC video and photo editor. After spending a ‘few hours’ with his grieving colleague, he wrote on Twitter, ‘Question asked here is: If Israel can kill a man riding on a moving motorbike (as they did last month), how did Jihad’s son get killed.”

Answer: Jihad’s son was killed by Hamas, according to independent investigators from the United Nations. He was murdered by the journalist’s own neighbors, the very men who purport to be his biggest protectors, who live in the surrounding buildings in the city where he lives.

According to the advanced version of its report released by the U.N. Human Rights Council released late last week, “On 14 November, a woman, her 11-month-old infant, and an 18-year-old adult in Al-Zaitoun were killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.”

A footnote to the section says the case was personally investigated by the U.N. OHCHR, and that investigators believe the attack emanated from Hamas.

The terrorist organization – as well as its allied terrorist groups, such as the Islamic Jihad – is well known for launching attacks against Israel from within residential areas in Gaza and maximizing the use of its human shields.

The U.N. document reveals Gaza terrorists fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel between November 14-21, 2012. For the first time, a number of the missiles reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Six Israelis were killed, including four civilians, and 239 Israelis were wounded. Gaza terrorists readily admitted to aiming at civilian targets.

“While some projectiles were directed at military objectives, many, if not the vast majority of the Palestinian attacks on Israel constituted indiscriminate attacks,” noted the report. “Such attacks violate international humanitarian law”.

“Most rockets fired by the armed groups did not seem to be directed at a specific military objective. Furthermore many Palestinian armed groups directly and indirectly indicated their determination to – and took responsibility for – attacks on Israeli civilians or large population centers in Israel. Such acts clearly violate international humanitarian law, namely the principle of distinction…

“Another issue of serious concern during the crisis was allegations related to rocket attacks launched by Palestinian armed groups from populated areas in Gaza…some of these rockets may have been launched from underground tunnels….eyewitnesses informed OHCHR that on two occasions rockets were launched from an area south of Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, about 100 meters from a residential area…OHCHR received first-hand information indicating that rockets were fired from areas close to civilian buildings in the east of Gaza City… about 300 meters from several residential houses.

“Launching attacks from populated areas constitutes a violation of customary rules of international humanitarian law, i.e. the obligation to take all precautions to protect civilians. By having done so, the civilian population’s exposure to the inherent dangers of the military operations taking place around them was greatly heightened.

“The real questions should be, ‘Will The Washington Post print a retraction in the same location as its captivating erroneous front page article? An apology? A new photo? How will BBC bureau chief Paul Danahar respond to this U.N. report, and how to correct the erroneous reports he may have disseminated?,’” Israeli veteran journalist and Middle East analyst Hana Levi Julian pointed out.

“Just a few years ago, a BBC bureau chief was kidnapped by a Gaza terrorist organization and held hostage for nearly five months, his life hanging in the balance. By a miracle, negotiators managed to free him and his life was spared,” Julian noted.

“With terrorists breathing down this news organization’s neck, scrutinizing the actions of each of its local reporters, can the BBC allow itself to report objectively in Gaza?”

Does the BBC ever allow itself to report objectively?

תותחנים לא תחתונים. מאת יעקב זיגדון

לתא”ל (מיל’) יעקב זיגדון לא ברור למה הודח מפקד הצוות שאישר לחייל התותחנים לצלם קליפ ליו-טיוב. בעיניו צריך לרתום את האנרגיות וההשקעה שבאות לידי ביטוי בקליפ לתרגולת הקבועה בטיפול בתומ”ת

35 שניות של שיקשוק של חיילי סוללה בגדוד של התותחנים לצלילי ה”הארלם שייק” הניבו 14 ימי מחבוש. לא ברור בדיוק על מה. תעשיית הטוקבקים געשה ורעשה לפשר התגובה הרועמת, והיא נעה מ”תנו להם קצת להשתעשע” ועד ל”פגיעה בביטחון המדינה” ואפילו היו שהרחיקו עד למחוזות ‘ענת קם’. במצרים עצרו צעירים שצילמו את הקליפ האמור בתחתונים, אצלנו הסתפקו בתותחנים. המשקשקים ושופטיהם התאחדו.

אני יכול להבין את מפקד הגדוד ששפט את הקצין המאשר והחייל – צלם – מפיק – מועלם לכלא. בגילו גם אני הייתי, מן הסתם, נוהג כך. אבל חלפו השנים, העולם התעגל וקיבל גם גוונים של אפור. במשך הזמן למדנו שלא חייבים ‘לראות’ כל דבר, לא חייבים להגיב על כל דבר. כל מה שהיה כאן זוהי תערובת מורכבת של התפשטות ויראלית, משובת נעורים וטרנד גלובאלי. אם כבר לשפוט את היוצרים אזי זה על הכוריאוגרפיה המגושמת מה. על הביצוע שאינו דומה למקור, לפחות לטענת תושבי הארלם ועל כך שזה מסתיים אחרי כמחצית הדקה.

יש לי גם סנגוריה על החיילים המבצעים. מעולם לא ראיתי טיפול יומי או שבועי והעברת חוטר כל כך נמרצת ויסודית כמו בסרטון זה. אני מציע לאמץ את הרעיון כתרגולת קבועה ושטיפול בתותח מתנייע יתבצע לצלילי מוזיקה קצבית ותזזיתית כמו “הארלם שייק” ודומיו. תוצאות מובטחות. עדיף שמצה”ל יצאו תמונות מסוג זה מאשר ילד פלסטיני המצולם מבעד לכוונת טלסקופית של צלף המופצת ברשת. במקרה כזה נדרש טיפול עומק ערכי של מי שרואה בחיי אדם הזדמנות לשעשוע, אותה הוא טורח גם לצלם ולהפיץ.

קשה לבלום את ההתפשטות הזאת. לא צריך לבלום אותה. ולכל רואי השחורות של המדרון החלקלק של הפגיעה במשמעת צריך רק לומר שיש עוד דרכים איכותיות יותר להשיג אותה ומפעם לפעם אפשר ומותר, להישאר עם ארשת פנים רצינית ולקרוץ בזווית העין.

תא”ל (מיל’) יעקב זיגדון פיקד בעברו על גדוד שפיפון של התותחנים, שימש כ מת”פ צפון, רמ”ט פיקוד מרכז ומפקד פו”ם. כיום הוא משמש סמנכ”ל משרד התעסוקה

Some advice on women in combat from a female veteran. By Jazz Shaw »

Yesterday’s column on women in combat elicited a number of passionate responses from both sides. Some of them came from proponents of the move, frequently citing alternate motives on my part. These ranged from “trying to keep women pregnant in the kitchen” and “Republicans want to lock women in the 1950s” to whichever variant of the GOP’s “war on women” you’d care to name. Many others lent a more sympathetic ear. One in particular, though, caught my attention. It was from one of America’s female veterans who served in Iraq, delivered with a first hand, been there, done that background. The Marine in question – who for purposes of publication will go by the pseudonym of “Sentry” – had previously submitted this history and opinion as a comment at National Review, but her story was compelling enough that I checked into her background, contacted her and decided to republish it here in its entirety. I offer the following as a third party testimony to stand your scrutiny on its own merits.

I’m a female veteran. I deployed to Anbar Province, Iraq. When I was active duty, I was 5’6, 130 pounds, and scored nearly perfect on my PFTs. I naturally have a lot more upper body strength than the average woman: not only can I do pull-ups, I can meet the male standard. I would love to have been in the infantry. And I still think it will be an unmitigated disaster to incorporate women into combat roles. I am not interested in risking men’s lives so I can live my selfish dream.

We’re not just talking about watering down the standards to include the politically correct number of women into the unit. This isn’t an issue of “if a woman can meet the male standard, she should be able to go into combat.” The number of women that can meet the male standard will be miniscule–I’d have a decent shot according to my PFTs, but dragging a 190-pound man in full gear for 100 yards would DESTROY me–and that miniscule number that can physically make the grade AND has the desire to go into combat will be facing an impossible situation that will ruin the combat effectiveness of the unit. First, the close quarters of combat units make for a complete lack of privacy and EVERYTHING is exposed, to include intimate details of bodily functions. Second, until we succeed in completely reprogramming every man in the military to treat women just like men, those men are going to protect a woman at the expense of the mission. Third, women have physical limitations that no amount of training or conditioning can overcome. Fourth, until the media in this country is ready to treat a captured/raped/tortured/mutilated female soldier just like a man, women will be targeted by the enemy without fail and without mercy.

I saw the male combat units when I was in Iraq. They go outside the wire for days at a time. They eat, sleep, urinate and defecate in front of each other and often while on the move. There’s no potty break on the side of the road outside the wire. They urinate into bottles and defecate into MRE bags. I would like to hear a suggestion as to how a woman is going to urinate successfully into a bottle while cramped into a humvee wearing full body armor. And she gets to accomplish this feat with the male members of her combat unit twenty inches away. Volunteers to do that job? Do the men really want to see it? Should they be forced to?

Everyone wants to point to the IDF as a model for gender integration in the military. No, the IDF does not put women on the front lines. They ran into the same wall the US is about to smack into: very few women can meet the standards required to serve there. The few integrated units in the IDF suffered three times the casualties of the all-male units because the Israeli men, just like almost every other group of men on the planet, try to protect the women even at the expense of the mission. Political correctness doesn’t trump thousands of years of evolution and societal norms. Do we really WANT to deprogram that instinct from men?

Regarding physical limitations, not only will a tiny fraction of women be able to meet the male standard, the simple fact is that women tend to be shorter than men. I ran into situations when I was deployed where I simply could not reach something. I wasn’t tall enough. I had to ask a man to get it for me. I can’t train myself to be taller. Yes, there are small men…but not so nearly so many as small women. More, a military PFT doesn’t measure the ability to jump. Men, with more muscular legs and bones that carry more muscle mass than any woman can condition herself to carry, can jump higher and farther than women. That’s why we have a men’s standing jump and long jump event in the Olympics separate from women. When you’re going over a wall in Baghdad that’s ten feet high, you have to be able to be able to reach the top of it in full gear and haul yourself over. That’s not strength per se, that’s just height and the muscular explosive power to jump and reach the top. Having to get a boost from one of the men so you can get up and over could get that man killed.

Without pharmaceutical help, women just do not carry the muscle mass men do. That muscle mass is also a shock absorber. Whether it’s the concussion of a grenade going off, an IED, or just a punch in the face, a woman is more likely to go down because she can’t absorb the concussion as well as a man can. And I don’t care how the PC forces try to slice it, in hand-to-hand combat the average man is going to destroy the average woman because the average woman is smaller, period. Muscle equals force in any kind of strike you care to perform. That’s why we don’t let female boxers face male boxers.

Lastly, this country and our military are NOT prepared to see what the enemy will do to female POWs. The Taliban, AQ, insurgents, jihadis, whatever you want to call them, they don’t abide by the Geneva Conventions and treat women worse than livestock. Google Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca if you want to see what they do to our men (and don’t google it unless you have a strong stomach) and then imagine a woman in their hands. How is our 24/7 news cycle going to cover a captured, raped, mutilated woman? After the first one, how are the men in the military going to treat their female comrades? ONE Thomasina Tucker is going to mean the men in the military will move heaven and earth to protect women, never mind what it does to the mission. I present you with Exhibit A: Jessica Lynch. Male lives will be lost trying to protect their female comrades. And the people of the US are NOT, based on the Jessica Lynch episode, prepared to treat a female POW the same way they do a man.

I say again, I would have loved to be in the infantry. I think I could have done it physically, I could’ve met almost all the male standards (jumping aside), and I think I’m mentally tough enough to handle whatever came. But I would never do that to the men. I would never sacrifice the mission for my own desires. And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if someone died because of me.

- Sentry

I will close by noting that the picture on the front page of the site associated with this letter is not of the author. Also, the text has not been edited from the original in any way other than to remove some page breaks which make publication messy.

Israeli Priest Hounded for His Support of Israel. By Aryeh Savir »

Last weekend, Father Gabriel Nadaf, 39, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, challenged a boycott against him and attempted to enter the church there to recite a prayer and light a candle. He was accompanied by Israeli Border Police officers and supporters, who came to ensure his safe passage into the church.

Nadaf was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church Council after he expressed his belief that Christian youth in Israel should fully integrate into Israeli society, serving in the IDF or in the National Service. Since then, he and others, like Father André Alamiya, have been the target of virulent attacks from opponents to this idea. For example, Father Alamiya’s tires were slashed last weekend, and a rag saturated with blood was placed at his doorstep in Nazareth.

Read on

A tortured war criminal debates his future and hard truths (start 2:13, end 4:32)

The moral dilemmas facing IDF forces confronting Palestinians.

Israel’s Air Strikes, Possible Gaza Invasion Spark Fierce Fighting With Hamas On Twitter, YouTube

BY ADDY DUGDALE

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

Israel’s air strikes yesterday and a potential invasion of the Gaza strip marked by an announcement on Twitter, has spread to a war of words on social media. Twitter feeds from both the IDF and the Alqassam Brigades have been hurling 140 characters of propaganda at each other since the campaign started yesterday. Throughout the day and night, people live-blogged the attack, posting photos on Twitter and turning #gaza and #gazaunderattack into liveblogs.

Footage of yesterday’s assassination of the Hamas commander, Ahmed Al-Jabari, went up on YouTube almost immediately. YouTube, however, is no stranger to conflict in the Middle East. The deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and other diplomatic workers in September was linked to an inflammatory anti-Islam video put up by a pro-Israeli Californian.

This, however, may be the first time that the name of a military operation has been turned into a hashtag.

[Ed note: We’ve inserted the words “possible” and “potential” into this story’s headline and opening paragraph respectively, to reflect that an invasion has not yet happened.]

IDF readies to enlist haredim

Army prepares to recruit ultra-Orthodox soldiers after decades of granting sweeping exemptions; expiration of Tal Law could triple rate of haredi enlistment, officials say

On the eve of the Tal Law’s expiration, the IDF is preparing to sort potential haredi soldiers ahead of their enlistment, Ynet has learned.

For decades, the IDF would send haredi youths preliminary draft summons before granting them exemptions under the Tal Law. With the legislation set to expire on Wednesday, the IDF is gearing towards enlisting the ultra-religious individuals, starting with an extensive sorting procedure that includes a variety of tests.

Officials involved in the process postulate that the development will lead to the recruitment of 7,500 ultra-Orthodox soldiers each year, a number three times higher than the current rate.

The expiration of the law, however, does not mean that the IDF will automatically stop exempting all haredim from service; changes to the current draft regulations are unlikely to go into effect before 2013.

חיילים מתפללים בכותל (צילום: AP) Soldiers at Western Wall (Photo: AP)

A team consisting of Defense Ministry legalists and IDF human resources officials has recently drafted an interim directive meant to allow legislators extra time to come up with an alternative to the Tal Law, after attempts to draft such legislation in recent months failed.

“We are looking into the military’s needs, and are discerning who is fit to be recruited while listening to the public’s just demands for equality as well as the army and the haredim’s demands,” a senior member of the committee told Ynet.”(Defense Minister Ehud) Barak instructed the army to expand programs for ultra-Orthodox troops and to raise their salaries, which would replace the allowance that they currently get.”

The political system appears to have given up on the issue, tossing the hot potato over to the defense establishment. The Knesset went into summer recess, and Minister Moshe Ya’alon, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put in charge of dealing with the draft legislation, has recommended the immediate establishment of new programs for the enlistment of haredim, instead of waiting for a new law.

Protesters call for universal draft

On Tuesday evening, activists belonging to the Suckers Camp, a movement demanding the enactment of a universal draft, intend to give out flowers on the streets of Bnei Brak, a predominantly religious central Israeli city.

מחזור הגיוס האחרון מגיע לבקו"ם (צילום: דובר צה"ל) New IDF recruits (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The protesters also intend to distribute faux draft summons calling on potential ultra-religious soldiers to integrate within the army.

“The duty of service in the State of Israel applies to all of us… This is a mighty opportunity for all of us to create one society, under on law, where everyone serves the state,” the leaflets read. “No one wants to enlist you forcefully; no one wants to alter your way of life. We are brothers; we always have been and always will be.”

The National Student and Youth Council has also joined the battle, sending Netanyahu a strongly-worded letter urging him to enact universal army service.

“Don’t let Zionism turn into cynicism,” wrote Yuval Kahlon, the chairman of the council. “We don’t care about politics, we only care about how our lives will look like in a future State of Israel. How do you expect us to proudly fulfill our duty with this blatant discrimination tearing at our immense motivation?”

Various protest movements are expected to join forces on the weekend to call for the equal sharing of the service burden and to express objection to the recent tax hikes.

“The decision to favor the ultra-Orthodox interest over the general public’s interest when it comes to the draft question, the failing attempts to dissolve Kadima and the outrageous financial edicts are like spitting in the public’s face,” said Idan Miller, who heads the unified protester camp.

Disabled soldier fulfills dream of becoming IDF officer. By Reuven Weiss

In spite of being born with cerebral palsy, 21-year-old soldier graduates from officers’ training course. ‘I felt obligated to Israel,’ he says

B. (21) was born with cerebral palsy and has partial paralysis in all four limbs. Just before he turned 18, B. got a letter from the IDF, stating that he was officially exempt from military service.

However, the physical hindrance did not stop B. from insisting on forgoing his exemption and joining the IDF. “I felt obligated to my country,” B. explains, I decided that there was no reason for dodging the draft and giving up. Nothing justified not being like everyone else.”

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, B. battled doctors’ references, and was eventually granted the awaited permit, by order of which he was able to volunteer for a three year service, which is the duration of men’s mandatory service.

He was assigned to a highly classified Intelligence unit, where he was greatly valued. But that was also not enough. Last week, B. graduated from the IDF officers training course, and even got the Brigade Commander Decoration. “Being an IDF officer was a lifelong dream,” B. says enthusiastically.

“Ever since I was enlisted, I wanted to be an officer, and I’ve been struggling to make it happen since my first day in the army. That is my form of self-fulfillment. I consider IDF service a calling, and see myself part of the military for many years to come.”

The massive heat on the day of the graduation ceremony at the officers’ training base (Bahad 1) did not scare away B.’s many friends, who joined his family members to share his exciting moment with him. “They are my driving force,” B. explains, “without my family and friends I couldn’t have done it.”

Status and accomplishment notwithstanding, B. diverts attention from his own story and speaks up to those who oppose universal recruitment: “I turn to all to please reconsider,” he said, “it’s only three years. You don’t have to be an officer. You can be in combat or logistics. Everyone should contribute what he or she can. This is our country, and everyone who is still hesitating can take a look at me.”

B.’s identity, as well as his official capacity, cannot be disclosed due to national security issues, but according to Yedioth Ahronoth, in about a month and a half, following professional training, B. will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant, thereby officially becoming an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

The de-legitimization war. By Manfred Gerstenfeld

Israel should designate de-legitimization as war, launch orderly effort to fight it

An Israeli flag is burned in riots near Ramallah Photo: Reuters

Can the ongoing de-legitimization of Israel be fought? A high-placed Israeli official with an intelligence community career said to me that nothing can be done about it. This is an easy position: If nothing can be done, why try to do anything?

The de-legitimization issue is a major problem for Israel. Slandering is simple, while de-constructing falsehoods is difficult, lengthy and often costly. For instance: German poet, anti-Israel activist and Hamas supporter Irena Wachendorf claimed that she is Jewish, a member of a liberal Jewish community and served in the IDF. She furthermore stated that her father is Jewish and fled to the UK before the Second World War, while her mother survived Auschwitz.

After two years of research by German investigative journalist Jennifer Pyka, Wachendorf has now admitted that her story was made up. She did not serve in the IDF, during the Second World War her father was in the German army and as for the remainder of her assertions, there is no proof.

The model frequently followed by foreign journalists is somewhat different. They write an anti-Israel article that often omits essential data or a reliable Israeli counter-opinion. This requires little time to write. However, it takes a long time for pro-Israel media watch groups such as Camera and Honest Reporting to expose the lies and fallacies.

For decades, successive Israeli governments have neglected to deal with de-legitimization in an orderly fashion. The Palestinians have systematically succeeded in injecting their narrative into the mainstream Western world. It now sees Palestinian society - which has largely failed in its efforts of mass murder and terrorism against Israel – as a victim of the “brutal Israelis.” Palestinians have succeeded in this with the help of extreme leftists and humanitarian racists, some of whom are Israelis.

Mossad to the rescue?

What can be done? The first step is for the Israeli government to finally recognize that de-legitimization is a form of war, which has to be fought methodically. The second is to assign a government agency as the focal point to fight this war as military and cyber wars are fought. The logical candidate seems to be Mossad, which would have to create a special department for this. Government ministries with their cumbersome bureaucracies are unable to fight wars efficiently.

The conceptual approach is fairly simple. A first step is to take stock of who is already in this fight on the Israeli side and what part of the front they cover. The second step is to study how one’s enemies operate and who funds them. This is a more complex task because perpetrators of de-legitimization and anti-Semitism come from disparate origins such as Muslim countries, Muslims in the Western world, leftists, neo-Nazis, social democrats, liberal Christians, academics, NGOs, media and so on. Many enemies belong to more than one category.

The next step is to investigate the main categories of lies and fallacies repeatedly used against Israel. The lies are relatively easy to categorize. Fallacies is a far more complex subject that requires detailed analysis of issues such as: Double standards, the use of moral equivalence between murderers and victims, sentimental appeals to whitewash criminals, the inversion of cause and result and quite a few others.

Next, one can systematically analyze the modes by which lies and fallacies are transmitted. These include the media, the United Nations, the Internet and so on. One should also assess how much damage has already been caused to Israel and Jewish communities abroad by the de-legitimizers.

Thereafter, one should develop a detailed and consistent strategy on how to fight this war. How can one turn Palestinians and other enemies of Israel into defenders rather than attackers? How can one spend little time to expose them and cause them to spend much more time and money to defend themselves? This is structurally a project like any other. It will take much time and money, most of which will have to come from the Israeli government. Yet money is just the beginning.

Manfred Gerstenfeld is a member of the Board of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, of which he has been Chairman for 12 years

IAF aircrafts stuck Hamas terror hubs in south Gaza Strip overnight, in response to Monday’s rocket and machinegun fire at Israel. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed the strike.

The Palestinians reported that two targets were struck, one in Rafah and one in Khan Younis, adding that at least one of them was a Hamas military wing command post. No injuries were reported.

Shots fired from the Gaza Strip Monday evening struck two vehicles and a restaurant wall at a commercial plaza located near the Yad Mordechai Junction in southern Israel. No injuries were reported.

The IDF reported returning fire. Later, the IDF said that the shells found at the scene were fired from a 0.5-caliber automatic machinegun. The alert level in the area was raised following the incident, while large IDF and police forces canvassed the area .

The army is looking into the possibility that whoever fired the shots did not plan to hit the restaurant, as it cannot be seen directly from the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Adi, a shift manager at the commercial plaza that was hit, said “at first we heard blasts and thought that children playing with firecrackers, but then we saw white smoke billowing from the places that were hit. We heard another round of gunfire and ran into the restaurant.”

Near-death experience

Orit, the owner of one of the damaged vehicles, arrived at the restaurant with her husband and son. “We heard a few blasts but we continued eating. People ran in and said shots were fired, but we didn’t believe them. Later, police officers entered the restaurant and said our car had been hit. Now it won’t start.”

Yochabad, the owner of another vehicle that was hit while it was parked in the plaza, said the bullets penetrated the roof and hit the dashboard, “meaning that had I been in the vehicle, I would have probably been killed.”

About 10 minutes after the incident, the Color Red system, which warns residents of incoming rockets from Gaza, was activated in communities located within the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. However, security forces did not identify an explosion.

Earlier Monday, Palestinians in Gaza reported that a man sustained moderate wounds from IDF fire east of Khan Younis. The sources said that prior to the incident, a terror cell situated in the area fired a missile at Israeli army vehicles. Soldiers returned fire, they claimed.

The solution is simple. By Yoav Limor

Yoav Limor

The Israeli army brass was troubled on Tuesday, very troubled. The confusion surrounding the issue of drafting yeshiva students has left us with two bad options at this point: Maintaining the existing discrimination or tasking the Israel Defense Forces with the massive task of a universal draft.

The first bad option would perpetuate an “army of half the nation.” Anyone familiar with draft forecasts over the next few years knows there will be fewer people serving and more people evading service, with these numbers increasing steadily each year. In a recent interview with Israel Hayom, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned against this unequal sharing of the burden and called for it to be balanced immediately. In private conversations, he and other high-ranking officers speak much more bluntly.

The second bad option would lead the IDF, starting on August 1, to recruit absolutely everyone. It would issue draft notices, send everyone to basic training and assign them to units. They’d have to come up with jobs for all the new recruits and prepare legal and disciplinary measures for those who fail to show up. It’s a logistical headache. Besides, the IDF doesn’t really need all this manpower. It’s not just that haredi recruits need lots of special conditions. The supply of manpower is currently greater than the demand.

This is why the IDF is loudly calling for the obvious solution: national service. If someone has a problem with the name, we can call it something else, like civil service, or Israeli, or community service. The principle is that there is some type of service, that no one is shirking their duty or appearing to do so, but that everyone contributes to society. Every person who holds a blue Israeli identity card should serve his or her country, according to his needs and abilities.

What does this mean? That if you are capable and the army needs you, you go to the army. Anyone who cannot serve in the military must do national service. The latter could mean helping doctors in hospitals or clinics, assisting teachers and preschool teachers, patrolling playgrounds at night or acting as road-safety officers. It is possible to find thousands of additional tasks that would help the community. Many of these can even be undertaken within one’s own community. In this manner, haredim could stay closer to their own backyards, as could Arabs, and still contribute to their homeland and to themselves.

The rules would be apply to other draft dodgers as well, whether for medical or psychological causes. Whatever is stopping them from completing military drills should pose no impediment in the halls of a local hospital. The only people who merit a complete exemption are prodigies: a few hundred geniuses who are especially talented in their field, such as outstanding athletes who receive exemptions to represent the country in international competitions, as well as a handful of exceptional Torah scholars. Those receiving exemptions will be a small, select group, carefully chosen under tight monitoring.

This is also a good solution for all those who are not currently serving. It would erase the stain on one’s resume and open up work opportunities previously reserved for those who had served. It would also send more people into the job market and increase economic productivity. This solution is also good for those who already do serve. They will stop feeling like suckers and will also be able to receive financial compensation for extra service. If national service requires a smaller time commitment than military service, the state will have to compensate soldiers for their extra time. In such cases, a minimum wage salary is certainly appropriate and reasonable.

Politically, it is expedient to impose these rules on the haredim, but Arabs must also be required to take part. Not only because Israel is a democracy, but also because it will make them — and all draft dodgers — more Israeli. It is for their benefit as well as ours.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

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—	Robert Frost

Still no retaliation to put a stop to this: Gaza snipers shoot at farmer in south; no injuries. By Ilana Curiel

Negev farmer hides behind vehicle until IDF troops rescue him. Eshkol Council head: Daily occurrence

Gaza snipers opened fire Thursday morning on a tractor operator in a field located in the Negev’s Eshkol Regional Council. The farmer hid behind the vehicle until he was rescued by IDF troops.

No injuries were reported, but the tractor was damaged in the attack.

A resident of a nearby kibbutz said the famer was “driven by Zionist ideology to make aliyah with his family. We will continue to cultivate the land despite what happened.”

Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yalin said, “We are aware of dangers of cultivating our lands, and we know the IDF protects us.

“The Israeli government should know that incidents such as this one occur on a daily basis. We have the moral strength to combat terror, but not to fight the government for what the citizens here deserve,” he said.

“Last time a soldier paid with his life to protect the farmers and the rest of the citizens,” Yalin added, referring to a recent incident in which Golani Staff-Sergeant Netanel Moshiashvili was killed Friday in a clash with a Palestinian terrorist near Kissufim.