The IDF has confirmed that two of the mortars fired at southern Israel from Gaza yesterday were phosphorous.
Photo by: Eliahu Ben-Yigal
“A police bomb disposal team examined a number of mortars that were fired today. We can confirm that two out of the nine mortars contained phosphorous,” Rosenfeld added.
Israel Police said it was not the first time that phosphorous shells had been fired at Israel from Gaza.
Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council where the phosphorous mortars landed, reacted sharply to the news of the phosphorus mortar attacks. “These weapons have been banned by the Geneva convention. They cause burns among victims and they kill. This is an agricultural area, and we now have to explain to farmers how to deal with burns in light of the phosphorus mortars,” he told the Post.
I’m looking forward to hearing from the UN, the International Red Cross, human right organizations and all those who have accused Israel of using phosphorous in the past.
Of course, they have hardly commented on the thousands of rockets – phosphorous or not – that have rained down on Israel the past years, so I am not holding my breath.
7:15PM: The EU is also pressuring Israel to extend the settlement freeze.
According to the report, the EU “recalls that settlements are illegal under international law and calls for an extension of the moratorium decided by Israel,” read the declaration which was adopted by foreign ministers.
The EU will soon learn need to preoccupy themselves with what is illegal under Sharia law.
5:32PM: Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, responds to the Time magazine article which alleged Israelis do not care about peace.
Imagine that you’re a parent who sends her children off to school in the morning worrying whether their bus will become a target of suicide bombers. Imagine that, instead of going off to college, your children become soldiers at age 18, serve for three years and remain in the active reserves into their 40s. Imagine that you have fought in several wars, as have your parents and even your grandparents, that you’ve seen rockets raining down on your neighborhood and have lost close family and friends to terrorist attacks. Picture all of that and you’ll begin to understand what it is to be an Israeli. And you’ll know why all Israelis desperately want peace.
Recent media reports, in Time magazine and elsewhere, have alleged that Israelis — who are currently experiencing economic growth and a relative lull in terrorism — may not care about peace. According to a poll cited, Israelis are more concerned about education, crime and poverty — issues that resonate with Americans — than about the peace process with the Palestinians. But such findings do not in any way indicate an indifference to peace, but rather the determination of Israelis to build normal, fruitful lives in the face of incredible adversity.
Yes, many Israelis are skeptical about peace, and who wouldn’t be? We withdrew our troops from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in order to generate peace, and instead received thousands of missiles crashing into our homes. We negotiated with the Palestinians for 17 years and twice offered them an independent state, only to have those offers rejected. Over the last decade, we saw more than 1,000 Israelis — proportionally the equivalent of about 43,000 Americans — killed by suicide bombers, and tens of thousands maimed. We watched bereaved mothers on Israeli television urging our leaders to persist in their peace efforts, while Palestinian mothers praised their martyred children and wished to sacrifice others for jihad.
Given our experience of disappointment and trauma, it’s astonishing that Israelis still support the peace process at all. Yet we do, and by an overwhelming majority. According to the prestigious Peace Index conducted by the Tamal Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University and released in July, more than 70% of Israelis back negotiations with the Palestinians, and nearly that number endorse the two-state solution. These percentages exist even though multiple Palestinian polls show much less enthusiasm for living side by side in peace with Israel, or that most Israelis believe that international criticism of the Jewish state will continue even if peace is achieved.
Indeed, Israelis have always grasped at opportunities for peace. When Arab leaders such as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat or King Hussein of Jordan offered genuine peace to Israel, our people passionately responded and even made painful concessions. That most Israelis are still willing to take incalculable risks for peace — the proposed Palestinian state would border their biggest cities — and are still willing to share their ancestral homeland with a people that has repeatedly tried to destroy them is nothing short of miraculous.
It’s true that Israel is a success story. The country has six world-class universities, more scientific papers and Nobel Prizes per capita than any other nation and the most advanced high-tech sector outside of Silicon Valley. The economy is flourishing, tourism is at an all-time high and our citizen army selflessly protects our borders. In the face of unrelenting pressures, we have preserved a democratic system in which both Jews and Arabs can serve in our parliament and sit on our Supreme Court. We have accomplished this without knowing a nanosecond of peace.
We shouldn’t have to apologize for our achievements. Nor should outside observers conclude that the great improvements in our society in any way lessen our deep desire for peace. That yearning was expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the recent White House ceremony for the start of direct negotiations with the Palestinians. Addressing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as “my partner in peace,” Netanyahu called for “a peace that will last for generations — our generation, our children’s generation and the next.”
For Israelis who don’t have to imagine what it’s like to live in a perpetual war zone, that vision of peace is our lifeline.
5:22PM: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to expand the settlement construction freeze for three more months to give peacemaking a chance.
As far as I am concerned, there should be no freeze. No freeze on construction, and no freezing cold peace with Egypt.
4:50PM: Yet more incitement from our “peace partners”, the PA, courtesy of PMW.
The band is apparently available for wedding, parties and barmitzvahs.
As for the dancers, they apparently call themselves RiverdanceFrom the River to the Sea Dance.
4:40PM: A palestinian terrorist has admitted his group used phosphorus in the rockets fired yesterday, but has claimed they got it from us.
A member of the one of the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza admitted to Ynet on Thursday that the phosphorus used in the rockets fired on Israel Wednesday contained material gathered from shells Israel itself fired on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
“The phosphorus was taken from bombs Israel fired, that didn’t explode,” he said.
Still, the source said the groups’ use of phosphorous shells was “an experiment” and that there are no plans to put it to mass use. “We don’t have the kind of phosphorous the Israelis are talking about.”
Nice to see the palestinians involved in experiments, although they may one day want to do the kind that benefit humanity and possibly even win Nobel prizes, rather than those aimed towards killing innocents.
As for the claim they got the phosphorus from unexploded bombs, I think it more likely they obtained it from the likes of Iran.
11:28AM: Meet the Belgian band which doesn’t waffle.
Making a statement: For the second time in four months, Belgian band K’s Choice traveled to Israel for two shows, despite boycott calls.
Back in May, the band’s bass player Eric Grossman referred to English singer Elvis Costello as a “douchebag” for calling off his concerts in Israel. Grossman wrote on his Facebook page: “Well done. You’re an idiot. Ditto to Santana, Bono, and all the other self important ego-maniacs, who think the Israeli people don’t deserve their presence.”
Playing to a sold-out crowd in Tel Aviv Tuesday night, Singer Sarah Bettens said the band resisted calls to boycott the latest shows, and vowed to return to Israel in the future. The concert featured several unique moments highlighting the band’s great affection for its Israeli fans.
Bettens opened the show by declaring that band members enjoyed their May trip to Israel so much they immediately decided to return this time. In a sign of things to come, she wished the crowd “Shana Tova” in Hebrew, drawing great cheers.
Later on, Bettens declared that the local audience was “the best crowd in the world.”
“You probably think I say this wherever we perform, so to prove it I will post it on our Facebook page tonight,” she said.
Bettens explicitly addressed the boycott issue later in the show, making a brief statement during an interlude between songs.
“We were asked to boycott this show, but we’re a band, and we’re here to play for our fans,” she said, drawing more cheers. She later said the band will “definitely” be back in Israel. Bettens and other band members seemed to be in high spirits, maintaining a warm interaction with the audience throughout the night.
In another special moment during the show, Bettens told the crowd the band’s soundman was celebrating his birthday Tuesday. She then asked the audience to sing a birthday song for him, in Hebrew, prompting the entire venue to erupt in song for what must have been a once-in-lifetime experience for the surprised soundman.
In another gesture to the local crowd, the band performed special acoustic renditions of its songs in the first half of the concert, before picking up the electric guitars in the second half. The enthusiastic fans on hand were also treated to two encores at the end of the show.
K’s Choice was formed in the mid-1990s and went on to tour extensively in Europe and in the US, producing both gold and platinum albums.
9:38AM: The PA is reportedly not happy with the talks so far.
The talks with Israel still face “major obstacles,” especially because of Israel’s refusal to commit to a comprehensive freeze of settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, a Palestinian official in Ramallah said on Wednesday.
“The talks are very difficult,” the official told reporters. “So far we can’t talk about any progress.”
Compare to George Mitchell’s comments (see 5:48AM update).
I guess Mitchell sees the glass as half full.
With whisky.
5:55AM: The wonderful Jon Voight has slammed Time magazine for its September 13th cover story”Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace,” which I have blogged about on here.
“This is anti-Semitism. Who are these anti-Semites who are running Time magazine?” he asked host Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate. “If Israel falls, we all fall.”
“What are we going to do? Should we boycott Time magazine? Maybe so, because they shouldn’t have the right to create wars,” he said to applause from the live audience.
You can see it here (from 6:30 onwards).
5:48AM: US. special envoy George Mitchell said yesterday that the peace talks between Israel and the PA were being conducted more seriously and faster than the ones he brokered in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, while noting progress regarding the construction freeze in the settlements.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
