Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 22, 2011

Hamas rips me off!

A few months ago, after Bin Laden was killed, I made a poster:

Now I see that a similar billboard is being put up in Gaza!

A recently erected martyrdom poster honouring Osama Bin Laden and Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin adorns a main street in Rafah near to the Egyptian border on August 21, 2011 in Rafah, Gaza

How dare Hamas take my idea equating two of the most prominent terrorist organizations!

Even worse, how dare they spit in the face of all those oh-so-educated Western Middle East experts who know without a doubt that Hamas is pragmatic and potentially peaceful with Al Qaeda is intransigent and incorrigible!

One more dead terrorist

I have noted and listed the names showing that, according to the PCHR, 10 out of the 13 people killed by the IDF in Gaza since Thursday were terrorists, and the other 3 were human shields who were right with them when they were killed.

Hamas' Al Qassam website claims that 15 were killed by Israel. And they list one Hamas member who was killed, who was not on the PCHR list:

Ashraf Azzam, 31, killed Friday.

So it is possible that the IDF was even more impressive in its accuracy of killing terrorists - 11 out of 14, or 78%, an almost unbelievable number for urban warfare. (If there was a 15th, I cannot find any mention of it.)

Terrorists count up their rocket tallies

The PRC says it shot 101 rockets and mortars towards Israel since Thursday.

Islamic Jihad says it shot 17 Grad rockets, and 9 "107" missiles and 22 mortars to Israel.

Hamas, after initially claiming to have shot a few missiles, reversed itself and now is not claiming any.

The PFLP says it shot 13 rockets and 12 mortars on Saturday and Sunday.

Terror groups have always been proud of their rocket totals.

I'm not certain if the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Fatah fired any.

It looks as if the tallies aren't final yet....two new rockets were fired Monday evening.

When masked jihadists talk - people listen

A photo from Islamic Jihad's press conference yesterday:

Surprise! PA postpones elections again!

PA president-for-life Mahmoud Abbas has just announced that the local elections that were planned for October 22 are being postponed indefinitely.

The reasons? Here's the doubletalk:

To contribute to efforts to end the division and achieve national reconciliation and unity, and support of national and Arab efforts to end the division and achieve reconciliation and unity which are national goals, and provide the atmosphere to achieve this, and to give opportunity to the Central Election Commission to complete readiness for elections in all provinces of the country, and on the powers conferred upon us, and upon the necessities of the higher interest and the public interest.

See? It is in the public interest to delay elections as long as possible. Because, after all, why should the public have a say in who is going to govern them?

And these are only the local elections. Elections to decide the actual leaders of the PA are not even on the drawing board.

Iranian sponsored anti-Israel march in London (updated)

From Iran's PressTV:

Hundreds of British nationals, including Muslims, civil and anti-war activists, and anti-Zionist Jews have taken part in the annual Al-Quds Day demonstration in London.

The demonstrators gathered at Portland Place, outside BBC Radio theatre, to protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Afterwards, demonstrators marched through central London to Trafalgar Square where they listened to speeches addressing the Palestinian issue.

Demonstrators carried Palestinian and Hezbollah flags and various anti-Zionist placards reading “Zionism is racism”, “freedom for Palestine”, “end occupation”, “end the killing”, “end the Israeli Apartheid”, “stop funding genocide”, “right vs. might”, “63 years of occupation must end”, “silence is complicity” and “boycott Israel”.

Moreover, the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted: “we are all Hezbollah”, “end the occupation now”, “Zionism terrorism”, “we are all Palestinians”.

There are a few videos on YouTube showing the event; here are a couple of screen shots:

Notice the sign above?

I guess MJ Rosenberg is right - they're not trying to delegitimize Israel. They're just trying to destroy it.

(Al Quds Day is an Iranian holiday created by Ayatollah Khomeini. It takes place this coming Friday, the last Friday of Ramadan.)

UPDATE: More from Richard Millett who was there:

Report: Egypt identified three of the Eilat terrorists

From Al Masry al Youm:

Egyptian authorities have identified three of the people responsible for carrying out a terrorist attack in Israel, just north of Eilat, on Thursday, in which seven Israelis were killed, according to an Egyptian security source.

The same source added that one of the men identified is a leader of terrorist cells in Sinai, while another is a fugitive who owns an ammunition factory.

It is unclear whether "identified" means "caught."

Also:

The source also gave details of an attack by Israeli security forces that left three Egyptians dead on Thursday. One army officer and two police officers were killed when an Israeli helicopter crossed the Egyptian border at mark no. 79, fired two missiles and then hovered over the Egyptian checkpoint, firing its machine guns, said the source.

I've seen reports saying that the IDF accidentally killed between 3 and 5 Egyptians.

I have not seen their names. I have not seen any news about their funerals.

I have also not seen the Egyptian press mention any soldier being killed by the terrorists themselves, including by suicide belts, something the Israeli media reported on.

Al Masry al Youm also has an interesting detailed report on the situation in the Sinai:

Ayoub and his followers believe that the security apparatus unwittingly created the threat of Islamists in Sinai, and that it was the same Islamists who suffered under these unlawful and harsh detentions who attacked the police station on 29 July.

While his Salafi group is peaceful, Ayoub says there are others that believe in violence, such as Al-Takfeer wal-Hijra.

When asked about their level of armament, he says, “They are armed, like everywhere else in Egypt, especially after the revolution started.” Ayoub told the media over a week ago that his group was ready to arm 6000 people in Sinai to protect the territory. Many in Sinai view themselves as the guardians of Egypt’s borders from potential Israeli threats.

Khaled Saad, a businessman and secular political activist in Arish, may not have much sympathy for the militant Islamists, but he still doubts that they are tightly organized groups with deep-rooted ideologies. The level of their threat, he says, is somewhat exaggerated.

“There has been a lot of anger at the security practices of the toppled regime, so it became easy for some sheikhs to gather outlaws and smugglers around them so that they become a militia,” Saad says, echoing Ayoub in suggesting that the recent attacks on state institutions are the continuation of a battle that began with the oppression of locals by Mubrak’s security apparatus.

Infiltrations from the Gaza Strip have also raised concerns about a rising Islamist insurgency in Sinai. Palestinian factions competing with Hamas’ control of Gaza are chased out and driven into Sinai by way of tunnels that bypass the tightly controlled border.

“Both Hamas and the military intelligence here in Arish have full information about all groups infiltrating into Egypt from Gaza. No one can expand and form a whole armed movement here, because they are well-tracked,” says a Palestinian living in Arish who requested anonymity.

..Egyptian tanks and armored personnel carriers are currently present at military checkpoints between Arish, Rafah, and the nearby town of Sheikh Zowayed.

The military show of force is part of the Egyptian armed forces’ “Operation Eagle,” a troop mobilization that began on 12 August. The deployment, which is ostensibly in response to terrorism threats, needed to be authorized by Israel, as it technically breaches the peace accords, according to reports in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

The mobilization came a week after a statement from a group advocating for an Islamic emirate in the peninsula and calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula went viral in the Egyptian media. In response, the military said it would “purge” the peninsula. Many people in Sinai voiced their support for the operation, but others raised concerns.

Before the attacks in Israel on 18 August, Egyptian security forces were quick to call the Sinai operation a success. Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal Eddin said at a press conference last week that the campaign has so far managed to arrest members of Al-Takfeer wal-Hijra and collect arms and illegally-acquired military uniforms. The assailants in the 18 August attack in Israel were reportedly wearing Egyptian army uniforms.

Security sources have also told local media that Palestinian members of the militant group Islamic Jihad were among those were arrested, some of whom were previously detained in Egyptian prisons and fled during the chaos of last winter’s uprising.

Local media have also reported on coordination between Hamas and the Egyptian military to monitor the movement of potential infiltrators to Sinai from Gaza through the tunnels, particularly from the Army of Islam and a little-known group Jaljalat. Both claim ties to Al-Qaeda.

Some experts on Islamist movements, such as Khaled al-Berry, suggest that the Army of Islam has loose ties to the Syrian regime, which is currently facing massive protests calling for its downfall.

Berry, who classifies groups like the Army of Islam as not strictly ideologically-motivated and easily employed by political players, warns of possible chaos in Sinai being sponsored by an embattled Syrian regime trying to prove its strategic importance to the region.

But in the end, it appears that the threat came from none of those groups. The attack on southern Israel on Thursday that killed eight people was, according to Israel, perpetrated by insurgents from Palestinian Resistance Committees based in Gaza who infiltrated Sinai through tunnels.

YNet has a report about the Sinai situation as well, but it does not seem to be nearly as in depth as this one.

See also the previous post by Suzanne.

(h/t Yoel)

Egypt and Israel both struggling with Al Qaeda

In the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Southern Israel, many are still wondering who was behind the attacks. Israel believes that the Popular Resistance Committees had a hand in the attacks and retaliated against them. The in Gaza based PRC denies involvement, but the PRC is obviously not only present in Gaza, but also in Egypt:

As the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs points out in an interesting article:

To stop the loosening of the Egyptian grip on Sinai, Israel agreed twice to significant Egyptian troop increases to their force deployment in the peninsula, thus changing the parameters set in the military annex of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty. The latest deployment of more than a thousand troops was made only a few days before the terrorist incursion into Israel and was meant to boost Egypt’s efforts to regain its hold on Sinai. Assessing that the main threat to Egypt’s authority was in northern Sinai, where the gas pipeline splits toward the neighboring countries, Egypt decided to deploy its forces in that area, thus leaving the southern part diluted of forces and open to infiltrations.
However, from day one of the operations against the extremist organizations in northern Sinai, the Egyptian authorities realized to their dismay that the phenomenon is not limited to Sinai but engulfs the whole of Egypt. Islamist cells have been created all over Egypt so as to topple the regime by force. The network of Palestinian organizations in Gaza has already proved to be a threat to Egypt itself. In January 2011 Egypt’s former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, charged that the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamist group Jaish al-Islam was responsible for a New Year’s Eve attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria that left twenty-three Egyptian Christians dead. Jaish al-Islam is an Al-Qaeda affiliate and was formed by members of the Popular Resistance Committees, the organization responsible for last week’s attack within Israel.

The blog also mentions what happened two days before the event on Road 12: Egyptian forces mounted an attack east of the town of el-Arish and revealed:

The members of the group were part of a Takfiri organization, that is, the same organization of Muslim zealots that assassinated President Sadat in 1981, some of whom subsequently joined the Al-Qaeda militants.
The group was trained militarily in Gaza and in the region of Jabal Hilal in central Sinai, which is now the area where most of the fundamentalists fleeing the Egyptian security forces have found refuge. Jabal Hilal has been a notorious base for Al-Qaeda in the recent past and the location of difficult battles between Al-Qaeda and the Egyptian army, in which, in one case, an Egyptian general was killed.
Those militants were part of the groups that sabotaged the gas pipeline to Israel.
The leader of the Palestinians who allied with the Egyptian members of the El-Arish group was a member of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. He managed to reach El-Arish by using one of the underground tunnels. He had been in prison in Egypt but was able to escape to Gaza in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.
The Egyptians associated with the Palestinians were highly educated (one a mechanical engineer, another with a BA in administration) and came from Suez, Alexandria, Qalyoubiah, and Suhaj. The Egyptian security forces were surprised, since this was the first time a Sinai terrorist cell included members from outside of Sinai.
The interrogations revealed that there was a Takfiri presence almost throughout Egypt. El-Arish was a convenient location because it is close to Gaza and Israel, making it easier to obtain weapons.
The group clearly had a theological, jihadist outlook. Basically they wanted to replace the regime by force according to the tenets of Takfir (in which one Muslim declares another an unbeliever) and of the Egyptian Salafist movement.
Most of the Egyptian detainees had been members of fundamentalist organizations for years.
Their main targets were Egyptian security forces (which they viewed as heretic) and strategic installations such as the gas pipeline.

The so-called Arab Spring might be - for the time being - refreshing towards former opponents of the Mubarak regime as they now seem to be able to express their views without fears; it did create an opening towards Islamist actors as legitimate political entities:

The rise of various Islamist factions (...) that are striving for power makes it difficult for jihadists to directly threaten the regime’s stability. Realizing that they cannot (...) confront the Egyptian state head-on, the jihadists are trying to undermine the regime indirectly by exploiting the situation regarding Gaza and Israel and through renewed militancy in Sinai, and also by reviving religious tensions between Copts and Muslims, (...)

And that's a serious reason for concern:

Particularly significant is that the cell captured in El-Arish shows that the Takfiri and jihadist movement in Egypt is very much alive and even gaining more terrain. It can be assessed that the Takfiri militants are either part of Al-Qaeda or working hand in hand with their Al-Qaeda operators.

Indeed, as the The Jerusalem Center concludes:

Only a tight, effective, but mostly tacit partnership between Israel and Egypt can help both parties, each for its own reasons, cooperate in eradicating the fundamentalist cells in Sinai and beyond.

I hope the Egyptians will understand.

PRC spokesman: No truce, but we'll stop rockets

Although there were about 12 rockets overnight after a supposed cease-fire deadline at 9:00 PM, it looks like a shaky truce has started.

Originally the PRC had stated they would not adhere to the cease-fire but after a few parting shots they seem to have changed their mind. From their website:

Abu Ataya, spokesperson of the Nasser Saladin Brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said that there is no room to talk about a truce with the enemy killing our children....Our account with them is over the soil of all of Palestine.

The Nasser Saladin Brigades Mujahid was able by the grace of Allah Almighty to pound Zionist occupation settlements with rockets that have killed and wounded dozens of Zionists, and which also led to the creation of a state of terror and paralysis of the movement in the south of occupied Palestine that continues.

The military spokesman for Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades said the Brigades announced a temporary halt in rocket fire for the interest of the Palestinian people.

It is important that Westerners see the actual words that these people speak publicly. By the time it gets to the Western media the above statement, if mentioned at all, becomes "The Popular Resistance Committees military wing announced Monday they would adhere to the ceasefire." The seething hate always gets cut out, and over time well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) leftists start to believe that these people are reasonable and can be persuaded to eventually accept Israel's existence.

But isn't it great that the spokesperson for the group talks about how brave they are but refuses to show his face?

UN withholding the Mavi Marmara report again

Oh, come on:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informed Israel Sunday that he was postponing – yet again – the publication of the Palmer Commission report on the Mavi Marmara incident last year, to give both sides additional time to reach an agreement that would obviate the need to release the report.

As was the case the two previous times, the postponement was, according to Israeli officials, requested by Turkey.

The Palmer Commission report, which has already been written, is widely believed to uphold the legality of Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, and its right to intercept vessels trying to break the blockade.

The paper also reportedly takes Israel to task for using disproportionate force in stopping the ship, but does not call on it to apologize for the incident.

Turkey is demanding that Israel apologize for the incident, pay compensation to the families of the nine people killed and lift the blockade of Gaza.

Has the UN ever delayed releasing any other reports at the request of one of the countries that gets blamed within?

As Ha'aretz reported after the report was written in early July:

According to a political source in Jerusalem, the final findings of the Palmer Report show that the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza is legal and is in accordance with international law.

The report also sharply criticizes the Turkish government's behavior in its dealings with the committee. Palmer, an expert on international maritime law, added in the report that Israel’s Turkel commission that investigated the events was professional, independent and unbiased.

His findings on the Turkish committee were less favorable, with Palmer concluding that the Turkish investigation was politically influenced and its work was not professional or independent.

The Palmer Committee also criticizes the IHH organization that organized the Gaza flotilla as well as its ties to the Turkish government, suggesting Turkey did not do enough to stop the flotilla.

On the other hand, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper has suggested that the report will say that the IDF had "intent to kill" people on the ship and that Israel had requested one of the delays of releasing the report.

"It's over, frizz-head" - Details of Qaddafi's fall

Al Arabiya has some details on the dramatic events in Libya:

Jubilant crowds of Libyans gathered in Tripoli’s central Green Square Monday to celebrate a hard-fought victory over the forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, reportedly staying in the Tajura-Cardiac hospital, east of Tripoli.

Rebels and Tripoli residents waving opposition flags and firing into air swept into the square, a symbolic showcase the government had until recently used for mass demonstrations in support of the now embattled Qaddafi. Rebels immediately began calling it Martyrs Square.

The armed brigades of Colonel Qaddafi quickly melted away as rebel forces from the western mountains entered the capital on Sunday to join local rebel groups who rose up against Qaddafi a day earlier.

The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi were not immediately known, but a reporter from Tripoli told Al Arabiya TV that he was being treated in the Tajura-Cardiac hospital, east of Tripoli. There were no reports on whether Colonel Qaddafi was undergoing treatment in the hospital or simply taking refuge the facility.

The reporter said rebels had taken control of most of Tripoli neighborhoods. He added Qaddafi loyalists could not be seen in the city.

Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son, Mohammad, was under house arrest.

“It’s over, frizz-head,” chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Colonel Qaddafi. The revelers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels’ tricolor flag. Some set fire to the green flag of Mr. Qaddafi’s regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader’s image.

The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya’s 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Qaddafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles over a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.

When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Mr. Qaddafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Colonel Qaddafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official Fathi Al-Baja told The Associated Press.

Mr. Fathi al-Baja, the head of the rebels’ political committee, said the rebels’ National Transitional Council had been working on the offensive for the past three months, coordinating with NATO and rebels within Tripoli. Sleeper cells were set up in the capital, armed by rebel smugglers. On Thursday and Friday, NATO intensified strikes inside the capital, and on Saturday, the sleeper cells began to rise up.
...
The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Qaddafi regime - the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Qaddafi’s son, Khamis. Fighters said they met with little resistance. They were 16 miles from the big prize, Tripoli.

Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolor from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Qaddafi. From a huge warehouse, they loaded their trucks with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-caliber ammunition.

One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli.

The rebels also freed more than 300 prisoners from a regime lockup, most of them arrested during the heavy crackdown on the uprising in towns west of Tripoli. The fighters and the prisoners - many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings - embraced and wept with joy.

“We were sitting in our cells when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunfire and people yelling ‘God is great.’ We didn’t know what was happening, and then we saw rebels running in and saying ‘We’re on your side.’ And they let us out,” said 23-year-old Majid al-Hodeiri. He said he was captured four months ago by Qaddafi’s forces crushing the uprising in his home city of Zawiya. He said he was beaten and tortured while under detention.

From the military base, the convoy sped toward the capital.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Official Palestinian Arab news agency rewrites even recent history

WAFA, the official PA news agency, is known for rewriting history - for example, it has said multiple times that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

But this symbol of the "moderate" Palestinian Authority has no compunctions with lying about recent history either.

Sunday was the anniversary of the attempted firebombing of the Al Aqsa Mosque by a deranged Austrialian Christian named Denis Michael Rohan.

Yet WAFA, in its article about the anniversary, says that Rohan was Jewish. Three times.

When the official news media of the Palestinian Authority has such reckless disregard for the truth, why should anyone believe anything the PA ever says?

Syrian forces cleaning up blood from Latakia camp ahead of UN visit

From Ma'an:

Syrian forces scrambled Saturday to destroy evidence of last week's bloody crackdown in Latakia that killed dozens and sent Palestinian refugees fleeing, activists said as UN investigators arrived in Damascus.

Security forces were seen scrubbing blood off the streets and walls of al-Ramel refugee camp ahead of the cross-agency mission’s anticipated arrival in the port city.

The delegation was dispatched from Geneva in response to a damning report to the Security Council on Syrian leader Bashar Assad's "apparent shoot-to-kill" policy.

More than 60 civilians, mostly Palestinians, have died in Latakia since forces launched an offensive last Sunday, activists say.

On Saturday, regime officials brought television crews to one section of Latakia which had been opened to inspection, rights activists told Ma'an.

Prior to filming, security forces scrubbed off dried, days-old blood from the streets and planted flowers in a bid to present the area as a regular public space.

Assad's "killing machine can wash the blood off the streets but not off its hands," said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for colleagues in Syria.

"The evidence ... is overwhelming and undeniable," he said.

[T]he UN's delegation is not authorized to investigate allegations of war crimes and other serious abuses.

Its mandate is to evaluate humanitarian conditions and draw up plans for resuming public services in the coastal town and six more of the hardest-hit areas across Syria.

In Latakia, meanwhile, UN officials say about 7,500 residents of the refugee camp have not returned due to fears of new attacks. The UN refugee agency has tracked down 6,000 Palestinians who fled.

Many of those who remain missing have been locked into a sprawling stadium complex known as Latakia Sports City, activists say. As many as 4,000 people, mostly Palestinians, are believed to be held there.

Syrian rights advocate Ammar Abdulhamid says he is waiting to see if the prisoners will be moved from the stadium when the UN delegation arrives "because, right now, it is still full."

Sunny afternoon open thread

I'll be traveling for the next few hours, so here's an open thread featuring a prehistoric (1966) video from The Kinks:

A backhanded expression of support for Israel from SF

The San Francisco Jewish Federation put out a press release about the Eilat attacks, that ended up being a subtle insult at the very state they claim to support:

We mourn the loss of life and injuries in Israel in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks this morning. It is reported that Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli bus traveling near Eilat – the first in a series of attacks that reportedly have left seven Israelis dead and dozens injured. Palestinian infiltrators from Gaza struck the Egged bus just after noon today, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Two additional attacks occurred in the same area shortly after the first – roadside bombs detonated as a vehicle drove past and another on Israeli troops, according to Lt.-Col Avital Leibovitch, the IDF’s chief spokesman for the foreign press. Crossfire between IDF forces and a cell of seven terrorists continued three hours after the initial attack, and some injuries have been reported, according to the IDF.

Our hearts go out to our Israeli family, as the Federation remains committed to helping Israel to build a just, civil and inclusive democracy, and stands with the people of Israel at all times.

Does this mean that the SF Federation does not believe that Israel is already a "just, civil and inclusive democracy"? Does this mean that the Federation believes that Israel needs the help of enlightened San Franciscans to teach them about justice, civility and inclusion?

This phrase has a whiff of smugness that does not belong in a statement of unconditional support.

(h/t Ishai)

Iran's ambassador to Syria quits

Very interesting:

Iran has appointed a new ambassador to Syria to replace Ahmad Mousavi, who decided to quit his post amid growing popular protests against President Bashar Al Assad and his rule.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Saturday named Mohammadreza Raouf Sheybani to replace Mr. Mousavi. Mr. Sheybani was the former deputy at the Foreign Ministry’s Islamic Republic Middle East department.

Mr. Moussavi was Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s vice president for legal affairs and a member of the Iranian parliament from the Arab-majority Ahwaz province.

The Kaleme opposition website last week reported that Mr. Mousavi was planning to leave Damascus, amid growing opposition protests against President Assad and his Baathist regime. Syrian authorities were very critical of the ambassador’s decision, Kaleme reported.

“Ahmad Mousavi has made excuses, such as raising the possibility that he may run in Iran's parliamentary election, to explain his sudden departure from Damascus,” the opposition website reported, adding that Mr. Mousavi’s departure was a sign the political situation in Syria was critical.

Keleme quoted an unnamed Syrian diplomat saying that Iranian embassy staff have vacated their homes in Damascus and sent their families back to Iran in fear of the regime’s imminent collapse.

Iran’s support for the crackdown on protesters in Syria has triggered anger against Iranians living in Syria, the diplomat said.

Mr. Mousavi might not want to return to Tehran so quickly.

Reports: Iran cut funding to Hamas

Reuters reports:

Iran has cut back or even stopped its funding of Hamas after the Islamist movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, failed to show public support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said on Sunday.

Hamas has denied that it is in financial crisis but says it faces liquidity problems stemming from inconsistent revenues from tax collection in the Gaza Strip and foreign aid.

The movement is spurned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. It receives undisclosed sums of cash from Iran, which has acknowledged providing financial and political support to Hamas.

One diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said intelligence reports showed that Iran had reduced funding for Hamas.

Other diplomatic sources, also relying on intelligence assessments, said the payments had stopped over the past two months.

The diplomats cited Iran's displeasure over Hamas' refusal to hold rallies in support of Tehran's ally, Assad, in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria after an uprising against his rule. Hamas' leadership outside the Gaza Strip is headquartered in Damascus.

Hamas is also widely believed to receive money from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most popular and organized political force. Diplomats said those payments also may have been reduced because the Brotherhood has diverted funds to support the so-called Arab Spring revolts.

In a sign of a cash crunch, the Hamas government in Gaza has failed to pay the July salaries of its 40,000 employees in the civil service and security forces. Hamas leaders promised full payments in August, but not all employees received their wages as scheduled on Sunday.

If this is true, it is a very nice and unexpected bonus from the Syrian uprising. Syria's regime is left with only two friends, Iran and the Hezbollah-dominated Lebanese government. If Syria should fall it would be a big blow to Iran.

There have been rumors that Hamas is looking to relocate its headquarters to another Arab country (although, as one commenter here noted, isn't it interesting that they aren't trying to relocate to Gaza?)

(h/t Dan)

"Obama" was encoded in yesterday's Haftarah

I was wondering about Artscroll's translation of Isaiah 50:11 זִיקוֹת as "fireworks" since, obviously, there were no such thing as fireworks in Isaiah's day. JTS 1917 translates it as "firebrands."

As I was looking this up, I saw a Christian site note that in that same verse, the word "Obama" (or perhaps Ubama) comes out as the first letter of successive words:

הֵן כֻּלְּכֶם קֹדְחֵי אֵשׁ, מְאַזְּרֵי זִיקוֹת; לְכוּ בְּאוּר אֶשְׁכֶם, וּבְזִיקוֹת בִּעַרְתֶּם--מִיָּדִי הָיְתָה-זֹּאת לָכֶם, לְמַעֲצֵבָה תִּשְׁכָּבוּן.

Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves with firebrands, begone in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of My hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

I can't see any significance in this, and I don't place much importance to such "codes" (especially in Navi) but it was interesting.

Why isn't Israel demanding apologies?

Egypt demanded an apology for Israel's accidental killing of Egyptian soldiers as they were chasing the Eilat terrorists.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak then did apologize, but the Egyptians responded that it was "insufficient."

Yet yesterday, Egyptian security allowed an Egyptian man to climb on the roof of the Israeli embassy, burn the Israeli flag and replace it with an Egyptian flag. The man is being hailed as a hero in Egyptian media.

An embassy is officially the territory of the nation it represents, so this was an explicit breach of Israel's sovereignty that has been cheered by the entire nation of Egypt.

So why doesn't Israel demand an apology from Egypt?

Why isn't Israel demanding an Egyptian investigation of how the terrorists managed to get Egyptian army uniforms, or how they managed to infiltrate into Israel from right next to an Egyptian army post?

Why doesn't Israel take the diplomatic offensive?

Similarly, there has been a lot of news lately about how Turkey is demanding an apology from Israel for the Mavi Marmara incident ahead of the release of the Palmer report. But, according to a number of reports:

The coming Palmer report, investigating the tragic events of the 2010 Gaza flotilla, is expected to harshly criticize Turkey's handling of the sail and its ties to the IHH, but according to Ynet's source, Jerusalem does not intend to propel the report's conclusions into an international media campaign that would "vindicate" Israel.

So why isn't Israel demanding an apology from Turkey for allowing its IHH partner, a terrorist supporting organization, to sail to Gaza and spark a deadly incident?

A demand for an apology always puts the other party on the defensive. So why doesn't Israel play the same game?

Maybe Israel is trying to be sensitive to Arab "honor." Yet somehow Egyptians are not overly upset at the attacks being directed at their own army and police by the Sinai terrorist groups. Their "honor" seems to be very selective - only against those who seem sensitive to it.

It's time that Israel plays Middle East politics by Middle East rules.

10 of the 13 Gazans killed since Thursday were terrorists (updated)

In retaliation for Thursday's terror attack near Eilat, Israel has struck Gaza hard with airstrikes. Yet despite the pro-Hamas and leftist Tweeters claiming that Israel's airstrikes are aimed at Gaza infrastructure and civilians, even according to Arab sources most of them were clearly aimed at terrorists or terrorist infrastructure.

Fully 10 of the 13 killed since Friday were terrorists. From Thursday:

1- Kamal 'Awadh Mohammed al-Nairab (Abu 'Awadh), 43, PRC Secretary General;
2- 'Emad 'Abdul Karim 'Abdul Khaliq Hammad, 40, the leader of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
3- 'Emad al-Din Na'im Sayed Nasser, 46, a member of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
4- Khaled Ibrahim Salman al-Masri, 26, a member of Nasser Saladin Brigades;
5- Khaled Hamad Sha'at, 32, the leader of manufacturing unit of Nasser Saladin Brigades

A child who was with the above targets was killed as well.

From Friday:

6- Mohammed Fayez Mahmoud 'Enaya, 22, from the PRC, on a motorcycle
7- Samed 'Abdul Mo'ti 'Aabed, 25, "activist of the Palestinian resistance" on a motorcycle
8- Anwar Hassan Saleem, 23 and
9- 'Emad Fareed Abu 'Aabda, 23, "activists of the Palestinian resistance" both on a motorcycle (Islamic Jihad)
10- Mo'taz Bassem Quraiqe', 29, a leader of al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad)

That last attack also killed Quraiqe's 2 year old son and a physician - who were on the same motorcycle or car with him.

Every single fatality in Gaza has been from airstrikes aimed at terrorists.

No one was killed on Saturday or so far on Sunday in Gaza.

All of this comes from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Thursday and Friday details).

Ma'an claims 14 have been killed; PCHR has no information on any other deaths though. (Ma'an's editor says that may have been a mistake.)

UPDATE: The 14th victim is seemingly a Hamas terrorist, making it 11 out of 14. Also a 13 year old boy killed that some Palestinian Arab media claim was killed by Israel was in fact killed by a Grad rocket that fell short.

UPDATE 2: A 15th death, from Tuesday night, also an Islamic Jihad terrorist. 12/15.

UPDATE 3: An Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed Wednesday. There were claims of a 65-year old man who was killed by artillery in a field; no witnesses but his body was found in pieces. The IDF said they did not fire any artillery and that all airstrikes on Wednesday registered hits to rocket cells, so I'm not sure how to count him. So for now the tally is: 13 terrorists, 3 human shields, 1 unclear.