Saturday, June 14, 2014
The kidnapping is a casus belli
This kidnapping is a casus belli. Those who quote Rabin’s remark that “peace is made with enemies” leave out something important. Peace is made with defeated enemies, because undefeated ones are trying to kill you, or worse, your children. That’s what an enemy is.Gaza residents celebrate at news of missing Israeli teens
Those who think that the whole idea of enmity is outdated and atavistic, an ugly remnant of tribalism that the human race should leave behind may be right, but if you have to deal with people who live in that world, you can’t ignore them. You can’t unilaterally disarm, physically and psychologically. If they are trying to kill you, you can’t stand above it and look down tolerantly on those people who are not as advanced as you are.
You have to fight them and kill them. When you have killed enough of them, they’ll give up. Then you can start making peace.
Residents of Gaza celebrated the presumed kidnapping of three Israeli teens, after Hamas slammed the Palestinian Authority for cooperating with Israel to find the youths.Melanie Phillips: Australian lesson for US
Led by families of Palestinian security prisoners, candies were handed out in a protest tent set up in Gaza by families to express solidarity with prisoners serving time for security related offences in Israel, and residents praised the "operation in Hebron", calling for additional kidnappings. (h/t Jewess)
The mendacious charge that Israel is in ‘illegal occupation’ of east Jerusalem and the territories is constantly levelled by the UK and European governments (the US uses a more weaselly form of words). It underpins the equally mendacious and poisonous suggestion that Israelis have no right to live in these areas.Palestinian diplomat summoned to Ramallah over Jewish state recognition
This in turn has fed the monstrous campaign against Israel, which has seen it demonised and delegitimised for exercising its legal rights to land it is fully entitled to settle but which Arab propaganda has falsely persuaded the west (including many Jews) belongs en bloc to the Palestinians.
Now the Australians have raised the banner of truth, what’s needed is for other friendly leaders to follow suit by stating loud and clear that Israel stands for law, justice and historical reality which its enemies are trying to destroy – and in doing so, to put Obama to shame.
In an article published Thursday in Fathom, a quarterly devoted to Israel and the Middle East, Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, wrote that in order to truly achieve a lasting peace agreement, the Palestinian leadership must officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state and heavily revise current demands for a full-fledged right of return for Palestinian refugees. But he said Friday that he had been “tricked” over the article.
“Ramallah was very angry with this statement,” Amal Jadou, the head of the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry’s European desk said, according to the Daily Telegraph. Jadou said Hassassian would have to clarify his stance on the matter.
Hassassian said that his views had been misunderstood and that the article had been published before he had a chance to review its final version. (h/t cisjew)
Three Israeli Teenagers Abducted by Palestinian Terrorists
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz discussed the kidnapping publicly at a press conference Saturday night. “All of the IDF’s units have operated in close cooperation with Israel’s security organizations: the ISA (Shin Bet Security Service), the Israel Police and the Border Police,” the Chief of Staff said. “Under the guidance of Israel’s political leadership, the government, and the Defense Minister, we have operated for two days in growing scope and wherever needed.”IDF Spokesperson Announcement About Three Missing Israelis
“We will continue to do what’s necessary to bring this incident to an end as quickly as possible,” Lt. Gen. Gantz stressed. “We will keep a close eye on events in Israel’s various sectors — in Gaza and in the North — even as these events unfold. We remain determined to achieve our operational objectives, and will act with responsibility, calm and determination to accomplish whatever is required of us.”
IDF Nighttime Operation to Search For Three Missing Israelis
Exclusive: IDF Troops Continue Search for Missing Teens
PM to Kerry: Feared abductions a result of Hamas entry into government
Netanyahu and Kerry were speaking in a scheduled conversation following the feared kidnappings of three teenage yeshiva students in the West Bank overnight Thursday.Second group claims responsibility for abduction of three missing teens
“This is the result of letting a murderous terrorist organization enter the Palestinian government,” the PM said.
Netanyahu said Friday he holds Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for their well-being.
An organization calling itself the “Liberators’ Battalion of Hebron” sent out a message to the press Saturday claiming it carried out the abduction of Gil-ad Shaar, 16, Naftali Frenkel, 16 and Eyal Yifrach, 19, in the Gush Etzion area near Hebron late Thursday night.Palestinian activists call for destruction of CCTV footage in attempt to frustrate IDF search
The group said it abducted the boys “out of a sense of responsibility for the [Palestinian] prisoners sitting in the jails of the occupying entity.”
On Friday, a Salafist jihadi organization called Dawlat al Islam issued a claim of responsibility for the incident, but in this case too, the credibility of the claim is unclear.
Fatah and Hamas activists on Saturday called on Palestinian shopkeepers and businessmen in Hebron to destroy any CCTV footage that could be used by the IDF to locate the three missing yeshiva students.Abbas Says PA Will Assist Israel in Search for Missing Students
The activists posted their call on social media networking, especially Facebook and Twitter, after IDF soldiers reportedly confiscated some security cameras from a number of businesses and homes in Hebron as part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the students.
Eyewitnesses said that Fatah activists in Hebron confiscated some security cameras to prevent the IDF from laying its hands on them.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas reacted on Friday night to the disappearance of three yeshiva students near Hevron and said that the PA would assist Israel in the search.Hamas attacks PA for cooperating with investigation into missing teens
An official statement issued by Abbas’s spokesman and quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 News said, “The Palestinian Authority hopes the boys will be found and we will help Israel in searching for them.”
The statement added, “The incident occurred in Area C and in previous cases in which Israelis entered the territory of the Palestinian Authority, security personnel helped transfer them safely back to Israel.”
A Palestinian security source said on Saturday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's forces were helping Israel in the search for 3 missing yeshiva students.Islamic Jihad: ‘Kidnappings the only way to release prisoners’
That drew condemnation from Hamas - though the Islamist faction has not itself claimed involvement in the disappearance of the Israelis.
"Security coordination between (Prime Minister Rami) Hamdallah's and Abbas's security services and the enemy to locate the heroes of the Hebron operation and arrest them is a stigma," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
Speaking during a protest in the Gaza Strip, Khaled Albatsh urged Palestinian leaders to come up with a detailed plan that would ensure a massive release of prisoners held in Israeli security facilities.BBC News website ignores search for missing Israeli teens
“Our war against the enemy is raging,” Albatsh said, according to Maariv. “We must find the ways and means to release our prisoners, we must devise a clear plan to free them.”
Albatsh further called on members of his organization to target Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
On Friday June 13th a Salafist Jihadist organization claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, stating that it was a response to an incident which occurred last November. It is not yet known whether that claim is credible.Four Weeks And One Lawyer's Letter Later, Vasser Finally Returns Pro-Israel 'Wall of Truth"
The editorial decision not to report this story so far also means that BBC audiences remain unaware of the fact that senior Hamas leader Husam Badran issued a statement calling for Palestinians to instigate clashes with IDF forces in order to obstruct their search and rescue efforts.
Likewise, BBC audiences will not know that a call urging shopkeepers located near the site where the torched car suspected of being used in the attack was found to destroy surveillance camera footage so as to hinder the investigation was posted on a Fatah Facebook account.
Sometimes it only takes a letter from an attorney to gain some justice. Four weeks after erecting a pro-Israel "Wall of Truth “banner with University permission, having it defaced by other students and confiscated by campus police, students in the Vassar Conservative Libertarian Union (VCLU) finally got the "wall" back. Not only had the wall been withheld from the VCLU but they were not allowed to take pictures of the defaced area because the vandalized areas were "a form of dialogue on the Vassar campus." Within a day after receiving an attorney's letter, the school released the banner.UNESCO’s missing ‘hot potato’
On May 15th, members of the VCLU built a pro-Israel "Wall of Truth"banner in the same common area previously used by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for an anti-Israel display. Within one hour of the students erecting the wall, the banner was defaced (allegedly by SJP students) and removed by the Vassar administration.
It was indeed a historic achievement – ‘ a miracle’, as the Hebrew University professor and author Robert Wistrich, who wrote the 24 panels tracing the 3,500-year-old history of the Jewish people in the Land, put it. The exhibit, two-and-a-half years in the making, was a ‘political hot potato’, he said, wiping his brow. It had been due to open in January 2014, but Arab pressure had forced its postponement.Norman Finkelstein, Class Act
Not everyone is happy with the final result: the word ‘Israel’ does not feature in the title, and the Dead Sea Scrolls picture on the original advertising poster has been pulled.
But visiting members from the organisation Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) are hot under the collar about a different issue. They were shocked to discover that the resettlement in Israel of Jews driven from Arab states in the 1950s was missing from the exhibit. From two panels on the Holocaust, the narrative skips this important chunk of history altogether. The next panel deals with the rescue and resettlement of Soviet Jewry.
And that’s class with a capital “a”IDF strikes in Gaza following rocket attack
"Dershowitz enraged as Harvard Hillel embraces B(oycott) D(ershowitz’s) S(chlong)"
No wonder his books aren’t selling.
IAF aircraft carried out a number of air strikes in the Gaza Strip Saturday morning after a rocket was launched into Israeli territory, Palestinian officials said.Eight arrested for throwing rocks on Temple Mount
The rocket landed in an open area and caused no harm.
Palestinians said the Israeli military targeted a Hamas post in the south of the Strip. There were no casualties reported in the strike.
On Thursday carried out a targeted strike in Gaza against a Palestinian terrorist who was involved in rocket attacks against Israel.
The incident occurred following Friday prayers at the site.Qatar Sets Up 'Special Fund' to Pay Angry Hamas Employees
Dozens of masked Palestinian protesters took part in the clashes, according to reports.
The detainees were transferred to a nearby security facility for questioning, Israel Radio reported. The remaining protesters retreated into the al-Aqsa Mosque after being warded off by the police, according to Army Radio.
The government of Qatar has offered to pay disgruntled Hamas employees in Gaza, in a bid to diffuse simmering tensions which are already threatening to scupper the nascent "unity government" between the Islamist group and Fatah.Four Clumsy Hamas Terrorists Injured in 'Work Accident'
According to Palestinian Authority spokesman Ihab Bseiso, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Nasir bin Khalifa al-Thani pledged a total of $60 million to pay Hamas employees, after the group's leadership to dismantle its official government in Gaza as part of the unity deal.
The Qatari Prime Minister told his PA counterpart Rami Hamdallah that $20 million would be transferred each month for three months to pay Gaza employees," Bseiso told AFP.
Terrorism training went awry on Friday morning, as an accidental explosion at one of Hamas's Gaza terror bases left four clumsy terrorists injured.Iranian Deputy FM Threatens to Reverse Concessions on Uranium Enrichment
The explosion occurred at a training camp in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza.
Hamas's Ministry of Healthy spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Arab Ma'an News Agency that the four were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
Al-Qidra described their wounds as ranging between "moderate and dangerous."
Reuters on Thursday conveyed comments made at a Rome conference by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi threatening that the Islamic republic “will return to 20 percent enrichment if a deal cannot be reached” between Tehran and the P5+1 global powers, which have in recent days reportedly stumbled over issues ranging from uranium enrichment capacity to Iran’s refusal to come clean over past military dimensions of its nuclear program.Iran: No return to past if nuclear talks fail
Araqchi further told the conference attendees that “failure to reach a deal will be a disaster for everyone.”
Agence France-Presse (AFP) had already assessed a day earlier that the parties would fail to conclude negotiations by the interim Joint Plan of Action’s (JPA) July 20 deadline:
Rouhani told a press conference Saturday that it is still possible to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal before a July 20 deadline and that his government will in any case remain committed to its policy of constructive interaction.Multiple Groups Join TruthRevolt in Calling for Cancellation of Anti-Semitic Opera
But, he said, “If we can’t reach a final agreement in negotiations by July 20… Conditions will never go back to the past. The sanctions regime has been broken,” Rouhani said.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany reached an interim deal in November that limited Iran’s uranium enrichment program in exchange for the easing of some sanctions.
Multiple organizations have joined TruthRevolt in calling for the cancellation of the anti-Semitic and anti-American opera The Death of Klinghoffer. Stand With Us, the Zionist Organization of America and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America all activated their support groups to challenge the production.Francis defends Holocaust-era pope’s record
"We are appalled that The Metropolitan Opera has chosen to perform John Adams' “The Death of Klinghoffer” and, worse, to simulcast it at 2,000 theaters in 66 countries where it can reach hundreds of thousands of people with its bigoted messages," wrote StandWithUS CEO Roz Rothstein.
Pope Francis defended Pius XII’s record during World War II, calling the former pope “the great defender of the Jews.”Israeli IT Expert Identifies Gmail Flaw, Prevents Hackers From Capturing Email Addresses
In an interview Monday with Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper, the pope said Pius hid many Jews in convents and even his own residence, including 42 babies born in the pope’s “own bed.”
“I don’t want to say that Pius XII did not make any mistakes — I myself make many — but one needs to see his role in the context of the time,” Francis said. “For example, was it better for him not to speak so that more Jews would not be killed or for him to speak.”
The interview was reprinted in English translation on the Patheos blog.
Israeli computers expert Oren Hafif was featured this week in Wired Magazine and the Daily Mail for helping to save users of Google’s Gmail program from being exposed to hackers.Israeli web giant ironSource opens China office
On his blog, Hafif explained how a sharing feature of Gmail allows a user to ‘delegate’ access to their account.
By adjusting the web address, Hafif found it was possible to reveal other users’ email addresses. By automating the character changes with a software program called DirBuster, he was able to collect 37,000 Gmail addresses in two hours.
IronSource, one of Israel’s most successful web companies, announced this week that it is expanding to China. Over 100 million people a month use ironSource’s tech services, according to the company. That number is set to expand significantly as ironSource deploys its digital delivery technology in the world’s largest market.China high-tech zone offers synagogue, kosher food
The Beijing office, said ironSource, will be staffed by a combination of Israeli and Chinese employees. The company intends to bring its top-tier technology to China, and to localize its services and products to meet local needs, ironSource said.
A community center for Israelis, complete with a synagogue and kosher restaurant, are set to be established in the next two years in the Chinese city of Changzhou, located about 100 miles from Shanghai. Speaking at an event in Tel Aviv last week, Stone Shi, deputy administrator of Changzhou’s Wujin Hi-tech industrial zone, said that within five years he expects between 50 and 100 Israeli companies to have operations in the area.
“We are very appreciative that so many Israeli companies are choosing the Wujin Economic Zone (WEZ) for their China operations,” said Stone at an event sponsored by the Cukierman & Co. Investment House. “We want Israelis to feel comfortable doing business in our region, and the new center, 25,000 square meters large, will provide them with an opportunity to enjoy Israeli culture, both secular and religious, and will even offer kosher food — Chinese style, of course,” said Stone. The WEZ is picking up the tab for construction of the center, he added.
