Friday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Israel - The Happy Little Country

The Europeans prattle on about Israeli racism, and threaten to put yellow stars or some other nasty mark on Israeli goods. They ban Israeli books from their libraries in Scotland. They boycott Israeli universities, professors and students in England. In Italy they hold rallies for convicted mass murderer Marwan Barghouti at their national Senate. And in France they butcher Jewish children.
And then the likes of Catherine Ashton expect us to care what they think about us.

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: Amira, daughter of Rosa

The anti-Israel and pro-Arab line that Hass promotes appeals equally to anti-Israel forces on the international arena’s left and to rightist neo-Nazi outfits abroad. The rhetoric to which both supposed opposites resort when demonizing Israel is eerily similar. Hass delights them both.
She may pose as the embodiment of humane admonition and hector as the self-appointed voice of Israeli conscience. She may adopt the affectation of doing the moral thing in our name but the end result is immoral and indisputably at our expense.

For Palestinians, human rights begin at home

What is true for the rest of the world is also true for the Middle East and the Israeli-Arab conflict. If we want to promote peace and stability in the region, we need to pay more attention to the true benchmarks of democracy, rule of law and respect for basic human rights, and less on forming new states. To put it bluntly – creating a new repressive Islamic state in the region will do no good. So long as there is no real democratic reform in the Palestinian Authority, there will be no peace, nor will quality of life improve for the ordinary Palestinian.

Barry Rubin: Turkey’s Regime Fails Abroad; Is World Champion at Fundamental Transformation at Home

Erdogan's greatest achievement in terms of the international scene is that by his maneuvers and Obama's approval, he has made the world uninterested in the escalating repression in Turkey including ridiculous Stalinist-style show trials of dissidents. The latest event is the sentencing of an internationally famous Turkish concert pianist to ten months' imprisonment for tweets "insulting" Islam and a court decision claiming a 700-year-old church was illegally run as a state museum making possible its conversion into a mosque.
Thus, Erdogan has put together a winning combination: fake victories abroad; repression, seizing institutions, and mobilizing support through patriotism and Islam at home.

The Guardian refers to Palestinian terrorist Samer Issawi as a “political prisoner”.

Issawi – who was freed by Israel in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, but recently re-arrested for violating his release conditions - was originally sentenced to 26 years in prison for his involvement in a series of violent terror attacks, including indiscriminately firing an assault rifle at public buses, and manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs used in attacks on Israeli civilians.
A “political prisoner” is a person ‘imprisoned for their political beliefs or actions’.
No reasonable person can characterize Issawi’s crimes in a manner which fits that definition.
It is indeed that simple.

PA Arabs in Jerusalem to be 'Gifted' Israeli Citizenship
PA Arabs living in several Jerusalem neighborhoods on the Israeli side of the security fence are to be “gifted” with Israeli citizenship

According to the State Attorney, the facts of their residence and work situation would be sufficient to grant them rights identical to those of Israeli citizens in nearly every legal situation. As such, granting them citizenship would confer upon them not only the rights, but also the obligations, of Israeli citizenship, the State Attorney said.

Media Mum on Hamas's Razing Roman Temple

As Hamas destroys antiquities, Israeli media looks the other way.

France, UK say they have proof of use of chemical weapons by Assad forces

Britain and France have told the secretary-general they have reliable evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons near Aleppo, in Homs and possibly in Damascus, UN diplomats and officials say.

UN Watch: Syria accuses Israel of treating its wounded victims, in UN Security Council debate

And now Israel is blamed for treating the injured

Germans in Bremen, Stuttgart lash out at Israelis

The Israeli couple came to visit a “stumbling stone” memorial for five members of their family who were murdered by Nazis, the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
A dispute over the correct subway tickets and registration of the tickets with the transportation authorities resulted in one of the officials apparently praising the murder of the family’s members in the Holocaust.

Palestinians compete to become ‘President’ on new reality show

A cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol,” “The President” pits young Palestinians against one another in a battle for the coveted title of President of Palestine. Though the victor of course will not actually take the presidency, the winner will receive an as-yet-unannounced prize.