Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Prosor angered by UNRWA’s map of 'Arab Palestine'

Since the photo opportunity in Lebanon on May 3, Prosor has pursued a campaign calling out Dismorr and UNRWA, starting off with a letter to US Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“Many in the international community doubt UNRWA’s impartiality and motives,” the letter reads. “Israel supports UNRWA’s important humanitarian work; however, actions that encourage incitement, conflict and, ultimately, violence undermine this work.”

UN Health Assembly, Syria, Slam ‘Inhuman Israeli Practices’
Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy nevertheless reached a new low this year.

“To see the Assad regime point the finger at Israel out of professed concern for the health of Syrians is, frankly, a sick joke,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group accredited to the UN.
“They’ve slaughtered 80,000 of their own people, and are now busy destroying the lives of millions more. The real question is this: Why is the UN allowing mass murderers to deflect attention from their crimes by scapegoating democracies?”

Assad And His Allies Threaten To Open A Front In Golan Heights
Syrian Regime Gives Palestinian Factions Green Light To Operate Against Israel From Golan

On May 5, 2013, Syria's state television reported, citing a regime source, that the regime had "permitted the Palestinian factions to carry out operations from the Golan." This announcement triggered disagreements among the Palestinian factions regarding whether to answer the call and join the Golan resistance.

Report: 70-80% of Palestinians displaced in Syria

"We have registered approximately 530,000 Palestinian refugees. We believe that almost all of them, certainly maybe 70-80 percent, are displaced from their normal homes," UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi told AFP during a visit to Syria.

CIF Watch: Top 10 warning signs you may be a ‘Guardian Left’ anti-Semite

So, in the spirit of Walt’s mockery of those who ‘unknowingly’ are compromised by a deep-seeded imperialism lurking in their subconscious, here is CiF Watch’s own ‘Top 10 warning signs you may be a Guardian Left anti-Semite‘ – a list, per the links below, inspired by real life Guardianistas!)

BBC wrongly blames Israel for cooking gas shortage in Gaza

So in fact, the shortage of cooking gas in the Gaza Strip actually has nothing to do with “border restrictions imposed by Israel” as claimed by Knell, but it does have rather a lot to do with the policies of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Source: Amnesty's 'Balanced' Report 'Ridiculous'

Israeli defense officials say that the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas terrorists from acquiring weapons, which will be used to attack Israeli civilians. “To place Israel's defensive actions in the same context as Hamas' attempts to murder Israeli civilians is ridiculous,” a source in the Foreign Ministry said.

PMW: PA will never compromise, says official PA TV clip

"Let all religions know that I do not make truces"
"Let every person know that I do not compromise"

Rock Attacks Up Threefold, Firebombs Fourfold

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria was told Wednesday that Arab rock attacks on Jews were 2.5 times more frequent in 2012 than in 2011, and that the numbers for 2013 are 3.5 times larger than those of 2011.

Electric Company: PA Residents Not Forced to Pay

Many PA residents do not pay their electric bills. The Electric Corporation is owed a total of 730 million shekels by PA residents.

Barry Rubin: Saudi Arabia/United States: Strange Bedfellows in the Middle East

Among the four principle Saudi enemies, U.S. policy only sees al-Qaida as a total enemy of itself. It views Iran as a big problem that might somehow be reconciled through appeal to what is thought to be its true self-interest. And it has viewed the Muslim Brotherhood—shocking but true—as an ally. In Iraq, the United States helped put Shias into power and President Obama showed a willingness–before the State Department warned him that Tehran would gain–to do the same thing in Bahrain. The United States would be better off if it had the same basic list as Saudi Arabia, with the addition of the Iraqi, Syrian, and other Sunni Muslim radical Islamists supported by the monarchy.

Missing Peace: Will the army return to power in Egypt once again?

Dr Jaques Neriah, researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote an interesting analysis about the ongoing crisis in Egypt.
Chances are high that the current Muslim Brotherhood government will not be able to solve the crisis. As a result the state faces collapse and is on the verge of chaos. A large majority of the Egyptian population now demands that the army retake power.

Two Argentina bombing suspects among Iran presidential hopefuls

Two suspects in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires are candidates in Iran’s presidential election.
Mohsen Rezai and Ali Akbar Velayati, who are believed to have planned the 1994 attack, were among the eight candidates approved Tuesday for the June 14 election by Iran’s Guardian Council to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Senate backs Israel in event of strike on Iran nuclear weapon program

In a show of force, the United States Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging an uncompromising US stance against Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, calling for Washington’s support should Israel strike the program.

Venezuelan TV personality says Israel faked damning recording

Influential Venezuelan TV commentator Mario Silva accused the Mossad and CIA of manipulating his voice to embarrass his country’s socialist government.
Silva, a late night talk show host and vocal supporter of the Venezuelan Socialist Party responded on Tuesday to the release of a controversial tape featuring the likeness of his voice, saying it was forged by the Israeli and US secret services.