Arab rock-throwers are getting more creative -- in a deadly way.

In the Middle East, rocks are plentiful, free, and sometimes lethal. Since ancient times, they have been a method of execution. So it is no wonder they have been a weapon of choice for Palestinian attackers.

On the evening of June 5, 2001, American citizens Benny and Batsheva Shoham were driving home after paying a condolence call in Ra'anana. Their five month-old son, Yehuda, was asleep in the back, strapped in his car seat. As they passed near an Arab village, Luban a-Sharkiya, rock-throwers attacked. One heavy rock crashed through the front windshield and struck the baby in his head, killing him.

(The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America. This is the twenty-fourth in a series. To view previous installments, please visit http://www.phillyreligiouszionists.org/lessons-from-the-gaza-war/.)
 Much has been said and written about the terror tunnels that Hamas built in Gaza. But too little has been said about who it was that put the cement into Hamas’ hands, thus making the construction of the tunnels possible in the first place.
 Until now.
 In a bombshell revelation, Dennis Ross, the senior Mideast policy adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2011, has admitted that it was he who was assigned the task of pressuring Israel to ease up on its military blockade of Gaza, in the events after Israel's withdrawal from that region in 2005.

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the two holiest days on the Jewish calendar, will now forever be linked as the two most crucial moments in Israel's military history--one for a surrender to foreign pressure, one for a bold defiance of foreign pressure.

In the days leading up to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, both the United States and Israel became aware that Egypt and Syria were planning to attack. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger telephoned Israel's acting ambassador in Washington, Mordechai Shalev, and relayed to him a "presidential entreaty" --that is, a direct demand by the White House-- that Israel refrain from launching a preemptive strike.

(The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America. This is the eighth in a series. To view previous installments, please visit www.phillyreligiouszionists.org/lessons-from-the-gaza-war/.)

With Hamas reeling from Israel's military strikes, Secretary of State John Kerry is rushing to the Middle East--to try to get Israel to cease firing. 
Bad move. Rescuing Hamas should not be on America's agenda.
The vaguely pro-Israel rhetoric emanating from the White House in the first days of the war helped keep Congress and the American Jewish community from criticizing the Obama administration. But it did not reflect the administration's true feelings.
 

The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America. This is the seventh in a series. To view previous installments, please visit www.phillyreligiouszionists.org/lessons-from-the-gaza-war/.)

A simple cease-fire in Gaza would give Hamas time to re-arm and renew its terrorist activities.
The demilitarization of Gaza would put an end to Hamas's terrorist activities.
Which goal makes more sense?

The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America. This is the third in a series. To view previous installments, please visit www.phillyreligiouszionists.org/lessons-from-the-gaza-war/.)

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is anchored in the premise that the mainstream Palestinian leadership has truly given up its old terrorist ways. Yasser Arafat and his Fatah movement --the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization-- put down their guns and "recognized" Israel. The bad guys became the good guys, and the only bad guys are left are a small minority of Hamas extremists.
The Gaza war provides an opportunity to test that theory. Hamas kidnaps and murders Israeli teenagers, and fires hundreds of rockets into Israel. How has Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah, responded?