Monday, July 11, 2011

  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AFP:
Huge blasts in a seized Iranian arms cache at a Greek Cypriot naval base in southern Cyprus killed at least 12 people on Monday, triggering power and water outages at the height of the summer.

In what Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides called a "tragedy of Biblical dimensions" for the small Mediterranean island, the explosions devastated the adjacent Vassiliko power station.
The plant accounts for almost 60 percent of supply.

The blasts also caused massive damage to homes in the nearby village of Mari, forcing the evacuation of its population of 150 people, its mukhtar or headman, Nikos Asprou, told AFP.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said 62 people were injured, two of them seriously, announcing three days of official mourning with flags on state buildings to be flown at half-mast.

Defence Minister Costas Papacostas and Greek Cypriot National Guard commander Petros Tsaliklides resigned over the blasts at an emergency cabinet meeting, Stefanou said.

The defence ministry had held talks last week about the storage conditions after National Guard chiefs reportedly expressed concerns about them being kept in the open as temperatures touched 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

"Decisions were taken on protecting the material but unfortunately this was not possible as time ran out," Stefanou said, promising a "thorough investigation".
Here's the story behind the weapons, from Wikipedia:
The Monchegorsk (Мончегорск) was a Russian multipurpose cargo ship built in 1983 by Wärtsilä as the 10th ship of the SA-15 class Arctic freighters. The ship, named after the Russian town of Monchegorsk, was owned and operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company.

In early 2009 it became the centre of an international incident involving Iran, Russia, the US, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Cyprus. The ship was apprehended in the Red Sea by U.S. warships in Task Force 151 having left Iran. [4] Following an on board search suspicious military material was reported and the ship was escorted to Limassol Port on 29 January 2009.

The ship, registered with the Cyprus Merchant Marine was then subject to an international diplomacy struggle as to the fate of its cargo. The US and Israel maintained that the cargo was in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747 which sanctions Iranian arms exports.[5] Israel claimed that the intended destination of the cargo was Palestinian organizations in the Gaza strip,[6] a claim that Iran denied. [7]

Cypriot authorities proceeded to a limited search of on board containers, the result of which was referred to the security council for clarification. Once the breach was confirmed the cargo was confiscated and unloaded onto the island where it was stored in warehouses of the Cypriot National Guard. [8][9] The details of the contents from the 98 confiscated containers were not released to the public.
  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the IDF:

Last month, a group of Palestinian children from the West Bank along with their parents traveled to the Jerusalem Zoo for a day. Their trip was organized by the Civil Administration and Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Many of the children had previously underwent open heart surgery at Hadassah, a procedure which was paid for by the hospital itself and the A Heart for Peace organization. The trip was designed to provide relaxation, learning, enjoyment and a positive experience for the children who cope with health difficulties.

Ms. Dalia Bassa, the Health and Welfare Coordinator for the Civil Administration, played an instrumental role coordinating the children’s treatment at Hadassah and during their leisure trip to Jerusalem.

The Civil Administration, a unit under the IDF and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, is responsible for administering and coordinating civilian needs in the West Bank, and is comprised of various staff offices working alongside the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian population, IDF and Israeli authorities, as well as with international organizations and NGOs to fulfill these needs.
I would love to see a philanthropist offer a 200% match for any donations to Hadassah Hospital - earmarked for programs like this - that are paid by any of the "humanitarians" on Israel's no-fly list.

(h/t Silke)
  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Fox News:
President Bashar Assad's loyalists broke into the U.S. Embassy compound Monday in the Syrian capital Damascus, Reuters reports.

A witness in Syria's capital says security guards at the French Embassy have fired into the air to drive back protesters taking part in two-pronged demonstrations outside the French and American embassies in Damascus.

The protests Monday come days after the U.S. and French ambassadors visited the opposition stronghold of Hama in central Syria. The witness says crowds were not allowed to get near the U.S. Embassy.

The witness, Hiam al-Hassan, says about 300 people had gathered outside the French Embassy. Hundreds others were at the American diplomatic compound.

The protests coincide with government-organized talks in Damascus on possible political reforms after four months of unrest against the regime of President Assad.
AP adds:
The witnesses said the protesters smashed windows and raised a Syrian flag on the [US} compound on Monday. They also wrote anti-U.S. graffiti referring to the U.S. ambassador as a "dog," the witnesses said.
A spontaneous outpouring of democratic feeling, no doubt.

UPDATE: I just saw this laughable interview with Haldun el Kassam, a Ba'ath Party deputy and Assad loyalist in Turkey, where he discusses the Syrian regime's viewpoint on the protests:
According to Kassam, armed terrorists came to Syria under the guidance of the US and devastated towns and villages. A total of 370 Syrian soldiers died and 1,700 people were injured. To express support for Bashar al-Assad, 11.8 million people -- 2.7 million in Damascus, 1.8 million in Aleppo, 1.2 in Latakia and 1 million in Haseke -- rallied in Syria. The Ba'ath Party in Syria has 3.5 million members. The alliance of opposition parties in parliament has 600,000 members. It follows that President Assad has electoral support behind him. If the opposition seeks to get rid of the ruling party, it must do this through democratic methods. In Syria, only religious or sectarian parties are forbidden. Assad does not discriminate between Alawis and Sunnis, or practitioners of any other religion or faith. His wife is Sunni and his children are attending a Christian school.
Well, there you go.
  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
According to the Hamas government, in the first half of the year there was an average of 140 babies born in Gaza every day.

During that same time period, there was an average of only 12 deaths a day.

It appears that the "slow genocide" that Israel is supposedly perpetrating on Gaza is so slow, it is going backwards.
  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Helping the new nation of South Sudan.

From JPost:
IsraAid, an umbrella group of Israeli and Jewish humanitarian aid organizations, is preparing to send a consignment of humanitarian aid to the newly formed nation of South Sudan, the group said in a statement on Sunday.

The aid package worth $100,000 will include food, clean water, medical supplies and other non-food items.

In addition, IsraAid teams have also begun to plan for a long-term project, aimed at providing assistance to vulnerable women and children living on the streets and in refugee camps around the capital city of Juba. The group, whose full name is the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, hopes to raise $1.5 million for the initiative.

“As a small and relatively new-born country, Israel has gained experience in various factors of water, agriculture, post-traumatic stress disorder, education, migration and others that would be valuable to the people of South Sudan who are now building their country,” said Shachar Zahavi, founding director of IsraAID. It is our mission and Jewish commitment to reach out to our new friends in any way we can.”

IsraAid is working in conjunction with Operation Blessing, a Christian humanitarian aid organization based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which is providing support on the ground for IsraAid’s efforts.
Yesterday, George Galloway said that "Israel takes money, it doesn't give it." Oh well, another lie from the Ziophobes, another drop in the ocean.

Zvi comments:
The anti-Israel drones squander an insane amount of effort and money to symbolically hurt Israelis, when there are REAL humanitarian causes out there that would benefit very much from that kind of effort and money. The hysterical anti-Israel drones have succumbed to the temptation to let their hatred overcome their humanity, warp their perspective and destroy their souls.

If every last one of them were to vanish from the world tomorrow, the world would not notice the difference, except that the volume of shouting would decrease a bit.

In contrast, if IsraAID were to vanish from the world tomorrow, lives would end in many poor countries.

And that says just about all that needs to be said.
  • Monday, July 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Nadia Hijab in the HuffPo:

It was never about aid.

Freedom Flotilla II is, like its assaulted predecessor of a year ago, a political act. The passengers came together in shared determination to challenge Israel's five-year siege of Gaza and to exercise their right to travel through international waters to Palestinian shores and, by so doing, support the Palestinian right to freedom.

Many have misrepresented this political act as being about aid.
Even though this has been what the anti-Israel activists have been saying in private for years, even in this current floptilla they made a point of telling the media that they were bringing 3000 tons of aid - cement, ambulances, medicine. As recently as yesterday, Reuters parroted the line that their primary purpose was aid. Their tweets regularly refer to themselves as a "humanitarian mission" and not as primarily political.

As usual, they are trying to have it both ways, depending on the audience and convenience.

If you ask Hijab, honestly, whether Hamas has the right to import Iranian rockets to target Israeli schoolchildren, she would answer "Absolutely." Because this is her definition of freedom and human rights - human rights for everyone in the Middle East except for Jews seeking self determination and the right to live in peace and security.
In fact, Israel's sealing of Gaza from the outside world began before Hamas was elected. It began as far back as 1988 -- almost before Hamas existed -- when Israel imposed a "permit system" in Gaza.
I love handpicked history lessons.

Gaza, under Egyptian control, really was a prison. Gazans couldn't easily travel to Egypt, they couldn't get jobs, they couldn't get citizenship, they were herded into camps, Egypt ignored their needs for infrastructure, their life expectancy was absurdly low. The only time that Gazans had freedom of movement was when Israel controlled the area - and until the first Intifada when Palestinian Arabs started to kill Jews by the score. Of course, as we have seen, Nadia Hijab cares not one whit for Jewish human rights.

Israel often complains that it is singled out for criticism when there are other worse human rights violators. Why not set a flotilla against China or Russia? Because Israel is the only country claiming to be a Western-style democracy whose gross human rights violations are supported economically and politically by major world powers.
Here is a neat sleight-of-hand. Up until now, Hijab has claimed that her concern was for Palestinian Arabs and their rights. The obvious hypocrisy is that she doesn't care about Syrian Arabs, Egyptian Arabs or any other Arabs who are truly fighting for real rights. So in order to shield herself from that charge, she changes the equation with a tortured explanation that somehow Israel's western status is what offends her - it isn't the victims at all that concerns her, but the perpetrators!

Of course, this proves what Israel has been saying all along - it is not a pro-Palestinian movement, but an anti-Israel movement! Nadia's pretense at caring about Gazans' "freedom" has now morphed into something else, that is much closer to the truth.

Of course, Israel's actions in Gaza are no less moral that the Western actions in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq, and I don't see her sending any flotillas there, so even here she remains a hypocrite.

And then comes the coup de grace:
Beyond drawing the world's attention to the obscenity that is the siege of Gaza, the Flotilla has shown the peoples of the Arab world, engaged in their own quest for dignity and rights, that there are two kinds of Americans and two kinds of Jews. Not just those in power in the U.S. and Israel who are widely seen to subvert human rights throughout the region, but also those determined to uphold human rights. By so doing, the Flotilla has contributed to an eventual era of mutual respect between Arabs, Americans, and Jews.
You see, Israel contributes to worldwide anti-semitism, and the flotilla helps combat that image! Arabs appreciate the moonbats who come to Gaza to meet with Haniyeh and receive medals and honorary citizenship from him, and that helps fight anti-Americanism and anti-semitism!

Has any NGO ever had a workshop to combat anti-Western and anti-semitic attitudes among Arabs? No, they believe that by their shining examples they are leading by example. Of course, that didn't save the lives of Vittorio Arrigoni or Juliano Mer Khamis.

I wonder what she has to say about the Western "peace activists" who have been sexually harassed and raped by their most appreciative Arabs. Only the Westerners, mind you, not the honorable Arab women.

The entire article is claptrap, an exercise in misdirection and obfuscation meant to justify the real motivation that the flotilla activists have - a seething hatred for the Jewish State, and only for the Jewish State.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
A Palestinian youth jumps with a horse during an equestrian show in Gaza City on July 8, 2011.

Palestinian girls ride horses during an equestrian show in Gaza City on July 8, 2011.

I hope the two remaining flotilla boats are bringing food. For the horses.
  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Once again, the official WAFA "news" agency has stated that there was no Temple in Jerusalem:

The Israeli authorities are working on establishing a Talmudic garden in Tantur Faron, an area south of Al-Aqsa mosque, which is considered an Archaeological area that extends back thousands of years, it said.

It said that in Ein Em Edorg, an area in Silwan, diggings reached a depth of more than 20 meters under the ground, and there are diggings in Al-Ain Mosque, the oldest mosque in Silwan, in the area of Ain Silwan, in addition to the digging of tunnels.

It said the diggings in Wadi al-Rababa, aim to establish more of the Talmudic gardens, change its historical and Archaeological character, and to build additional fake Jewish graves, in an attempt to give it a Talmudic historical character associated with the myth of the alleged temple.
Last year the PA Ministry of Information (a truly Orwellian title) published a paper saying that the Kotel was never a Jewish site. When American outrage caused them to delete the article, it surfaced a couple of weeks later in...WAFA.

It is worth recalling that the Waqf themselves published a pamphlet in 1925 that described "Al Haram al-Sharif" as the place where Solomon built the first Temple, saying this was "beyond dispute."

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)
  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Efraim Karsh again takes aim at fellow historian Benny Morris at The American Thinker:

Humility was never one of Morris's trademarks. In a manner that would put Woody Allen's human chameleon to shame, Morris made an art of portraying his ideological acrobatics as moral decisions exacting a heavy personal and professional price. For years, he cast himself as a victim of Israel's political and academic establishments, which allegedly denied him a tenured position at a local university. This patent fabrication -- the respective faculties in Israel's universities have long been dominated by Morris's ideological fellow travelers -- won him international sympathy (and besmirched Israel's reputation for its supposed encroachment on academic freedoms), so much so that then-president Ezer Weizmann personally intervened to arrange Morris a tenured post. Now that he has changed his colors, Morris is supposedly victimized by Islamists and anti-Semites of all hues for his heroic defense of Israel.

As before, this false pretence has had its fair share of takers. Only now it is Israel's supporters who are willfully turning a blind eye to Morris's past antics, and their lingering damage to the Jewish state's international reputation, in the desperate hope of scoring a point in the rearguard action against the country's growing de-legitimization. Yet they shouldn't be holding their breath, for there are clear indications that Israel's human chameleon is laying the groundwork for another dramatic flip flop.

That Morris has been able to engage in this intricate game of doublespeak for so long, without paying any professional or personal price, is a sad testament to the shortness of public memory and the utter ruthlessness of the Arab-Israeli propaganda war. And while one can only speculate about Morris's next somersault, it is clear that this human chameleon will have no problem in finding the "facts" to back up whatever his political convictions demand at that time-and the useful idiots to applaud them.
This may be a tad unfair, as Morris has not changed his view of history unless new documents were uncovered, and his writings on history should be critiqued without reference to his ever-changing political views. But Karsh is right when he says that Zionists should not embrace Morris' political views because his pendulum happened to have swung in their general direction for a couple of years. That pendulum is already on its way back....

UPDATE: ...according to Karsh.
  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ha'aretz:
Egyptian authorities have extended the detention of Israeli-American Ilan Grapel, who is being held on allegations of spying for Israel.

Grapel will spend 15 more days in detention.

The Egyptian attorney general's office explained that more time was needed in order to continue its investigation into Grapel's activities.

Grapel was arrested in Cairo in June. He has not been indicted.

According to reports in the Arab media, the U.S. has been in contact with Egypt, seeking Grapel's release and departure from Egypt.

An indictment would transfer the case to the court system and start a lengthy legal process. Therefore, efforts are being made for Grapel to be released before he is indicted.

Grapel's story has fallen from the headlines in Egypt as it has become evident that he is probably not the serious spy that he was described as by the Egyptian press when he was arrested.
That last paragraph is questionable, as Egypt's major daily, Al Ahram, continues to push the lie that Grapel is a spy - without bothering with any infidel Western modifiers like "alleged" or "accused."

Its latest article on him, indeed a headline, says categorically that he is a Mossad spy who was "fanning the conflict of the youth revolution and inciting subversion against the police and the army."
  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Reuters:


Notice how Reuters still pushes the lie that the purpose of the ships is to deliver aid to Gaza, and secondarily to "raise awareness of Israel's naval blockade." Um, no. Even the activists admit their goal is to create an unfettered sea route to Gaza that would include weapons for Hamas.

Ha'aretz says that there is one other ship that remains in the flotilla, the Giuliano.
  • Sunday, July 10, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here is a tweet from anti-Israel activist/self styled "journalist" Joseph Dana, referring to a video of a protest this morning in Nabi Saleh:

Minute 5:00, soldiers physically attack a female Israeli protester. Welcome to the wasteland of democracy
However, if you look a few seconds beforehand, you see a female protester pushing an IDF soldier first.


Then there is an edit.

In fact, there are dozens and dozens of edits in this video, no doubt an attempt to whitewash the violence of the "non-violent" protesters. Many of the edits clearly excise only a few seconds of video at a time, right in the middle of the action. Why?

The answer is simple: The entire video is theatre, a lie to give the impression that IDF soldiers initiate violence against peaceful demonstrators. Of course, Dana swallows the video whole, because its edits conform with his existing vicious biases.

Let's see the unedited version! That's what a real journalist would demand. Dana no doubt knows the videographer - lets see if he ever asks for the raw footage to see what really happened.

UPDATE: Dana insisted that there was no shove, so I looked again full screen at the moment at 4:57 where I thought I saw it. It is possible that she was shaking off her friend. Even so, the video is a textbook example of how editing is used in videos like these - notice that every single example of IDF "aggression" is preceded by an edit so we cannot see what happened immediately prior. In other words, it is still theatre, and Dana has no clue what specific event may have precipitated the "wasteland of democracy" outrage..

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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