03/14 Links Pt1: Abbas Rejects U.S. Plan; What Obama furtively furthers; A pilot in Noah's Ark

From Ian:

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Abbas Uses Fatah Speech to Reject U.S. Plan

The day after the speech, Fahmi Zaarir, vice-chairman of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, stated on Radio Palestine on March 11 that Abbas had reported on “a framework plan to perpetuate a number of principles in a final agreement,” and that Abbas remains faithful to Fatah’s founding principles. Zaarir did not quote Abbas directly, but said, “Everyone knows what these principles are: Palestine’s borders from the Jordan River to the 1967 lines and no compromise regarding all of Jerusalem based on the ’67 lines.” Regarding refugees, “They themselves will agree based on UN decisions and the Arab Initiative.” Abbas spoke of the “right of return” of refugees – of all refugees – into the State of Israel itself. Even those who elect not to move to Israel would all receive compensation, Zaarir said. States which housed the refugees – Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria – would also be compensated for their hospitality. Zaarir emphasized that Abbas repeated emphatically that he would under no circumstances accept the “Jewish state” principle and that he would bring any agreement – if one was reached – to the entire Palestinian people, wherever they may be, for their approval. (h/t Bob Knot)

Elliott Abrams: Abbas and 'right of return' will defeat Kerry

By making the "right of return" a personal right for each Palestinian, Abbas is saying the PLO has no right to negotiate over it and no right to sign a agreement that defeats or even limits that "right." If that's really the PLO position, there will never be an agreement.
Second, if Abbas doesn't really mean it, he is narrowing his own negotiating room to near zero and obviously not preparing his own people for the compromises peace will entail.
Third, his definition of "refugee" is as broad as it could possibly be. According to Abbas, a Palestinian who left Israel in 1948 or 1967 has the right to move to Israel or to decline, but his "no" does not even bind his own foreign-born children. His son, and presumably grandson, who have never set foot in Israel and may well have citizenship in (for example) Canada have their own separate rights to move to Israel. Five million separate choices, says Abbas.

Sarah Honig: What Obama furtively furthers

One outrageously insolent remark was remarkably ignored in the hullaballoo generated by US President Barack Obama’s Bibi-bashing interview on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s latest White House visit.
Wedged into the presidential malarkey was a new allegation against the Mideast’s sole democracy. Obama accused Israel of no less than continuing to “place restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions.”
Huh? Really? What restrictions? And does Obama now also presume to pass judgment on what are indisputably our domestic affairs? Is there no limit to his meddling and hubris?

Judge Calls On Govt. To Adopt Levy Report Immediately

Uri Shtruzman, retired judge of the Tel Aviv District Court, spoke to Arutz Sheva about Supreme Court Judge Edmond Levy z''l, who passed away this Tuesday. Shtruzman, who knew Levy personally over the course of many years, called on Israel to adopt the Levy Report.
The report, authored by a commission headed by Levy in 2012, proves that Judea and Samaria are not "occupied territories" according to international law, and argues the legality of Israel declaring sovereignty over the region.
"There are political reasons why it isn't applied," said Shtruzman, noting the government effectively shelved the report. "I support the report...I've written similar opinions even before the report."

Kerry: Netanyahu wrong to insist Palestinians recognize Israel as Jewish state

Secretary of State John Kerry told members of Congress on Thursday that international law already declares Israel a Jewish state, and called Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's insistence on a public declaration of Israel's Jewish character from the Palestinians "a mistake" in the diplomatic process.
"I think its a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude toward the possibility of a state, and peace, and we've obviously made that clear," Kerry told the House Foreign Relations Committee, in a hearing on budget matters.
Yesterday, Kerry told a Senate panel that Israel and the Palestinians had less trust in one another than at any point in over nine months of negotiations. (h/t MtTB)

Ministers Tell Kerry 'Condemn Terror, Not Jewish State'

Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman called on Kerry to condemn the rocket barrage from Gaza on Israel's south, in which over 100 rockets have been fired since Wednesday.
"In days when citizens of the state of Israel are attacked by rockets, I expect clear statements from Kerry against the terror organizations instead of undermining the basic rights of the Jewish people to their land," stated Wortzman.

Get this: Kerry is not pro-Palestinian enough for leftist US Jews

Here is the emerging hard-left line on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's peace process: It's not good enough; not accommodating enough to the Palestinians. It's even dangerous, because Kerry is "caving" to Netanyahu and demanding "unjust" concessions from Abbas that were never raised in previous rounds of negotiations.
The American Jewish bête noire Peter Beinart, darling of the J Street crowd and Obama administration circles, has now taken up this line. Beinart is savaging Kerry for -- get this -- "slavishly ginning up" an "unworkable and unjust" peace plan that just doesn't meet "rightful" Palestinian expectations.

EU envoy to Israel: You shouldn’t have released prisoners

In an interview, Lars Faaborg-Andersen said that “had the EU been asked to advise Israel on which of the three positions [sought by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to accept as the basis for discussion — accepting to discuss [Palestinian statehood] on the [basis of the pre-] ’67 lines; accepting a settlement moratorium, or releasing 104 pre-Oslo prisoners — I know which two of those the EU would have pointed the Israeli government to take. You didn’t do that,” he said. “That’s your own sovereign choice. You also have to deal with the consequences.”
Bolstering the critique, Faaborg-Andersen said, “The fact that these pre-Oslo prisoners are being released and coming back and being treated as heroes, is at the outset facilitated by you, because you are releasing them.”

Israeli jets hit 7 targets in Gaza early Friday

The Israeli Air Force struck seven targets in the Gaza Strip early Friday morning in response to a second day of rocket fire on southern Israel.
According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF aircraft hit four sites in the southern Strip and three in the north.
“We will continue to retaliate to the aggression emanating from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip,” said IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. “Militants attacking Israel from the Gaza Strip will not feel safe, will pay the price and will find that their actions are futile.”

Sporadic rocket fire from Gaza continues to hit South despite 'ceasefire'

A rocket fell in the Ashkelon Coast Council area around 5 p.m. Wednesday and just before 8 p.m. three rockets fell in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council area. No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
After the rockets fell in Sha'ar Hanegev, the Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a rocket headed for the Southern town of Netivot.
Later in the evening another 2 rockets fell, one in Sderot in an open area of the city and another in the Eshkol Region, in an open area. No damages or injury were reported in that attacks.

IDF deploys more Iron Domes, calls up air reserves

Earlier Thursday, an emergency air defense reservists call-up was issued by the IDF.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon green lighted the call-up during a security cabinet meeting, Haaretz reported. IDF officials told the news outlet the emergency measure would be of “limited” scale for the time being.
An emergency call-up must typically be approved by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before it officially takes effect, though some past call-ups have been ratified retroactively after reservists were already en route to their bases.

A pilot sailing in Noah's Ark

Last week's raid on the Iranian ship Klos-C solved the mystery, and took me back to January 3rd 2002, when the IDF intercepted the ship Karine-A, 500 kilometers from Israel.
While I was serving as head of helicopter operations at the Air Force Headquarters, Navy officials requested our assistance in capturing a ship which had been purchased by the Palestinian Authority, loaded with weapons in Iran, and was heading towards Gaza.
The operation was code named "Noah's Ark".

Abbas Calls Israeli Defense Against Gaza Rocket Attacks ‘Cold Blooded Murder’

Today, after meeting with Cameron, Palestine’s unelected dictator was obviously prodded to say something. And he did. He condemned ‘all military escalation, including rockets’ to make sure that Israel’s self defense against his Hamas friends was included in the ‘condemnation’. And then he went on to rant about how Israel killing three members of that Islamic Jihad mortar team firing rounds into Israel was ‘cold blooded murder’, repeating his earlier nonsense.

Who killed Arafat? Abbas suggests it was rival Dahlan

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused one of his main rivals, Mohammed Dahlan, of involvement in six murders, hinting that he might also be behind the death of former leader Yasser Arafat.
Dahlan, who lives in exile in the Gulf, denied the allegations of his arch foe Abbas, their bitter row now playing out publicly across the Palestinian media and on social media.
Once a prominent official in Abbas's Western-backed Fatah movement, Dahlan was ousted from the group in 2011 following accusations of corruption. He denied the charges and remains a powerful figure on the sidelines, forging ties with numerous Arab leaders and maintaining links with the splintered Fatah.

Allah will gather Israelis so Palestinians can kill them, says senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki

Senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki said in an interview broadcast yesterday on official PA TV that Israelis "have no belief, no principles" and that they "are an advanced instrument of evil." Therefore, "Allah will gather them so that we can kill them," he explained:

Palestinian official: "Allah will gather [the Israelis] so we can kill them"


Hamas in worst cash crisis since seizing Gaza

Gaza's Hamas rulers have been hit by the worst economic crisis since seizing the territory seven years ago and face growing discontent, even among core supporters, because there's no sign of relief from a blockade enforced not only by Israel but also by a suddenly hostile Egypt.
Hamas government employees have complained publicly about getting only partial salaries for the past four months. Bus drivers have staged a strike over soaring fuel prices. Laborers have lost jobs as construction has dried up. Hamas' own surveys show its popularity plummeting.

Egypt Army Says 1,370 Smuggling Tunnels to Gaza Now Closed

The Egyptian Army said on Wednesday that it has destroyed 1,370 smuggling tunnels under its border with Gaza, Lebanon’s Daily Star reported, citing AFP in Cairo.
The tunnels, many under the border town of Rafah, are used to transfer food, fuel and consumer products, as well as arms and money for Hamas, the militant political party that rules Gaza.

Egypt Ignores Hamas, Talks with Islamic Jihad

Hamas was fuming on Thursday upon discovering that Egypt had communicated with the Islamic Jihad directly to broker a ceasefire with Israel, while intentionally ignoring Hamas.
The Ma’an news agency noted that the decision to coordinate directly with Islamic Jihad, which launched the vast majority of Wednesday's rocket barrage on Israel, and not with Hamas, which rules Gaza, highlights the continuing tension between Egypt's military and the group.

Hamas and Iran admit increased cooperation

Iran’s parliament spokesman, Ali Larijani, told Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen on Sunday that Iran’s relations with Hamas have returned to normal. Iran, he said, supports Hamas as a “resistance organization.”
Relations between the Islamic Republic and the Palestinian organization deteriorated following Hamas’s decision to abandon its headquarters in Damascus in January 2012, a move Iran considered particularly hurtful to its close ally Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Sarah Honig: Jordan’s bizarre jurists

The truth is that the free-Daqamseh drive by Jordanian lawyers is hardly new and considerably preceded the latest pretext to revive it. The very fact that Daqamseh is accorded succor from Jordan’s legal hierarchy is, in and of itself, cause for grave concern.
Daqamseh was sentenced to seven life terms, which in the Jordanian context means 25 years in prison. Yet he is far from denounced and disowned by his compatriots. The reverse is true. Three years ago then-Justice Minister Hussein Mjali didn’t hesitate to hector blatantly for Daqamseh’s release and to portray the cowardly killer of defenseless children as a laudable role model.
Moreover, Daqamseh is no chastened penitent. He boastfully told a Jordanian weekly that “if I could return to that moment, I would behave exactly the same way. Every day that passes, I grow stronger in the belief that what I did was my duty.”

Iran blames ‘Zionists’ for new evidence it ordered Lockerbie blast

The film, “Lockerbie: What Really Happened,” broadcast on Al Jazeera on Tuesday night, featured testimony from a former Iranian intelligence officer that Iran’s leaders ordered the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for an accidental US navy strike on an Iranian commercial plane six months earlier. The blast, which killed 270 people, was the worst terrorist attack on American citizens with the exception of 9/11.
The Iranian officer Abolghasem Mesbahi, who once reported directly to former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani but defected to Germany in the 1990s, told Al Jazeera, “Iran decided to retaliate as soon as possible. The decision was made by the whole system in Iran and confirmed by [supreme leader] Ayatollah Khomeini.”

Iranian Negotiators Double Down on Red Line Against Negotiations Over Ballistic Missile Program

Politically an outright Iranian refusal is likely to erode confidence in the Obama administration’s diplomatic nimbleness. Iranian negotiators had managed to exclude mention of Iran’s missile program from the interim Joint Action Plan (JPA), an omission that White House figures justified to lawmakers and journalists as justified for the sake of building momentum. Lead U.S. diplomacy, including lead negotiator Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, instead insisted that Iran’s ballistic missile program would be addressed in comprehensive negotiations.

Turkey: Death of Young Protester Triggers Outrage

The death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan sparked violent clashes between protesters and riot police across the country.
Berkin was hit in the head by a teargas canister after going out to buy bread during the anti-government Gezi Park protests last year. The boy had been in a coma for 269 days.

The double edged sword of Jihad

Islamic nations are again learning that the jihad is a volatile instrument of war that can easily backfire on those who preach it; that “holy war” is hardly limited to fighting and subjugating “infidels” -- whether the West in general, Israel in particular, or the millions of non-Muslim minorities under Islam -- but can also be used to fight “apostates,” that is, Muslims accused of not being Islamic enough.
In an unprecedented move and following Egypt’s lead, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain recently withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar, largely due to its Al Jazeera propaganda network which, since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been inciting chaos in the region.

Saudis ban kids named Benjamin

Saudi Arabia released a list of 50 names, including Binyamin, Maya, and Linda, that parents are forbidden from calling their children, the Gulf News reported.
The banned names are either blasphemous, non-Arabic or non-Islamic, or contradictory to the kingdom’s culture or religion, said the Saudi interior ministry.
Some of the banned names seem not to fall under any of those categories, however. Abdul Naser is most decidedly a Muslim name, but it is also the name of the 1950′s and ’60s Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser who was a rival of Saudi Arabia’s. Banned names Amir (prince), Malika (queen), and Mamlaka (kingdom) are all Arabic, but have to do with royalty, which may be a reason for their inclusion on the list. Binyamin just so happens to be the Arabic (and Hebrew) pronunciation of Benjamin (as in Israel’s current Prime Minister Netanyahu).