I Said Israel Should be Ashamed – Now I Am the One Who is Ashamed

Daniel Sugarman

On Tuesday Daniel Sugarman wrote an article on the clashes at the Gaza border.

Today he acknowledges that he was wrong.

Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border(Photo: Twitter @IDF)

It’s never easy to say you’re sorry.

To admit you’re wrong. To announce publicly, “I made a mistake”.

But to apologise when that apology comes bound up with what is, perhaps, the most intractable conflict on earth, makes it a thousand times harder. 

But that is what I am. Sorry.

A few days ago I wrote a column about the latest round of violence on the border with Gaza. 

It was a cry from the heart. I love Israel. I have always loved it, and cannot envision a time when I will not love it. 

But in my office, I sit near a television set. And on Monday, I saw the following, side by side.

On the left, in Jerusalem, I saw happy faces. Self-congratulatory faces. I saw the Prime Minister of Israel talking about how the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem was a big step towards peace. 

And on the right, simultaneously, in Gaza, I saw tear gas, and smoke, and bullets. 

And it was in this context that I wrote my piece, which was an extremely personal one. I wrote it in anguish. I wrote it making clear that I despised Hamas and all it stood for. But I also wrote the following:

“Every bullet Israel fires, every life Israel takes, makes this situation worse. There are ways to disperse crowds which do not include live fire. But the IDF has made an active choice to fire live rounds and kill scores of people. You cannot tell me that Israel, a land of technological miracles which have to be seen to be truly believed, is incapable of coming up with a way of incapacitating protestors that does not include gunning dozens of them down. But no. In front of the entire world, Israel keeps shooting, and protestors, including very young protestors, keep dying. You may tell me that Hamas wants these deaths, wants to create martyrs, wants to fill the hearts of the people of Gaza with rage against Israel because the alternative is for people to look at their lives in Gaza and rage against Hamas. But if you tell me that, why are you not asking yourselves why Israel is so willingly giving Hamas exactly what it wishes?”

I received a lot of praise for my piece, from people I admire greatly, as well as from a great many unexpected sources, including from within the Jewish community.

I also received a lot of criticism. I got called a traitor, and that most vile of all insults a Jew can bestow or receive, a “Kapo”. 

People also wrote pieces in response. I was told that, as a Jew not currently living in Israel, my greatest worry was whether Starbucks would have almond-soya milk for my latte.

But the criticism I paid more attention to was from people who pointed out that it was absurd to deal in hypotheticals. I’d said that surely there must be a way the protestors could be stopped without shooting live ammunition at them – that Israel, with its incredible technological capabilities, must be capable of developing a way. That was a cry of anguish, but it was not an argument. If no such technology currently exists, then it was absurd of me to blame the IDF for not magically willing it into existence. The traditional crowd stopping technology would not have worked effectively. Rubber bullets are only short range. The same with water cannons. And with tens of thousands of people rushing the border, this would have been extremely unlikely to work effectively. The border would have been broken through. And then, without much of a doubt, a lot of people in Israel would have died.  That was, after all, Hamas’s stated aim.

But what really affected me the most was yesterday, when a Hamas operative went on television and claimed that, of the 62 people killed in the last two days, fifty were Hamas operatives. Islamic Jihad claimed three more, meaning that over 80 percent of the people who were killed while trying to breach the border were members of terrorist organisations whose direct aim is to bring death and suffering into Israel. 

And I opened my eyes and saw what I had done.

I had fallen into the trap I had always been convinced I would not fall into. I had condemned Israel for defending itself. 

There are things one can write about how Israel could have acted differently in the run-up to these attempts to charge the border. But I did not write about those in my original piece. I wrote that, by killing the Palestinians running towards them, the IDF was giving Hamas exactly what it wished for – martyrs for the cause.

I failed to acknowledge that, either way, Israel would be giving Hamas what it wanted. Shoot at those charging at you and Hamas would have its martyrs. Fail to shoot and Hamas would break through the barrier and bring suffering and death – its stated aim - to Israelis living only a few hundred metres away from that barrier. The march may have originally been, as it was declared to be, about Palestinians returning to the homes they had to leave 70 years before. But Hamas’s aim was far more straightforward - “We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”

I wrote in my previous article that Israel was a regional powerhouse, and that it was strong enough to take criticism from Jews in the Diaspora. 

I still believe it is strong enough to do so. I just don’t believe that my criticism of it was valid. Given the circumstances, and the situation on the ground, I am at a loss in terms of coming up with a better solution. The choice was, quite literally, shoot at people running at you with the stated aim of killing you and your families, or fail to shoot and let them do it.

A few days ago I said I could not and would not defend Israel’s actions. Now, in the cold light of day, I could not and would not see how I would fail to defend them.

I said that Israel should be ashamed of its actions. But today I am the one ashamed. 

This is a perfect example of one of the serious flaws in modern-day reporting. It has become emotional to the point that there is little room for logic or truth. Daniel Sugarman was blessed with the ability to see that and with the opportunity to retract it and apologize for it. Far too many MSM reporters fail to recognize that emotions have replaced truth and integrity in the media and, for that matter, in too many governments.

Russophobia Essential for US Middle East Policy – Lord Truscott

Although I was extremely upset with Russia for invading the Crimea, I have since come to believe that Crimeans actually wanted it, and I'm impressed that they pulled it off without a shot. The Ukrainian government is even more corrupt than Moscow, so they are probably better off. 

I have been leery of and critical of Putin's desire to rebuild the old Soviet empire and that still concerns me. But the hyperbolic, anti-Russian rhetoric coming out of the west in the past year has been disconcerting to say the least.

More on this later, but first, be aware this report originated with RT (Russia Today), a state-controlled news media, therefore, a lack of bias cannot be assumed, or even hoped for, but the statements of Lord Truscott are what is important here.

The sole focus of Western foreign policy on regime change in Syria is extremely worrying – not only for Syrians, but beyond – as it feeds arms sales and necessitates a climate of unprecedented Russophobia in order to function, Lord Peter Truscott told RT.

As major parts of Aleppo are liberated, the information war between Russia and the West continues to heat up. “There is an information war going on,” Truscott told RT, adding that “it occurs against the background of a level of Russophobia which I have not seen for many, many years.”

“I have been following Russia and international relations closely for 35 years and I have never witnessed so much Russophobia as I am witnessing today,” Truscott said. “It is not just the accounts of what is happening in Syria but a general attitude towards Russia. I think people just need to calm down. I am hopeful that the new Trump administration will take a more measured position [towards] Russia.”

Truscott sees a number of causes for this, as well as strategic reasons for the West to continue using Russia as pretext for things going wrong in Syria or beyond.

The proxy war in Syria

He sees the current situation in Syria as, firstly, a proxy war in which various regional players fight for different sides and, of course, different strands of Islam. However, it’s also a geopolitical split, where multiple players vie for control, their spheres of influence intersecting.

“What we are witnessing is Syria is a proxy war in effect and various regional players support different sides in this conflict that represents a religious split,” Truscott told RT, adding that “it is also a geopolitical split with the West on one side and largely Russia on the other.”

Ultimately, for Truscott, the reason Syrians – especially those in Aleppo – have it worse than they could is because rebuilding is being sacrificed for alternative aims, such as regime change. This leads to underreporting on both sides, be it the bombing of western Aleppo or the current situation in Yemen – a country the United States has business interests in, as long as it’s dealing with Saudi Arabia.

“It is not just eastern Aleppo, which suffered from bombing and civilians being killed, but also western Aleppo – and that is being underreported. The Western media have been focusing on eastern Aleppo but it is being underreported what is going on in western Aleppo during some of the attacks that take place there,” he said, stressing that “another example of Western coverage is what is happening in Yemen.”

The primary casualties of this are of course civilians, Truscott said. But there is another victim – truth. With multiple business interests at stake – such as the $500 million the US pumped into the rebels, as well as deals with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other Gulf States – regime change can be implemented, and money can be made.

“It is clear that the rebels are being supplied by weapons, munitions, equipment and money quite openly by countries like the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and some of the Gulf states. The US made no secret out of the fact that it pumped around $ 500 million in supporting some of the rebels,” Truscott stressed.

“Western foreign policy in Syria that is focused exclusively on regime change and getting rid of Assad has been an absolute disaster,” Truscott added. “You would think that the West would learn from history. It didn’t work very well in Iraq; it was a total disaster in Libya – which contributed to the refugee crisis that Europe is experiencing. And the same thing is going on in Syria.”

Pursuing regime change, Truscott said, “would just create a bigger crisis than [the one] that we are experiencing at the moment.”

‘Easy to fall back on old Cold War enemy rhetoric to justify defense spending’

So what is the reason behind Russia’s role as such a convenient enemy in Syria and the wider region? According to Truscott, it does not merely lie in Moscow’s support for Assad, but continues the old Cold War policy supported by the US military industrial complex due to its perceived low costs.

“The military industrial complex needs an enemy to justify its massive defense spending. It is very convenient for some to pick Russia as an enemy because they do not think there is much cost involved in that,” he told RT.

He also explained that the US sees a rivalry with Russia as a less risky option than a potential conflict with China. “If one picks China as an enemy, it is much more difficult to deal with a population of 1.4 billion people and a rising superpower as well as an economic powerhouse, which the US needs for trade,” Truscott said.

He went on to say that some people in the US military regard tense relations with Russia as a convenient justification for pursuing their old doctrine and pretending that their strategy is still relevant.

Can you spell NATO? It was 25 years ago that people began to question the need for NATO as the walls were coming down and communism was collapsing. Suddenly war broke out in the Balkans! I'm sure it was a coincidence! Really sure! Well, somewhat sure!

Now, as the EU has started talking about forming a military force, NATO is beginning to feel like it might end up in the scrap heap, so it can hardly be a surprise that Cold War rhetoric has returned. It is just a question of in what part of Europe will the war break out.

“It is quite an easy option for a lot of people in the military and security establishment to fall back on Russia as an old Cold War enemy and that is a bit of a comfort zone that gives them existential justification for their existence in their current stance,” Truscott told RT.

At the same time, he stressed that Western politicians must adapt to the rapidly changing reality and acknowledge the existence of new threats that pose a real danger, instead of promoting the old myth of perceived Russian aggression.

“The existential threat to the West is not Russia, it is Islamist fundamentalism,” he said.

And as long as we keep getting out attention deflected toward Russia, we are playing right into the hands of Muslim extremists and fundamentalists.

Fmr FBI Agent: ‘Vast Majority’ of US Mosques/Islamic Centers Part of ‘Jihadi Network’

To be clear - Jihadi Network is not ISIS. They may have similar goals, but different methods.

Islamic Center YOON S. BYUN/Boston GlobeYoon S. Byun/Boston Globe

by TONY LEE

On Friday’s Breitbart News Daily (6AM-9AM EST) on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, former FBI counter-terrorism Special Agent John Guandolo argued that the “vast majority” of the 2,200 Islamic organizations, centers, and mosques in the United States are a part of a broader “Jihadi network” intent on imposing Sharia Law in America.

Guandolo told host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that the San Bernardino terrorist, the UC Merced stabber, the Chattanooga shooter, and the Boston Bombers can all be traced back to such Islamic Centers where “they were supported and trained.”

Guandolo said that the San Bernardino terrorists attended the Islamic Center of Riverside, which he said was a “a Muslim Brotherhood Center.” He noted that the Boston Bombers attended the Islamic Society of Boston, which he said was a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America that was founded by an al-Qaeda guy who used to advise former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore and is now in prison.

He said there are over 2,200 Islamic Centers and mosques in America and the “vast majority of them are a part of this network — they’re hostile.”

He said “over 75%” of these centers, based on their property records, are a part of the “Muslim Brotherhood network” since they are “owned by the North American Islamic Trust, which is the bank for the Muslim Brotherhood here.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. It was they who were overthrown in the violent coup in Egypt. Why it, or anything remotely related to it is allowed to operate in the US is inexplicable.

He said “in 2006, I put together the first training program inside the government on the jihadi network in the United States… and was able to sneak a second one in in early 2007.”

Guandolo trained “quite a number of agents from a variety of agencies,” including the Department of Justice, before the government shut down the programs. He mentioned that the “most prominent Muslim Brotherhood Organizations like the Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Hamas organization called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) — complained to the White House about the training inside the government at the FBI.”

Guandolo said he “came to understand very deeply the massive jihadi network we have in the United States” and discovered that “the leaders of the Islamic organizations… were actually interfacing with government leaders and advising them with how to proceed in the war on terror, as it was called.”

Guandolo realized that “we were being advised by the enemy on how to investigate and deal with the enemy” and “and that’s why I started the training.”

He mentioned that in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation case in 2008, a 15-year FBI investigation that was revealed demonstrated “that the most prominent Islamic organizations in America and North America are a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the jihadi network here.” Guandolo said that “internal documents entered into evidence say that the purpose of this network is to wage civilization jihad… until the entire world, and specifically the United States, is under Sharia law and the Islamic State is established here.”

He said that, for instance, the “Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)—the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization here— is a Hamas funding entity” and its leadership works with the Secretary of State and the National Security staff, the previous four Secretaries of State, and briefs the FBI and CIA. He mentioned that the previous president of ISNA Mohamed Magid works “very closely with the White House and sits on the Homeland Security Advisory Committee with a secret clearance.”

Guandolo emphasized that these Muslim leaders are the ones that are working with the FBI, Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, National Security staffs.

“Look at our policy for domestic terrorism… and you can track it back to these organizations,” he said, adding that “they write policy” and say “look, this is offensive to Muslims and this is how you need to do it, and we have done it.”

Guandolo said that it is “insane” that these leaders serve a liaisons “between the Muslim community and the U.S. Government.”

“This is the kind of operation these guys are doing here,” he said.

Saying that he only speaks “with what I would walk into a court of law with” because there is “no issue with the amount of evidence” on the matter, Guandolo said the objective of the jihadi network is to “to establish an Islamic State under Sharia.” For instance, he said the Muslim Brotherhood’s own bylaws in English explicitly state that “they must fight the tyrants and enemies of Allah.”

He also said the one of the biggest mistakes in dealing with Islamic terrorism is that “we want to tie it to ISIS” or another group when this is “part of a much broader movement” and more “than one organization.”

“That network is not being touched,” he said. “That network in Paris that supported that attack is not being touched.”

More troubling, according to Guandolo, is that many authorities in the federal government are oblivious to the Jihadi network.

He said during one of his training sessions, someone who had been in the FBI and counterterrorism for over 14 years and was so angry that he “had never heard of the information you are putting out here.” When he asked others in audience from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies to “raise your hand if you knew this… zero hands went up.”

“That right there is the issue,” he said, adding that he has even briefed three- and four-star generals who had also been clueless. “They don’t know it.”

Guandolo said that even senior government officials have “no idea this is going on inside the United States because the people advising us are the leaders of the organizations—that per evidence in counterterrorism trials—have been identified organizations that are Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Qaeda” who are “necessarily hostile to our system, our war fighting, our way of life. That’s the problem.”

Guandolo runs the understandingthethreat.com site and is the author of Raising a Jihadi Generation

Islamic Jihad in Gaza Proudly and Openly Organizing the Next Assault on Israel

From the very large, Islamic Insanity file comes this astonishing story from
Agence France Presse

Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades,
squat in a tunnel used for ferrying rockets and mortars back and forth in
preparation for the next conflict with Israel, March 3, 2015 (AFP Mahmud Hams)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - In a tunnel dug deep underneath the besieged Gaza Strip, masked gunmen from Islamic Jihad ferry rockets and mortars back and forth, preparing for the next conflict with Israel.

Now, you know that missiles are not defensive weapons, they are offensive. They are not for protecting Gaza, but for destroying Israel. They will not deter Israel, but only cause them to be more aggressive in their response. So, in reality, these missiles will result in more damage to Gaza and more Palestinians dead or injured. Why do Palestinians want this? Are they nuts?

Six months ago, the Palestinian militant group emerged battered and bruised from a 50-day conflict with Israel, where it fought alongside fellow Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades lost 123 men, but fired 3,249 rockets at the Jewish state, it says, including Iranian-made Fajr 5 missiles which reached Tel Aviv and even northern Israel.

The conflict, where Israel tried to flush out Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants by bombarding the coastal enclave, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

But the group says it is resurgent.

"We're at our highest level of alert to counter any attack. We're used to the occupation (Israel) breaking its ceasefires," senior commander Abu al-Bara told AFP from one of the group's tunnels.

"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We're gathering all our strength since it's a war that never ends. We're ready to go to another level against the Zionist occupation and carry out actions we've never done before," he said, without elaborating.
The war ended on August 26 with a fragile Hamas-Israel ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

In the meantime, Islamic Jihad has sought to replace its fallen comrades, and its manpower is estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad refuse to specify the number of fighters, or rockets, they currently possess, but both were severely depleted by the Israeli assault, which included fierce ground combat.

- 'Abu Bakr street' -

Israel's ground invasion was aimed at destroying the hundreds of tunnels Gaza's two main Islamist groups had built, both for smuggling supplies and for attacks inside Israel.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas staged deadly assaults on Israeli troops using the tunnels.

A Palestinian militant from Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades,
stands in a tunnel used for storing weapons, as he takes part in military training
in the south of the Gaza Strip on March 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

For the first time, AFP correspondents were permitted to enter a tunnel, provided they were blindfolded whilst being taken to them, so as not to give away its location.

Inside, placards had been erected on the concrete walls, naming "streets" to help militants navigate the network.

One route was named after Abu Bakr al-Sadiq, the first Islamic caliph following the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632; another, Othman Ibn Affan, a successor.

Quds fighters said the group had a network of tunnels of "different lengths, some with several entrances".

But they were silent on the network's location or how it was built.

Their weapons were made inside Gaza, they said, but without elaborating on how the parts were obtained or purchased.

It was an open secret before July 2013 that smuggling tunnels underneath the Egyptian border brought in much of Gaza's construction and fuel needs, money, and weapons, or the material to make them.

But Egypt destroyed the vast majority after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and a crackdown was launched against his Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas's ally.

Islamic Jihad, founded like Hamas in the 1980s, traditionally has its closest ties with Tehran, having been inspired by the Iranian revolution.

- 'Mujahedin school' -

Israel accuses the groups of continuing to seize construction material entering Gaza to make tunnels and weapons.

"Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have openly declared that they are rebuilding tunnels and testing rockets and other things like that," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told AFP.

"They've been siphoning off from the civilians of Gaza forever," he said, warning that Israel was prepared for further confrontation.

Underground and overground, the Quds Brigades lie ready.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, a banner reads: "School of the Mujahedin".

Some 200 new recruits aged 19 to 22 are training at the camp, ducking under live fire, jumping through flaming hoops and shouting "Death to Israel! Death to America!".

Instructor Abu Ahmed says the masked young men are going through "very advanced training".

"Their training lasts between 36 days and six months, before they go to a specialised unit like explosives or sharp shooting," he said.

"We don't just have tunnels -- we also invest in people," Abu al-Bara interjected.

"With ideas and fighting, it is people who will liberate this land."

'Liberate'! Right! Hamas and Islamic Jihad are going to bring freedom to Palestine! Freedom to force women into cloth prisons, to refuse to allow them to leave the home, to beat them for the slightest offence, to rape women and children without penalty, to beat their children to death for glancing the wrong way or for being 12 and refusing to marry a 78 year old pedophile. Freedom!

Amazing! No complaints or criticism about this action from anyone. These tunnels, weapons, and military training are provocations and an obvious declaration that Israel will never be allowed to live in peace. Shouldn't there be screams of condemnation from the US, the UN, the UK, etc.?

No, all three Us are most likely sending money to Gaza to rebuild schools, hospitals, infrastructure so life can turn to some semblance of order. But what is happening to the money and materials sent to Gaza? - they are being diverted so Hamas and Islamic Jihad can build tunnels, weapons and import missiles for attacking Israel.

It's another one of those situations where the US is supplying weapons to both sides of a conflict, only this conflict involves their only real ally in the middle east. The 3 Us should not be sending a cent to Palestine until they give up their Satanic obsession with destroying Israel.