Film about October 7 booted out from festival

 

The Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich made a documentary about astounding rescue mission by retired IDF Maj. Gen. Noam Tibion who, on October 7, 2023, who went to kibbutz Nahal Oz, attacked by terrorists, where his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters lived.

On his way to Nahal Oz the general rescued some victims of Nova festival and some wounded soldiers, while he himself was helped by soldiers hurrying to rescue civilians where and how they could. Brotherhood among ordinary citizens, rescue mission against all odds and raising against common, terrible danger that unifies people above divisions is a powerful story.

The film was to make premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September this year. The original title “Out of Nowhere: The Ultimate Rescue” was changed to “The Road Between Us” at the request of TIFF.

Recently, according to film making team, they were receiving signals that they should pull back from the festival. They did not. This week the film’s invitation has been withdrawn by TIFF organizers. TIFF said the documentary was removed "because general requirements for inclusion in the festival, and conditions that were requested when the film was initially invited, were not met, including legal clearance of all footage." (according to Associated Press). TIFF statement continued that: ““The purpose of the requested conditions was to protect TIFF from legal implications and to allow TIFF to manage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption.”

These “legal clearance of all footage" refers to the use of Hamas’ live streamed video of the rape, murder and kidnapping of Jews. Yes, you heard it right, organizers insisted the filmmakers need the rights from the terrorist group to use their horrific footage of the massacre. And TIFF was supposedly afraid to show the truth from terrorists’ go-pros because they might have been sued by the murderous terror organization.

In reality they were probably concerned about security issues, similar to ones I described writing years ago (2011) about Israeli Film Festival held in Dublin, Ireland. Nevertheless, when completely stunned filmmakers stated that TIFF has “defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film” the matter became very public. American, Canadian and Israeli media commented the situation widely.

That caused TIFF’s reaction and yesterday, late in the evening, its CEO, Cameron Bailey, offered his “sincere apologies for any pain this situation may have caused” adding that it was never his “intention to offend or alienate anyone.” The milk has spilled but Cameron Bailey stated that he remains “committed to working with the filmmaker to meet TIFF’s screening requirements to allow the film to be screened at this year’s festival.” We will see in September. Nevertheless, the pure idea that the material made available as life streaming of the massacre by Hamas needs to be cleared legally by them in order to remind how this war has started and what really happened on October 7 (and about what they bragged publicly) is exorbitantly absurd.  Or was it, before we moved to post-truth world?

 

 

Faked pictures of Gaza by Anas Zayed Fteiha

 Few posts ago I was writing about hunger in Gaza. Nobody questions that living in the war zone is awful. Yet there is a difference if people are living in active war zone (terrible in itself) or if on top of that there is famine in the region/ city/ vicinity. Ukraine, the zone of active war for over 3 years does not have famine though in parts it is hard to get and store enough food supplies and conditions of life are desperate.

So is there a hunger in Gaza Strip? Honest answer is: I have no idea. But I very much doubt so, based, among others, on the very pictures of hunger in Gaza that recently are making careers in media.

If there is famine on a given territory  and you want to show it to the world you don't need to:

1) use 10 years old pictures of Yezidi girl kidnapped by ISIS (by the way IDF discovered a Yezidi girl in Gaza - she was sold there as a slave by ISIS fighter, now she is free, that was still in the previous year),

2) use Syrian child picture from 2018 to show it,

3) use pictures of children with cerebral palsy or genetic disease,

4) stage pictures of people fighting for food (read below).

 But you may (and should if you are a good photographer):

1) show hungry people in groups and belonging to various age groups,

2) show moving pictures or just films,

3) interview relief and aid workers and show their work. 

Moreover, in an era and place when everybody, absolutely everybody carries with them camera capable of making pictures and movies, and everybody is capable of publishing them or even streaming in real time (there might not be internet in Gaza all the time, but in many places and at certain hours it is, according to all sources, and phones can also work just on signal) it can't be hidden. Hamas was capable of live streaming its atrocities like shooting Eden daughter in Nahal Oz  when there was still battle. Yet we have 2 million people in Gaza who presumably suffer from famine and definitely don't like IDF (though some of them may at this point dislike Hamas more, I should hope, putting the blame where it belongs) and only pictures of hunger show small and very ill children in condition that might have deteriorated in war but was always desperate. We have pictures of these children with healthy siblings edited out. Finally, as Bild and Suddeutche Zeitung revealed yesterday, we have staged pictures of people lining for food. Turkish photo reporter  Anas Zayed Fteiha, author of these pictures, was filmed when staging them with people acting quite a time before food was delivered.

According to historian and photography expert Gerhard Paul, cited in an investigation by the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Hamas has complete control over image production in the southern Gaza Strip. “ The goal is to arouse sympathy in the West and anger against Israel, ” he notes.

He explains that many images from Gaza are not necessarily fake, but are presented in a way that directs public perception. “ It is a strategic emotional mobilization of memory and image ,” he emphasizes. Similar instances of manipulation have been recorded since 2002, when the historic PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, was photographed “dark” and alone in his headquarters, while, a few minutes later, videos showed him in full light - simply because the reporters had agreed to turn off the lights for the “ good shot .”

  

Below is a picture from Bild

Per Economic Times: "A well-known Gazan photographer faces criticism after a German investigation revealed that some of his viral hunger photos were staged. Several major European agencies have severed ties with him, reigniting debate about media ethics, bias, and the dangers of manipulated war imagery."

And again: there is no doubt that life in Gaza is now preposterously difficult, dangerous and unhappy for great majority of people there. Poor, with small children and without links to Hamas have it especially hard. But famine? 

History of Gaza Strip territory (part one - until Camp David)

 Today Gaza is in the epicenter of all news and all the world and his wife is writing about this tiny piece of land. But if one asks the average paper-reader or news-consumer in the West: "ok, so where did all these Palestinians came from and how did the problem started and when?" few will be able to answer. Most answers will probably be ideological, some will refer to some occupation, even more to conflict with Israel but almost nobody will be able to answer since when is Rafah a border town, when did Israel first took Gaza, where was it before and how was it managed before Hamas.

Do you want to dive into this fascinating story?

 Do you recognize the famous site above? The picture is from the collection of the museum in Auckland, New Zealand.

If not, don't worry. Few of the people knowing it well today would have recognized it. This is Rafah crossing. And it is the oldest picture of it I could find, yet still done 11 years after Rafah became an international crossing.

Gaza is a very old settlement, which we know from the Bible and archeology. Archeology puts the oldest settlements in Gaza at about 5,000 years. Bible tells us this is the place where king David conquered Goliath and Samson took the door to Gaza back with him (which did not prevent him from suffering horrible fate later). This was part of the corridor between Africa and Asia,  Egypt and Babylonia, one of the highways of the ancient world. It was settled, according to the Bible by Philistines, enemies of Israel, and the very name Palestine derives from this name of Israel adversaries and was invented by Romans to humiliate Israelites after collapse of the Bar-Kochba uprising against Rome in 135.

Yet today we are preoccupied with you contemporary history of this place so let me start in 1906 when Rafah became the international border town.

This was the border between two empires: British, which at the time held the Egypt and all-the-most-important Suez Canal, and Ottoman, which among its vast territories held what later became Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and so called Palestinian territories, Gaza included. The arbitrary drawn border was following straight line from Rafah to Taba and disregarded any peoples or cultures  native to the region. Not that there were many, it was mostly unoccupied desert with few bigger settlements.

 

Above you may see the map of Ottoman empire before the I world war, and however it already lost some of it territories: Romania, Bulgaria (to great extend), Serbia, Montenegro, parts of Tunisia etc. it was still a vast territory. All the historical Israeli territories were just a very distant province. Yet in Rafah it bordered the biggest empire of the time, the one on which sun never set. The border was peaceful for the next 11 years. However as a consequence of I world war, which Ottoman Empire joined on the side of Central States, while the UK on the side of Entente Cordial, the map changed drastically. This war brought end to 4 empires and Ottoman was one of them.  

 

 This is a map of Middle East around 1920 with British mandate for Palestine, French mandate for Syria and Lebanon, British mandate for Mesopotamia and so on.... Both British and French promised autonomy and states to various peoples at various pieces of this land. Often the territories overlapped. There were plans to create Kurdistan that were never realized. The piece of land important for the future Gaza (and Israeli and Jordan and Palestinian) history was all under the British mandate for Palestine. In 1917 British promised this land to Jews. That did not stop them from making promises to Arabs. Both nations wanted the whole territory of Mandate. Here's how it looked:

 

In 1921 British divided mandate giving a small part to Syria, some 80% to Transjordan - independent kingdom connected to British where the throne was offered to King Abdullah, brother of Iraqi king Faysal. Jews, disappointed in the division, as they were forbidden to live in Transjordan were promised remaining 20% of the mandate. Yet British very well knew how to rule their territories and were talking with Jews behind Arab backs and with Arabs behind Jewish backs.

As for Gaza, when you compare this map with a contemporary one, you realize that it was well inside the British mandate, yet still close to border with Rafah remaining a border town, since Egypt gained its independence in 1922. The conflict between Jews and Arabs grew in the mandate, with both sides increasingly hostile to each other and to British. After the II world war British were not able to hold to it any longer and signaled that they want UN to divide the land. Nevertheless the last colonial power to hold these land was UK. 

Disregarding the 1921 division of the mandate, which gave Arabs 80% of it UN in its 1947 resolution proposed further division of the remaining part. This is UN's proposition:

 

The plan, though neither side was happy, was accepted by Jews, desperately needing a state to bring the Holocaust survivors and release interned by British authorities so called illegal immigrants, and refused by Arabs. 24 hours after declaration of independence Israel was attacked by 6 Arab armies and the war of independence started. It ceased (only with demarcation lines, not real borders as no Arab state recognized Israel at the time) in January 1949.

These were Israeli armistice lines. Not so different from the proposed division, although in the north gains were spectacular. Gaza strip, as the piece of land became known, belonged to Egypt, and armistice lines originally were just ditches dug in the sand. However it's demography changed. Before the war of independence Gaza strip had approximately 100,000 inhabitants, afterwards approximately 400,000.

 Gaza belonged to Egypt and there were frequent exchanges of fire across armistice lines, however they were still just ditches. On the borders on Israeli side were few military outposts and few kibbutzim. Nahal Oz, the kibbutz now known as one of the primer victims of October 7, was established in 1953 from the scratch by a group of 19-year-olds. Fedayeens (terrorists from Gaza) often penetrated Israel and kibuzniks tried to patrol the fields. Some of the Palestinians coming from Gaza wanted to reach their old houses or fields, which was tragic aftermath of the changes caused by war. Others were thinking about attacking any Israelis. In 1956 Roi Rothberg was killed from ambush, and his body carried back to Gaza and mutilated . Sounds familiar?

In 1956, after the war with Egypt, Israel gained Gaza and Sinai Peninsula for the first time but returned them in 1957 to Egypt. The next decade was relatively quiet. 

As a consequence of 6-day-war Israel gained again the Gaza and Sinai Peninsula. Acting on advice from Moshe Dayan Israeli government tried to keep the border between Gaza and Israel open. At first it worked. Gazans were able to work in Israel and even small Israeli salary was quite hefty in Gaza. Israelis from kibbutzim near Gaza were going shopping to the strip and were enjoying beaches, one of the most beautiful Mediterranean beaches there are. Many Gazans worked in kibbutzim, people started making friendships, it looked fine. In 1968, right after the war the remuneration received by Gazans working in Israel constituted 2% of the Gaza's budget, in 1975 already 31 % (and in the meantime there was Yom Kippur war). However the Yom Kippur war, comparison between conditions in Gaza and in Israel and fedayeens were stretching relationships. When in 1979 Egypt and Israel made a peace treaty in Camp David Egypt very much wanted to regain control over Sinai Peninsula but refused to accept Gaza. Below are two fragments of contemporary Egyptian voices:

"Egypt never annexed Gaza like Jordan did with the West Bank. Yes we held a certain degree of de facto control after the 1948 war but we established Gaza as first a headquarters for a Quasi-Palestinian government which was later dissolved by Nasser. If the United Arab Republic had ever succeeded it would have been part of a Palestinian state within the Republic and not part of Egypt.

So in short Gaza was never planned to be part of Egypt whether by the Monarchy, Nasser or Sadat.

Palestinians living in Gaza (...) did not see themselves as Egyptians and Egyptians did not consider them as such"

"Gaza was run by Egypt but Sadat was a genius because probably realizing what governing it would entail he “returned” it to Israel as part of the peace deal.

Not his country’s problem anymore is it? So Egypt got their sovereign lands back, got rid of Gaza, and had enjoyed 43 years of peace with Israel and all the benefits associated with a lack of a war with a neighbor.

As an Egyptian I’d probably be praying to Sadat cause he paid with his life for it.

The main issue though is that even if Egypt begins administering Gaza, unless they come down hard on terror groups (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) which may alienate their local populations in Cairo, when Hamas shoots their next volley into Israel… does Israel blame Egypt? Do they declare war on Egypt? If they enter Gaza and confront Egyptian soldiers who have to administer and defend the territory are we risking war between Egypt and Israel?

Why would Egypt want to be responsible for this? They have their hands full with building a new Cairo or something 🤣 plus all those pyramids Jewish slaves (edit: joke ) built are mobbed by tourists.

Egypt got enough problems".

 Other problems, political, social and humanitarian started to evolve during early 70s and continued to grow: growing terrorism of Gazans, military abuse by Israel in early 70s, first Israeli settlements in Gaza and division on both sides with regards to values and approaches, mostly between religious and secular. These factors complicated the story. Maybe if Israel wasn't so self assured after 6-days war and so enraged and spooked after Yom Kippur war... maybe if Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islam wouldn't found their way to Gaza... Maybe if not Begin with Likud but Holds Meir with socialist secular party was a PM during Camp David... Maybe if fedayeen were opposed by Gazans while there was a chance... The history is full of maybes. 

Please let me know what you think and what would you like me to continue with.

History of two law cases, Palestinian terrorism and Iran

Today I would like to tell the story of two legal cases. One is finished, one has just started. Both are related to Palestinian terrorism and they show a very interesting story, and - if you will bear with me till the end of this post - they are very important for the present situation.

Let's start with the first one.

In April 1995 Alisa Flatow, the US citizen and student, was spending a semester studying in Israel.  It was a time after Oslo Accords when many people among Israelis and Palestinians were still hopeful for a long-time solution and the end to the conflict (what happened to not bring about this vision I will describe in my next piece about Arafat, but that is not for today). Alisa wanted to take a trip to Jordan (the border between Jordan and Israel has just been opened) but did not find for the short few days break friends who would like to go with her. Instead she decided to spent these days with her two girl friends at the beach in Gaza (at the time it was 10 years to unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and Gaza's beaches are spectacular). The girls took a regular line 36 bus they boarded in Ashkelon. At 11:45 Khaled Mohammed Khatib rammed his explosive-full car into the bus, full of soldiers and civilians, switching a trigger. 8 people were killed including Alisa Flatow, whose brain was penetrated by a shrapnel. Evacuated by helicopter to the Soroka hospital in Israel she undergone complicated surgery but to no avail. She was pronounced brain dead and her father, who flew to Israel, agreed for donation of her organs to 3 different people in life-saving medical procedures.

The responsibility for the attack was claimed by  the Shaqaqi faction of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Steven Flatow, Alisa's dad, himself a lawyer, became public speaker and was constantly looking for ways to deal with his grief. In the spring of 1997, after terrorist attacks in Israel claimed lives of subsequent American victims - 174 over the 18 months period, President Clinton signed the law allowing for families of American victims to sue countries designated as sponsors of terrorism. These applied to 7 countries. One of them was Iran. Steven Flatow, with the help of two brilliant lawyers and his well informed friends, helpers and experts, established that the Islamic Republic of Iran was spending yearly approximately 100 million dollars (remember, it is mid 90s) on terrorism. Of this sum some 75% was spent on financing Palestinian terrorism, in particular on Hamas and PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad). Steven Flatow decided in the fall of 1997 to try new law and brought a civil case against Iran for the murder of his daughter claiming that the attack would not have been possible without Iran's organizational and financial support. It turned that Iran was training Palestinian terrorists to great extent in Sudan and Iran itself. The summons were delivered with the help of Swiss Embassy in Iran which after a revolution served as diplomatic outpost for American interests. Iranian officials opened the enveloped, had a look, returned the papers to the enveloped, and the enveloped to sender. They never hired a lawyer, comment on the summons or appeared in the court (which they often did for regular civilian lawsuits following businesses gone wrong after the revolution). The case - US District Court for the District of Columbia - 999 F. Supp. 1 (D.D.C. 1999) January 25, 1999 - took place in March 1998 in the Federal District Court with Judge Lamberth presiding. Here is a link to the case for those interested.

After listening to witnesses, plaintiffs, experts and reviewing documentation provided the court  decided to rule in favor of plaintiffs and award them almost a quarter billion of dollars total (including punitive damages). Steven Flatow tried to collect it from frozen Iranian assets in the USA, including the building of former Iranian embassy, but the Department of State prevented it. In the year 2000 plaintiffs gained the knowledge that the US government had $400,000,000.00 of Iranian money frozen. It constituted prepayment for the weapons the USA was selling to Iran previously and was frozen after the hostage crisis in American Embassy in Tehran. When that was publicized the US government proposed settlement and paying of 25 million dollars to Flatows from these funds. Settlement was agreed. 15 years later, when the Agreement about stopping work on nuclear weapons with Iran was entered into US government (at the time under President Obama) released.... 400 million dollars of these frozen funds to Iran. And Flatows were not the only ones to sue Iran for the deaths of their near and dear. When in 2019 President Trump withdrew from that Agreement and Iran returned to working on nuclear weapons - we know the subsequent, including very fresh history - the only conclusion one may reach is that for the death of American citizen, killed in Israel by Palestinian terrorists with vast help from Iran the Islamic Republic of Iran was sued, found guilty, lost in the court, the money was collected and then... returned by American authorities for nothing (as the agreement didn't stand, even if one - I do not - believes that it should be returned to Iran after entering into the agreement) and effectively all damages in this and similar cases were covered by American taxpayers. Don't get me wrong, I truly support the sentence by Judge Lamberth, I just believe that defendant should cover the costs and not American taxpayers because of American politics and war between political parties. That was the whole idea of punitive damages that were to deter Iran from financing terrorism (and mind you, the sentence was against Iran AND its highest authorities including Khamenei).

Here is Alisa Flatow
 

The second lawsuit was brought to court only last Thursday. It is directed against UNRWA by families of Americans killed by Palestinian terrorists. According to the complaint, UNRWA has provided material aid to Hamas and Hezbollah in violation of anti-terrorism laws. It also claims that UNRWA USA assisted the groups by gathering donations. Similar lawsuit has been started already last year by a different group of American victims, yet until April this year UNRWA enjoyed immunity from lawsuits in the US. And while the UN continues to enjoy such immunity the recent Department of Justice decision from April 2025 declared that its subsidiaries (UNRWA included) are not. This lawsuit is also brought to the Federal Court in the District of Columbia, like in Alisa Flatow's case. The other is in New York.

Both suits are attempting to hold the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, responsible in some measure for violent acts by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel that have been designated terrorist organizations by the United States. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages, both compensatory and punitive. The lawsuit alleges that rather than promoting peace and coexistence, UNRWA actively encourages anti-Israel and antisemitic attitudes through its positions, services, and education system. Hundreds of UNRWA workers are believed to have engaged in terrorism in recent years. On Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA social worker Faisal Ali Mussalem al Naami and a colleague were caught on film loading into a truck the lifeless body of an Israeli man, Yonatan Samerano, providing evidence that’s helped focus attention on UNRWA and its well-documented, years-long record of complicity in terrorism and incitement.

Below a list of some UNRWA teachers reactions to October 7 massacre:

• UNRWA Gaza teacher Osama Ahmed posted “Allah is Great, Allah is Great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams” as the massacre was unfolding.
• UNRWA school principal Iman Hassan justified the massacre as “restoring rights” and “redressing” Palestinian “grievances.”
• Director of the UNRWA Khan Younis Training Center Rawia Helles, who is featured in and UNRWA campaign, glorified one of the terrorists as a “hero,” “raider,” and “prince of Khan Younis.”
• UNRWA English teacher Asmaa Raffia Kuheil excitedly posted “7th, October, 2023! Sculpture the date!” adding a heart emoji.
• UNRWA school administrator Hmada Ahmed posted “welcome the great October.”

Also remember that despite UNRWA knowing for more than a decade that the head of its teachers union in Lebanon, Fathi al-Sharif (a.k.a. Fateh “Abo Amin” al-Sharif), overseeing 39,000 students in 65 schools, is part of Hamas and an overt promoter of terrorism, the agency is refusing to fire him. 

UNRWA chief Lazzarini initiated an external review of UNRWA in mid-January 2024 in response to revelations about the agency’s terror ties, including a 3,000-member UNRWA staff Telegram group and the participation of at least 12 UNRWA employees in the October 7 Hamas attack. The mandate of that review, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was to “conduct an independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure adherence by UNRWA to the humanitarian principle of neutrality.” The Colonna Review Group published its final report, containing 50 separate recommendations, on April 20, 2024.None of them was so far implemented to my knowledge.

The most specified reports about UNRWA's employees and officials criminal activities are written by UN Watch - examples may be find here and here.  Greater aggregation of the reports may be found here. They were all formally submitted to governments and UNRWA itself, and not protested.

Will UNRWA, employing almost exclusively Palestinians and for years not even pretending to be neutral be found responsible. I should definitely hope so. And hopefully this time defendant, if found responsible, will pay their own penalties.

More about UNRWA soon. 

Yasser Arafat and his PLO - part 4 (the way from war to Oslo)

 As described in part 3 PLO carries lots of responsibility for starting Civil War in Lebanon in 1975. Originating from French time Lebanon has a complicated constitution and balance of powers. The functions of President, Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House come from elections but are reserved for representatives of religious minorities. The President is always Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister is always Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the House is always a Shia Muslim. The sudden arrival of terrorist militants from PLO - almost all Sunni Muslims - and their creation of State within a State brought an end to delicate balance. The first battles between PLO and Christian phalanges started in 1975. Apart from religion the division run along political affiliations as one more hot manifestation of cold war. PLO had backing of the USSR and many of its sub-organizations were distinctly communist which created interesting mix of nationalism, religious fundamentalism and far-left terrorism. Remember that after 6-days war and Yom Kippur War USSR was strongly anti-Israeli, an attitude which persisted until the end of Soviet Union.

Syria intervened in the Lebanese Civil War in 1976 effectively occupying big part of Lebanese territory. In 1978, after Coastal Road Massacre intervened Israel trying to push PLO away from Israeli border to stop terrorist infiltration and cross-border fire. After short time Israeli troops withdrew, however keeping the border strongly fortified against PLO terrorists, surprisingly enough cooperating with Shia Muslim forces and - to some extent - with Christian forces. 

After Iranian revolution in 1979 it was Iran's turn to intervene in Lebanon and it wasn't shy about it.

The truly catastrophic year was 1982 when few things happened. On June 4 PLO terrorists sent from Lebanon severely wounded  in London Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov. In response on June 6 Israel started operation in Lebanon and during few days began heavy fights near Beirut. The city, where PLO was fortified quickly found itself in very hard situation. International mediation led to removing - under US, French, Italian and British protection - PLO from Lebanon and Arafat went with part of his organization to Tunisia. This constituted victory from the Israeli point of view as attacks by PLO from Lebanon reached around 100 per year. Unfortunately at the same time created by Iran Hezbollah constituted itself in Lebanon. Yet at the time nobody yet suspected such a foe. Also in August 1982 Bashir Gemayel was elected President which could raise hope for peace between Israel and Lebanon. It never happened. On September 4 Israeli forces extracted from Palestinian refugee camps 520 tons of ammunition, rockets, mortars and alike. On September 14 Syrian forces assassinated newly elected president and Israel lost hope for achieving peace with the neighbor. In this moment Christian phalanges massacred Palestinians in refugee camps without any intervention from nearby Israeli forces which later led to trials in Israel (contrary to popular propaganda IDF never took part in this massacre but it has not prevented it either). The following year brought truce between Israel and Lebanon and horrific terrorist attacks by Hezbollah on American forces in which 241 marines were killed (in all 3 attacks close to 500 people were killed, most of them Americans and French). But that was already after Israeli withdrawal and Yasser Arafat's evacuation to Tunisia.

Lebanese Civil War, which Arafat provoked to a great extend, continued until 1990. Meanwhile Arafat spent 6 years in Tunisia and by the end of 80s started series of meetings with Israeli officials which opened the way to his greatest triumph and greatest Palestinian tragedy in my opinion. 90s brought Oslo Accords and for Arafat Palestinian Autonomy, Nobel Peace Prize (really? him?), the Presidential title when he became President of the Palestinian Autonomy and open road to Palestinian statehood. All this was achievable but all it was forfeited by Arafat himself when, time after another, he refused to recognize Israel, refused Palestinian state and focused again on terrorism and destruction. 

From the point of view of blog about Israel this is the most important time of Arafat's activities, but to explain it I had not only to show how his hatred and fanaticism in 60s and 70s led to tries to destroy Israel and to create international terrorism, but also how, after setting turmoil in 3 Arab countries and organizing countless terrorists attacks he put his ego above any interest of Palestinians and brought about their calamity.

 

Hunger in Gaza - elephant in the room

 Recently so many sources (or "sources") exploit the topic of hunger in Gaza that I feel obliged to write something about it. Truly, wars are tragic. Always. Those that were fought in ancient times and known to us through poems like Iliad and those that we watch on screens of our TVs. They are ugly, brutal, tragic and bring calamities to countless victims. Hunger is and was part of warfare (intended or not) throughout the history. Below some of my reflection about what is shown and what use are these pictures put into.

1. Hamas not only started this war, in extremely brutal way, it was also provoking other military interventions in Gaza trough terrorist attacks, kidnappings or rocket fire. Once the conflict escalated Hamas was always trying to cause as many civilian casualties as possible among Gazans to use them for propaganda purposes. Organizing launching pads and military posts inside mosques, hospitals, schools or kindergartens was serving this purpose. According to international law such places ceased to be civilian structures protected by international law when they were used for military purposes.  Nevertheless we  always hear about "attacking the hospital" (or a school, or some other civilian structure) even if they are use precisely for the purposes excluding them (by law) from protection. And this propaganda is used by Hamas. Somehow the similar fate of civilian buildings used in other wars in a similar way is understood by public as leading (regretfully) to loosing the protection and becoming yet another military structure. 

2.  There were recently published quite a few pictures of hungry children from Gaza in the media. Some of them are truly horrible. Except.... some of them show emaciated children with well fed caregivers or (in some instances) with milk bottles. Some of these children were recognized as suffering from genetic diseases (one is treated in Italy, one in the USA, of these recognized and named). It is a portrait of human tragedy, but not connected to hunger or even (in this instance) to war. Such diseases consume thousands of children around the world and usually their pictures appear rarely. And if such pictures appear they create compassion (rightly so) but no anger. Yet these pictures in media are weaponized to sell the story of widespread starvation in Gaza. Children with similar medical condition look the same almost all over the world (with few exceptions of well developed countries with the right to medical care on high level).

This child shown above, with genetic condition, is already treated in the American hospital, yet Al-Jazeera used his picture as proof of Gaza hunger. His name is Fadi al-Zant and he suffers from cystic fibrosis since his birth. Two of his brothers died due to this genetic disease long before the war, as unfortunately die children around the world. In the USA 300-400 hundred ill die of this disease yearly. Expensive treatment only prolongs life a bit.

 3. There is another child looking very malnourished, whose image was used by New York Times to illustrate alleged hunger in Gaza:  Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq. It is truly a haunting photo. Yet few days later NYT had to put editors note explaining that the child has numerous genetic diseases and his emaciated state is because of pre-existing state of his health. His healthy looking siblings were edited out of the picture. New York Times make editorial explanations and.... a group of so called pro-Palestinians vandalized New York Times building accusing the paper to support Israel. 

4. Pictures of Yezidi girl (made 10 years earlier in Iraq), small children (made in 2018 in Syria) and  few others were also used in this campaign. They were made in other time and place and the victims shown on them are entitled to their privacy.  Does it mean nobody in Gaza is hungry? I don't know. I suppose many people are. War is extremely hard, especially on children, elderly, ill, poor. They are suffering and I wish this war to cease as soon as possible. And definitely there are some in Israeli authorities who are not doing everything to alleviate this suffering. Yet Israel is providing food for Gaza in stark contrast to other warlike situations before and today. Also, all that is needed to finish this war is for Hamas to give up arms and return hostages. If they care about civilian population why don't they.

5. The simple answer is they don't. They don't care and both Israel and the world fell into this trap. Israel, by trying to press Hamas into negotiations by restricting some help, and the world blaming Israel (and exclusively Israel) for the state of  affairs in Gaza. Had Hamas wanted a state - it would have one, Israel left Gaza 20 years ago and provided together with EU and the USA finances for starting of its economy. Had Hamas wanted for suffering of Gazans to end - it would have capitulated or at the very least returned the hostages (not even to mention not starting the war). Had Hamas wanted help to increase it would cease interfering with its distribution.

Hamas today broke the talks with Israel about ceasefire (which it does time and time again). It also claimed victory in the war. Because victory for Hamas is not creating Palestinian state (they don't even have it in their Charter - check yourselves). It is not finishing suffering of civilians in Gaza. It is destruction of Israel. If it might be done using suffering of Gazans and creating the story of fake hunger, so much better for the terrorists. And since France's President and UK's PM promise recognition of the State of Palestine if war lasts till September all Hamas needs to do is wait till September creating more hysteria against Israel. As Michael Rubin writes in American Enterprise Institute publication: 

"Macron and Starmer virtue signal. They know that an independent Palestine today would be a failed state and a toehold on the eastern Mediterranean for Turkey, Iran, or other terror sponsors. The French and British move would also empower radicals at a time of political transition: Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is 92 years old and in the 20th year of his elected four-year term; he has selected no successor, and so Palestinian factions manoeuvre for position.

By handing Hamas a victory and allowing it to claim that its actions enabled independence, both Paris and London show Hamas tactics work and allow it to claim victory.

If Palestine wins independence due to Hamas terrorism, but the peaceful movements in Somaliland, South Yemen, and the Syrian Kurds languish, every potential separatist group—legitimate or not—will learn the lesson that terrorism works."

So this "victory" of Hamas (hopefully to be avoided) will  not only be calamity for Palestinians (not for Hamas billionaires living in Qatar) and Israel, but for the rest of the more or less law abiding world - that would be a massage that terrorism, lies and disregard for human lives (including civilians at the same side that militants) pays off.

6. Please pay attention that among horrible pictures presented as starving Gazans there are no adults, no older/ multiply children, no elderly, no groups of people. These are individual, small children who subsequently turn out to be from other conflicts or suffering from rare diseases. And yet if there is hunger it touches all people. And pictures of Gazans receiving food, while disturbing (long lines for food, children with empty dishes trying to get food) and sad are far from pictures of starvation. Please compare yourselves:

 

Above two pictures from food distribution in Gaza. Below pictures of starvation:

 

 

 

Somalia above - more children and evidently not ill, but starved

 

Above Sudan, where the war and dismantling of USAid led to the worst at the moment hunger crisis

 Yemen where 85,000 children died of hunger

Warsaw ghetto

Burmese death railway

7. Yet today Hamas released pictures (and movies, but those are not available at the request of the families) of two really starving people in Gaza: 

 Rom Braslavski

 

Evyatar David

 

Both captured on Nova Festival. Both in their early 20s. Both almost 3 years held hostages, starved, tortured. Just for being Jews. Just for being Israelis. 

Is Israel handling the situation perfectly? For sure not. But somehow nobody pays attention to the fact that Hamas shows greatest disregard for Palestinian lives.  And Israeli army is the only one providing supplies for enemy population during the wartime. 

Living under the terror

 Israelis have so much vitality as I rarely witness. Maybe it comes from living under constant threat.

Continuing on my story of Arafat and explain why IDF intervened so many times in Lebanon let me recall some, just some, of the terrorist attacks committed by PLO and its affiliates gathered under Arafat in years leading to civil war in Lebanon and later to first Israeli-Lebanese war. Just… it was not Israeli-Lebanese but rather Israeli-PLO war.

TERROR ATTACKS:

1.       1. Avivim Bus attack. On 22 May 1970 two rocket-propelled grenades shot from both sides of the road in ambush set by PFLP, affiliated at the time with PLO, hit an Israeli school bus killing 12 civilians, 9 of them children, some as young as 7 years old. Five of them from one family! Additional 25 were wounded, some children very hard, one later died from the piece of shrapnel in the brain. When all 3 adults on the bus were killed and the bus crashed terrorists kept shooting at it.

2.      2. Lod airport massacre. On 30 of May 1972 on an international Lod airport in Tel Aviv 3 Japanese Red Army members recruited by Palestinian PFLP opened fire into random persons. 26 have been killed and 80 wounded, among them 17 pilgrims from Puerto Rico, where up till today the day of the massacre is remembered and the memory of murdered celebrated. Among 8 Israelis killed was Aharon Khatzir, internationally renowned biophysicist. All three perpetrators were trained in Lebanon and the plot was made by PFLP. Kōzō Okamoto, the only surviving perpetrator, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 13 years later exchanged for captured Israeli soldiers. He remains in Lebanon still sought after by Japanese authorities.

3.      3. On 11 April 1974 in Kiryat Shmona, close to Lebanese border, 3 PFLP terrorists who crossed border from Lebanon entered elementary school. It was empty due to the Jewish holiday. They proceeded to a block of apartments and killed 18 persons, 8 of them children, whom they also threw from upper balconies before their explosives and rocket propelled grenades pack was hit by Israeli fire and all three were killed.

4.      4. Ma’a lot massacre. On 14 May 1974 3 Palestinian terrorist infiltrated Israel from Lebanon and hijacked van killing two Arab-Israeli women (so much for regards for Arabs), then entered the apartment building, killing a family with a 4-year-old son, wounding their 5-year old daughter and not spearing 7-months pregnant woman. Early in the morning of 15 of May entered Netiv Meir Elementary School taking 115 hostages, 105 of them children. They demanded releasing 23 terrorists. Israeli authorities agreed, but terrorists didn't receive the agreed code from Damascus. Shortly before deadline Israeli commandos attacked, however terrorists killed 25 hostages, including 22 kids with grenades and automatic fire.

5.  5. On Friday, 4th of July 1975, PLO placed refrigerator with 5 kg of explosives in front of the shop in Jerusalem. 15 people were killed. The perpetrator was arrested and sentenced to life and thirty years in prison, but was released by Israel in 2003 after serving 27 years as a gesture to Arafat, who then appointed him his adviser on prisoners affairs rewarding for yet another PLO murder.

6.  6. Finally came Coastal Road Massacre when on 11 March 1978 Fatah and Arafat organized a terrorist attack aimed at dismantling peace process with Egypt (excuse my dark humor, but as everybody knows terrorists love to fight for peace, and if there is peace they would be prevented from fighting for it so they do what they can to prevent it). 11 terrorists who infiltrated from Lebanon hijacked a bus and drove it shooting from it and taking passengers as hostages. Finally 38 people, including 13 children were murdered. 3 days later IDF entered Lebanon in operation Litani to push PLO from the border region...

If If you wonder how one lives under terror here is one Israeli tale (published by him online, thank you, Sir).

 The first incident described is the 5th on the list above the second is the 6th...

 Here is the exception from David Ben-Gershon tale

1.    In 1975 when my 19 year old wife was 9 months pregnant with our eldest daughter she went one morning to a knitting supplies shop in downtown Jerusalem, where we lived at the time, in order to buy yarn to knit a blanket for our unborn child. I was working in a national security service. A terrorist placed a mortar bomb in a refrigerator and left it on a sidewalk in the center of town in front of the huge windows of the knitting shop, and it exploded killing and wounding dozens. I couldn't leave my job and I sent a police car to check on Celina at home and they informed me that our apartment was silent and dark. She didn't answer the phone. She was not listed with the casualties, but there was no sign of her or from her. There was no way for me to know if she was or was not one of the “Jane Does” that filled the hospitals but there was no report of a pregnant Jane Doe, so I took confidence. I arrived at home well after midnight, the apartment was silent and dark, I feared the worst. I opened the door and in the dark I could hear her sobbing and gasping, I turned on the lights and there she was, soaked in blood and body parts. When she saw me she broke down. The gore was from other people that were in the shop. She stuttered that a flaming head hit her, and she ran, pregnant and blood spattered the 3 miles to our home, and stared at the wall until I returned. I carried my pregnant love to the tub after removing her clothes, to wash away the blood, and spent the night holding her. Next day I reported as usual to my job. Our daughter Tali was born less than a month later.

2.    2 years later my son Shaul, our 2nd child, was born, and while Celina was in labor in hospital with me holding her hand a messenger came into the ward with an emergency “number 8” call up orders for me to immediately report for army duty to fight off some terrorists have hijacked a bus full of families on a tour. They murdered 39 civilians. I did my duty, returned home afterwards and missed the birth of my son, and next day I was back at my job as a social worker, life as usual.

3.    During one of the recent Gaza wars(“Pillar of defence”), a missile launched from Gaza hit my married daughters (Nicole, child #4) building in Kiryat Malachi during a phone call with me. I heard the impact and Nicole's screaming on the phone. Her husband was on reserve duty in Gaza, and she was with 2 babies in a shelter less top floor apartment. The missile killed 3 with more family members injured in the apartment next door. Life went on as usual.

4.    During the Protective edge operation my Son Shaul was in the army, my son Doron (child #3) as well, and Shaul's wife delivered my 9th grandchild and a ham-ass missile slammed into Doron’s home in Ashkelon…. Life as usual. I stood and waited for the new arrival on the lawn of the Soroka medical center in Beer Sheva as dozens of med-evac helicopters in what seemed to be an endless convoy brought casualties from the front to the hospital, and I know that Shaul could be in there. Kfir (Lion Cub) was born, and life as usual.

5.    My youngest child (#5) Shir was an army medic during her service. During protective edge she was posted at a field hospital set up for Arab (enemy) civilians injured in the conflict. She phoned me frantic that the Gazans were actually shelling the hospital set up to assist in saving the lives of their wounded! They were preventing their own people, our enemy, from being rescued by us! And life as usual.

There is more, much more, but I will not give more details because enough is enough, but life as usual.

 Below a picture of the hijacked bus