The United Nations and much of the world media have blasted Israel for alleged war crimes during its incursion into the Gaza Strip in January, but one Israeli tank commander is mounting a spirited defense, using declassified video footage from Israel Defense Force drones and commercial media.

The video clips show the extraordinary efforts the IDF made to avoid civilian casualties, at times steering bombs away from their intended targets, because the target had moved into a crowd of civilians.

They also provide graphic testimony of war crimes committed by Hamas. In one scene, an armed Hamas fighter can be seen grabbing a child by the arm holding the child in front of him as he crossed the street.

“He knows that our snipers shoot them when they are in the open, crossing the street,” says Col. Ben-Tzion Gruber. “So they grab children as human shields. He knows we don’t shoot when there are children around.”

In another scene, a Hamas fighter can be seen launching a rocket from the roof of a house, and then calling in neighborhood children to serve as human shields so he can leave before Israeli jets bomb the house. In yet another, a Hamas fighter actually hides behind three children as he shoots at Israeli troops.

In a remarkable sequence filmed by The Associated Press on the ground in Gaza on the Palestinian side, armed Hamas fighters piled into an ambulance with the huge letters “UN” painted on its side as Israeli forces advanced into the street where they had prepared an ambush.

“How many Hamas terrorists will fit into a United Nations ambulance? Count them,” Gruber told an audience on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as he pointed to the fighters and their weapons.

Seven armed fighters piled into the back of the ambulance, some of them carrying bulky antitank weapons.

Shortly after Hamas took over Gaza 2 1/2 years ago, they fired all 500 ambulance drivers and 7,000 teachers in U.N. employ, replacing them with people loyal to them who allowed Hamas to use the ambulances to carry troops and munitions and the schools as rocket launch-sites, Gruber said.

“Wherever we entered a village, Hamas always had ambulances right at the front” carrying troops and munitions,” he said.

Gruber was deputy commander of IDF Division 252. At one point, as his 60-ton Merkava tanks were about to engage in a major offensive operation, his commander called him with an unusual demand.

“Even during the fighting, we were talking all the time to the Palestinian forces,” Gruber explained. “They called us that morning and said, ‘There are two women who are pregnant who need to go to the hospital.’ So I took four of my tanks out of the battle and located two ambulances, and escorted them to the hospital.”

In his report for the United Nations, South African Magistrate Richard Goldstone accused both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes. But it was the allegation that Israel purposefully targeted civilians that stung Gruber the most.

“During [one] operation, we killed 709 terrorists. How do we know they were terrorists? Because we knew where they came from, what they did. We knew their families. We spent a lot of time identifying them,” Gruber said.

Gruber said Israel acknowledges killing 295 non-combatants “by accident, regrettably,” during the Gaza fighting. Of those, 89 were under the age of 16, and another 50 were women.

“How many women do you think live in Gaza?” Col. Gruber asked. “About 50 percent of the population, no? And there were just 50 women killed? This is killing civilian targets? No way.”

By comparison, during the war in Bosnia 10 civilians were killed for every combatant. “That’s not what happened here,” he said.

About 435 people die every month in Gaza of natural causes. “So some of the names the Palestinians claimed we killed may have been these people.”

Israel was unable to determine whether an additional 162 Palestinians killed during the fighting were civilians or combatants. Another video sequence Gruber showed made clear why there was confusion.

In the video, a wounded fighter lay on a stretcher, drenched in blood, his AK-47 assault rifle tucked by his side. As medics lifted the stretcher into a waiting U.N. ambulance, another fighter grabbed the assault rifle and took it away.

None of the men were wearing uniforms, so there was nothing to distinguish a civilian from a Hamas fighter. “And so now, this wounded terrorist becomes a civilian casualty,” Gruber said.

Gruber also refuted oft-repeated claims by Goldstone that Israel used white phosphorus bombs during the Gaza operation. He showed photographs of real phosphorous bombs exploding, and compared them to actual footage of the bombs Israel used in Gaza. “We did not use phosphorus. Period. We used smoke bombs. You could walk through the cloud of smoke without feeling anything.”

Goldstone and his small team of U.N. investigators held two days of public hearings in Gaza last July and visited 36 sites in Gaza where local residents claimed that Israel had committed war crimes.

Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation because it was performed under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body where Iran, Libya, Syria and Cuba sit and they are slanted against Israel and the United States.

Even before the fighting began, the Council’s Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights, American leftist Richard Falk, was comparing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to “the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity.”

The appointment of someone like Richard Falk to the U.N. Human Rights Council was “exactly why we voted against the new Human Rights Council,” said former U.S. U.N. ambassador, John Bolton.

Gruber repeated the claims of Israeli leaders that the objective of December’s campaign, “Operation Cast Lead,” was “to stop the rockets from Hamas,” not to punish the Palestinian population or kill civilians. “During the war, we brought 60 trucks full of aid every day into Gaza,” he said. “We did this during the war!”

In the two year before Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, Hamas launched close to 6,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel, hitting towns and villages and killing about two dozen people.

An Israeli early warning siren system, which gives people roughly 10 to 45 seconds to find cover in prepared shelters, has “undoubtedly limited the number of civilian casualties in Israel,” according to the Jewish Policy Center in Jerusalem.

“We have been hit by Hamas rockets since 2001,” Gruber said. “How long you would wait to strike back if terrorists were sending rockets into Los Angeles from across the border?” he asked.

The entire 575 page Goldstone report devotes just one short paragraph to the subject of “Israeli casualties,” and only takes into account Israeli civilians killed during the three weeks of the operation.

Gruber’s presentation was sponsored by the Endowment for Middle Eastern Truth and Reps. Doug Lamborn, R, Colo., and Shelly Berkley, D, Nev.

Syrian Youth Preparing for their Day of Reckoning

(Reform Party of Syria)

Washington - June 21, 2009 (Samer Hussein) - Syrians are learning the Internet faster than the regime can use it to stifle their freedom. Using proxy servers and new tools propagating inside Syria (to remain nameless), Syrians are able to visit and participate in any web site, including the blocked ones like Facebook.

As an example, on Facebook, there are many Syrian causes or groups with thousands of Syrian participants.

One example is a Facebook Cause related to new civil laws being promoted in Syria where marriage is annulled if not amongst people of the same religious sect. What the law also does is provide for the Islamic Shariah to supersede any civil laws in place, including ones that violate the Syrian Constitution. Thousands of Syrians are carrying a very potent campaign, led by Syrian women, on Facebook against such laws. The laws have been proposed some two years ago by the Syrian government but not yet acted upon. Why would supposedly a secular government propose Shariah in Syria goes to the heart of lack of understanding by the west of the chameleonic nature of the Assad regime.

Another Facebook potent campaign deals with the mobile phone high pricing structure waged against the Syrian people by Rami Makhlouf, who fronts for the Assads as the real owners of SyriaTel. SyriaTel and other companies have been targeted by OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) since July 10, 2008. The Facebook campaign, supported by over 2,000 Syrians, has received some very supportive attention in Syria, especially by the young people who use the mobile phone the most but is also the group with no disposable income due to rampant unemployment and poverty.

There is even a new initiative to build a personalized "Twitter" system upon which many freedom advocates around the world could use at the right time. Building such a system relies heavily on volunteers dedicating their systems and Internet traffic around the world as relays in support of the freedom of others.

As the regime infiltrates the Syrian opposition, so does the Syrian opposition infiltrate groups and causes, who look on the surface to be supportive of the regime, but who in reality will switch sides on a dime at the right moment. The Syrian opposition conducts low-level friendly promotion of freedom and human rights. At the right time, these causes will provide the opposition with a platform to initiate new campaigns.

The dinosaur system in Syria cannot possibly stay a step ahead of the young eager to be free from the oppressive Assad regime. Even those trusted by the Syrian government to block the Internet are passing secrets to the Syrian opposition of what the regime is up to. Some are doing it for the love of freedom and some are doing it because they fear what the future holds for an Alawite minority accused of oppressing the majority.

Did you know that there is a Scandinavian youth movement that has dedicated itself to freedom on the Internet? This is our war and it is being conducted using technology easily mastered and people who naturally support freedom. As we have said before and continue to say: It is only a question of time before Syrian youth demonstrate on Syrian streets against the Assad regime.

From : Michael Ledeen:

I’ve received what purports to be a statement from Mousavi’s Office in Tehran. Like everyone else covering the revolution, I get a lot of material that can’t be authenticated, and one must always take such material with a healthy dose of skepticism. That said, the person who sent this to me is undoubtedly in touch with the Mousavi people on the ground, that much is certain. His information has been proven reliable throughout this period. So while the following open letter carefully puts distance between the author(s) and Mousavi himself, I am quite sure that at a minimum it accurately reflects the state of mind of the Mousavi people.

So here you go:

From the Office of Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi

To the President of the USA, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

In the name of the Iranian people, we want you to know that when you recently made the statement “Achmadinejad or Mousavi? Two of a kind,” we consider this as a grave and deep insult, not just to Mr. Mousavi but especially against the judgment of the Iranian people, against our moral conviction and intelligence, especially those of the young generation that comprises a population of 31 million.

It is a specially grave insult for those who are now fighting for democracy and freedom, and an unwarranted gift and even praise for Mr. Khamenei, whose security forces are now killing peaceful Iranians in the streets of every major city in the country.

Your statement misled the people of the world. It was no doubt inspired by your hope for dialogue with this regime, but you cannot possibly believe in promises from a regime that lies to its own people and then kills them when they demand the promises be kept.

By such statements, your administration and you discourage the Iranian people, who believe and trust in the values of democracy and freedom. We are pleased to see that you have condemned the regime’s murderous violence, and we look forward to stronger support for the rightful struggle of the Iranian people against the actions of a regime that is your enemy as well as ours.

Some more congressional thoughts on settlements By Eric Fingerhut ·

June 5, 2009

Rep. Eliot Engel (DN.Y.) says he believes Israel needs to make concessions o
n settlements, but thinks they must be made in concert with some kind of con
cessions from the Palestinians at the same time.

Speaking at a program cosponored by EMET: The Endowment for Middle East Trut
h and the Heritage Foundation , Engel also said, though, that "he would loo
k with tremendous askance if any adminstration" failed to honor the Bush-Sha
ron 2004 understanding which permitted Israel to continue to build in large
settlement blocs which it would be likely to keep in any peace deal. The Oba
ma administration has signaled that it would not adhere to that informal agr
eement, but Engel said he would probably make his feelings on that issue pri
vately to the administration.

"I don't want Israel pressured into making unilateral concessions up front i
n return for nothing," said Engel, referring to settlements. "Palestinians n
eed to do things simultaneously. I don't mind if Israel makes concessions at
the same time the Palestinians are making tangible concessions." Asked afte
rward what those might be on the Palestinian side, Engel suggested that redu
cing incitement against Jews and Israel could one area for the Palestinians
to work on.

Israel's reaction to President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo

4 Jun 2009
The government of Israel hopes it will lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Moslem world and Israel.

The Government of Israel expresses its hope that this important speech in Cairo will indeed lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Moslem world and Israel.

We share President Obama's hope that the American effort heralds the beginning of a new era that will bring about an end to the conflict and lead to Arab recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, living in peace and security in the Middle East.

Israel is committed to peace and will make every effort to expand the circle of peace while protecting its interests, especially its national security.

* * *

FM Liberman's response to speech by US President Obama

During his visit in Belarus, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman stated that today's speech by US President Barack Obama was an important address. President Obama expressed his desire to create a better world, one which is ruled by the principles of justice, progress and democracy. "There is great significance to President Obama viewing the Road Map and its first phase of ending violence as a necessary stage to achieving an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. As President Obama noted, the bond between the US and Israel is strong and unbreakable, even if occasionally there may be legitimate differences."

'Rays of Light'Five honored for fighting terrorism
by Suzanne Pollak

Special to WJW

A former Islamic extremist, two senators, a former CIA director and a Lebanese man who missed his parents' funerals rather than be silenced were honored last week as "Rays of Light in the Darkness" during EMET-the Endowment for Middle East Truth's third annual awards dinner.

About 225 people gathered in the Russell Senate office building to pay tribute to Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), former CIA director James Woolsey, Fox News television terrorism analyst Walid Phares and former Islamic extremist Tawfik Hamid.

Praising each of the five for their efforts to fight terrorism and bring peace and security to Israel and the United States, EMET founder and president Sarah Stern wondered, "From where does a person summon up the tremendous objectivity, intellectual honesty and integrity to be able to confront the forces of evil, suppression, totalitarianism and hatred?"

The Egyptian-born Hamid and former member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group -- who said he is "Muslim by faith, Christian by spirit and Jewish by heart, and I am a human being" -- urged everyone to fight the war "against darkness, of good against evil, of civilization against barbarianism."

"This war we cannot afford to lose. We either win this war or we will live in the future in a Taliban world," said Hamid, a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and President of Global Movement against Radical Islam.

Phares, a senior fellow and the director for Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., told the gathering that he worries that students are being misled.

"The '90s was a terrible decade. We were at peace, but the stealth jihad was going on," he said, adding that "hundreds of millions of dollars" were being spent by oil-rich countries in the "diseducation" of American students.

"If people don't understand the true history and how far back it goes, then they don't understand the threat the world is under," said Phares. "If the American majority gets it, then I would not be concerned about our future," he said.

Phares came to America in 1990 from Beirut. Since then, both his parents have died. When he tried to return to Lebanon for their funerals, he was told he would first have to quit what he was doing. Both times, he opted instead to continue his struggle.

In his remarks, Woolsey spoke of three threats: America's dependence on foreign oil, the "double standards" that "are creeping into Israeli peace talks" -- Would Jews, he wondered, be allowed to sit in the Cabinet and comprise one-sixth the population of the proposed Palestinian state as Arabs now do in Israel? -- and political correctness.

Explaining the latter, he complained that new definitions in which the fight against terrorism is termed "overseas contingency operations" will only confuse the issue, and "if you don't talk straight, you won't think straight."

Will terrorists be called "anger management candidates" in need of "custodial care?" he said, adding no matter the label, "It is Islamic-inspired terrorism."

Kyl, honored for his work to end terrorism, deal with the Iranian threat and help Israel remain strong, pointed to the bill that he had introduced, with Lieberman and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), that would forbid a country that is selling refined petroleum products to Iran to do the same in the United States.

"You can't do both," he said, calling for "very strong political and economic sanctions" against Iran.

Lieberman agreed. Iran must be dealt with using "clear goals, deadlines and carrots and sticks," he said.

New Congressional Initiative: No US funds to Gaza Unless Shalit freed/shelling stops

At the Policy Forum on Capitol Hill that EMET sponsored regarding the Moral Legitimacy of the War in Gaza, Rep. Shelley Berkley announced that she will be sending a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating her concern that the $900 million recently pledged by the United States to the Palestinian people in Gaza will end up in the hands of Hamas, and asking that the money be withheld until Hamas recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, until the launching of Kassam rocket missiles on Israel stops, and until captured soldier Galid Shalit is returned.

Read the initiative

Coalition Letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller

The evidence is continuing to mount linking CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations with Hamas, to the extent that the F.B.I has taken the decision to sever all formal ties with the organization. EMET has signed on to the following letter to FBI

Director Robert Mueller:

Dear Mr. Director:

We want to thank you and your subordinates for the decision you have taken to end the Federal Bureau of Investigations collaboration with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). As organizations and individuals working to support your efforts to protect our country from the threat posed by enemies, foreign and domestic, we regard this action as an important contribution to the national security.

The reason is simple: CAIR has from its inception been associated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. As you know, the former is a designated terrorist organization. The latter is an entity that our government has proven in the Holy Land Foundation trial considers its mission to be the destruction of “America from within.”

For CAIR and its fellow Muslim Brotherhood fronts, relationships with the FBI amount to a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.” Others let down their guard or, worse yet, assume they can safely engage with these groups on the assumption that – if there were a problem in doing so – the Bureau would not have ties to them.

Consequently, we believe that it is inappropriate and possibly dangerous for either the FBI or any other agency or branch of the Federal Government to associate with the Council on American Islamic Relations and its ilk. We urge that the same considerations that prompted the Bureau to end its relationship with CAIR be applied to all Muslim Brotherhood-associated organizations.

We stand ready to assist you in the laudable and necessary task of engaging with those in the Muslim community in America who truly seek to be law-abiding and patriotic citizens of this great constitutional republic – and who, therefore, eschew efforts to alter or undermine it in the name of Islamic law (Shariah). Toward this end, we would welcome a chance to visit with you personally about the information we have developed and ways in which we may be able to be of help.

Sincerely,

Please Contact your member of congress and senator</a> and tell him about the FBI’s recent decision to sever ties with the organization, and advise them that since the FBI has taken this stance, it would probably wise if he would also sever ties with this organization. You can ask him, as well, to sign on to a similar letter that is making its way through Congress regarding this. You can reach your congressman and senator at the following link: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

ANTI-SEMITISM: SPONSORED EXPRESSIONS OF THE GRAND JIHAD

EMET devotes this issue of its Memoranda to a video library of Anti-Semitic demonstrations held across the United States against Israel during the Gaza conflict. Remembering that Israel was for so long our sister state, these demonstrations should be investigated. Similar demonstrations were sponsored 50 years ago by Neo-Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois. Now as recently as last week, radical Islamists applauded the Jihad against human life and western values across our nation.

The Islamofascists today understand the nature of the demonstration and its place in influencing American political life. They know how far they can go. The average person regards any demonstrator as a freedom fighter or member of the downtrodden, regardless of what is demonstrated for or against. It is the nature of the demonstration to awaken emotional zeal, so content is secondary. But hate language arouses emotion and, as you can see, the Jihadists use hatred and zeal to the fullest extent possible. We should be very cautious about what we conclude from these demonstrations. Is this really an Anti-Semitic America? It is important to observe the protesting population carefully. The violent demonstrations of hatred masquerade as protests by Muslims in American against Israel's defense of its battered population. But it may be that those who yell, “Get out of Gaza,” or “Go Back to the Ovens, Jews,” have support from the usual suspects who line the coffers of Jihadists worldwide.

What we have come to call the cultural jihad is a real movement of Islamo-organizers. Community organizing has a long leftist history. In the U.S. in the 1960s, for example, it was well-established that changing the political system, came from joining those currently in power in order to create change from within. We should not be in despair that all those who rallied at these hateful demonstrations represented our real neighbors and friends.

As you will see from the article by Daniel Pipes, Report #894 “CAIR Co-Hosts an Anti-Semitic Rally in Chicago,” support for the demise of Israel and the West comes from those who appear outwardly most legitimate. The sponsors of terrorism know our nation well. They know we are forgiving, open, just, and usually unquestioning. We accept assertion as established truth. They even see that the danger in this simplicity, of course, is that we quickly become enablers, following the ill will to its worst conclusions.

Optimism may require our patience. Perhaps we will convert the hearts and minds of large numbers of Jihadists into western Americans. Maybe they will join the many friends of EMET who, as Muslims, enjoy free speech, and who do not wish to do away with the free speech of others. They may learn to love and enjoy the exercise of religious freedom without fear of reprisals or death for breaking rules. They might learn to want freedom for Muslim women, access to education for their children, safety for those who commit misdeeds.

At EMET, we are cautiously optimistic and guarded in our confidence in near-future reform. We believe it is much more critical that we stay focused on what is happening in the Jihadist Movement as it expands and spreads its wings. We have to be aware constantly of how terrorism finds funds for its activities and uses its U.S. sanctioned activities to further fund the work of our enemies here, abroad, in Israel. See the reprint below of the recent article by Rachel Ehrenfeld on, “How Hamas Gets its Money.”

Exploiting what we most hold dear, the Global Jihad is working in the U.S. at a number of levels, embracing with its still legitimate but evil arms our educational, financial, and legal systems. We must remain vigilant, purposeful, and armed with information.

We are the generation of "Never Again!" Let us not forget. We should not rest easy. These demonstrations violate the Judeo-Christian values and traditions that have made civil life possible and daily life livable in the West. They underscore our heritage and allow us to champion freedom into the 21st Century.

Nothing is guaranteed for us unless we defend it. President Bush knew this well, choosing Truth over popularity. And while it is hard for Jews, Christians and our many anti-Jihadist Muslim friends to reckon with the extraordinary and very real way in which we are held in the balance, the future of all we value, and of our very lives, is at stake.

The combat in Gaza provides an excuse for exposing but also exploiting latent hatred and Anti-Semitic sentiment. Without this war, the rise to participate in these demonstrations might not be so contagious. If you study the clips of the demonstrations over the past few weeks or more, these reflect both the radical shift in demographics worldwide in favor of Muslims. Some demonstrations even take place where Jews have been few or even absent for decades. The demographics alone suggest concern for everyone who treasures freedom. It is not a Jewish problem nor is there a Jewish solution. We need Jews and Christians worldwide to stand up against what appears to be a tsunami of violence and hatred launched from the Middle East. Add to this the disquieting fact that the number of democratic nations that support the U.S. and Israel are fading into the night. It is hard to see how anyone can rest comfortably. The sun seems to be setting very quickly.

For more information about national security issues, the financing of Hamas, the role of CAIR in American political debate, or about terrorism and the cultural jihad, see www.obsessionthemovie.com; www.theinvestigativeproject.org; www.danielpipes.org; www.melaniephillips.com; www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org, and http://anti-CAIR-net.org.

NY judge: PLO can't disguise terror as war

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Washington Post

The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 30, 2008; 4:43 PM