Monday, October 28, 2013

An email correspondent sent me part of a discussion from Mondoweiss that claimed that the US recognized Palestine as a state in 1932.

The assertion:
FYI, the US government formally recognized the Mandated State of Palestine in 1932. For example, the case of “Kletter v. Dulles, Secretary of State”, the United States District Court District Of Columbia ruled in 1953 that Mr. Kletter had lost his US citizenship when he was naturalized in the Mandated State of Palestine:

The contention of the plaintiff that Palestine, while under the League of Nations mandate, was not a foreign state within the meaning of the statute is wholly without merit. . . . Furthermore, it is not for the judiciary, but for the political branches of the Government to determine that Palestine at that time was a foreign state. This the Executive branch of the Government did in 1932 with respect to the operation of the most favored nations provision in treaties of commerce.
So I looked up the case.

It does indeed state that. However, the writer ignores that the case quotes an earlier case that defines the terms a bit better:
When the Congress speaks of a "foreign State," it means a country which is not the United States, or its possession or colony — an alien country — other than our own, bearing in mind that the average American, when he speaks of a "foreigner," means an alien, non-American. Uyeno v. Acheson, D.C., 96 F.Supp. 510.
Looking at Uyeno vs. Acheson, we see:
It is obvious that the words "foreign state" are not words of art. In using them, the Congress did not have in mind the fine distinctions as to sovereignty of occupied and unoccupied countries which authorities on international law may have formulated. They used the word in the sense of "otherness". When the Congress speaks of "foreign state", it means a country which is not the United States or its possession or colony, — an alien country, — other than our own, bearing in mind that the average American, when he speaks of a "foreigner" means an alien, non-American.
So the full context shows without any room for doubt that the US did not recognize British Mandate Palestine as a state, rather it was recognized as a foreign entity. The phrase"foreign state" was used for convenience, not as a legal ruling.

This is the quality of arguments of the anti-Israel crowd. Scratch a little and you see that they don't bother to read the very text they are quoting.

There is actually an entire book by John Quigley that tries to pretend that Palestine was a real state before 1948. Part of his argument is that Great Britain in 1932 gave Palestine (at the behest of Jewish leaders) "most favoured nation" status for purposes of easing tariffs so Jews in Palestine could export wine and fruit to England easier. The argument is that if Palestine was a "most favoured nation" then it must have been legally considered a nation by Great Britain.

This is of course absurd. The UK was looking for a legal fiction to allow easier exports from Palestine, it was not making a legal decision that Palestine was a state!

 Yet  Quigley further argues, bizarrely, that this supposed recognition of Palestine as a state in the 1930s carries over to today, as if there is a legal relationship between what was called Palestine at the time and a Palestinian state today, purposefully ignoring that Israel and only Israel took over the political institutions of Palestine.

However, the "most favoured nation" argument that Palestine was considered a nation by Great Britain can be demolished in an even easier way. Because Great Britain said explicitly that Palestine was not a state in a memo to the UN in early 1948!

In that memo, the United Kingdom says: "Palestine is today a legal entity but it is not a sovereign state."

It doesn't get more explicit than that.

Quigley, not surprisingly, doesn't mention this quote.


From Ian:

David Singer: Bandar Candour Can Help End Arab-Jewish Conflict
23 years ago in an Open Letter published in the Washington Times on 30 September 1990 – Bandar – then Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador in America – had publicly criticised Jordan’s King Hussein for his failure to create a Palestinian Arab State in the West Bank between 1948-1967.
Bandar made the following three very pertinent comments:
1.“Your Majesty, you claimed to defend the Palestinian people`s right to self-determination and a state of their own. And I support you in that. But you were responsible for the Palestinian homeland on the West Bank from 1948 to 1967. Why in all that period did you not give them their rights and statehood?”
Palestinians make stiff land demands for peace deal
The Palestinian Authority demands that any land swap with Israel as part of a peace deal not exceed 1.9 percent of the West Bank, less than half of the land necessary to incorporate the lion’s share of settlers, according to details leaked to Channel 2 by a disgruntled Palestinian official on Sunday.
According to the report, the Palestinians are also insisting that they gain control over water, and control at their sides of the Dead Sea and border crossings; that a Palestinian state be able to sign agreements with other states without Israeli intervention; that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners it holds; and that all Palestinian refugees and their descendants be granted the right to choose to live in Israel or the Palestinian territories as part of a final agreement.
Palestinian Terms Leave Little to Talk About
Peace is not just about pressuring parties to come to the table, though it must be conceded that Kerry’s efforts in this regard were impressive. In order for the diplomatic process to succeed there must be a desire to reach some sort of accommodation. But any discussion that involves terms that basically mandate the end of Israel illustrates that the Jewish state’s alleged peace partner is not genuinely interested in ending the conflict.
Given the Palestinian Authority’s culture of incitement and fomenting of hatred, this should come as a surprise to no one. And even if we accept the proposition that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas wants peace, the fact that Gaza is ruled by his Hamas rivals makes any agreement unlikely since signing it might give the embattled Islamists a major boost at his expense.
What would the UN do without Israel?
The United Nations often has a hostile approach to Israel, yet regularly turns to the Jewish state to solve issues of international concern.
At a time when boycotts of Israel are on the rise, the UN is increasingly turning to Israel for help. Historically, the UN has been viewed as one of the most difficult political environments for Israel.
However, recent indications suggest the UN is also, on occasion, used as a channel for countries with no official relations with the Jewish state, to seek its help. One such body is the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which has granted 13 Israeli NGOs ‘Special ‘Consultative Status’ and is currently considering granting this status to a further two.
Ending boycott, Israel to attend UN human rights hearing
Then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman ordered the severing of Israeli ties with the council in March 2012 after the international organization said it would probe how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of Palestinians.
“We will attend” the Universal Periodic Review held in Geneva, an Israeli official told AFP. Another Israeli diplomat tweeted the news, adding that “it’ll still be an unfair Council (see item 7) but we’ll do our part.”
BBC double standards on paramilitary murals
Not only does the BBC not adopt the language and narrative of paramilitary terrorist organisations when describing murals depicting them in Northern Ireland; it goes to the trouble of informing audiences about the violent reality of the actions of those groups and the perceived effects of such murals on the Northern Ireland peace process. So why does it embrace the double standard of romanticisation of terror in another part of the world?
CAMERA: Ari Shavit's Lydda Massacre
Israeli wrongdoing, whether real or imagined, holds a special fascination for certain media outlets, which seem to get a particular thrill from putting Israel under the microscope. Writing about genuine bloodletting in other parts of the world just isn't as much fun as indicting Israelis for supposed massacres, and thereby once again putting Zionism – and therefore the Jews – on trial.
Which brings us to the latest in this genre, "Lydda, 1948" (The New Yorker, October 21, 2013) written by the well-known and talented Israeli journalist Ari Shavit. In Shavit’s very deceptive and even contradictory recounting, Israeli soldiers led by a certain Lt. Col. Moshe Dayan, and armed with: "a giant armored vehicle mounted with a cannon, menacing half-tracks, and machine-gun-equipped jeeps" joined other Israeli forces attacking Lydda (and its neighbor Ramle) during Israel's War of Independence.
Sidney Blumenthal’s Idiot Racist Son Survives Trip Through Israeli Airport
Some people travel through deserts. Others skydive from space. Max Blumenthal, Sidney Blumenthal’s idiot son, gets his thrills trying to make it through an Israeli airport.
Max Blumenthal, political hack Sidney Blumenthal’s son, makes things up and makes himself into the center of the story. He’s like Julian Assange, except even lamer. Blumenthal’s claims to fame include being the son of a Clinton aide and making a viral video featuring drunken Israelis badmouthing Obama.
Victim of Sydney Attack: That's Why We Need Israel
Ben Haim is the JNF representative in Australia. "Unfortunately, what happened to us of Sabbath eve proves beyond a doubt how fatefully important the existence of the Jewish state is for any Jew, no matter where he is," he said Sunday, according to Maariv.
"We hope that this incident is not repeated and that the warm community in Australia in general, and in Sydney in particular, will know how to combat such phenomena and will know that the state of Israel is also there to protect them."
JPost Editorial: Anti-Semitism in Australia
Although some websites jumped to the conclusion, based on inconclusive security camera footage that captured part of the attack, that the assailants – two 16-yearolds and a 23-year-old – were Muslims, an Australian source said that only the adult’s name was released, and it sounded “southern European.”
The attack surprised leaders of Australian Jewry. “Who would have believed something like that could happen in Australia,” JNF executive director Ygal Shapir said. Peter Wertheim, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the attack “appeared to be the most serious incident of spontaneous anti-Semitic violence in Australia in living memory.”
Hate Unleashed
This is evidence of growing anti-Semitism in Sydney, which is not limited to brutal physical assaults allegedly committed by morons. A crude loathing of Jews and Israel is also obvious in protests against the Max Brenner chain of chocolate shops, which is Jewish-owned.
Protesters claim that they are motivated only by the chain’s support for the Israeli army, but a vile streak of pure Jew-hate emerges in their online comments. This reached a shocking level earlier this year when the Max Brenner chain announced plans for a store on the University of New South Wales campus.
Sydney Chabad Rabbi: Attack Shocked Everyone VIDEO
Rabbi Eli Feldman from Chabad of Sydney, Australia, told Arutz Sheva Monday that "both Jewish community and larger Australian community were shocked" by the anti-Semitic attack in Bondi on Shabbat.
The rabbi said that the act was carried out by "thugs" but that "there was a clear anti-Semitic element there."
A round-up of coverage and reactions: Attack on Jewish group in Bondi

Local firefighters head to Israel to observe how they deal with tragedies
The firefighters are made up of five different agencies across the greater Tucson area. They met at a midtown cafe on Sunday to thank their sponsors. The $40,000 trip was fully funded by donations. The firefighters will learn how Israeli first responders deal with some of the biggest disasters and bring their knowledge back to Tucson.
Paula Abdul to get Kotel bat mitzvah
After a delay of of almost four decades, American singer and reality show star Paula Abdul, 51, will finally realize her dream of celebrating her bat mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Abdul, who became famous in the 1990s as a singer and more recently for her role on “American Idol” and “The X Factor,” is to arrive in Israel Monday as a guest of the Tourism Ministry and celebrate the milestone during this, her first visit to the country, according to a ministry statement.
Lou Reed’s Stand for Israel and against Anti-Semitism
Reed, who died yesterday of liver failure at the age of 71, was born Lewis Allan Reed to a Jewish family in Brooklyn. He said that while “he had no god apart from rock ‘n’ roll” his Jewish roots and standing up for Israel meant a lot to him. He was a frequent visitor to the country, last performing in Tel Aviv in 2008, and his aunt and many cousins live in Haifa and other Israeli towns.
Reed even had an Israeli spider named after him to thank him for his support for the country.
His connection to Israel and his distaste for anti-Semitism can be heard in his lyrics from the song “Good Evening Mr. Waldheim” on his 1989 solo album New York: (h/t Yoel)
Danish crown prince’s visit commemorates rescue of Jews
It’s been over 900 years between visits of Scandinavian royals to Jerusalem.
On October 30, Danish crown prince Frederik, 45, will make an ultra-short visit to Israel to attend a gala concert at the Jerusalem Theater on the 70th anniversary of the Danish people’s rescue of Denmark’s 7,000 Jews to Sweden in October 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark.
The rescue operation – the only light in the darkness of Nazi-occupied Europe – was almost completely successful, as about 90 percent of Danish Jewry was saved, and only a few hundred deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
The Next Stage in IDF Air Defense

From Hurriyet Daily News:
A draft presented to the Cabinet concerning hate crimes does not include provisions for those targeted because of their sexual orientation or ethnic identity.

The draft, which designates “hate and prejudice” as an aggravation cause for crimes, was presented as one of the reforms that government vowed to implement as part of its “democracy package.”

However, hate and prejudice crimes are defined in the draft as “crimes committed based on someone’s or some group’s language, race, nationality, skin color, gender, disability, political views, philosophical beliefs or religion,” excluding those based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, different to many European countries.

With the exclusion of ethnicity as a characteristic that could be basis of a hate crime, assaults against ethnic minorities in Turkey that don’t have a nation recognized by the United Nations would be charged with a regular punishment. For example, if an Armenian person in Turkey is targeted for being an Armenian, the crime committed against them will be regarded as a hate crime and whatever the crime is, its penalty would be aggravated.

On the hand, the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, Kurds, is not included in the regulation, as it does not have a U.N.-recognized country.

Although gender is included, the same is true for gays and lesbians, as attacking a person based on their sexual orientation is not regarded as a hate or prejudice crime, according to the draft.
Sounds like EU material, no?
El Bashayer Online has an interview, apparently originally done in 2012, with the caretaker of the Jewish cemetery in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad.

Ziad al-Bayati took over responsibility for the cemetery from his father. I did find a Forward article from 2004 that indicated that one of the last Iraqi Jews was involved in fixing up the cemetery which had been neglected for decades, and gravestones damaged during the Gulf War were rebuilt.

And yet even in this article there has to be some old fashioned Jew-hatred.

The writer interviews an Iraqi "researcher" Ahmed Jawad who says:
It is a sign of the spirit of tolerance of Muslims, who respect the lives and bodies of their offenders, while fanatical Jewish organizations attack Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem's Old City and the cities of Palestine and even in the European continent, as in Germany and France.

Incidentally, the 2004 article notes:
Visitors to the Jewish cemetery in the turbulent Shia neighborhood of Sadr City, the scene of some of the most vicious fighting in recent weeks, have been stoned more than once by school children.
A bombed church. Gotta be the Zionists' fault.
The Daily Beast has an incomprehensible article that takes a few unrelated facts and half-truths to somehow blame Israel's existence and US support for Israel for the fact that Western Christians are mostly indifferent to the problems of Middle East Christians.

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Fellow of St. Cross College and Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University. Here's his bizarre thesis:
[O]ne of the silences which I find most frustrating is precisely the lack of noise from Western Christians about the fate of ancient Christianities in the Middle East. At the heart of the problems in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine, and I notice that when American politicians discuss those matters, they seem to assume that all Palestinians, and indeed all Arabs, are Muslims. Not so: there are Christians there too.... Why this blindness, why this silence?
Given that every single Christmas for over a century there have been articles in major American and British papers about the Christian community in Bethlehem, this first assertion seems not very plausible. (Not to mention that even after seeing two years of Arab upheavals, MacCulloch  still places Israel at the center of all Middle East problems.)

But even if US politicians were uncommonly stupid, isn't this article about the silence of normal Christians? Are they equally unaware that Christians live in the Middle East?

His second unrelated point:
The problem is a Protestant one, going right back to sixteenth-century Reformation. From Martin Luther onwards, many Protestants have eagerly been awaiting an imminent end to the world, the return of Christ in glory. Reading the Bible, it’s easy to link this to the idea that a necessary precondition for Christ to return is that his ancient people the Jews convert to the Christian faith...But by the nineteenth century there was a further thought: the Jews must return to their Promised Land of Israel. In 1846 there was founded a worldwide Evangelical Alliance. One of its main concerns was to return Jews to Palestine and convert them there...
Yeah, we know that. So let's go to a third mostly unrelated point:

Fast-forward to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. For some years after that, American relations with Israeli governments were dominated by power politics. ... [I]n the 1980s [American politicians] discovered a large constituency emphatically in favour of Israel, precisely for reasons related to the apocalypse....

Now American Evangelicals made common cause with the Jewish community in the United States, and they seemed to care little if at all for the opinions or the sufferings of their fellow-Christians in the ancient Churches of the Middle East. Israeli politicians have not been slow to exploit this political windfall, caring little for the fact that Evangelical apocalypticism expected the conversion of the Jews to Christianity. American foreign policy has for decades seemed locked into hardly questioning its support for the State of Israel, even though the consequences for its relations with the Arab and Muslim world, and with others, are almost entirely negative. They have been particularly dire for the traditional Christianities of the Middle East.
OK, so the US - by siding with Israel to make US evangelicals happy - has caused Arab Muslims to turn against Arab Christians.

Um, what?

This has to be one of the most bizarre anti-Israel arguments I've ever seen, and I've seen some doozies. Although to call it an "argument" seems too charitable. It is more a vain attempt to blame Israel for Christian suffering throughout the Arab world by throwing things against the wall and hoping they would stick.

Exactly how does one draw a line from "US support for Israel" to "Muslims drive Christians out of all Arab countries"? How much can one twist facts in order to absolve Arabs from their actions?

But MacCulloch's theory is even nuttier. He still doesn't give a reason for those crazy evangelicals to ignore their fellow Christians. If they were all Islamophobes, wouldn't they be in the forefront of the campaign to defend Arab Christians from Muslims?  Apparently, somehow, their support for Israel means that they don't have the mental capacity to understand that more than one thing can happen in the Middle East at once. It must be that they are just too stupid.

That's not all. MacCulloch thinks that US Zionist evangelicals are the only Christians on the planet who have the ability to help their fellow Christians. What about non-evangelical Americans? What about the entire continent of South America? What about European Christians? Are they all completely impotent because US Zionist Christians have taken over the entire religion?

What continent is the Vatican in again?

The entire article reveals much more about MacCulloch's mentality than about any reality in the Middle East. Rather than try to puzzle out the illogic of this piece, try this on for size:

1) MacCulloch is upset that Christians have been silent about Muslim persecution.
2) MacCulloch hates Israel and Christian Zionists.
3) Therefore, Israel and Zionism must be at fault for Christian apathy.

The rest is all detail. (And absolving the actual people doing the persecution is obligatory, as long as Zionists can be somehow blamed.)

Even the Daily Beast employee who wrote the subheading of the article can't quite figure out MacCulloch's argument:
Why has the suffering of the Middle Eastern Christian communities not ignited outrage and support from Western Christians? The answer has something to do with Israel and the Second Coming, writes Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch.

(h/t Daniel F)
From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: Obama's 'new' Mideast policy: Modesty or pullback?
Saturday's New York Times carries a remarkable story about the "new" Obama Middle East policy, based on interviews with National Security Advisor Susan Rice. The Times describes the policy as "modest," but that is not the right word. The policy defines an American abandonment of leadership in the region.
On Iran, the new policy seeks a negotiated deal and previous claims that "all options are on the table" are gone. No one appears to have calculated how the American and Western negotiating positions are weakened when the Iranian fear of a military attack is eliminated. A second focus is the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," despite the fact that no sober Israeli or Palestinian official believes a deal can be reached at this time. The third focus is Syria, where the policy now appears to be centered on Geneva talks that are sinking even as the Times article appears in print. I would rate the new policy focus as 0 for 3.
Caroline Glick: Israel’s European challenge
As for Israel, we need to recognize first and foremost that we do not control what happens in Europe. In adopting anti- Israel policies, European leaders are not responding to actions Israel undertakes. When 40 percent of Europeans tell pollsters they believe that Israel is enacting a genocide against the Palestinians, it is clear that European views of Israel are not based on facts of any kind, and certainly not on anything Israel does.
Moreover, we need to recognize that like our European friends, we have given the benefit of the doubt to our continental adversaries, believing their empty claims of commitment to the peace process and international law. As a consequence, since the outset of the peace process with the PLO 20 years ago, most of the steps we have taken to demonstrate our good faith have strengthened those European who wish us ill at the expense of those who wish us well.
Like our European friends, we need to stop giving a pass to those who distort the very meaning of international law while making empty proclamations of support for the cause of peace. Only be exposing the truth behind the lies will we strengthen our European friends and so increase the possibility that our relations with Europe may improve one day.
Iran's Terror Entity in Lebanon
The situation was also addressed by Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan, who unveiled a government plan to find solutions quickly for the 30% of Israeli civilians who do not have rocket-proof rooms in their apartments, or access to bomb shelters in their buildings or the immediate vicinity.
In any full-scale war, Erdan warned, the Israeli home front will be pounded by thousands of rockets for up to three weeks, and every point in the country could be hit by Hezbollah.
One out of every 10 homes in Lebanon now has a rocket launcher or Hezbollah weapons stored in it, Erdan said. Civilian homes, he said, are constructed in southern Lebanon in a way that allows the roof to open up for the firing of a rocket at Israel.
Quid pro what?
Netanyahu is now paying a price for the public's lack of confidence in disproportionate gestures made toward the Palestinians. The public wants to know what Israel is getting in return. Are the Palestinians finally willing to accept Netanyahu's list of conditions and sign a permanent peace deal? Will they recognize Israel as a Jewish state? Will they agree to Israel having defensible borders? Will they give up on Jerusalem and the right of return?
Netanyahu deserves credit for his effort to reach a peace agreement, even if few believe that it can happen.
Edelstein: Prisoners released this week will commit more acts of terror
"We stood for the principle of negotiations without preconditions before this process began, but this morning the names of arch-terrorists with blood on their hands were already publicized," Edelstein wrote on Facebook.
The Knesset Speaker said the terrorists being released killed "the best of our sons and citizens" - soldiers, teachers, and even a Holocaust survivor.
Jews are Sitting Ducks on Hebrew U. Route
The security situation is worsening on the road leading to Hebrew University's Mount Scopus (Har Hatzofim) Campus from the direction of the Arab village of Issawiya, a local resident tells Arutz Sheva.
The resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he drives on the road daily and that every day, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, the road becomes a trap for Jewish drivers, who are pelted with rocks by local Muslim Arabs. He says that many vehicles are unable to avoid the rock barrages and that every day, cars are hit by rocks.
Terror Attack Thwarted in Hevron
A young terrorist, estimated to be about 16 years old, was arrested this afternoon (Sunday) by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) after attempting to stab soldiers standing guard outside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron.
BBC continues to ignore non-fatal terror attacks
As we saw in the lead up to last year’s ‘Operation Pillar of Cloud’, the fact that the BBC had consistently ignored the majority of the preceding missile fire and other attacks (putting no reporter on the ground in towns and cities such as Ashkelon and Netivot until Israel responded to six weeks of paralysing missile attacks) meant that – with BBC audiences oblivious of the context – it was then able to erroneously claim that the violence began with Israel’s targeting of Ahmed Jabari and to make the bizarre assertion that the operation was part of the incumbent Israeli government’s election campaign.
It is the same lack of presentation of the context of the ‘drip drip’ of ongoing intimidation by terror which creates an environment in which BBC presenters can embarrass themselves – and the organization they represent – by making crass statements about the numbers of Israeli casualties, as was the case with Mishal Husain last year.
Hamas losing $230m a month from tunnel closures
Egypt’s closure of smuggling tunnels between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip is costing Hamas $230 million in lost revenue every month, a senior official in the Islamist organization said on Sunday.
Hatem Oweida, deputy economy minister for Hamas, said that “closure of the tunnels caused heavy losses to the industry, commerce, agriculture, transport and construction sectors,” AFP reported.
Netanyahu: ‘Most, If Not All, Leaders’ Agree With Israel on Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Sunday that despite appearances, Israel is not alone in its insistence that Iran be prevented by the West from maintaining the ability to build nuclear weapons.
“There are those who say so fully and there are those who whisper and there are those who say so privately. But everyone understands that Iran cannot be allowed to retrain the ability to be within reach of nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, according to a cabinet communique. “This was the focus of the long and detailed talks that I held with John Kerry,” he added.
Netanyahu Says Discussion Over Iranian Uranium Enrichment to 20% is ‘Unimportant’
“Iran is willing to give up on enriching uranium to 20% and therefore a discussion on this issue is unimportant,” he said, at the start of his government’s weekly cabinet meeting. “The importance of the issue became superfluous in the wake of the technological improvements that allow Iran to enrich uranium from 3.5% to 90% in a number of weeks. Pressure on Iran should be increased because it is continuing enrichment even as it negotiates.”
Banners reflect hard-line backlash in Iran
Banners that suddenly cropped up around Tehran in the past week depict an American diplomat dressed in a jacket and tie, while under the negotiating table he is wearing military pants and pointing a shotgun at an Iranian envoy.
The anti-American images were ordered taken down Saturday by Tehran authorities. But they made their point.
The new 'moderate' Iran: 16 Baluchi political prisoners hanged in act of vengeance - West ignores it
Obama, the EU - and of course the entire main stream Western media - are so desperate to maintain the nonsensical narrative of a new 'moderate' Iran that there has been barely a mention of this story that can be found at the bottom of page 32 of today's Telegraph.
The story reveals more than just the fact that 16 political prisoners from the Baluchi minority community were hanged in revenge for an attack by Baluchi rebels on an Iranian border post. We also discover that the Iranians use the threat of killing prisoners to deter any rebel actions, and that it in 2010 the Iranians committed an act of international air piracy to force a civilian aircraft flying from Dubai to Kysyzstan to land in Iran so that they could arrest the leader or the Baluchi rebel group.
Partitioning Syria
After two-and-a-half years of steadily metastasizing violence in Syria, the harsh reality is that the country isn't going to become a stable, unified state again in the foreseeable future, let alone a remotely democratic one. It may be time to start thinking about alternatives.
Syria has already fragmented into increasingly well-defined enclaves. A multiplicity of Sunni Arab rebels control large swaths of the north and east, while the regime is dominant in the capital and major cities, the largely non-Sunni coastal provinces, and a corridor connecting them. Kurds control small border areas in the far northeast. The Druze, heavily concentrated in southwest Syria, have formed militias to fend off rebel incursions, while tending otherwise toward neutrality.
Syrian rebels reject peace talks in Geneva
Nineteen Syrian opposition groups rejected the upcoming Geneva II conference scheduled for November 23 and 24 to negotiate an end to the crisis, labeling any participation an “act of treason.”
“We consider participation in Geneva II and negotiating with the regime is trading the blood of martyrs and treason, and those will be held accountable in our courts,” the groups said in a video statement Sunday.
Syrian Rebels Claim to Find 'Israeli Spying Device'
The rebels posted a video, shortly after capturing the city of Tafas in the Deraa region from Assad’s forces. In the video the rebels present the alleged “spying device” which, they claimed, was used by the Syrian army against rebels.
It is obvious, however, that the rebels’ Hebrew is weak, as the so-called “spying device” was in fact a measuring device belonging to the Israel Meteorological Institute.
MEMRI: Satirist Bassem Youssef Criticizes Violence by Egyptian Rule, General Sisi's Personality Cult

  • Monday, October 28, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here is the first white paper to be released by ASHREI-ME, the organization I announced earlier today.


YNet reports:
Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets toward south Israel at dawn on Monday. A number of explosions were heard shortly after the "Color Red" siren warning of the incoming rockets sounded in communities located within the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council.

One of the rockets was apparently intercepted by the "Iron Dome" air defense system, while the other apparently landed in an open area. There were no reports of injury or damage.

In response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft attacked two rocket launchers in north Gaza and identified direct hits, the army's Spokesperson's Unit said.
The Gaza NSO recorded other incidents recently that did not make the news:

10/27/2013 13:30 27 OCT, 1315: Pal. ops. fired 3 mortar shells from Abasan, E of KY [Khan Younis], toward the Green Line.
10/26/2013 08:00 MU, 26 OCT: Pal. ops. attempted to fire 1 HMR from E of Jabaliya, NG. The rocket exploded prematurely. An IED exploded in the northern area.
10/24/2013 11:00 UPDATE: 24 OCT, 1100: Info received that explosion was a controlled detonation of a grad-type rocket by IF [IDF] c500m from Erez. Crossing operating normally.

ASHREI-ME (Middle East) is a new organization/website I am creating to highlight human rights issues in the Middle East that get ignored by other human rights NGOs.

Started up with no money and no paid workers, ASHREI seeks to shine a light on:

  • Palestinians who want citizenship in Arab countries
  • Terror victims who don't want to see murderers freed
  • Jews who want to freely visit and worship at their holiest spots
  • Arab women and others who want to be protected from "family honor" crimes
  • Peace-loving Arabs who are being bullied into silence
  • Arabs and Jews who want to work together on common interests without fear
  • Arab and Muslim antisemitism

​In addition, ASHREI exposes the bias of other human rights organizations who concentrate disproportionate effort and resources to demonize Israel while downplaying or ignoring HR issues in its neighbors.

Time permitting, I will be adding more material on these themes, both from here and from other researchers who have not found an outlet or an audience for their work.

I don't know where this will go or if it will gain any traction. But some topics covered here are too important to let them be forgotten as new posts replace the old ones. I hope to make ASHREI a repository and resource for solid, reliable information on these critical issues.

It is frustrating to see the entire concept of human rights get hijacked by organizations who can't distinguish between real human rights issues and their political viewpoints. Everyone deserves human rights. ASHREI seeks to help, in a small way, highlight the human rights of those who are ignored by the existing NGO community.

Browse ASHREI-ME today!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

From Times of Israel:
The Israel Prison Service published the names late Sunday night of 26 Palestinian prisoners set to be released over the next 48 hours as part of a deal to keep the US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on course. All are convicted murderers.

Among the prisoners to go free is Damouni Saad Mohammed Ahmed, who was convicted in the 1990 lynch of IDF reservist Amnon Pomerantz in the Gaza Strip — Pomerantz’s car was set on fire while he was inside.

The killer behind the 1993 murder of South-African-born Ian Feinberg, a 30-year-old lawyer and activist working with Palestinians in Gaza, will also be set free. Masoud Issa Rajeb Amer, a member of the PFLP, was sentenced to three life sentences for the killing, which was perpetrated with a hatchet. On April 18, 1993, Feinberg participated in a meeting in the Gaza offices of a European-funded NGO involved in aid projects when terrorists burst in, ordered everyone, except Feinberg, to the floor, and proceeded to kill him.

Massalha Awwad Mohammed Yusuf and Amawi Hamed Alabad Halmi, both Hamas members who killed 22-year-old Yigal Vaknin in 1993, are also on the list. Vaknin was lured with a plea for help and stabbed to death. His body was found in a field near his home in Moshav Bazra in the Sharon region, two hours before the start on Yom Kippur that year. Yusuf was originally sentenced to two life terms for the killing.

Also included is Haga Salim Mahmud Mo’id who in May 1992 swam from Aqaba, Jordan to Eilat along with three other terrorists and shot 62-year-old Yosef Shirazi to death. Various weapons were found on Mo’id which led authorities to believe they planned a much larger attack.
JPost adds:
Samarin Mustafa Kalib Asrar and Kra'an Azat Musa Musa, the two Fatah terrorists who abducted and murdered Israeli soldier Tzvi Klein in the West Bank in 1992 are also scheduled to be released this week.

Abu-Dahila Hasan Atik Sharif, a Fatah operative who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Avi Osher, his Israeli employer at the Jordan Valley farm he owned, in 1991, is also among those to be freed this week.

Gnimat Amar Mahmad Mustafa and Gnimat Mahmoud Mahmad Ziad, two Palestinian men convicted in the murder of Meir Ben-Yair and Michal Cohen while they sat in a car in Judean foothills in 1985 are also set to be freed.

The two Palestinians convicted of killing Yoself Eliyahu and Leah Elmakayes are also among the 26 names announced by the IPS late Sunday. Yosef Mahmad Haza Haza and Beni-Hasan Abdalla Mahmud Otman were serving life sentences for the murder of Eliyahu and Elmakayes, two hikers trekking across a forest in the Gilboa Mountains.

Asor Masbach Khalil Mahmad, who was serving a 30-year jail term for the murder of Israeli taxi driver David Kaspi in 1985, will also go free this week, the IPS announced.

Abed al Raba Nimr Jabril Issa, the Palestinian man convicted of killing Revital Seri and Ron Levy while they were hiking in 1984, is also on the list of prisoners scheduled to be released this week.

Sabbag Ahmed Mahmud Mahmed was a young Fatah operative who was given a life term in prison for the torture and murder of three Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel in 1990. He, too, will be released this week.
YNet has the full list of murderers being released. Here are some additional victims I could identify from various lists of attacks:

Rafi Farhoud Karajeh, arrested in May 1985, had murdered Aharon Avidar, who was 28.

Hazem Kassem Shbair was one of the killers of Isaac Rotenberg, who was 67 when he was murdered with an axe. He was a Holocaust survivor. Shbair's partner in murder was released during the earlier release.

Najeh Mohamed Muqbel, together with his friend, murdered his employer. Ya'akov Shalom.

Abdel Rahman Yusef al- Haj murdered 42-year old Genia Friedman in 1992 on the street in Kfar Sava. He stabbed three others as well. Genia left behind am 11 year old daughter.

Osama Zakariya Abu Hanani and Mohamed Yusef Turkeman shot and killed Moshe Biton and injured his wife Mali  near a convenience store. Ahmed Said Abdel Aziz, also being released, planned the attack.

From the ADL:
The lat­est con­spir­acy the­ory com­ing out of Egypt sug­gests that Pepsi is owned by Jews and that the com­pany is some­how being used to infil­trate the coun­try. Accord­ing to the con­spir­acy the­ory, Pepsi is an acronym for “Pay Every Pound for the Secu­rity of Israel.

The absurd con­spir­acy the­ory recently sur­faced on the Egypt­ian tele­vi­sion talk show, Egypt Today. The program’s host, Taw­fik Okasha, who is known for his oppo­si­tion to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, said:

"What is the cor­po­ra­tion of Pepsi? It is one of the largest and most impor­tant cor­po­ra­tions owned by the Jew­ish Zion­ists… the Torah of Ezra tells them [the Jews] you can’t enter heaven before you rule Egypt."

Okasha then men­tioned a recent Pepsi ad campaign geared toward foot­ball fans in the streets of Cairo, saying that the ad is proof that Israel and the Jews are try­ing to infiltrate Egypt.

Okasha elab­o­rated on this idea yes­ter­day on his Twit­ter account, where he posted a photo of the Pepsi ad with cir­cles around the jer­sey num­bers of the foot­ball play­ers. The num­bers, accord­ing to Okasha, rep­re­sent a coded mes­sage indi­cat­ing when the Jews will bring back the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood to rule Egypt.

Accord­ing to Okasha, “The motto of Pepsi cor­po­ra­tion is Pay for Israel and its own­ers are Jews who sup­port the Mus­lim Brotherhood…anyone who wouldn’t under­stand the [below] ad is stupid!!”
Well, he's right about one thing. There are a lot of stupid people around.

Here's the ad and its brilliant interpretation:

Yes, Israel is bringing the Muslim Brotherhood back into power on January 25, 2014!

Don't you see the resemblance between the W of NOW and the four fingered logo of the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators? (UPDATE: I didn't see it, but the 4 on the player's jersey is probably what is being highlighted, not the W. h/t Ian)

I cannot believe that the people behind this theory didn't know about Pepsi's sponsorship of the Hamas soccer tournament every year. What more proof do you need that it supports the Muslim Brotherhood?

Anyway, did you ever wonder why Jews feel such a compulsion to give coded messages of their nefarious plans to the enemy? Wouldn't it be easier to just act without telegraphing their moves?

Ah, but the reason is that this way, the Jews can discredit the bright Egyptians who figure out their schemes - by changing the date on them!


  • Sunday, October 27, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
As far as I know, this is unprecedented:

HADERA, Israel (AP) — When Israel's military chief delivered a high-profile speech this month outlining the greatest threats his country might face in the future, he listed computer sabotage as a top concern, warning a sophisticated cyberattack could one day bring the nation to a standstill.

Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was not speaking empty words. Exactly one month before his address, a major artery in Israel's national road network in the northern city of Haifa suffered a cyberattack, cybersecurity experts tell The Associated Press, knocking key operations out of commission two days in a row and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

One expert, speaking on condition of anonymity because the breach of security was a classified matter, said a Trojan horse attack targeted the security camera apparatus in the Carmel Tunnels toll road on Sept. 8. A Trojan horse is a malicious computer program that users unknowingly install that can give hackers complete control over their systems.

The attack caused an immediate 20-minute lockdown of the roadway. The next day, the expert said, it shut down the roadway again during morning rush hour. It remained shut for eight hours, causing massive congestion.

The expert said investigators believe the attack was the work of unknown, sophisticated hackers, similar to the Anonymous hacking group that led attacks on Israeli websites in April. He said investigators determined it was not sophisticated enough to be the work of an enemy government like Iran.

The expert said Israel's National Cyber Bureau, a two-year-old classified body that reports to the prime minister, was aware of the incident. The bureau declined comment, while Carmelton, the company that oversees the toll road, blamed a "communication glitch" for the mishap.

While Israel is a frequent target of hackers, the tunnel is the most high-profile landmark known to have been attacked. It is a major thoroughfare for Israel's third-largest city, and the city is looking to turn the tunnel into a public shelter in case of emergency, highlighting its importance.

The incident is exactly the type of scenario that Gantz described in his recent address. He said Israel's future battles might begin with "a cyberattack on websites which provide daily services to the citizens of Israel. Traffic lights could stop working, the banks could be shut down," he said.

There have been cases of traffic tampering before. In 2005, the United States outlawed the unauthorized use of traffic override devices installed in many police cars and ambulances after unscrupulous drivers started using them to turn lights from red to green. In 2008, two Los Angeles traffic engineers pleaded guilty to breaking into the city's signal system and deliberately snarling traffic as part of a labor dispute.
The earlier cases had insiders messing with traffic signals, but in this case the attack came - seemingly - from the Internet. It is possible that the Trojan Horse was introduced via USB key or CD-ROM, which might mean that the tunnel wasn't a target, but that it was software simply looking for -say - a certain type of surveillance camera that is connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

If it was a cyberattack from the Internet, the bigger question is, why would any of Israel's cyber-infrastructure be accessible from the Internet?

It is unclear what the goal of the hackers was. If they were after the cameras, then it is possible that they only planned to do surveillance but either their mistake or their discovery caused Israel to shut down the tunnel out of caution.

(h/t MtTB)

UPDATE: Carmel Tunnels denies the story.

From Palestinian Media Watch:



The Devil: "I've built my plan on the burning hate and loathing of Muhammad and his supporters that fills the hearts of the Jews... "
[The Devil hovers above the Jews]
Jew: "We have lost our prestige because of Muhammad..."
Leader of Jewish tribe: "We must return to Medina and harm Muhammad and his supporters... There are [Arab-Pagan] tribes that want to destroy Muhammad and the ones who want that the most are the Quraish and their allies... These tribes are not small and they have a major conflict with Muhammad. If they unite, it will be possible to destroy Muhammad."
Jew: "And then we'll return to Medina and go back to being prestigious leaders."
Jew: "A wise idea."
Leader of Jewish tribe: "So let us go to the tribes and prepare for the war with Muhammad..."

Note: Amidst the Arab pagan population of Medina, there were also three Jewish tribes. In the year 625, Muhammad exiled the Jewish Qaynuqa and Nadir tribes. Soon afterward, he captured the Qurayza tribe and had the 750 male captives decapitated and the wives and children sold into slavery. Islamic tradition justifies Muhammad's actions, teaching that the three Jewish tribes broke their treaties with Muhammad.

From Ian:

British Ex-Foreign Secretary Blames 'Jewish Money' for Conflict
Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has reportedly blamed Jewish groups with “unlimited” funds for the Israeli-Arab conflict.
“I nearly fell off my rickety British chair today when former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke at the Round Table Global Diplomatic Forum in the British House of Commons. Listing the greatest obstacles to peace, he said "unlimited" funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the region,” former Member of Knesset Einat Wilf reported on her Facebook page.
Straw also blamed “Germany's ‘obsession’ with defending Israel,” she said, adding, “I guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the media...”
Anne Bayefsky: Europe, US pressuring Israel to endure discrimination at UN Human Rights Council
In reality, the UN’s human rights flagship is skippered by countries dedicated to the demonization and destruction of the Jewish state – the antithesis of equal treatment.
Israel is under no obligation to enable 192 countries to boast that Israel will be treated “equally” under the UPR, when it is treated unequally at every Council session before and after.
Israel does not owe the United States and Europe a green light to hang a “no Jewish state allowed” shingle outside of their UN meetings, let alone validate the suggestion that it is Israel threatening the integrity of this “human rights” process.
Germany said to warn Israel over skipping UN human rights review
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Friday sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Israeli to attend the review, Haaretz reported on Sunday. The letter acknowledged Israel’s difficulties with the HRC, but said not attending would have “serious consequences.”
Jpost Editorial: Qatari insult
Time was when the conflict with Israel was officially and undisguisedly pan-Arab. In recent decades the tactic has been to present it as arising from the essentially local plight of Palestinians due to seemingly arbitrary out-of-the-blue Israeli occupation. Yet on occasion this deliberate misrepresentation is exposed.
This was the case last week when the Israeli flag was removed from the premises of the FINA Swimming World Cup in the Qatari capital of Doha and when the flag was whitewashed from TV broadcasts.
No one intervened to help us, Sydney victim says
Shlomo Ben Haim, an emissary for the Jewish National Fund who was among the victims of Friday night’s attack, said Sunday that the attackers screamed “bloody Jews” and were able to continue their assault for several minutes, even though it took place in a well-lit area with foot traffic and open restaurants.
The attack occurred when his party of five Jews, walking back from a Shabbat dinner, encountered “about 10″ youths, who, when seeing them in Shabbat clothes and yarmulkes, began to shout derogatory comments and then attacked, Ben Haim told Ynet News on Sunday from his hospital bed in Sydney.
Protesters Scream ‘Long Live the Intifada’ at JNF Event
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) recently held its annual meeting in the city of Denver, Colorado, in the United States. A group of anti-Israel protesters decided to target the event.
Protesters gathered outside the residence of Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper as the governor hosted JNF representatives.
They carried signs accusing Israel of genocide, and called “Israel out of Palestine,” and, “Long live the Intifada.” Intifada is the Arabic word commonly used to refer to the terrorist war on Israel, which has killed thousands of Israeli civilians.
Study: Main German political party foundations fund anti-Israel activity
The 75-page study, titled, “German Funding for Political Advocacy NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” found the Green Party’s Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Christian Democratic Union’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation funded the Ramallah-based MIFTAH NGO.
MIFTAH’s publications have accused Israel of “massacre,” “cultural genocide,” “war crimes” and “apartheid,” NGO Monitor reported.
MIFTAH’s Arabic-language website published an article on an anti-Semitic blood libel in response to US President Barack Obama’s support for Israel and his attendance at a Passover Seder. After allegations of anti-Semitism, MIFTAH removed the article.
NGO Monitor: "Ethnic Cleansing" Rhetoric at NGO Events in the European Parliament
On October 17, 2013, the Socialists and Democrats group (S&D) of the European Parliament sponsored a seminar titled “Bedouins in the Naqab/Negev: Dreams and Nightmare.” A banner featured at the event accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”
Representatives of Israeli NGOs (Negev Coexistence Forum – funded by New Israel Fund (NIF) and Switzerland; Alternative Information Center – list of funders removed from website) participated in the seminar, but official representatives of the Israeli government were not allowed to appear. The Israeli Embassy to the EU condemned the event.
In response to criticism, S&D group head Hannes Swoboda denied that “S&D Group’s communications [used] the expression ‘ethnic cleansing’
Huffington Post Demonstrates How Not to Correct
Following an update at the top of the page noting that Ha'aretz has retracted the claim that Rihanna sang about Palestine, readers are told that "The original article continues below." Indeed, it does. With the false claim about the lyrics intact.
To sum up: The Huffington Post runs an update which makes clear that their earlier headline and article were based on a false report. The Post leaves those incorrect headline and article in place, as if they have not received information to the contrary.
Is somebody asleep at the helm of the Huffington Post? Or this what now passes for accountability at the sixth-leading English news site?
Hamas Orders: Shoot Protesters 'In the Head'
Sources in the Palestinian Authority told the Palestine Press news agency on Saturday that the Interior Minister in Hamas’s government in Gaza, Fathi Hamad, has instructed security forces to be tough on any anti-Hamas demonstrator who will take part in a campaign by the opposition scheduled to begin on November 11.
Amid turmoil, crossing to Gaza closed indefinitely by Egypt
Over the weekend, a video released over the Internet revealed that it was an ex-Egyptian army officer who carried out a suicide bombing last month that unsuccessfully targeted the country’s interior minister, and, according to Egypt Independent, the attack was organized by a cell that included two Palestinians.
UAE increases Egyptian aid to $4.9 billion
The deal signed Saturday for $1.9 billion in new loans, fuel supplies and other assistance comes during a visit by Egyptian interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi.
In July, the UAE promised $3 billion in aid as part of the overall $12 billion aid package from Gulf states following the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of President Mohammed Morsi in a popularly supported military coup.
‘Russia eyes Egypt’s ports in bid to boost military presence’
According to the report, Moscow has been shopping for alternatives to the Tartus port in Syria, where it maintains a limited naval facility, due to fears that President Bashar Assad’s regime will eventually be toppled by rebel forces.
Manchester United sorry for ‘swastika’
One of the world’s leading soccer clubs, Manchester United, has apologized for publishing a swastika-style club logo, and a headline blaring “New Order,” in an email sent out to supporters.
Sir Tom Jones wows Tel Aviv crowd
The longtime sex symbol played to a full house of 7,500 at Nokia Arena, cycling through a quality set list R&B classics, including Chester Arthur’s “Evil,” and Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come.”
He continued with songs from his recent albums and wrapped up an energetic performance with hits like “Delilah” and, of course, “Sex Bomb.” (h/t Bob Knot)
Israel knows water technology, and it wants to cash in
Israel is a world leader in desalination of seawater. By next year, more than a third of Israel’s tap water will come from the Mediterranean Sea and a few briny wells. Israel’s total water consumption remains nearly at 1964 levels — even though its population has quadrupled to 8 million people, according to the economic ministry.
“They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and that is clearly the case in Israel,” said Oded Distel, director of Israel New Tech, a government agency that primes the water pump by giving grants to high-tech water start-ups and helps market the water industry abroad. “If we had to rely on sources of fresh water, we wouldn’t be here. In Israel, we use every drop twice.” (h/t Zvi)
Israel saved me
Reverend Mulinda from Uganda and his friend Majed El Shafie from Egypt both converted to Christianity from Islam, and paid a heavy price for sticking to their beliefs. Today they fight against anti-Semitism and advocate human rights and a love for Israel.
These two men should never have met, but today they are close friends. They were born in two different countries at different ends of the world, but their life stories are very similar, and today, they both advocate a love for Israel.
  • Sunday, October 27, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Egypt has now closed the Rafah crossing for the second (update: third) straight day. Students, medical patients and other travelers cannot leave or enter Gaza from Egypt.

Egypt had closed Rafah during the Eid al Adha holiday, and then opened it only to allow Gaza pilgrims who went on Hajj to return to their homes.

1450 people crossed Rafah on Friday.

No NGOs seem to be too excited about this.
  • Sunday, October 27, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
In yesterday's links, we excerpted an article by the UK ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould in JPost:
When President Obama was here earlier in the year, he said, “Atem lo levad” – “Israel is not alone.” Today I want to underline this message, particularly in the context of the question that now dominates discussion of Israel’s security – the question of Iran’s nuclear program.

I want to address two aspects of the nuclear question in particular.

The first is reassurance.

To say as clearly as I can that when it comes down to the question of how to deal with the program, we are not going to do a “bad deal.” Nor will we stand by as the Iranians continue to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons.

The second is opportunity. To emphasize that despite all the risks, we have a small window of opportunity to test whether there can be a negotiated solution or not. The Iranians have shown a more positive approach in recent weeks, and the only way to find out if that is for real is to test it in negotiations.
Zvi responds:

If only that were so. But it is increasingly clear that western governments have abandoned not only principles but basic common sense as well. Obama's ludicrously stupid foreign policy rewards enemies and punishes allies, destroying not only Israel's trust in the US (and western governments in general) but also American influence in the region. And that is just plain dangerous.

Obama's foreign policy is an absolute disaster, the likes of which we have not seen in decades. Carter was such a disaster, but had the great good fortune to benefit from Sadat's unexpected and dramatic flight to Jerusalem. Obama has the Arab Spring, and has utterly failed to use it to advance sane interests. Instead, he empowers the strongest of the most viciously anti-human rights, anti-American and antisemitic forces in the region: the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vacillating American President and his weak, naive Secretaries of State are consistently 20 years behind and 1000 miles away from reality.

More than that, they are consistently gullible and credulous when facing enemies and absurdly suspicious of the existential fears of long-time allies against whom these enemies are arrayed.

Israel cannot trust the American administration. There. I said it. I did not want to say it. I never want to have to say something like that. But it is true. Israel cannot AFFORD to trust an American administration that throws its long-time friends under the bus, alienates virtually every long-time ally and empowers those who would do them harm.

As for the UK - Ambassador Gould not withstanding, because I think that he is mostly a decent guy, for a British diplomat - is not with Israel. The UK has not been "with" Israel for a very long time. The UK's foreign policy is run by Arabists, who think that Israel is "that shitty little country." Its media is run by antisemites, who believe every lie that has ever been concocted about Israel. Its royals refuse even to visit Israel (but have visited the dictators of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, China, Tunisia, etc). Its "labour unions" boycott Israeli unions. Its academics largely refuse to stand up against the taunts and abuse of Jews and Israelis in British universities. Israel has been a true friend to the British government at times, but the other way around? Almost never.

If his Excellency wants to convince Israel that Britain is with Israel and won't compromise its security, then he will need to stop talking nonsense and change British policy.

"I am here with a simple message: It is in these challenging moments that Israel can take comfort that there are countries that will never compromise on Israel’s security. Britain is one of those countries."

Purest nonsense. The UK has sold out Israel's security again and again, from the Mandate period, when it locked Jews in concentration camps in Cyprus (but never did this to many of the illegal Arab immigrants who now claim to be "Palestinians"), to 1947, when British armed forces commanded or protected Arab military formations, until the present day. Israel has a hard-earned right to be deeply skeptical of British claims to have Israel's back; Israel has paid in blood for British decisions.

"If the Iranians are genuine, there is an opportunity to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in one of world’s most unpredictable regions."

The Iranians are NOT genuine on this. They have never been genuine on this topic. To anyone with a very basic understanding of the Middle East, actions always speak far more loudly than sunny propaganda. Only a government of fools takes its eyes off the real world and lets PR firms hired by dictatorships shape its reality. Ahmadinejad was not the problem; Khamenei's regime is the problem.
  • Sunday, October 27, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an today reports:
The military wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, announced Sunday that one of its members died in a tunnel accident in Rafah south of the Gaza Strip.

The military wing identified the man as 23-year-old Salih al-Bashiti.
Egypt's much heralded campaign against the tunnels in the Sinai may be not quite as effective as they pretend. From The Daily Star (Lebanon):
Destroying tunnels, though, requires constant vigilance. Earlier this month, the Egyptian military claimed to have destroyed almost 800 tunnels in 2013. In January 2013, however, Egyptian journalist and Sinai expert Mohannad Sabry estimated there were around 250 operating tunnels, which suggests that Egyptian forces are continuously closing the same tunnels.
  • Sunday, October 27, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Great stuff! It even mentions the ovaries!



(h/t Yerushalimey)

Saturday, October 26, 2013

  • Saturday, October 26, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ammon News reports:
[The main [opposition party is calling for expelling the Israeli ambassador from Amman and cancelling the 1994 Wadi Araba Peace Treaty with Israel, a statement said on Saturday.

They called on Jordanians to boycott Israeli products and support the Palestinians in their steadfastness and confrontation of the racist policies adopted by Israel and called for shutting down the Israeli embassy.

They also called on the Jordanian government to release the former soldier Ahmad Dagamseh (who is serving a life sentence for the March 13, 1997 killing of seven Israeli schoolgirls in the Baqoura area on the Jordanian-Israeli border), and reconsider its alliance with the United States' administration.
The Arabic article adds more accusations by the critics, saying that Israel plans to divide up the Temple Mount and build a new Temple there, and that Israel is not abiding by the peace agreement which, they say, allows Jordan to administer the holy places of Jerusalem. (It doesn't.)

The group also calls for Palestinians in Jordan to "return" to Israel. Since most of these are citizens of Jordan, their objective to ethnically cleanse Jordan of its Palestinian population is fairly transparent.

The Muslim Brotherhood held a rally on Saturday as well, which also called to repeal the peace treaty. They claimed over 10,000 attended the rally.

The Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity party similarly called for the peace treaty to be repealed. In their statement they stated that Zionists are the main enemy of Arabs, and anything that makes it appear otherwise is, naturally,  a Zionist plot.

The JordanZad newspaper editorializes how proud it is that ordinary Jordanians never normalized relations with Israel and that they have been adhering to a boycott of Israeli goods since 2010.

From Ian:

Howard Jacobson: Will We Ever Be Forgiven for the Holocaust?
Jews are considered to have forgone their right to own even a part-share in defining anti-Semitism, or to judge the extent to which they are, or indeed ever were, its victims. By virtue of their failure to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and implement them in Israel — or indeed in any other parts of the world they continue to scheme, lobby and exploit — they have cancelled out all entitlement to the usual decencies, let alone the usual legalities, in matters of racial discrimination and incitement.
Thus has the shame of thinking anti-Semitic thoughts been lifted from the shoulders of liberals. Since there can be no such thing as anti-Semitism — Jews having stepped outside the circle of offense in which minorities can be considered to have been offended against — there is no charge of anti-Semitism to answer. The door is now wide open for those who truly believe they have nothing in their hearts but love to stroll guilelessly through to hate.
Sarah Honig: Attracting a crowd of people
This incremental process will continue no matter how much Abbas violates the trust nominally put in him (and exorbitantly paid for) and no matter how much the convicts’ phased releases inject fervor and reinvigorated motivation into terror cells in Abbas’s bailiwick.
Despite itself and against its own vital interests, Israel is forced to continue performing in a theater of the absurd. This too is further fallout from the Oslo fiasco. The most outstanding absurdity is that Israel – a democracy which craves peace and keeps forking out for it excessively – is the one required by the international community to keep proving its dedication to peace.
This isn’t a mere ethical farce but it exacts real cost in our long term ability to withstand pressure and safeguard the most elementary defense prerequisites for Israel’s citizenry. The need to prove our good intentions, while facing duplicitous and treacherous enemies, is corroding and debilitating.
Israel is not alone! By Matthew Gould, UK ambassador to Israel
As friends of Israel, we understand and respect Israel’s concerns.
We are neither naïve about Iran, nor blind to the risks. And we do not underestimate the difficulties ahead.
The shadow of a nuclear Iran has stood over the people of Israel for too long. Right now, we have an opportunity to test whether that shadow can be removed peacefully. We will not be naïve, we will not do a bad deal, we will neither rush nor allow Iran to play for time.
This New Columnist for The New York Times Believes a 'Massive Zionist Organization Rules America'
It is a choice that the Times will regret, however, because despite his brave stance against Mubarak and his broadly progressive pronouncements in English, Aswany is hardly a liberal. He is, in fact, among Egypt’s most prolific conspiracy theorists, and he often uses his very public platform to reinforce some of Egypt’s most popular bigotries—and he typically does this when speaking or tweeting in Arabic, which is why the Western press often misses this aspect of his public persona. Aswany said on Egyptian television, for instance, that a "massive Zionist organization rules America,” which is why “Obama is not able to go against Israel’s desires.”
Trio questioned over 'anti-Semitic' attack and assault on five people in Bondi
The two 17-year-olds have been charged with affray and breach of bail. They were refused bail and will appear at children's court tomorrow.
The 23-year-old man was charged with affray. He was granted bail and will appear at Waverley Local Court on Tuesday December 3.
Witnesses to the attack said the fight was unprovoked and the teens were yelling anti-Semitic slurs at the group.
Iran Announces 34 New Nuke Sites
At least 34 sites have already been designated for future nuclear power plants, according to Fars.
Additionally, Salehi announced just two days after nuclear negotiations ended that Russia would help Iran build new nuclear power plants across the country, according to Persian language press reports.
Salehi also suggested that Iran’s top nuclear negotiators lack the authority to agree to a deal with the West.
Diplomats: No Proof Iran Has Stopped 20 Percent Enrichment
An envoy in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, said he believed Iran was continuing to refine uranium to the 20 percent threshold despite the Iranian lawmaker's comment.
On Wednesday, Hossein Naqvi Hosseini was quoted by an Iranian news agency as having claimed that Tehran does not need any more 20 percent-enriched uranium and that Iran was willing to relieve concerns over its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Nehushtan: Sanctions don’t put enough pressure on Iran
Advocating a carrot-and-stick approach, Nehushtan said the option of a military strike on Iran, which claims its nuclear program is peaceful but has refused to honor international resolutions aimed to prevent it attaining nuclear weapons capability, must remain on the table.
“Nobody’s happy about the idea of a military strike. It is carried out when the alternative is worse. There’s no knowing what’ll happen as a result of a military strike,” he said.
15 Reasons Why Iran is an Existential Threat to Western Civilization
1. Iran is the number 1 terror organization in the world today, far more dangerous than Al Qaeda.
2. Iran has largely taken over Syria and Lebanon, as well as 60 percent of Iraq.
3. Iran has intimidated and threatened key Sunni countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, by supporting Shiite uprisings.
U.S. charges man with seeking to buy missiles for Iran
U.S. prosecutors brought criminal charges on Friday against a man they said had tried to acquire surface-to-air missiles that he planned to smuggle into Iran in a threat to U.S. national security.
Reza Olangian, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran, was charged with four counts, including trying to acquire and transfer anti-aircraft missiles, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and two conspiracy counts.
On the border with Syria, the land of war
Beyond the IDF’s Bustar outpost on the Golan Heights lies a land of war. The small base, situated on a mound right on the Syrian border, is flanked by tanks and dusty hills. It is home to a Nahal Infantry Brigade Reconnaissance Company, whose members place themselves in harm’s way every day to ensure that the raging battles of Syria do not spill over into Israel.
The post overlooks a Syrian valley, which is hemmed in by a lake to its east. This is a part of the Quneitra district, an area containing villages, fields, sporadic concentrations of trees, large Syrian flags flying atop tall masts, and heavily armed combatants from the Syrian army and rebel forces engaged in a life-and-death struggle.
Muslim Brotherhood Stages Anti-Israel Rallies, Says Paving “Way to Jerusalem”
The upcoming week of protests has been dubbed by organizers as “Suez resilience, our way to Jerusalem,” a rhetorical move designed to highlight Islamic claims to all of Jerusalem after a recent speech by interim President Adly Mansour mentioning “East Jerusalem.” The Associated Press reported that there was a large protest inside Cairo and scattered ones across the rest of the country. Meanwhile there are signs that the army-backed government is expanding its efforts to uproot the Brotherhood’s presence inside Egyptian institutions, now targeting Brotherhood members inside Egypt’s security forces.
Sisi to Egyptian Islamists: Surrender or die
A suicide bombing this week at Egyptian military intelligence headquarters in the city of Ismailia has been claimed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a Salafi jihadi group with links to similar organizations in the Gaza Strip.
Eleven people, including six soldiers, were wounded.
The Ismailia attack is the latest episode in a growing Islamist insurgency against the de facto rule of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the military in Egypt. It was of particular significance because the city lies just west of the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula.
The executioner loves his job
Ever since he was a little nipper, Egypt’s chief executioner has loved death. He told a local television station how he loves carrying out the death sentence and how, as a boy, he would strangle and drown cats and dogs.
In an interview as bizarre as they come, Hajj Abd al-Nabi, a chief warrant officer in the Egyptian police, boasted to Video 7 last month that he has executed as many as 800 criminals of every stripe, calling the death penalty he carries out “the law of Allah.” The interview segment was translated into English this week by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Israel to join Brazilian Jews’ aid program in Africa
The Israeli foreign ministry will team up with Brazil’s Jewish community to deliver medical aid to Guinea Bissau.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin “reacted positively” to a request that Israel join the project initiated by Claudio Lottenberg, the head of the CONIB umbrella group of Brazilian Jewish communities and president of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paolo, according to a statement published Thursday by CONIB.
Trained in Israel: Tanzania's First Pediatric Heart Surgeon
The South-Eastern African state of Tanzania now has its first pediatric heart surgeon, after Dr Godwin Godfrey returned home following five years of training in Israel.
The Israel based humanitarian project Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), organized Dr Godwin's training in a landmark achievement that also saw it train a complete surgical team from a foreign state for the first time.

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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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