What a fun photo assignment.....STEPS1. 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, San Francisco2. Valparaíso, Chile
Image credits: Jean-BaptisteYunis3. Philadelphia Museum of Art
Image credits: rleigh4. Valparaíso, Chile
Image credits: oueduabroad.wordpress.com5. Seoul, South Korea
Image credits: Kevin Lowry6. Wuppertal, Germany
Image credits: frizztext7. Sicily, Italy
Image credits: Andrea Annaloro8. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Image credits: jr-art.net9. Stairs of Peace in Syria
Image credits: Jood Voluntary Team10. Beirut, Lebanon
Image credits: Jubran E. Elias11. Stairs to the musical theater in Seoul, South Korea
Image credits: Kimhwan SEOULIST12. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Image credits: justin-travels.com13. Angers, France
Image credits: Mademoiselle Maurice14. Istanbul, Turkey
Image credits: DHA15. Morlaix, France
Image credits: ZAG16. Beirut, Lebanon
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| |  by Alan M. Dershowitz | | Hamas' Phony Statistics on Civilian Deaths Reliable sources say half of those killed were combatants. | |
| | It's a mystery why so many in the media accept as gospel Hamas-supplied figures on the number of civilians killed in the recent war. Hamas claims that of the more than 1800 Palestinians killed close to 90% were civilians. Israel, on the other hand, says that close to half of them were combatants. The objective facts support a number much closer to Israel's than to Hamas'. Even human rights group antagonistic to Israel acknowledge, according to a New York Times report, that Hamas probably counts among the "civilians killed by Israel" the following groups: Palestinians killed by Hamas as collaborators; Palestinians killed through domestic violence; Palestinians killed by errant Hamas rockets or mortars; and Palestinians who died naturally during the conflict. I wonder if Hamas also included the reported 162 children who died while performing child slave labor in building their terror tunnels. Hamas also defines combatants to include only armed fighters who were killed while fighting Israelis. They exclude Hamas supporters who build tunnels, who allow their homes to be used to store and fire rockets, Hamas policemen, members of the Hamas political wing and others who work hand in hand with the armed terrorists. Several years ago I came up with a concept which I call, the "continuum of civilianality" – an inelegant phrase that is intended to convey the reality that who is a civilian and who is a combatant is often a matter of degree. Clearly every child below the age in which he or she is capable of assisting Hamas is a civilian. Clearly every Hamas fighter who fires rockets, bears arms, or operates in the tunnels is a combatant. Between these extremes lie a wide range of people, some of whom are closer to the civilian end, many of whom who are closer to the combatant end. The law of war has not established a clear line between combatants and civilians, especially in the context of urban warfare where people carry guns at night and bake bread during the day, or fire rockets during the day and go back home to sleep with their families at night. (Interestingly the Israeli Supreme Court has tried to devise a functional definition of combatants in the murky context of urban guerrilla warfare.) Data published by the New York Times strongly suggest that a very large number – perhaps a majority – of those killed are closer to the combatant end of the continuum than to the civilian end. First of all, the vast majority of those killed have been male rather than female. In an Islamic society, males are far more likely to be combatants than females. Second, most of those killed are within the age range (15-40) that are likely to be combatants. The vast majority of these are male as well. The number of people over 60 who have been killed is infinitesimal. The number of children below the age of 15 is also relatively small, although their pictures have been shown more frequently than others. In other words, the genders and ages of those killed are not representative of the general population of Gaza. It is far more representative of the genders and ages of combatants. These data strongly suggest that a very large percentage of Palestinians killed are on the combatant side of the continuum. They also prove, as if any proof were necessary to unbiased eyes, that Israel did not target civilians randomly. If it had, the dead would be representative of the Gaza population in general, rather than of the subgroups most closely identified with combatants. The media should immediately stop using Hamas-approved statistics, which in the past have proved to be extremely unreliable. Instead, they should try to document, independently, the nature of each person killed and describe their age, gender, occupation, affiliation with Hamas and other objective factors relevant to their status as a combatant, non-combatant or someone in the middle. It is lazy and dangerous for the media to rely on Hamas-approved propaganda figures. In fact, when the infamous Goldstone Report falsely stated that the vast majority of people killed in Operation Cast Lead were civilians and not Hamas fighters, many in Gaza complained to Hamas. They accused Hamas of cowardice for allowing so many civilians to be killed while protecting their own fighters. As a result of these complaints, Hamas was forced to tell the truth: namely that many more of those killed were actually Hamas fighters or armed policemen. It is likely that Hamas will make a similar "correction" with regard to this conflict. But that correction will not be covered by the media, as the prior correction was not. The headline – "Most of those killed by Israel were children, women and the elderly" – will continue to be the conventional wisdom, despite its factual falsity. Unless it is corrected, Hamas will continue with its "dead baby strategy" and more people on both sides will die. This article originally appeared on Gatestone Institute
Author Biography: Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School, served as an attorney in several high-profile court cases, and is a sought-after commentator on the Arab–Israeli conflict. He is the author of some 25 books, including The Case for Israel. Thank God for the Republican gentilesBy JACKIE MASON 08/18/2014 21:49 Every Jew is raised to think it's his moral obligation to help and love the weak and the underdog. Iron dome Photo: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST Thank God that the fighting in Gaza has stopped for the moment. If Israel sneezes, Hamas and the others may start the fireworks again and Israel will again be forced to defend itself. If that happens, I'll say thank God for the Republican gentiles. If the Evangelicals didn't fight for the Jews, you would never know that the Jews even have a right to defend themselves. Historically, Jews have always been too helpless and guilt-ridden to fight back when attacked. If you attack a Muslim, you will be pleading for your life in a flash; insult a black person and your foot will stop working for a month. But if you attack a Jew, he will be so busy wondering what the Jews did to make you so violent, that he won't even notice that he is still bleeding. The fact that Jews have always been so helpless is the reason that Diaspora Jews are so amazed by the military power of Israel and the unbelievable heroism of its troops. It is amazing that while Hamas rains rockets on the State of Israel, the guilt-ridden liberal Jews of America can't find any reason to condemn it: They can't feel comfortable unless they see the Palestinians as victims of Israeli oppression. To create the idea that a Hamas terrorist is a victim is as much a fantasy as saying that Adolf Hitler was a victim of the Jews. Every Jew is raised to think it's his moral obligation to help and love the weak and the underdog. And if he can't find one, he needs to invent one. Palestinian rockets can be storming all over Israel and liberal American Jews are convinced if Israel didn't persecute them, this never would've happened. Only a pathetically perverted sick Jewish mind could believe this. The Jewish guilt trip knows no limit. That is why we face the insanity of watching Hamas send rockets to Israel determined to kill innocent civilians while Israel sends leaflets, emails and makes phone calls pleading with Palestinians to flee out of the way of rockets so that innocents won't be harmed. It is unbelievable that while the charter of Hamas calls for the total destruction of Israel, the Jews of America somehow manage never to have heard about it, although Hamas makes it obvious by its behavior each and every day. When three Jewish teenagers were murdered in June, Palestinians were jumping, dancing and celebrating in the streets; but when a Palestinian teen was killed, all of Israel expressed their national sorrow and they were begging for forgiveness. The contrast between the mentality of Israel and the mentality of Hamas was never so loudly expressed as when the Arab killers became heroes and the Jewish killers became prisoners. Every militant knows that if you are caught trying to kill Jews and happen to get wounded, the Jews are the only people in the history of warfare who will provide the best medical attention in order to save your life. Isn't it a weird irony that while a Hamas terrorist is trying to destroy Israeli lives, Israelis decide to save his life? Palestinian sympathizers have chosen to avoid the simple fact that the rockets raining on Israel are no different than the bombs that struck America on 9-11: just as America did nothing to deserve it, neither has the State of Israel. What could we do that would stop Hamas from its determination to destroy the State of Israel? The answer is nothing. But the Israelis have always wanted peace so desperately that they kept imagining that anything is possible. Israelis have constantly negotiated with the powerless Palestinian Authority, while Hamas's pledge to destroy Israel remains. We are now listening to the 12th secretary of state and the 14th president trying to accomplish a negotiated settlement. Israel has long demanded that Hamas give up its terrorist goals, which won't happen; and it was right and necessary to destroy all its arms and the tunnels built to terrorize and kill Israelis. But the guilt-trip of the liberal American Jew has made him into a walking mess of insanity, inventing the idea of Hamas as victims when they are really a mob of would-be mass murderers. It is amazing that only American Jews are deranged enough to believe this. Even the other Arab countries surrounding the State of Israel are secretly hiding from Hamas (The New York Times, July 30, "Arab Leaders, Viewing Hamas as Worse Than Israel, Stay Silent," David D. Kirkpatrick), fleeing from any connection to them. Only the insane thinking of the liberal Jews in America can manage to find an excuse for it. That's why, as I said before, thank God for the Republican gentiles. Without them, nobody in America would think Israel should defend itself from Hamas. The writer is stand-up comedian who has had several well-received one-man Broadway stage shows. |
