The death of terrorist Sami Abu Diak

Sami Abu Diak was convicted in 2002 of carrying out a terror attack near Jenin that led to the deaths of three Arabs who had been suspected of collaborating with Israel. Sentenced to 3 consecutive life sentences for voluntary manslaughter and kidnapping he recently succumbed to intestinal cancer. The Palestinians have declared a "Day of Rage" in this memory.

The lies surrounding Abu Diak's life and death are proliferating across social media.

Abu Diak underwent several surgeries at Israeli taxpayer expense (confirmed by the Arab propaganda site Jadaliyya) and had been hospitalized for four years
Abu Diak is currently suffering from advanced stages of bowel cancer, as well as renal and pulmonary failure. In 2015, he was urgently transferred to Israel’s Soroka Medical Center where he suffered poisoning as a result of misdiagnosis and a medical error. This medical negligence led to the removal of 80cm of his intestines and he was consequently diagnosed with kidney and pulmonary failure.

Palestinian agitprop sites are evenly divided as to whether Sami Abu Diak died alone and in prison, or alone while in the hospital.  They are in unanimous agreement however, that his death of  colorectal cancer was Israel's fault.

Fighting for the Soul of the Democratic party

This weekend, the California Democratic Party meet in Long Beach to endorse candidates for district offices, and to make policy and platform recommendations.

True to form, extremist groups like JVP were there, in an effort to pressure the party to adopt divisive positions on Israel that serve only to marginalize the Jewish community and to demonize the world’s only Jewish state. 

Fortunately, groups such as  the Progressive Zionists of California (like them on Facebook!)and the AJC were also involved, to fight for the soul of the Democratic party, and ultimately prevailed.

 From the Progressive Zionists of California:

Progressive Zionists of California commends the California Democratic Party for upholding language on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by the Platform Committee, whose members worked tirelessly over three months to collect comments, engage in robust dialogue, and streamline language on a number of complex issues. Thank you to every delegate who voted against the proposed anti-peace amendment and for the platform language, upholding the values we hold dear as Democrats.

Despite many late nights working to find a compromise on the platform language, at the convention anti-Zionists collected signatures to attempt to get language changed through a vote at the general session, in what is known as a "floor fight." During this process, flyers distributed to gain signatures to bring the amendments to floor misrepresented the wording of the revised platform.

The floor vote, which was done first by voice and then checked visually as voting delegates held up their cards, overwhelmingly rejected the anti-Zionist's amendment, included language calling for an unprecedented “right of return” — a policy that would preclude a two-state solution.
In particular, we are pleased with the numerous rewrites of particularly troubling planks in the Platform Committee. We commend the Platform Committee in particular for their thoughtful discussion, and commitment to dialogue.

PZC founding member Susan George said, "We are pleased the party has once again rejected extremism, and decided to focus on unifying issues. 2020 is the election of a lifetime, and we must focus on keeping the tremendous gains California Democrats made in 2018, not get derailed by a divisive conversation."

We are also pleased that the party accepted an amendment to the Education plank and the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, proposed by PZC Steering Committee member Andrea Beth Damsky, to meaningfully include language encouraging education about antisemitism.

PZC is grateful to our partners:

California Legislative Jewish Caucus
Democrats For Israel Los Angeles
Democratic Majority for Israel – Official Page
AJC - Global Jewish Advocacy
JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa
Democrats for Peace in the Middle East
Zioness Movement
A Wider Bridge
ADL Long Beach/Orange County
ADL Los Angeles
CYD Jewish Caucus
Jewish Federation & Family Services, Orange County
and numerous grassroots partners for their cooperation, support, and guidance.

We look forward to working together in the future to keep the California Democratic Party free from antisemitism, to focus our attention on making our communities better for everyone.

Zaki Ghannam: Islamic Jihad Terrorist

Palestinian lies fly faster than their rockets, with roughly the same degree of accuracy.

Meet Palestinian  "organizer"  Alexandra Halaby, over 13 thousand followers, and possessor of the coveted blue checkpoint on Twitter.

Halaby tweeted  "My cousin Zaki Ghannam was killed in his home by an Israeli missile in #Gaza. Zaki was a university student in no way affiliated with Palestinian resistance. His pain is over and he is finally free from the siege of Gaza he endured most of his life. His father will never recover."

Doesn't appear that Alexandra Halaby knew her cousin quite as well as she thought.

h/t  Joe Truzman   and Michele Sabra

"Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirms the death of one of its northern branch militants, Zaki Adnan Mohammed Ghannam. He was killed by an IDF airstrike earlier today. #Gaza #Israel  "

Zaki Ghannam  "innocent" civilian

The Meir Amit  Intelligence center writes:

Zaki Muhammad Adnan Ghanam

Personal information: 25 years old

Circumstances of death: On November 12, 2019, Israeli Air Force aircraft attacked a number of operatives of the PIJ’s rocket unit in the northern Gaza Strip. The operatives were preparing to fire rockets (IDF Twitter account, November 12, 2019). 

The Palestinian media reported that the attack was directed against a group of “resistance” operatives in Beit Lahia (Ma’an, November 12, 2019).

Organizational affiliation: The PIJ’s military wing announced that Zaki Muhammad Adnan Ghanam was an operative in the rocket unit of the northern Gaza Strip brigade (Jerusalem Brigades website, November 12, 2019).

Israel Under Attack

Israel Under Attack.

Islamic Jihad and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip have fired over 360 rockets into southern Israel in the last several days. Schools are closed, and over a million people are living in bomb shelters. Hospitals and other emergency services in Israel are on high alert in light of the ongoing rocket attacks.

This current wave of escalation follows an earlier November 1st attack on Israel, orchestrated by the senior commander of Islamic Jihad, Baha Abu al-Ata. Early Tuesday morning,  Israeli Air Force jets struck the Gaza building where Abu al-Ata was staying, killing him. Abu al-Ata had coordinated most of the significant rocket and border attacks from Gaza, and was planning more.

Islamic Jihad Terror leader Baha Abu al-Ata.

From the IDF:

"Abu al-Ata was promoting preparations to commit immediate terror attacks in various ways towards Israeli civilian and IDF troops during the recent few days. Al-Ata trained terror squads for infiltration and sniper attacks, drone launching and rocket fire to different distances."

In retaliation, the IDF launched a series of strikes against rocket-launching squads, terrorist training compounds and a tunnel digging site in Gaza. Two dozen Palestinians have been killed-  with the majority of those killed identified as members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades.

Dozens of the rockets launched from Gaza were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system- a 90% interception rate for rockets heading toward populated areas. The remaining rockets struck homes, businesses, a nursing home, causing significant damage