Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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CIF Watch: An ugly disgusting rant: Joseph Massad and Glenn Greenwald attack ‘the usual Jewish suspects’

In case there is any doubt who Greenwald is referring to by “the usual suspects“, in the Tweet he links to a piece criticizing AJ’s decision (and defending Massad) by Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada – whose support for Massad is not surprising as he advanced the Zionism = Nazism narrative in a Tweet in 2010 – which accused Al Jazeera of caving in to “Zionists extremist” Jews, such as Jeffrey Goldberg, John Podhoretz and Rahm Emmanuel.
It really takes a mind occupied by the most crude antisemitic stereotypes about the danger of Jewish power to conjure a scenario by which a Qatari based pro-Sunni Islamist media group was strong-armed by a small gang of powerful Jews into censoring an otherwise meritorious essay.

The Rage, Relativism and Racism of Glenn Greenwald

One will search Greenwald’s writing for coherence in vain because, although he espouses moral relativism when it suits his agenda, as we’ve just seen, he’ll vehemently disown it with his very next breath. His is not a thoughtful, principled commitment to a philosophy he’s prepared to defend or apply consistently. Rather, his geopolitical outlook might be best described as a half-understood kind of dime-store Third Worldism; a gruesome combination of a thoroughgoing Western masochism with an ostensible compassion for the wretched of the earth that masks the same racist condescension and contempt typified by the worst kind of colonialist paternalism.

NGO Monitor: Report: U.S. Talks Peace, But Aids Incitement

American leaders speak of the importance of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but American money is being used by terrorist groups that undermine the chance for peace, according to a report by NGO Monitor that was presented Monday to the United States Congress.
The problem is with the funding dispersed by U.S.-funded NGOs, explained NGO Monitor head Professor Gerald Steinberg. He named USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as two organizations funded by the U.S. government that in turn fund local Arabs groups, some of which work against the U.S. government’s stated goals.
One example given in the report is the case of MIFTAH, a Palestinian Authority-based NGO. The NED give MIFTAH over $178,000 from 2007 to 2012.

PMW: Facebook page associating UNRWA with terror glorification closed

Last week, Palestinian Media Watch reported on the glorification of suicide bomber Wafa Idris by the Palestinian Al-Amari youth center on its Facebook page, noting that UNRWA's name (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) appeared in the logo of the youth center on the page.

Checking BBC-propagated untruths about checkpoints

So what are the facts? How many checkpoints actually exist and do they really “prevent” Palestinians from travelling to work or to university?
“The number of checkpoints in the Central Command went from 40 in July 2008 to just 12 in October 2012. Furthermore, these checkpoints are only used some of the time and the frequency of checks is dependent on the security threat at the time.”

Palestinians hold off on UN agency membership

The Palestinians have done all the legal work necessary to join 63 UN agencies, conventions and treaties but haven’t applied yet mainly to give the latest US peace effort a chance to succeed, the chief Palestinian negotiator said Monday.

Nablus vendor tries to set self on fire after crackdown

A man tried to set himself on fire in Nablus on Sunday in protest against a police campaign to regulate street vendors in the West Bank, locals said.
Muhammad Yaesh, 40, poured gasoline on himself near a roundabout in the city, witnesses told Ma'an, before police prevented him from setting it alight.

Syrian army claims it destroyed Israeli vehicle ‘and those in it’

Israel did not respond to the Syrian claim, but earlier Tuesday the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said that an Israeli jeep on patrol was hit by light weapons fire, causing slight damage to the vehicle, and that the army responded by shooting a long-range Tamuz rocket at the source of the attack and reported a “direct hit.”

Eritrean tells of Sinai torture for ransom

After seven months of beatings, burns, electric shocks and constant threats to kill him, an Eritrean refugee has finally been freed by his kidnappers in Egypt's Sinai desert. Covered in deep scars and suffering from breathing problems and bone injuries, Philemon Semere, now in Cairo, told the BBC how it feels to be free at last.

Saudi Arabia beheads Yemenis, displays corpses in public

Saudi Arabia has today beheaded five Yemenis and displayed their bodies in public.
The men were found to have murdered a Saudi national and formed a gang that committed robberies across several towns in the kingdom, Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said.

Has Saudi Arabia blocked the Jerusalem Post?

Another answer may lie in the fact that unlike other Israeli newspapers, the Jerusalem Post is an English newspaper. That is, the paper is issued in the most dominant language in the world.
More clearly, the Saudi Ministry of Communication might have noticed that the website of the paper is accessed by a large number of people living in Saudi Arabia and thusly decided to block it.

SYRIZA MP Yelled “Heil Hitler!” In Parliament

Golden Dawn denied it was any of its members who said it and after a day of confusion, Greek media reported that it was Giorgos Pantzas, a former film actor who now belongs to the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) who yelled the reference to the Nazi leader in an apparent attempt to ridicule Golden Dawn. (h/t jake)