The Human Rights Watch issued its annual report, which purports to satisfy both sides. But look closer.

Israel is accused of killing 37 Palestinians, with no mention of the fact that almost all of them were terrorists on active duty, some on their way to launch rockets at Israel.  The report likewise accuses Israel of the mass killing of Syrians during two protests in May and June, without clarifying what those Syrians would have done to Jewish villagers had they not been stopped at the border with bullets.

Hamas and Fatah are tellingly accused of unfair trials and torture—in effect, of cracking down on their own terrorists who have veered out of control. The HRW mentioned hundreds of rocket attacks on Israel, which cannot be ignored, but preferred to miss the much more massive and lethal grassroots terrorism, including daily attacks on Jewish cars with rocks and firebombs.

For a decade, Israel has endured one of the most absurd trials imaginable. Mustafa Dirani, a terrorist from Amal, was released in one of the prisoner exchanges. He has subsequently sued the Israeli government in Israeli courts because he was sodomized during the investigation.

There is no doubt that he was threatened, beaten, and sodomized with a baton—not for the sheer fun of it, but in order to extract information about Ron Arad, who had been captured by Dirani’s colleagues. Logically, if we are prepared to release a thousand Arabs to bring back one Jew, and a very bad Jew at that, then that is all the more reason we should be allowed to torture an Arab to bring back another Jew.

Now a member of Unit 504 has filed a countersuit against the government, claiming that he was fired because of Dirani’s allegations even though he was not the one who tortured the terrorist. It is one thing that the government submitted to the court’s dictates, but a totally different thing that good interrogators are actually being punished for doing their jobs rescuing a Jew.

Yishai has granted residency to 260 out of the batch of 378 children whose parents reside in Israel illegally after having come here on work visas. Until now, Yishai had been adamant in his desire to expel them all.

It remains a mystery why bringing up a child—itself a major violation of the work visa terms—rectifies the aliens’ illegal status. They can perfectly enjoy their family ties back in the Philippines.