Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Rachel's Tomb, 1861

Legendary Muslim tolerance.

From the Newmarket (Ontario) Era, July 19, 1861:

(h/t jhrhv)

Interview with the IDF ethicist

From Israel HaYom last week:

[Professor Asa] Kasher, an Israel Prize laureate in philosophy, is considered the foremost philosopher in Israel and a supreme professional authority in the field of ethics. Some say that he is the most respected moral authority of our generation. Besides his work in academia as a world-renowned expert in linguistics, he was the chairman of several important public committees and serves on several others. He also became known as the conscience of the security establishment after he wrote the IDF’s code of ethics. His writings about medical ethics, media and science are considered milestones. Yet despite all his frenetic public activity, he hardly appears in the media.

..Kasher served on the Shamgar Committee regarding negotiating a ransom for kidnapped soldiers. ...[H]e says, “The price of sending terrorists back is not a matter of national honor but rather a question of security and justice. When we look at the list of those who were released in the Shalit deal, where they were released to and the restrictions that were imposed upon them, no danger to security has been created. Yes, justice was compromised, but there was no alternative. After all, we will not leave a soldier in that kind of situation merely to protect justice.

“The families of the victims of the murderers who were released should have been treated with kid gloves. They should have been told before the fact, and not by the media. The authorities should have given them psychological therapy and a listening, sensitive ear.”

Q. In the context of preventing kidnappings, the “Hannibal order” — preventing a kidnapping even at the price of harming a soldier — has been discussed quite a bit.

“There is a common error, as though an order existed to shoot a soldier who had been kidnapped, deliberately, because ‘a dead soldier is better than a kidnapped soldier.’ The Hannibal order says that when there is an attempt to kidnap a soldier, it must be prevented by an order to open fire in order to get the soldier back home safe and sound. The kidnappers, not the soldier, are fired upon, even if the soldier’s life is put in some danger. If the soldier is in certain danger — for example, firing an artillery shell at the kidnappers’ car — it’s not allowed. I’m glad that the twisted idea of this procedure that exists in the soldiers’ minds never actually happened. The order has been invoked several times already, and there has never been a case in which any soldiers killed another soldier in order to prevent him from being kidnapped.

“There is a distortion of thought that says that while the state must pay a high price for a kidnapped soldier, Israeli society is willing to accept a dead soldier. This is a scandalous and false idea. Would you be willing to take responsibility for a soldier that you killed? I heard this twisted interpretation for the first time in 1995. I raised an outcry, and I tell you that the damage that the state would suffer from a soldier’s death is greater than the damage that it would suffer from negotiating for his release. Don’t help the country by killing a soldier. It would be better for him to be captured by the enemy than killed by you.

“During Operation Cast Lead, I heard commanding officers say, ‘None of our men will be kidnapped.’ That doesn’t just mean be careful. It means kill yourself rather than let it happen. That’s absolutely horrible.”

Q. Can the IDF code of ethics undergo changes?

“The code is stable. The more abstract the values are, the less they change. The doctrines can change because we are in new situations all the time. The doctrine of combating terror, which I dealt with together with Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, who was the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, includes a new situation in which terrorists live among civilians. We must free ourselves from the attitude that regards others’ lives with fear and trembling while holding the lives of our own combat soldiers in complete contempt. International law wants to impose a position on us whereby soldiers are a consumable resource and that the lives of enemy civilians must be protected more than the lives of our own combat troops. Bandages are a consumable resource. Water is a consumable resource. Human beings are not.

“If we warned the terrorists’ neighbors to leave the area, in Arabic, in any way — flyers, telephone calls, television broadcasts, a warning noise — and they stay anyway — why are they staying? Because they choose to be human shields for terrorists. I do not want to kill a human being only because he is a human shield, if he is not a threat to me. But should a soldier of mine risk himself for him? Is the blood of a human shield any redder than the blood of my soldier? A soldier has no choice other than to be in Gaza, in that alleyway. But to be sent inside — why? In the battle in Jenin, in the middle of Operation Defensive Shield, the IDF knew that the refugee camp was booby-trapped. But they still insisted on not bombing from the air in order to keep from harming civilians, and they suffered terrible losses. That was a mistake. They should have made an effort to get the civilian population out of the terrorist environment, and then there would have been no need to send in the infantry.”

Q. Is the IDF more ethical today than in the past?

“The IDF is the only army in the world whose code of ethics states that a human being’s life should be valued simply because he is a human being. There is no other army in the world that would accept such an idea, and among us it passed without anybody batting an eyelash. We are improving all the time. An incident such as what happened on Bus 300 could not happen today. Today’s Shin Bet would not go within 10 miles of such a thing.

“On the other hand, army politics have only gotten worse. What does it mean, ‘running’ for the position of chief of staff? In a professional organization, nobody runs for a position. A tradition of transition from the army to politics has been created, and norms from the political world have trickled into the army.”

Read the whole thing.

What does the new Egyptian leadership mean for Ouda Tarabin?

Ouda Tarabin, an Israeli Arab, has been imprisoned in Egypt since 2000 when he went over the border to visit his sister in El Arish without proper papers. He never had a chance to defend himself in court against the espionage charges.

There were rumors during and after the Grapel deal last year that Tarabin would be released, but it never happened. Now that Egypt has a new government, what does that mean for him?

Israel's Channel 2 recently wrote up about the case, noting that Israel has been very quiet in negotiating his release. Yet even most Israelis never heard of Tarabin.

According to CNN Arabic, the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists plans to file a complaint against Egypt to the International Council for Human Rights saying that Egypt's arrest of Tarabin deliberately violated his human rights. The organization also plans to appeal directly to new Egyptian president-elect Mohamed Morsi to release Tarabin.

The article quotes Israel Radio as saying that Amnesty International also submitted a report about arbitrary arrests by Egyptian authorities, including that of Tarabin, and Egypt never responded. A 2011 Amnesty report says:

Dual Egyptian-Israeli national Ouda Suleiman Tarabin continues to be detained allegedly on the basis that he had been tried by a military court and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for espionage back in 1999, when he was aged 19. Ouda Suleiman Tarabin was arrested two days after he entered Egypt illegally. He said he was insulted when he showed an Israeli passport. He told the lawyer who represents him now that he was never brought before a judge nor assigned a lawyer before. The authorities have so far failed to provide a copy of the verdict of the military court despite repeated requests by the lawyer to the Minister of Interior, Minster of Justice and the prison authorities and it remains unclear whether he is indeed serving a prison sentence or is in fact held in administrative detention. Amnesty International wrote to the Minister of Interior to inquire about the legal status of Ouda Suleiman Tarabin but received no answer. Ouda Suleiman Tarabin continues to be held in Liman Tora Prison.

The case of Tarabin will show whether Morsi is a reformer who will fight against the abuses of the previous military regime, as he claims, or if he is just another politician.

Syrian Free Army captures army base

From The Telegraph:

Members of the Syrian Free Army gained control over a military base in the northern town of Daret Ezzah after heavy fighting with government troops.

The rebels said they co-ordinated the attack with a group of defectors inside the base 30 miles northwest of Aleppo province.

"The Free Army battalions in western rural Aleppo liberated the battalion 1041 in the area of Jabal al Sheikh Barakat in the town of Daret Ezzah," army defector Abu Jehad said.

"Thank God, we have full control over the location with the help of defecting soldiers from inside the battalion. We seized all artillery including anti-aircraft systems and light personal weapons,"

Also:

Gunmen stormed a pro-government Syrian TV channel headquarters on Wednesday, bombing buildings and shooting dead three employees, state media said, in one of the boldest attacks yet on a symbol of the authoritarian state.

President Bashar al-Assad declared late on Tuesday that his country was "at war". U.S. intelligence officials said the Syrian regime was "holding fairly firm" and digging in for a long struggle against rebel forces who are getting stronger.

The dawn attack on Ikhbariya television's offices, located 20 km (15 miles) south of the capital, as well as overnight fighting on the outskirts of Damascus showed 16 months of violence now rapidly encroaching on the capital.

"We live in a real state of war from all angles," Assad told a cabinet he appointed on Tuesday, in a speech broadcast on state television. "When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war."

The declaration marks a change of rhetoric from Assad, who had long dismissed the uprising against him as the work of scattered militants in "terrorist gangs" funded from abroad.

The rambling speech - Assad also commented on subjects as far afield as the benefits of renewable energy - left little room for compromise. He denounced the West, which "takes and never gives, and this has been proven at every stage".

(h/t Yoel)

Ha'aretz deliberately ignores anti-Israel incitement in the PA

From Behind the News in Israel by David Bedein:

At the annual American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) Conference, held last week in Philadelphia, a newsworthy session was held with Chemi Shalev, the newly appointed US correspondent for the English language edition of HaAretz.

Working with foreign journalists in Jerusalem for the past 25 years, the significance of HaAretz reaches beyond its scope as a daily newspaper in Israel.

The HaAretz English edition, sold in Israel together with the International Herald Tribune, is the paper of record for reporters who cover complexities of middle east issues.

Therefore, the opportunity for AJPA to hear Shalev's s insights into the middle east reporting policies was significant.

After hearing Shalev's insightful analysis of current Israeli politics and the current state of Israeli-Arab negotiations, our news agency posed a question to Shalev:

* Why does HaAretz not report what the Palestinian Authority communicates to their people in their language, on the PBC TV, the PBC radio, Palestinian Authority newspapers and the Palestinian Authority schools?*

After all, over the past few weeks, PBC TV has conducted daily features which promote the armed struggle to liberate all of Palestine, praise for those who martyr themselves while murdering Jews, transforming Israeli cities into Arab cities, and worse.

Shalev's candid response: “We do not have room to cover all of that”

The follow up question was simpler: In the context of any article that HaAretz runs on the peace process, why not mention what the spokespeople of the PA say that day in their media and in their own language?

Shalev: * As an editor, I would recommend not covering that”.

In other words, a senior editor of HaAretz admitted to a gathering of journalists that his newspaper engages in a journalistic indiscretion.

As a matter of policy, Shalev admitted, Haaretz will not report the consistent message that the Palestinian Authority conveys in the Arabic language.

This poses a challenge to agencies that rely on HaAretz as a source.

Ha'aretz' biases are obvious to anyone who reads it - except to lazy Hebrew-challenged journalists in Israel who rely on it as a substitute for real reporting. But here we see that its new English language editor is explicitly confirming those biases.

(h/t My Right Word)

PalArab support for Hamas goes up sharply

From the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research:

These are the results of the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 21-23 June 2012.

The second quarter of 2012 shows clear improvement in the standing and popularity of Hamas and Ismail Haniyeh, especially in the Gaza Strip, and a decline in the popularity of Fateh and President Abbas. The increased Hamas popularity might be due to the fact that it has allowed the Palestinian election commission to begin voter registration in the Gaza Strip and might reflect optimism about future improvement in the conditions of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the Egyptian presidential elections. The decline in the popularity of Fateh and president Abbas comes in light of widespread popular anger with the PA for the arrest of journalists and the blocking of internet sites. It might also reflect public perception of a reluctance on the part of Abbas to form a reconciliation government despite Hamas' decision to allow the election commission to operate in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, it is possible that Abbas' reluctance to go to the UN or take the initiative to break the deadlock in the relationship with Israel might in part explain the increase in public dissatisfaction with his performance and the decrease in the percentage of votes he might receive in a new presidential elections.

Findings also indicate that the overwhelming majority of the public opposes the arrest of journalists or the blocking of internet sites and view such measures as harming the Palestinian cause in international public opinion. A majority is also pessimistic about the chances to implement the reconciliation agreement and a very small minority is optimistic about the chances of forming a reconciliation government in days or weeks or organizing parliamentary and presidential elections before the end of the year.

Ha'aretz Hebrew has some of the numbers, showing that the gap between those who would vote for Abbas and those who would vote for Haniyeh has narrowed to 7%, as opposed to 12% last quarter.

But if terrorist Marwan Barghouti would run for president against Haniyeh, Barghouti would win 60%-34%.

Fatah's popularity in parliamentary elections also declined from 47% to 40%.

The raw results will probably be released next week.

(h/t Yoel and CHA)

6 out of 10 Arabs support censorship of the arts

From Al Ahram:

An opinion poll conducted by the Doha Debates television programme reveals that six out of 10 Arab citizens support government censorship of the arts, especially when it comes to nudity or profane language.

According to the poll, conducted between 30 May and 3 June, most said that the existence of regulatory bodies and institutions affiliated with the state is a must, as art could be "inappropriate" and offend "religious beliefs."

Most of those polled suggested that censorship was needed on modern art taught in Arab universities, but most also said that censorship would not be able to stand in the way of artists because thoughts and beliefs live in our imaginations.

In the poll, most of those who supported government censorship of art came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen. Poll samples from less conservative countries in the region returned different results.

Al Ahram itself came under fire recently for censoring a famous piece by Abdel Hadi al-Gazzar by covering up the breasts of a woman in the painting:

Muslims upset at Putin's visit to the Kotel

Vladimir Putin visited the Kotel on Tuesday night:

Throughout the visit, Putin demonstrated curiosity, asked many questions on the history of the place, and spoke about the Jewish connection to the holy site: "You can see how the Jewish past is engraved in the Jerusalem stone," he said.

As you can imagine, Muslims were very unhappy at a world leader saying that Jerusalem has anything to do with Judaism.

Hamas called it a cheap stunt, and the Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation said:

We say to Putin and his ilk, that the Wailing Wall is purely Islamic, and is part and parcel of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and non-Muslims have no right to the wall or in the Al Aqsa Mosque. All the historical facts and international documents confirm that the Al-Buraq Wall is Islamic, including the British Shaw Commission. Remember, the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque is 45 years old, and they demolished the buildings and around the Square unjustly for the prayer of the Jews, then carried out the excavations, including the excavation along the bottom of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and during the excavations many of the Islamic and Arabic findings were suppressed, not to mention that these excavations led to the cracks and collapses in the vicinity of the Al Aqsa Mosque and some of its buildings, and the occupation is engaging in Judaization of the place, and we affirm that all rocks the Al Aqsa Mosque and every stone of Jerusalem proves the Arab identity of Jerusalem.

Other Arab media pointed out that Putin wore a kipah.

Links

From Ian:

It looks like Mel Gibson has fallen off the wagon again:
Anti-Semitic Elmo detained in NY
“Man dressed as Sesame Street character is removed from Central Park after obscene rants against Jews”

Birthplace of Christ Used in Bid for Palestinian Statehood

“The issue is not genuinely about a two-state solution – as many are fooled into believing. Lethal opposition to the State of Israel remains fierce. This tiny democracy, Israel, which lives by individual freedoms, equal justice under law and respect for universal human rights, is an affront to these autocratic regimes.”

“The drive to have the Church of the Nativity recognized as a global heritage site is nothing short of offensive. Christians have been driven out of their ancestral lands; Palestinians have shown nothing but hostility to both Christians and Jews. Moreover, Christ himself was a Jew.

Upon the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, Bethlehem had a Christian population of over 80 percent. With the rise of the Muslim population, Christians dwindled in numbers. Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority took over the town in 1995, thanks to the Oslo Accords. Along with the PA, came a tribal political system which caused Bethlehem's Christian population, already at 15%, to further sink to 2% today. Under this political system Christians are targeted, seen as inferiors, and subjected to threats, violence, discrimination and acts of terrorism.”

BBC Apologies:
BBC apologises over Itamar massacres coverage

The BBC “got it wrong” by not giving prominence to the massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinians in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, the outgoing director-general has admitted.

Our coverage of the Arab Spring was over-excited, admits BBC

Head of news admits reporters may have failed to explore both sides of the story
Countries where regimes were not overthrown were ignored, says BBC Trust report by former UN director of communications
Two thirds of mobile footage and other user-generated content was broadcast without any caveats

BBC boss sorry for reply to campaign to save radio show

“BBC head of north-west programming Aziz Rashid has apologised for snubbing Jewish leaders with a standardised reply to their complaint over the scrapping of the Jewish programme on Radio Manchester.”

Emanuel Cleaver and the Congressional Black Caucus Fail to Condemn Antisemitic Democrat

“Here is a list of organizations that have endorsed Barron, to their eternal shame: the Sierra Club, one of the most influential environmental groups in the nation; DC 37 and 1707, the big New York City public sector unions affiliated with AFSCME and the AFL-CIO; outgoing incumbent Democrat Edolphus Towns; and the local Amsterdam News, among others.“

A Hamas victory at the UN Human Rights Council

“Here is some of what Habeeb had to say while speaking in a UN room, at a UN-provided microphone, at a UN-advertised event associated with the UN’s top human rights body: “In 1947, 1948 and 1949 the Palestinian refugees were ethnically cleansed by the Israeli gangs.... Some Arab armies came to Palestine to fight the Zionist project, which came from all over Europe to take over Palestine and to make it as a national home for the Jews, although it was always the national home for the Palestinians for thousands and thousands of years.”

AFP Whence the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty?

"Today AFP refers to "1980, the year after Cairo signed its peace agreement with Tel Aviv." (Emphasis added.)

The Church of England Battles the Israeli Satan

"The Anglican Church, the UK's largest, is in the vanguard of Jew-hatred. Israel is demonized and their upcoming Synod may be a watershed."

New Memri Video:
Egyptian Leftist Politician Rifat Said: The Muslim Bortherhood Will Never Relinquish the Presidency

Also, Mostly Kosher on Amnesty's latest absurdity (h/t Benjamin of Tudela)

An searing first person account of being sexually abused at Tahrir Square (h/t CHA)

Israel's SodaStream surges, BDS fails again (h/t Tobias)

A German judge prohibits circumcisions

It is time for my quarterly appeal for donations. I'll try to be less irritating than PBS.

Things keep going well here at Chez Elder. During this last quarter we have seen a steady increase of Twitter followers (now approaching 2500) and subscribers to the blog via RSS and email (750 people get my email digest directly, and many others have it forwarded to them.) Direct blog readership has held steady at around 5000 hits a day.

I spoke last month to a full house as part of a panel at an American Zionist Movement event. Here's how it was described:

The guest blogger was “ElderofZiyon,” well-known by his nom de plume in the blogosphere but rarely seen in public. “Elder” is perhaps the most quoted blogger in the area of Middle East politics, and he used his time well to help the hopefuls in the audience think about how to be most effective in their work on behalf of Israel.

It has been hard to keep up my pace of posting, as I started a new job and my free time has gone down considerably. In order to maximize blogging time, I had to buy a netbook (Acer Aspire One), and a new cell phone ($399 plus shipping) with an upgraded data plan ($15/month) so I can blog on the train. (My one day of trying to blog with a tablet was awful. Sorry, but to blog the way I do, you need a real computer. I ran to Walmart that night because I couldn't take it.) Because of nosy commuters looking over my shoulder, I just ordered a privacy screen for the netbook as well.

I also occasionally blog at The Times of Israel. I just did one today based on a post from last week, that has already gotten some Twitter traction.

So if you want to be a partner in this endeavor, please consider a donation - either a one-time donation or a subscription - by clicking on the appropriate button in the upper right of the blog site or simply going to this PayPal site. If you are not a fan of PayPal, I happily accept Amazon gift cards which can be sent via email.

And if you have lots of money and want to match the donations given, the way someone does at Mondoweiss (!), feel free to contact me!

Thanks as always for your support, for being there and for publicizing my posts. I really, really appreciate it!

Those "civilian" Hamas police...

Remember the Goldstone Report? The biased UN report took pains to claim that the police of Gaza should be considered civilians and not terrorists or militants. I debunked it here and here.

Well, Goldstone and the other "human rights" organizations are proven wrong again.

Hamas held a ceremony for police graduates where it was made very clear that the goal of the police is anything but civil:

Announcer: Now that we have heard the song of the men, here is a little Palestinian girl, a flower of Jerusalem, who insisted on participating in this ceremony. Rawan is the daughter of one of the officers at the Palestinian police academy. Please welcome Rawan Khilla, who will recite what she has to say, the words on which she was raised.

[…]

Rawan Khilla: Glory explodes in your bodies, and eternal life is guaranteed for martyrdom-seekers.

[…]

Fathi Hammad, Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security: Allah says: “Prepare for them what force and steeds of war you can.” The Prophet Muhammad says: “Prepare for them what force you can. Force means shooting.” The Prophet Muhammad also says: “Lands shall be thrown open to you, and Allah will protect you, but none of you should give up playing with his arrows.”

None of you should give up playing with all the tools of force and equipment, which will bring us closer to our aspirations: Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Haifa, Akko and Jaffa.

[…]

From this place, I bring you glad tidings: The officers of the class graduating today will become the Police Chief of Jaffa, the Police Chief of Haifa, the Police Chief of Akko, the Police Chief of Lod, the Police Chief of Ramle, and of all other places.

Therefore, from this place, we declare to all those who usurped our lands that they must prepare to leave, because we have prepared for Jihad. You are going to leave, while we are summoned to battle. We are the owners of this land.

[…]

We say: There shall be no reconciliation with secularism. There shall be no reconciliation with any path other than that of Islam.

[…]

This is an opportunity for you to study at our academy how to defend our battlefront and how to be soldiers of Allah. We will not be the soldiers of the US, of the Zionists, or of the hypocrites. We are determined to proceed along the path of Allah.

Therefore, dear brothers, we speak with conviction. Some might say: You are talking as if victory is imminent. Yes, victory is imminent. Victory is ours, and disgrace will be the lot of all the hypocrites, who agreed to be the shoes on the feet of the Zionists and the Americans.

Indeed, victory is coming. Victory is imminent.

This isn't a police force - it is an army.

But "human rights" organizations will always refuse to see the truth in their zeal to crucify Israel.

(h/t Yoel)

Iranian VP blames drug problem on - the Talmud

From the ever-entertaining official Iranian Fars news agency:

Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi condemned Zionists for inciting global drug trade and addiction in a bid to annihilate non-Jewish communities in accordance with Talmudic teachings.

Addressing a ceremony on the occasion of the International Day of Drug Abuse here in Tehran on Tuesday, Rahimi stated that prevalence of narcotics and drug-addition throughout the world finds its roots in the wrong teachings of the Zionists' religious book, Talmud.

The Talmud (Hebrew: "instruction, learning") is a central text of mainstream Judaism in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.

"The book teaches them how to destroy non-Jews so as to protect an embryo in the womb of a Jewish mother," Rahimi stated.

The Iranian vice-president said that the Zionists' direct involvement in the prevalence of illicit drugs is while "you cannot find a single addict among the Zionists".

I must have missed that part of the Talmud. (Maybe it's in the Yerushalmi.)

But don't call Iranian leaders anti-semitic. He was only talking about the "Zionist" Talmud.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)