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At Large
How Israel Can Go on Offense in the PR War
Hamas’s brutal crackdown on NGOs in Gaza speaks volumes about what’s really going on.
While the world was condemning Israel for the deaths of 9 terrorists on board one of several ships poised to violate the legal blockade of Gaza — established to reduce the shipment of missiles, weapons and military construction materials from Iran in preparation for another effort to wipe Israel off the map — Hamas’s security forces were raiding several non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip and seizing their equipment. According to the Jerusalem Post,
After conducting a thorough search of the offices of the organizations….Hamas security agents confiscated files, documents, computers, fax machines and other equipment.
The agents also informed the managers and workers of the organizations of the Hamas government’s decision to close them down indefinitely.
They did not provide any reasons behind this decision.
Maybe Hamas failed to provide a justification because it was too busy shutting down other human rights groups in Gaza. The day after Hamas destroyed the operations of groups such as the Sharik Youth Institution, Bonat Al-Mustaqbal (Future Builders) Society, the South Society for Women’s Health, and the Women and Children Society it “stormed the offices of another two NGOs, the Palestinian Mini Parliament and the National Reconciliation Committee. They confiscated the keys to their doors and ordered them closed.”
In other words, Hamas was establishing a blockade preventing NGOs from distributing aid. Anticipating that Israel will be pressured to lift its defensive blockade, Hamas is eliminating the independent groups in Gaza that now receive support from the United Nations, the European Union and other legitimate institutions. This plan, it appears, was done in concert with groups who organized the flotilla, including Free Gaza, the International Solidarity Movement and Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). These institutions have all done business with Al-Qaeda, Hamas and terrorist organizations in the Sudan. All to end humanitarian crises, of course.
Even before the floating lynch mob left Turkey, as reported by Hani Almadhoun in the Huffington Post, “Hamas militants forced the Palestine Bank to allow the newly elected chairman of ‘Friends of the Patient Society,’ a Gaza charitable organization that provides medical services, to withdraw $270,000. The bank’s manager was held at gunpoint as he counted the money. In response, the Palestine Bank has closed all of its branches in Gaza.”
According to Almadhoun, a Gaza native, “Hamas recently imposed a new board of directors on Friends of the Patient and issued a demand for the organization’s funds. Hamas officials claim they are only enforcing the law as adjudicated by a Gaza judge.… This started two years ago when Hamas became the de facto government in Gaza…. With Hamas sympathizers on the boards of NGOs, Hamas supporters are assured assistance and Hamas ensures loyalty by appearing that it is in full control of all social and humanitarian organizations in Gaza.”
Hamas is also “encouraging its supporters to start organizations with secular names that appeal to international donors in an attempt obscure the pipeline of support to their sympathizers. This makes it difficult to vet legitimate charities in Gaza when international donors want to avoid funneling aid through Hamas or its proxies.” Free Gaza is one such organization.
In the Sudan, the terrorist-backed government shut down international relief organizations in similar fashion. In March 2009, security forces “seized computers, vehicles, medical records and life-saving drugs” and employees of 16 NGOs who were running the relief effort in Sudan were expelled. The Sudanese government plans to funnel materials to Hamas and Iraq’s remaining anti-government terror cells.
All the Hamas needs now to increase the flow of cash and materials that go uninspected is for the West to pressure Israel to lift the blockade.
Lucky for them, the Obama administration is once again using international outcry about Israeli actions to pressure the Jewish state into ending the blockage.
However, Hamas’s brutal attack on NGOs does provide Israel a chance to put counter-pressure on the Obama Administration and world opinion. It should agree to continue to ease the blockade, by allowing ships to divert to Ashdod, only if the NGOs recently attacked by Hamas are reopened and if international organizations are willing to accept responsibility for the inspection of transfer of material into Gaza. Israel should offer to increase the flow of materials only if they go to legitimate NGOs in Gaza with the cooperation of trusted international intermediaries.
This would force the Gaza-obsessed “international community” to respond to the human rights violations of Hamas. Offering to revamp the blockade to support independent NGOs could expose the hypocrisy of Israel’s critics.
Why? Because Hamas and its international supporters will reject that offer. In the propaganda war of perception, that would make them look more interested in increasing the power of Hamas and eliminating Israel than in helping people. In this case, perception meshes with reality.
About the Author
Robert M. Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and founder of Hands Off My H ealth, a grass roots health care empowerment network. His is new book, Tabloid Medicine: How the Internet is Being Used To Hijack Medical Science For Fear and Profit, was published last month by Kaplan.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) | Leave a comment
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martin j smith| 6.7.10 @ 7:32AM
The MSM is very dangerous. But what the israeli govt should do and continue to do is circulate whater video on the internet and alternative media it has on HAMAS.
The biger problem is Obama himself and the West. This flotilla thing was a staged event and iwould not be at all surprised if Obama not only knew of it in adance but actually approved of its creation. There lies the problem
Infidel-Crusader| 6.7.10 @ 8:34AM
No so funny is it. It is not being reported that helen, "get the hell out of palestine" thomas was actively helping with the donations to float this floatilla against Israel, and who was she sitting beside yucking it up with, you guessed it, obumbler the usurper-n-theif of the American Republic States. This sob should not only face treason charges, he desperately needs a squad of riflemen facing him with one direct placement to his black heart. Now that's hope and change I could live with.
canuckistani| 6.7.10 @ 4:52PM
Last time I checked it was conservative Sharon and Bush who promoted and blessed Gaza elections. Hamas gamed the system and won - beating the bandits within Fatah at their own game.
The Israeli people need a tongue-lashing by the best friends they ever had or will have - us, for giving the finger to Obama after our request to freeze West Bank expansion. They deserve nothing now but a cold accounting for the facts on the ground, and the consequences they must bear in lost relations.
Palestinians are the unwashed of the middle east. NOBODY wants them, they have nothing to offer and Israel's continued reticense only makes them more than what they are, a false symbol.
Ironically, that's what the once great promise of Israel has become, too.
mrzee| 6.7.10 @ 10:27PM
Sharon and Abbas were both opposed to Hamas taking part in the elections, as a violation of the Oslo Accords. Bush and Condoleeza Rice insisted Hamas be allowed to run. The State Department assured Rice that Hamas couldn't win.
Jania| 6.8.10 @ 6:10PM
Actually, Israel was opposed to having Hamas run in the elections. The U.S. was in favor of the elections, which shows that sometimes the U.S. doesn't know what's best for the Middle East and should stop pressuring Israel.
crookedwren| 6.7.10 @ 11:18AM
Even I had heard about a group of ships going to try to break the blockade. Someone was reporting that it was going to happen -- although I don't remember where exactly I stumbled upon it.
Someone reported that the intent was going to be to try to break the blockade.
I don't think they were very secretive about their mission. But certainly the MSM took the "humanitarian aid" bait.
Alan Brooks| 6.7.10 @ 12:18PM
Israel has to be moved out of the region before it is destroyed-- its enemies have no intention whatsoever of throwing in the towel.
The situation is not the same as with the Holocaust; then the Third Reich was heavily outnumbered by its enemies. Today is is Israel that is outnumbered, and its enemies are biding their time.
Bohred| 6.7.10 @ 7:12PM
I am trying to not take the Lord's name in vain to respond to you. You are the surest jackass. Why should Israel move? Israel should and will fight to survive where it is. And Israel will continue to be a thorn in the side of hatred and falsity, Arab honor (bleh!!) and the Umma.
The best thing about this latest mess is how it displays the Jew hatred of the worlds liberals.
FTM| 6.8.10 @ 1:52AM
"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."
There is a force at work here behind the scenes. I know that there is a lot of ridicule of the idea, rave on as you will.
The Israelis aren't going to move and they aren't going to be overrun, it's just not in the cards.
On a different tack, I can't understand the knee-jerk reaction against israel. Iran, Iraq, Syria, et. al. all use the antiquity arguement for their current existance. Israel outdates all of these nations but have no right to exist as a modern state. How can that be?
During the European Inquisition, during the 1300's when Jews in Europe were being burned at the stake for not being Roman Catholic one of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim, one of the Mahmouds if memory serves issued the "Proclaimation to European Jewery" inviting all of Europe's Jews to immigrate to Trans-Jordan (Not Palistine).
The Israelis act with a great deal of restraint in dealing with the savages that launch barrage rockets into civilian populations. If the Jews fight back then the Lame Stream Media acts as if Israel is the aggressor. These people make no sense.
FTM| 6.8.10 @ 4:47AM
By the bye, "Trans-Jordan is what the area currently occcupied by the Israeli state was called way on back, even before it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The word "Palestine" is derrived from the peoples that were at one time called "Philistines" and are mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Philistines and the Greeks were both kinda-sorta Indo-European peoples and were in competition with each other. The city of Carthage for example was a Philistine colony.
The modern people that call themselves "palistinians" are actually for the most part ethnic Jordinians. Yassir Arafat was an Egyptian, both of his parents were Egyptians.
Back before World War II there were apparently multiple factions in the area that was to become Jordan. One tribe rebelled against the dominant tribe. The ones that stood and fought were wiped out by the tribe that became the royal house of Jordon. The ones that ran away are today's "Palistinians."
Thing is, all of this information is a simple matter of public record but is never mentioned by the lame stream media. Why is that do you think?
Louis Jenkins| 6.7.10 @ 8:36AM
And why would HAMAS do what it's doing?
"The bank's manager was held at gunpoint as he counted the money. " This is all they know. They are thieves, plain and simple.
Jim O'Brien| 6.7.10 @ 8:45AM
A great book to read is The Israel Test, by George Gilder.
John Navratil| 6.7.10 @ 9:15AM
Mr. Goldberg,
Do I read "It should agree to continue to lift the blockade only if the NGOs recently attacked by Hamas are reopened..." as your solution to the PR problem? Do you really suggest that Israel should lift the blockade IF Hamas reopens the NGOs?
What stops Hamas from flipping this silly suggestion by making a grand gesture of allowing internationally supervised NGOs to manage humanitarian relief (you see how much more civilized we are than those monkeys we have to live next to), thereby increasing international pressure to lift the blockade. Once lifted, Hamas simply walks back in with their guns and closes them again.
Gaza is occupied, but not by the Israelis.
Robert Goldberg| 6.7.10 @ 9:46AM
Let me clarify. By lifting the blockade I meant allowing ships to divert to Ashdod, not eliminating the blockade in it's entirety.. And Hamas will never give back power to the NGOs. You and I agree!
John Navratil| 6.7.10 @ 10:51AM
Thanks! Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I thought the ships could divert to Ashdod.
martin j smith| 6.7.10 @ 9:17AM
The Helen Thomas affair is key to understanding the true intentions of this regime ( Obama ) . There are many who " get it" but just aynt sayin."
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.7.10 @ 12:29PM
Ha, ha, the Witch is dead, the Witch is dead, the Witch is dead!!
I just heard on MSLSD (I have to monitor it, don't you know?), that Helen Thomas is retiring. I love these hidden cameras, because it catches these lunatic Democrats, when their guard is down, and they're not doing their normal talking points gig. Now Old Helen can "Go Home", to Mars, or wherever the hell, that Old anti-semitic Hag came from. I need to get one of these hidden cameras myself, and go catch myself a Democrat speaking the "real" truth, that they really like to do, when nobody's watching.
One more down, unfortunately, many, many more thousands to go!! But this one is sweet!!
Bye Old Hag!! Hope you don't pass the death panel!!
martin j smith| 6.7.10 @ 10:22AM
The situation now is not about Hamas ( or Iran ) but on top opf that the question: Where is Obama going
on Israel. I have heard it suggested that Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn of Weather Underground terorist fame have been involved in organizing the " love boat of hate" If true ( I need to see more information on this )* then BHO I would bet has his hands in this from the get go. That is real trouble !!!!!!!!!!
* A talk radio host who usually orginiates from Tel Aviv Israel ( I believe his name is Eric Klien ) stated that the above two Ayers and Don have ties to an organization that set up the flotilla and were in the region. If anyone knows more about this please post.
Margie| 6.7.10 @ 11:43AM
Glen Beck said that Code Pink was involved. The same Code Pink that Adam Kokesh alines himself with, and the same Adam Kokesh that Rand Paul alines himself with.
In case anyone is interested.
Tim*| 6.8.10 @ 12:42AM
Lisa Grass : "I tend to think that Glenn Beck's fascination with Rand Paul may account, at least in part, for his change in tone in regard to Israel. "
Margie| 6.7.10 @ 7:03PM
I believe it's Aaron Klien your thinking about. He also is on the radio with his own show, too. WABC, Sunday's 2-4 p.m.
typo correction to my other much beloved post, I'm sure: alined s/b aligned.
TaterSalad| 6.7.10 @ 12:16PM
"Ground Zero Imam" tied to flotilla:
http://sroblog.com/2010/06/06/.....:+sroblog+(Snow+Report+Blog)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail
orpone| 6.7.10 @ 2:01PM
Don't be ridiculous. there are no "trusted international intermediaries".
NAVEED MALIK| 6.7.10 @ 3:14PM
the article is prejudiced and biased .funny and nonsensenical argument to justify the apartheid regime of Israel and genocide.
NavyBrat | 6.7.10 @ 4:33PM
Zzzzz! Geez, you people are so boring. Don't you have some rocks to throw at tanks or a market to blow up?
canuckistani| 6.7.10 @ 4:58PM
When the Palestinians demonstrate anything other than their genetic disposition for banditry and an odd perversion of Islam, will I support an independent regime.
Israel needs to pull back to 1967 borders, build the walls higher and compel their Arab "friends" to take on the Palestinian storage problem head on.
macdaddy| 6.8.10 @ 12:37AM
Odd perversion of Islam? I'd call it mainstream Islam.
gibor| 6.7.10 @ 11:44PM
NUTS
martin j smith| 6.7.10 @ 3:31PM
Anything that challenges your views Naveed Malik is biased right ? but besides that what specifically in the article do you deny ? And what proof do you have. Asserting something is one thing giving proof is another. But since you have already made your bias know who cares
DaveS| 6.7.10 @ 7:48PM
Gaza is the E. Germany of our time. Lift the gates, and we've seen which way they run. I think Egypt likes the present arrangement - perhaps more than Israel. Don't worry about Israel under the current PM. He won't fail, and this is what pisses the opposition (yes, even the opposition in our Department of State.)
Nick| 6.7.10 @ 8:48PM
Does anyone know if Helen Thomas is Toddard's mother?
Margie| 6.7.10 @ 9:11PM
No, but she could be Tim*'s. Or William R.'s, or Red Phillips', or Sean's, or...
Tim* | 6.8.10 @ 12:55AM
Rumor has it , that Helen is Margie's daughter , given up at birth , at Father Divine's Home For Unwed Mothers.
Notice the facial resemblance. same nose , same smile , same hair..... Why it's absolutely uncanny .
Margie| 6.8.10 @ 10:31AM
Stalker pervert Tim*, the anti-Semite loser, who refused to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. He who he thinks they would have been worse than Obama/Biden. He cannot see past his hatred for Israel and cannot bear to vote for a ticket that is pro-Israel.
Pervert internet stalker hates real conservatives and stalks me around AmSpec. He is Toddard in a new dress.
There is a special place in Hell for lying perverts like you, Timmy* the anti-semite syalker.
gibor| 6.7.10 @ 11:46PM
no no no, she is his younger lovely and gracious sister.
Yosemeti Sam| 6.8.10 @ 1:51AM
" How Israel Can Go on Offense in the PR War ...."
Leftoids worldwide have turned purple, propagandizing about Israel and roiling dunderheads - so what'd be the down side of striking Iranian facilities now forging WMDs?
Long range military complexity?
Entebbe - anyone?
At once Israels' enemies would become incontinent and it's anemic friends would seek transfusions.
Should tie up the whole lot for quite awhile and
away from the mics and lights - reading entrails,
to espy how Israel dares to assert its' existential rights.
Iron not yet hot enough - Israel?
FTM| 6.8.10 @ 2:55AM
I realize the indemic hatred that the Muslims have for the Israelis, I know where it comes from having read a history of Islam. Gibbon says in "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" in the section titled "The Rise of Islam," Mahommad wanted to be a Jew but was upset that he could not worship at the temple being first generation but that his children could being second generation according to Jewish Law. Note that this was in the early 600's AD and that the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD so the temple worship arguement is kind of arcane.
There was also mention of a Jewish woman that did Mohammad some dirt of one kind or another, an affair of the heart. Makes better sense than the Termple worship complaint.
I believe that it is the Hadith that says "Kill every Jew that comes into your power" and "do not befriend a Jew or a follower of the Way" (Christian). The Hadith is a book of the Islamic faith, a list of quotations of the prophet Mohammad, kind of like Mao's little red book.
I have read the Bible through seven times, cover to cover. I have read sections of the Koran and the Hadith. I need to sit down and read both the Koran and Hadith through as I have the Bible in order to make a better informed judgement. I will say that in the Bible there is one commandment to kill someone, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The Koran and the Hadith both are salted through with commandments to kill, in specific what are called the "Sword Suras" in the Koran. As I said before I need to do a more thorough reading of the Koran in order to make a more informed statement.
My general observation is that I can't see how anyone with a hat full of brains can make a treaty of peace with these savages and then turn their backs. Once again to quote the Hadith, "When you are strong, dictate. When you are weak, negotiate."
In the late 600s and early 700s when Islam was spreading across North Africa and into Spain this "Religion of Peace" killed everyone that they caught that refused to convert to Islam. Read about the Siege of Vienna. Read about Charles "The Hammer" Martel. Modern historians weep and whine about the poor Muslims during the Crusades in the 1300s and 1400s. Nobody ever talks about the atrocities perpertrated in North Africa.
Cutting straight to the chase, these people are not your friend unless you are a Muslim and then if and only if you are the right kind of Muslim. Islam is a religion bent upon world dominmation by the sword. If you forget that you will sooner or later either be dead or a Muslim.
Now with all that said folks ask why the Israelis seem to be hesitant to trust a world class collection of barbarians that have no other agenda than the immediate destruction of Israel as a state and each individual Jew as a person. Sorry but I can't understand the mindset.
FTM| 6.8.10 @ 5:34AM
In the early stages of this spread of Islam across the north of Africa one of the first cities to fall was Alxandria in Egypt. The Library was in Alexandria.
Now, most modern scholars would have you believe, out of their own ignorance I hope, that the Library at Alexandria was destroyed by fire. In truth the Library was destroyed by accidental fire a couple of times. When the Moslems captured Alexandria the decision was made to burn the scrolls in the library in order to heat water for the baths, the logic being that the only book that a man needed was the Koran and all these other books were convenient fuel.
This deliberate burning of the library at Alexandria was total in that it was deliberate. Previous accidental fires were not total and effort was made to salvage scrolls.
This is the mentality that you confront.
Margie| 6.8.10 @ 11:28AM
Read David Horowitz and Michelle Malkin. True conservatives who love America. They expose the truth about the Rand Paul and his Daddy's Libertarian Leftist mindset. Their hatred for Israel is at their core, just as it is with Tim* here, Toddard, Red Phillips, Sean, William R., et al.
If you are called a Neo-Con it is because the ones calling you this are haters of those of us who are conservative and back Israel. Tim* and his ilk want to stalk me off of AMSpec because I speak the truth. Deceitful Tim* pretends to be a conservative but he is an anti-Semite in conservative clothing.
Beware!