OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Week Ending: 8 October 2014

1. No holds barred: Why the Islamic State and Hamas wear masks

Shmuely Boteach, Jerusalem Post, 7 October 2014

Why in a world where we know what organizations like Hamas stand for – brutality toward women, murder of gays, suppression of freedom, genocidal aspirations toward the Jews – can people elevate the terrorist organization over democratic Israel? The answer lies in evil’s ability to hide in the shadows and escape the light of scrutiny. To hide behind masks as it commits atrocities.

2. The terrorist’s code of ethics

Alexander Yakobson and Yitzhak Bennaji, Haaretz, 7 October 2014

Yes, it’s hard to keep military targets away from the civilian population in a densely populated strip of land like Gaza. But any fair discussion of Israel’s combat methods must also take into account Hamas’ contempt for human life.

3. Obama, media call for segregation in Israel         

Seth Mandel, Commentary, 6 October 2014                      

Obama’s objection to a Jew legally buying a home from an Arab in Jerusalem is nothing less than ethnic segregationism, and press secretary Josh Earnest’s classification of such a home as an “occupation” is the kind of pro-Palestinian propaganda the parroting of which is, quite frankly, evidence of a level of surpassing ignorance shocking even for the Obama administration

4. Blame it on the Israeli leftwingers

Noa Osterreicher, Haaretz, 6 October 2014

Just like the jar of oil that lasted for eight days, the weak and crumbling power of the left wing is all it takes to paralyze Netanyahu’s government, with the ministers, Knesset members and army that bow to its authority, for three terms. A miracle!

5. The genome of Islamic terrorism

Moshe Arens, Haaretz, 6 October 2014

Islamic State, Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Islamic terrorist organizations, like Al-Qaida and Nusra Front, all carry the gene that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

6. Fighting ISIS shouldn’t mean appeasing Iran

Clifford May, National Post, 2 October 2014

The Islamic State’s flamboyant barbarism in Syria and Iraq has been consuming the oxygen, making it easy to forget that Iran has long been the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism

7. Learning to hate Zion

Tom Wilson, Commentary, 1 October 2014

The global backlash against Israel’s recent war in Gaza was far from unexpected. Yet the ferocity of the demonstrations, the strength of feeling against Israel, and the media’s total lack of sympathy for the Jewish state descended to startling depths. For while campaigns against Israel may have become familiar, the 70 percent of Israelis who were forced day and night to dash to bomb shelters as their country was dragged into a ghastly war of their enemy’s making must surely have wondered anew: How can the world not see the rightness of our cause?