Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Riots in Turkey and Tens of Thousands Dead in Syria, Caused by West Bank Settlements

If this is the beginning of another Middle East revolution, one wonders what the new map of the Middle East will look like even 2 years from now. Amazing how times change – only five years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to mediate peace negotiations with Syria. That wouldn’t have ended well – and today, reports indicate that up to 100,000 people have been slaughtered in Syria.
For the sake of peace, many say Israel should offer concessions to Assad in Syria who has killed tens of thousands of his own people. They also say that Israel should be more conciliatory towards Turkey, where the police force abuses fellow citizens regularly.
These people talk foolishly of Israeli settlements, or Israel’s “aggressive nature in the Middle East” that leads to violence. Could it be something else? Pigs can’t fly, and the Israelis are not the people who bring violence to the Middle East.

Fatah Central Committee member urges destruction of Israel, advocates turning a blind-eye to terrorists

Watch as a representative of Israel's so-called "partner for peace" Fatah, calls for the end of Israel, and for the Palestinian people to turn a blind eye to terrorist attacks on the Jewish State.

Soft BBC portrait of new PA prime minister

The BBC also chooses to ignore the fact that under Hamdallah’s presidency, students at An Najar University staged an exhibition glorifying suicide bombers in September 2001 (described by the BBC at the time as an “art show” in a report placed in its website’s ”entertainment: arts” section) which included a gory representation of the Sbarro pizza restaurant where fifteen civilians – many of them women and children – had been murdered only six weeks previously.

Abbas threatens to dismantle PA if talks don’t start

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to dismantle the PA should US Secretary of State John Kerry fail to “salvage the peace process,” a senior PA official said Tuesday.

PMW: Compilation of 5 versions of a Palestinian song presenting Israeli cities as part of "Palestine"

Five church schools in Gaza face closure after Hamas order

Five schools in Gaza – two Catholic and three Christian – face closure if the Hamas government follows through on an order forbidding co-educational institutions, according to the director general of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine and Israel.

France, Britain confirm sarin gas used in Syria

France said Tuesday it has confirmed that the nerve gas sarin was used “multiple times and in a localized way” in Syria, including at least once by the regime. It was the most specific claim by any Western power about chemical weapons attacks in the 27-month-old conflict.
Britain later said that tests it conducted on samples taken from Syria also were positive for sarin.

EXCLUSIVE: How Israeli Intelligence Is Updating Its Knowledge of Syria’s Missile Arsenal

Israel has taken the opportunity to watch, study, and analyze the performance of the Syrian missiles. Among the most important discoveries is the detection and observation of the Scud D missile, which has a separating (detachable) warhead with cluster bombs. Israeli intelligence officials knew about the existence of this missile for at least ten years, and even got some information about it from Turkish counterparts when relations between the two countries were better. Israel is now updating its knowledge on its own.

MEMRI: Egyptian Blooper: Politicians, Unaware They Are on Air, Threaten Ethiopia over Dam Construction VIDEO

Signature campaign on Egyptian streets tests Morsi

Thousands of volunteers are hitting the pavement around Egypt, on streets, in metro stations, even in hospitals, passing out black-and-white forms to whoever will take them. The goal: To collect millions of signatures on a petition calling for the removal of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Thousands of Iranians chant to end dictatorship

Tens of thousands of Iranians chanted for the downfall of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, branding him a “dictator,” as they attended the funeral of a religious leader who opposed the current regime.
The protest took place during the funeral of Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri, who died at the age of 87 and was buried in Isfahan on Sunday. Taheri was known for openly opposing the Tehran government and its hardline religious leaders.

Diplomats say Iran nuclear reactor damaged by quake

Diplomats say countries monitoring Iran’s nuclear program have picked up information that the country’s only power-producing nuclear reactor was damaged by one or more recent earthquakes.
Two diplomats say long cracks have appeared in at least one section of the structure.

Wife of Imprisoned Iranian-American Pastor Pleas Before UN Human Rights Council

The wife of imprisoned Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini, Naghmeh, made an impassioned plea for the release of her husband before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

Claire Berlinski: Erdoğan Over the Edge

So no, the unrest roiling Turkey is not about Gezi Park, though it would have been poetic if it had been: the park was once an Armenian cemetery, appropriated by the government and transformed into a barracks after the Armenians “abandoned” it. The protests are about authoritarianism, plain and simple. What will happen now is anyone’s guess. The demonstrators are disorganized, and while they know what they don’t want, they aren’t sure what they do want. (h/t Silke)

Daniel Pipes: The good news in Turkey

This is excellent news. Turkey has been heading in the wrong direction under the AKP. Although a democracy, the AKP government has jailed more journalists than any other state in the world. Although secular, it has with growing urgency imposed arrays of Islamist regulations, including last week's rushed limitation on alcohol as well as warnings against public displays of affection.