Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Khaled Abu Toameh: Peace Talks: What Is Behind The Palestinian Message?
Ironically, while the Palestinian officials are inciting their people against the peace talks, they are also deploying riot police to break up demonstrations opposed to the negotiations. This happened on a number of occasions over the past few weeks in Ramallah and other Palestinian cities.Palestinians urge EU to stick with settlement boycott
Last week, five Palestinians were injured during a violent encounter with policemen outside the Ramallah headquarters of Mahmoud Abbas.
Asked why the Palestinians are not making good their threat to walk out of the "unproductive" talks, a senior Palestinian official explained: "We cannot pull out at this stage because of American and European pressure. We will continue with the talks for six to nine months in order to show the world in the end that Israel is not interested in peace."
For now, the Palestinian Authority's strategy is to continue talking while at the same time blaming Israel for the lack of progress.
Palestinian officials are hoping that by the time the talks fail, the world would have absorbed their message: namely, that the Israelis are not interested in peace. The Palestinian Authority's next step would be to seek international intervention and pressure to force Israel to accept all its demands, including a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.
Palestinian officials expressed concern on Monday that the European Union would rescind its policy of banning cooperation with Israeli settlements, and declared that such a decision would affect negotiations with Israel.PMW: Fatah: Replace today's "whores" with yesterday's killers of Israelis
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi confirmed to The Times of Israel that US Secretary of State John Kerry was pressuring the EU to revoke, postpone, or “water down” a decision taken in July to outlaw all cooperation with Israeli entities over the pre-1967 lines.
The Fatah page administrator addressed the terrorist killers and asked them to "come back" to teach Palestinians to use violence against Israel and die willingly as Martyrs for Palestine:The Guardian again promotes myth that Ariel Sharon started 2nd Intifada
"Come back here, my sisters, in Allah's name. Teach yesterday's whores [at the demonstration] how the struggle is carried out, how to sacrifice for Palestine. Teach them how the Palestinian woman acts like Al-Khansa... Come back, oh you modest [women], and teach these whores that the homeland needs sacrifice and blood and not a modeling show..."
Additional evidence that Ariel Sharon didn’t start the 2nd Intifada includes comments by Suha Arafat (and Palestinian leaders), in 2011, acknowledging that Yasser Arafat planned the terror onslaught, as well as the following interview with Suha in late 2012 on Dubai TV:Jewish Residents of Jerusalem Victims of Daily Rock Attacks
The Palestinian campaign of suicide bombings and other deadly assaults at Israeli cafes, bus stops, markets (and other crowded public areas where families and children typically gather) claimed over 1000 lives, and injured and maimed thousands more – an orgy of violence for which Palestinian terrorists and their leaders are solely to blame.
Jewish residents of Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighborhood have been the victims of repeated rock attacks by Arab residents of the neighborhood.Decline in Arab Attacks on Mount of Olives
One of the Jewish residents of Abu Tor, Ruth Pross, told Arutz Sheva on Monday that the attacks are perpetrated by Arabs aged 18 to 22 who gather outside the homes of the Jewish residents of the neighborhood and pelt them with rocks from a distance of about 100 feet.
During Sunday’s attack, she recalled, five Arabs carrying a large box with blocks and rocks gathered at a curb near Jewish homes in Abu Tor. They then proceeded to throw the rocks and, noted Pross, they were a group of well-trained rock throwers who were able to repeatedly and accurately hit vehicles and homes belonging to Jews.
The Committee for Protection of the Mount of Olives, chaired by the brothers Rabbis Avraham and Menachem Lubinsky in the US, notes with satisfaction that there is a marked reduction in the number of violent incidents by Arabs at the Mount of Olives, and that there have been no cases of grave desecration in the last few months.El Al cancels daytime flights to Eilat over Sinai terror threat
The Committee says that the improvement is due to the construction of a security system that includes 142 cameras, a fence, lighting, and a police outpost.
Fearing a rocket attack from the Sinai Peninsula, the Civil Aviation Authority has decided to change the landing route for all planes arriving at Eilat Airport.Alliance with Israel Growing Out of Egyptian Security Chaos
The new protocols, effective this week, call for planes to turn around over the Red Sea and then head for the airport. Until now, planes would circle around Eilat's mountain range and fly at low altitudes directly over the border with Egypt, something that puts them in the range of rockets and anti-air weaponry possessed by Islamist terrorists in Sinai.
“The Egyptian army still has a lot of work to do in Sinai,” Gen. Sameh Saif Elyazal told The Media Line. "I believe coordination with the Israeli armed forces will be needed if the terrorists start attacking Israel from Sinai."Egypt army disconnects phone networks in North Sinai
From Israel’s perspective, that cooperation is even more crucial as the region braces for a possible strike by the United States on Syria after it’s apparent use of chemical weapons last month. Both Syria and its ally, Iranian-proxy Hizbullah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, have threatened to hit Israel in retaliation if or when Syria is struck by the US. Israel wants to make sure that Egypt, the largest Arab country, stays out of any regional confrontation.
“The relationship between Israel and Egypt is the cornerstone of stability and peacemaking in the region,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Media Line.
Landline and cell phone networks were disconnected to prevent contact and coordination between armed groups, an Egyptian security official told Ma'an.Barry Rubin: Obama Administration: The New Seven Pillars of Wisdom on the Middle East, Part Two
However, militants are using Israeli and Palestinian mobile networks to bypass the shutdown of Egyptian mobile services in the peninsula, he added.
The North Sinai cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid receive coverage from the Palestinian network Jawwal and the Israeli companies Cellcom and Orange.
Fourth pillar: Terrorist blackmail and other pressure should determine U.S. policy.Additions to stock BBC euphemisms for terrorist
The concern that the Muslim Brotherhood will turn to a war of terrorism if it doesn't get power returned to it in Egypt is also supposed to overwhelm other considerations of U.S. interests.
Or the fear that the Palestinians will push for statehood in the UN and international court brings panic that the United States cannot resist this supposed tidal wave.
Other demands, especially when linked to positions on gender or other special interests, take precedent over those of U.S. allies, even with Saudi Arabia now denouncing European sanctions against Hizballah as inadequate.
Of course terrorist activity in the Sinai Peninsula has been going on whilst three different ruling bodies were in power in Egypt – the Mubarak regime, the Morsi government and most recently the current Egyptian army-led administration. The terrorists operating in Sinai are therefore ill-defined as ‘rebels’ or ‘insurgents’: their activity is obviously not dependent upon a specific Egyptian government or leader being in power and the religious dimension to their ideology is not adequately reflected by the use of those terms.BBC gets in on ‘Mossad Spy Zoo’ action
Interestingly, the BBC’s version of the story completely neglects to reflect the links or affiliations of what it at best terms “Islamist militants” in Sinai to Al Qaeda or to mention the presence of foreign terrorists in Sinai and once again the connection between terrorism in Sinai and the Gaza Strip is erased from the picture presented to BBC audiences.
In fact the shark-related accusations were also promoted by the governor of the South Sinai, Muhammad Abdel Fadil Shousha, and broadcast by the Egyptian state media rather than just “one TV station” – as was reported by the BBC at the time.U.S. Government Fails to Enforce Law to Protect Jewish Students
Whilst one can understand the temptation to turn such stories into a whimsical space-filler, it would surely be of more benefit to BBC audiences’ understanding of the Middle East were some attempt made to offer serious explanation and analysis of the kind of environment which allows such conspiracy theories to prosper –especially as the BBC frequently uncritically repeats statements and claims on other issues made by officials from regimes which subscribe to such theories.
With the start of a new school year, there’s reason to be concerned: Anti-Semitism is a serious problem on some college campuses, causing Jewish students to feel threatened and even fear for their safety. Yet the U.S. government is not enforcing the law that should protect them.Israelis ranked 11th-happiest people in the world
Legal protection exists, at least in theory. After a six-year battle by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and others, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a 2010 directive that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act would be enforced to protect Jewish students and students of other religious/ethnic groups who are harassed at publicly-funded schools.
An annual survey ranked Israel the 11th-happiest country in the world, ahead of the United States, and far ahead of its neighbors in the region.Oil Discovered in Israel’s Yam 3 Offshore Field, Could Generate $11 Billion
The World Happiness Report, published on Sunday, was based on data collected for 156 countries between 2010 and 2012. Denmark, Norway and Switzerland took the top three spots.
The report ranked the happiness of the world’s nations based on a “life evaluation score,” a number between 0 and 10 that measures several factors including health, family and job security, and social factors like political freedom, social networks and lack of government corruption.
A resources report by Netherland Sewell & Associates Ltd. estimated the field holds 128 million barrels of recoverable oil, with 110 million barrels of oil and 18 million barrels of oil equivalent of natural gas. With international oil prices above $100 per barrel, the reservoir could generate $11 billion, with between $2 billion and $3 billion value for the field’s developers, Globes said.In role reversal, Beijing businesses looking for products labeled ‘Made in Israel’
“Israel has some products that are world-class,” said Johnson Liu, deputy director-general of the China Foreign Trade Center. “It has advantages in agriculture, hi-tech and green sectors, and the Chinese market has great demand for this, so we’re looking for exporters this time to come to the fair.”World Bank’s IFC invests in Kaiima to strengthen Global Food Security
Although China already imports significant amounts from Israel – in 2012 Israel sold $2.74 billion of goods to China – a considerable portion of that comes from just two companies. Sales by Intel accounted for a third of Israeli exports to China in 2012, while Israel Chemicals accounted for over 20 percent, according to Globes.
Founded in 2006, Kaiima focuses on developing strains of plants that are more resilient and yield more grain. The company started out developing crops for bio-fuel production but realized early on that its technology was capable of much broader applications and is now focusing on food crops. The company claims to provide bigger plants that are richer in nutrients, able to photosynthesize faster, survive better in marginal and drought conditions, and generate more grain for higher overall productivity, as well as conserve resources such as water. The Company has recently been listed on the Global Cleantech 100 list.British Novelist Howard Jacobson Plans to Reimagine Shakespeare’s Shylock in New Book
British novelist Howard Jacobson plans to take on Shakespeare, rewriting the controversial “Merchant of Venice” with a decidedly more philo-Semitic twist, the BBC reported.
“For an English novelist, Shakespeare is where it all begins. For an English novelist who also happens to be Jewish, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is where it all snarls up,” he was quoted as saying.
“Only a fool would think he has anything to add to Shakespeare. But Shakespeare probably never met a Jew, the Holocaust had not yet happened, and anti-Semitism didn’t have a name,” the author added.
