Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Burning Down the Palestinian House

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to "suspend unilateral action" against Israel for some indefinite period of time. It is, his spokesman says, to "give a sufficient chance for [US Secretary of State John] Kerry's efforts to succeed." By this, Abbas apparently means he will not make any additional unilateral efforts in the UN or try to convince the International Criminal Court to take up action against Israel.
This is the functional equivalent of agreeing not to swing the wrecking ball after you've set the house on fire.

Prosor calls on UNSC to condemn Gaza rockets

Israeli UN envoy Ron Prosor called on the UN Security Council to condemn the recent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Thursday.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Prosor wrote, "While children were on there way back to school from the Passover vacation two rockets landed near Sderot. Instead of rushing to classrooms, these children and their families were forced to rush to bomb shelters."

UN Peacekeepers Failing to Stop Hezbollah Arms, Says Israel’s National Security Advisor

“Under pressure, a multi-national force is like an umbrella that gets folded up on a rainy day,” Yaakov Amidror, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, said in a Tel Aviv University speech, Reuters reported.

I used to be an Islamist
Ahmad Mansour tells of how he turned his back on the allure of religious fundamentalism

Arab girls, Jews and drinking villagers were the prime enemies in our midst, but the imam disclosed that in the outside world there were more foes: Christians, Americans, Europeans, Nationalists and Communists. They were all our enemies and aligned with the Devil. Our imam preached that a cruel and agonizing death was in store for them. One day, in order to maximize our respect for his words, he subjected us to a dramatic test.

Glenn Greenwald’s dishonesty on the rights of women and gays in the Mid-East

In Glenn Greenwald’s latest column at ‘Comment is Free’ (Sam Harris, the New Atheists and anti-Muslim animus, April 3) he attacks the ”New Atheists” such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens for promoting what he claims is “Islamophobia under the guise of rational atheism”.
Greenwald lambasts Harris – and, to a lesser extent, Dawkins and Hitchens – for suggesting that the threat posed by Islamic traditions and doctrines to Western political freedom is greater than that of Christianity and Judaism.

Glenn Greenwald tosses a throwaway line about the injurious effects of Judaism

It’s extremely unlikely that Greenwald – a secular Jew who rarely if ever alludes to his religious background – has ever devoted any serious thought to the question of what role Judaism has played in the policy decisions of Israel’s secular Prime Ministers from Independence till the present day, and the decision by the nation’s leaders to defend against “all sorts of attacks” by “neighboring Arab and Muslim countries” and homicidal terror groups.

New Hamas Leaders: Shalit Deal Terrorists

At least two members of Hamas' top policymaking body are terrorists released in the deal to release Gilad Shalit. The terror group's politburo, announced Wednesday after meetings in Gaza, includes Yahya Snawar and Ruhi Mushtaha, both terrorists released in the Shalit deal, were among four new Hamas central committee members.

Hamas reportedly training rebels, fighting to oust Assad

Islamist group denies claim, but several sources tell UK’s Times newspaper that former Assad ally has joined Syrian rebels in civil war

Iran: West Targeting Syria to Divert Attention from Israel

A senior Iranian lawmaker charged on Wednesday that the Western media is creating a hype against Syria as a tactic aimed at diverting attention from “Israel’s crimes”, PressTV reported.
“Iran tries to counteract the negative wave of anti-Syria propaganda by the Western media,” said the Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee Vahid Ahmadi.

‘Rihanna set to play Israel again’

Pop star Rihanna may perform in Israel later this year after finishing her current “Diamond Tour” in the US, Europe and other locales, Channel 2 reported Thursday.
The show would be the singer’s second in the country and would take place in October at a still-to-be-finalized location, the report said.

Burger joint to open in memory of terror victim
A decade after a suicide bomber targeted Jerusalem’s Cafe Hillel, a friend of one of the victims realizes a dream

A close friend of a security guard who was killed when he tried to prevent a terrorist from carrying out a suicide bombing will open a hamburger restaurant in the same Jerusalem location as the cafe that was destroyed in the deadly attack.
Yuval Hoveri said that opening a restaurant was a dream he shared with Alon Mizrahi, who died along with six others in 2003 when a suicide bomber targeted the popular Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street.