Are you as upset as I am by all the Israel bashing in the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia? When you hear or read about civilian casualties in war please consider the information below. Think about the civilians, aka non-combatants, when you hear demands for action in Syria or Ukraine or that the US is taking action in Somalia or Iraq. Civilian deaths are always going to be part of war; are the deaths proportionate to a reasonable military objective? Are they worth it?

When reading about contradictory claims of non-combatant Arab casualties during the 50-day Hamas -Israel war, aka Operation Protective Edge, that began on July 8, it's important we understand the numbers in context. Of course civilians died and I for one am horrified by the pictures of children suffering. However, war sucks and as we consider “boots on the ground” and more drone strikes to counteract terrorist threats, let's remember that in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. and coalition forces reportedly killed one combatant for every 3 to 4 noncombatant casualties. Did U.S. and coalition forces, and Israeli troops, take steps to limit “collateral damage?” Of the Palestinian dead in the Gaza Strip who were not members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or other terrorist groups: How many were relatives or neighbors killed in an attack on Hamas positions, especially since many of these positions were in schools, mosques, hospitals or residences in highly-populated areas, placed there in violation of the laws of war specifically for their “human shield” potential? How many were Arabs killed by Hamas as “collaborators”? Of the 4,500 rockets fired by Hamas and its allies, 875 fell inside Gaza, meaning Hamas dropped explosives on its own people. How many Arabs were killed by Hamas friendly fire? How many were natural deaths that occurred during the fighting? Let's also recall that had Hamas and its partners not fired rockets, mortars and missiles into Israel just prior to and during Operation Protective Edge, had it not built an extensive tunnel network into Israel to stage mass kidnappings and massacres, and had it not rejected or quickly broken seven cease-fires or cease-fire proposals, there would have been no casualties among Gazans, combatants or non-combatants. *

Al Qaeda’s 9/11 anniversary attacks ready to go. New undetectable explosive may be used (DEBKAfile) Credible information has reached Saudi, British and Australian agencies that two al Qaeda branches – IS in Iraq and Syria and AQAP at its base in Yemen - have wrapped up plans to roll out coordinated terrorist spectaculars around the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. 

Click hear for The Islamic State documentary courtesy of Vice News.

Egypt

Sinai Jihadists Claim Five More Beheadings - Yifa Yaakov (Times of Israel) Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a jihadist group operating in Sinai, claimed responsibility for executing five more Bedouins.

India

Al Qaeda opens branch in the 'Indian Subcontinent' - Bill Roggio (Long War Journal)

Iran

Iran Vows to Free Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israel (IANS) Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Monday vowed to liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque in the old city of Jerusalem from Israeli forces and spare no efforts to help the Palestinian people, state-ownedPress TV reported.

Iraq

French, British IS Fighters Discuss Use Of Yazidi Women As Sex Slaves (MEMRI)

Mission creep in Iraq continues as US launches airstrikes in Amerli- Bill Roggio (Long War Journal)

Israel

Col. Kemp: Palestinian Civilian Casualties in Gaza War One-Fourth of World Average - Lahav Harkov Col. (res.) (Jerusalem Post) Kemp said there was approximately one civilian casualty for ever terrorist killed by the IDF, whereas the average in the world is four civilians for every combatant.

Israel signs $15 billion gas deal with Jordan – Marissa Newman (Times of Israel)

Israel Approves Major Housing Plan for Arab Neighborhood in Jerusalem - Nir Hasson (Ha'aretz)
The Jerusalem Planning Committee on Wednesday approved a plan for an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem that extends over 375 acres and calls for building 2,200 homes.

Israel's Decision to Declare 988 Acres of West Bank Territory as State Land (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Jordan

Jordan to NATO: ISIS Terrorists Have Begun to Infiltrate Our Borders - Eli Leon and Yoni Hirsh (Israel Hayom-Hebrew)

Jordanian-Palestinian Politician: There Is No ISIS Ideology – It's Islam; Syrian Soldiers Deserved to Be Slaughtered (MEMRI) Lumps USA, its allies, and Iran together against Islam.

Palestinians

Abbas rejects Egyptian offer to settle refugees in Sinai – Elhanan Miller (Times of Israel) Land that would be annexed to the Gaza Strip.

Pro-Islamic State Rally Held on Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Times of Israel) The gathering, attended by thousands, was organized by the Tahrir party, described as the Palestine branch of the Islamic State.

Hanan Ashrawi attacks Obama for acknowledging Jewish history – Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Where’s the Coverage? Media Miss Hamas’ Admission of Kidnapping (CAMERA)

In Gaza, So Much Lost And So Little Gained (Le Monde/Worldcrunch)

Big Media Ignores Hamas's "Ugliest Crimes" -Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute) Why do international journalists and human rights advocates continue to turn a blind eye when Palestinians commit atrocities against their own? Is it because such stories are lacking in an anti-Israel angle?

Syria

UN Claims 191,369 Killed in Syrian Civil War - (CAMERA) The United Nations published its updated figures on the number of deaths caused by the three-and-a-half year Syrian civil war, 191,369. The release of the updated statistics was a relatively low-key affair. 

In Raqqa's Training Camps, ISIS Teaches Children How to Behead (Syria Deeply) Boys say their instructors show them how to decapitate blond, blue-eyed dolls with kitchen knives.

Sudan

Sudan Closes Iran Cultural Centers, Expels Diplomats (Oman Tribune) A Sudanese analyst said the move might be in response to pressure from Saudi Arabia.

*Most details courtesy of CAMERA

While in London, much of the news focused on how to tackle home grown British jihadists (ostensibly responsible for the recent very public murder of an American). There was ridicule and support for the government plan for “ASBO for terrorists.” An ASBO is an Anti-Social Behavior Order, which restricts behavior as a punishment for minor offences instead of giving a jail sentence. Hardliners want to revoke British citizenship for those who have joined IS (ISIS) and are participating in armed conflict.  In London, there was plenty of self-blame; they’re looking at themselves and saying we’re doing something wrong if IS can connect with young people and young people cannot connect with western democratic society. See stories about Afzal Amin and Alyas Karmani for more details. It has been documented that “highly alienated” middleclass youths are drawn to join Islamists groups, but then you read that these supposed Islamic fundamentalists are really just criminal gangs in business to rake in big bucks. Is their funding primarily from American “allies” Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey or from kidnapping and crime? Some organizations report that ransom is the main way terrorist organizations fund their activities, and a New York Times report revealed that Al Qaeda (which has distanced themselves from ISIS) collected an estimated $125 million in ransom from European governments in the last five years. For more see these links to NBC,  Daily Mail, The Guardian.

UK Special Forces in Iraq Seek to Capture British Jihadis - Mark Nicol (Mail on Sunday-UK)

One in six French people say they support ISIS - Max Fisher (Vox)

Iran-Backed Group Implicated in Attack on Israel Embassy in Georgia- Bayram Kaya (Zaman-Turkey)

Islamic State Militants Execute 700 People from Syrian Tribe -    Oliver Holmes and Suleiman al-Khalidi (Reuters) The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of the al-Sheitaat tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. Reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the tribe. An activist in Deir al-Zor said that 300 men were executed in one day in the town of Ghraneij.

Islamic State Fighters Kill 84 Yazidi Villagers - Liz Sly 

(Washington Post) Islamic State militants in Iraq on Friday killed 84 men and detained more than 300 women in the Yazidi village of Kocho, Yazidis and Kurdish officials said Saturday, following a week-long siege in which the IS demanded that residents convert to Islam or face death. 

Ceasefire holds; Israeli officials say Hamas dealt heavy blow - Lazar Berman and Yifa Yaakov (Times of Israel) Rock throwing by Palestinians across the West Bank is a serious hazard for drivers. One recent report in the Times of Israel included this positive note: A group of Palestinians from Beit Ummar who saw the crash rushed to the scene to help rescue the three Israelis.

Bringing Abbas Back to Gaza Is Not a Good Idea - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)

Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Returns to Armed Struggle and Terror- Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) 

Senior Fatah official justifies  shooting Israeli civilians: "There are no innocent Israelis"   Rejects joining International Criminal Court because PA could be put on trial  = Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Hamas Arrests 250 of Its Own Members- Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)

Report: Qatar Threatened to Expel Mashaal If He Agreed to Egypt's Cease-Fire Deal - Yifa Yaakov (Times of Israel)

Daily targets Turkish Jews in headline (Today's Zaman)

  

Has New York Magazine Learned Its Lesson Not to Rely on Biased Reporters? (CAMERA) On July 25, New York Magazine published an article by Katie Zavadski casting doubt on Israeli assertions that Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teens, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach, in June, 2014. Now that Hamas has publicly come out and admitted they did it, Zavadski has had to backtrack, repeating the statement issued by Hamas itself on Aug. 21, 2014.

Op-Ed: The President's True Colors Finally Revealed - Steve Emerson (IPT)

Lady al Qaeda: The World's Most Wanted Woman -  Shane Harris (Foreign Policy) Who is Aafia Siddiqui? Why do IS(IS), the Taliban, and al-Qaeda all want her released? 

Excerpts of the week...

Schabas is the perfect choice for Goldstone 2  - Anne Herzberg (The Jerusalem Post and NGO Monitor)

... 

One of the key components in the political war against Israel is "lawfare" or the exploitation of legal frameworks to achieve objectives that cannot be accomplished militarily. The goal is to delegitimize (and ultimately end) Israel's existence as a Jewish state and to punish the country for its anti-terror operations. 

... 

And so enters William Schabas. Schabas has been an outspoken lawfare advocate for many years. In a September 2009 interview discussing the Goldstone Report and the effort to have Israeli indicted at the ICC, for instance, Schabas tellingly admits: "When we look at all the crimes committed in Gaza during the conflict... they are probably not, on a Richter scale of atrocity, at the top. And there are many places in the world where worse crimes have been committed. Sri Lanka, for example, in March or April of 2009 was much more serious in terms of the atrocities and loss of life that was committed... I think the reason why many people in the world are so upset... is not because of the bombardment of facilities in Gaza... but because of our unhappiness about the general political situation there... And so, we mix our dissatisfaction with the situation of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank."  

In other words, the lawfare strategy is not about adjudicating actual crimes allegedly committed on the battlefield, but rather exploiting legal frameworks to affect political goals unrelated to the specific crimes at issue.

Why Jordan Doesn't Want More Palestinians - Khaled Abu Tomeh (Gatestone Institute)

A story is big only when it is Israel that arrests, kills, or deports.

When Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon move against Palestinians, however, foreign journalists choose to bury their heads in the sand. Such has been the case with Jordan and its mistreatment of the kingdom’s Palestinian majority.

Jordan’s dilemma is that if it allows more Palestinians into the country, the kingdom, which already has a Palestinian majority, would be transformed into a Palestinian state. But by mistreating the Palestinians and depriving them of basic rights, Jordan and other Arab countries are driving them into the open arms of extremists, especially Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Hamas is an imperialistic, totalitarian political movement driven by genocidal hatred for Jews — in short, an Islamic Nazi Party. It exists beside the world’s only Jewish state, a liberal democracy. No aspect of the conflict is more important, or more ignored by the mainstream media, than this one. - Joseph Spoerl, Ph.D.(New Hampshire Union Leader)

What took them so long?

Foreign Press Association blasts Hamas’s intimidation of journalists in Gaza  (WJC)  The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents reporters working in the Middle East, today blasted the terrorist group Hamas for threatening and intimidating reporters working in Gaza.

Oops! Entire Family of Dead Palestinians Found to be Alive (Honest Reporting)

Report from the Gaza War: Palestinians Fired from Behind Children - Shmuley Boteach (Times of Israel)

Where's the Coverage? Palestinian Activist: "Hamas Paved the Road for the Death of our People" (CAMERA)

Al Jazeera's Hamas Rocket Launch Video Disappears (CAMERA) An Al Jazeera America video report by correspondent Nick Schrifin describing a Hamas rocket launching site in the middle of a residential Gaza neighborhood, and also showing an Israeli attack near that site, has apparently disappeared from the Al Jazeera site. While the report, which aired on August 1, 2014, is no longer there, the tweet describing the report is still available.

Palestinian Envoy to Iran: "Israel's Annihilation Has Begun" (Fars-Iran)

PA accuses the US of establishing radical terror organization ISIS - Itamar Marcus (PMW) The moderates at the Palestinian Authority claim that the US has a long term goal of controlling the Arab-Muslim states by dividing them through conflict and wars. ISIS's war and other conflicts are all said to be the work of the US 

Gaza Cleric: "We Are Willing to Sacrifice Two Million Martyrs"(MEMRI) 

Israel Finds Silent Backing by Arab Nations Hostile to Hamas - Gwen Ackerman and Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg)

About those missiles...

U.S. Clears Air Missiles Sales to Turkish Army (Hurriyet-Turkey) 

U.S. Agrees to Send 5,000 More Hellfire Missiles to Iraq - Steve Almasy (CNN)

Video: Hamas Continuing to Produce Rockets that Reach Tel Aviv- Roi Kais (Ynet News)

ISIS Leaflets in London Encourage British Muslims to Join Jihad - David Churchill (London Evening Standard-UK)

Over at the United Nations

William Schabas - head of new UN Gaza commission  -  (NGO Monitor) - On August 11, 2014 the UN Human Rights Council appointed William Schabas, a Canadian Professor, to head the latest "inquiry" on alleged human rights violations in the Gaza conflict. Prof' Schabas's record is riddled with anti-Israel biases, included repeated calls for prosecuting Israeli official for alleged "war crimes" at the International Criminal Court. He has also served as legal counsel to Ireland's Amnesty International branch, which has consistently shown a deep hostility towards Israel. Schabas has also defended Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, stating that his repeated calls to "wipe Israel off the map," do not constitute a "call for genocide," but are simply "political views."

The voice of reason...

Mr. Secretary General, When Will You Have the Courage to Stand Up for Israel? - Ben-Dror Yemini (Fox News)    Following the civil war in Somalia in 1991, the UN sent international forces to Mogadishu. The fighters the UN soldiers were operating against turned women and children into a human shield. Throughout the clashes, UN soldiers continued to fire directly at innocent people when rebel fighters were hiding between them. Hundreds of dead were left on the streets. The UN forces received the full backing of the UN, despite the many civilian casualties.     In the summer of 2009, Sri Lanka decided to crush the Tamil Tigers after years of terrorist activities. According to a UN report, 40,000 civilians were killed, or slaughtered, during the operation. Not only was there no global protest, but the Human Rights Council praised Sri Lanka.    The claims being made against Israel are disproportionate. Israel's response is not disproportionate. Hamas is highly encouraged by your declarations about the current conflict. Hamas will never defeat Israel on the battlefield, but it is trying to defeat Israel in a propaganda war, by putting out false accusations and blaming Israel for war crimes. Your pronouncements only strengthen Hamas. 

UN: "Barbaric" Sexual Violence Perpetrated by Islamic State Militants in Iraq (UN News Center)

There will be no Update next week.

Herat police chief accuses Iran of ramping up attacks in western Afghanistan  - Bill Roggio (Long War Journal)

The 20 Oddest Things People Actually Claim to Believe about the Hamas/Israel Conflict -  Jeff Ballabon (Gatestone Institute)
Not sure why an Indian TV journalist broke this story, when there are 700+journalists from all over the world in the area: NDTV Exclusive: How Hamas Assembles and Fires Rockets - Sreenivasan Jain (NDTV)  As the station freely admits - aired on NDTV and published on ndtv.com after our team left the Gaza strip - Hamas places those civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones. 
Official Fatah Facebook page boasts about leading Palestinians in terror– Itamar Marcus (PMW) Throughout the current Gaza war, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the Fatah movement has used its Facebook page to promote violence and terror against Israelis, both in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Holy War Arrives in Germany – Soeren Kern (Gatestone Institute) Supporters of the jihadist group "Islamic State" [IS] have clashed with Kurdish Yazidis in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state with the largest Muslim population in Germany. The violence—which comes amid threats by a German jihadist to blow up an American nuclear weapons storage facility in Germany—has counter-terrorism officials concerned that radical Muslims are deliberately exploiting the ethnic and religious tensions in the Middle East to stir up trouble on the streets of Europe.

Does Islamic State ideology threaten Indonesia? - Sri Lestari (BBC Indonesia)

Jordan’s king slams Israel for Gaza assault, ignores Hamas (Times of Israel) In interview making no mention of rocket fire or other violence by Strip’s Islamist rulers, Abdullah blames Israel for unjustified aggression

Islamic State beheads, crucifies in push for Syria's east – Oliver Holmes and Suleiman Al-Khalidi (Reuters)

Joe Hyams at NY Rally: We Won’t Apologize For Not Bleeding More (Honest Reporting)

Hillary Clinton: "Israel Did What It Had to Do to Respond to the Rockets" - Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Hillary Clinton (Atlantic) Discussing the Gaza war, Hillary Clinton offered a vociferous defense of Israel. This is noteworthy because, as secretary of state, she spent a lot of time yelling at Netanyahu on the administration's behalf over Israel's West Bank settlement policy.