Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

"Pro-Palestinian" lobby hijacks Boston mourners for political point scoring

An image being circulation of "young Palestinian children" expressing sympathy with the victims of Boston appears to be from Iraq, rather than the Palestinian territories
That so called "pro-peace" activists can hijack such images for their own political ends speaks to the lengths to which many will go to in order to either demonise their opposition, propogate lies on behalf of corrupt and violent regimes, or indeed simply try to naiveily paper over the cracks.
The attempts are not thought to be directly related to the latest Pew poll statistics showing that 40 percent of Palestinians polled belive that suicide bombings are justified, the highest of any Muslim country in which the poll occured.

Keeping prejudice under control

The pro-divestment movement wants you to believe that its cause is a struggle between the ethnic minority Palestinians and the “white” and “privileged” Jews and Israelis. By pretending that Jews are white Europeans, they argue that Israelis are foreign occupiers. But Jews are not a homogenous group of white people; we are an ethnically Middle Eastern people, comprising many unique communities from across the globe. After centuries of persecution, we have found security in this country and in our nation’s first home, Israel. And although we have achieved the privilege of statehood, our personal histories are defined by our recent struggles.

Richard Millett: From the Warsaw Ghetto to John Lewis for Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Ewa Jaciewicz.

But what Jaciewicz, a member of the Polish Campaign of Solidarity with Palestine, never wrote about for The Guardian was her trip a few years ago to the Warsaw Ghetto.
Now, what would a reasonable human being do if they visited a site where some 400,000 Jewish people (or people of any religion for that matter) lost their lives? Say a prayer, lay a flower, place a simple stone in remembrance?
Jaciewicz helped daub the words “Free Gaza and Palestine” on one of the nearby walls. What did any of those 400,000 innocent lost souls ever do to her?

Honest Reporting Canada: CBC Airs Unsubstantiated Allegation Claiming Israel used Chemical Weapons on Palestinian Children

Ms. Glynn’s statement was tantamount to accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity on vulnerable Palestinian children. These were incredibly serious unfounded charges that came from a pre-recorded comment. CBC journalists heard this comment before it went to air and chose to broadcast it over CBC airwaves. As such, CBC must take responsibility for this inflammatory and unfounded allegation it gave a platform to.

What the West Should Learn from the Fayyad-Cohen Spat

For a Palestinian, it’s always safest to accuse Israel of brutality and abuse, even if the accusations are completely false, because Israeli soldiers won’t kill him for such libels–whereas Palestinian gunmen very well might murder him as a “collaborator” if he went on record as saying, for instance, that Israeli soldiers treated him decently.
So perhaps next time, Westerners should stop and think before uncritically accepting Palestinian atrocity tales as truth. For if Fayyad could so brazenly lie about Cohen, then other Palestinians could just as easily be lying about Israel.

Michael Totten: Israel Bombs Syria, Syrians Blame Each Other

Assad is especially adept at this game. Everyone, especially journalists who quote people for a living, needs to understand that. Yet they don’t. The BBC let Assad write their headline. Israeli strikes on Syria 'co-ordinated with terrorists' it says. That’s the actual headline. It was literally written by Assad’s foreign ministry.
Of course the words “co-ordinated with terrorists” are inside quotation marks, and the article makes it clear that this accusation comes from the Syrian government, but most people who see the headline won’t read the article. Casual readers of the BBC Web site won’t even notice the quote marks. Israel is coordinating with Al Qaeda in Syria? Really, BBC? You’re broadcasting that ludicrous accusation with a straight face? (h/t Zvi)

CIF Watch: Robert Fisk convinces himself that Israel has ‘dragged the West into Syrian war’

It seems that the ethically challenged British ‘journalist’ Robert Fisk wanted desperately to impute the worst motives to Israel in analyzing reports of up to a dozen IAF strikes over the last few days on advanced Syrian weapons to prevent their transfer to Hezbollah. However, the weakness of his latest essay suggests that he may have found the case against Israel’s sober decision not to allow Iranian made Fateh-110 missiles to fall into the hands of the Shiite terror movement allied with Bashar al-Assad was simply too difficult.

Syria vows to retaliate for any future Israeli attack

The Syrian government extended the authority of the army to respond to “Israeli aggression” immediately and without prior governmental authorization, and granted Palestinian factions leave to carry out attacks against Israel on the Golan Heights, a Syrian government daily reported on Tuesday.
According to Al-Watan, the Syrian army has compiled a “target bank” inside Israel that will be showered by missiles immediately in case of another Israeli strike on Syria. The daily also quoted “high-ranking sources” who said that Syria was willing to provide the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah with “all types of weapons, including new and quality weapons not previously provided.”

Israel strikes a blow to conventional Arab thinking

‘Israel is still my enemy, but when my enemy does a neat job — I admit it,’ writes one Syrian commentator
As the quintessential enemy of the Arab and Islamic world, Israel must be aligned with Assad, went the logic of many domestic Assad opponents. Now, though, Israel’s apparently brazen confrontation with the Assad regime — while many Arab leaders have spent the last two years merely verbally endorsing (or secretly dreaming) of such a move — has created something of a cognitive dissonance for these oppositionists.

Third Syrian Shell in 24 Hours Hits Golan

A stray mortar shell causes no casualties or damage. Two rockets were fired from Syria Monday.

Dayan: Israel Has a Choice Between Bad and Worse

Former IDF general says Israelis should give thanks each day for the Golan.
Israel has two choices regarding the ongoing civil war in Syria: bad and worse, said former IDF general Uzi Dayan, speaking to Arutz Sheva.
The Assad regime is anti-Israel, but several of the groups fighting him are affiliated with Al-Qaeda. “Obviously we shouldn’t support Assad’s ouster, because a weak plague is better than a terror virus that is growing stronger,” he said.
Israel must prepare for any scenario, and prevent unconventional weapons from reaching terrorist groups, he said.

Get your #BDSFail T-shirts and other merchandise!

It's been a while since I added anything to the EoZ Printfection store, but here's the latest section. After all, every major high tech company agrees - Israel is an awesome place to do business!

What are you waiting for? Go shopping and show them off!

Jordan to crack down on rampant sexual harassment of schoolgirls

Ammon News reports:

The Public Security Department (PSD) launched a campaign aimed at putting an end to "negative activities" and harassment in front of girls schools throughout the kingdom.

PSD chief General Tawfiq Tawalbeh ordered police departments throughout the kingdom to conduct "comprehensive security surveys" of all-female schools throughout the kingdom, in coordination with local officials and education departments, to eliminate negative behavior in front of the schools.

PSD press office said that the security campaign comes after students, parents, and school principals filed numerous complaints of disrespectful acts by young men as female students enter and leave their schools.

What exactly are the boys doing?

A hint comes from this description of a short film made last year at a Jordanian university:

Produced by students at the university’s Faculty of Foreign Languages, the film dares to show the dark side of the kingdom's conservative society and sheds light on a daily plight that young girls face as they seek education.

In the two-and-a-half-minute film, girls are shown carrying placards that expose some of the provocative phrases they often hear from their male counterparts.

In one scene, a veiled girl holds a hand-written paper that reads: "Let’s go to my home, for $70." Another says: "Can I take a ride, strawberry lips, good for kissing."

The video goes on to expose the most common phrases whispered in the ears of female students as they pass through the university’s corridors. It also shows young men sitting on benches, watching girls swaying their hips as they move between classes.

The Ammon News article is creepier, though, as the film seems to describe boys acting sickeningly towards their peers in college, while harassment outside girls-only schools implies that older boys and men are targeting younger girls.

Confirmation that Hamas is considering imposing strict Sharia on Gaza

Last week I quoted the anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency as saying that Hamas was considering passing a new penal code in Gaza, based on Islamic Sharia law, that would impose (among other penalties) chopping off the hands of thieves.

This has been confirmed by an article in Al Hayat, where they mention other laws that would go with it, such as the death penalty for adultery, administering lashes for drinking, gambling or "verbal abuse," and the lowering of the age of marriage for girls to 10 years old.

The article notes that there is disagreement within Hamas itself whether this penal code should be approved, with some saying that it should not and others saying that alternative punishments like jail time instead of flogging might be more appropriate.

So far, human rights organizations are silent.

The Economist hasn't corrected its mistake yet - plus, the truth about Susiya

It's been over a day since I revealed that The Economist made a crucial error in a May 4th article where they claimed that "So far this year, Israel’s army has evicted almost 400 Palestinians from the West Bank."

In fact, the number of Arabs evicted from the West Bank this year is zero.

I'm not sure who is the proper person to contact at The Economist to complain about mistakes like this. The best I was able to find was Heidi Wenyon, Group brand and communications executive, + 44 (0) 20 7576 8357 heidiwenyon@economist.com - assuming that The Economist cares about their brand enough to correct egregious errors.

The entire article was sickeningly biased, as I noted. To see the truth about Susiya - facts that The Economist will never show you - watch this video:

(h/t YMedad)

Those "settlers" and their "provocative prayers"

Once again, Ma'an - the most secular and professional of all Palestinian Arabic media - shows that it doesn't mean that they are professional in any absolute sense.

Here is how they describe (and have always described) the occasional visits to Joseph's Tomb by religious Israeli Jews:

More than 1,000 Israeli rightists on Sunday night visited Joseph's Tomb near Balata refugee camp east of Nablus guarded by Israeli forces, locals said.

Clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinians, onlookers said Monday.

More than 30 buses carried hundreds of Israeli settlers to Nablus around 10 p.m. Sunday, alongside Israeli police and soldiers. Palestinians threw stones toward them while Israeli forces fired tear gas and stun grenades.

How do they know that the worshipers are "settlers"?(Calling them "rightists" is probably accurate but is also an assumption.) Why couldn't religious Israeli Jews from the left side of the Green Line visit a Jewish holy spot?

Of course "clashes erupted." It isn't that Israeli forces responded to rocks and Molotov cocktails with tear gas - they happened simultaneously!

As I've noted previously when Ma'an used inflammatory language, Jews have the right under existing agreements to visit Joseph's Tomb. It really should be the PA protecting them.

The Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today helpfully adds that "the settlers arrived by the dozens of buses, and they began to establish their religious rituals, and to celebrate provocatively in Joseph's Tomb." Because Jewish prayer in an unquestionably Jewish shrine is, inherently, provocative.

Because, as we've noted before, Muslims are now trying to claim the tomb for themselves. During last year's visit on the same Hebrew date, Ma'an informed us that "Muslims believe that an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yussef (Joseph) Dawiqat, was buried there." This famous sheikh has no biography online as far as I can tell, and the earliest mention I can find of him is 2010 (that article claims that Sheikh Yusuf lived "before 1850" even though the tomb was there way before that.

Hamas says AP story of Gaza toddler abandoned in hospital is a lie

A few days ago, AP published this story:

In his short life, Palestinian toddler Mohammed al-Farra has known just one home: the yellow-

painted children's ward in Israel's Tel Hashomer hospital.

Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed's hands and feet were amputated because of complications from his condition, and the 3 1/2-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned him, and the Palestinian government won't pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather.

"There's no care for this child in Gaza, there's no home in Gaza where he can live," said the grandfather, Hamouda al-Farra.

Mohammed's plight is an extreme example of the harsh treatment some families mete to the disabled, particularly in the more tribal-dominated corners of the Gaza Strip, even as Palestinians make strides in combatting such attitudes.

It also demonstrates a costly legacy of Gaza's strongly patriarchal culture that prods women into first-cousin marriages and allows polygamy, while rendering mothers powerless over their children's fate.

Mohammed was rushed to Israel as a newborn for emergency treatment. His genetic disorder left him with a weakened immune system and crippled his bowels, doctors say, and an infection destroyed his hands and feet, requiring them to be amputated.

In the midst of his treatment, his mother abandoned Mohammed because her husband, ashamed of their son, threatened to take a second wife if she didn't leave the baby and return to their home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, al-Farra said. In Gaza, polygamy is permitted but isn't common. But it's a powerful threat to women fearful of competing against newer wives.

Now Mohammed spends his days undergoing treatment and learning how to use prosthetic limbs.

His 55-year-old grandfather cares for him. Mohammed's Israeli doctors, who've grown attached to the boy, fundraise to cover his bills, allowing him and his grandfather to live in the sunny pediatric ward.

But it's not clear how long he'll stay in the hospital, or where he'll go when his treatment is complete. As a Palestinian, Mohammed is not eligible for permanent Israeli residency. Yet his family will not take the child back, the grandfather said. His parents, contacted by The Associated Press, refused to comment.

Dr. Raz Somech, the senior physician in the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer's pediatric immunology department, attributes Mohammed's genetic disorder to the several generations of cousin marriages in his family - including his parents.

Speaking to Ynet, Somech said the toddler was returned to Gaza once or twice so he could see his parents, and returned "even sicker and more bruised. The grandfather said he did not want to take him back to the hospital, but cannot treat him on his own."

Somech said Mohammed arrived at the hospital at the age of six months with a severe intestinal disease. "Intestinal diseases are very rare at this age, so it was clear to us that it was something genetic. We diagnosed him as having a genetic disease that is related to the immune system and mainly damages the digestive system. He is the first child in Israel who was diagnosed with this disease. There are only a few hundred others in hospitals worldwide," said the physician.

Doctors at Sheba stabilized Mohammed's condition with large amounts of medication. "We considered a bone marrow transplant, which can save lives, but unfortunately we could not find a donor with matching tissue type, so we continued the medication treatment, which paradoxically weakens the immune system even more," he told Ynet.

"Mohammed was in the hospital for a long time, and at some point a severe bacterial infection led to necrosis, which required the amputation of his four limbs."

...Doctors' fundraising has covered Mohammed's years of treatment, Somech said. One donor provided $28,000 for Mohammed's prosthetics.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is supposed to fund transfers to Israeli hospitals. But it stopped covering Mohammed's bills six months after he arrived, Somech said. Palestinian health official Fathi al-Hajj said there was no record of the case.

There has been a growing number of cases where the Palestinian Authority stopped paying for patients because of its budgetary problems, Mor Efrat of rights group Physicians for Human Rights said.

Al-Farra said he stepped in to care for Mohammed to save his daughter's marriage. He sleeps beside Mohammed and ensures he's clean and fed.

This story did not sit well with Hamas.

So they made up their own:

Palestinian citizen from the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip revealed that due to a medical error committed by one of the Israeli hospitals, his child has lost his hands and feet.

Abu Ahed Farra, 37, said that their suffering has begun when his youngest son Mohammed, who was born in August 2009, started suffering from continuous diarrhea.

He said that doctors in Gaza were unable to diagnose his illness, so they moved him to an Israeli hospital, where he remained more than eight months hospitalized.

"During this period, there has been no improvement in the health condition of Mohammed" Farra said.

He added that in June 2011 the Israeli doctors injected the child with a dose of medication after which his condition has somewhat improved.

"Days after a nurse gave the child another dose without consulting the doctor, and the child's condition quickly worsened. He entered in a coma. The doctors injected him with the anti-dote and the child woke up. However, his skin color turned into black and the examinations showed that the blood was not reaching his hands and feet," the father said.

He added that they were shocked when they received an urgent request from the hospital demanding them to approve the amputation of the child's four limbs.

The family filed a lawsuit against the Israeli hospital, and the court decided that the hospital will pay all the costs of treatment and accommodation of the child in hospital.

Mohammed Farra, who will be four years old after few months, still suffers from a difficult health condition. He has not fully recovered from his illness, and ended up losing his limbs due to a medical mistake.

So, which story is more believable?

Given that the grandfather testifies that Abu Ahed Farra has no desire to visit his son, and in fact he never does, it sure sounds like the Israelis are telling the truth. (I'm no doctor, but necrosis does not seem to come from giving too many antibiotics.)

Monday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Kerry Betting On The Wrong Horses by Khaled Abu Toameh

The US Administration needs to understand that the Arab League is an incompetent and ineffectual body that has long been ridiculed by most Arabs. This is a body that has never played an instrumental role in solving Arab crises such as the Lebanese Civil War, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait or the ongoing bloodshed in Syria.
It now remains to be seen whether Kerry and President Barack Obama will ever notice that they are betting on the wrong horses. Neither the Arab League nor the Palestinian Authority leadership has a mandate to offer any concessions to Israel or recognize its right to exist.

IDF Blog: Reality check: The truth behind crossings in Judea and Samaria

The crossings and IDF checkpoints in Judea and Samaria have been the source of much confusion and debate worldwide. Crossings and checkpoints, while both provide important security benefits, are different.

Police Catch Tens of Thousands of 'Illegal Eggs'

Border police on Sunday confiscated 54,000 illegal eggs that were being smuggled into Jerusalem by an Arab driver from Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. The eggs were inside a non-marked truck that is usually used to transport dirt.

Honest Reporting Canada: UBC Student Group Acts as Apologists For a Convicted Palestinian Terrorist

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is under criticism by Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada for "abdicating its responsibility to stop convicted terrorist Leila Khaled from having the opportunity to poison the minds of Canadian students."
A B'nai Brith statement noted that "Khaled is scheduled to speak via Skype at a conference hosted by a Pro-Palestinian university student group and sponsored by a university Alma Mater Society on the 4th of May. She has been convicted of terrorism for carrying out hijackings for the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist organization."

Republican Party Animals group kicks out Holocaust denier infiltrator

In late April, it was discovered that RPA “head” David Stein was actually a man named David Cole. Cole has appeared in online videos espousing Holocaust revisionism. After confirmation that Cole and Stein were indeed the same person, Cole (himself Jewish) refused to renounce his views denying the Holocaust.

The terror funding thing that wont go away

Norway has still not received any response from the Palestinian Authority in the matter of financial support for terrorist convicted prisoners. Now the opposition demands that the government put pressure on the Palestinians.
Norwegian authorities responded after Israeli media last year revealed the hitherto unknown aspects of the financial aid scheme for Palestinian prisoners who are in Israeli prisons.

The ‘start-up nation’ and the Chinese dream

With the interdependence between countries deepening in the globalized world, China and Israel have a shared destiny. The closer our cooperation is, the more benefits will accrue for both our peoples, and the more contributions we will be able to make to regional stability, world peace and global prosperity.
I am fully convinced that with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to China, a brighter future for our friendship and cooperation will be ushered in.
The writer is the People’s Republic of China’s ambassador to the State of Israel.

$100 billion Tata shops for tech innovation in Tel Aviv

Indian conglomerate will be the biggest investor in a new technology research fund established by TAU

Shake hands with Omek’s man-machine interface of the future

Israel’s Omek makes its gesture recognition and tracking tech so sophisticated that it follows motion down to the joints of each finger.

Stars of David over Hollywood

From ‘The Jazz Singer’ to ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,’ the way Jews are portrayed on the silver screen reflects their acceptance into American society, says author Eric A. Goldman

Israel sends Noah’s Ark of animals to Turkey

Several months ago, Turkish zookeepers in Izmir asked Ramat Gan Safari for help in boosting their zoological collection.
The Ramat Gan Safari – like other zoos in Israel — is a member of the international zoological organization and regularly participates in exchanging animals to promote breeding and bolster exhibits at other zoos. But Horowitz noted this is the biggest exchange in which the Ramat Gan Safari has ever taken part.
Horowitz also said that although Israel and Turkey may be at diplomatic odds with one another; animals are the true gesture of cooperation and always override politics.

Step Up for Israel - Israel is Just a Dream

Stupid "depleted uranium" rumors based on...nothing

Anti-Israel idiots are having a field day with the accusation that Israel bombed Syria with depleted uranium munitions. The Jerusalem Post did Israel no favors by quoting the original source of the report, the notoriously unreliable Russia Today, without comment, and the JPost imprimatur allowed the rumor to worm its way to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.

So how did this rumor start? From Russia Today:

Israel used "a new type of weapon", a senior official at the Syrian military facility that came under attack from the Israeli Air Force told RT.

“When the explosion happened it felt like an earthquake,” said the source, who was present near the attack site on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday morning.

“Then a giant golden mushroom of fire appeared. This tells us that Israel used depleted uranium shells.”

Yes, this unnamed "senior official" said that based on the shape and color of the explosion, it must have been
depleted uranium!

He is clearly trying to say that DU, being somewhat radioactive, would have the same signature mushroom cloud as atomic weapons.

This is, of course, entirely nonsense. DU is not an explosive. It is used by the military only because it is dense and hard so it is ideal for munitions that need to penetrate deeply (like bunker busters or armor-penetrating shells.) It does not affect the explosion caused.

The color of the explosions comes simply from the stuff being blown up; in the case of the biggest fireball seen on video, it is probably showing that engine fuel was part of the explosion.

From the RT article, we see absolutely zero evidence that DU was used. It is the idle speculation (or accusation) of an anonymous "official" who apparently doesn't know anything about the chemistry behind explosions.

Publishing and republishing this information without context is irresponsible journalism on everyone's part.

(h/ t JE)

The Economist reveals its anti-Israel bias (updated)

The Economist has a very slanted article that is headlined "Squeeze them out: As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away."

One sentence has a major factual error. The only way that error could have gotten into the article is from the reporter assuming the worst from Israelis, and either grossly misinterpreting a document with his anti-Israel glasses on or, worse, purposefully misrepresenting that document.

Here's the sentence, which is meant to be the major factual evidence for the almost entirely subjective article:

So far this year, Israel’s army has evicted almost 400 Palestinians from the West Bank and dismantled over 200 homes, the fastest rate for two years, according to the UN.

The Economist even tweeted this, where it was retweeted 400 times:

I can believe 200 homes being demolished - there is illegal building all the time, and structures get knocked down - but is it possible that Israel "evicted 400 Palestinians from the West Bank" this year?

That would be a major story that everyone missed, if true.

Sure enough, I found the document that the Economist based this on. It is not a UN document, but rather written by an alphabet soup of anti-Israel NGOs, hosted on the UN website.

Here's what it says:

In 2013, 203 Palestinian structures have been demolished thus far, displacing 379 people, including 222 children, and otherwise affecting an additional 541 people’s ability to earn an the income or access water and other basic services.

Nobody was evicted from the West Bank.

The Economist replaced "displaced" with "evicted" and then added "from the West Bank."

I have no idea whether the document is accurate to begin with - clearly, the unnamed reporter didn't make even a weak attempt to verify the facts with Israeli officials, something any real journalist, no matter how biased, would at least pretend to do.

Even if the NGO document is correct, the Economist's misrepresenting of it is not a simple error, but evidence that the article was written with the initial goal of demonizing Israel. They might - and should - issue a correction, but the "mistake" is not the story. The story is how they could have made that mistake to begin with, and what it says about the objectivity of the story itself.

(h/t @pophoger, Ross)

(UPDATE: Added the tweet.)

Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

JPost editorial: Message to Assad

The target seemed to be a Syrian version of Iran’s Fatah-110 missile, capable of traveling 300 kilometers with a half-ton warhead.
Most important of all, however, is the message that is sent to both Syria and Iran. By standing by its warnings that it would not tolerate the transfer of gamechanging weapons to Hezbollah, Israel has made it clear – this time at least – that when it uses the rhetoric of “unacceptable” and “intolerable” it is not just being “so hectoring and schoolmarish,” as Foreign Policy’s Rosa Brooks recently put it in an article titled “Would Machiavelli have drawn a red line?” While statesmen of other countries seem to make declarations without having any intention of standing behind their words, Israel will not tolerate Syria’s crossing its red lines. And that is an important message for the mullahs of the Islamic Republic, too.

McCain: IAF Showed Up Gen. Dempsey on Syria No Fly Zone

On April 30, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that imposing a no-fly zone on the Syrian government through U.S. Airforce sorties over Syria would be a daunting but feasible prospect, but he said he doubted the value of the likely outcome.
“The U.S. military has the capability to defeat that system, but it would be a greater challenge, and would take longer and require more resources” than in Libya, Dempsey told reporters.

Lawmakers: Israeli strikes show Syrian air-defense vulnerability

“The Israeli strikes over the last 48 hours have indicated that those Russian air-defense systems are not as robust as is sometimes reported,” he said. “We can stop Bashar Assad from killing his own people.”
“We have to arm the opposition. We also need toward imposing a no-fly zone so that Bashar Assad cannot continue to use helicopter gunships against civilians and so the refugees he's creating aren't destabilizing our allies like Jordan.”

Obama’s Seat on the Fence

After two years of empty U.S. rhetoric and threats for crossing imaginary red lines, Assad had no fear of U.S. intervention. He was right. Even using the horrendous Sarin gas had done nothing to get Obama off his fence. Instead, under heavy criticism for his reluctance to accept the evidence that Sarin gas was used, Obama is now trying to redefine either “red,” or “line,” or both.

Barry Rubin: The Region: Syria: The empire strikes back

US strategy, and that of the West and international organizations, has been based on two ideas that have proven to be wishful thinking.
Given the recent military gains of the Syrian regime, obituaries of dictator Bashar Assad have proven exaggerated, and that puts the Obama administration in a bind.

Simon Wiesenthal Center Slams Contextless Huffington Post ‘Israel Strikes Again’ Headline

There is “no context,” Huff-Watcher wrote ”Why is Israel ‘striking’ Syria? Every responsible ‘newspaper’ in the world is saying something about the reason.”
Huff-Watcher contends that the headline lacking context is not new for the Huffington Post when it comes to reporting on Israel. “This is nothing new. It is part of HuffPost’s continuing pattern of whipping up hatred against Israel and Jews, through egregiously decontextualized headlines and headline imagery, ignoring the preceding attacks that made Israel’s military response necessary, then falsely depicting Israel as the aggressor,” the blogger writes.

Egyptian, Hamas tensions increase By Khaled Abu Toameh

In yet another sign of increased tensions between the two sides, the Egyptian authorities on Sunday banned two Hamas officials from entering Egypt.

Iran/Hizballah’s Global Shi’ite Terror Network

There are two main components to the Iran-centered Shi’ite terror network: The first is the Quds Force – the elite overseas arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, tasked with carrying out attacks, subterfuge, and arms smuggling around the world – and the second is Tehran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hizballah.

Kenyan Court Sentences 2 Iranians to Life in Jail

Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kilogram (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. Officials in Kenya say the two suspects may have been planning attacks on Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian interests in Kenya.

WJC pans Hungary PM for falling short against anti-Semitism

Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not go far enough in condemning the anti-Semitism that has reared its head in Hungary, the World Jewish Congress said Sunday, hours after Orban called for zero-tolerance of anti-Jewish activity at the opening address of the group’s annual meeting in Budapest.

New gateways to old hatreds

Even for those acutely aware of the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide, viewing “Jew Bashing: The New Anti-Semitism,” a new, investigative documentary, is a profoundly disturbing experience. It is also a must-see.
The impressive feature, written and produced by award-winning Canadian-Israeli filmmaker and former war correspondent Martin Himel, is divided into four segments: the Middle East, Europe, the US and Canada. Each is approximately 45 minutes long, and the viewer remains spellbound throughout. Canadian media visionary Moses Znaimer is the executive producer and a different section of the series will be screened on Canada’s VisionTV on Monday evenings throughout the month of May.

Egyptian Islamic party head calls to kill Christians, march on Israel

Lost in the glare of the media attention on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood party are the smaller, completely insane Islamist parties to its right. (You know, the ones that make the MB appear "moderate" by

comparison.)

The Egyptian Islamic party, headed by Mohamed Abu Samra and Kamal Habib, is just one of these powderkegs that are off the radar of most Western analysts.

Samra just seized on the apparent Israeli raid on Egypt to declare that Islamist groups will march towards Israel on May 15th in protest.

Muhammad Abu Samra, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Party said: “We will soon take revenge against Israel for what it did in Syria. It will begin with convoys of jihadis on the Egyptian-Palestinian borders, on May 15.

Abu Samra said, in an interview yesterday, Sunday, with Rula Kharsa, the media personality in the “Al-Balad Al-Youm” program on the Sada Al-Balad channel, that there is another aim for marking this day: it is embarrassing President Mursi, who protects the Jews under the pretext of respecting the American treaties and who didn’t do a thing when Gaza was hit – which was a test conducted by America to check how committed he is to his treaty with Israel.

Only last week, Samra said something even more outrageous, according to the Christian Post:

Mohamed Abu Samra, secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Party, made the claim that "it is permissible to kill some Christians today," then gave his argument defending such a position.

He justified this announcement by saying: "Those who came out with weapons, their blood is allowed for us [to spill], as a fighter is not considered dhimmi."

"In the recent funeral, the Christians brought the Qur'an and urinated on it. The Sheikh of Al-Azhar did not deny it. They also came out in demonstrations to destroy Muslim places, chanting 'We'll bring Islam down by any means possible,'" Samra said during an interview with Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan on Wednesday.

One of the major problems with the Islamist government in Egypt isn't with the Muslim Brotherhood itself - but its very existence as the new "mainstream" has moved the center far to the right - and as a result, it has legitimized racist, hateful Islamist rhetoric that was considered taboo before the revolution.

(h/t Al Gharqad)