Someone suggested I start opening gifts.
Let's start with this one:
"Israeli veterans’ criticism of West Bank occupation incites furor" by Isabel Kershner New York Times December 24, 2015
JERUSALEM — A few years after Avihai Stollar had completed his obligatory army service — which coincided with the second intifada — he was approached by a member of Breaking the Silence, a leftist organization of combat veterans that says it aims to expose the grim reality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
I'm sure she is the perfect one to do it.
Stollar, who served as a platoon sergeant in an infantry unit south of Hebron, said he found himself recounting experiences that he said had seemed “logical” from the perspective of a soldier. As a civilian, he said, “Something opened up. I was in shock.”
These were not “Srebrenica moments,” he said, referring to the massacre of Muslims during the Bosnian war, but mostly the more mundane mechanics of Israel’s occupation, like banning Palestinian vehicles from certain roads to reduce the threat of drive-by shootings, and punishing violators, even though they might have had no other route.
The occasional air strikes, use of chemical weapons, and military operations against Gaza every couple of years are so mundane.
Stollar, 32, is now the research director of Breaking the Silence, and at the center of a furor that is laying bare Israel’s divisions over its core values and the nature of its democracy.
It's core values since the germination of the idea is seizing land while dislocating and exterminating the local population, and ask any Arab about Israeli "democracy."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the group from the podium of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, last week, accusing it of “slandering” Israeli soldiers before audiences around the world.
The defensive reaction indicates guilt, and the blanket coverage that no Israeli has committed war crimes renders him even more incredible than he already was.
Of course, those soldiers were only carrying out orders from war-criminal leaders like Netanyahu so the reaction its understandable.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon described the group’s motives as “malicious” and banned it from activities involving soldiers. Naftali Bennett, the education minister in the government that is dominated by rightist and religious parties, barred it from entering state schools.
The condemnations bolstered a new campaign by an Israeli ultranationalist organization, Im Tirtzu, which released a provocative video criticizing leaders of four leftist groups, including Breaking the Silence, for receiving financing from foreign governments and labeling them as foreign agents.
President Reuven Rivlin was vilified for appearing recently at an Israeli peace conference in New York where group members also appeared.
I'll break my silence in regard to that presentation of the Israeli government below.
Now some retired generals are leading a counterattack.
“Breaking the Silence strengthens the IDF and its morality,” Amiram Levin, a former commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, wrote in an advertisement that appeared on Friday in the liberal Haaretz newspaper, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. A former chief of the Shin Bet security service and a retired major general of the Israeli police then took out similar advertisements.
With all due respect, the IOF has lost any claim to morality these 70 years, and the endless false flags and fictions transmitted by mouthpiece media will do nothing to change that.
Breaking the Silence highlights what it views as the corrosive nature of the occupation of the West Bank on Israeli society by publishing the testimonies of soldiers, mostly anonymously. Abuses like looting and the destruction of Palestinian property, it argues, have become the norm.
That's interesting, for if you imagine the corrosive effect the occupation is having on Israel can you just imagine what it is doing to Palestinians living under it?
And you wonder why I am tired of this self-serving slop that is the norm?
Yet nearly half a century after Israel conquered that territory from Jordan in the 1967 war, the subject of the occupation is largely greeted with apathy in Israel. And the increasingly shrill debate about Breaking the Silence is less about the rights or wrongs of military rule in the West Bank and more about what kind of society Israelis want.
I'm wondering when someone will start speaking for Palestinians. This article -- like everything in AmeriKa's jew$media -- is more about Jews and Israel.
The feeling there is familiar, too. Over the holidays I tried testing close friends and family regarding the lying war agenda and Amerikans aren't interested. The narrative that spews forth from the ma$$ media is accepted at face value and not really questioned as the shrill debate is Trumpeted.
“Breaking the Silence is perceived as unfairly attacking the IDF and its conduct,” said Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem. “So they are putting themselves on a collision course with the most valued and respected institution in Israel and with the psyche of Israelis who feel they are in a struggle for survival.” Sigh.
That record has been so played and is really not true at this current stage of history, sorry. If it ever was. All history -- or rather, received history -- has been called into question. When one investigates further one finds that history was very often the complete opposite of what you were told.
And at a time Israelis fear for their safety amid a wave of stabbings, shootings, and attacks with vehicles by Palestinians, Plesner added, “There is not much patience for the message that the IDF is in the wrong.”
I know how they feel about patience with the message, and I've run out of it for my agenda-pushing pre$$.
So what kind of weaponry is Israel using is response?
Human rights organizations and foreign governments have often accused the Israeli military of using excessive force.
Yet for many Israelis, who are conscripted at 18 for mandatory service, it holds a special place as a people’s army that protects its citizens in a hostile environment.
Look at that big dump of a paragraph to finish it out.
How long until YOU see a DRAFT, American? After the next mushroom cloud false flag? Go fight the wars for Jews with renewed vigor then?
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Yeah, never mind the increasing radicalization within the ranks of the Zionist regime.
"Months after deadly West Bank arson, case makes progress" by Tia Goldenberg Associated Press December 25, 2015
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities are expected to soon raise charges against Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and that helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Had they been Muslim the Zionist-controlled media would have called them Islamic militants.
But the protracted and drawn-out investigation has raised questions as to why the process is taking so long when authorities often swiftly arrest and prosecute Palestinians suspected in attacks on Israelis.
I don't have any questions as to why. I know the reason.
A jarring video that aired this week on Israeli TV showing extremist Jews brandishing rifles and knives during a frenzied wedding party — some stabbing photos of the slain Palestinian toddler — has ratcheted up criticism that authorities have treated rogue Israelis with kid gloves for too long.
The problem is they are making the usurping Ashkenazis look bad.
The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh while his mother Riham and father Saad later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother, Ahmad, survived but is still being treated at an Israeli hospital.
Yes, Israel is so generous to treat the victims of its oppression while denying those victims if it whims.
The firebombing, carried out under cover of darkness while the family slept, sparked deep soul-searching by Israelis rattled by the horrific attack.
Once again, the focus of my media is on Israelis and Jews. Not Palestinians.
It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged ‘‘zero tolerance’’ in the fight to bring the assailants to justice.
His government is made up of the people who populate from where the assailants came.
But for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity.
One might even say.... (gulp).... terrorists?
‘‘It took them six months to move and do something,’’ Nasir Dawabsheh, Saad Dawabsheh’s brother, said of the Israeli investigation. ‘‘If the perpetrator was a Palestinian, they would have burned the West Bank to find him the same day.’’
Or at least rounded up and jailed a few dozen, involved or not.
Palestinians cite the Duma incident as key in igniting the three month-long wave of attacks and clashes roiling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence.
I suppose there is only so much a human being can take.
Since mid-September, Palestinian attacks have killed 20 Israelis and an American student. At least 126 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire, including 86 said by Israel to be attackers and the rest killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.
The truth is in the numbers, and the 6-to-1 ratio indicates the true aggressor. Sure, the apologist media can arrange it so that it indicts the victims and blames them but that isn't fooling anyone anymore.
Israel says a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement is to blame for the violence.
Always remember that Israel accuses others of behavior that it is guilty of itself. Beyond that, I can only relate it to the war-promoting paper I'm purchasing every day. Talk about lies and incitement.
But the Palestinians say it’s the result of a lack of hope from nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation.
I don't see anyone crying for those generations of refugees as they wave Syrian and Central American children at us yet again.
And now the fun begins:
Critics say Israel has cultivated a culture of impunity has a history of failing to prosecute even the most petty of crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank. But Israel says it confronts settler violence with as much resolve as it does attacks by Palestinians.
Police say a special ‘‘nationalistic crimes’’ unit was created in 2013 and that over the last few months, they have served restraining orders to dozens of extremist Jews, banning them from the West Bank and putting some under house arrest.
By a nationalistic (okay in this case), extremist-filled, wall-building, apartheid state. The "terrorists" are the government!
The extremists are part of the so-called ‘‘hilltop youth,’’ a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually a cluster of trailers, on West Bank hilltops — land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
Unauthorized (wink, wink).
Officials announced say they have made significant progress in the case, with fresh arrests and indictments expected soon.
I'll hold my tongue then.
That is my verbatim print with web alterations.
Now for the further additions:
‘‘The system on every level avoids enforcing law on Israeli settlers. Police fail miserably to ever solve these crimes,’’ said Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. She said the Duma incident and the lengthy investigation reflected that unchecked lawlessness.
They are seldom punished. Critics say influential settler rabbis have done little to denounce the youths, and that Israeli leaders have embraced settler activists who support them. Some outposts have even later been legalized as settlements.
Confirms what I've been saying.
After the Duma attack, Israel arrested four suspected Jewish extremists, placing them for six months under ‘‘administrative detention’’ — a contentious policy usually reserved for Palestinian suspects that allows them to be held without charge or trial.
But the four were not necessarily being held in connection with the arson and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has said there wasn’t ‘‘sufficient evidence’’ to apprehend any other suspects over the case. A gag order was slapped on the investigation and months went by.
Then, earlier in December But the suspects’ lawyers and families accused Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet of using torture to extract false confessions in the face of a lack of evidence.
Israelis were tortured. Never mind the Palestinian prisoners (including children) tortured by Israel!
Again, I should stay silent. We know what we are reading, we know which side of the story they are promoting, we know what this is. It's not surprising anymore, it's just sickening. Conceit will do that.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer for one of the suspects, said his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet. Ben-Gvir said he believes the tactics were used because Israel is determined to close the case, but said he didn’t think any indictment would hold up in court.
‘‘They broke him,’’ Ben-Gvir said. ‘‘This can’t be done in a democratic country.’’
Except it obviously can if that false label is applied to the EUSrael conglomerate; or it is sooth that sayeth western regimes are no longer democratic (if they ever were).
Rights groups say Palestinians under interrogation regularly undergo similar treatment. The Shin Bet said all interrogations are conducted within the scope of the law.
Yes, let's not longer on the treatment of Palestinians. Maybe one day they will get their own feature.
The agency says the young settler activists are part of a fringe group suspected of arson attacks on Palestinian property in order to bring about religious ‘‘redemption,’’ extremists who say God, and not Israeli law is sovereign.
I'm really starting to get sick of the Christian and Jewish nutties running around while the U.S. and its allies support radical Islamic terrorists for intervention and regime change purposes. Sorry.
One suspect being held is accused of writing a detailed instruction manual on how to set fire to mosques, churches and Palestinian homes. Titled ‘‘Kingdom of Evil,’’ it instructs activists to form underground cells committed to ‘‘sanctifying God’s name’’ — and with members who know how ‘‘to keep silent in interrogations.’’
The controversial video of sympathizers of the Duma arsonists, aired by Israeli Channel 10 TV on Wednesday, shows a rowdy crowd of skullcap-wearing youths dancing to music with lyrics calling for revenge. They hold photos of the slain Dawabsheh toddler, which they then proceed to stab with their knives. The youths are also seen brandishing an Israeli military-issued rifle and a mock firebomb.
The video, which police are now investigating, sparked outrage among Israeli legislators, many of whom said it showed Israel was failing to rein in extremism. Netanyahu warned that the extremists are a ‘‘danger’’ to Israeli society.
That is why this is getting such play; Israel is self-destructing and coming apart at the seams.
Tal Mimran, a researcher on national security at the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank, said a lackadaisical attitude toward extremist settlers may have played a role in the protracted police investigation but that there may also have been other issues, such as a lack of physical evidence.
He said that obtaining a confession from Israeli suspects may be challenging for the security forces because the suspects are more familiar with the system and more aware of their legal rights, compared to the Palestinians.
Still, Mimran said the drawn-out investigation could mar Israel’s image not only in the eyes of Palestinians but also internationally.
It is the second part that they care about because they obviously don't give a damn what Palestinians think. Furthermore, it's viewed as an image problem when it's the damn policy of oppression, theft, and murder.
‘‘Every day that passes intensifies the struggle over the legitimacy of Israel and its actions,’’ he said.
Let's think about that for a minute.
What if Israel is illegitimate to begin with?
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Btw, not all Palestinians are Muslim (as our Jewi$h War Pre$$ would have us believe):
"Violence makes for a somber Christmas in Bethlehem this year; Palestinians cut festivities amid wave of violence" by William Booth Washington Post December 23, 2015
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Palestinian leadership decided to tone down the celebrations this year out of respect for the dead.
I must admit, I haven't been very festive due to the 4 million (and counting) war dead accumulated during the last 15 years or so.
Since the beginning of October, there has been a surge in Palestinian assaults against Israelis, accompanied by tough countermeasures at the scene of the attacks and at clashes between rock-throwing demonstrators and Israeli forces.
It's rocks versus modern weaponry, and once again it is the poor set-upon Jews narrative, etc, etc.
And that's my big three, the NYT, AP, and WaPo.
Eighteen Israelis have been killed by Palestinians using knives, automobiles, and guns. Some 125 Palestinians have been shot to death, 81 during assaults and 44 during violent demonstrations.
I hope you don't mind me doubting that account.
Four of the dead came from Bethlehem, including a 13-year-old boy, Abdel Rahman Obeidallah, who was killed by a sniper’s bullet to the chest. Israeli officials have suggested that the killing was a mistake.
Israeli snipers shooting dead Palestinians is nothing new. In fact, it is one of the more mundane aspects of Israeli occupation.
Israel has so far refused to return two of the bodies of the Bethlehem dead, saying they will be celebrated by the Palestinians as martyrs when they should be condemned as terrorists.
And the Palestinians might get a look at the wounds that would likely expose the Israeli account as a lie.
Of course, the shoe is on the other foot in regard to Israeli soldiers.
The violence here and elsewhere has also reduced the number of pilgrims and tourists, both international visitors and Palestinian Christians who come from Israel and the West Bank.
‘‘We had the most famous bar in Bethlehem. We had to close it down’’ because there wasn’t enough business, said Johnny Kattan, a manager at Jacir Palace Hotel, a luxury property that has the misfortune of being located a few hundred yards from an Israeli military checkpoint that is the target of demonstrations.
Tires are often burned and tear gas fired right outside the hotel. This week, the sidewalks outside the lobby still smelled of the odious ‘‘skunk water’’ that Israeli soldiers spray to disperse rock-throwing crowds.
That's one way of shutting someone up, huh?
The hotel’s gala Christmas dinner was also canceled.
The number of tourists to Bethlehem in October and November was half the number of previous years.
It’s not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that’s keeping visitors away, Kattan said. ‘‘It’s the Paris attacks, it’s the tensions between Russia and Turkey, it’s the crash of the Russian plane,’’ the Metrojet flight that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in late October after an apparent bomb blast, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
Although the parties were canceled, the religious events will go on.
‘‘Pilgrims should not be afraid to come,’’ Fuad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said in his Christmas message. ‘‘Despite the tense situation in this land, the pilgrim route is safe and they are respected and appreciated by all sectors in the Holy Land.’’
There will be a Christmas Eve Mass at the Church of the Nativity, the 1,700-year-old basilica built above the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.
Earlier this week, Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun watched work crews erect a stage at Manger Square. ‘‘The Israelis are suffocating us,’’ she said. ‘‘The city of peace has no peace.’’
The mayor said Israel is taking more land to complete the separation wall at Bethlehem’s perimeter. The Jerusalem City Council also approved the construction of 891 units in Gilo, a Jewish settlement that abuts Bethlehem.
Thus all that screeching above about Israeli self-examination is exposed as a complete fraud.
So how come a WALL is GOOD ENOUGH for ISRAEL but not America?
Israeli officials say....
Sorry, but as a Christian ‘‘I’m just not in the mood. It’s a sad Christmas to be honest.’’
I blame the messenger.
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Yeah, thanks for the gift. Who's next?
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Yeah, Globe was silent on Sunday morning.
