The Razor

Michael Yon proves once again why he is one of the greatest journalists around in this letter to Glenn Reynolds.

In Sderot, Allison and I had the pleasure of having lunch with Noam Bedein, the Director of the Sderot Information Center, a privately funded organization. According to the “Kassam counter” on http://www.sderotmedia.com/, as of February 1, 10,046 Kassam rockets have hit Sderot and the Western Negev since 2001. During a single two-week period, 293 rockets rained in on Sderot. According to a pamphlet from the Sderot Information Center, a kindergarten teacher asked her pupils, “Why does the snail have a shell?” The Children answered in chorus, “So it can be protected from the Kassam rockets.”

As I write Israel is bombing Hamas targets in the Gaza strip, leaving 360 Palestinians dead, most of whom are women and children judging by the sympathetic (and stage managed) European press.

A Palestinian boy watches the funeral of three
children in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
December 29, 2008. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

The Western Press has paid little attention to the rocket and mortar attacks on Israelis occurring on a daily basis for the past 8 years. Here is a photograph of a mother of 4 who was killed by a Hamas rocket in Ashdod.

Murdered: Irit Sheetrit, mother of 4 (Avi Rokach, Ynet News)

While the newspapers and airwaves are filled with pictures of Palestinian killed or wounded by Israel thanks to careful manipulation by Hamas, the European and American press ignore the Israeli victims that are behind the Israeli attacks. This fits “the narrative” that Israel is an apartheid, terrorist state while the Arabs are the oppressed, allowing the terrorists to use the consciences of Jews, Europeans and Americans as cover for their killing spree.

Since 2000 Islamic terror groups have launched 10,046 rockets and mortars at Israel, most falling within a 20 km band from Gaza. Of these, terror groups launched 7,000 after Israel quit the Gaza Strip in 2005. The attacks killed or wounded nearly 300 Israelis (est), a ratio of roughly 35 missiles for each Israeli casualty.

Kassam 2 Rockets, Enough to Kill an Israeli Mother of Four 
courtesy WeaselZippers.net

Kassams compromise the majority of rockets used in the attacks against Israel. The Kassam I was first used in 2001 against Israelis settlements in Gaza. The Kassam I weighs 12 lbs is 60mm in diameter, 31 inches long and carries a pound of explosive. The Kassam I has a 3km range. The Kassam 2 (shown above) weighs 70 lbs, is 150mm in diameter, 72 inches long and carries 11-15 lbs of high explosive. It has a range of 8 kms. The Kassam 3 and 4 are even larger, with the latter having a range of 20 kms. Israeli intelligence suspects that longer range rockets are on the drawing board, especially if sanctions are lifted on the Hamas regime. While these relatively small rockets can be manufactured in Gaza or be smuggled in from Egypt through tunnels, the larger and more sophisticated rockets would have to come from Iran, Syria or Russia by land and sea. These rockets have ranges of 40 km, effectively doubling the area currently under siege.

Recently as I was viewing satellite imagery of Israel, I was struck by how small the country is. At 20,770 km square if Israel were an American state it would be the sixth smallest – bigger than New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. Gaza itself is roughly the size of Detroit at 360 km square. At its narrowest point between the Mediterranean Sea and Judea and Sumaria (aka the West Bank) Israel is only 15 km – 9 miles – wide.

I don’t think Americans appreciate how physically small Israel is. When we hear that Hamas is firing missiles with ranges of 20 km (12 miles) into Israel, it’s difficult to relate it to anything we know. After all 12 miles from the border of Mexico is less than 1% of the distance between the Mexican border in the south and the Canadian border in the north. With the exception of border cities like El Paso and San Diego, Kassams launched by Mexico would fall into scrubland and desert.

America is a large country and our geography determines much of how we think and relate to the world. Americans perceive of space differently – speaking as one taking 2 years to navigate the narrow aisles of a Japanese grocery store without knocking food off the shelves. Our country is big, our homes are big, our roads are long and wide. Two oceans protect our eastern and western shores, and we have neutralized our only military threat in the entire hemisphere – Cuba an island 90 miles away.

But things are different in Israel. Israel is a small, fragmented country surrounded by enemies. When people urge Israel to trade land for peace they fail to consider that Israel doesn’t have very much land to trade. Worse, while Israel gives its precious land away – as it has in Gaza and in south Lebanon – it receives nothing in return. Instead of peace its enemies quickly use the land as a staging area for more attacks in a quest to get even more land from Israel. In essence “Land for Peace” becomes ”Land for More Land”, a method of conquest of Israel by its enemies.

Here is a map showing the actual ranges of rockets fired from Gaza superimposed on a map of Israel. Note that prior to 2005 settler outposts in Gaza had buffered Israel from many of the rocket attacks. Once Israel withdrew, Hamas and the other terror groups were free to hit Israel-proper with missiles and mortars. The area shaded red is expected future capabilities and will be ignored for now. Everything blue, yellow and green has been under bombardment for the past 8 years.

Bombardment ranges from Gaza, source: Anti-Israeli Terrorism in 2007
and Its Trends in 2008, IICC (pdf) (hattip). 

The 20 km distance ranges between 2/3 and 1/7 the width of Israel. For argument’s sake I will use an average of 1/4. For perspective imagine that a quarter of the width of the USA from Mexico – 500 km (300 miles) – was under bombardment from our southern neighbor.  What would a similar map look like?

Comparative Range of Rocket/Mortar Bombardment at 500 km (300 miles)

Virtually the entire southwest including all of Southern California, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque and most of Texas and approximately 40 million Americans would be exposed to daily attack. It’s difficult to imagine any American administration no matter how Leftist that could tolerate the attacks that Israel has been putting up with for the past 8 years. Interestingly this region corresponds to Aztlan, an area which Chicano supremacist groups like MEChA and “La Raza” hope to one day liberate.

We can go further. Israel’s population of 7.2 million is roughly 1/40 that of the United States. Multiplying the number of rocket and mortar casualties by 40 and the American equivalent is 12,000 dead and wounded. How much “restraint” could an American government be expected to exercise in such a scenario?

The old adage that one should wait to judge a man until after walking a mile in his shoes can help us appreciate the conditions of “peace” that Israel has lived under for most of the decade. We can only hope that the Israelis have the wisdom and fortitude necessary to do what it takes to protect itself. Given the performance of its current government, it has shown that until now it lacks both.

Published as Guest Commentary in the Delaware State News on August 1, 2006.—————————You don’t have to be a Jew to support Israel. It’s a democracy like the United States. It has been a staunch American ally in an unfriendly neighborhood. It has strong political, social and religious ties to the United States.

However it’s more personal for me. One of my earliest memories is the destruction of airplanes sitting on the tarmac in Jordan by terrorists on September 12, 1970. I was 3 years old.

At the time my sister was a flight attendant for TWA. One of the planes hijacked happened to be a TWA flight, and my father – a physically imposing man – was driven to hand-wringing and pacing until he learned that my sister was safe.

Two years later I sat mesmerized in front of the TV watching the hostage drama in Munich unfold. There 11 Israeli athletes were held for 18 hours by Palestinian terrorists before being massacred.

The Arab-Israeli conflict became a part of my daily life when the Arab oil producing states decide to punish the Western nations for supporting Israel. Gasoline doubled overnight from 59 cents a gallon, straining my parent’s budget and ushering in a period of high inflation. Terms like ‘Misery Index’ entered my vocabulary as I watched the nightly news during dinner at home.

As I grew into adolescence I became fascinated by world history. I saw unforgettable photos of the Holocaust and read the stories of unimaginable horror in the concentration camps. I learned how Israel was founded from the ashes of the crematoria.

Since its founding, Israel has been cast into the historical role of the Jewish people: the world’s scapegoat. For decades, the Israelis have been portrayed as greedy – taking away land from the Arabs. People forgot that Israel accepted a two-state solution proposed by the United Nations at its creation. It was the neighboring Arab states, and a large proportion of the Arab population of the prospective Arab state of Palestine who refused to accept the existence of Israel. This continues to be the stand of the Palestinian Authority under the elected leadership of Hamas – a terror group explicitly founded to wipe out Israel and enslave the Jews living there.

The terror attacks continued. As the Israelis suffered, the world convinced itself that the only solution was for Israel to trade the land it had won in battle for peace.

In 2000, Israel itself believed this. It pulled out of south Lebanon. With American guarantees and assurances to both sides it offered the Palestinians all the land it had gained in the prior 33 years. But the Palestinians refused the offer.

Soon, families sitting to dinner were murdered by Hamas terrorists. Toddlers eating pizza at a Jerusalem fast food restaurant were slaughtered by Islamic Jihad attackers, their families paid by Saddam Hussein, their faces painted on walls and names bestowed on streets in Gaza and the West Bank.

Soon after this attack, America experienced 9-11 and shared in the misery of being under attack. On 9-11 the World prided itself by saying everyone had become Americans. In retrospect the truth is that on 9-11 we became Israelis.

Still, Israeli clung to the myth that by pulling out of the lands it had captured in battle, it could buy peace. It pulled out of Gaza, dragging Jewish nationalists screaming at the soldiers who carted them away. Gaza was emptied of Jews, and the first thing the Palestinians did upon taking control was to set fire to the evacuated Jewish synagogues, celebrating and dancing as the temples burned to the ground.

Now Israel finds itself at open war with its enemies. Rockets packed with ball bearings fall upon its northern cities. Hamas attacks continue in the south. Once again the Europeans and the United Nations return to their anti-Semitic roots and try to hold Israel down so that its enemies can attack her without fear of being struck back.

But as an American, I see the truth. It may be possible to talk your way out of a mugging, but you can’t negotiate with a killer. Israel has tried negotiating, has tried playing by the rules imposed on it by the United Nations and the Europeans – and what has it gotten? Dead Israelis.

I stand for Israel because I see it as a desert that has bloomed through the hard work and brilliance of its people. I see a people that has suffered unjustly for thousands of years continue to suffer today. I see a people who refuse to accept the status of victims. I see a people who value peace but aren’t willing to trade it for annihilation.

I stand for Israel because Israel is a nation where Arabs, Jews and Christians live together in peace – next to states where religions and their books are banned outright. I stand for Israel because it values everyone. It holds gay pride rallies next to nations where gays are hung from forklifts. It treats women as equals in all ways, while the women in nearby nations can’t even leave their homes alone.

I stand for Israel because it is at the frontier of civilization, an outpost of honesty in a region mired in corruption. I stand for Israel because in the fight to preserve the light from the darkness, we are all Israelis.

Think you know everything there is to know about the Middle East? Bet you don’t. The following questions were selected by The Razor as essential to understanding current affairs of the Middle East. We’d have written a script to automatically tally your answers, but our web hosting service doesn’t support PHP or CGI scripts so grab a pencil and paper and tally your answers yourself. Have fun! Geography: Know your sand On this map, the following countries are represented by which numbers? 1. Israel: 2. Iraq: 3. Iran: 4. Syria: 5. Saudi Arabia: 6. Egypt: 7. This country is considered as Iraq’s 19th Province by the Iraqi Regime. It was liberated by Coalition forces in 1991. 8. In _ the state of Israel was formally declared. a. 1923 b. 1971 c. 1945 d. 1948 9. In an event that would become known as “Black September”, this country massacred several thousand Palestinian civilians. a. Israel b. Jordan c. Iraq d. Turkey 10. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by members of a. Egyptian (Islamic) Jihad b. Israeli (mossad) Intelligence c. al-Qaeda d. the CIA 11. The following person has killed more Arabs and Muslims than any other (estimates from 1.0 to 1.5 million during his term in office). a. George Bush sr. b. Ariel Sharon c. Hosni Mubarak d. Saddam Hussein 12. The meetings between Israelis and Palestinians that resulted in the 1978 Camp David Accords were arranged and facilitated by the following country: a. USA b. Romania c. Jordan d. France 13. The 1993 Somalia intervention by the United States was precipated by which of the following events: a. American embassy stormed by Islamic militants b. massacre of unarmed Pakistani peacekeepers by Islamic militants c. murders of unarmed American Christian missionaries d. none of the above Blame the Jews (be trendy) True or False: 14. Jews comprised over 66% of the population of Israel at the time of its creation. 15. Arabs have more freedom in Israel than they do in any neighboring country. 16. Israel was responsible for the massacre of thousands of innocent Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila. 17. “If the Palestinian problem was solved, the Middle East would be at peace.” 18. America has always been the primary supporter of Israel. 19. No Jews were killed in the September 11 attacks. Blood for Oil 20. Which country is America’s top supplier of petroleum products? a. Saudi Arabia b. Canada c. Iraq d. Iran 21. America gets most of its petroleum from which area of the world? a. The Americas b. Persian Gulf c. North Africa d. North Europe 22. Which country has signed $65 billion worth of oil contracts with the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein? a. Great Britain b. USA c. France d. Japan 23. Which country has sought the end of UN sanctions against Iraq and blocked UN attempts to force Saddam Hussein to give up his nuclear, biological and chemical weapons program? a. Great Britain b. USA c. France d. Japan 24. This ethnic group has lived in their region of the Middle East for over 4,000 years yet do not have their own state. In 2000 BC, known as the Mittani, they were viewed by the Egyptians as that nation’s most dangerous rival. They have been massacred in the states where they live and have had their ethnic identity and language banned all over the region. They are viewed as the gravest threat facing several states and their leaders are currently jailed. This ethnic group is known as the… a. Jews b. Palestinians c. Hittites d. Kurds .
	Geography: Know your sand 1. Israel: 12 2. Iraq: 7 3. Iran: 1 4. Syria: 9 5. Saudi Arabia: 2 6. Egypt: 11 7. Kuwait, brought to you by the number 6 8. d – 1948 9. b. Jordan – The PLO attempted to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, and the Jordanian security forces came down hard on the Palestinian majority within Jordan. A settlement was later reached between the two sides only through the diplomacy of Egyptian President Nasser. Source: History of the Arab Peoples, A. Hourani (Warner, 1991). pgs 416-17 10. a. Egyptian (Islamic) Jihad. Sadat was assassinated as punishment for recognizing the state of Israel and concluding a peace treaty with it. Islamic Jihad remains committed to the destruction of Israel and has been behind numerous suicide attacks both within Israel and the “occupied territories”. 11. d. Saddam Hussein – Saddam Hussein is not known as the “Butcher of Baghdad” for killing Jews or Americans. He has killed upwards of 1.5 million (source) with nearly all of his victims being Iranian Shi’a Muslims and Iraqi Shi’a and Kurdish Muslims. The only Christians he is responsible for killing are those killed by terrorist groups as well as the Filipina guest workers raped and slaughtered during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. For more info, see this link. 12. b. Romania – The United States was approached after the deal between the Israelis and Egyptians had all ready been arranged. Someone needed to finance it, and the US seemed the most willing. See this link for more info. 13. b. massacre of unarmed Pakistani peacekeepers by Islamic militants Blame the Jews 14. True. Aharon Cohen, Israel and the Arab World, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976), p. 238; Arieh Avneri, The Claim of Dispossession, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1984), p. 252. 15. True. “Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs currently hold 10 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel’s ambassador to Finland. Ariel Sharon’s original cabinet included the first Arab minister, Salah Tarif, a Druze who served as a minister without portfolio. An Arab is also a Supreme Court justice. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. More than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools. At the time of Israel’s founding, there was one Arab high school in the country. Today, there are hundreds of Arab schools.” Source. 16. False. Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen were responsible for the murders, done in apparant retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel and 25 of his followers, killed in a bomb attack earlier that week. Zeev Schiff and Ehud Yaari, Israel’s Lebanon War, (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1984), p. 257. Source 17. False. “The Palestinian problem is but one of many simmering ethnic, religious and nationalistic feuds plaguing the region. Here is but a partial list of other conflicts from the end of the 20th century: the 1991 Gulf War; the Iran-Iraq War; the Lebanese Civil War; Libya’s interference in Chad; the Sudanese Civil War; the Syria-Iraq conflict and the war between the Polisario Front and Morocco. “Almost every border in that part of the world, from Libya to Pakistan, from Turkey to Yemen, is either ill-defined or in dispute,” scholar Daniel Pipes noted. “But Americans tend to know only about Israel’s border problems, and do not realize that these fit into a pattern that recurs across the Middle East.” If the Palestinian problem was solved, it would have negligible impact on the many inter-Arab rivalries that have spawned numerous wars in the region. Nor would it eliminate Arab opposition to Israel. Syria, for example, has a territorial dispute with Israel unrelated to the Palestinians. Other countries, such as Iran and Iraq, maintain a state of war with Israel despite having no territorial disputes.” Source 18. False. Prior to the 1967 War, France had been the largest aid donor and foreign patron of Israel. 19. False. According to the site, September11Victims.com there were 3 Israeli nationals killed. No statistics have been gathered on the religious affiliation of the victims, but Jewish last names such as Levi, Goldstein, Goldberg, Silverstein and Simon are sprinkled throughout the list. As noted elsewhere, while Israelis and Jews are represented, no nationals from Islamic states such as Pakistan, Egypt and Malaysia appear in the list. Blood for oil? 20. b. Canada. According to the American Petroleum Institute, Canada is the largest supplier of petroleum to the United States, supplying 17.1% of total American imports or 10.4% of America’s petroleum supply. Venezuela is next at 13.2% of imports, 8.0 percent of supply – followed by Mexico at 12.9% / 7.9%. Source 21. a. The Americas – Canada, Mexico and Venzuela supply over 25% of America’s petroleum supply. The Persian Gulf countries supply less than 11%. Source 22. c. France. Source 23. c. France. 24. d. Kurds. Kurds make up majority ethnic groups in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwest Iran and western parts of Syria. Source
	Scoring 22+ correct: Congratulations. You could hold your own in an intelligent conversation with Bernard Lewis. 18-21 correct: Good job. You know more than the average Foreign Service lackey. 12-17 correct: You still know more than your average college student, but unless you learn more, you are in serious danger of being swayed by Saddam’s “Useful Idiots”. 5-11 correct: Congratulations! You’re a useful idiot? Not acceptable unless you have Susan Sarandon’s body. <5 correct: Sean Penn stupid. You ARE Sam – but that’s not a Shanghai Surprise to your friends. Keep your mouth shut and try to look pretty, ‘kay?

Anti-Israeli bias in academia? I’m shocked. Shocked!