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Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Arab Students Chase British Envoy From Ramallah College
Scores of violent Arab students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a university in Ramallah on Tuesday, according to witness reports.
Consul General Sir Vincent Fean had travelled to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah to deliver a lecture on Britain's policy in the Middle East and the prospects for peace but was turned away by vehement Arab demonstrators, the Ma’an news agency reported.
The protesters also held up Palestinian Authority flags and banners in English and Arabic, one of which read: "I am a refugee because of Balfour" in reference to Britain's publication in 1917 of the Balfour Declaration, which called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
PA nabs 66 Hamas supporters as unity talks fail By Khaled Abu Toameh
Hamas announces that the PA has arrested 66 of its supporters in W. Bank including 32 former prisoners held by Israel.
In a report, Hamas said that among those arrested were 32 former prisoners [held by Israel], three university students, a journalist and a teacher.
The report said that PA security forces also summoned another 38 Hamas supporters and leaders for interrogation.
Ten Hamas supporters were ordered remanded into custody despite court decisions to release them, the report said.
CIF Watch: Sunset over Gaza: A story about Palestinian misogyny Harriet Sherwood won’t report
While every perceived violation of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli government is reported, the routine disregard for the basic human rights of Palestinian women, gays and minorities (and Palestinian journalists) by Palestinian leaders is rarely reported.
Additionally, when Palestinians aren’t portrayed as victims, as such, they are idealized – their culture and land is idealized and romanticized.
Judge Clears Path for Trial Against French Bank’s Hamas Accounts
A leading European bank faces trial in New York later this year after a federal judge found there is sufficient evidence it knew the funds were being used to support a Palestinian terrorist group.
U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry denied French banking giant Credit Lyonnais SA‘s motion for summary judgment last Thursday, saying “there is a genuine issue” about the bank’s behavior with the accounts in question.
Gaza smugglers keep their heads above water
Egyptian military admits that its strategy of flooding tunnels beneath the border has not worked as well as expected
Egyptian military sources said they will step up operations against the tunnels as they have as yet been unsuccessful, according to a report by Israel Radio on Wednesday which quoted the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.
The source said that Egyptian army engineering units are preparing to bring heavy equipment to bear on the tunnels. The engineering units will be provided with special military protection as they work to destroy the passages in order to prevent attacks by smugglers hoping to save the underground infrastructure.
Thousands of Christians flee religious persecution in Egypt
Life for Christians under the government of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt has become difficult. Reports are emerging that up to 100,000 Christians have left Egypt since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Some of those have arrived in Moscow. VoR’s Brendan Cole went there to investigate.
Ahmadinejad claims Chavez fell "martyr" to "suspect illness"
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has backed claims made by the Venezuelan Vice President that Chavez was somehow 'attacked' by his enemies
Earlier, Nicolas Maduro (Chavez's heir apparent) had boldly stated: “We have not a single doubt and at the proper moment we will convene a medical board to confirm that Chavez was attacked," likening Chavez’s case with that of Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, whose death, Maduro said, was caused by poisoning by the Israelis.
The relationship between Ahmadinejad's Iran and Chavez's Venezuela had grown steadily over recent years, with both leaders sharing virulent anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-Jewish sentiments. Billions of dollars in investment agreements have been signed between the states.
Bundeswehr 'bullied' by Turkish troops
German troops deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border are being badly treated by their Turkish hosts and NATO partners, a government report said over the weekend.
A majority of the 400 German troops sent to Turkey in December as part of a NATO mission deploying Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to defend the Syrian border said Turkish soldiers did not treat them as welcome guests and were “rarely helpful,” wrote Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday.
Not only that, but the soldiers often felt they were being persecuted by the Turkish army on purpose, according to a report presented to parliament on Friday.
Report: Turkish Diplomats Say Shipment of Free Navy Vessels from U.S. Only Halted Temporarily
According to Turkish diplomatic sources the bill that would have allowed for the delivery of the ships, which are to be donated, failed to be ratified by the Senate before the end of the legislative term on Jan. 3rd because “Debates on the issue of the fiscal cliff kept the House of Representatives occupied for a long time. Thus, when the bill came to the Senate, there was a time pressure.”

Turkey appoints ambassador to ‘Palestine’
One-time close ally of Israel gives consul-general in Ramallah an upgrade

Allscripts acquires dbMotion for $235 million
Israel’s dbMotion is considered a pioneer in computerized healthcare information solutions.
Founded in 2004, dbMotion provides a strategic platform for care coordination and population health management that integrates discrete patient data from diverse care settings, regardless of IT supplier, into a single patient record. dbMotion provides a longitudinal clinical data repository with semantically normalized patient data, point of care tools, a physician portal, population tools and an analytics gateway. This reduces the cost of care delivery and enables better physician-to-physician care coordination.