This photo, along with the heart-rending story of the death of 11-month-old Omar Mashhrawi, ran in mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post and the BBC last November.

The baby’s death was attributed to Israeli airstrikes and suggestions that Hamas rockets might have been at fault were roundly dismissed:

Despite the evidence pointing towards an Israeli air strike, some bloggers have suggested it might have been a misfired Hamas rocket.

But at that time, so soon after the launch of Israel’s operation, the Israeli military says mortars had been launched from Gaza but very few rockets.

Mortar fire would not cause the fireball that appears to have engulfed Jehad’s house.

Other bloggers have said that the damage to Jehad’s home was not consistent with powerful Israeli attacks but the BBC visited other bombsites this week with very similar fire damage, where Israel acknowledged carrying out what it called “surgical strikes”.

As at Jehad’s home, there was very little structural damage but the victims were brought out with massive and fatal burns. Most likely is that Omar died in the one of the more than 20 bombings across Gaza that the Israeli military says made up its initial wave of attacks.

Omar was not a terrorist.

Last week, though, a report issued by the UN Human Rights Council confirmed that it was a Hamas rocket, not an Israeli airstrike, that caused the baby’s death:

“On 14 November, a woman, [an] 11-month-old infant, and an 18-year-old adult in Al-Zaitoun were killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.”

It’s critical to keep in mind the way in which death and destruction is routinely used to further someone’s agenda. In this case, more important than figuring out what actually happened, the Post, the BBC, and even Human Rights Watch immediately made this terrible story the centerpiece of their broader criticism of Israel and dismissed any blame that might fall to Hamas.

Of course, while many Israelis and their supporters are now feeling vindicated, it’s also crucial to remember that these people and many others like them still died. And that many more will likely die as a result of the rockets and airstrikes routinely and cavalierly unleashed by parties to this conflict.

Israelis, Palestinians, and their supporters around the world act as though this is some sort of game that one side can win if only enough people come over to their side; with each death, whether it’s a baby or a grandparent, it’s pretty clear that no one’s winning.

It’s definitely a good idea not to present an International Women of Courage award to someone who celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the murder of Israelis, quoted Hitler, and made assorted anti-Semitic remarks.

Of course, she claimed that her Twitter account was hacked … but that pretty much proved not to be true (thanks to some sleuthing through the Twitter API by Arieh Kovler). So then she effectively admitted that the offending tweets were hers:

“I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award.”

The old “I was hacked” defense doesn’t work so well when the offensive tweets remain online, when they were posted using the same Twitter for Adroid app that you used for your other tweets (including the one claiming you were hacked), and when you respond to people who respond to the offensive (and supposedly hacked) tweets.

It’s good to see that the State Department decided against presenting an award to Ibrahim … even if it took a whole bunch of people to help them get it right at the very last minute.

Just ahead of Passover, a Biblical plague alert:

Swarms of Locusts Cross Into Israel From Egypt:

Israel first announced that it was on “locust alert” on Monday, after large swarms were spotted in the Cairo area. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned that wind and climate conditions increased the chances of an entomological cross-border invasion.

The headline miserably says it all:

“Israel launches segregated bus service”

Rabbi David Hartman, the American-born director of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, passed away on Sunday. He was 81.

Hartman was one of the world’s leading Jewish philosophers and a promoter of diversity among Jewish theological trends.

[…]

Menachem Lorberbaum, a professor at Tel Aviv University who worked closely with Hartman at the institute, said he “inspired a whole new generation of teachers in Jewish philosophy and theology.”

Lorberbaum said Hartman will be known for his accomplishments on religious ethics, and as “a pioneer of interfaith dialogue.”

“He was committed to the notion that morality precedes Jewish law,” he said.

I teach David Shipler’s book Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land every year in my class on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and quotes from Rabbi Hartman are featured throughout that book; they are most often presented as a counterpoint to some of the virulent statements in opposition to pluralism that Shipler unearths in conversations with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, citizens, and students.

It’s fortunate that Hartman inspired a new generation of Jewish teachers because his position on interfaith dialogue is a necessary corrective to the potential polarization that comes from a deep immersion in one’s own religious faith … especially in the midst of a conflict that is often cast as occurring between religions.

(via pols470)

There’s really nothing like Israeli politics, where a party leader — currently under indictment for fraud and breach of trust for actions committed as Foreign Minister in the most recent government — continues to make proclamations about the make-up of the incoming government, though he might very well not be a part of it as a consequence of said indictment:

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman on Saturday rejected reports that Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid would serve as foreign minister in the next government, stating that the portfolio would remain with his party.

While Liberman can not serve as foreign minister while an indictment against him for fraud is pending, he told Channel 2 on Saturday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would fill in as foreign minister, and that he would retake the position after being cleared of charges.

Literally amazing.

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor called for an apology Sunday from Britain’s Sunday Times, which published a cartoon of Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu building a wall on the bodies of Arabs. The cartoon, which appears on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, depicts the blood of the Arabs as cement.

Many observers found the cartoon reminiscent of blood libels against Jews, and noted a similarity to anti-Semitic cartoons published by Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer in the leadup to the Holocaust.

In case you think someone might be stretching the comparison and seeing anti-Semitism where none exists, here’s a blood libel cartoon from Der Stürmer:

The simple truth is this:

When people are overtly anti-Semitic in their attempts to criticize the Israeli government, it gets more difficult for those of who aren’t anti-Semites to do so.

In other words, rather than successfully making public a critique of the Netanyahu government, disgusting cartoons like this one can actually have a chilling effect on other critics of the Israeli government.

It’s very easy to make compelling arguments against the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu without even the slightest whiff of anti-Semitism … which is why a cartoon like this makes clear that some critics of Israel’s government just hate Jews in general.

(Source: israelnationalnews.com)

Michael Koplow, writing in Foreign Affairs, argues that the narrative that emerged immediately after the Israeli election probably isn’t correct:

No, Israel Did Not Just Vote for the Center: Why the Right is Still Dominant

The surprisingly strong performance of Yair Lapid in Israel’s election, coupled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s losses, have led many to conclude that Israeli voters have shifted to the center. But Lapid’s party is conservative where it counts—on security issues—and the voters who left Netanyahu largely went even further to the right.