Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Gaza floods cause terror tunnels to collapse

Palestine Press Agency reports that a Gaza family's house is uninhabitable because it was damaged during the flooding in Gaza last week.

However, the damage wasn't directly from the rain or flooding. It was because under the house, unbeknownst to the family, was a Hamas terror tunnel that collapsed.

The house, which housed 45 members of an extended family including 20 children, saw parts of its ground floor fall a meter and a half into the ground.

Engineers hired by the family confirmed that there was a tunnel underneath the house. But when they complained to Hamas, the terror group held them financially responsible for tearing the house down.

This wasn't the only tunnel uncovered by the rain. Today I spoke with the person in charge of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and he told us that there were several visible tunnel collapses in the area from the rain. (More details of that interview to come.)

The Sderot rocket collection

I always wanted to see this for myself.

At the Sderot police station there is a collection of hundreds of Gaza rockets that have landed in that town over the years. Here is a panorama photo of some of them. Click to enlarge.

On the left side is a glass case of more notable rockets, like the ones that have the name of the terror group painted on them, or some of the larger Grad missiles.

Nowadays most of the rockets are more "professionally" made - calling them "home-made rockets" is less appropriate than it used to be. The now rusting Sderot rockets are more of a lesson as to what lengths terrorists would go to in order to target Jews.

Many of the rockets are clearly made out of pipes meant to help Gaza's water issues.

12/18 Links Pt1: PA Leader- We Supported the Nazis in WWII, Syria’s rattlesnakes commit suicide

From Ian:

Israel, Palestine, and Democracy

Democracy and demography have become the main arguments for creating a Jew-free Arab state in Judea and Samaria. Israel’s presence in the territories deprives Palestinians of their democratic rights, the argument goes, and if Israel does not give the Palestinians whatever territory they demand, it will have to choose between its democracy and its Jewishness.
The “democracy” argument has become the central justification of the diplomatic process, incessantly invoked by Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli peace envoy Tzipi Livni. What makes the democracy argument effective is that it plays on deep-seated Jewish sentiments. Israelis are a fundamentally liberal, democratic people who desperately do not wish to be put in the role of overlords.
The problem with the democracy argument is that it is entirely disconnected from reality. Israel does not rule the Palestinians. The status quo in no way impeaches Israel’s democratic identity.

Judea and Samaria Land Targeted in Coordinated Palestinian Effort, Israeli Officials Say

Senior Israeli Civil Authority officials warned Tuesday that Palestinian Arabs are engaging in a coordinated effort to take over Israeli-owned land in Judea and Samaria, and that senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials may be involved in the effort.
“Over the past two to three years, there’s been a battle for Area C,” said Director of Inspection Unit Marco Ben-Shabbat, according to Israel National News. “It’s not like what we saw before, with a single Palestinian building a private home illegally. It is much more organized.”

NGO: Government Burying Levy Report, Hounding Settlers

The Regavim movement, an NGO watchdog group for Jewish national property rights, accused the Israeli government Wednesday of ignoring the Levy Report, filed by a committee that was headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, which determined that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are legal. In the current state of affairs, Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs receive clear preference in Judea and Samaria land disputes, not having to prove land ownership, Regavim charged.

A One Way Run

I’m a runner. And I live in what Brown would call Palestine and what I refer to as Judea. I agree that it is a beautiful and challenging place to run.
But what Brown doesn’t seem to realize is that Israeli runners and hikers in this area also have concerns for their safety. Every time you lace up your sneakers or hiking boots, fatal attacks on hikers and joggers niggle in the back of your mind too.
Just a few weeks ago, the PA celebrated the release of Issa Abed Rabo. He became the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner by murdering Revital Seri and Ron Levy 1984. The two university students were hiking near a Cremisan monastery in southern Jerusalem when they encountered Rabo. He tied up Levy and Seri at gun point, placed bags over their heads, then killed the two.

Harriet Sherwood audaciously suggests that Palestinians have abandoned terror

Beyond the statistical evidence contradicting Sherwood’s specific claims, it’s hard to understand how anyone covering the region as long as she has could possibly come to the conclusion that Palestinians have in any way abandoned terrorism. In addition to the Palestinians’ glorification of terrorists, a comprehensive report on Arab public opinion by Pew Global in September demonstrated that “support for suicide bombing and other violence aimed at civilian targets is most widespread in the Palestinian territories“. A staggering 62% of Palestinian Muslims, per this poll, believe that such attacks “are often or sometimes justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies”.
Though we’ve, on occasion, noted reports by Sherwood which suggest a modest amount of improvement in her coverage of the region, the amount of disinformation conveyed in those two sentences we cited (on Palestinian attitudes towards terror) again reminds us that her pro-Palestinian sympathies will trump a sincere commitment to accuracy almost every time.

BBC website replaces article on shooting of Israeli soldier with ‘last-first’ report

In other words, an editorial decision was taken to replace a serviceable report on an incident which was sparked by the deliberate shooting and killing of an Israeli soldier on Israeli territory with a headline which initially informed audiences only that “Israeli army shoots Lebanese soldiers”.
That report was expanded into yet another example of “last-first” reporting which, despite it being stated in the body of the article that the Lebanese authorities had not confirmed the incident,

Focus Turns to Growing Hezbollah Control Over Lebanese Army, After Deadly Cross-Border Killing of Israeli Solider

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Michael Rubin had already noted as early as 2010 that it is “an open secret among Lebanese of all political stripes that Hezbollah has infiltrated the Lebanese Armed Forces,” an assessment that came in the wake of years in which Israeli military officials had warned over exactly such Hezbollah efforts. Analysts increasingly fear that the Iran-backed terror group is now seeking to provoke Israel into a conflict. Hezbollah’s brand as an anti-Israel group has been shattered by its participation in the Syrian conflict on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and it may be looking to ignite a confrontation in order to begin rebuilding that image.

Yaalon: Lebanese Army Will Place Shooter on Trial

"This is a serious incident and the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army are responsible for this," he declared, adding that there had been a meeting on Monday between the liaison officers of the Lebanese army and the IDF, attended by members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), during which the Lebanese army reported the findings of its investigation of the shooting incident.
"Apparently he was a rebellious soldier who made a decision on his own to leave his post, open fire at our military vehicle and unfortunately kill Master Sergeant Shlomi Cohen," Yaalon added.

Palestinian Leader Farouk Qaddumi: We Supported the Nazis in WWII

Egypt Arrests Terrorist Involved in August 2012 Border Attack

Egypt's military has arrested a jihadist suspected of involvement in an ambush that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near the border with Israel last year, an army spokesman said Tuesday, according to AFP.
Silmi Mohammed Masbah was arrested Monday in Sinai and is allegedly a member of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an Al-Qaeda-inspired group operating in the restive peninsula, said military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali.

Prince Charles: 'Muslims Persecuting Christians'

The Prince of Wales visited the Egyptian Coptic Church in Stevenage, north of London, and the Syriac Orthodox cathedral in west London. In talking with church leaders, accompanied by Prince Ghazi of Jordan, Charles heard tales of massive persecution following the 2011 "Arab Spring."
"For 20 years I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding," Charles said in a speech later at Clarence House, attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbiship of Westminster and the Chief Rabbi, reports BBC.

Terra Incognita: Syria’s rattlesnakes commit suicide

The Syrian Civil War is similar: An ostensibly democratic fight against a tyrannical regime is being undermined by ideological Islamist extremism. Western governments are cutting off aid, as they did to Spain’s Republic, and Syrian President Bashar Assad is drawing on foreign soldiers, as Franco did. As in Spain, brigades of “international volunteers” are coming to fight.
It is unfortunate, for those who thought Syria might emerge better from this, that the rattlesnakes took over the war and are in the process of killing themselves. It is most horrific for the refugees suffering through the winter. They are being let down by extremists who are more interested in beheading each other, beating each other with iron bars and accusing one another of not being good Muslims.

The Israeli intelligence officer who really knows what the Iranians are talking about

In north Tel Aviv, at IDF Military Intelligence headquarters, one young, Iranian-born Israeli officer, who spent his days interpreting raw intelligence on the Persian desk, could only laugh. After all, that very quote, lifted from Ayatollah Khomeini, had been carefully painted by the regime on the side of the Jewish elementary school he attended in northern Tehran. “It’s the reason I’m sitting here,” he said in an interview.
Major M., who today serves as deputy commander of one of the units in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, has spent the majority of his service combating Israel’s top security threat, Iran. He is a small part of a significant and seemingly quite successful shift within the Israeli intelligence community, which, after years of following the Arab world, was forced to re-order its priority list and focus on an altogether different foe. Adapting to this shift is quite difficult, said one former Military Intelligence officer.

With Geneva, Military Force Only Remaining Option to Stop Iranian Nukes

In other words, at best, we have lost a year — if not two or three — to bring the regime around to the hard choice of abandoning its nuclear weapons program. Given Iran’s ability to become a ‘break-out’ nuclear power in a matter of mere months, we no longer have a year to spare.
Perhaps a credible threat of U.S. military action even now might suffice: the only time Iran halted its nuclear program was during 2003-5, when the U.S.-led coalition dismantled Saddam Hussein’s regime. (Recall this was also the time that Libya voluntarily relinquished its nuclear program). Clearly demonstrated U.S. willingness to use force produced results.
It will be extremely hard now for President Obama to credibly threaten military action: if he failed to honor his red line and take military action when Syria actually murdered thousands with chemical weapons, Iran is unlikely to take seriously any red line he might lay down now on building nuclear weapons. Yet he should do so without delay. But even if he does, there is now probably no way Iran can be prevented from going nuclear, except through military action.

Iran FM Signals Intent to Restart Negotiations, After Analysis Predicts Tehran Bluffing Over Talks Suspension

Analysts who assessed that the Iranians need the financial relief provided by Geneva – and are bluffing when they threaten to walk away from the so-called Joint Plan of Action (JPA) – will be better positioned to suggest they were largely correct. Iranian negotiators had abruptly halted talks after the Treasury Department last week announced new enforcement measures against entitled in violation of still-existing sanctions against Iran, asserting that the move violated the “spirit” of the JPA. It is not clear why the Iranians believed that gestures toward the spirit of the JPA would have diplomatic of public purchase, inasmuch as Tehran has in recent weeks committed to enriching uranium, bolstering its plutonium production complex, and testing ballistic missiles – all actions which it insists are permitted under the letter of the JPA.

Saudi Arabia Prince Shakes Hands With Former Israeli Diplomat, Slams U.S. Mideast Policy

Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia reportedly met with Israeli officials at the World Policy Conference in Monaco on Sunday.
According to Maariv, al-Faisal publicly shook hands with former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Itamar Rabinovich and also held a discussion with MK Meir Sheetrit. The report added that Sheetrit invited al-Faisal to speak to the Israeli Knesset.
During his remarks at the conference, al-Faisal was critical of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Mideast policy.

Senior Saudi diplomat slams Iran nuclear deal, says Kingdom may be forced to act alone

Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, expressed his frustration at the West's lack of interference in Syria and the United States' new deal with Iran.
He wrote that Saudi Arabia has enormous responsibilities in the region and the world, both economically and politically, and they cannot stand by as Western countries cooperate with Iran and hesitate to use force in Syria.

Iranian Analyst: Without Deal, Obama to Kiss Khamenei's Hand to Prevent Israel's Annihilation

Iran Reveals New Details of Shoulder-Fired Missiles

According to the report, Iran’s military places great emphasis on shoulder-fired missile launchers because of the ease of carrying the weapon in the field and because most of Iran’s anti-aircraft artillery are fixed units and lack firepower.
U.S. officials are concerned about the Iranian portable missile because of Tehran’s close ties to international terrorist groups, notably Hezbollah.
Iran has supplied Hezbollah with a range of rockets and missiles. Israel has recently conducted several airstrikes in the region in an effort to prevent the spread of Iranian weapons from reaching Hezbollah.

Turkish PM says territories of Balkan countries belong to Turkey

Greece rose to its feet as it reacted to comments made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Turkish territory included the Greek part of Thrace, parts of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonian Utrinski Vesnik announced.
“Thrace is Thessaloniki but at the same time it is Komotini and Xanthi,” Mr Erdogan said during a speech delivered as part of the campaign for next year’s local elections.

Turkey leads the way for states suppressing media

As of December 1, there are 211 reporters, editors and bloggers imprisoned by state governments, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in its 2013 report. That number is down from 2012′s record high of 232, but still represents the second-highest figure by a fairly large margin. Before 2012, the highest recorded number of journalists behind bars worldwide was 185 in 1996.
Turkey headed the list for the second year in a row despite reducing the number of journalists imprisoned in the country from 49 last year to 40. However, of those released, some are awaiting trial and could still find themselves back behind bars.

A new Jew-hater salute (poster)

From YNet:

The right hand and its fingers are stretched downwards along the body, while the left hand performs a "salute" movement on the opposite arm. Sound like an aerobic exercise for beginners? According to anti-Semitism researchers, it is actually a clear anti-Semitic symbol, a modern Nazi salute, spreading among Jew haters across Europe.

In recent months, the researchers warn, anti-Semites have been taking advantage of the lack of public awareness of the new "salute" and taking pictures of themselves performing the salute in particularly symbolic and sensitive places around the world like the Treblinka extermination camp, the Western Wall plaza and next to IDF soldiers, as well as alongside Jews who are unaware of the "trick." They then post the photos on the Internet.

The new salute, based on a reverse Nazi symbol, was created by a French comedian called Dieudonné, who is known for his anti-Semitic acts and statements and has even been convicted by courts in France several times in the past. The physical gesture, which he dubbed "quenelle," has spread in the country, but the government has yet to define it as illegal.

Meryl Yourish asked me to make an appropriate poster starring the French Jew-hating "comedian":

US now hints Assad can stay for a while

Yes, the Obama foreign policy is now officially worse than Jimmy Carter's:

Western nations have indicated to the Syrian opposition that peace next month talks may not lead to the removal of President Bashar al-Assad and that his Alawite minority will remain key in any transitional administration, opposition sources said.

The message, delivered to senior members of the Syrian National Coalition at a meeting of the anti-Assad Friends of Syria alliance in London last week, was prompted by rise of al-Qaeda and other militant groups, and their takeover of a border crossing and arms depots near Turkey belonging to the moderate Free Syrian Army, the sources told Reuters.

“Our Western friends made it clear in London that Assad cannot be allowed to go now because they think chaos and an Islamist militant takeover would ensue,” said one senior member of the Coalition who is close to officials from Saudi Arabia.

Noting the possibility of Assad holding a presidential election when his term formally ends next year, the Coalition member added: “Some do not even seem to mind if he runs again next year, forgetting he gassed his own people.”

The shift in Western priorities, particularly the United States and Britain, from removing Assad towards combating Islamist militants is causing divisions within international powers backing the nearly three-year-old revolt, according to diplomats and senior members of the coalition.

Like U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of air strikes against Syria in September after he accused Assad’s forces of using poison gas, such a diplomatic compromise on a transition could narrow Western differences with Russia, which has blocked United Nations action against Assad, but also widen a gap in approach with the rebels’ allies in the Middle East.

The only consistent thread is that the US policy is now consistent with Iran's foreign policy objectives.

When will the EU condemn this latest settlement expansion?

Seen in Karmei Tzur:

This is an affront to the peace process, a slap in the face of John Kerry and a provocation that could inflame the Arab world.

H/t Missing Peace

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12/17 Links Pt2: Kerry’s frequent failure program, The 'refugee' diversion, Dershowitz retires.

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Kerry forces Israel’s moment of decision

There was a ghoulish creepiness to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel last week. Here we were, beset by the greatest winter storm in a hundred years. All roads to Jerusalem were sealed off. Tens of thousands of Jerusalemites and residents of surrounding areas were locked down in their houses, without power, heat, telephone service or water.
And all of the sudden, out of nowhere, Kerry appeared. As Hamas-ruled Gazans begged the supposedly hated IDF to come and save them from the floods, and as Israel took over rescue operations for stranded Palestinians living under the rule of the PLO ’s gangster kleptocracy in Judea and Samaria, here was Kerry, telling us that we’d better accept the deal he plans to present us next month, or face the wrath of the US and Europe, and suffer another Palestinian terror war.

Michele Bachmann: Israel must never be betrayed

Israel has always been a beacon of hope and the best chance for peace in the Middle East. Secretary Kerry misses the positive humanity of Jews and Arabs living side by side, working together, and making a life together. This is a present reality, that can and should be encouraged to improve.
While Israelis have reason to question the commitment of the Obama administration, they should never doubt the strong bipartisan contingent of support for Israel in the United States Congress, and the constituents we represent.

John Kerry’s frequent failure program

According to various press reports, Kerry put forward a proposal under which Israel would forgo sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and instead maintain a security presence in the area for 10 to 15 years, one that would ostensibly be bolstered by various technological gizmos designed to enhance border defense.
Of all the dumb and dangerous designs to emerge from the depths of the US State Department, Kerry’s latest scheme is one of the more dreadful duds in recent memory.
To begin with, take a quick glance at a map and you will see that the Jordan Valley effectively serves as Israel’s buffer to the east, a line of defense against any potential threat emanating from over the horizon.

Foreign Troops Won’t Solve Peace Tangle

But the key to the problem isn’t so much the technical difficulties of a scheme or the fact that a war-weary American public isn’t likely to be enthusiastic about placing U.S. troops in harm’s way in the West Bank or to be more pro-active about keeping the peace there than are peacekeepers elsewhere in the region. Rather, it is the same basic problem that has always been the greatest obstacle to peace: the Palestinian refusal to give up their war on Israel rather than merely accepting a temporary truce that would allow them to continue the conflict on more favorable terms in the future. Until a sea change in Palestinian political culture occurs that enables leaders like Abbas to sign a peace deal without fear of losing power to more radical factions like Hamas, Kerry’s plans will remain irrelevant details.(h/t Norman F)

EU vows 'unprecedented' aid to Israel, Palestinians for peace deal

The EU’s foreign ministers, who often fill their periodic conclusions on the “Middle East peace process” with vinegar toward Israel, decided this month to add some honey, promising unparalleled support for Israel and the Palestinians if a peace accord is signed.
“The EU will provide an unprecedented package of European political, economic and security support to both parties in the context of a final status agreement,” the conclusions read at the end of Monday’s monthly meeting of 28 EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The 'refugee' diversion

When people speak about the millions of "refugees" who will return to their homes, it is obvious that no type of peace accord can be reached which is based on one state for the Jewish people and a Palestinian state. However, if people would correctly only discuss the tens of thousands of actual refugees, all over the age of 65, the question would then receive its proper proportions and a solution to the problem could be rationally discussed.
As long as negotiations are ongoing and no final-status deal has yet been signed, it would behoove at least the Israeli side to refrain from using the Palestinian term with all its inherent meanings and connotations, instead using the accurate term, "descendants," who are not the same as refugees. (h/t NormanF)

Mahmoud Abbas: I Refuse to Allow 'Israelis' into 'Palestine'

The PLO official also stated that Abbas has thrown a wrench into discussions by stating that he will not allow any "Israelis" onto Palestinian Authority lands in the event of a two-state solution - including, ostensibly, Israeli Arabs. According to al-Hadi, Abbas has lumped all Israeli Arabs with Israeli Jews, and has expressed hatred against both as a group.
The report corroborates statements Abbas made earlier this year in Cairo, where he also claimed that he would not tolerate "any Israeli - civilian or soldier - on [Palestinian Authority] lands." While the two-state solution would effectively make a Palestinian State "Judenrein" - a Nazi Germany term meaning "free of Jews" - Israel would still allow Israeli Arabs full citizenship if they so desired.

Quote of Note: Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi (1937)

Between 1936 and 1939 the Arabs of the British Mandate of Jerusalem went on a rampage that became known as the “Arab revolt.” The Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin el-Husseini, cried to the heavens that the Jews were destroying the al-Aqsa Mosque and agitated his easily agitated people into bloody rampages that lasted for years. The British, seeking to calm the situation, initiated the Peel Commission which recommended a division of the land between Arabs and Jews in order to ease tensions and create peace between the vast Arab majority and the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East.
During their investigations they met with Syrian Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, who told them:

"There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it."

US Military Chiefs Advised Against Judea-Samaria Pullout in '67

The heads of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were of the opinion, shortly after the 1967 Six Day War, that Israel cannot afford to give up Judea and Samaria, for strategic reasons.
A declassified document obtained exclusively by Mark Langfan for Arutz Sheva reveals that the military opinion of the US military leadership after the war is in line with that of present-day nationalist Israelis who say that Israel must not, under any circumstances, relinquish control of the Jordan Valley. In fact, the map drawn by the Joint Chiefs shows Israel keeping a swathe of land that stretches from the Jordan River in the east, all the way up to the center of the mountainous ridge in Judea and Samaria in the west.
And they should feel assured, without any equivocation, we will always be proudly standing together with them, in their corner, side by side.

Khaled Abu Toameh: A Slap in the Face for Anti-Israel BDS Movement

The claim that Abbas does not represent the Palestinian "consensus" regarding a boycott of Israel is inaccurate. In fact, many Palestinians seem to share Abbas's view, which supports a boycott only of settlement products.
That is why many Palestinians continue to do business with Israelis on a daily business. That is also why, despite the BDS campaign, Palestinians and Israelis continue to hold joint seminars and conferences in Israel and different parts of the world.
In wake of Abbas's statements, the BDS movement should reconsider its strategy. Calls for boycotting any party do not contribute to the cause of peace. Abbas's stance against the BDS should also serve as a wake-up call to its supporters, especially those who are not Palestinians, that negative campaigns only serve to promote hatred and extremism in the region.

UN Watch: Israel is ‘genocidal,’ says UN’s Richard Falk in TV interview

Falk uses his imprimatur as a UN official to make the grievously false accusation that Israel is acting with “genocidal intent” and perpetrating a “Holocaust.”
If Israel really is “genocidal,” it only follows logically that Falk will justify violence against Israelis, as he did in a recent blog post, berating “demands by Israel that Palestinians renounce violence” while Israel “sustains a structure of occupation and oppression.”
It’s time for the the U.S. to at least attempt to remove the 9/11 conspiracy theorist and Hamas supporter from his post—and to eliminate his prejudicial and outdated Human Rights Council mandate.

Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein: Free Pollard

Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein became the latest voice for the release of Jonathan Pollard last Wednesday, in a panel discussion held at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
The panel discussion, entitled "Legality and Legitimacy," included esteemed legal advocate Alan Dershowitz, who Rubinstein praised for his work on the Pollard case. "He was an early critic of the harsh sentencing of Jonathan Pollard, in a period when few Jews or Jewish organizations would have said anything," he related. "They wouldn't speak of the guilt, only of the 'sentencing'."

Alan Dershowitz retiring from Harvard Law School

Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers and a passionate advocate for Israel, is retiring from Harvard Law School.
Dershowitz, 75, who is known for taking on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients, has taught at Harvard Law for half a century. His retirement becomes official at the end of the week.

Croatian player to miss World Cup over pro-Nazi chant

FIFA has banned Croatia defender Josip Simunic for 10 games — including the entire World Cup — for leading fans in a pro-Nazi chant after the team qualified for the tournament in Brazil.
Simunic invoked a World War II-era slogan used by Croatia’s then-puppet regime following a 2-0 playoff victory against Iceland last month.

French Court Convicts ‘L’Antisémite’ Director

In other instances the proceedings have been entirely predictable. As the waves lap against the beach and the seasons wax and wane, so has a French court found the Cameroonian actor, comedian, and recidivist bigot Dieudonné M’bala M’bala guilty of defamation, libel, and incitement to hatred and racial discrimination. Dieudonné, whose grotesque directorial debut L’Antisémite I wrote about for Tablet last year, has recently added yet another perverse accomplishment to his overlong list: he may or may not have invented the ‘Quenelle’—a reverse body Hitler salute now becoming all the rage amongst French youth—but he is certainly the man most responsible for popularizing the gesture. (The French army is now in the midst of the unseemly business of disciplining soldiers who flashed the gesture to worshippers at synagogues they had been stationed to guard.)

Italian Leader Justifies Hitler With Jewish Conspiracy

Andrea Zunino, the protest leader of the Pitchfork Movement which is leading current anti-government protests in Italy, gave an interview to the Italian La Repubblica.
In his interview, Zunino espoused classic tropes of Jewish global domination. He remarked "we want the government to resign. We want the sovereignty of Italy, which is the slave of bankers like the Rothschilds. It's curious that five or six of the richest people in the world are Jewish."

Report: First Israeli Natural Gas Export Deal May Be With Jordanian Company

In what would be the first deal to export Israel’s newly found natural gas, the owners of the Tamar field, may be selling energy directly to the Arab Potash Company, in Jordan, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The deal would be Israel’s first ever energy export, and could open the door to larger deals with Jordan or Egypt in the future, Israel’s Globes business daily said on Monday.

An Israeli start-up’s solution for the ‘customer service blues’

All too often, a foray into a “help” conversation with a representative of a retailer, manufacturer, or utility is anything but helpful. With so many companies outsourcing and offloading their customer service to third parties – often halfway around the world – customers often feel more confused after a conversation with a help representative than they did before they sought assistance with their problem.
To that end, Israeli start-up CallVU has developed a system where a help seeker can actually see what the person on the other end of the phone is talking about. Designed for mobile phone users, CallVU integrates the direct contact of a phone conversation with the clarity of images on a web site. And last month, the company won a major start-up competition.

Spanish ruling party submits bill on Jewish return

Spain’s ruling party has submitted a bill proposing to put in place a procedure for granting Spanish citizenship to descendants of expelled Sephardi Jews, a Spanish news agency reported.
The bill by the Popular Party proposes to naturalize applicants irrespective of their country of residence and without requiring them to relinquish any other nationalities they may already possess, according to a report Friday by the Servimedia news agency.
In the bill, the party “recalls that [the exiled] tenaciously adhered with reverence to its Spanish customs and roots through which they zealously preserved not only their love of Spain but also their traditions, culture and language,” Servimedia reported.

World malaria experts look to Israel’s past for future solutions

The mosquito-borne parasites that cause malaria were wiped out in Israel several years before the state’s founding in 1948. So why did leading malaria experts choose Jerusalem as the place to meet last week to formulate a new strategy for African nations?
Because the tactics that proved successful here in the 1920 and 1930s, coupled with new technologies, could be exactly what sub-Saharan Africa needs to address its malaria epidemic, which causes the death of a child every 30 seconds. Some 250 million people worldwide are infected by the parasite.

In first, Sheba doctors save Syrian refugee boy's life

A 4-year-old Syrian refugee from the besieged city of Homs underwent surgery recently at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, the first time a Syrian has been operated on at the pediatric cardiology ward.
The boy, Mohammed Hamudi, was born with a rare heart condition, reversed ventricles. A surgical team led by Dr. Dudi Mishali operated on Hamudi, who arrived in Israel accompanied by his father. The surgeons managed to implant a pacemaker in the boy's heart with a long-lasting battery, probably saving his life.

UNRWA official uses sarcasm to falsely blame Israel alone for Gaza woes

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's liar-in-chief, continues to blame Israel for Gaza's lack of fuel and lack of infrastructure to handle the flooding.

As with Amnesty and others, UNRWA is using Gaza as an excuse to blame Israel for everything. The word "Hamas" and "Egypt" and "PA" hardly ever pass through these people's lips - the entire purpose for these NGOs to be in the Middle East is to blame Israel.

As thousands in the Gaza Strip remain displaced and streets across the coastal enclave are still flooded Tuesday, it is increasingly clear that the devastation caused by storm Alexa was not a purely natural phenomenon.

Emergency response crews have been crippled by a lack of electricity to pump water and a lack of fuel to operate generators. But these conditions of scarcity are not a result of the storm. They were a fact of life even before the rain started falling, due to the Israeli-led siege and the severe limitations placed by Israel on imports and exports.

The severity of the storm’s effects and the seven years of siege the region has endured are connected by a near-total economic blockade that has led to a slow but steady collapse of infrastructure as well as a deeply weakened capacity for emergency response, a United Nations official charged Sunday.

"Long term de-development of Gaza is the context in which (the storm) occurred," Chris Gunness of the UN's Palestine refugee agency UNRWA said in an interview.

"Before the rains, there was sewage flooding in the streets because sewage pumps did not have electricity to pump waste water," Gunness said, referring to a number of incidents in recent weeks.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who's responsible for that."

UNRWA knows as well as anyone the reason Gaza was without power for the past six weeks and it was not at all because of Israel. I would also tend to doubt that Israel has had any restrictions on water pumps for Gaza since 2009. Hamas doesn't know how to run a statelet and it doesn't know how to plan for emergencies.

If UNRWA had a shred of integrity, it would fire Gunness for his obvious bias and hate towards Israel. However, an organization that is built on lies - to support a group or "refugees" who are 99% non-refugees - is not bothered at all.

Going back a little further to the 1920 Syrian boycott of Jews

Yesterday I blogged about an Arab boycott of Jews in 1921 and 1922.

Michael Pitkowsky tweeted me with a reference to an earlier boycott call that is more interesting for the other things it says than for the boycott call itself. This comes from the book "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War" by James L. Gelvin:

Palestine is our Country!

The Decision of the Palestinian General Congress

On Friday, 27 February 1920, at 3:00 in the afternoon, a meeting was held at the Arab Club, which included delegates from the Higher National Committee, the Syrian General Congress, and representatives from the Arab Independence Party, the Syrian National Party, the Syrian Union, the Syrian Pact, the Iraqi Pact, the Democratic Party, the Moral Revival Association, the Arab Club, leaders from the Hawrani, Dandashli, Karak, Fadl, Sakhur, and Circassian tribes and communities; finally, a large number of religious leaders, lawyers, journalists, merchants, secondary school students, and the heads of the guilds of Damascus.

Having considered the Palestinian situation, they agreed on the following five points:

1. We confirm what we have always said, that Palestine is an integral part of Syria. We demand that it remain so, and shall use all measures to the last drop of our blood and the last breath of our children to achieve this end.

2..Because we come from all parts of Syria, we consider the Zionist danger to be directed against us and against our political and economic existence in the future. We shall therefore throw back the Zionists with all our force. If the allies continue to let them pursue their activities we shall oppose them by all means possible....

O Arab sons of Palestine:

The Syrian nation and the Palestinian associations are incensed that the [allies] would seek to detach Palestine from its motherland, Syria, under the guise of establishing a national government. How can we accept the life of slaves to the Jews and foreigners and not defend our political and natural rights? Raise your voice, protest this treachery, and never fear threats or intimidation....lf there exists a man among you who, bribed by gold or honors, rallies to the occupation government, stay away from him, boycott him, and show him your scorn, for he is a traitor to his country and his nation. Likewise, boycott the Jews; sell them nothing and buy nothing from them. Boycott those who sustain them and serve them as underlings....

Life, life, O Brothers!

After I wrote this up, I see that I had been alerted to this quote back in 2009.

And as I noted previously to that, guess how the "Paletinians" of 1920 referred to the split of Syria and Palestine?

They called it "the Naqba."

Yes, one of the great ironies of history is that the term used today to describe the 1948 setback for Palestinian Arab nationalism is same term that the same people's ancestors used to describe the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalism.

12/17 Links Pt1: The un-American Studies Association, Is Hamas on the verge of bankruptcy?

From Ian:

American Studies Association members ratify anti-Israel academic boycott

I’m most shocked at the low turnout for the vote. Given the time and energy devoted by the anti-Israel backers of the boycott, only 825 or so votes were in favor. At the same time, opponents (who were ambushed by the proposal) only managed to get about 375 people interested. Effectively, most people didn’t care. Apathy is perhaps the saddest lesson from this given the odious nature of the proposal, and it’s how anti-Israel zealots are able to drive issues far out of proportion to their actual numbers.
In a nation that overwhelmingly supports Israel at historically high levels, a highly organized cadre of anti-Israel radicals was able to pull off a multi-year effort successfully. They put their people in charge of a previously non-partisan academic organization, waited to ambush the opposition, made sure the flow of information was one-sided, and in the end used a relatively small but motivated group of symathizers to commit the entire organization to an act widely condemned outside the anti-Israel community.
It’s a lesson in how good people let bad people win, and should be a wake up call to supporters of Israel and/or academic freedom.

ASA issues member talking points to counter university pushback over Israel boycott

Apparently ASA is so concerned about how its academic boycott will be received at Universities around the country that it has posted talking points on its website.

The un-American Studies Association

There are 200,000 dead in Syria and millions of refugees, zero academic freedom in China ... well, why go on; none of these matters seems worthy of notice by the ASA. It is illuminating that one of the endorsers of this move (actually, it is the second name that appears) on the ASA website is Angela Davis, former Communist Party candidate for national office and now a distinguished professor emerita of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She, like the ASA, has long been blind to human rights abuses -- except in Israel.
This move by the ASA will not harm Israel, but it is enlightening for anyone with children attending or soon to be attending college that this group of academics harbors such an extraordinary bias. The much larger American Association of University Professors has opposed this and all academic boycotts, but that is only partial comfort. The AAUP opposition means that ASA members had a principled and academically defensible basis for voting against the boycott of Israel, yet they voted for it. Those votes express not only bias against Israel, for the reasons Summers notes, but a bias as well against the spirit of free inquiry that is supposed to infuse American academia.

Israel, Jewish groups slam ASA academic boycott

ASA President Curtis Marez was quoted by The New York Times as admitting that the organization had never before endorsed a boycott of any kind against any other nation's universities.
According to the report, Marez did not dispute the fact that other countries, including some in the Middle East, have far worse human rights records, saying, "One has to start somewhere. … There is a particular responsibility to answer the call for boycott because [the U.S.] is the largest supplier of military aid to the State of Israel."

The ASA’s Guide to World Peace

Earlier today, members of the American Studies Association voted to confirm the organization’s decision to boycott Israel. As far as we can tell, this is an historic occasion—with the exception of South Africa, no other country has been deemed so vile by American academics as to warrant banning all collaboration with its universities and scholars. In the spirit of public service, then, and to commemorate this occasion, we offer the following chart, the ASA’s Guide to World Peace.

World Jewish Congress denounces "Orwellian anti-Semitism" of US academic group's Israel boycott move

"This vote to boycott Israel, one of the most democratic and academically free nations on the globe, shows the Orwellian anti-Semitism and moral bankruptcy of the American Studies Association (ASA).
“The Middle East is literally filled with dead from governments’ reaction to the convulsions of the ‘Arab Spring,’ but the American Studies Association singles out the Jewish State, the one Middle Eastern country that shares American values, for opprobrium? No wonder many Americans dismiss the academy as deeply biased and disconnected with reality."

JPost Ed: Tragedy in the North

On Sunday, a soldier from the Lebanese Army murdered St.-Sgt.-Maj. Shlomi Cohen, 31, of Afula. Two of about ten bullets fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit Cohen in the chest and neck and he lost control of the civilian vehicle he was driving on the Israeli side of the border near a naval base next to Rosh Hanikra.
In August, near the same spot, a bomb blew up an army jeep, injuring four soldiers. And in 2010, Lebanese snipers shot at Israeli soldiers on the border, killing one and injuring another. Relatively speaking, however, since the second Lebanon war in 2006, the border has remained fairly quiet.
The tragic killing of Cohen, father of a baby girl, does not appear to be a sign of an escalation of tensions.

Security Council condemns shooting death of IDF soldier near Lebanon border

The 15-member body said that a UN investigation confirmed that a Lebanese soldier had acted on his own volition and opened fire at an IDF non-commissioned officer who was in his vehicle at the time the shots were fired.
The Council said it was "a serious contravention of the existing operational rules and procedures as related to resolution 1701," a reference to the resolution which effectively ended the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.

Analysis: Israel opts for restraint in face of Lebanese provocation

Urgent questions remain unanswered: Why did the LAF soldier pull the trigger? If he was indeed a rogue attacker, how will the LAF deal with him? And why did the IDF allow St.-Sgt. Maj. Shlomi Cohen, 31, to travel alone near the border in an unarmored vehicle at night? As the IDF investigates, the incident will serve as a reminder that the Lebanese border, usually calm and stable since the ceasefire that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, can still produce sudden outbursts of deadly violence at any time.
In today’s increasingly volatile region, such incidents have the potential to spark a wider escalation, one that could see Hezbollah and the IDF begin to trade blows. In fact, senior IDF commanders are seeing large-scale preparations by Hezbollah for its next clash with Israel.

Rivals Abbas and Mashaal Hold Rare Telephone Call

Hamas's leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal telephoned Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas this past weekend, in a rare telephone call between leaders of the rival parties, the official news agency Wafa said.
"Mashaal telephoned president Abbas to thank him for his efforts at different levels, particularly sending aid to the Gaza Strip," Wafa reported, referring to the support sent by the PA to Gaza as it recovers following the major winter storm in recent days.

Is Hamas on the verge of bankruptcy?

Isolated and alone, the Hamas government in Gaza has lost nearly all of their external support, and internally they are attempting to keep a lid on any disquiet. The wave of optimism felt in the tiny enclave after Muhammad Morsi rode into power in Egypt must now feel like a distant memory. Morsi never fulfilled the promise that was expected from Hamas' Muslim Brotherhood cousins. Now with the once ruling party being hounded out of Egypt, Hamas has to look elsewhere for support.
Two key historical allies of Hamas have also possibly fallen by the wayside. The relationships with both Iran and Qatar’s look uncertain in the future.

Car bomb targets Hezbollah post in eastern Lebanon

However, there were conflicting reports on the source of the explosion and the number of casualties resulting from the blast in the remote, scarcely inhabited area was not immediately clear.
The Lebanese National News Agency said it was a suicide bomber, adding that the driver detonated his vehicle near the village of Sbouba in the Baalbek region, about two kilometers (a mile) from a base belonging to the Iranian-backed group. The report said the explosion caused an unspecified number of casualties among Hezbollah members and civilians.

Kerry’s Self-Defeat Ahead of Syria Conference

Sometimes it seems that Secretary of State John Kerry lives in an alternate universe, one in which the Palestinian Authority seeks peace, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is liberal, Iran’s Islamic Republic seeks only to generate electricity, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a leader who for the good of humanity might give up power to an opposition against whom he maintains a military edge.
Hence, Kerry is moving full-steam ahead with plans for the “Geneva II” conference to discuss Syria’s future. Thirty-two countries—including Iran—will participate, because in Kerry world, having as many countries as possible attend a conference makes it easier to reach a solution. Even Iran will attend because, again in Kerry’s alternate reality, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps answers to Iranian diplomats.

Syria: Turkey Supplied 47 Tons of Weapons to Islamist Rebels

The Turkish government has supplied Syrian rebel forces with more than 47 tons of weapons in the past few months it has been revealed - this despite the Islamist government strenuously denying such charges in the past.
According to official documents filed under UN Comtrade (the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database), Turkish arms have been flowing into Syria since June. Recent months have seen the highest volume of traffic, with almost 29 tons of weaponry transferred in September alone.

Convicted Terror Supporter Attends Congressional Briefing

A convicted terrorist supporter who is currently under house arrest attended a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by a pro-Muslim Brotherhood group in a congressional office building earlier this month, according to reports.
Sami Al-Arian, a former engineering professor at the University of South Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in 2006. He has been under house detention in Northern Virginia since 2008 for refusing to testify in a subsequent terror financing trial.

Taxi driver killed by lynch mob after running over pro-Morsi protester

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood killed a taxi driver by slitting his throat after he ran over a female protester on Monday in Egypt's Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya.
According to a preliminary medical report, 24-year-old Mohamed Othman died from a deep cut in his neck, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Eyewitnesses told Al-Ahram that the taxi driver ran over the protester after he demanded a crowd let him pass and they refused. Members of the crowd killed him and torched his car.

Russia, Egypt Ink $2 Billion Weapons Deal

The Egyptian military could purchase up to $2 billion worth of attack planes, air defenses, and short-range anti-tank missiles, according to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, which quoted sources in Moscow’s Defense Ministry and elsewhere.
The deal was announced days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu concluded a series of high-level meetings in Egypt.

AFP: Disputes Over Geneva Language Mean “No End in Sight” for Negotiations to Even Begin Nuke Deal Implementation

There is ‘no end in sight’ for talks aimed at implementing the Geneva interim agreement announced last month between the global P5+1 powers and Iran, according to an Agence France-Presse article that was published last week.
“There are definite differences of opinion on the interpretation (of the Geneva text). Not that I am saying these are insurmountable but both sides are looking to negotiate the most robust deal they can,” one Western diplomat involved in the talks told AFP. “What this means, and this is not a surprise, is that we will not get this resolved by the end of this week…. They are going to have to get together more frequently than they thought.”

Calls Mount to Free 2 Iranian Opposition Leaders

A stone’s throw from President Hassan Rouhani’s office, in an alley blocked off by security forces, Iran’s main opposition leader has been living under house arrest together with his wife for the past thousand days or so.
Only months ago, merely uttering in public the name of the leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, could have led to arrest; a newspaper’s printing it invited almost certain shutdown.
Last week, however, calls for the release of Mr. Moussavi and another prominent opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, echoed over the campus of Shahid Behesti University in Tehran, shouted by students who carried a green banner, the color of the 2009 anti-government protests that propelled both men, presidential candidates at the time, into their opposition roles — and ultimately house arrest.

Saudi political activist sentenced to 300 lashes, 4 years in prison, rights group says

A political and human rights activist in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 300 lashes and four years in prison for defying the king and calling for democracy, a rights group said Sunday.
Omar al-Saeed, a member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was sentenced in the city of Buraidah on Dec. 12 and is the fourth of his group to be imprisoned this year.

Arabs near Nablus riot over power outages

Parts of the Nablus area were without power for the fourth day.

So how do residents respond?

Why, by rioting, of course!

Dozens of Arabs Monday blocked roads, burned tires and threw stones in protest of the power shortage brought about by the severe snowstorms.

This is what normal citizens of a normal state do, right?

Kuwaiti MP denounces celebrations of Christmas

From Al Arabiya:

Perhaps not so merry, a Kuwaiti MP has called for a crackdown on Christmas celebrations in the country saying the promotion of foreign occasions in the state amounted to a “mockery” of the Islamic culture.

Less than two months after slamming the sale of Halloween items as “signs of Satanism,” MP Hamdan al-Azmi stated that allowing Christmas to be celebrated in Kuwait was “offensive.

“Allowing activities that promote occasions that are strange to our Islamic society is ridiculous and an offence to our religious teachings,” he said in a statement made available to the press on Sunday.

He further urged the Deputy Premier Sheikh Mohammad al-Khalid al-Sabah to monitor activities in camps and chalets, claiming youths in the country were planning to host Christmas parties in those locations.

Al-Azmi added that celebrating such events was “inappropriate” in an Islamic state and cautioned the authorities to bar anyone from profiting from such activities, local media reported.

In October, the MP labeled the selling of Halloween items in Muslim countries a “travesty and mockery of our religious sensibilities.

“Such items ... are commonly known to be signs of Satanism,” the Kuwait Times newspaper reported him as saying.

“Allowing shops to continue selling these items is a stab at the Kuwaiti society’s identity, and we cannot accept this,” he added.

However, no action was taken by the relevant ministries and Kuwait continues to allow for the sale of products related to Christmas.

Arab media report "Antichrist" born in Tel Aviv! With video!

Firas Press reports that Arab social media is buzzing about a baby born in Tel Aviv with one eye and no nose, who must be the Islamic "Dajjal" (equivalent to the Christian Antichrist.)

Muslim "experts" are explaining how this baby fits into Koranic prophecy, and how when he is 40 years old he will lead an army of 70,000 Jews and 70,000 Tatars and ignorant people will follow him and crown him King of Kings.

Here's the future destroyer of worlds:

Only one small problem.

This "cyclops baby" was really born in 2008 in Bolivia.

Iran's supreme leader tweets his approval of a Holocaust denier

Another notable tweet from Iran's "Supreme Leader" ayatollah Kahamenei:

Roger Garaudy (who converted to Islam in 1982 wrote a book that contained Holocaust denial, which was banned by the French government and he was put on trial for denying crimes against humanity. He lost.

As a result he has become a hero of those who hate Jews and Israel. People like Ayatollah Khamenei.

Remember, so many weeks ago, that the media was so thrilled at how moderate Iran had become and how its antisemitism and Holocaust denial was a thing of the past? Good times.