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Wednesday, October 09, 2013

10/09 Links Part 1: Terrorist Shooting Victim Heads Home, Guardianistas Vote Rouhani for Nobel

From Ian:

Psagot Victim Heads Home
Four days after a terrorist shot her in the neck at close range, nine-year-old Noam Glick has returned home.
Her friends from Psagot met her with flowers and balloons.
Noam suffered serious injuries in the shooting, which took place as she played on the balcony of her family’s home in Psagot, north of Jerusalem. However, after an emergency surgery, her condition was upgraded to “good,” and she has made a speedy recovery.
IDF Officials Pay Visit to Nine-Year-Old Terror Victim
The IDF's Head of Central Command, Nitzan Alon, and the head of the Binyamin Brigade, Yosef Pinto, paid a visit to the Glick family of the Binyamin community of Psagot.
JPost Editorial: Omitting the flag
Lustick and other experts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict see Israelis, even those who immigrated to Israel from Muslim countries in the region, as a “European fragment society” no different from the British in India or Kenya, the Belgians in the Congo, the Afrikaners in South Africa.
As long as the Palestinians view Zionists as just another colonialist white settler movement, there is little chance of reaching a two-state solution in which both sides recognize the legitimacy of the other to live here in peace and security.
The omission of the Israeli flag this week in the Mukata is just a symptom of a much deeper problem.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Is Abbas Losing Control Over Fatah?
The latest dispute began when bodyguards escorting Jibril Rajoub, a former security commander, beat Fatah legislator Jamal Abu al-Rub.
The incident took place during a heated debate over the responsibility of Fatah thugs and gunmen for scenes of anarchy and lawlessness in Jenin.
Abu al-Rub, who is a Fatah leader from Jenin, is nicknamed "Hitler" because of his ruthless and violent attacks on Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel.
After al-Rub was beaten, Fatah gunmen issued a leaflet warning Rajoub against entering Jenin. Now Abbas is busy trying to achieve a sulha [reconciliation] between the two senior Fatah leaders-warlords.
Make Barghouti your deputy, Fatah leaders urge Abbas
The issue of succession — Abbas is 78 years old — was raised at the end of September during a meeting in Ramallah of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the party’s Central Committee, the two most influential bodies in the hierarchy of Fatah, Abbas’s dominant faction of the PLO.
At the meeting, committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, an adviser to Abbas, took the floor to propose that Abbas appoint a vice president, and recommended Fatah Tanzim leader Barghouti (who was once a political rival of Tirawi’s) as the man for the job. Tirawi argued that Barghouti’s appointment would pave the way for his release from Israeli incarceration.
Abbas’ Idea for Israeli Security: No IDF Arrests of Terrorists
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has vowed that a new Arab state within Israel’s borders will keep Israel secure, demands that the IDF stop entering Arab-controlled cities.
Israeli soldiers do not visit Shechem and Jenin to buy cheap vegetables. They enter to arrest terrorists, while the PA security forces give out parking tickets, try to catch criminals and occasionally search for rival terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority almost never arrests terrorists belonging to the ”military branch” of the ruling Fatah party.
Top PLO official dubs Netanyahu ‘number one extremist’
Speaking to Palestinian radio on Monday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the PLO and one of only two Palestinian officials authorized to comment on negotiations with Israel, predicted that the recently revived talks would collapse due to Netanyahu’s entrenched positions.
“Netanyahu is the number one extremist in Israel. He hides behind [Economics Minister Naftali] Bennett and [former foreign minister Avigdor] Liberman. He is the symbol of extremism and resorts to a policy that seeks no solution,” Abed Rabbo said, adding that the Palestinian leadership refuses to recognize “historic Palestine” as the “homeland of the Jewish people.”
PMW: Fatah: Suicide bombers are “Palestine’s illustrious women”
Two female suicide bombers who together killed 3 and wounded more than 130 are being presented by Fatah as great role models worthy of admiration.
Recently, the administrator of one of Fatah's official Facebook pages posted a picture of terrorist Wafa Idris with the words, "Palestine's illustrious women."
A few days later, the same Fatah page glorified female suicide bomber Zainab Abu Salem as "the 18 year-old heroic female Martyrdom-seeker."
Arch-terrorist Ahmed Yassin is "exalted Palestinian figure" - PA Minister of Religious Affairs


Isolated Hamas faces money crisis in Gaza Strip
Hamas is struggling to meet its payroll in the Gaza Strip, where income from taxes has been badly hit since neighboring Egypt started destroying a network of tunnels used to smuggle food, fuel and weapons into the Islamist-run enclave.
The crisis means that Gaza's thousands of civil servants may not receive their full salaries in time for an important Muslim holiday next week.
Turkish PM Erdogan hosts increasingly isolated Hamas leader Mashaal in Ankara
Increasingly isolated since the loss of a key ally in deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal traveled Tuesday to one of the few world leaders still willing to embrace him: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
One Israeli official said that Hamas today was experiencing “a period of unprecedented isolation” because of its terrorism and extremism.
Erdan: Hezbollah Has 200,000 New Rockets, and the Same Goal
Israel’s enemies are taking a new approach to warfare, and Israel must be ready, Minister of Home Front Defense Gilad Erdan said Tuesday, speaking at a conference at Bar Ilan University.
“Our enemies have abandoned the idea of conquering territory in the land of Israel. What remains is their desire to defeat Israel by threatening the homefront,” he explained.
US official: Washington plans to halt military aid to Egypt
A US official on Tuesday said the United States was leaning toward withholding most military aid to Egypt except to promote counterterrorism, security in the Sinai Peninsula and other such priorities.
The official said US President Barack Obama had not made a final decision on the issue, which has vexed US officials as they balance a desire to be seen promoting democracy and rights with a desire to keep up some cooperation with Egypt's military.
The White House denied that any change had been made in its policy on aid to Egypt.
Jonathan Kay: Canadian activists are finally learning that Israel isn’t the Middle East’s true villain
Egyptian military authorities have been co-operating with Israel in controlling the flow of weapons and militants to and from Gaza for years. But till now, Western pro-Palestinian activists generally have preferred to play down this fact. The case against Israel works best when it is presented as a simple morality play about indigenous Arabs battling neo-colonialist Jews. And so the fact that many Arab leaders in the region (including not only those in Egypt, but also Lebanon and Jordan) share Israel’s fear of Palestinian militancy is seen as an embarrassment to the conceit of anti-Zionist solidarity.
Canada’s ‘Gay Batman and Robin’ Freed From Egyptian Prison
So Greyson and Loubani ponced off to Egypt to “raise awareness” about something or other, when they were captured in possession of two hobby-sized helicopters fitted with GoPro cameras.
Almost like, you know, spy drones or something.

The pair insisted these devices were actually going to be used for, in their own words, “the testing of the transportation of medical samples.”
Uh huh.
The two were duly tossed into a Cairo prison. They went on a juice fast hunger strike. Gullible liberals back home campaigned for their return.
Netanyahu’s silent Middle East majority
While optimistic western elites bristle at Netanyahu’s rejection of Rouhani’s “smile and conquer diplomacy,” The Middle East’s silent Sunni majority backs Netanyahu’s “distrust, dismantle, and verify” approach towards neighboring Iranian regime’s nuclear program and race for regional supremacy.
Led by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and supported by the region’s many minorities including Kurds, Christians, Druse, Sufis, Baluchees and others, several hundred million Sunnis across the Middle East are quietly banking on Netanyahu’s making good on his declaration before the UN General Assembly that, “Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons,” and “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
Britain working to reopen embassy in Iran
The British embassy in Tehran was closed in late 2011 after a mob overran the building as tensions over a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities ran high. Iran also closed its embassy in London. Relations have remained tense since then, but the recent election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has raised hopes of a thaw between Iran and the West — and of a possible nuclear deal.
Iran rejects US precondition for participating in Syria peace conference
The US State Department said on Monday Washington would be more open to Iran taking part in a "Geneva 2" conference seeking an end to the war if Iran publicly supported a 2012 statement calling for a transitional authority to rule Syria.
But Iran rejected any conditions being placed on it to participate in diplomatic efforts on Syria, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday evening.
Guardian poll - Nobel Prize for Rouhani
Online readers of the Guardian newspaper have voted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as most deserving to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. In a poll posted Monday, the Islamic Republic leader had by Tuesday night raked in 69 percent of the online voters, more than four times the number of votes raked in by the second most popular nominee, Pakistani political and social activist Malala Yousafza.
Kenya identifies mall attackers, including American
A spokesman for the Kenya Defense Forces has identified four terrorists who took part in the deadly Nairobi mall attack last month.
They are: Khattab al-Kene, an American Somali; Abu Baara al-Sudani, from Sudan; Omar Nabhan, from Kenya; and a man identified only as Umayr.
It was not clear what Khattab al-Kene's name may have been in the United States.
‘Revealing’ outfit gets Turkish TV host fired
AKP party spokesman Huseyin Celik criticized Gözde Kansu’s outfit, saying “We don’t intervene against anyone, but this is too much. It is unacceptable,” the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Since the Islamist AKP came to power in the general elections in 2002, it has been working to slowly Islamize Turkey. But now that the party is more firmly in power, it has become more aggressive in enforcing its views on the public.