Thursday, September 01, 2011

  • Thursday, September 01, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Today reports that Rafat Saleh, member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, welcomes Israeli statements that the UN declaration stunt would cancel the existing agreements between Israel and the PLO.

He said that such threats don't scare him and the PLO is determined to go to the UN and to keep going after September in order to gain their "rights."

Saleh added, "If Israel announced cancellation of the agreements, they will do a great service to our people, who will continue their struggle for the salvation of the occupation."

Isn't it great when PLO leaders tell the world that their people, who have been living under autonomy for well over a decade now, and whose entire economy is utterly dependent on these very same peace agreements, prefer war to peace?
  • Thursday, September 01, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
I noted on August 26th that Arabic media was reporting an Egyptian plan to destroy all smuggling tunnels in Rafah in order to stop terrorist infiltration from Gaza to the Sinai. Some reports even said that Egypt would build a "buffer zone" and clear out parts of Rafah for this project.

The Egyptian ambassador to Ramallah, Yasser Osman, categorically denied the story, saying that Egypt would not do anything to jeopardize the flow of goods to Gaza.

Today, however, there are reports that the Egyptian government has been moving heavy drilling equipment and bulldozers into Rafah, presumably for the purpose of destroying tunnels.

There were also reports yesterday of a large Islamic Jihad cell that had infiltrated Egypt for the purpose of mounting a major attack on Israel.
  • Thursday, September 01, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From LoHud.com:

RYE, N.Y. — A melee broke out Tuesday afternoon at Playland Amusement Park when Muslim visitors became angry that the park was enforcing its ban on headgear by prohibiting the women from wearing their traditional head coverings on some rides.
Police from at least nine agencies converged on the park beginning at 3 p.m. after county police sought assistance in responding to the disturbance, which involved 30 to 40 people.

Two rangers were injured while breaking up a fight between visitors, and two visitors were charged with felony assault, police said. Another 13 people were arrested, most charged with disorderly conduct. Names were not disclosed, and all those charged were released by Tuesday night.

One of the rangers suffered an injured knee and the other an injured shoulder, said Deputy Parks Commissioner Peter Tartaglia.

The park was crowded with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam’s two major holidays. Most were from community groups in Westchester and New York City as part of a daylong event arranged by the Muslim American Society of New York.
“It’s unfortunate because everybody just wants to be home with their families today,” said Zead Ramadan of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Parks officials “painstakingly” told the organizer about the headgear ban, said
Tartaglia. But he said that the rules might not have been communicated by the organizer to some attendees.

Three accidents on Playland rides that killed two children and a park worker between 2004 and 2007 were unrelated to clothing the victims were wearing. But the headgear ban was among safety rules that went into effect after those deaths.

“It’s a safety issue on rides. If it’s a scarf, you could choke,” Tartaglia said.

Accounts of what happened varied, but everyone agreed the dispute began after parkgoers were told the headgear ban applied to women wearing traditional Muslim head coverings, known as hijabs.

Tartaglia said once word of that got out there were “a lot of unhappy people.”
Tartaglia said park officials were in the process of arranging refunds when members of the Muslim group got into a scuffle with each other.

Lola Ali, 16, of Astoria said she witnessed a group of girls and women wearing hijabs go to park security to confront them about the headgear issue.

She said the women were upset and yelling. She said the security officers started pushing them away and the girls stood their ground, at which point the security officers grabbed them, pushed them to the ground and handcuffed them.

Men within the park saw this and tried to intervene, Ali said, and the situation went downhill from there.

“They were beating down the girls, then they started beating down the guys,” she said of the security officers.

Earlier, a park cashier told a Journal News reporter that a woman wearing a hijab either pushed or hit a ride operator who forbade her from going on the ride. She said a police officer tried to restrain the woman and the woman’s husband took offense, at which point a multiple-person fight broke out.


In 2010 a Muslim woman was killed while riding a go-kart because of her head covering:
A young Muslim woman had died after her burkha became snagged in a go-kart.

The 24-year-old woman, who has not yet been named, died a terrifying death today when a fluttering part of her burkha became caught in the wheels of a go-kart she was driving near the town of Port Stephens, north of Sydney.

The Muslim clothing the woman was wearing flew back as she sped around the track and part of it became entangled in the go-kart's wheels.

She was strangled in a second and crashed the vehicle.

(h/t jzaik)
  • Thursday, September 01, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Zvi:

Hama attorney general defects
"Bakkour, said in another video released earlier on Wednesday that he had resigned because security forces killed 72 imprisoned protesters and activists at Hama's central jail on the eve of the a military assault on the city on July 31, which he said killed at least another 420 people, many of whom were buried in mass graves in public parks. Bakkour said the 72 prisoners were buried in Khaldiyia village in rural Hama near a Military Intelligence branch, which tried to pressure him to write a report that the other 420 people killed in the assault on the city were killed by armed groups, whom the authorities also blame for most killings across the country....

"Bakkour began drawing attention to himself this month by challenging Military Intelligence to release hundreds of protesters,"

The Syrian regime is raiding Hama again.

The Syrian regime killed at least 473 protesters during Ramadan. At least 88 prisoners have been killed in the last few months, including at least 10 minors, some as young as 13.

The death toll of 360 civilians included 25 children and 14 women, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 113 government forces were also killed.

Amnesty International has said at least 10 children who had been arrested died recently in detention centres where inmates suffered beatings, burns, electric shocks and mutilation.

Syrian regime thugs molest US ambassador

It was absolutely wrong to send him back to Syria. But I'll admit that Ford has acquitted himself rather well during this uprising.

EU Syria sanctions will now include an oil embargo.

Took them long enough. 95% of Syrian oil exports go to the EU. But... .

The sanctions won't include a ban on European companies investing in the Syrian energy sector, a measure that could be adopted in future rounds, diplomats said... Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell PLC, France's Total SA and Hungarian firm MOL Nyrt are the only European firms with significant production interests in the country.

Boycott Shell and Total. Truly.

Meet a few of the young men of the uprising in Syria, including some of the Islamists. Long article but worth reading.

Abdullah, a 26-year-old computer engineer and pious Muslim, is a wanted man. He joined the first protest in Homs in March, and since then he has emerged as one of the dozen or so leaders of the youth resistance. His savvy with technology has made him a target for the police, and this was the fifth place he had slept in in less than a week. He hadn’t been to his family’s home in two months. Around his neck he wore a tiny toy penguin that was actually a thumb drive, which he treated like a talisman, occasionally squeezing it to make sure it was still there. I sat next to him on the mattress and watched as he traded messages with other activists on Skype, then updated a Facebook page that serves as an underground newspaper, then marked a Google Earth map of Homs with the spots of the latest unrest. “If there’s no Internet,” Abdullah said, “there’s no life.”


Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
The following is an advertorial, written by EoZ, for Z Specialty Food.

If you are looking for a great Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot gift, you have just found it.
I am not exactly a "foodie." Don't get me wrong - I love food, but I am no aficionado. My taste buds are stuck somewhere in the fifth grade and I still get enthusiastic about eating Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.
So when Ishai Zeldner asked me to write a post about his food products I admit that I was a little nervous. I want to be honest in what I post, and I was worried that maybe some of his products would not be my style.  
Zeldner's company, Z Specialty Food, is a family-owned gourmet foods business based in California. His products are under the brand name of Moon Shine Trading Company and Cowboy Caviar. Ishai learned how to raise honey bees under the tutelage of one of Israel’s top beekeepers at a kibbutz in 1969.  Zeldner started harvesting and marketing his own honey over 30 years ago, and then added more varieties of honey to his collection. Later his company diversified, bought other small food companies and expanded, and now his whole family is involved. He is proud that his foods are all natural and that his company is environmentally friendly.
When I received a selection of products to review I gathered Mrs. Elder and Daughter of Ziyon to help me out. And the first thing we did was set up a taste test between three of his honeys and two generic honeys.
There is definitely a difference between the honeys that even I could appreciate. The gourmet honeys we tried tend to be a little lighter in color and smoother in taste than the generic brands. The California Orange Blossom Honey had a little citrus-y “kick” that I liked; the womenfolk preferred the High Plains Sweet Clover Honey and the somewhat sweeter California Yellow Star Thistle Honey; Mrs. Elder described the Yellow Star Thistle Honey as having a “perfect texture and taste.” Indeed, that was the honey that started the company.
This is only three of Z-Specialty’s honeys; they sell some 15 different varieties from various regions in the US. Z Specialty Foods is proud that they support American farmers with all of their products.

They also sell “Honey in the Straw” – thin plastic tubes of honey that you can take with you and enjoy any time. (Eating it straight from the tube feels slightly illicit.) You can put it into tea when you are traveling. It is quite good, and they even sell Rosh Hashanah cards that include honey straws!
Next we tried the California Honey Apricot spread. This is simply a mixture of apricot preserves and honey, which is a really great idea, when you think about it. I ate it for breakfast on toast and I also tried it as a substitute for syrup on waffles. It tastes as you would expect – a sweet and tart fruit spread, with the apricot flavor accentuated.  It is very tasty and a nice alternative to jelly.
 A more unusual food that we tried is called Cowboy Caviar, a savory spread, made with fresh vegetables. The one we tried is called Red Bell Pepper Tuscan Style and it is almost like a mild salsa. The company recommends it with eggs. This spread was a hit with all three of us.
The last product I sampled is the one I wanted to try the most:  Chocolate Almond Crunch, a spreadable chocolate nut cream. It is even better than I hoped it would be! You can dip cherries into it, or spread it on cookies, or pour it on ice cream, or eat it straight out of the jar (which I admit I am guilty of.) It’s great on graham crackers too. This stuff is simply awesome. (We are all sneaking tastes every time we open the refrigerator. It did not last long.)
As I said, the honeys especially would make wonderful gifts for your hosts if you are invited out for the holidays.  
If you are more ambitious, you might want to throw a Rosh Hashana honey-tasting party with all 15 varieties – along with a good supply of apples! If you want to have a sweet year, you can’t do better than to start off like that!
All food products are certified kosher by the Igud HaKashrus of Los Angeles (Heart K). (The "royal jelly" and propolis are not certified.) The chocolate and vanilla nut spreads are dairy.

You can save 15% on your order by using the discount code ELDER at checkout.

Shana tova!

Rashid Khalidi, the radical Columbia professor who felt that Yasir Arafat was too dovish for his tastes, writes an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune complaining that Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. went on a trip to Israel.

It is a typical combination of false outrage and outright lies:
[I]nstead of going to Americans hard-hit by the economic downturn, this money is used by Israel to subjugate, humiliate and segregate millions of Palestinians.
Is Khalidi equally outspoken about every US expenditure - or only the tiny percentage of the budget that goes to Israel?

Of course, American money to Israel is audited and none of it goes "to subjugate, humiliate and segregate millions of Palestinians."
Rather than spend his time touring Israel, and seeing what the flacks for Israel wanted him to see, Rep. Jackson could have stayed home and met with constituents facing difficult times.
And rather than write tendentious articles for the Chicago Tribune, Rashid Khalidi could be volunteering to help starving kids in Somalia. By his stunningly stupid "logic" he is a heartless SOB for not spending every minute of his day doing things more valuable than writing op-eds filled with lies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated insistence that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state is entirely at odds with the principles of the modern-day United States and a throwback to an era in which the U.S. was considered a white state.
This is a baldfaced lie. Jews are a nation, whites aren't. Khalidi's denial of this simple fact, and his comparison of nationalism with racism, is indeed a manifestation of anti-semitism. He is simply denying the Jewish right of self-determination that he so tenaciously ascribes to a people who did not exist as such a hundred years ago.
Recognition of Israel as the Jewish state formally reduces Israel's 1.4 million Palestinian citizens to second-class citizenship.
This is a lie. Citizens have equal rights and would continue to do so.

If Khalidi really believes this, then he must be against the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state where its Declaration of Independence and its constitution both explicitly define the state as being "Arab" - meaning that non-Arabs are second class citizens. Would he ever dare to say so?

No, of course not. Because Khalidi will only say such things about the Jewish state.

Jackson explicitly lectured Palestinians for not using nonviolence, ignoring a long tradition of nonviolent resistance by occupied and disenfranchised Palestinians.

A laughable lie that I demolished in great detail here and here.
...Israel's massive apartheid wall, a behemoth (which is both longer and in places higher than the former Berlin Wall) that snakes through Palestinian territory, grabbing land meant for a future Palestinian state.
As Khalidi well knows, the land was always up for negotiation. It was never "meant" for a future Palestinian Arab state. In fact, when it was won in 1967, it was considered by the entire world to be Jordanian. One major objective of the Oslo process was to determine where that border would be, and the path of the security barrier has already changed a number of times.

[H]undreds of unarmed activists acting in the spirit of the U.S. civil rights movement, and who proudly claim to be inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, have been arrested without charge. Hundreds more have been injured or killed by rubber bullets and high-velocity tear gas canisters.
MLK never advocated throwing boulders, using high velocity slings, dropping boulders onto civilians from a height, or throwing Molotov cocktails - all activities that happen weekly in the territories, often at these "non-violent" protests.
Jackson also approvingly quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for the forcible transfer of Israel's Palestinian citizens.
This is an absolute and complete lie. Lieberman called for redrawing borders, ironically giving more land to a Palestinian state, not to forcibly transfer one Palestinian Arab from their home.
It is no wonder then, that peace and security for all in the region is still so elusive.
When professors at Columbia can spout such errant untruths on the pages of a major American newspaper, it allows Palestinian Arab leaders to become even more intransigent and less willing to make the hard compromises necessary for peace.

Khalidi has no interest in peace in the Middle East; he wants Israel to be destroyed and in fact refers to all of Israel as "occupied." He is an extremist, and for him to talk about "peace" is the ultimate of hypocrisy - because his conception of "peace" is the destruction of a nation.
  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Syrian government mouthpiece SANA:
Syrian dramatist Dr. Hannan Kassab Hassan, playwright Omar Abu Saada and dancing designer Osama Hilal participated in Edinburgh Festival for the British Contemporary Arts which was held between August 22nd and 28th.

The Festival presented variety of British contemporary shows and held a number of meetings to provide opportunities of opinions, experiments and knowledge among dramatists from different parts of the world. The Festival also conducted dialogues about the Arab theatre.

Prominent Arab and African dramatists also took part in the international festival, among them Director of Beirut Spring Festival Randa al-Asmar and the Executive Director of Jordan Festival Suha Bawab.

Elizabeth White, Director of the British Council in Syria said that each Summer, Edinburgh embraces new productions and opinions at all streets, halls and theatres where the coffees are crowded with dramatists, playwrights and spectators who enthusiastically discuss the good and bad works.
Somehow, I missed the protests by British "human rights" activists that must have occurred outside the festival, calling attention to Syrian war crimes.

After all, they have determined that the human rights of Arabs is far more important than any arts performance, didn't they?
  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From UPI:
Iran will send a submarine and another warship from the republic's 15th fleet to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said.

The navy will continue to maintain a highly active presence in the area to serve the country's interests, Press TV quoted the navy commander as saying Tuesday.

Sayyari did not say when the naval vessels would be dispatched.

Iran's presence will not only enhance security in the area, but will convey a message of peace and friendship to all countries, he said.

Iran's announcement came shortly after Israel said Tuesday it was boosting its naval presence near the border with Egypt Tuesday, following reports Sinai terrorists plan attacks on Israel.

Due to the warnings based on concrete intelligence received by the security establishment, Israel also boosted its ground forces along the border with Egypt and Gaza.

Israel informed the Egyptian authorities of the move.

Al Masry al Youm reports that first Iran made their announcement and then Israel announced that two warships would be deployed in the Red Sea. Predictably, they interview an Egyptian "expert" who says that Israel's move is designed to "provoke Egypt."
  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Just a quick graphical reaction to the PLO's "Empty Chair" stunt I mentioned yesterday:



  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From ABC News:
She kept a promise of silence and secrecy for 66 years. A promise made to one of the vilest leaders of Nazi Germany.

Now Brunhilde Pomsel, 100 years old, is talking about her time as secretary to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda chief for Adolph Hitler, a man who railed against Jews and once wrote, “Adolf Hitler, I love you because you are both great and simple at the same time. What one calls a genius.” 
All these years later, his secretary calls him something else.

“I will never forgive Goebbels for what he brought into this world,” Pomsel tells Bild, Germany’s most widely-read paper. “And the fact that he could murder his innocent children in this way.”

She worked for Goebbels from 1942 until May 1, 1945 — a week before V-E Day — when he killed himself in Berlin.

“He got away lightly with suicide,” she says. “He knew he would be condemned to death by the Allies. His suicide was cowardly, but he was also smart because he knew what was coming if he didn’t take that way out.”

Countless books have been written about Goebbels and his role in the war, but none had the benefit of a conversation with Pomsel, whose job was to take down Goebbels’ every word — “The Jews must get out of Germany, indeed out of Europe altogether”, “The Jews ought to please observe the laws of hospitality and not behave as if they were the same as us,” and so on.
Pomsel tells Bild she was asked to work for Goebbels because she was a fast typist. “It was an order to be transferred to work for him. You couldn’t refuse.”

And while Pomsel kept notes on all her boss’ hate-mongering, she also claims — in colorful language — to have never known about the horrors that were underway. “I didn’t know about the Holocaust. I was a stupid, politically uninterested little sausage of simple means. I only learned about the Jewish extermination program after the war.”

Pomsel recalls eating goose with Goebbels at his home outside Berlin, and receiving dresses from his wife Magda after her own home was destroyed in an allied bombardment. But “you couldn’t get close to him,” she says. “He never once asked me a personal question. Right up until the end I don’t think he knew my name.”

Andrew Roberts notes that Goebbels was the exception - that most Nazi leaders were very kind to their employees as they carried out the most horrific crimes known to man.

  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Al Arabiya:
Five female bodyguards of Muammar Qaddafi say they were sexually assaulted by the former Libyan leader in a report published in the Malta Times on Sunday.

The claims have been collected by Benghazi-based psychologist Sehram Sergewa who is compiling a dossier for the International Criminal Court for any criminal proceedings against Qaddafi.

Qaddafi was known for his female bodyguards who were always well groomed and rumored to be up to 400 according to a recent report in Al Arabiya. Qaddafi made his guards take a vow of virginity and renamed all of them Aisha, after his only daughter.

The women who stepped forward to share their experiences, however, speak of horrifying crimes of rape by the leader and then his sons or other officials.

One woman, who said she was raped before becoming a female guard by Qaddafi when she sought his intervention to be re-instated at university, was blackmailed into becoming a bodyguard.

“She was told you either become a bodyguard or your brother [detained on fabricated charges of drug trafficking] will spend the rest of his life in prison,” Dr. Sergewa told the newspaper.

Charges of rape aren’t limited to Qaddafi. When conducting a survey at a refugee camp in Tunisia, Dr. Sergewa spoke to women who said they were raped by Qaddafi troops.

An 18-year-old claimed she was raped in front of her father by a soldier.
And it gets worse:
A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an ‘honour killing’ after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata.

Allegations of the shocking executions are contained in a report by the respected Physicians for Human Rights group into war crimes and atrocities in the embattled city, which faced two months of being cut off from the rest of Libya.

The father is said to have carried out the ‘honour killings’ because of his humiliation and shame at the rape of the sisters – aged 15, 17 and 18 – in Tomina, on the outskirts of Misrata. The victims were not named.
(h/t jzaik)
  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Nothing illustrates  Palestinian Arab intransigence more than their rejection of the concept of "two states for two peoples."

Especially when one remembers that this idea was originally floated by the Israeli Far Left - and it was at one point considered political heresy in mainstream Israeli politics.

One early example of this formulation can be seen in the 1974 book "Land of the Hart" by Israeli pioneer - and super-dove - Arie Eliav, as can be seen in these two snippets:

(Eliav quit the Labor Party over its settlement policy at the time and participated in a series of far-left parties.)

Similarly, a 1989 demonstration organized by Peace Now in Jerusalem used the slogan prominently. That demonstration, which only attracted a few hundred, was overshadowed 13 years later by the famous Peace Now rally of some of 50,000 Israelis in 2002 - featuring that same slogan.

In other words, the concept of "two states for two peoples" has been the mantra of the Israeli "peace camp" for decades.

In what can only be considered a triumph by the leftists, this idea, which was was considered anathema to Israeli governments of both the right and the left, became mainstream Israeli policy. Even Ariel Sharon used that exact phrase in May, 2004 when unveiling the disengagement plan from Gaza (placing him far to the left of Yitzchak Rabin, who never accepted the idea of a "Palestinian state.")

Similarly, that phrase has been highlighted by both George Bush and Barack Obama.

Yet the mainstream, supposedly moderate Palestinian Arab leadership has never accepted this key concept, and has been consistently and adamantly against it. To them, the idea of even accepting the existence of a Jewish people cannot be countenanced - even in private.

Any reasonable observer can see that this is a dealbreaker. The PLO's insistence on trampling the idea of a Jewish people and a Jewish homeland means that real peace can never be achieved. They are the ones who are the true obstacle to peace, far more than anything the Israeli government has ever done. The majority of Israelis have steadily moved to the stated positions of the "peace" movement in the past two decades, while the majority of Palestinian Arabs have remained as obstinate as ever.

However, the Israeli Left, the vanguard of "two states for two peoples," willfully ignores, and even hides, this huge divide between their concept of peace and the red lines drawn in no uncertain terms with their purported "peace partners." They will not publicly castigate Mahmoud Abbas for his repeated insistence on this point, nor on his insistence on "return."

The extremism of the PA and the PLO gets a free pass.

Rather than exposing the PLO for ruining any chance for peace, the Israeli Left instead keeps on blaming the Israeli Right for the lack of progress in the "peace process." They simply cannot admit to themselves that their "two states for two peoples" formulation has no takers on the other side.

So they choose to ignore it. They paper over their differences with their "moderate" counterparts on the Arab side. Perhaps it is out of embarrassment, perhaps it is from a refusal to admit that there is no peace partner.

This has far reaching implications. The world media takes its cue from the Israeli Left, symbolized by Ha'aretz. The Western world has largely subscribed to the ideas of the Israeli Left. As a result, for years, journalists have also failed to highlight the inflexible and obdurate position of the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders.

This is one reason that stunts like the unilateral declaration of independence gain any traction to begin with. If the Israeli Left was as ferocious in denouncing Palestinian Arab inflexibility and intransigence as they are of the Israeli Right, then world leaders would be a lot more skeptical about accepting and facilitating these anti-peace stunts. 

Instead, the Israeli "peace camp" has dropped the ball in its quest for peace. Its voice could have been a powerful ingredient in pressuring the PLO for accepting compromise and coexistence. Instead, Israeli leftists  chose to play political one-upsmanship with the Right and to hide their differences with their supposed Arab counterparts.

This emboldens the Palestinian Arabs to continue to refuse compromise and say no to negotiations and peace, as they are given political cover by the Israeli Left and the journalists who admire them.

And the entire world will pay the price.
  • Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
This summer's floptilla has a historical antecedent:


As in the more recent example, it failed to sail - and the organizers blamed the Greeks! (WaPo)

A Palestine Liberation Organization plan to sail a ship filled with people deported from the occupied territories to Israel, much as Jewish war refugees did in 1947 aboard the Exodus, has been stalled by a "secret" Israeli dissuasion campaign aimed at Greek merchant shipping, PLO officials charged today. Israel denied the charge.

An Israeli Embassy spokesman here denied the charge today. But in Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has expressed outrage at and opposition to the PLO plan to copy the Jews' postwar tactics to settle refugees in what was then British-administered Palestine. Greece also denied being pressed by Israel or the United States-as the PLO had alleged-to prevent the sailing.

The PLO plans to load the ship with international observers, reporters and 131 Palestinians who were deported from the Israeli-occupied territories on the West Bank and Gaza and sail it to Haifa in Israel. The ship would make a stopover in Larnaca, Cyprus to pick up more international observers, including a number of Palestinians, the PLO said.
And just like today, anti-Israel stunts are catnip to the media.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From JPost:
The Foreign Ministry is drawing up talking points and writing press releases in the run-up to Friday’s expected release of the Palmer Commission report on the Mavi Marmara incident.

The preparations follow Turkey’s rejection of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s proposal that publication of the report be postponed for another six months. Release of the report has been delayed repeatedly since May 15, when it was first scheduled to be published.

According to Israeli officials, the Turks – in addition to demanding an apology for the incident and compensation for the families of the nine Turks killed on the ship – are also interested in seeing the report buried because it upholds Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and places Ankara in a negative light.

What Netanyahu hoped to do by postponing publication of the report, the officials said, was to give the Turks what they wanted regarding burying the report, as well as to postpone the apology issue.

Israel has already said it would pay compensation through a fund set up by the Turkish government.

According to Israeli officials, the 102-page report comes to the following conclusions:
Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was legal, as was the interception of vessels trying to break the blockade.

The IHH activists behind the flotilla were looking for a violent provocation.

Turkey had a role with the IHH in the flotilla setting sail.

The IDF soldiers defended themselves after coming up against premeditated violence by those on the ship.

The IDF soldiers used excessive force.

The publication of the report has been delayed for months in the hopes that Israel and Turkey could reach an amicable agreement that would obviate the need for its publication. The concern is that once the report is released – a report that calls on Israel to express “regret” for the incident, but not apologize – it will be more difficult for Israel and Turkey to reach any type of reconciliation.

Israel has already expressed regret for the loss of life in the incident.
It's about time.

But after it is released, and all the findings are made public, you can be sure that the usual anti-Israel idiots will go crazy over the last bullet point and ignore all the other findings that show that after their year of whining about the Mavi Marmara and international law that they were completely and fully wrong.
  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AP:
A Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane in 2009 claims he was the victim of excessive force after he assaulted several officers.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab filed a request Thursday asking that no excessive force be used against him when he defends his Islamic religion.

In another request, Abdulmutallab wants to be released and be judged by the Quran. He is charged with trying to blow up an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight on Christmas Day 2009 by detonating explosive chemicals concealed in his underwear.
It is clear bigotry. Non-Muslims who attempt to blow up airplanes and then assault police officers get treated much kinder than Umar was.
  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar says that the security of Mahmoud Abbas cannot be assured if he would visit Gaza. But it is not Hamas that would want to kill him - but Mahmoud Dahlan's Fatah loyalists!

In an interview he also said that any Abbas visit wouldn't further the supposed reconciliation between Hamas and the PA, as they are already meeting on the topic in Cairo and no progress has been made.

Zahar suggested that the PA is the party that is fighting against real unity, and that the meetings they have had so far were on superficial topics like issuing passports in Gaza.

On a possible Abbas visit, Zahar says that there are no plans now and in his opinion " it is not wise to come under these circumstances."

Zahar also said that any proposal that Abbas may give to the UN that involves NATO or other international forces to help with security would be invalid without first discussing it with Hamas and the other Gaza militant factions.
I wrote this in response to yet another set of apologetics by Chris Gunness of UNRWA, this one in the Huffington Post. I wrote  it at 10:30 EDT; as of this writing it has not yet been posted.
Many of UNRWA's camps are in Jordan - where most Palestinian Arabs have been citizens for decades. Why are people who are citizens of a state still considered "refugees" by UNRWA?

Many more of UNRWA's camps are in the areas of British Mandate Palestine, in the West Bank and Gaza. If these people are living already in the land that they consider theirs, why are they still considered "refugees" by UNRWA?

UNRWA claims that it is waiting for a full solution for the refugee problem. Yet when it was established in 1950 it actually tried to help resettle the refugees in Arab countries - something that was adamantly refused by the Arab leaders who wanted to perpetuate the problem. Why did UNRWA stop trying to help them resettle and go on with their lives?

On a number of occasions there have been loopholes allowing Palestinian Arabs to become citizens of Lebanon and, most recently, Egypt. Every time that happened there was a huge rush by these Palestinians to become citizens of those states. How can Gunness claim that Palestinian Arabs want to "return" rather than remain stateless when there has been no survey showing that to be true and plenty of evidence that it is false?

In short, what is UNRWA doing to solve the root problem of a perpetually growing problem of stateless Palestinians? Every sane person knows the solution must involve resettlement in Arab countries. Why does UNRWA work so hard instead to perpetuate their misery forever?
I could have kept going, but there is a 250 word limit.

HuffPo had banned my main email address, but I don't remember what I did that caused me to be banned.  I posted it under a different email but it looks like my questions are too subversive for the champions of free speech at HuffPo.
  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Arab Times Online:

KUWAIT CITY: The Ministry of Justice intends to shelve the case which has been filed by MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and others against the Israeli government for humiliating and assaulting them while they were aboard the Turkish flotilla which was carrying humanitarian assistance to the people of the Gaza Strip in Palestine, reports Al-Dar daily.

It has been reported the ministry was preparing to file a lawsuit in international courts but was advised by lawyers not to go ahead with the suit because Israel could win the case and Kuwait would end up paying billions of dollars in compensation because the ship had violated international law by entering the Israeli territorial waters without permission.
The legal reasoning is probably garbled for the article; I imagine either the problem is that the blockade would be declared legal or that they have to consider Gaza to be Israeli territory if they are calling it "occupied." I also have no idea of where the lawsuit would have been filed.

There might also be an element of the Arab honor/shame society here. Even if they are confident in their case, they are concerned at the huge embarrassment that they would suffer if they lost and had to pay Israel. Even a small chance of that eventuality is enough to scare off any potential legal action.

Either way, this is very funny.
  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AFP:
A hand-made olive-wood chair, fashioned to look like the blue seats at the United Nations, is set to tour Europe to raise support for a Palestinian bid to join the world body.

The chair was commissioned by a Palestinian NGO which is hoping to rally support for the campaign to secure full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state when the General Assembly meets in New York next month.

Made from Jerusalem olive wood and upholstered in crushed velvet in the U.N.'s trademark air force blue, the chair is embossed with the words: "Palestine's Right -- A full membership in the United Nations."

"The wood came from an olive tree in Jerusalem, the olive tree being a symbol of Palestine, while the blue upholstery with white writing came from Nablus," said Sufian al-Qawasmi, the Hebron-based designer who supervised the project.

The chair will begin its tour in Beirut and then head to Qatar, before moving to Europe where it will be taken to London, Paris, Brussels and Madrid.

It will then be flown to New York -- where it will be formally presented to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in the hope that it will serve as the official U.N. seat for the State of Palestine.
But it's not just AFP. AP has the story as well.

This story is now on literally hundreds of websites.

Is an empty chair with a picture of an empty chair really that newsworthy?

To put it another way: In 2005, the skeletal remains of a bombed Israeli bus went on a tour of the US to push an anti-terror message. Did it receive even one tenth of the news coverage during the weeks it was brought to different cities as this chair did in just a few hours?
  • Tuesday, August 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Yesterday I noted a great article by Yochanan Visser and Sharon Shaked of Missing Peace in the Jerusalem Post debunking the PA's lies about water.

Today there's an even better article by Visser and Shaked in Israel Today that exposes the entire infrastructure of lies in the territories. Read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

[One] claim that originated from a Palestinian source involved the alleged destruction of 200 olive trees in the village Al Walaja near Bethlehem.

JAI, the Joint Advocacy Initiative, published a report about Na'el Khalid, a Palestinian farmer who claimed that 200 olive trees were destroyed when Israeli authorities started building the security fence on part of his land.

JAI also reported that Khalid would lose his land to Givat Ya'el - a planned Jewish community adjacent to Al Walaja.

We asked the IDF to comment on this report and received the following answer:

"In accordance with Israeli Supreme Court rulings regarding the rerouting of Israel's security fence, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) transplanted trees from Mr. Na'el Khalil's property to an adjacent plot, ensuring that he was able to continue working his land.

"The Israeli court authorities have previously denied several petitions seeking ownership of the land adjacent to the Palestinian village Al-Walajah by the Givat Ya'el community, a private building project in Judea."

A field investigation in Al Walaja where we visited Na'el Whalid's lands confirmed the IDF account of the situation.

And here is an interesting anecdote where Visser follows up on UNRWA claims:

The most shocking example of the distortions industry came from UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness during an interview with the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency.

Reacting to this interview, and a related UNRWA press release, we asked Gunness for additional data and information on the topic of home demolitions.

UNRWA then sent us a report that only contained locations and dates of the West Bank demolitions.

When asked for additional information about the demolitions, such as court orders, Gunness became extremely agitated, used crude language and demanded immediate publication of "the facts."

Facts? Let’s examine this claim in the Ma'an interview:

"Many displacements are taking place where settlements are expanding and with it we are seeing an upturn in vicious attacks by Jewish settlers. Palestinians are being thrown off their ancestral lands to make way for settlers," Gunness told Ma'an.

This suggests two things: First, that settlements are still expanding outside their municipal boundaries, and second that Jews are supplanting Palestinian Arabs.

As Gunness knows very well, since 2005 settlement expansion has only taken place within the existing zoning lines of the municipal boundaries. No Palestinian Arabs have been kicked off their land to be replaced by Jews.

In fact, Gunness was referring here to Bedouins who are illegally squatting. An official with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told us that the Bedouin increasingly tend to camp in the vicinity of Jewish settlements and are often paid to do so by pro-Palestinian NGO's.

In the same Ma'an interview Gunness claimed the following:

"There is growing evidence that it (demolitions in Area C of the West Bank) is destroying the very fabric of these communities and ultimately contributing to a demographic shift which is changing the ethnic make-up of the West Bank."

This suggests a slow "ethnic cleansing" of the Palestinian population on the West Bank. 
Of course, Gunness is well aware of the fact that only 3% of the Palestinian population lives in Area C – most of them Bedouins, who mostly live in tents and are used to moving from place to place.

UNRWA's own census from 2007 shows an average population growth of the Palestinian population on the West Bank of 2.5 percent per year.

But there was more. In an e-mail to Missing Peace Gunness wrote the following:
"127 people expelled in Ma'aleh Nikhmas [sic] - displaced for settlement in the last few weeks. Is that enough?"

Really?

The 127 Palestinians expelled from Ma'aleh Michmas "for [Jewish] settlement" were in fact Bedouins who decided to leave, as his own UNRWA press release states.

There is no evidence that Ma'aleh Michmas residents took their place.

In fact, according to a report by the pro-Palestinian organization International Solidarity Movement, 16 Bedouin were evicted in the Ma'aleh Michmas area at the end of July.

This happened after they illegally camped within a closed military zone and received eviction orders two years ago.

By the way, for those coming from HuffPo, here's my comment about UNRWA that they didn't let me post.

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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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