Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 10, 2011

Latest Latma (6/10/11)

Grad missiles being smuggled from Libya to Gaza

Maariv reports:

While the riots in Libya seem very distant geographically, Jerusalem is now worried about at least one consequence: a new smuggling route through which hundreds of missiles have already entered into the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been strengthened by hundreds of 120-122 mm Grad missiles with ranges of sixty - seventy miles. These missiles can easily threaten the center of the country.

Also smuggled are shorter range 60 mm rockets, more guns and ammunition. In addition, Israel was information on old anti-tank missiles manufactured by Russia and sold to Libya that have been smuggled out [of Libya], and there is fear that they may be smuggled into Gaza.

The new smuggling route from Libya goes through Egypt, Sinai and from there to channels in Gaza. It is causing Israeli security officials to lose sleep. Egyptians are trying to fight the new phenomenon of [weapons] convoys intercepting them by air. However, many convoys still manage to get to the tunnels.

In the Middle east, there is always a flip-side - even to revolutions against thuggish dictators. The law of unintended consequences is very, very much in force whenever anything major happens.

(h/t Joel)

Syria again tries to play the Zionist card

From Syria's official SANA news agency:

The Leadership of al-Baath Arab Party in Lebanon stressed that the steadfastness of the Syrian people, army and leadership will thwart the conspiracy hatched against Syria.

In a statement issued on Thursday after a meeting chaired by al-Baath Party Regional Director, Fayz Shoukir, the Leadership said that the reality of the projects which target the Arab nation has been divulged.

The Leadership warned that this conspiracy led by the American-Zionist alliance and some of the European countries constitutes a danger threatening not only Syria, but the whole Arab nation and its basic interests and future.

It added that the aggressive attack launched under the pretext of the so-called "Democracy" and "Human Rights" is very far from these slogans as the American-Zionist alliance practices the most obnoxious types of persecuting the nations including the Arab people to control the capabilities and resources of the Arab nation and to keep the Arab societies in a state of division and backwardness.

Member of Liberation and Development Bloc, Lebanese MP Kassem Hashem, stressed that Syria is stronger than any conspiracies hatched against it, and it will overcome the crisis.

For his part, Former Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, considered that the current events witnessed in Syria and the way some countries deal with them, stress that the Western countries work only for achieving their private interests.

This type of article is very much in the style of Iran's English-language propaganda. They find some lackey willing to say exactly what the ruling regime wants them to say and then position it as if it is significant.

Of course, Lebanon's Baath party is nothing but a branch of Syria's Baath party and will not say anything different from the official party line.

It is still striking how Syria is clueless about how tone-deaf its message must appear even to other Arabs. The days of blaming everything on Zionists and Americans is over; the Arab people have proven that they are not so easily manipulated anymore (even though they generally hate Israel as much as their purported leaders do.)

See also this editorial at Al Asharq al Awsat that talks explicitly about how Arabs use Palestinian Arabs as excuses to do whatever they want.

(last link h/t Joel)

I guess Hamas doesn't read The New York Times

A month ago, the New York Times stated as a fact that Hamas is "fully committed" to a two-state solution, implicitly accepting Israel's right to exist.

They could not state a single fact to back up that assertion, but they repeated it in a editorial a couple of days later.

Hamas, meanwhile, must not be reading the New York Times, because they are saying something a bit different - to Iran:

New Hamas representative to Tehran told in an inaugural interview that the ultimate goal of the movement was to free the entire Palestinian land, destroy the Zionist regime and rescue the revered Quds from the claws of the Zionists.

Khaled al-Qoddoumi said Hamas would not pay any attention to the negative propaganda of the western media that Hamas should or would withdraw from the path of resistance.

The senior Hamas member refuted any option of compromise with Israel and underlined resistance as the only way of struggling with the occupiers and restoring the rights of the Palestinian nation. He predicted that one day, the Quds would return to the lap of the world of Islam.

Asked whether the Palestinian nation considers the option of compromise with Israel as legitimate, he said the Palestinian nation sees no reason to approve the option as it sees compromise as a futile and useless way. “The Israeli side has never sought peace. They have no belief in living alongside the Palestinian nation or other Muslim nations. The Zionist regime is a cancer and cancer must be uprooted,” he said.

But who are you going to trust - the NYT's wishful thinking interpretation of Hamas' words in English, or what they actually say explicitly in Arabic and Farsi?

Obviously the New York Times knows more about Hamas than Hamas does!

Syrian soldiers kicking bound civilians in the head

From Now Lebanon:

WARNING (Viewer discretion advised):A YouTube video purportedly filmed Thursday in the Homs area of Baba Amro shows members of the Syrian army kicking a civilian on the head. The man being beaten up can be heard screaming and begging the soldiers to stop

WARNING (Viewer discretion advised): A YouTube video purportedly filmed Thursday in the Homs neighborhood of Jawbar shows Syrian soldiers tying up civilian protestors on the ground. As he jumps on the back of one of the civilians and kicks his head, a soldier tells him: “This is for freedom,” and “This is for the martyrs.”

Aren't they manly?

Some links to read while I am out

Researcher says Iran can build a nuke in 2 months

Yale's latest gift to anti-semitism

NGOs promoting "Right to Return"

Michael Oren on the Six Day War and why Israel can't go back to 49 armistice lines

Video of Jerusalem right after the Six Day war

Michael Totten on Ottoman Fantasies

Some interesting historical parallels to the GCC

Dealing with "Apartheid Week" at York

Lawfare against the flotillas

Interesting old post about ownership of the Golan

JCPA's ground rules for upcoming flotillas

See you guys Thursday night....and chag sameach!

(h/t CHA, Silke, Zvi, MP, Joel, Zach N., Dan)

An open letter to Leonard Nimoy

Dear Mr. Nimoy,

I am a fan of your work (well, most of it) and as such I read your letter of support for Peace Now with sadness. It appears that you have not researched the issues as thoroughly as one would hope. Americans for Peace Now, the organization you are asking everyone to donate to, is not quite what it appears.

Peace Now is now a marginal organization in Israel. It is not mainstream and its positions do not reflect what most of the Israeli public wants.

That is not to say that Israelis are warmongers; far from it. Every Jew in Israel yearns for peace. Most Israelis support a two-state solution. In fact, even the current Israeli government publicly supports a two-state solution.

The difference is that most Israelis want to ensure that the solution will truly promote peace. They do not want to barrel headfirst into an agreement that could jeopardize their security; they want to ensure that any Palestinian Arab state will not one day turn into an Iranian satellite the way we saw Gaza and southern Lebanon become.

Gaza is instructive. Israel withdrew from the entire territory, yet it did not bring peace. On the contrary, it led to a war, and tens of thousands of Israeli citizens had to live under constant threat of rocket attack. Moreover, thousands of Israelis were uprooted from their homes in order to even bring a chance for peace.

At the time of the withdrawal, Gaza was ruled by the very same Palestinian Authority that Peace Now wants to force Israel to make an agreement "now" with. Yet they could not even control their own territory and Hamas violently took over Gaza.

The Gaza model is exactly what Peace Now demands from Israel, today. They have not learned a thing from that huge failure. Fortunately, the rest of the Israeli public learned the lesson that eludes Peace Now, and Israelis are now far more careful before jumping into any further concessions.

It is not like the Israeli leadership needs outside help in giving up concrete assets for peace. Here you can see how much Israeli governments - especially the "hawkish, far right" Likud - have given up in the often vain hope for peace:

Americans for Peace Now want America to pressure Israel to make concessions that the people are not ready to make, with a partner who is not willing to compromise and which even today routinely refers to Israel as "the enemy." This cynical use of American politics, and their recruiting of spokespeople like you, indicate that they have failed to get their agenda taken seriously by the Israeli people and are instead trying to use outside pressure to convince Israelis "what is really good for them."

This is not showing a love of Israel; it instead shows that they do not respect the Israeli public. It is not as if there isn't robust debate in Israel itself on how a peace plan would work and what compromises are necessary - the subject is a national obsession. The idea that an American actor, no matter how respected, should be used to convince Americans to give money to a movement that cannot gain any traction in the free-wheeling world of Israeli politics is, frankly, insulting to the intelligence of Israelis.

There are other problems with the organization you have chosen to identify with. For example, Peace Now supports the division of Jerusalem, something that is simply not tenable and would increase the misery of Jew and Arab alike.

Moreover, no organization has worked harder to demonize a significant percentage of the Israeli population than Peace Now. I am speaking about the so-called "settlers" who Peace Now believes are the biggest single impediment to peace. In fact, the Jews who choose to return to the Biblical Land of Israel are among the most patriotic members of Israeli society, serving with pride in the IDF and showing a love of Israel that is difficult to match. Peace Now, however, spends a huge amount of time and money specifically to battle their fellow Israelis who live on the "wrong" side of a mythical line that was never, ever a border between two countries, and was never even meant to be one.

It is legitimate to question the tactics and life choices of the Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, as it is legitimate to criticize any group of people out of love. Peace Now, however, has spent the bulk of its time treating their fellow Jews as the enemy. I think you could agree, Mr. Nimoy, that there are few enough Jews as it is that we cannot afford the baseless hatred that Peace Now exhibits towards those they disagree with.

Most Israelis agree that a great majority of these communities across the Green Line will remain a part of Israel, yet this is simply not compatible with how Peace Now acts towards these people. Peace Now actually encourages boycotts and other sanctions against their fellow Israelis and against the wishes of most Israelis altogether.

This year on Jerusalem Day, a remarkable thing happened. For the first time since Israel reunified Jerusalem, Kohanim ascended to the Temple Mount and blessed the Jews who visited their holiest site. They positioned their hands in a way you are most familiar with, as it is the one that you copied as the Vulcan greeting in Star Trek.

Jews must have free access to their holiest places - not only in Jerusalem but in Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere. Peace Now is against this. It should not be unusual for Jews to be able to ascend to their holiest spot and to be able to pray freely there.

Your letter refers a number of times to Star Trek, the television show that made you famous. If I may, I would like to mention something else from that show - the Prime Directive. As you no doubt know, this was the most important order that your character and his coworkers had to adhere to - the rule not to interfere in other cultures, even for the best of reasons.

Israel is not a banana republic, and Israelis are well aware of the dangers they face as well as the necessity for peace. When famous actors deign to tell Israelis what is best for them it is not only a violation of this rule, but it is an insult to the entire country, implying that somehow a person in Hollywood knows better than Israelis do of how they should think and act.

I hope that you come to realize the wisdom in the mythical Starfleet General Order #1, and show your love for Israel by supporting everyone who is honorable enough to live there, not by supporting division and hate.

May we all live long and prosper.

Elder of Ziyon

Crazy Egyptian plans to have cage fight with a lion - that symbolizes Israel

From Al Masry al-Youm (English):

Given the current state of the economy, it comes as no surprise that many Egyptians are doing all that they can to revive international interest in their country. What is surprising, though, is that one man has somehow managed to convince himself - and a few others - that he can single-handedly “boost tourism in Egypt” by fighting a full-grown African lion in direct hand-to-paw combat, in front of the Pyramids at Giza.

Inexplicably, al-Sayed al-Essawy, a 25-year-old from Daqahlia, has come to believe that “the world will flock to see the Egyptian man who defeated a lion with his bare hands.”

The fight, or “battle” as Essawy, prefers to call it, was announced two weeks ago, immediately igniting a firestorm of international protests and online petitions from individuals and animal rights organizations alike. The negative reaction surprised Essawy, prompting the self-proclaimed “strongest man in the world” to admit to being “confused and heart-broken.”

Nonetheless, Essawy insists that the fight is still on, even if he has to stage the battle in a secret location.

Al-Masry Al-Youm: When, and more importantly, how did you come up with this idea?

al-Sayed al-Essawy: I discovered my incredible strength at the age of 13, and, almost immediately afterwards, promised myself that, one of these days, I would fight a lion. Since then, I’ve been thinking about the best way to go about it, and, after the revolution, with the economy the way it is, I’ve been given the perfect opportunity to realize my dream.

Al-Masry: What about animal lovers? Are you aware of how many people your lion-fighting plans have angered? People are threatening to boycott Egypt and any Egyptian products because of you.

Essawy: That’s because they don’t understand what I’m going to do. They think I’m going to kill the lion. I’m not going to kill it, nor will I be armed with a sword or dagger - those are all false reports circulated by the media for reasons I don’t understand.

Al-Masry: So, you’re not going to kill the lion?

Essawy: No. Unless it’s a matter of life or death, in which case I will be forced to kill it.

Al-Masry: When is fighting a lion not a matter of life or death?

Essawy: It’s up to the lion. If he chooses to withdraw, or surrender, and lets me tie him up, then I will not kill him and the fight will end. But, like I said, if it comes down to either me or him, I will have to kill him. But I don’t want to kill the lion, nor am I planning on it. I want to make that clear.

Al-Masry: What will you do with its corpse?

Essawy: I will have it stuffed (laughs).

Al-Masry: What message are you trying to send?

Essawy: When I defeat the lion - which I will - I will pull an Israeli flag out of my pocket, and drape it over the lion, and put my foot on it. Israel led me to this, through all their atrocities which, as a child, I grew up watching on television. The message is that even though Israel and America may be as strong as a lion - the strongest creature on the planet - they too can be defeated.

Al-Masry: By you?

Essawy: By the Arab youth, which is about to explode. Soon, they will be ready to take on the mightiest foe.

Al-Masry: But, technically, the lion’s only fighting because you’re forcing it to.

Essawy: Yes. It’s a caged fight, so there will be nowhere for the lion to run. I have challenged the lion, and I will defeat it.

Al-Masry: So, to dismiss this as just some really crazy guy beating up an innocent lion would be, in your opinion...

Essawy: Completely inaccurate and misleading. I’m not a crazy person. There’s a political reason behind what I’m doing.
...

Al-Masry: If the event is successful, how will you follow it up? More lion fights?

Essawy: I have a whole series of shows planned in my head. I will pull an airplane with my teeth, and I will pull an airplane with my hair. I will also be run over by an airplane. In between each of these acts, there will be lion battles.

Al-Masry: Have you fought any other beasts before? Will this be your first lion fight?

Essawy: This will be my first battle with a lion, yes. I have fought other animals, mainly dogs. On separate occasions, I have fought three of the most ferocious dog breeds.

Al-Masry: How are you training for this specific event?

Essawy: By doing a series of mental exercises. Nothing physical, just brain-training. I visualize the fight for two hours at a time. I visualize the lion, and all the possible ways it could attack. Will it go for the head, or will it grab me by the feet? I ask myself these questions and visualize how I will dodge these attacks.

Believe it or not, the interview gets even nuttier.

Chag Sameach!

I would like to wish my readers a chag sameach, a wonderful Shavuot holiday.

(I'll still be blogging for a few hours more but I wanted to make sure my Israeli readers get the message!)

Not a good holiday for the lactose intolerant

Photos of weapons on Mavi Marmara - a year late

Last week it was reported that the Israeli Navy had photos of IHH terrorists on the Mavi Marmara wielding weapons.

Photos recently obtained by the Navy show a weapon hanging off the shoulder of one of the IHH members. Another photo shows a gun. It is as yet unclear who took the photos. One of the images allegedly shows MK Hanin Zoabi, who took part in the flotilla, standing next to an armed activist.

Navy commandos who took part in the raid later testified that the IHH men had at least two firearms and at least one of them was used to fire at the soldiers immediately after they descended on the ship. One of the commandos was hurt by a 9 mm bullet not used by the IDF.

Navy sources could not explain why the photos have only recently been received.

Today, the photos have finally been published - only in the print edition of Yediot. Here they are, courtesy of IMRA:

Abbas proven a liar again

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV on June 2, 2011:

Mahmoud Abbas: With regard to [Palestinian recognition] of a Jewish state, or whatever, this has never been an issue. Throughout the negotiations between the Israeli and us, from 1993 until a year ago, we never heard the words "Jewish state." Now, they have begun to talk about it, and our response was: "Go to the UN, and call yourselves whatever you want. We are not the party to address. Not only that – we refuse to recognize a Jewish state. Try to wrest it out of the UN or anyone else."

Why does Israel insist on demanding this from us, and us alone – it did not demand this from the Arabs, from Egypt, from Jordan, or from any Arab country with which it negotiated? Only from us. We know the reason, and we say: "No, we refuse."

Abbas is trying to imply that the "Jewish state" demand was initiated by Netanyahu only within the last year.
Was the demand to be recognized as a Jewish state only brought up in 2010?

No. Ehud Olmert actually demanded it at Annapolis in 2007, and the negotiations beforehand showed that the Israelis were pushing for that phrase to be used at Annapolis, while the Palestinian Arabs adamantly refused - and even refused to admit that there is any such thing as a "Jewish people."

Once again, Abbas is proven to be a liar. But people insist Israel to make an agreement with a congenital liar - because the alternatives are supposedly worse.

So it is better for Israel to make an agreement with someone who cannot be trusted at all?

Third day in a row: Rafah crossing still closed - by Hamas

Hamas' siege on Gaza continues.

For the third consecutive day, Hamas has not opened the Rafah crossings because of a disagreement with Egypt on logistics.

Egypt closed the crossings on Saturday morning for "administrative and technical" reasons, causing anger from the Gazans waiting to go to Egypt. But since Sunday, Hamas has closed the crossing.

It appears that one major reason Hamas is unhappy is that Egypt maintains a list of thousands of Gazans who are not allowed to enter Egypt. Hamas wants this list, which no doubt includes many of its members, to be discarded.

Notably, the crossing is open from the Egyptian side, and Gazans returning home from Egypt are being allowed through.