Books of condolence have opened in Ireland for some hideous people, like Fidel Castro in 2016 and Yasser Arafat in 2004. But the opening last week in Dublin of a book of condolence for the Hamas rioters in Gaza takes the biscuit. 60 rioters were killed last week attacking the border with Israel, and reaction in Ireland was hysterical. Calls to expel the Israeli Ambassador and boycott Israeli goods. The Hezbollah flag flying at the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity protest in Derry. One popular Irish Twitter account even called for a terrorist attack against the Israeli embassy.
One video showed a group of rioters breaking through the fence. They shout: "Allah Akbar! Remember Khaybar! Oh Jews, we're coming to slaughter you!" Khaybar is the battle where Muhammad slaughtered the Jews and took their women as war booty.
Apparently what is being shouted is: "Khaybar, Khaybar! Oh Jews, the army of Muhammad is returning." Rather than: "Remember Khaybar! Oh Jews, we're coming to slaughter you!" But the meaning is the same.
Now you may say we don't know the rioters wanted to lynch local Jewish families. Maybe they wanted to bring tea and cakes. But the point is, it doesn't matter. The IDF believed the mobs wanted to lynch Jewish families, so it used force to stop them. And if tear gas and live fire are not enough, it will use helicopters and fighter jets. The IDF will never allow 50,000 jihadis raid a local Jewish village to see what happens. The only logical thing for Gazans to do is stay away from the fence.
Could the IDF stop them with less bloodshed? Claims were made that the IDF was shooting indiscriminately. This was rather disproved by the emergence of photos of military funerals for about half of those killed. A Hamas official said most of the dead were Hamas: "62 people were martyred; 50 of them are from Hamas and 12 from the people." If the IDF was shooting at random, then it had the luckiest shooting day of any army in history.
Gazans were clearly safe if they left Israel alone. On 14 May, huge mobs attacked the fence. 60 died. The next day, few people attacked it. Two died. The next day, the rioters stayed away. No one died. Incredible. This, and bear with me, may indicate a possible way to keep Gazans safe.
Yes indeed, all Gazans had to do was stay away from the fence. We heard the claim they were driven by "despair". Of course, this is nonsense. They were driven by hatred, anti-semitism, jihad, and the excitement of a march on Israel to cleanse the land of the Jews. They were driven by hope, not despair.
But Gazans do not want to be rich and happy. They want other things: honour, blood, soil, revenge and jihad. These things will not make them happy, but that is what they want, so their misery will continue.
They do not need books of condolence. They need someone to talk sense to them.
Dr. Mark Humphrys is a lecturer at Dublin City University. In 2014 he visited an IDF post on the Gaza border, to hear firsthand their daily issues and rules of engagement.
Referring to the
Battle of Khaybar
is sinister.
In this battle,
Muhammad slaughtered the Jews,
and
tortured to death the Jewish leader
Kinana ibn al-Rabi (above).
Muhammad
then took his wife
Safiyah
as war booty.
Image from the book It's All About Muhammad.
Jihadis chanting about "Khaybar" are signalling clearly what they will do if they ever get into Jewish houses.
The IDF killed rampaging jihadi terrorists in order to prevent a massacre of innocent Jewish families.
ThisIsPalestine
sums it up.
The Palestinians have a very specific level of desperation.
Another good one from
ThisIsPalestine.
Life in Gaza could be fine.
All they have to do is stop attacking Israel.
Ramadan in Gaza, May 2018.
Literally at the same time the "desperate" mobs are attacking the border,
they have this whole other life they could be leading,
if they had more sense.
Nice endorsement from
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner,
the former IDF spokesman.
Humphrys decries the fact that some Gazans reportedly called for the killing of Jews, and suggests it is justification for the excessive force used. He fails to point out that there are repeated calls for the killing of Palestinians by members of the Benjamin Netanyahu government.
Humphrys considers that Gazans have no one to blame but themselves, but ignores the point that Gaza is considered "occupied" by the UN because of the Israeli control of its air, sea and land movements, as well as its regular intrusive attacks.
It's time for Israel to focus on living and not on killing, and for Palestinians to be allowed to return to the land and homes from which they were dispossessed.
Bob Storey
I replied the week after (10 June 2018).
A slightly edited version
of the following was published:
Storey says it is only "some" Gazans that want to massacre local Jews. Maybe, but my point was the IDF believes all those mobs want to do it, so it is best to stay away from the border.
He complains about the many Israeli controls on Gaza. But my point was these all end when the terrorism ends. Gazans should try it.
Finally, his "solution" is for the Palestinians to be allowed "return" to Israel to the lands "from which they were dispossessed". He is talking about things that happened in the 1940s! He suggests that millions of people, who never lived in Israel, and many of which support jihad and hate Jews, should be allowed invade all over Israel to "reclaim their lands" from the people living there. What kind of ludicrous "solution" is this?
Mark Humphrys