Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Abbas lies to UN, as usual

Abbas' speech to the UN was filled with the usual lies, but this one was a beauty:

...We keep reaching out to the Israeli side saying: let us work to make the culture of peace reign...

From official PA TV, last month:

PA TV host: “We will now take a short break – to the poetry section by the girl Tala...”
Girl: “When I was young I was taught that Arabness is my honor...
and that our lands extend from one end to the other,
and that our wars were for the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
and that our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail,
and that our nation's armies are outstanding.”

How's that for a "culture of peace"?

Chag Sameach, with old Simchat Torah flags

We are now in the home stretch of Jewish holidays, with Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah on Thursday (and, outside Israel on Friday.)

YNet Hebrew has a fascinating article showing the history of Simchat Torah flags in Israel. (These are cheap disposable flags mass produced and given to kids to wave during the celebrations in the synagogue.) They note, for example, that while before Israel was reborn, Simchat Torah flags tended to emphasize the phrase "Rejoice and be happy on Simchat Torah," during the 1940s Israeli flags started emphasizing more the verse "From Zion shall go forth the Torah."

This flag has both, along with a tractor showing the reclamation of the Land:

This flag was created soon after the State of Israel was declared, showing both ancient Jewish holy places and more modern Israeli buildings on a backdrop that resembles the Israeli flag:

This flag from the 1950s apparently includes (according to the article) an implicit reference to a famous rabbinic saying in Pirke Avot 5:20: "Yehuda ben Teima said: Be strong as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a stag, and mighty as a lion to do the will of your Father in Heaven." (I think that the "leopard" looks more like a gazelle, though.)

The article also shows how the flags reflected diversity - even during the 1950s, when Israel is now excoriated for how badly it treated its Jews from Arab countries, the flags showed both Ashkenaz and Edot HaMizrach kids, setting the stage for the next generation to get rid of earlier prejudice.

Have a great holiday, and I will return to blogging on Saturday night.

9/25 Links Part 2: The UN's 2 Types of Refugees, Double Standards Over Gibraltar, Kenya Roundup

From Ian:

Why Does UN Have Two Distinct Groups of Refugees, One for Palestinians and for Everyone Else?

Huffington Post blogger Diane Bederman tackles the issue of refugees in her latest blog, revealing a double standard in the treatment and definition of refugees worldwide. As Bederman’s commentary points out, with 43 million refugees worldwide, why does the UN have two distinct groups of refugees, one for Palestinians and and one for everyone else? According to Bederman:

“There are currently 43-million uprooted victims of conflict and persecution worldwide. There are two distinct groups of refugees and service providers: The UNHCR overseeing 10.4-million refugees worldwide; and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) caring for 4.8-million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the “occupied” Palestinian territory. In 2005 UNRWA had a staff of 24,300, and $339 million to support 4.1-million Palestinian refugees in just five territories (or $83 per refugee), while UNHCR, with a staff of 6,450 had $992 million to support 19.2-million refugees and asylum seekers in 116 countries (or $52 per refugee).

Where's the Palestinian Nelson Mandela?

Secondly, though he was in favor of a Palestinian state, Mandela insisted it be obtained through peace negotiations. And above all, he reiterated on a number of occasions Israel's right to exist with secure borders. In particular, in a speech in October 1999 he said, "I cannot conceive of Israel's withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel with secure borders."
In a world where Israel Apartheid week is hosted in cities and on university campuses, where the call for a crusade for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel has been voiced, and where Palestinian textbooks fan the flames of hatred and violent revenge against Israel, the lack of a Palestinian Mandela willing to lead his forces in peace negotiations with the State of Israel is a dramatic denial of the moral purpose of the great South African who should be a role model.

Melanie Phillips: A devastating truth

What are those facts?
The first is that the Arab-Israel nine decade-plus war is not a boundary dispute about the division of land. It is a war of extermination by Arab aggressors against the internationally-agreed right of the Jews to govern themselves in their own historic homeland.
The second fact is far more devastating. The single most important reason why this Arab-Israel war continues apparently without end is that, from the very start, first the British and then the Americans and the EU have rewarded Palestinian Arab aggression and punished its Jewish victims or pushed them to surrender. Not surprisingly, the Palestinians have therefore been encouraged to continue to attack Israelis with impunity, to this very day.

CIF Watch: CiF Watch prompts Guardian correction: Evidently, Jews didn’t ‘storm the mosque’

We’re thankful that Guardian editors belatedly (if only implicitly) acknowledged the fantastical nature of the claim that Jews were ‘storming the mosque’ “for Yom Kippur.”

EU: What’s Fine for Spain Is Unacceptable for Israel

Recent news reports from Spain beautifully illustrate why nobody should take the European Union’s pretensions to moral superiority seriously–and especially not when it comes to Israel. Spain is now committing virtually every “abuse” the EU sanctimoniously accuses Israel of, without a peep of protest from its European peers.
For instance, Spain recently erected checkpoints along its border with Gibraltar that are creating real hardship. The checkpoints have lengthened travel times from 45 minutes to two hours for cross-border commuters and also increased costs, since people who used to drive now combine foot travel and taxis to reach work on time. These are precisely the complaints Europeans routinely level at Israeli checkpoints: that they undermine the Palestinian economy by increasing the time and expense of commuting to work or moving cargo. (h/t MtTB)

Kenyan Foreign Minister: “We Are Not Going to Apologise for Being Friends with Israel

There’s a striking contrast between the reaction to terrorist attacks in countries like India or Kenya and attacks in Europe and America. In the former there are no apologies and a relentless desire to go after those responsible.
Oh sure President Uhuru Kenyatta sounds a lot like a Western leader talking about how diversity is our strength and praising the people standing in line to give blood. But then he says things like this, “They shall not getaway with their despicable, beastly acts. Like the cowardly perpetrators now cornered in the building, we will punish the masterminds swiftly and painfully.”
On the other hand there’s the rather blunt statement of Kenya’s foreign minister. “We are not going to apologise for being friends with Israel and other nations,” said Amina Mohammed.

Israeli forensics experts in Nairobi helping with attack aftermath

Israeli forensics experts are helping the Kenyan government comb the site of the terrorist takeover of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya’s cabinet secretary said on Twitter Wednesday.
Francis Kimemia wrote on Twitter that, “Leading forensic experts from other countries allowed to join including ISRAEL, USA and UK but Kenya leads.”

Israeli Military Support in Nairobi Highlights Longstanding Ties

As Kenyan troops battle to end the bloody siege at Nairobi's Westgate mall, which has already killed at least 62 people and left nearly 200 wounded, report have been circulating that a team of Israeli military advisers were flown in as early as Sunday morning to help Kenyan security forces root out Islamist terrorists and rescue the remaining hostages.
Such reports should come as no surprise, as the Jewish State has long viewed East Africa as a region of major strategic and economic importance.
"Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea are three countries which are crucial for Israel because they act as a buffer zone in a region which is seeing Islamic fundamentalism growing at a rapid pace," said Galia Sabar, head of African studies at Tel Aviv University.

Israeli Minister Steinitz Compares Nairobi Mall Attackers to Palestinian Terror Groups (INTERVIEW)

Similarly, said Steinitz, “the Palestinians – and I’m not speaking about Hamas; I’m speaking about the Palestinian Authority – they still educate the next generation of Palestinians to hate Israel, with the messages that at the end of the day Israel must be destroyed, that there is no place for a Jewish entity or a Jewish state in the Middle East, that Jews are terrible creatures that corrupt the vicinity and, therefore, must be gotten rid of sooner or later – it’s those underlying messages that young Palestinians are getting, not just from Hamas and terrorist organizations in Gaza but also the West Bank.”

Somali-American leader: ‘I tried to warn America’ about homegrown radicalization

Bihi blames CAIR with coming between his organization and the Abubakar as-Saddique mosque in Minneapolis. “It’s a big mosque,” he said. “That mosque lately has been doing works to combat al-Shabaab.” But he said when the mosque was more closely affiliated with CAIR, it was a center for recruitment by radicals. “All of our kids were going there for years. That’s where indoctrination happened,” he said.

Muslim group: ‘Who cares’ if US terrorists in Kenya mall siege

One of the most prominent and controversial Muslim-American advocacy groups says “who cares” if American jihadists were involved in the murderous terror attack on a shopping mall in Kenya.
“It doesn’t matter who’s involved in it,” Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The Post.
“Terrorism is terrorism, whether it is Americans involved or anyone from any nation or background. Who cares?” he said.

Israel at center of censorship controversies in Canadian universities

McGill University received an F, tying it with seven schools for second worst in the country. In 2012, the Students’ Society of McGill University told the student group McGill Friends of Israel that they had to change the name of their Israel A-Party event because executives felt it made “a mockery and/or trivialization of various oppressions some people of the world are subject to on a day-to-day basis.” The event was designed to be a counter to Israel Apartheid Week, an annual nationwide event that seeks to promote labeling Israel as apartheid.
Co-author of the study Michael Kennedy said that it was a particularly glaring transgression, considering the university permitted Israel Apartheid week events to take place without protest, according to The Gazette, a Montreal-based newspaper.

Rare Photos Show Jews in Lodz Ghetto Observing Sukkot in 1941

A series of photos documenting the observance of Sukkot in the Lodz Ghetto in 1941 were recently revealed by the Shem Olam Institute.
The photos show the ghetto’s Jewish occupants praying with the four species: the etrog (citron), and the lulav, hadas, and aravah, (palm, willow, and myrtle) required for Sukkot. The pictures also show the prisoners had built a sukkah, the special temporary dwelling for eating and sleeping throughout the Jewish holiday.

Italian cyclist Gino Bartali recognized as righteous gentile

The Jewish-Christian network, Yad Vashem said, “saved hundreds of local Jews and Jewish refugees from territories which had previously been under Italian control, mostly in France and Yugoslavia.”
Bartali, who died in 2000 at 85, had acted as a courier for the network, according to Yad Vashem, “secreting forged documents and papers in his bicycle and transporting them between cities, all under the guise of training.”
It added, “Knowingly risking his life to rescue Jews, Bartali transferred falsified documents to various contacts, among them Rabbi Cassuto.”

Tal-Ya trays focus on increasing ROI for farmers worldwide

Tal-Ya’s product is a unique tray which saves farmers over 50% in water and 30% fertilizer resources, while preventing weed-growth. But the real news, according to Tamir, is in the dramatic acceleration in crop yield, and this is where farmers are going to feel the most dramatic improvement in their Return on Investment (ROI). “Even we were surprised in field trials to see trees start to yield crops a full season before control groups. After 2-3 years it’s astounding to see a tree that has a Tal-Ya tray standing alongside one that does not. The trees which use the trays are much larger, more developed and bear significantly more crops. Within every season, yield in crops comes sooner than in control groups, shortening farmer’s time to market, creating a major business advantage,” Tamir tells us that the relatively low cost of the trays can usually be reimbursed in water, fertilizer and weed-killer savings within a season, leaving farmers to enjoy the significantly increased revenue from the larger crop yields for seasons to come.

US nudists rebuff Israel critics

An American nudist organization is firing back at critics of its partnership with Artists 4 Israel, a pro-Israel group that brings artists to Israel to “offset the fear and destruction of conflict,” according to its site.
Young Naturists America, a group in the New York area promoting nude recreation and a healthy body image, announced an A4I event in New York City to raise money for artists to travel to the Golan Heights and create art in bomb shelters.

Faster, easier, more accurate test for gastro bacteria

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about two-thirds of the world population is affected by the H. pylori bacteria, which causes peptic ulcers and gastric inflammation, and is associated with stomach cancer. The most common way to detect this type of bacteria is a blood test.
“In the US, there are 4.2 million blood tests for H. pylori every year, and that is invasive and takes days to get results,” Cohen tells ISRAEL21c from the company’s New Jersey office, which is handling the global launch of this 99 percent accurate “test and treat” device.

5 facts about Israel’s energy sector

Superstar investor Warren Buffett must have been taken aback when natural gas started flowing to Israel from the Tamar field this year. Buffet famously said, “If you’re going to the Middle East to look for oil, you can skip Israel. If you’re looking for brains, look no further,” but the recent developments of Israel’s offshore gas have turned the conventional wisdom about Israel’s natural resources on its head.
In 2013, the gas is expected to add an entire percentage point to economic growth.

Iron Dome from Rafael Defense Systems

And can fire them when they get pregnant.

Qatar Airways has come under scrutiny on Wednesday after it was accused of forcing its female workers to seek permission from the company when they decide to get married.

In a report released by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) on Tuesday, the airline was found to also mandate that women tell a supervisor if they become pregnant.

The airline then reserves the right to fire them upon the discovery, according to the ITF report, alleging the violation of the basic labor rights of Qatar Airway’s 28,000 employees.

According to the ITF, a standard hiring contract for thousands of the airline’s female workers reads: “You are required to obtain prior permission from the company, in case you wish to change your marital status and get married.

“The employee shall notify the employer in case of pregnancy from the date of her knowledge of its occurrence. The employer shall have the right to terminate the contract of employment from the date of notification of the pregnancy. Failure of employee to notify the employer or the concealment of the occurrence shall be considered a breach of contract.”

Saudi Vice episode 35: Let's celebrate without dancing and singing

It's been a while since the last episode of:

From Al Arabiya:

The Saudi religious police warned against singing and dancing in public places on Monday as the kingdom marks its 83rd National Day, according to DPA.

Turki al-Shalil, a spokesman for the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice religious police, said in a press statement on Monday that violators will face “disciplinary actions.”

Festivities are planned nationwide to mark the 83rd anniversary of the unification of the kingdom.

I guess choreographed dancing flash mobs are a rarity in the Kingdom.

Its so nice to know that the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is keeping everyone on their toes.

Well, not literally, since that could lead to dancing.

9/25 Links Part 1: UN Roundup, Obama's 'More Stable World', Amb. Prosor - Laugh With Me

From Ian:

Obama is Playing Texas Fold ‘Em

So forget about stopping Iran from acquiring the bomb. We have now proven that, even after using weapons of mass destruction, we will not move to punish those responsible. To put it bluntly, it would be a tragedy if Iran were to detonate a nuclear device in Israel, but Obama will hold no one responsible so long as all such weapons are then surrendered to the various powers (i.e. the Russians) that helped provide the weapons in the first place. If we have learned anything over the last few weeks, it’s that, despite his stern rhetoric, President Obama has proven that his policy is not “containment,” but actually “avoidance.” That sound we just heard was the Iranians pushing their chips into the pot… they’re all in.

Iran could use a nuclear weapon against Israel and get away with it

With diplomacy and sanctions failing, world leaders still give lip service to the dangers of a nuclear Iran. But they often dismiss the idea that Iran would actually use a nuclear weapon against Israel. They believe that Iran is a rational actor, and that Israel’s strong nuclear deterrent is sufficient to safeguard the Jewish state. It is not.
Israel’s deterrent capacity is only effective against conventional nuclear attacks. If Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, or one of its terror proxies, detonated a suitcase bomb inside of Israel, it would be nearly impossible to prove that Iran’s leaders ordered the attack. And without conclusive evidence of Tehran’s direct involvement, an Israeli counterattack would be illegal, unjust, and unwise. Therefore, it is plausible that Iran could use a tactical nuclear weapon against Israel without a serious fear of an Israeli reprisal.

Obama’s message to Netanyahu: Palestine for Iran

With Obama having specified Tuesday that the Iranian nuclear issue and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the two current key focuses of his foreign policy, Netanyahu will likely hear from the president, at their meeting in the White House scheduled for next Monday, the promise of a firm American stance on the nuclear issue and the expectation of a generous Israeli position regarding Palestinian peace negotiations.
“Real breakthroughs on these two issues — Iran’s nuclear program, and Israeli-Palestinian peace — would have a profound and positive impact on the entire Middle East and North Africa,” Obama promised on Tuesday, linking the two again.

Minister to Obama: Israeli Existence Not ‘Dependent’ on PA State

Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) expressed concern Tuesday following United States President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations, in which he referred to Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) as “the occupation of the West Bank” and argued that “Israel’s security… depends on the realization of a Palestinian state.”
“I believe this is one of the most disturbing statements that a United States president has ever made,” Katz wrote on his Facebook page.
“Mr. President, the existence of the state of Israel is unconditional, and does not depend on the Palestinians,” he declared.

Obama to Palestinians: Peace won’t be easy

Obama praised Abbas, saying, “President Abbas I think has consistently rejected violence, has recognized the need for peace, and I’m grateful to him for his efforts.”
The US president was also careful to emphasize American support for the fragile rule of the Palestinian Authority.

400 Killed in Terror in 5 Days and Obama Says ‘World More Stable’

Islamic terrorists killed 70 plus people in Kenya, 78 Christians in Pakistan, 142 people in Somalia and about 100 in Iraq the past four days, but President Barack Obama told the United Nations Tuesday, ”The world is a more stable place than it was five years ago.”

Elliott Abrams: Obama’s U.N. Speech Showed Indifference to Freedom and Religious Minorities in Middle East

What is the message here to Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and other religious minorities who live in the Middle East? Tragically the message is that they don’t even exist in his eyes. He actually made a reference to Christians in the very next sentence, apparently unaware that Christian communities are under attack every day in the region — most recently in Egypt. “Sectarian tensions” are not the problem; attacks on religious minorities are the problem that is destroying Christian communities, and the solution is not for it to be “addressed by Muslim communities” as if the non-Muslims were not citizens with equal rights and greater antiquity.

JPost Ed: Rouhani's charm offensive

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has his work cut out for him as he prepares for his speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, October 1.
As was the case last year, the danger to the world presented by Iran’s nuclear-weapon ambitions will be the main focus of Netanyahu’s speech.
However, unlike last year, when Netanyahu generated enormous media attention by holding up a cartoon of a bomb at the US General Assembly and drawing an actual as well as proverbial “redline,” this year the prime minister will have a more difficult job convincing the world that Iran is a threat to regional stability.

Netanyahu slams Rouhani’s UN speech as a ‘cynical PR charade’

Rouhani, said Netanyahu, “spoke about human rights at a time when Iranian forces are participating in the slaughter of innocent civilians in Syria. He condemned terrorism at a time when the Iranian regime carries out terrorism in dozens of countries worldwide. He spoke of a peaceful nuclear program at a time when the IAEA has established that the [Iranian] program has military characteristics, and when it’s plain to all that one of the world’s most oil-rich nations is not investing a fortune in ballistic missiles and underground nuclear facilities in order to produce electricity.”

Steinitz: Rouhani Speech Offers Zero New Steps

Steinitz, the head of the Israeli delegation that boycotted Rouhani’s UN General Assembly address, said the new Iranian president tried "to cheat the world, and unfortunately many people are willing to be cheated."
"We heard a lot of new rhetoric but zero new steps or even zero new commitments to meet the UN Security Council resolutions," Steinitz was quoted by AFP as having told reporters.
"We didn't hear ... Rouhani regret or withdraw from previous denial of the Holocaust by previous Iranian leaders," he added.

Israel, Jewish Organizations View Rouhani’s UN Speech With Skepticism

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed Rouhani’s departure from the anti-Semitic ramblings of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but criticized his lack of sincerity about Iran’s nuclear program.
“Given the opportunity to answer constructively and honestly the greatest global security concern today, President Rouhani chose to continue the long-standing Iranian line of avoidance of the truth about his country’s nuclear program,” American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris said in a statement.
“President Rouhani’s ‘charm offensive’ before the United Nations General Assembly fell well short of addressing in any serious way the harsh reality of Iran’s decades-long quest for nuclear weapons,” said Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL national chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, in a joint statement.

Rioters throw stones at security forces at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Israeli police raided the al-Aksa Mosque in search of several men involved in riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.
After rioters threw stones at security forces stationed at the Temple Mount, several of the rioters fled to the al-Aksa Mosque, leading police to enter the site after them.
The Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported that seven Palestinians were injured during the raid.

Jewish Couple, Young Child, Escape Lynch-Mob in Jerusalem

A young Jewish couple from the town of Beit El, along with their four year-old son, narrowly escaped death after an Arab lynch mob attacked their car near Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood.
Asaf and Naama Bruchi were travelling through the largely Arab neighborhood when their car stopped in traffic. Suddenly, they were pelted by rocks and other missiles, and found their car surrounded by Arab thugs.

Arab Riots Shut Down Highway North of Jerusalem

IDF commanders have ordered the closure of part of the old Highway 60, which runs near the Israeli community of Beit El in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem. The road connects the Arab cities of Ramallah and Shechem, and is used by PA resident drivers.
The decision was made after Arab rioters made life extremely difficult for Jewish families living near the outskirts of Beit El.

PA Arab Youths Call for New Intifada

The group, which calls itself the "Coalition of Intifada Youth in Palestine" on Tuesday issued a call for a new intifada to break out on the anniversary of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, which broke out on September 28, 2000.
In a pamphlet it distributed, the group stated that the way of the intifada had in the past united “the Palestinian people” and will unite them again.
The group called for confrontations with "the occupation forces at all points of friction in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Al-Quds and the land that has been occupied since 1948," starting this Friday, September 27.

David Horovitz: ‘If the world had acted morally, 50,000 Syrians could have been saved’

The international community has failed the people of Syria by waiting more than two years to take an effective stance against the Assad regime’s mass killings, Asa Kasher, the co-author of the IDF’s Code of Conduct and an authority on the moral doctrines that shape military actions, said in an interview this week with The Times of Israel.
“One hundred thousand have apparently been killed, mostly by the regime’s actions. And the world didn’t even shout,” Kasher said. If a credible threat of military action had been issued earlier, he said, the diplomatic process would have started more quickly, “and maybe 50,000 or 60,000 people might still be alive.”

Syria's Assad is fortunate in his enemies

Bashar al-Assad, who only a month ago faced the likelihood of U.S. missile strikes that could have tipped the balance of Syria's war against him, has won a reprieve.
His supporters, political sources in Damascus say, are jubilant, convinced the threat of regime change has lifted and that the Assads can face down opponents they consider weak - U.S. President Barack Obama and France's President Francois Hollande among them - just as they saw off their predecessors.
"I think they feel that they can live this out and wait for leaders like Hollande and Obama to leave office, just as they did with Jacques Chirac and George W. Bush," said one well-placed source in Damascus, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"I think Assad feels that the chemical weapons actually saved his regime, rather than brought it down."

Can We Really Negotiate With Iran?

Should the Obama Administration become heavily invested in a diplomatic track with Iran, skepticism and dismay will emanate from two main sources. Firstly, the conservative Sunni monarchies in the Arab Gulf, who dread the thought that Shi’ite Iran might one day dangle a nuclear weapon over their heads. Secondly, Israel, which has poured scorn on Rouhani’s words, and for whom the following points remain non-negotiable: a complete halt to uranium enrichment, the removal of enriched uranium from Iran, the dismantling of underground nuclear facilities, and an end to any efforts to use plutonium to produce a nuclear bomb.
That’s why, when Khamenei speaks of Iran’s “main principles,” we should remind ourselves of ours. The real dilemma posed by nuclear weapons is not who owns them, but who is prepared to use them. For decades, Israel’s nuclear weapons, which don’t officially exist, have served as a fundamental guarantor of regional peace and stability: If that vital military edge is removed by an Iranian bomb, the Middle East will be more perilous than it has ever been. Just as worryingly, if Israel judges that any negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are going nowhere, Jerusalem could take the radical step of pre-emptively striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, in order to eliminate what continues to be a very real existential threat.

Israel Trolls Iran With Parody Rouhani LinkedIn Account

At 6:15 p.m. Monday, Israel’s embassy in Washington tweeted a link to a parody LinkedIn account for Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani. While many have been heartened by Rouhani’s recent public statements expressing a desire to negotiate an end to his country’s nuclear standoff with the West, the Israelis at least are not buying it.
The parody LinkedIn page refers to Rouhani as “President of Iran, Expert Salesman, PR Professional and Nuclear Proliferation Advocate.” Among the president’s skills listed on the page are “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” “Ballistics,” and “Military Justice.”

The Real Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is on a charm offensive.
But the real Rouhani is no moderate.
He is a career terrorist with American blood on his hands.

A Secret Preview of Rouhani's Tweets This Week

Through a rip in the Twitter time-space continuum (something that should be fixed before the big IPO), I've managed to get hold of the messages Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will post during his visit to New York this week. Here are some of them.

Israel’s U.N. Envoy Has a Message for the World: Laugh With Me

Finally, Prosor released a quote to the wire services: “Putting Iran and Syria on a Human Rights Council is like putting the Godfather in charge of a witness-protection program.” As far as Prosor was concerned, it wasn’t enough that Syria and Iran be condemned—they had to be mocked. And it worked: That night, Reuters included the line in its report about Syria’s decision to withdraw its candidacy.
The incident is emblematic of the signature style of Israel’s unorthodox ambassador to the United Nations. For Prosor, who assumed the position in June 2011, humor is an essential tool for conducting diplomacy—and the often comical corridors of U.N. are the ideal stage for his act.

Syrian media upset that Rouhani acknowledged the Holocaust

Syria's "General Organization of Radio and TV" has an op-ed by Dr. Ibrahim Alwash attacking Iran's president Hassan Rouhani for saying that the Holocaust occurred.

The article mostly accuses Rouhani and Iran of selling out, including the Rosh Hashanah greeting to Jews by its foreign minister Zarif, noting that his greeting by definition must have also included Jews who "occupy Palestine!"

Alwash says that Iran is trying to ingratiate itself with the US and is of course using the Jews to help bring this about.

But he is most upset about the Holocaust statement, saying that Jews use the event to justify the existence of Israel, which is of course an unpardonable crime.

While Alwash does not explicitly deny the Holocaust in this article, according to his Wikipedia and Facebook page he is a "researcher" on the topic and he does consider the Holocaust to be a myth. Here is how he illustrates his latest Facebook entry:

Alwash is not a Syrian although he is a staunch defender of the Assad regime. He is a Jordanian of Palestinian origin.

A child wedding (and photo caption bias) in Gaza

From Reuters:

Young Palestinian groom Ahmed Soboh, 15 and his bride Tala, 14, stand inside Tala's house which was damaged during an Israeli strike in 2009, during their wedding party in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border between Israeli and northern Gaza Strip September 24, 2013.

Reuters, instead of focusing on the child abuse occurring in Gaza where children are told to marry, instead makes this into an anti-Israel story by mentioning that the photo was taken inside a home damaged by Israel during a war Hamas started four years ago.

Why were the children posed in a damaged home? Was this the photographer's idea or the family's? Why could the damage not be repaired for the last four years? Was spackle too expensive?

The entire series of photos, which can be seen at this Italian site, shows that there are other poses in front of damaged buildings (although that site doesn't point it out in the captions):

Here's the sister of the groom:

What a perfect place to take a celebration photo! The dirty laundry adds a true artistic flavor, does it not?

Reuters doesn't bother mentioning that the bride and groom are below the legal age of marriage under the PA as well as under Egyptian law that governs Gaza. It doesn't go into how Sharia law is creeping into Gaza life. No, it specifically turns a purely Arab story into one where Israel can be blamed, no matter how tenuous the connection.

The Palestinian Arabs and the media are in the game together. Truth is not the objective - propaganda is.

Miftah is against peaceful co-existence. Do its funders know that?

Among the organizations that are funded by the Anna Lindh Foundation are The Abraham Fund, "to promote coexistence and equality among Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens." It also funds PeacePlayers International, which "uses the game of basketball to facilitate positive relations and peaceful coexistence between Israeli and Palestinian communities – in short, to bridge divides, change perceptions, and develop leaders who will advocate for a shared future."

The Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation is associated with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and is meant "to deepen the knowledge and understanding of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel through conferences, public lectures and workshops, as well as research studies, publications and documentation."

A UNESCO paper on "The influence of education on conflict and peace building" quotes an Israeli study: ‘A series of quasi-experimental studies carried out with Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian youngsters revealed that despite the ongoing violence, participation in various programs yield positive attitudinal, perceptual and relational changes manifested in, for example, more positive views of "peace,” better ability to see the other side's perspective, and greater willingness for contact.'

The Government of Norway strongly supports co-existence programs, as this 2006 speech by their Foreign Minister emphasizes:

So, what opportunities do we have for peaceful coexistence?

I believe the key tool in our globalised world is dialogue. Dialogue based on a firm understanding of values, human rights and mutual obligations.

Some say that dialogue and compromise are signs of weakness.

I strongly disagree. I believe that dialogue and compromise are essential if we are to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Opening a dialogue does not mean giving up conflicting principles or values. It is a way of managing fundamental differences. Dialogue can be seen as a value – as a success – in its own right. And dialogue and engagement are ancient tools of diplomacy – ancient and at the same time modern. Those who believe solely in military intervention are just ancient – and not modern at all.

What do all of these organizations have in common, besides a clear commitment to the benefits of coexistence?

They all fund an organization that is explicitly against coexistence!

Miftah, which we have already exposed for pushing the anti-semitic blood libel and for explicitly supporting terrorism, now has stated that it is against any program that supports Jewish-Arab dialogue for peace.

This week, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy held a special meeting of the Palestinian Youth Network entitled “Normalization” as part of its “Empowerment of Palestinian Youth Leadership” program in partnership with NDC.

MIFTAH hosted university professor Dr. Abdel Rahim Al Sheikh, who first offered a definition of normalization, its various forms and the position the society towards it in order to develop methods and mechanisms for dealing with this issue. He said that normalization includes the following: participation in any project, initiative or local or international activity designed specifically to bring together (whether directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (whether individuals or institutions) and which do not clearly aim at resisting the occupation and exposing all of its forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people, in addition to establishing projects or activities aimed at “achieving peace” without agreeing on inalienable Palestinian rights according to international law and the conditions for justice.

...Dr. Al Sheikh pointed to the danger of meetings organized between Palestinian and Israeli youth within the framework of getting to know one another and spreading a culture of peace and dialogue in an ordinary fashion that considers both sides as equals in the conflict.

The participants expressed their viewpoints on the subject, stressing on the need to denounce all normalization activities and projects, which did do not serve the Palestinian cause or its people.

Miftah is saying that it is adamantly against dialogue with any Zionist, with any Israeli, or with any Jew who does not a priori denounce Zionism and say that he or she supports "resistance."

That isn't a dialogue - that is a monologue.

It is crystal clear that Miftah is diametrically opposed to the examples of coexistence that are supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation, UNESCO, KAS, the Government of Norway and other Miftah funders.

Which makes one ask - why do these organizations send money to an NGO that is on the record as being against co-existence and dialogue? Don't they care that their money is going to an organization that opposes some of their key programs?

Perhaps it is time to ask them.

The Anna Lindh Foundation info@euromedalex.org Facebook TWITTER - @AnnaLindh
Konrad Adenauer Foundation - Palestinian Territories Info.Ramallah@kas.de TWITTER - @KASOnline
UNESCO - English media editor r.amelan@unesco.org TWITTER - @UNESCO
Representative Office of Norway repram@mfa.no TWITTER @NorwayMFA

Plus the other funders of Miftah who no doubt would be surprised that they are giving money to an organization that is against the most basic requirement for peace:

Oxfam UK enquiries@oxfam.org.uk Facebook TWITTER - @OXFAM
Secretariat for Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem segreteria.gerusalemme@esteri.it @FarnesinaPress
Heinrich Böll Foundation info@boell.de Facebook Arab Middle East FB TWITTER - @boell_stiftung
Austrian Development Agency oeza.info@ada.gv.at
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ireland contact page List of Twitter contacts TWITTER - @dfatirl
International Republican Institute webpage contact TWITTER - IRIGlobal

Here are the Jewish American "leaders" who fawned over Abbas

Earlier today I wondered what idiotic Jews were going to a lecture and Q&A with Mahmoud Abbas without challenging him with a single damning question.'

The answer is here:

The dinner, hosted by Center founder and chairman Dan Abraham and Center president Congressman Robert Wexler at the Plaza Hotel, was organized at the request of Abbas.

Abraham, Wexler and Abbas opened the discussion with brief introductory remarks. Abbas then answered questions from the assembled guests. The event lasted one hour and a half.

Guests included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, and former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer; Professor Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University; Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN’s The Situation Room; Congresswoman Nita Lowey; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center; Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women; Peter Joseph, president of the Israel Policy Forum; Daniel Lubetsky, founder of OneVoice; Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Foundation; Professor Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize recipient; Abby Joseph Cohen, board member of the Jewish Theological Seminary and other American Jewish community leaders and foreign policy scholars.

These are not American Jewish leaders. They are prominent American Jews who were handpicked to ensure that it would be a swell evening with the Holocaust minimizing, Olympics massacre-funding, terrorist-supporting, human-rights denying, intransigent dictator of the Palestinian Authority.

Instead of asking questions to expose Abbas as the liar and extremist that he is, he was fawned over by these so-called "leaders." Some of their questions are would make anyone cringe:

Alan Dershowitz: If only the people at this table were responsible for making peace I think we would have peace. Virtually everyone here is opposed to Israel’s settlement policy and wishes it would end. …

My question is this – Bill Clinton once said to me in a conversation, the real problems is, dammit Israel is a democracy and the PA is a democracy. Therefore before you make peace both sides have to persuade their constituents. And sometimes good things produce bad results. Let me give you an example. Many of us in this room were very active in bringing a million Soviet Jews to Israel. That was a great thing but it produced an extreme right wing in Israel which made peace more difficult. My question to you is how do you and we together work to persuade the constituencies on both sides that are opposed to the two state solution that it is in their interest to bring about a two state solution. How can we use democracy to help us rather than serve as a barrier to peace?

I could fisk his answer, about how most Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews want a two state solution (it isn't true) like I have fisked his lies dozens of times, but the problem here isn't the answer - the problem is the question. Here we have Alan Dershowitz, who is a wonderful defender of Israel's right to exist, telling the enemy (and yes, Abbas is the enemy) that Israeli democracy is a problem because so many Israelis aren't as bowled over by Abbas as Dershowitz is.

In reality, Russian Jews in particular are attuned to how dictatorships work, what real oppression is, and what anti-semitism is - and they see it all in Abbas' Palestinian Authority. Dershowitz' chutzpah is to say that American Jews know what is best for Israelis and Israelis don't - so he wants to work with a certifiable terror cheerleader to short-circuit Israeli democracy!

Not to mention his absurd characterization of the PA as a democracy. Unreal.

I met Dershowitz, I like Dershowitz, but this is sickening.

And so are practically all of the other sycophantic, deferential questions asked by these prominent liberal Jews.

The problem goes even beyond the wishful thinking I've noted many times before that trump any possibility of an honest ability to weigh the facts. The problem is this: just like Arabs tend to project their own violent history and desires onto Jews in Arabic, liberal Jews want to project their own fervent desire for peace onto any Arab dictator who wears a suit and mouths nice things in English.

It is closer to psychosis than it is to realism.

Right-wing Jews want peace too. Russian Jews want peace. Religious Jews want peace. Likudniks and Naftali Bennett want peace. Practically everyone wants peace - but they are not willing to risk their own families' lives for empty promises. And nothing that the PA has done gives any of them security that real peace is the objective of their Arab neighbors.

The Israeli and Western press is filled with talk about peace, plans for peace, methods to achieve peace, references to peace studies, quotes from so-called experts who work at "peace centers" like the one that hosted this talk.

But the Arabic press essentially never mentions peace.

Their media has lots of talk about justice, and about rights, and about perceived Israeli violations of both. But the yearning for peace that these prominent Jews take for granted is simply not there. It doesn't exist. Nada.

This is the reality. Wishing it away and forcing parties to sign a piece of paper will not change this reality. Right now, the word "normalization" is a dirty word in Egypt, in Jordan and in the PA-controlled territories. Arabs who talk about real peace with Israel are ostracized. I am not exaggerating one bit. Ask Khaled Abu Toameh.

I can barely recall every reading any Arabic op-ed or article that talks about real peace with Israel. (Rarely, there are backhanded compliments of Israeli innovations in science, to contrast it with the Arab world. That's the most complimentary I've ever seen in some nine years of reading Arab media.)

Ignoring these facts is not just stupid, but potentially deadly. I wish, more than anything, that I was wrong. But giving Abbas a free pass does not serve the cause of peace; it only strengthens the fantasy.

Real peace cannot be built on lies and dreams, and it is about time that prominent American Jews woke up to the reality, no matter how unpalatable it might be.

(h/t E ben Abuya)

9/24 Links Part 2: Kenya - Mass murder and moral blindness, Israeli-Chinese Qoros Cars Unveiled

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: No, Mr Cameron. The Kenyan massacre is all about Islamism

I can see why politicians like David Cameron want to make sure that nobody blames Muslims as a whole for attacks like this. But telling the lie that such attacks have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam does no good at all. It lets the extremists off the hook and infuriates everybody else who end up wondering why the Prime Minister cannot see what everybody else can see.
As I have said often in response to this ‘noble lie’, the only way that Islam is going to get through its current problems is if followers of the religion realise that they have to actively confront the problem. Each provision of an opt-out and excuse delays the day when the religion properly confronts itself and makes the claims of the jihadis a wholly impermissible — instead of plausible and sometimes permissible — response to the religion in whose name they act.

Melanie Phillips: Mass murder and moral blindness

Mr Cameron’s mistake is to articulate the absurd non-sequitur parroted by so many in the British ruling class: that because many Muslims do not endorse Islamic terrorism, ergo such terrorism is not truly perpetrated in the name of Islam. This is as nonsensical as saying that because many Christians were the victims of the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition could not have been truly perpetrated in the name of Christianity; or that because most Jews are not ultra-Orthodox, the ultra-Orthodox are not truly Jews; or even that because most women are not man-hating feminists, man-hating feminists are not really women.
And this confusion is lethal. Those who cannot even bring themselves to call the force that is attacking them by its proper name will be defeated by that force. The Islamists know that; which is why such a reaction guarantees more such attacks. Moral blindness and mass murder are locked in a fatal embrace like a drowning couple in a whirlpool.

Terrorist: Nairobi Mall Targeted Because of 'Jewish Shops'

As Kenyan military forces moved to liberate Nairobi's Westgate Mall from the hands of Islamist terrorists, a representative of Al-Shabaab, the Somali terror group behind the attack, told Arab satellite network Al Jazeera that the attack was overdue, and that the mall was chosen for the attack because “it is a place where there are Jewish and American shops.”
The attack, which began Saturday, was still underway Tuesday, with the terrorists holed up in the building, holding a number of hostages. At least 69 people have been killed so far, as Kenyan soldiers try to remove the Islamists who are occupying the building.

CIF Watch: Counter-terror idea by Simon Jenkins in response to Nairobi: Stop building malls.

Whilst the passage about the folly of building malls is indeed risible, Jenkins’ surrender manifesto also provides some insight into the Guardian’s failure to empathize with Israel, a state continually targeted by radical Islamists who use terror in an attempt to bring the state to its knees.
Israel’s large measure of success in allowing its citizens to live normal lives, despite the constant threat of rockets, sniper fire and suicide bombs, is a testament to the collective decision to never bow down to terror’s relentless onslaughts – fortitude and courage in a democracy under siege that Simon Jenkins evidently cannot fathom.

It’s time to define Islamism as a crime against humanity

The attacks at Nairobi, Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall follow a familiar pattern to other attacks that occurred in the last few days: in Pakistan, where 81 were killed in the bombing of a church, and in Nigeria where 159 people were slaughtered by Islamists near Maiduguri.
The media and political reactions also follow a neatly crafted script we have all become accustomed to.
First Islamist terrorists attack civilians, attempting to sort out the Muslims from the non-Muslims so as to kill only one group. There are the condemnations of “senseless acts of violence” and appeals for “calm and unity.” Then all is forgotten.

Hate speech continues on official PA TV

Official Palestinian Authority TV continues its policy of broadcasting and promoting hate speech against Israelis and Jews, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Recently a young woman recited a poem including the words: "Our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail."
The lyrics of the poem, which were written by Egyptian poet Hesham El-Gakh, promote Pan-Arabism and explain that the speaker "has been taught" that "our wars" are religious in nature, being fought "for the Al-Aqsa Mosque" and that the enemy is Jews - "Zion, Satan with a tail."

"Our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail" - girl on PA TV

Palestinian Leaks Show Failure of Talks Is Foreordained

Nor need one look far to understand why the PA would plan for a breakdown a priori: The talks have zero support among ordinary Palestinians. As the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reported back in July, not a single Palestinian faction favored resuming the negotiations, and yesterday, several Palestinian groups launched a public campaign to demand an end to the talks while also opposing any Palestinian concessions whatsoever as part of a deal.
So with no support for a deal at home, Abbas has little choice but to plan for how to blame Israel for a breakdown. The only question is whether the U.S. is willing to let him get away with it.

Antony Loewenstein’s latest dishonest anti-Israel smear at ‘Comment is Free’

Antony Loewenstein doesn’t believe the Jewish state should exist under any circumstances, and in his latest ‘Comment Free’ commentary he wears this badge proudly by characterizing his identity as a melange of Judaism, atheism, Germanic traditions, Anglo-Saxon-Australian beliefs and anti-Zionism.
When last we posted about the marginal Aussie commentator, we revealed that he flat-out lied when he recounted a conversation in which he evidently told Tony Abbott (before he became Prime Minister) that there were “Jews only roads” in the West Bank. As CAMERA proved definitively quite a few years ago, such roads do not exist.

Apple lists Jerusalem without country

Apple finally introduced its much-anticipated new operating system, iOS 7, last week after months of working out bugs. Is one omission deliberate or inadvertent?
According to The Blaze, a conservative news site founded by Glenn Beck, the world clock list shows Jerusalem without a country. All other cities in the world, with the exception of Taipei and Vatican City, are listed with their country.

Repeat Performance: Jews Banned from the Temple Mount

Hundreds of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount this morning (Tuesday) were turned back upon their arrival, after being informed at the gate that the police had decided to close Judaism's holiest site to Jews.
Scores of Jews from across the country - including participants in a pre-organized ascent of hundreds of Jewish schoolchildren - arrived in cars and buses, after undertaking the necessary preparations to ascend the Mount in accordance with many interpretations of Jewish law, including ritual immersion in a mikveh (ritual pool).

Jews urge Greece to crack down on Golden Dawn

Greek Jews implored the government to crack down on the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party in the wake of the murder of the anti-fascist rapper known as Killah P.
On Monday, a statement from the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece said the Sept. 18 stabbing death of Pavlos Fyssas again showed the need for the government to take tough action against Golden Dawn.

Israeli-Greek millionaire ‘tarred’ by press gets mea culpa

A prominent Greek paper has published a long apology to a Greek-Israeli businessman targeted by neo-Nazis and tarred with claims of financial impropriety, saying it “fell victim to incorrect information.”
The influential To Vima published a full-page apology Sunday to Sabby Mionis, a Greek Jew who currently resides in Israel.
In the piece, subtitled, “How an honest capital manager with an international reputation became implicated in the Lagarde list,” the paper apologized for falsely reporting that Mionis was on the contentious list, which names people under international suspicion for financial crimes.

French Man Jailed for Threatening Toulouse Jewish School

A French man was sentenced to a year in prison on Monday for making death threats to a Jewish school in Toulouse by phone, AFP reports.
The man is the cousin Mohammed Merah, the terrorist who murdered Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Aryeh and Gavriel and Miriam Monsonego at the Ohr HaTorah school in 2012.

Lithuania Marks 70 Years Since Nazis Wiped Out Vilnius Ghetto

Lithuania on Monday marked 70 years since Nazi Germany wiped out the Vilnius ghetto, all but obliterating the vibrant Jewish culture of a capital once known as the "Jerusalem of the North".
State leaders and Holocaust survivors attended a memorial ceremony honoring the tens of thousands who died, while national flags with black ribbons dotted the Vilnius skyline, known as "Vilna" in Yiddish.
"A grim and terrible reality can never be left in the past - it must forever remain in our memory," Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said at the ceremony. She praised those who saved Jews as "icons of humanity to be role models for all of us" and "beacons that we must carry on the path to tomorrow".

First US anti-Hitler film discovered in Brussels archive

The first US film to warn about the dangers of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime has been found in a Brussels film archive, having lain unnoticed for some 75 years.
"Hitler's Reign of Terror" was produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to the wealthy American industrialist family, who visited Germany as Hitler was voted into power in 1933.
The film revolves around footage that Vanderbilt shot and smuggled out, showing Nazi party rallies, book-burnings and the ransacking of Jewish shops.

Evogene reports castor oil biofuel success

Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) subsidiary Evofuel Ltd. has successfully completed three years of field trials in Brazil to develop castor bean as an alternative feedstock for production of biodiesel and other industrial uses. The field trials were jointly conducted with Brazilian agrobusiness SLC Agrícola SA (Bovespa: SLCE3).
The field trials demonstrated strong yield performance of Evofuel’s proprietary castor seed varieties under rain-fed conditions in northeast Brazil, and supported the use of castor seed as a competitive biodiesel feedstock. The castor seed varieties could potentially be useful for the lubricant, biopolymer and other industries, which use castor oil and have to cope price instability.

Lawmakers Tour Judea and Samaria, Express Solidarity

25 Members of Parliament and Congress from around the world, who are currently visiting Israel as part of the 2013 Chairman's Conference, toured Judea and Samaria on Monday. They expressed their solidarity with the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and said that they oppose the European Union’s boycott of Israeli products from these regions.
The lawmakers are the chairmen of Israel Allies Caucuses which represent hundreds of members of Congress and Parliament around the world.
Participants include lawmakers from the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Poland, South Africa, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay.

Israel-Chinese Joint Venture Qoros Unveils Car Model Lineup

Qoros Auto Company Ltd., a joint venture between Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) and China’s Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., unveiled its first models at a dealers convention, ahead of its planned commercial launch in the fourth quarter of 2013, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.
At the dealers convention, Qoros unveiled a model line-up planned for the next decade based on four modular car platforms based on the work of Qoros’s chief designer, who also was responsible for designing the modern BMW-owned Mini.

Amnesty slams PA for brutality; world media ignores it

Yesterday, Amnesty International accused the Palestinian Authority of using excessive force to put down protests.

A new briefing, published today details how police and security forces have repeatedly carried out unprovoked and unlawful attacks on peaceful protesters. It also accuses the PA authorities of allowing them to do so with impunity.

“Standards during the policing of demonstrations in the West Bank continue to fall woefully short of those prescribed by international law,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director of Amnesty International. “As a result, the rights to freedom of expression and assembly are being severely eroded.”

This news story was almost completely ignored in world media.

According to Google News, it was covered in Times of Israel, Ma'an, The Age and associated Australian papers and Ekklesia.

And that's it.

Media bias isn't always explicit. Often it is evident by what isn't reported.

(Amnesty also took over a year to put this report together, since the major reason for it was because of events from July 2012, although they do mention things that happened more recently. It seems like AI was also trying to bury this story as well.)

Three completely unrelated facts

1988:

2011:

President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday told his party's young members that the Palestinian Authority never abandoned the national agenda.

“The Palestinian leadership is still adherent to the national agenda which was approved by the Palestinian National Council in 1988, and never gave up on any of the inalienable principles as some claim."

2013, in President Obama's UN speech:

Friends of Israel, including the United States, must recognize that Israel’s security as a Jewish and democratic state depend on the realization of a Palestinian state. And we should say so clearly.

9/24 Links Part 1: A New Intifada?, MK's to Bibi don't free anymore Terrorists, Egypt Bans MB

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: A New Intifada?

Although Abbas and some of his aides have been telling Israelis, Americans and Europeans that they are opposed to violence and terror attacks against Israel, they continue to incite Palestinians against Israel on a daily basis.
The Palestinian Authority openly supports an escalation of "popular resistance" against Israel, one where unarmed Palestinian civilians are encouraged to initiate confrontations with the IDF and settlers in the West Bank.
Some Palestinians have obviously interpreted the call for a "popular resistance" as a green light to launch terror attacks against Israelis.
For now, the Palestinian Authority leadership is doing nothing to calm the situation, even as Hamas is calling on its supporters in the West Bank to launch a new intifada against Israel. Some leaders in Ramallah are convinced that a popular uprising would serve their interests and persuade the Israeli public to support any deal with the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas in New York condemns soldiers’ killings

Answering a question posed by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright at a dinner hosted by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, Abbas condemned the murders of Sgts. Gal Gabriel Kobi and Tomer Hazan in separate incidents in the West Bank, as well as all instances of violence against citizens.
He added that he expected Israel to condemn the deaths of four young Palestinians at the hands of the IDF in recent weeks. “Two weeks ago, four young people were killed by the Israeli army near Jerusalem,” he said. “No one said anything.” It was not clear to what Abbas was referring, but on Sept. 17, Israeli forces, believing their lives to be in danger, killed one man and wounded at least one during a raid on a refugee camp near Jerusalem to arrest a fugitive, the IDF said.
Earlier Monday, Fatah central committee member Abbas Zaki claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government were the ones responsible for Kobi’s death, in Hebron. The Israeli soldier was shot in the neck by a Palestinian sniper while on patrol on Sunday.

What if Abbas Condemns the Murders and No One in the PA Hears It?

In any event, even that miserly, self righteous, immoral statement has gotten no mention in Palestinian reports today. WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, only mentioned the two murders with a quote from Foreign Minister Riyad Malki:
"Malki expressed concern that Israel may use the killing of an Israeli soldier in Hebron on Sunday and another off duty soldier in Qalqilya two days earlier in order to discredit the Palestinian Authority.”

30 MKs lobby Netanyahu to cancel Palestinian prisoner release

"In light of the horrific murders in recent days, we ask you to cancel the release of terrorists, planned as part of negotiations with the Palestinians," the letter, initiated by Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Robert Ilatov, reads.
Lawmakers from Likud Beytenu, Bayit Yehudi, Shas and United Torah Judaism signed the message to Netanyahu.

Terror Victim Families Demand End to Terrorist Releases

Several dozen people on Monday protested outside Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding that the government promise to stop freeing terrorists in swap deals or as part of “gestures” to the Palestinian Authority. The protest included many members of families who have lost loved ones in terror attacks. It was organized by the Almagor terror victims' group and the Israel Sheli (My Israel) organization.

Riot in PA University Over School's Financial Woes

Fistfights and clashes broke out at Bir Zeit University on Ramallah Monday, as staff were prevented from entering the university building by students who are striking in protest of poor management by the university's administration.
Students locked the gates of the school's buildings and formed a human chain to prevent anyone from entering. Several staff tried anyway, and were roughed up by students. Among them was the head of the university's science faculty, who was badly injured when he tried to enter the building and students closed a door on his legs.

MEMRI: Pakistani Vice Chancellor At Launch Of His Book On 9/11:

'U.S. And British Governments Are Controlled By A High Cabal Of Banking Families Who… Manipulate Each Of Us By Putting Microchips In Our Brains'
"The vice chancellor, who heads one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in Pakistan, said this here [in Lahore] on Wednesday [September 11, 2013] at the launch of his book – titled 9/11 and the New World Order – at the Al Razi Hall of the Undergraduate Study Centre.

On Syria, 4 new worries for Israel

This state of affairs has been transformed by the chemical weapons crisis, the American threat to stage a punitive raid against Assad’s regime and the rather surprising Russian American agreement to eliminate Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons leading to the practical removal of the US threat to act militarily against Assad’s regime. The repercussions for Israel’s national security are far reaching. If implemented, the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons would be welcomed by Israel. Whether in the hands of Assad’s army or in those of some terrorist group, they represent a serious threat to Israel and their removal would be a net gain. But other aspects of the recent turn of events are far less attractive from an Israeli perspective:

Egyptian court bans Muslim Brotherhood

The Brotherhood was outlawed for most of its 85 years of existence. But after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, it was allowed to work openly and formed a political party, which and rose to power in elections.
The ruling, which can be appealed, opens door for authorities to track down the group’s elaborate network of social services, dealing a deadly blow to its pillars of grassroots support.
Since Morsi’s fall in July, the Egyptian military has moved with purpose to weaken the Brotherhood. Last week, English-language spokesman Gehad el-Haddad was arrested with other senior members of the group and charged with inciting violence.

The burden of proof is on Iran

Iran has concealed, lied and acted in contravention of its obligations.
Moreover, while the pressure of sanctions is pushing Iran to talk to the US, there is no indication this has been enough for Iran to consider backing down from its nuclear goal.
It is not enough for Rohani to act according to Lewis Carroll’s immortal lines: “I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew… I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”
In this case, words are not enough – it is the deeds that will count. And the deeds must come quickly enough, or the world will know that Iran has been using the time-buying tactic all over again.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Warn Rouhani About Negotiating With Obama

While the U.S. expresses a continued willingness for direct negotiations over the Iran nuclear program, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite military force whose role is to protect Iran’s Islamic system of governance, issued a cautionary note about diplomacy with America.
“Historical experiences make it necessary for the diplomatic apparatus of our country to carefully and skeptically monitor the behavior of White House officials so that the righteous demands of our nation are recognized and respected by those who favor interaction,” the IRGC said in a statement.

At UN, Israel likely to stand alone against Iran

As diplomacy takes center stage in New York, the US and Great Britain appear willing to thaw ties with the Islamist regime following a charm offensive by Rouhani, who in recent days has been keen to show his regime’s ostensible readiness to compromise in the nuclear standoff with the West.
Israel stands alone in its rejection of Rouhani’s overtures, arguing that Rouhani merely put a friendlier face on a rogue regime still bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.
“Iran’s negotiation strategy is entirely consistent with Rouhani’s policy of ‘smile and enrich,’” stated an internal Israeli government document which surfaced Tuesday.

Netanyahu to compare Iran to North Korea at UN

The speech is Netanyahu’s bid to emphasize Israeli reservations about any rapprochement with Iran by the United Nations.
“Iran must not be allowed to repeat North Korea’s ploy to get nuclear weapons,” an Israeli official told The New York Times in a story posted online Sunday describing Netanyahu’s planned Oct. 1 speech to the General Assembly.
“Just like North Korea before it, Iran professes to seemingly peaceful intentions,” the Times quoted the official as saying. “It talks the talk of nonproliferation while seeking to ease sanctions and buy more time for its nuclear program.”

UK: Iran’s words must be matched by concrete steps

“There’s a chance, I think, for improved relations with Iran,” Hague told reporters after the meeting. “Because if the statements of President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif really mean something, if they really mean what they are saying, then certainly there’s a chance for us to improve relations and to work together across a whole range of subjects. But it will be important, as I have stressed before, for those statements to be matched by concrete steps and action.”

John Kerry to meet Iranian FM at UN

The Thursday meeting is to include US Secretary of State John Kerry, and will be the highest level meeting between US and Iranian officials since 1979, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that she saw “energy and determination” for talks with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to move forward. Foreign ministers of the six nations are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.