Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 17, 2013

EU project lists indicate Israel is less liberal than any Arab country

The EU publishes a list of projects that it is implementing or funding in many countries.

Based on its priorities, it looks like the EU thinks that Israel really has major problems in conflict prevention, democracy, governance and human rights - compared to its Arab neighbors.

Here is a chart showing the number of projects the EU is funding, by their categories, in four Middle East nations:

	Israel	Egypt	Jordan	Yemen
Conflict Prevention	17	0	0	2
The environment /natural resources	1	0	0	1
Governance, democracy, human rights and support for economic and institutional reforms	38	6	2	5
Human development	7	3	2	1
Multi-sectors	2	2	26	21
Rural development, territorial planning, agriculture and food security	2	2	0	4
Social cohesion and employment	5	2	1	2
Infrastructure, communications and transport	0	2	0	2
Trade and regional integration	0	1	0	1
Water and energy	0	5	0	0

These webpages are truly mind-blowing. While the EU spends, for example, €149,914 to teach highly educated Russian immigrants in Israel to be more supportive of the "peace process," it does not spend a dime on specifically teaching Egyptian Muslims that Copts are human beings. (To be fair, there is a €17,000,000 program in Egypt simply called "Promotion and protection of human rights" which gives no details as to what exactly it does. Maybe it mentions Copts. Who knows?)

€247,668 goes to an Israeli NGO to promote women's rights " in accordance with international commitments made by the state of Israel." Jordan gets €200,000 for its women's rights program, Yemen gets €33,498 and Egypt - where essentially every woman is sexually harassed - gets nothing.

There is an EU project in Israel, costing €130,625 to promote freedom of expression. Because that is a major problem in Israel, apparently. There are no similar projects in the three Arab countries I looked at. In fact, not one of their projects included the word "freedom."

Another EU project in Israel is to support anti-racism education. The other countries? Nada. Racism among Arabs? Not a problem to the EU.

The list of EU projects in Israel goes on and on...two programs protecting rights for asylum seekers, four separate programs against alleged Israeli torture, and every single left wing NGO you can think of (Machsom Watch, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem, Yesh Din, Gisha, Rabbis for Human Rights...) is getting hundreds of thousands of euros.

Arab anti-Israel organizations get funded through the EU-Israel program as well, such as Shabab "to mainstream human rights to face racist trends in Israel."

Very little can be found to help poverty-stricken Jews in Israel, however.

Nothing is being spent in Egypt or Jordan about strengthening their peace treaties with Israel. Nothing that promotes normalization (with one tiny exception.) Nothing addressing Arab anti-semitism. Nothing about incitement in Arab media. These aren't problems, you see.

The EU is making clear that it believes that Israel is the Middle East country that needs its wisdom and influence the most. It is even clearer, based on these projects, that the EU considers Israel and only Israel to be the obstacle to peace in the Middle East, and that Israeli Jews are the most racist and intolerant group in the entire region.

I wonder if anyone audits these funds at all. What are the success criteria? Where is the transparency? Or do the anti-Zionist NGOs have a free annual income from the EU in perpetuity, as long as they put the right code words in their descriptions ("justice," "anti-racism," "rights"....)?

Well, that's not quite true. These NGOs also have to churn out reports that prove Israeli Jews are bigots. The smallest incidents must be magnified and exaggerate and documented in excruciating detail, in order to ensure that the EU money spigot flows forever.

(h/t Irene)

10/17 Links Pt1: Turkey blocking Israel-NATO cooperation, Who Let Iran Get So Close to a Nuke?

From Ian:

Palestinian Corruption -- Again

If the Palestinian movement believes it lives outside the laws of politics, nature and economics, it may be right.
The PA and Hamas occupy a split territory with two feuding governments -- both dictatorships with all the arbitrariness and lack of accountability implied by that; multiple armed services that fight each other and, occasionally, kill Israelis; a school system that teaches children that the IDF ate Mickey Mouse and Jews have no history in the land of the Bible; a civic culture that venerates suicide bombers and the mothers who seem to revel in their children's bloody demise; and an economy that produces nothing of export value. Yet it operates on the principle that it will be bailed out by European and American political support and international largesse. And that Israel will be blamed for the Palestinian failure to thrive.
Two stories this week, however, may challenge endlessly naïve European and American fealty to the Palestinian narrative.

Al-Qaida, Muslim Brotherhood hold secret meeting in Jordan

The meeting focused on the conflict in Egypt and Syria and an altercation broke out between a Brotherhood member and jihadist leader Mohammad al-Miqdad, and the latter asked the Brotherhood not to publicly denounce the actions of the jihadists.
The jihadists discussed their plans to start moving Syrian and Iraqi jihadists into Egypt in order to carry out terror operations there after the Eid al-Adha festival, which falls on Tuesday.

Experts Warn of Al Qaeda Biological Weapons Threat

Experts from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) have issued a stark warning over what they say is the "clear and present danger" of Al Qaeda gaining possession of the Assad regime's stockpile of biological weapons, claiming to have substantial evidence that Al Qaeda-linked groups may already have possession of toxic agents.
Unlike chemical weapons, which utilize chemical agents to poison victims, biological weapons make use of diseases, toxins and other contagious agents. Biological weapons have the potential to kill far greater numbers, and are also far harder to detect or protect against.

Visualizing anti-Zionism: Site used by Guardian data blog calls Haifa “Palestinian”

Yesterday, we posted about an extraordinarily misleading Guardian data blog entry on the Palestinian economy – a piece by Mona Chalabi titled ‘How does Palestine’s economy work?‘, Oct. 14 – which assigned blame for Palestinian economic woes almost entirely on Israel, and never once so much as mentioned the injurious economic impact of Palestinian terrorism.
Many of the claims made by Chalabi were quite specious, including her reference to a report which purported to quantify the number of olive trees “uprooted by Israeli authorities since 1967″. To illustrate the number of olive trees allegedly destroyed by “Israeli Authorities” – which Palestinians have evidently methodically been counting over the past 46 years – she referred readers to a site called ‘Visualizing Palestine‘.

Following CiF Watch post, Guardian amends ‘terrorist sperm’ story

We demonstrated, per Israeli court records, that Za’anin not only belonged to a terror organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but volunteered for their military wing (Al-Quds Brigades), and was convicted after pleading guilty to four counts of being an accessory to attempted murder, a plea bargain in which he admitted his active participation in several terror attacks.
Today, we noticed that the article was amended (on October 15) to include details of Za’anin’s criminal record.

CNN’s Holocaust-revisionism: It isn’t “piffle.”

NPR knows it. NBC knows it. Even Iran’s Fars News Agency knows it.
CNN seriously mistranslated its interview with new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, and it’s turning into a scandal that won’t go away.

Brighton University lecturer calls for abolition of Sussex University’s Israel Studies course.

Tom Hickey, a Brighton University lecturer, speaking at the start of Sussex University’s Palestine Awareness Week on Monday night called for the abolition of Sussex University’s newly established Yossi Harel Chair in Modern Israel Studies until questions relating to its “external sources of funding” and the process that established it are “satisfactorily answered.”
He also attacked already established Israel Studies courses at SOAS, Leeds University, Manchester University and Oxford University.
Hickey is a senior member of University and College Union’s National Executive Committee and a member of BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine).

World Bank Report on Palestinian Economy Full of Holes

Yet a close look at the report reveals that it makes numerous assumptions about Palestinian aspirations and behavior patterns, establishes a series of questionable multipliers, and downplays the significance of complex political factors and security realities, according to Steven Plaut, Professor of Economics at the University of Haifa.
“I think the World Bank doesn’t fully understand the Israeli economy or the Palestinian economy. What’s worse, they have a political agenda. They produce findings to match their political agenda,” Plaut told JNS.org.
“I think they are making it up as it goes along,” he said.

Is Hamas to mend ties with Assad?

Hamas' Deputy Politburo Chief Moussa Abu Marzouk interviewed for Assad affiliated channel Al Mayadeen on Monday, saying Khaled Mashal was wrong in raising the flag of Syrian opposition, and that Hamas had no official ties with any rebel organizations.
Last June a dramatically important meeting was held in Lebanon concerning the shaken relationship between Hamas and some of the Arab and Muslim world. Group senior Moussa Abu Marzouk conferred there with officials from Iran and from Hezbollah to work out differences that have occurred between Hamas and then in the past two years over the Syrian civil war.

Hamas TV Airs Cartoon Lauding its Military Wing, Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades

US says nuclear talks more substantive than ever; Israel mum

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the talks contained a “level of seriousness and substance that we have not seen before.”
While cautioning not to expect a prompt breakthrough, Carney said the US “found the Iranian presentation very useful.”
The sides released a statement at the end of two days of talks calling the meetings “substantive and forward looking.”

Who Let Iran Get So Close to a Nuke?

So far, we have little indication as to whether the U.S. is willing to accept the sort of “bad deal” that Secretary of State John Kerry, let alone Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, has warned against. But there is one thing that we know. The reason why the negotiations are so critical is that over the past several years Iran has made so much progress toward the completion of a bomb that there isn’t time for a long drawn out diplomatic process. As the New York Times reports:

On Monday, a senior American official said that the United States wanted Iran to take steps that were “transparent and verifiable” to constrain its program and to assure the West that it was not intending to produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran’s nuclear efforts had advanced so much, the American official added, that Iran needed to take stops now to halt or even reverse its nuclear program so there was time to negotiate a comprehensive agreement.

John Bolton: With Iran, We Can’t Verify or Trust

Tuesday’s opening of yet another round of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear-weapons program creates enormous risks for America’s anti-proliferation efforts. Tehran’s extensive propaganda campaign, stressing the “moderation” of its new president, Hassan Rouhani, seems to be working, softening up the gullible in the United States and Europe.
As in previous iterations of the charade now reopening in Geneva, Iran’s bargaining position benefits from our own repeated mistakes. The ayatollahs need only take advantage of these unforced errors, and success may well fall into their undeserving hands. Consider the most blatant errors that Iran is eager to exploit.

Russia: Lift Iran sanctions in exchange for int’l control of nuke program

Speaking in Geneva, after the wrap of a 2-day meeting between the P5+1 and Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov alleged that sanctions “undermine” attempts to solve the diplomatic crisis, reported Russia Today.
“The beacon, the main arrangement that we follow is the proposal by [President] Vladimir Putin that the recognition of Iran’s right to [uranium] enrichment as part of its inseparable rights under the Non-proliferation Treaty should be accompanied by the introduction of full comprehensive international control over the Iranian nuclear program,” Ryabkov told reporters.

Taliban Assassinate Afghan Governor With Exploding Koran…

When someone in America mishandles a Koran the Islamic world riots for days.
Via Khaama Press:
"Afghan intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Wednesday announced that militants had placed explosives inside the Holy Quran, which left Logar provincial governor Arsala Jamal dead."

Turkey and Israel: A ‘what next?’ mindset

As PM Netanyahu pointed out immediately after he initiated the US-brokered rapprochement, the most critical strategic priority would be Syria’s prolonged civil war. Within this context, Turkey and Israel have to get ready to secure the Baathist tyranny’s chemical and allegedly biological weapons arsenal along with other strategic weapons systems in case of an uncontrolled regime collapse. Furthermore, we also need to carefully watch for any mass transfer of game-changing weapon systems in asymmetric conflicts, such as man portable air defense systems (MANPADS), and antitank guided missiles (ATGM) into the hands of non-state groups that might target Turkey or Israel. In a moment of irrational shock, Assad or members of the elite surrounding him might attempt to ignite a regional war by provoking Turkish or Israeli administrations. In this case, the two nations need to be prepared to act in coordination, to nip the threat in the bud.

Erdogan’s Turkey: Less nationalism, more Islam

An op-ed published in the New York Times last week by Turkish researcher Halil M. Karaveli, claimed that far from helping Turkey’s minority, Erdogan was increasingly playing with sectarian fire.
“Erdogan is turning Turkey into a powder keg in an attempt to shore up his own political base,” Karaveli wrote. “He is intentionally activating the longstanding fault lines separating religious and secular Turks — and most dangerously the divide between the country’s Sunni majority and its Alevi minority. If he continues to do so, Turkish democracy itself could become a casualty of his confrontational policies.”

Greek ambassador: Despite apology, Turkey blocking Israel-NATO cooperation

Lampridis said he was surprised by the continued Turkish opposition, especially since practical cooperation between Turkey and Israel was taking place on a daily basis, “like where Turkey has an advantage, of course, and Israel is demonstrating goodwill.”
For example, since Turkish goods can no longer be transported overland through Syria to the Persian Gulf, every week hundreds of Turkish trucks arrive via ferry to the Haifa Port where they then proceed across the country to the Jordan border crossings, carrying millions of dollars worth of goods to Jordan and onward to the Gulf.
“If Israel behaved in the same negative way that Turkey was behaving, it could have said ‘no’ to Turkey, told them, ‘This is your problem. I don’t need these trucks blocking my highways.’ But Israel is cooperating, and Turkey is deriving great benefit from this.”

B'Tselem: If Arabs treat Gazans like dirt, blame Israel

B'Tselem has called for Israel to allow Gazans to travel abroad - going through Israel.

The reason? Well, Egypt is treating Gazans like potential terrorists, and is restricting their travel through Rafah. So, naturally, this is Israel's responsibility.

Really.

In early July 2013, with the onset of the events that led to the overthrowing of Muhammad Morsi, Egyptian authorities limited passage through Rafah Crossing, and the number of persons using it dropped radically. From July to September 2013, the crossing was open only intermittently. When open, Egyptian authorities only permitted the passage of limited groups, such as foreign nationals, the gravely ill, and students (the latter excepting those studying in Egypt, most of whom were allowed through only at the end of September). To date, people who had planned to travel abroad for meetings, family-related matters, professional courses or vacations, have been unable to do so.

...Data published by the World Health Organization indicate that, during the same period, Israel doubled the number of patients allowed to pass through Erez Crossing for medical treatment in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in Israel. The objective was to grant access to medical treatment to patients who were to have been treated in Egypt. For example, in August, requests for passage through the Erez Crossing were submitted for 1,023 patients; 932 were granted permission. In contrast, only 585 such requests were made in August 2012, of which 543 were approved.

However many other Gazans scheduled to travel abroad for other purposes have been left with no recourse. Students studying outside of Gaza have had great difficulty getting through Rafah Crossing over the last three months.

...The closure of Rafah Crossing has had financial repercussions for merchants in the Gaza Strip. At present, only a limited number of merchants are permitted into Israel and the West Bank via the Erez Crossing, whereas many merchants had been traveling abroad through Rafah Crossing to buy goods for sale in Gaza. However, since July the Egyptians have not been permitting merchants through Rafah Crossing.

...At present, people who must travel abroad for professional seminars and work-related meetings are not allowed through Rafah Crossing.

...even when Rafah Crossing is functioning regularly, going through it is subject to arbitrary restrictions imposed by the Egyptian authorities, and travel abroad requires a long, dangerous journey through the Sinai desert. Therefore, the passage into Egypt cannot be considered an absolute solution for travel for Gaza residents to other countries.

Israel’s policy prevents Gazans from fulfilling their right to freedom of movement. Even now, eight years after Israel completed its Disengagement Plan from the Gaza Strip, the extent of its control over access to Gaza means Israel is responsible for enabling residents to fulfill their right to freedom of movement and its attendant rights, including the right to earn a living, the right to an education and the right to sustain family ties.

You see? If Egypt restricts Gazans from travel, Israel must compromise its security to allow foreign Arabs to go through its territory!

Egyptian sovereignty and its right to police its borders is sacrosanct. Israeli sovereignty, however, is nonexistent to B'Tselem. Perhaps Israel should be a superhighway for Gazans to travel to Jordan, Syria, maybe even Iran if they so choose.

When Hamas stops Gazans from traveling, as it has done, maybe B'Tselem would insist that IDF helicopters grab the poor people whose freedom of movement is being restricted and take them out. If Israel is responsible for Egypt's border policies, then obviously it is responsible for Hamas' travel restrictions as well.

Obviously, Arabs cannot be held responsible for anything. I guess B'Tselem thinks of them as somehow less than human.

Do you think for a second that B'Tselem is in contact with Egyptian NGOs on opening Rafah for Gazans?

They cannot even find a negative word to say about Egypt's siege of Gaza - it is just a fact of life. Arabs screw Arabs all the time, no big deal. Israel is the one who must fix intra-Arab problems now.

The Daily Mail looked at the recycled "evidence" that the Lancet published that had already been revealed last year. The writer noticed that elevated levels of polonium was found on the souvenir Arafat toothbrush that Suha kept all these years.

So the only logical conclusion is that Israel poisoned his toothbrush with polonium!

I admit, I first saw this patently ridiculous theory in Al Quds, and thought it was just another Arab conspiracy flight of fancy. Now I see it was originally published in The Daily Mail - in an article so dumb that it pretends that the Lancet piece reveals new information. (Of course, Arab media is enthusiastically republishing it.)

The Swiss scientists tested for polonium levels in a lot of objects, some that belonged to Arafat and some control items that didn't. Arafat's toothbrush had slightly higher concentrations of polonium than the urine stain in his underwear. But the sample that had the third highest concentrations of polonium did not come from Arafat.

It came from a toothbrush of control subject.

As the scientists wrote then:

Bristles from toothbrush present another problem. They appeared clearly contaminated when sampled from Mr Louvet [Arafat] belongings (54 mBq/g). Nevertheless a control measurement carried out on a toothbrush from IRA collaborator 1 also shows a significant activity (21 mBq/g) while a second control measurement on a toothbrush from IRA collaborator 3 presents only a background value (1.0 mBq/g). Thus the measurement of Mr Louvet [Arafat] toothbrush is not conclusive and only the further determination of supported 210Po will give an answer concerning a possible contamination of the toothbrush by unsupported 210Po.

Even without this, the theory is beyond dumb. Wouldn't one expect significantly higher concentrations remaining on the item that was used for poisoning, versus the very much watered down bodily fluids? It is as if the "reporter" cannot see beyond a Hollywood version of events - "ooh, the camera focused on the toothbrush in an early scene, and I'm smart enough to have noticed it!"

No theory is too stupid as long as Israel can be blamed.

(Interestingly, the Lancet article appendix shows completely different concentrations of numbers than the original report, and the IRA toothbrush suddenly had almost no polonium. Not sure why. Were their methods flawed during the original Al Jazeera media blitz? Perhaps the science of detecting and measuring trace amounts of plutonium after 20 half-lives is not as advanced as they pretend?)

(corrected IRA ref, h/t Ian)

The week in #BDSFail

From Zvi:

* Amazon opening Tel Aviv office

* El Al launches flights to Venice, Larnaca

* Israeli startups raise $660M in Q3, most since 2000

* Facebook buys Israel's Onavo

* Malta, Israel sign health, medical sciences action plan

"It is with satisfaction that we have signed an action plan with Israel, which is known for its world-class health service, and we will be collaborating with Israel on specialized cases like cancer treatment," the Prime Minister said.

...

Muscat is the first Maltese Prime Minister to visit Israel. Describing it as "well overdue", Muscat said he was very proud to be the first Maltese prime minister to visit Israel.

"We are deeply committed to strengthen Malta's relations with Israel and collaborate together on the key areas relating to both countries," he added.

* Israeli wins Public Speaking competition at World Universities Debating Championships

* Israel, Arab states work together on Iran

"Israel is a steady anchor to quite a few countries who consider it as reliable and standing behind red lines it has set," the [Israeli] source said.

A quiet dig at Obama, there :-)

* The Nigerian president will lead 30,000 pilgrims to Israel, as noted by EOZ.

* Coach of Tunisian tennis player slams order to boycott match with Israel, as noted by EOZ.

* Israel, US profs win 1st Mathematical Neuroscience Prize)

And then there is this.

Israeli student confronts anti-Semitic MP Galloway at Oxford

On Monday, speaking first in Hebrew, Hunter described his family background and identified himself as Israeli.

Galloway said he felt threatened.

Asking Hunter to back off, he said he was “causing a lot of harm.”

This is so incredibly characteristic of Bigotry and Double Standards advocates like Galloway!

Hunter pulled an Israeli flag from his shirt and turned to the MP saying, “I think you did a lot of harm by not speaking to my friend Eylon [Aslan-Levy, the student who had debated with Galloway in February] and not having a constructive dialogue with him” before saying he did not have a question for him “because I don’t debate with racists.”

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Hunter said that while he recognizes Galloway’s right to free speech and supports constructive dialogue, the MP denies his very existence and is racist to the core.

“Mr. Galloway refuses to recognize my national and civic identity, he denies my cultural existence,” Hunter said. “In essence, like his pals in Hamas, he seeks the destruction of the State of Israel. He is a vile racist of the worst kind.

This is an awesome response. Straight to the heart of the matter in language that the left understands.

I couldn’t just allow him to return to Oxford and pretend as if nothing happened last time. By looking him in the eye, and speaking to him in Hebrew, I wanted to show my fellow students that Galloway’s continuing behavior is completely inexcusable.”

Hunter questioned why such a respected institution had invited Galloway to speak at all.

An excellent question!

“It is truly perverse that for its first event this term, a debating chamber internationally renowned for its love of free speech, invites a man who denies that right to others on the basis of their nationality. Not only is Galloway a racist, but he epitomizes everything the Oxford Union stands against,” he said.

Yes!

Galloway declined to comment or respond to the accusation of racism.

In a visit to the Oxford Union last year, Galloway was confronted by feminist protestors following his comments that the charges brought against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Sweden do not amount to rape.

Galloway, who famously met with Saddam Hussein in 1994, was expelled from the Labor Party in 2003 for calling former UK prime minister Tony Blair a liar. He has paid homage to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and “the resistance,” supported Syrian President Bashar Assad and donated money and vehicles to Hamas.

And that is the week so far in BDS Land.

Turkey blew Israeli cover for Iranian spy ring

Amazing story from David Ignatius in WaPo:

The Turkish-Israeli relationship became so poisonous early last year that the Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to have disclosed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers.

Knowledgeable sources describe the Turkish action as a “significant” loss of intelligence and “an effort to slap the Israelis.” The incident, disclosed here for the first time, illustrates the bitter, multi-dimensional spy wars that lie behind the current negotiations between Iran and Western nations over a deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program. A Turkish Embassy spokesman had no comment.

Israeli anger at the deliberate compromise of its agents may help explain why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became so entrenched in his refusal to apologize to Erdogan about the May 2010 Gaza flotilla incident . ...

Israeli intelligence had apparently run part of its Iranian spy network through Turkey, which has relatively easy movement back and forth across its border with Iran. The Turkish intelligence service, known as the Milli Istihbarat Teskilati, or MIT, conducts aggressive surveillance inside its borders, so it had the resources to monitor Israeli-Iranian covert meetings.

U.S. officials assessed the incident as a problem of misplaced trust, rather than bad tradecraft. They reasoned that the Mossad, after more than 50 years of cooperation with Turkey, never imagined the Turks would “shop” Israeli agents to a hostile power, in the words of one source. But Erdogan presented a unique challenge, as he moved in 2009 to champion the Palestinian cause and, in various ways, steered Ankara away from what had been, in effect, a secret partnership with Jerusalem.

It's not like Turkey loves Iran so much - they exposed the network just for spite.

Hizballah replacing "Israeli" with "Zionist" in wire service stories

Al Manar is the Hezbollah newspaper in Lebanon. On Sunday, for fun, I ran a story from it about how a "Zionist" company was chosen to make heads-up display helmets for the F-35 fighter jet:

An Zionist company has been selected to take part in manufacturing hi-tech helmets for pilots of the US F-35 stealth fighter, Zionist Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Sunday.

Commenter Zvi noticed the strange use of "an" in "An Zionist company..." and surmised that Al Manar just copied the text from another media source, replacing "Israeli" with "Zionist."

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. The original story was from AFP.

Today, we see a similar story of another successful Israeli venture in Al Manar:

Facebook has agreed to purchase Onavo, a Zionist data compression developer for mobile applications, Facebook confirmed Monday.

...Under the agreement, Onavo's office would remain in Tel Aviv, a move which will give the Zionist entity its first Facebook research and development center.

Onavo is based in Palo Alto, California and employs 40 workers, 30 of whom work in the occupied territories of Palestine. ...This is the third large acquisition by the world's largest social network company in the Zionist entity.

In this case the original story was from Xinhua, word for word except for the bolded portions. Al Manar didn't give Xinhua credit, merely giving "agencies" as the source.

I wonder if wire services are OK with having their words mangled to be politically correct in Hizballahstan.

Al Manar did make one mistake, though: the headline today is "Facebook Acquires Mobile Israeli Startup: Onavo."

I hope the headline editor isn't beheaded. It must be painful enough to have to report how successful "Zionist" companies are without having to worry about accidentally saying "Israel."

10/16 Links Pt 2: NGO Monitor-EU Funded Lawfare, Tunisia Tennis Star Slams Order to Shun Israeli

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Manipulating Israeli Justice: An Analysis of Yesh Din´s EU-Funded Lawfare Report

On October 10, 2013, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din published a report, “Lacuna: War Crimes in Israeli Law and Court-Martial Rulings,” labeling Israel’s legal system “defective” and calling for the adoption of legislation to “criminalize war crimes in Israeli law.”
EU funding
Yesh Din’s report was financed by the European Union, as part of a three-year, €150,000 grant “to change Israeli policy vis-à-vis criminal accountability of Israeli Security Forces Personnel” (emphasis added). In this instance, the foreign government funding is being used to “draft a proposed law” and lobby the Knesset for specific legislation.
In funding a project using NGOs to “change Israeli policy,” in particular through legislative processes, rather than engaging in direct diplomacy, the EU is violating Israel’s democratic integrity and accepted norms between states.

Europe’s strange bedfellows

On its face, the grant appears to be part of the EU’s longstanding lobbying efforts to get countries to join the International Criminal Court or at least to adopt the provisions of the Court’s Rome statute into their domestic legislation. The EU is highly invested in the ICC project.
European countries were the strongest advocates for the creation of the Court and almost all have signed on. Yet, to date, the ICC has not been particularly successful. The ICC’s annual budget is more than $100 million, but in the past decade, the court has only completed two trials (one ended in acquittal). Due to perceived bias and other problems, African ministers even threatened to vote on pulling out of the court at the latest meeting of the African Union.

Caroline Glick: The bothersome, annoying truth

Last month Theater J announced its Spring 2014 schedule. The schedule includes a play called The Admission.
Authored by an Israeli named Motti Lerner, the play is a dramatization of what is euphemistically known as the “Tantura Affair.”
In 2000, Maariv published an article describing the Master’s thesis of a student at the University of Haifa named Teddy Katz. Teddy Katz’s thesis purported to document a previously unknown massacre during Israel’s War of Independence. He alleged that in May 1948 the IDF murdered 250 Arab civilians after winning a battle in the town of Tantura.
The article caused an uproar. Veterans of the battle sued Katz for libel. They won. Indeed, in testimony before the district court judge Katz admitted his thesis was a fabrication.

The Islamist Trojan Horse

The Gulf states spend enormous amounts on the Islamists in the West, financing their social activities and research funds, buying university chairs and founding libraries and universities. They acquire people with influence, recruit lecturers and students, rewrite history and fashion the America of the future. Qatar, a sponsor of the murderous Muslim Brotherhood, brought Al-Jazeera TV to the United States. Al-Jazeera broadcasts pure propaganda and does not adhere to any of the parameters of responsible journalism, and its only objective is eventually to brainwash the American public with the Islamist agenda. Thus, by using legitimate means, and America's freedom of expression, the Muslim Brotherhood has evaded security filters and infiltrated a genuine Trojan Horse of subversive propaganda through open gates directly into America's hearts and minds.

CAMERA Monograph: Indicting Israel: New York Times Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

A new monograph about CAMERA's six-month study of The New York Times details how the newspaper treats Israel with a harsher standard, omits context, and shows a clear preference for the Palestinian narrative.

Rights to the Temple Mount

The fear that the police have of the Arabs on the Temple Mount is palpable. When we were verbally assaulted by the Arabs upon our entry, the police made not the slightest effort to quiet them, this in marked distinction from their immediate and angry silencing of any form of Jewish prayer. Rather, their response was to quickly move us past the hateful bigots. And when we were again cursed near the end of our visit, the sole and frightened response of the police was to ask us to leave.
It is time the police start enforcing the most basic of religious rights, for Jews as well as Muslims, that our law enforcement authorities cease cowering in the face of Arab violence and stop their shameful hiding behind Muslim religious terror as an excuse for their failure to uphold the law.

Report: Israel, PA Peace Talks Face Implosion Over Jordan Valley Buffer Zone

The current ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are in jeopardy, Ma’ariv reported on Tuesday, after the PA scoffed at the idea of Israel maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley, an Israeli requirement to establish a buffer zone before creating a Palestinian state.
According to the Israeli daily, PA negotiators in a recent meeting demanded that only its forces should be placed in the Jordan Valley, along what it would like to see as a Palestinian state’s eastern border, allowing for each state to retain independent boundaries. The Israelis refused, maintaining their insistence that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized and that Israel have control of the airspace, maritime traffic and border crossings to guarantee security.

Iran the main obstacle to peace with Palestinians, PM says

Iran’s leaders “have no interest in compromise or an agreement,” Netanyahu added. “They have the power to control any territory we withdraw from. Their goal is to remove us from here. That’s their publicly stated agenda.”
When Israel “withdrew from Gaza, they took over. When we withdrew from Lebanon, they took over. They don’t want peace. They’re the dominant power” in the region.
The consequences of Iranian expansionism for peace are profound, he said.

Lithuania Trying to Cash in On Poland's Kosher Slaughter Ban

Lithuania on Tuesday took a step towards legalizing the ritual slaughter of livestock for food, seeking to expand its exports after neighboring Poland imposed a ban.
"Arab countries and Israel represent new opportunities for meat exporters," lawmaker Vytautas Gapsys, who tabled the draft legislation, told parliament, according to AFP.

Spanish Jews ask Catholics to return ancient synagogue

The building, which is owned by the Spanish Catholic Church, “is not being used as a house of worship of any kind these days,” FCJE’s communications director, Maria Royo, told JTA. She said the federation has not received a response from the Church.
Originally known as the Ibn Shushan Synagogue, the 833-year-old building is one of Spain’s most popular museums. It drew some 300,000 visitors in a recent year, half of them locals.

Priebke lawyer calls off funeral amid protests

The bitterly protested funeral of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke was called off hours after it was to have taken place Tuesday by his lawyer, who said police prevented friends and family members from attending amid a noisy protest against the planned religious ceremony.

World Jewish Congress Commends Blocking of Nazi War Criminal’s Funeral

“We commend the government of Argentina, the Mayor of Rome, and the Church for refusing to give Erich Priebke posthumous rehabilitation and credibility. His corpse should be cremated and its ashes scattered in an unknown location, as was done with Adolf Eichmann and Osama Bin Laden,” Lauder said in a statement.

Tunisia tennis star's camp slams order to shun Israeli

The brother and manager of Tunisian tennis star Malek Jaziri on Monday slammed as "shocking" the political pressure to boycott a match with Israel's Amir Weintraub from the authorities back home.
This decision is "shocking, because it brings politics into sport... We are totally against that. And Malek is the first victim, because tennis is his career, his bread-winner," Amir Jaziri told AFP.

BrainGate team wins $1 million B.R.A.I.N. Prize

The BrainGate Research and Development team led by Dr. John Donoghue is the winner of the $1 million B.R.A.I.N. (Breakthrough Research And Innovation in Neurotechnology) contest at the inaugural International Brain Technology Conference.
The BrainGate team, based at Brown University with collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Providence, Rhode Island), Case Western Reserve University, and Stanford University, triumphed over nine other B.R.A.I.N finalists. The collaborative has demonstrated the first human uses of an implanted neural sensor and neural interface system to control robotic and prosthetic arms in three-dimensional space.

Israeli, US profs win 1st annual Mathematical Neuroscience Prize

Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Haim Sompolinsky and Columbia University Prof. Larry Abbott are the winners of the 1st Annual Mathematical Neuroscience Prize by Israel Brain Technologies (IBT). The two $100,000 prizes were awarded at the 1st annual BrainTech Israel 2013 Conference in Tel Aviv.
IBT’s Mathematical Neuroscience Prize honors researchers worldwide who have significantly advanced our understanding of the neural mechanisms of perception, behavior and thought through the application of mathematical analysis and theoretical modeling.

10 Israeli Technologies That Are Changing The World

Israel has been coined the “Startup Nation”; the country with the highest concentration of startups in the world. Over the past 63 years, thousands of Israeli startups have given rise to innovations in fields as diverse as irrigation; GPS navigation; and cherry tomatoes.
But which are the Israeli startups that are truly changing the world?
We’ve picked 10 startups that we believe have impacted the world for the better or are in the process of changing lives forever. (h/t Jewess)

Nigerian President to Lead 30,000 Christian Pilgrims to Israel

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will lead more than 30,000 Christian pilgrims on an upcoming trip to Israel.
While in Israel, President Jonathan, who is the first sitting Nigerian Christian president to visit Israel, is expected to sign a Bilateral Air Services Agreement between Nigeria and Israel, making it easier for Christian pilgrims to visit, AllAfrica.com reported.

New Sigdiada festival celebrates Ethiopian culture

Top Ethiopian artists and celebrities are set to show off their culture at this week’s first Sigdiada event in Tel Aviv. Whereas Sigd – a holiday celebrated by the Ethiopian Jewish community – is usually a closed celebration for members of the community, the new happening is aimed at the general public.

PLO calls for Arabs to boycott Jerusalem elections, then complains that Arabs are disenfranchised

From official PA news agency WAFA last week:

The Arab Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization called in a statement on Tuesday for a boycott of Israeli municipal elections in occupied Jerusalem.

It said no Palestinian from East Jerusalem should participate in these elections either by voting or running for a seat.

The PLO said the municipality supports settlements in East Jerusalem and turning it into a Jewish city, “which is a national and political issue and not an issue of providing services.”

“Participating in these elections will be considered normalization with the Israeli occupation authority, which means legitimizing the annexation of Jerusalem,” said the statement.

Palestinians have regularly boycotted these elections, which this year are planned for October 22, since the occupation of their city in 1967 and its annexation shortly after.

While Palestinians in Jerusalem carry Israeli identity cards similar to the ones held by Israelis and can vote in municipal elections in the city, they nevertheless cannot vote in legislative elections because they are considered “residents” but not “citizens” of Israel.

That last paragraph shows how the PLO knowingly pursues policies to make their people miserable.

Most Jerusalem Arabs do have residence permits, and can vote in municipal elections. It makes no sense for non-citizens to vote in national elections! But, what the article pointedly fails to say, is that Jerusalem Arabs can become citizens of Israel if they want! In fact, many have!

The PLO tells Arabs not to participate in the political process, and in the next breath complains that Israel is disenfranchising them by not allowing them to vote in national elections.

Arabs complain that the Jerusalem municipality discriminates against them. But at the same time they threaten Arabs who want to use the political process to improve their people's lives.

By the way, the supposed discrimination against Arabs in Jerusalem is largely an illusion. I had the opportunity to interview Mayor Nir Barkat earlier this year, and I asked him about the gap in services. He admitted that things were bad in the past but the municipality had been pouring money into the Arab sector, adding 10,000 permits for apartments for Arabs as well as building more new schools and infrastructure in the Arab neighborhoods.

Hizballah's Al Manar breathlessly reports on yet another Israeli spy creature!

YNet gives the details:

Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV has published images of an eagle, allegedly armed with spy equipment inscribed with the word "ISRAEL."

According to the report, the alleged spy-eagle was captured in the Lebanese town of Achkout by amateur hunters and had transmission equipment tied to its leg which indicated a connection to the Tel Aviv University.

The Nature and Parks Authority said that the eagle was born in a breeding and reacclimation center in southern Israel, and was released into the wild some two years ago.

According to the Al-Manar TV report, the eagle had an external transmitter attached to its body and another internal transmitter planted into its body. According to the Lebanese station, recruiting spies from the animal kingdom is a well-known Israeli practice. According to report, wiretapped fowl have in recent years been found in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. ...

At Ynet's request, the Nature and Parks Authority examined the number inscribed into the bird's tag. According to them, the captured raptor is a Bonelli's Eagle, one of Israel's rarest and endangered birds of prey.

According to Ohad Hatzofe, the authority's chief avian ecologist, the bird hatched in the Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve during the spring of 2011 and was released from captivity into December of the same year.

"The specimen is carrying a tiny radio transmitter, and in the picture you can see its feathers have already begun to change, and it is possible he will start mating in 2014 the spring when he reaches sexually maturity."

Tagging birds is a common practice in ornithology as it helps scientists track bird migration routes.

Last June, Turkish authorities claimed to have "cleared a renegade bird captured in the Ağın district of the eastern province of Elazığ on suspicions of working for Israel's state-of-the-art intelligence agency," the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

According to the report by the Turkish newspaper, residents of Altınavya village became suspicious that the little kestrel could be more than a bird that lost its way when they found it wore a metallic ring stamped with the words "24311 Tel Avivunia Israel," and delivered it to the district governorate.

Those crafty Jews, purposefully hiding "ISRAEL" on their spies so that they can deny they are spies later!

And to think its been less than a week since the last new member of the Zionist Attack Zoo, on top of two new Israeli animal operatives in September.

Things must be very busy at Mossad Animal Central.

(h/t EuroGirl, OBOZ)

10/16 Links Part 1: Second Tunnel Found and Destroyed, Hamas Invites Syrian Pals to Gaza

From Ian:

IDF finds, blows up explosives-laden tunnel from Gaza

The IDF on Tuesday discovered and detonated a Hamas-built tunnel running east from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The tunnel was a recently discovered part of an excavation that was first revealed in November 2012, and contained several barrels of explosives. This is the second terror tunnel to be found in as many weeks.
“Earlier this morning IDF forces detonated a tunnel exposed shortly before Operation Pillar of Defense in order to sabotage yet another terror infrastructure of Hamas,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said in a statement.

How Hamas dug its Gaza ‘terror tunnel,’ and how the IDF found it

All told, some 3,400 cubic meters of soil were excavated from the earth in carving the tunnel, the geologist estimated. A mountain of earth that size, even if carted away daily on trucks, leaves a traceable signature and is one way in which the IDF is able to spot the hallmarks of a tunnel. Other ways, according to an academic tunnel-detection expert, include devices that measure sub-surface sound, the strength and direction of a magnetic field, and the propagation or spread of radio and light waves.
The seismic method is the most intuitive and monitors the tremors created by people moving and digging underground. The downside of this method, the expert said, is that many actions create tremors, and in an agricultural area, where there is ample foot and vehicle traffic, the seismic method can often sound a false alarm.

Officials: Hamas Tunnel Part of Kindergarten Terror Attack Plot

Hamas has used more primitive tunnels in the past to conduct operations on Israeli soil, most notably the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which was followed by Israel’s 2006 Operation Summer Rains. Security officials estimate that this tunnel – which IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai described as “one of the most advanced terror tunnels to be uncovered in recent years” – was intended to facilitate an attack on the nearby kindergarten."

Cement to Gaza Used for Tunnels Instead of Schools and Houses

On September 26, Electronic Intifada published in its "human rights" section another of its endless depictions of Gazan deprivation caused by Israel's allegedly cruel policy of denying construction materials, mainly cement. The article states:

With the severe shortage of building supplies in Gaza, for example, construction has stopped on 13 government schools and tendering postponed on 26 others, the UN agency OCHA reported.
Rehabilitation of the 76 kindergartens that were damaged during Israel’s November 2012 attacks on Gaza was also likely to be delayed or postponed, and the construction of a new building at Al-Aqsa University has stopped, OCHA added...“There are hundreds of construction projects pending in Gaza,” including many badly needed housing projects...
Now we know the real reason why the cement was so desperately needed.

How much does terrorism cost the Palestinian economy?

To get a sense of how extraordinarily misleading this is, imagine a media report about the injurious effects of economic sanctions on Iran which didn’t even mention that the sanctions were enacted to influence Tehran into complying with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt its nuclear weapons development.
Similarly, Chalabi – as with most Guardian Left narratives about the economic toll of Israeli defensive measures on the Palestinian economy – is conflating cause with effect. It ignores the fact that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was prompted by thousands of rockets targeting Israeli civilians, and that the security fence was constructed in response to waves of deadly suicide bombings in the early 2000s which targeted cafes, markets, bus stops and other public areas where families and children congregate.

Guardian quickly changes its mind, decides Israel is NOT ‘choking Gaza’

The original title was classic Guardian, conveying an anti-Israel message not supported by the subsequent text. Indeed, we were prepared to focus on the extraordinary misleading title (and complain to Guardian editors) when, roughly an hour later, editors revised it on their own, omitting the word “Israel.”
Despite the fact that Egypt’s increased restrictions on Palestinians in Gaza is the focus of the story – in contrast with Israel’s eased restrictions – here is the original title per a cached page (before it was changed at the Guardian’s site).

Hamas tells Palestinians fleeing Syria to come to Gaza

The call, which was made by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, came after the Libyan coast guard opened fire at a boat carrying 374 Palestinian refugees from Syria.
Initial reports had suggested that nearly half of the refugees that had drowned died after the boat sank off Maltese waters.

Defense industry braces for U.S. halt in Egypt aid

The defense industry has remained tight-lipped about how Washington’s suspension of military assistance to Egypt might affect its production lines.
Three main players gave terse answers when asked about the Obama administration’s decision to “hold” deliveries of big-ticket weapons to Cairo in a bid to punish Egypt for last summer’s political crackdown — without breaking off the relationship altogether.

Egyptian FM: Cairo-Washington relations in turmoil

Nabil Fahmy told state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that Egypt had been dependent on US aid for too long but Washington was wrong to assume the Cairo government would always follow its line.
"We are now in a delicate state reflecting the turmoil in the relationship and anyone who says otherwise is not speaking honestly," he said in comments published on Wednesday.

Egypt May Look to Russia To Counter US Aid Reduction

While the Israeli government has refused to directly comment on the US move, Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Ardenne said in an interview with public radio that he was bothered by how such a decision could be interpreted in Egypt and by how it may affect relations with Israel. Former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, “What’s strange in that move is that the Americans are effectively, albeit unintentionally, working against their own interests.”
Reuters news agency quoted an Israeli official as saying, “We are worried that if aid is stopped, the Egyptian people will press their government to abandon the treaty.” Another Israeli official was worried that Egypt may turn toward Russia.

Opinion: Hezbollah, why so silent?

Why hasn’t Hezbollah denied the authenticity of the video—uploaded onto YouTube—allegedly showing Hezbollah fighters executing gravely wounded Syrians in Al-Qusayr?… The video… clearly depicted Hezbollah fighters killing helpless wounded Syrians, as their commander had urged them. Some fighters were reluctant about killing the wounded so their commander told them to execute them as stated by the “religious order.”…
Some were sure that the party would immediately declare that those involved were not Hezbollah fighters and that the circulated images do not represent the party’s ethics…
Hours and days passed by and the party did not comment on the video.
Hezbollah’s video proves once again that the party’s involvement in Syria has trapped it into a tornado-like conflict that is unlike any other war. The party is now part of a machine that oppresses the Syrian people, its members are now classified as war criminals who should be prosecuted. This is now a crystal clear fact for the Arab and international community.

Irwin Cotler: Testing Iran’s Nuclear Charm Offensive

Given the Iranian track record of using negotiations as a delay tactic while uranium continues to be enriched and the centrifuges continue to spin, only Iran’s verifiable abandonment of its nuclear weapons pursuits – based on the above undertakings – should result in the easing of international sanctions. Negotiations must not serve as cover for denial, deception, and delay; rather, they must lead to full Iranian compliance with the regime’s international obligations, an outcome that would greatly advance the cause of international peace and security, and that would greatly benefit the Iranian people themselves.

Iran’s plan: Isolate US in P5+1 talks to gain advantage

The document describes the “short-medium-term operational strategy” for nuclear talks and says that as part of the strategy, Iran will “change the global security environment” by “breaking the coordination of major powers and neutralizing the Zionist-American efforts to build an international consensus against Iran.” The strategy specifically hopes to “neutralize the leverage of America and the Zionist regime with countries and multilateral institutions vis-a-vis Iran.”

Sending message ‘near and far,’ air force conducts massive drill

The Israeli Air Force conducted an unusually large exercise over the northern border and the Mediterranean Sea overnight. Military sources confirmed the exercise Tuesday morning.
“Recently, changes have taken place across the region,” a national security official told the Walla news site. “The IDF is deployed both near and far for these changes, and last night’s exercise was meant to signal the IDF’s serious intentions to deal with these problems and thwart them.”

On the eve of Iran talks, Mideast allies bewildered by US policy

On Sunday, the Saudi-owned newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat published an editorial calling for Iran to be barred from enriching uranium altogether. Numerous WikiLeaks documents dealing with the Gulf States suggest that, with all due respect to the Palestinian question, what truly keeps Arab rulers awake at night is the fear that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon, and will undermine their rule with terror attacks and orchestrated demonstrations. “Cut off the head of the snake,” as Saudi King Abdullah reportedly put it.
These are not paranoid visions or the brainchild of Netanyahu. These are real concerns of past and present American allies in the region, who gaze with wonder and bewilderment upon Washington’s foreign policy and struggle to understand why the US president rushes to telephone the president of Iran while almost simultaneously announcing that military aid to Egypt will be frozen.

France Covers Obama's Middle East Retreat

In an interview with the Associated Press on Oct. 4, Barack Obama depicted Iran as a country living with sanctions "put in place because Iran had not been following international guidelines, and had behaved in ways that made a lot of people feel they were pursuing a nuclear weapon."
For French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, that was a pastels-and-wispy-brushstrokes rendering of reality. Two days later, in an interview with Europe 1 radio, Mr. Fabius drew a darker, edgier picture. "As we speak," he said, Iran keeps the centrifuges turning that are needed to make enriched uranium for nuclear bombs. But Iran is also pursuing a second, separate track toward atomic weapons with the construction, at Arak, of a heavy-water reactor producing plutonium.

Libya's Grand Mufti Wants to Veil Female Teachers

A new fatwa by Libya’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, saying that all women teachers must veil their faces when instructing males who have reached puberty has prompted the anger of liberal activists, who fear this is the start of widespread educational gender segregation.
Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani made the fatwa following a request from the Ministry of Education for advice on the issue as some schools had started to order women teachers to cover up.

Britain’s stated aim of getting Turkey to join the EU is mad

Of course now, whenever I raise the subject with people from government, I get told, sotto voce, that ‘it’s not going to happen’. Which makes you wonder about the coherence of a foreign policy where the stated and actual aims of government are so very much at odds. The trouble about Britain being so publicly and passionately in favour of Turkey in the EU is that eventually it may get what it wished for. The consequences for immigration, for social cohesiveness, for community relations, here and still more in Germany, really don’t bear thinking about.

NATO Defense Official: Turkey Plan to Purchase Chinese Weapons System Would Implant “Virus” Into NATO Command and Control System

The deal would see Turkey purchase missile defense assets from the China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC), a company that among other things is currently under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The systems would require integration with Turkey’s existing NATO assets, which would among other things require the Chinese systems to communicate with – and draw information from – NATO assets. Per an article published this morning by Turkey’s Hurriyet daily, Western defense officials are beside themselves with disbelief:

China's Mideast clout growing amid Turkey missile deal

China's likely sale of sophisticated missiles to Turkey over the objections of its NATO allies might have angered Washington and other capitals, but it should not have been a surprise.
Even as the US has spent billions of dollars and lost hundreds of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, Beijing has been quietly upping its presence in the Middle East.
Militarily, the US - which maintains a permanent aircraft carrier presence near the Gulf as well as dozens of other warships and major bases in Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - is by far the dominant regional power.

"Arab countries have spent nearly a century developing themselves and have so little to show for it"

One in a while, an Arab columnist looks at things clearly. From Rami Khoury of the Lebanon Daily Star:

An article and map in The New York Times’ Sunday edition two weeks ago examined the possibility that current upheavals may cause some Arab states to break up into smaller units. Written by the veteran foreign correspondent Robin Wright, the article created lively discussion among Middle East-focused circles in the United States, and in the Middle East it sparked wild speculation that it evidenced a new plan by Western powers, Israelis and others of evil intent to further partition large Arab countries into many smaller, weaker ones. The title of the article, “How 5 Countries Could Become 14,” naturally fed such speculation, as did the immediate linkage in millions of Arab minds of how British and French colonial officials in 1916-1918 partitioned the former Ottoman lands of the Levant into a series of new countries called Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel, while their colonial handiwork had also created new entities that ultimately became independent countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and others.

[...]
I understand the harsh reactions by Arabs who fear another possible redrawing of our map by foreign hands, but I fear that this is not really the bad news of the day; the really bad news is the state of existing Arab countries, and how most of them have done such a terrible job of managing the societies that they inherited after 1920.

The horror map is not the one published in the NYT two weeks ago; it is the existing map and condition of the Arab countries that have spent nearly a century developing themselves and have so little to show for it.

Not a single credible Arab democracy. Not a single Arab land where the consent of the governed actually matters. Not a single Arab society where individual men and women are allowed to use all their God-given human faculties of creativity, ingenuity, individuality, debate, free expression, autonomous analysis and full productivity. Not a single Arab society that can claim to have achieved a reasonably sustainable level of social and economic development, let alone anything approaching equitable development or social justice. Not a single Arab country that has protected and preserved its natural resources, especially arable land and renewable fresh water resources. Not a single Arab country that has allowed its massive, ruling military-security-intelligence sectors to come under any sort of civilian oversight. Not a single Arab country that has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign arms and other imports and found itself able to ensure the security of its own land and people. And not a single Arab country that has developed an education system that harnesses and honors the immense wealth and power of millions of its own young Arab minds, rather than corralling those minds into intellectual sheep pens where the mind’s free choice is inoperative, and life only comprises following orders.

This perverse reality of Arab statehood and independence – not any possible future map – is the ugly reality that should anger us, even shame us. We have endured this for over four generations now, unsurprisingly bringing us to the point today where every single Arab country, without exception, experiences open revolt of its citizens for freedom, dignity and democracy of some sort, demands for real constitutional reforms, or expressions of grievances via social media by citizens in some wealthy oil-producing states who are afraid to speak out because they will go to jail for tweeting their most human sentiments or aspirations.

There is not much to be proud of in the modern era of Arab statehood, and much to fix and rebuild along more rational, humane lines. I don’t much care about lines on a map. I do care about the trajectories of our own national management experiences, which have been mostly disappointing, and in some cases profoundly derelict.

When Westerners say things like this out loud - all of which are obvious to everyone - they are accused of Islamophobia or racism.

There is one nation in the Middle East would be more than happy to work with every Arab country to improve their economies, their educational systems, and their environmental issues. But the same mindset that keeps Arabs from reaching their potential within their countries is the one that stops Arabs from being interested in real peace with the country that has the desire and means to help them improve and grow.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

A website called Stop910.com, which claims to be "an association of western intelligence organizations established to fight the threat of terror" and specifically gathers information about Hizballah, claims to have new information about one of Hizballah's founders Moustafa Amin Bader El-Din.

The site is registered in Belgium and its servers are in Slovakia. The idea that it is run by western intelligence organizations seems far-fetched. It asks the public to (securely) submit information about Hizballah operatives. While it seems a little sketchy, the information it claims it found about Bader El-Din is making some waves in Israeli and Arab websites.

Moustafa Amin Bader El-Din, born in 1961, heads Hezbollah's security apparatus. Bader El-Din, who now lives in Haret Hreik, Beirut, was one of the founding fathers of Hezbollah, and has filled a series of military and security positions in the organization. He was appointed to his current position following the death of his brother-in-law, Imad Mughniya, in February 2008.

Bader El-Din is a dominant figure in Hezbollah. He is one of Secretary General Nasrallah's closest associates, has close connections with the leadership of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and is heavily involved in Hezbollah's decision-making process across the board, but especially when it comes to its terror policy at home and abroad. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri in 2005 named Bader El-Din as the senior defendant in the assassination, concluding that he had commanded the operational forces.

Bader El-Din is responsible for Hezbollah's ESO – Unit 910. The unit mounted the attack on the bus of tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July 2012, which claimed six lives. This attack followed a series of attempts the unit made under Bader El-Din's leadership to attack various targets all over the world over the past few years. Bader El-Din's career in Hezbollah began in the early 1980s, and he has since participated in many horrific attacks against various targets throughout the world. In 1983, for example, he played a part in the attacks on U.S. and French forces operating in Beirut, which claimed the lives of hundreds of victims.

Bader El-Din was also involved in establishing a terror cell that operated in Kuwait, for which he was arrested and sentenced to death. Following his arrest, Hezbollah's ESO began mounting attacks in Kuwait and abroad, in the hope of achieving his release. These included hijacks of Kuwaiti and Western airplanes, and abductions of Western citizens in Beirut. Bader El-Din escaped from prison during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and returned to Lebanon. He is considered to be lacking in interpersonal skills, and his acrimonious relationships with his subordinates and ties with his colleagues in the Hezbollah leadership are fraught with suspicion. The death of Mughniya in 2008 raised Bader El- Din's status in Hezbollah, and to some extent fueled the hostility that had developed between Bader El-Din and his colleagues in Hezbollah over the years.

Bader El-Din's behavior is highly secretive. He is guarded heavily around the clock, and goes to great lengths to avoid being photographed. Until now, the most up-to-date photograph published of Bader El-Din dates back to the 1990s.

Besides his position in Hezbollah, Bader El-Din also does a great deal of business in Lebanon and abroad, and is considered an affluent property owner.