Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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The blood-libel sisterhood

This is why Ashrawi must have realized that she was going to be in financial hot water if MIFTAH didn't issue an apology: "It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member. The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews."
Now there's remorse for you — Palestinian-style, that is.

Israel: Marmara Apology Tied to Iran Nukes
Deputy Foreign Minister Elkin says restoring relations with Turkey is at top of government's agenda.

According to a report by defense analyst Anthony Cordesman, quoted by the Brookings Institution's Noah Shachtman in Wired Magazine last year, while a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program would be launched primarily from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, an Israeli strike would require using a quarter of the Israel Air Force’s fighters. "The jets will have to hug the Syrian-Turkish border before flying over both Iraq and Iran. And that is not exactly friendly territory," wrote Shachtman.

'You Can Fool Some People Sometime': BS Gets BDS a Win at UC Riverside

As some of you might know, the student senate at UC Riverside voted on March 6 to divest from companies doing business in Israel. You'd think that the UCR students had risen up in outrage at supposed Israeli "apartheid". That is, after all, what "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) --sponsors of the divestment motion -- want you to think.
But don't be fooled. The UCR senate did not pass the divestment bill because UCR students agree with the SJP. The senate passed the divestment bill, quite simply, because it was swindled. Because the SJP orchestrated it so that opponents of the bill did not get their say.

Honest Reporting: The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel?

Yes, Israel, like all countries, has its unfortunate problems of racism. But the problems described by Australian feminist columnist Ruby Hamad don’t justify The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel. Hamad has a big-time problem with the Miss Israel crown going to 21 year-old Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw:
"It is a mistake to assume, when an individual belonging to a marginalised group manages to break through the barriers barring them to success, that suddenly these barriers no longer exist."
First of all, Hamad botched the facts on what she thinks is her strongest part of the condemnation:

BBC yet again promotes the notion of Israel as a racist society

But when an Ethiopian-born Israeli woman became Miss Israel and when an Arab-Israeli woman won the local version of ‘The Voice’ singing the same song as Alexandra Burke, the BBC found it insufficient to concentrate on their personal achievements alone.

CAMERA: Where is Amnesty Stat Gideon Levy Cites?

Not for the first time, Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy plays fast and loose with Palestinian casualty figures.
In his March 31 column, Gideon Levy attributes a Cast Lead Palestinian casualty figure to Amnesty International, though a thorough search of the organization's materials does not turn up any such figure.

2 rockets fired from Gaza explode in southern Israel

Projectiles hit near Sderot after overnight IAF strikes; defense minister in Jerusalem warns Israel won’t tolerate renewed missile fire

First time since Pillar of Defense: IAF carries out strikes in Gaza

Following two incidents of mortar fire from Gaza, Palestinian sources report that IAF carries out air strike against Gaza targets. Earlier, IDF tanks returned fire after mortar lands in Golan Heights

Israel hits Syrian outpost in response to cross-border fire

Army post at Tel Hazeka targeted by IDF tanks after patrol comes under attack by light arms and mortar lands in Golan; no injuries or damage on Israeli side

Galloway tweets Hamas some love
Why hasn't Khaled Meshal retweeted him yet?
Israel honored with tough-to-land medical conference invite

An Israeli delegation will be attending TedMed in DC, and a TedMed conference will be held in Israel – the first time this prestigious conference has been ‘exported’

IBM Research celebrates 40 years in Israel

IBM celebrated its hundredth birthday last year. And for 40 of those years, the international technology leader has maintained a research lab in Haifa, Israel, its largest one outside the United States.
While today it seems obvious that major corporations with heavy investments in R&D would want to have a division in Israel, in 1972, when IBM Research opened its Israel office, that was hardly the case. In fact, it was more a matter of IBM not wanting to lose one of its top scientists, Israeli-born Prof. Josef Raviv, who wanted to move back home.

Tale of the ‘50 Children’ to Debut This Holocaust Remembrance Day on HBO

Journalist Steven Pressman first learned of the 50 children rescued by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus in 2002 from his wife Liz Perle, the Krauses’ granddaughter, who had possession of a formerly hidden and unpublished manuscript written by Eleanor decades earlier.