Friends of Israel

English footballer Rob Earnshaw has learned what it’s like to experience a rocket attack in Israel. Not to mention the resilience of Israelis.

ROB EARNSHAW last night revealed the terrifying moment a Hamas missile exploded above his head in the middle of a training session in Tel Aviv.

Wales striker Earnie is with Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv on a season-long loan from Cardiff.
But his move turned into a nightmare as the country descended into a warzone.

Hamas militants have increased the number of rockets fired at Israel’s major cities in retaliation for attacks on Gaza.
Earnshaw, 31, said: “Life was good out here until the last few days. Now it’s very different.

“The first Hamas attack I experienced came while we were in the middle of a training session.

“We were just kicking a few balls around when the warning sirens suddenly went off.

“The foreign boys like me did not have a clue what was going on until the local Israeli boys were shouting and screaming at us, ‘Come in, come in, come in. You have to take shelter’.

“Apparently you’ve got about 60 seconds to take cover. When they tell you that — and you hear the word ‘missiles’ mentioned — you move pretty fast!

“I was just thinking, ‘My God, what’s happening here?’

“Then literally 30-60 seconds after the sirens sounded there was a massive bang and an explosion.

“It really hit home that something major was going down. We were all wondering, ‘Was it a one-off or can we expect rockets and missiles raining down on us on a daily basis?’

“The run to the nearby bunker was the quickest training run of the day and even a few of the local lads were scared, more because they wanted to contact their families and make sure they were safe.

“This is not a normal situation, even for Tel Aviv, and it isn’t easy getting used to bombs and rockets being fired off in your direction.

“It’s the first time in 21 years that Tel Aviv has been attacked, I’m just unfortunate to be around when it’s happened!

“That was my first experience of the conflict and it’s not something a boy from South Wales can easily get used to.

“I used to think that Cardiff on a night out could get a bit lively. I can assure you it’s a lot livelier out here in Tel Aviv right now!”

Most of Earnshaw’s Israeli Maccabi team-mates remain reassuringly calm.

The former West Brom and Nottingham Forest forward added: “They spend three years in the army when they turn 18, so they are experienced under fire and know the drill.

“They told us about the Iron Dome, which is the defence mechanism they have for the major cities.

“It’s a sophisticated missile-defence system which detects heat from any missile or rocket launched towards the city.

“Then it shoots off two ground-to-air missiles which intercept them in mid-air.

“It’s amazing to think there are hundreds of rockets a day being launched at Tel Aviv, yet they have all been intercepted and there hasn’t been one casualty so far.”

Despite his team-mates’ expertise Earnie’s main concern was for his two-year-old son Silva, who had arrived days earlier with his sister Diane and was back home at his apartment.

He said: “When the rockets were going off, I wasn’t with them, which made it worse.

“Silva was too little to panic. He could obviously hear the noise but he had no idea what it actually was.

“But poor Diane didn’t know what had happened until I told her. She had looked out of the window to see people running for cover and had no idea there was a bunker she should have gone to.

“The amazing thing is that the local people just carry on with their life as normal. They are defiant and they don’t let the threat panic them.

“They have total confidence in the army and the defence systems in place.”

Read the whole thing.

Following on the heels of this post from yesterday, you just knew someone was going to have to make this poster.

This is the first time I’ve seen the Zuck do anything remotely Jewish or pro-Israel. But better late than never.

Via Twitter

Update: Photoshopped

Harmless fun from those crazy Gazan kids.

Arab students protesting against Israel at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University today learned that palestinian rockets don’t discriminate (hat tip: Jed).

I guess they won’t be boycotting Israeli bomb shelters any time soon.

In related news, today two rockets landed in an open area near the palestinian controlled city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. And a Bedouin was killed by a Gazan “projectile.”

Hamas supporters of the world: Here’s your guys in action.*

Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection Tuesday, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter saw a large mob surrounding five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing.The Hamas military wing claimed responsibility.

Some in the crowd stomped and spit on the bodies. A sixth corpse was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets as people screamed, “Spy! Spy!”

The Hamas military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, claimed responsibility in a large handwritten note attached to a nearby electricity pole. Hamas said the six were killed because they gave Israel information about fighters and rocket launching sites.

* Since photos of Israelis being injured or killed do not seem to move you

Update: VERY graphic photos and video here (hat tip: Challah)

Update: The story has “inspired” this poster.

Click to enlarge

Israeli celebrity Noa Tishby raises some very good looking points.

Al Jizz journalist Darren Jordon puts aside any pretense of objectivity with this interview interrogation of Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

I think he went to journalism school with this guy.

Remember Shirley Temper, the blonde palestinian girl and Pallywood darling?

She’s back in the news, this time mourning her brother relative.

Via the JPost:

Palestinian activist Abir Kopty of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee reported Monday that a Palestinian died in a Ramallah hospital two days after he was shot by an IDF soldier.

The incident took place in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh during clashes at protests against Operation Pillar of Defence.

In a video released Monday, around a dozen youths can be seen throwing rocks at IDF soldiers from a hillside in the village, while the soldiers fire tear gas and what sounds like rubber bullets.

At one point, Rushdi Tamimi, 31, is seen sitting on the hillside, then shots are heard and he falls to his side. The video then cuts to footage shot by a cameraman running to help Tamimi, who is seen crouched with blood on his head. The soldiers tell the protesters to back away from the man, but after a few minutes they relent and allow the protesters to allow him to be taken to a hospital.

Kopty said that Tamimi was shot once in the lower back and the bullet lodged in his stomach. Although he was admitted to a hospital by Saturday evening, he died of his wounds, she said.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that “on Saturday there was an illegal violent protest where some 80 Palestinians threw rocks at IDF forces who used crowd dispersal methods against them.”

While the exact circumstances of his death are not yet clear, what seems to be clear is he was no boy scout.

On the Tamimi Press Facebook page, he is described as a “Palestinian national liberation movement martyr” and his photo is featured with the Fatah emblem, rifles and all.

There’s also this post, auto translated as follows:

Urgent: the martyrdom of the young Rushdie Mahmoud al-Tamimi of his wounds in the village of Nabi Saleh
Tamimi Press: trumpet Popular Resistance Movement Palestinian uprising in the village of Nabi Saleh hero martyr Rushdie Mahmoud Hassan al-Tamimi, 28, who died of his Bjarha that injured two days agofollowing a confrontation broke out in the village of Nabi Saleh in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip was shot live in thigh and abdomen and was taken to the Palestine medical complex inRamallah and suffered internal bleeding before they rise to God as a martyr
Martyr al-Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh and works in a Palestinian police and invite you to participate in his funeral on Tuesday
I am God and to Him we return

His work in the palestinian police is confirmed by Maan News.

While it is not clear he was a terrorist, at the very least he was a member of the palestinian police, which makes it highly unlikely he was at the protests merely yelling out curses and picking daisies.

Update:

A Palestinian policeman bids farewell to 28-year-old Palestinian Rushdi Tamimi, a fellow officer, who died at a Ramallah hospital two days after Israeli forces shot him during a Gaza solidarity protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, 19 November. (Issam Rimawi / APA images)

I have noticed the following photo and caption being spread on social media (for example, here).

Today, a six month old Palestinian boy and his mother arrived from Gaza to the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon [Tel Aviv], just as the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza toward the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and a vehicle outside the hospital was damaged by shrapnel.

But it is not entirely true. Using the same image tool I use to identify fake photos being disseminated by the anti-Israel crowd brought me to the photo source.

Sure, it is a photo of an Israeli doctor and palestinian mother and child (as part of the Save a Child’s Heart program), but it’s from September 2012.

Now don’t get me wrong. It does show how we are involved in humanitarian causes that transcend the conflict. It is just not accurate to depict it as a photo from this week.

And believe me, our enemies will pounce on us for mistakes like this.

We do not need to be careless with the truth, because it is on our side.