Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

HRW Founder: Human Rights Must Focus on Arab Regimes’ Hate Speech

Human Rights Watch founder Robert Bernstein said that today's human rights advocates ignore the repression of basic freedoms across the Middle East and mistakenly call "free speech" and "advocacy' what is really state-sponsored hate speech.

PMW: Former advisor of Mahmoud Abbas praises terrorist who murdered father of five

Jordan Moves to Scrap Peace Treaty over Arrest of Jerusalem Mufti

World War III may have been close and may have been prevented on the Temple Mount, where the Jerusalem Mufti was arrested and then released for throwing chairs at Jews on Jerusalem Unification Day.

Despite Calls to End Peace, Israel Increases Water Flow to Jordan

According to Ambassador Eran, the Jordanian government is on very friendly terms with Israel, it’s only the vast population that wants all of us dead.
Now, here’s the zinger: according to Reshet Bet, Israeli sources have said that Israel has increased the amount of water it transfers to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority recently regardless of the increase in the number of refugees from Syria in Jordan.

What about persecuted Christians?

Here we go again. Christians are under attack in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, and yet another Christian deliberative body is gathering to talk about – who else – the Jews.

Hawking Boycott 'Slap in the Face to Academic Freedom'

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today criticized the decision by British professor Stephen Hawking to withdraw from the Israeli Presidential Conference on political grounds, calling it “a slap in the face to academic freedom.”

Will Hawking Boycott his own Voice Generator?

British physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking’s decision to support the academic boycott of the state of Israel is “quite hypocritical for an individual who prides himself on his own intellectual accomplishment,” asserted Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center.
“His whole computer-based communication system runs on a chip designed by Israel's Intel team. I suggest that if he truly wants to pull out of Israel he should also pull out his Intel Core i7 from his tablet," said Darshan Leitner.

Opinion: Would Stephen Hawking Survive Under an Arab Regime?

Would Professor Hawking ever survive in any Arab country or under the Palestinian autocracy he shamefully defends?
While in the Arab world disabled people have been called “the invisibles,” because they are segregated and hidden from the public eye, Israel’s work with illness and disabilities would merit a book in itself.

‘Glory and disaster’ intertwine in Budapest’s historic Jewish quarter

The beauty and horror of the past merge with evidence of revitalised but wary community life along the cobblestone streets of District VII
The city’s Jewish timeline includes the births of Max Nordau (1849) and Theodor Herzl (1860); it holds Adolf Eichmann’s headquarters, from where he deported Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz (1944); and it boasts the Dohany Synagogue (built 1859) — the largest in Europe and one of the biggest in the world.

Harvey Weinstein to Elie Wiesel: Without You There Would be no ‘Schindler’s List’ (VIDEO)

“I think there would be no ‘Schindler’s List,’ no ‘Life is Beautiful,’ no ‘Reader,’ so many of the movies that us in the industry have been involved in about the Holocaust, came from that first seminal book which was ‘Night,’ which continues to inspire me,” said Weinstein.

Israel and China Sign $400 Million Trade Agreement

Israeli and Chinese officials signed a $400 million trade agreement during meetings on Wednesday, expanding trade between the two nations to $2.05 billion.

Facebook said ready to drop $1 billion on Waze

Facebook is reportedly in advanced talks to buy Israeli crowdsourced traffic and navigation app Waze. The price is said to be between $800 million and a billion dollars.

UN looks to Israel for advice on disabilities issues

UN’s Economic and Social Council says Israeli “knowledge and experience should be shared with the world.”

By the Law Among Nations, Jerusalem Belongs to Us

Contrary to the claims made by Palestinian leaders, various NGOs, and certain members of the international community, international law fully recognizes the Jewish people’s claim to Jerusalem, where they have historical roots dating back over 3,000 years and have been the largest ethnic group in the city since 1820.
Ernst Frankenstein, a British authority on international law said, for example, that the Jewish people have a right to their ancestral homeland and ancient capital city in Jerusalem based on the fact that the Jewish people never relinquished their historic claims to the area.

Video: Tens of Thousands Gather for Jerusalem Flag Dance

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Jerusalem for the annual Rikudgalim (flag dance) in honor of Yom Yerushalayim.

Another child killed by a Hamas rocket during Pillar of Defense?

B'tselem today released a report on civilian deaths in Gaza. Yet there was very little independent investigation, and none on the ground - B'tselem relied on reports from others and people they spoke to on the phone to verify their facts.

There are a number of flaws in the report, as noted by NGO Monitor, and especially the disconnect between B'tselem's press release and the actual contents of the report.

Additionally, B'tselem does not give a list of all the people they are counting as civilian, so it is not possible to cross-check their statistics against the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report from December that showed that 101 terrorists were killed during the fighting. Indeed, the B'tselem report counts only 69 terrorists (62 fighters, 7 objects of targeted operations) while the ITIC report shows the photos, most in uniform, of 73 terrorists!

One of the fatalities they mention, of an 18-month old boy, is interesting in that it shows B'tselem's bias in assuming that the IDF is responsible for all deaths:

The extended Abu Khusah family lives in an isolated three-story house with a wall-enclosed inner-courtyard. The house, located in al-Bureij Refugee Camp about 1.5 km from the border with Israel, is surrounded by agricultural land which was bombed by Israeli planes during Operation Pillar of Defense. Therefore, the Abu Khusah children did not leave their home’s courtyard. B’Tselem’s investigation found that no member of the Abu Khusah family belonged to a Palestinian armed group. It was also found that no armed Palestinians had operated in the vicinity of the family's home.

On the morning of 18 November 2012, at around 8:00 AM, an Israeli plane fired into the courtyard. One-and-a-half-year-old Iyad Abu Khusah was killed by shrapnel that hit him in the head. Shrapnel hit his six-year-old brother Suhaib in the face and neck. His four-year-old cousin Sarah was hit by shrapnel in the abdomen and the lower torso.

For every other incident listed by B'Tselem, the IDF responded that either investigations were underway or that they determined that they acted within the bounds of the laws of armed conflict. This case was the only exception. Here, the IDF replied:

Why would the IDF deny this attack when they admitted involvement in many other airstrikes, including others that regrettably killed children? Clearly there is no more incentive to lie about this than about any other attack.

The only reasonable answer is that the IDF must not have shot the rocket that killed Iyad Abu Khusah. (The alternative is that the IDF has such poor record-keeping that it cannot account for all its missiles.)

B'tselem says that "no armed Palestinians had operated in the vicinity," which means that they were trying to find out if the IDF had aimed at rocket launchers near the family's expansive open area. (How they determined that is not clear.) Yet they didn't even consider the idea that an errant Hamas rocket - a Grad-style rocket, most likely, but maybe one of the larger Qassams - had misfired and killed the child. Keep in mind that the family lived near the Gaza border.

B'tselem is well within its rights to be skeptical about the IDF's investigations or methodologies. A flat denial that an attack even occurred, however, should cause an objective organization to step back and come up with alternative explanations. Instead, it states as fact that "an Israeli plane fired into the courtyard." No photos, no forensics, no proof outside of what the family said - and the family never even said it was a plane, only "a huge explosion."

We've seen the damage that a Grad rocket could do; clearly it can destroy a wall. Some Qassam-class rockets could, too, under the right circumstances.

Why didn't B'tselem even consider the possibility?

Either they know something about the circumstances of the episode they are not telling us - which seems unlikely because everything they know is second-hand - or they are so emotionally invested in blaming Israel that any counter-evidence is, by default, ignored.

To B'tselem, the terrorists that may have killed Iyad Abu Khusah are assumed innocent, and the IDF is assumed guilty.

MUST READ: An Israeli peacenik meets the reality of Palestinian Arab intransigence

Lital Shemesh is a young, liberal Israeli journalist, considered a rising star in the Israeli media who openly expresses her political aspirations.

She wrote a must-read article from Walla, translated by Baruch Gordon on his blog:

Peace? From the Palestinian Standpoint, There is a Past, No Future

by Lital Shemesh

I participated in the Dialogue for Peace Project for young Israelis and Palestinians who are politically involved in various frameworks. The project’s objective was to identify tomorrow’s leaders and bring them closer today, with the aim of bringing peace at some future time.

The project involved meetings every few weeks and a concluding seminar in Turkey.

On the third day of the seminar after we had become acquainted, had removed barriers, and split helpings of rachat Lukum [a halva-like almond Arab delicacy] as though there was never a partition wall between us, we began to touch upon many subjects which were painful for both sides. The Palestinians spoke of roadblocks and the IDF soldiers in the territories, while the Israeli side spoke of constant fear, murderous terrorist attacks, and rockets from Gaza.

The Israeli side, which included representatives from right and left, tried to understand the Palestinians’ vision of the end of the strife– “Let’s talk business.” The Israelis delved to understand how we can end the age-old, painful conflict. What red lines are they willing to be flexible on? What resolution will satisfy their aspirations? Where do they envision the future borders of the Palestinian State which they so crave?

We were shocked to discover that not a single one of them spoke of a Palestinian State, or to be more precise, of a two-state solution.

They spoke of one state – their state. They spoke of ruling Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Akko, Haifa, and the pain of the Nakba [lit. the tragedy – the establishment of the State of Israel]. There was no future for them. Only the past. “There is no legitimacy for Jews to live next to us” – this was their main message. “First, let them pay for what they perpetrated.”

In the course of a dialogue which escalated to shouts, the Palestinians asked us not to refer to suicide bombers as “terrorists” because they don’t consider them so. “So how do you call someone who dons a vest and blows himself up in a Tel Aviv shopping mall with the stated purpose of killing innocent civilians,” I asked one of the participants.

“I have a 4-year-old at home,” answered Samach from Abu Dis (near Jerusalem). “If God forbid something should happen to him, I will go and burn an entire Israeli city, if I can.” All the other Palestinian participants nodded their heads in agreement to his harsh words.

“Three weeks ago, we gave birth to a son,” answered Amichai, a religious, Jewish student from Jerusalem. “If God forbid something should happen to him, I would find no comfort whatsoever in deaths of more people.”

Israelis from the full gamut of political parties participated in the seminar: Likud, Labor, Kadima, Meretz, and Hadash (combined Jewish/Arab socialist party). All of them reached the understanding that the beautiful scenarios of Israeli-Palestinian peace that they had formulated for themselves simply don’t correspond with reality. It’s just that most Israelis don’t have the opportunity to sit and really converse with Palestinians, to hear what they really think.

Our feed of information comes from Abu Mazen’s declarations to the international press, which he consistently contradicts when he is interviewed by Al Jazeera, where he paints a completely different picture.

I arrived at the seminar with high hopes, and I return home with difficult feelings and despair. Something about the narrative of the two sides is different from the core. How can we return to the negotiating table when the Israeli side speaks of two states and the Palestinian side speaks of liberating Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea? How can peace ever take root in a platform which grants legitimacy to terrorism?

This is not the first time a group of Israelis who pine for peace have met with their liberal Arab counterparts - only to find that they have no counterparts at all.

(h/t Josh K)

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Barry Rubin: Demise of the Anti-Israel Card

For decades in the Middle East the most reliable political tool often seemed to be the Israel card, the idea that by condemning Israel, blaming it for the Arab world’s problems, and claiming that those who were insufficiently militant on the issue were traitors.
But the Israel card doesn’t work anymore, at least not in the way it used to do so. True, the rise of revolutionary Islamism has focused more hatred against Israel. Yet at the same time—and this analogy is imperfect—it is less of a single-issue movement. As revolutionary Islamists seek to destroy their rivals (nationalist, moderates, and each other) and fundamentally transform their own societies, they are kept pretty busy.

MEMRI: Tunisian Salafist Kamel Zarouq Talks of Future Conquest of Andalusia, Rome, and Jerusalem

NGO Monitor: B’Tselem Acknowledges Inability to Assess Palestinian Allegations
Condemnation of IDF in Press Release Not Supported by Accompanying Report

On May 9, 2013, the Israeli organization B’Tselem issued a 30-page report headlined “Human Rights Violations during Operation Pillar of Defense 14-21 November 2012.” This publication immediately received widespread coverage in the Israeli media, apparently based largely on an accompanying press release.
However, the claims in the press release are inconsistent with the actual report, creating false perceptions in the media. The press statement claims that the “report raises suspicions that the military violated International Humanitarian Law (IHL).” But these allegations are not demonstrated in the report; at best, they are the result of conjecture, as B’Tselem itself acknowledges in the report. Additionally, the claim to distinguish between civilian and combat deaths in this report, as in past B’Tselem statements, is based on manipulated definitions and speculation, and the application of existing legal standards would result in very different conclusions.

Missing Peace: EU contributes another 20 million Euro while corruption in PA continues

The announcement came a day after the publication of an article titled:’ Report Highlights Corruption In Palestinian Institutions’ written by the Palestinian journalist Hazem Balousha. His article summarized a report that was issued last month by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (known as AMAN in Arabic). This report deals with corruption in the PA but received close to zero media attention.

Palestinian woman shot dead by PA police

Clashes between Palestinian Authority Police and residents near Hebron as heavy-handed tactics escalate

Getting rid of Bashar Assad won't end Syria's civil war

Tehran's only hope of snatching some measure of victory from the jaws of defeat is a ceasefire in place and an interim power-sharing formula that will allow its proxies to remain armed — thereby subverting the ensuing political process, much as Hezbollah did after the 1975-1990 civil war in neighboring Lebanon.

Assad vows 'strategic revenge' on Israel, modeled on Hezbollah

Assad's comments, published by Al-Akhbar, appeared intended to refute any suggestion that last week's reported Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon - Assad: Syria will "give Hezbollah everything."

Syria buying advanced Russian missile system, Israel says

US officials say they have been warned by Israel over the impending sale of an advanced Russian missile system to Syria, fearing it could hamper efforts for international intervention in the war-torn country.
Israel suspects that Russia plans to sell Damascus six S-300 missile batteries, as well as 144 missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Removed from UN Panel After B’nai B’rith Request

In addition to her views on 9/11, Machon is known for claiming the Israeli Mossad was behind the 1994 bombing of Israel’s embassy in London. “Her outrageous and offensive views do not deserve a prominent platform—let alone in the city most scarred by the horrific events of 9/11,” B’nai B’rith said in a statement after the announcement of Machon’s removal from the program.

Dusseldorf cancels Nazi Tannhäuser

Deutsche Oper am Rhein abandon controversial production on “medical grounds”.
Burkhard C Kosminski’s production of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser that generated a furore of criticism for its use of Nazi imagery has been officially cancelled. The cast will perform a concert version on the remaining dates.

Anti-Semite's NY College Workshop Cancelled

Parsons School of Design has canceled a workshop that had been set to be taught by disgraced fashion designer John Galliano.

Israeli Soccer Star Victim of Anti-Semitic Abuse on Twitter

Israeli soccer star Yossi Benayoun, who currently plays for FC Chelsea in the English Premier League, was recently the victim of anti-Semitic abuse on Twitter.

Jewish refugees ignored by West, group tells Canadian MPs

Jewish refugees from Arab countries have been ignored by the Western world, the Canadian Parliament was told in its first-ever hearings on the issue.
"The expulsion of nearly 1 million Jews from nine Arab countries has had no political consequences," Gina Waldman, president of JIMENA, a nonprofit group dedicated to the preservation of Mizrahi and Sephardic culture, told the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Tuesday.

Why are human rights organizations silent about Arab and Muslim anti-semitism?

In 2003, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued a joint statement on antisemitism:

Recognizing anti-Semitism as a serious human rights violation, we also recognize our own responsibility to take on this issue as part of our work. It should not be left to Jewish groups alone to highlight this issue and to appeal to the international community to address it. We are firmly committed to joining their ongoing efforts and to helping to bring problems of anti-Semitism into the overall human rights discourse.

Now, in 2013, if you look through the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International websites, it is difficult indeed to find any condemnations of Arab or Muslim antisemitism. While they condemn anti-semitism in Western countries, I cannot find a single mention of the phrases "Arab anti-semitism" or "Muslim anti-semitism" on either of their sites. Their typical mentions of antisemitism are usually together with Islamophobia.

Given the daily antisemitic incitement in the Arab and Muslim worlds, this is yet another indication that "human rights" organizations have a significant blind spot and are anxious to judge Arabs and Muslims by quite different standards than they judge Westerners.

In the past two days I posted crazed Jew-hating diatribes shown on Lebanese TV, in a popular Egyptian newspaper. Also recently we saw two accusations of the medieval blood libel in Egypt, a newspaper series insulting Judaism in Jordan, as well as examples of antisemitism in the Iraq media, Saudi Arabia newspaper, a Palestinian Arab "human rights group" and "peace activist," and pan-Arab media, and many more.

It is endemic. But worse than that, the hatred is mass produced.

In 2001, a hugely popular 30-part Ramadan TV series aired in the Arab world based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was rerun in Egypt this year.

Iran released an antisemitic movie last year.

Scene during filming of upcoming Khaybar series

A purely anti-semitic TV series ("Khaybar") is being filmed now in Egypt and Morocco to be shown in Arabic TV will be used to incite hundreds of millions of people against Jews during Ramadan next year to the Arab world. The filming of the series gets regular coverage in Arab media, and they make clear that it is meant to demonize Jews. The director doesn't even attempt to hide the purpose of the film.

Naturally, "human rights" organizations are silent about that as well.

So where are the condemnations from the mainstream defenders of human rights who have said that antisemitism is a serious human rights violation? Or is it simply too touchy a subject for them?

Simply put, human rights organizations do not insist that Arabs and Muslims adhere to the same standards that the rest of the world must.

I think there is another reason why this issue is roundly ignored by the mainstream human rights organizations. They want to believe that if only Israel would offer more concessions, then peace is possible. They want to frame the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of human rights and international law and fairness and other Western constructs. The Arabs happily take advantage of this blind spot and speak only in those terms to Westerners as well, so the cycle of self-deception is complete.

Publicizing the rampant Jew-hatred in the Arab and Muslim worlds, however, will show that the hate transcends any other claims.

The Arab goal isn't human rights. They want to destroy the Jewish state and have Jews revert to the second-class status (at best) that they held in the Middle East for the past 1400 years. The idea that Jews aren't meekly submissive to their more numerous cousins is what causes this pure hate, not land disputes or "settlements."

Once this realization sinks in, the Western liberal mind would despair. Peace, it would appear, isn't possible in such a toxic environment. But since peace is imperative, the thinking goes, all evidence to the contrary must be downplayed. Pretend it is a political problem with a political solution, and don't let anything get in the way.

The irony is that soft-pedaling Arab and Muslim antisemitism does no one any favors.

HRW, Amnesty, Oxfam and all the other human rights organizations can help the cause of peace immensely by shining light on this oldest hatred. Publicizing the issue is necessary for ridding the Muslim world of their hate - or at least opening up a debate about it, a debate that is all but silent. (I have rarely seen a talkback in Arabic condemning an article that denies the Holocaust or accuses Jews of drinking gentile blood on Passover.)

Peace is literally unthinkable when the Jewish people are viewed as evil incarnate. Human rights organizations have clout. Shining light on this problem is essential, and it is not an obstacle to peace - it is a prerequisite.

Right now, the human rights organizations have a chance to prove that they mean what they say. The Khaybar TV series is coming, and it is pure incitement against Jews. Denouncing this as a human rights issue - which it is, according to Amnesty's and HRW's own words - can show that these organizations are serious about their own stated purposes.

UPDATE: Sign the petition!

Cleric on Lebanese TV: "If only Hitler had finished them off"

Here's the latest in insane Muslim Jew-hatred from MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a religious program featuring Tareq Hawwas of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Al-Quds TV on April 18, 2013:

Tareq Hawwas: The Jews are among the true enemies of the Islamic nation. Their enmity began with the beginning of the call to Islam.

[...]

It is well established among Islamic scholars that the Prophet Muhammad died as the result of eating poisoned meat, given to him by that Jewish woman in Khaybar. She invited him to a feast, and she gave him poisoned mutton. She knew that he was partial to the shank, so she filled it with poison. When he tasted it, he was informed [that he was poisoned]. Some say that the lamb itself spoke, while others say that he had a revelation. The Prophet Muhammad got up, but some traces of the poison remained.

Thus, the scholars consider the Prophet Muhammad to be a martyr because he died from the poison given to him by the Jews. Before that, some of the Jewish tribes tried to throw a rock at him, and tried, more than once, to send people to kill him. These are not mere claims, but have been well established. These conspiracies began when the first light of Islam began to glow, and they surreptitiously try to conspire against Islam.

[...]

The Jews are the enemies of this nation, and they spare no effort in preventing this nation from gaining power. They have their ways. But before I go into that, anybody who knows what the Jews are like knows that this type of conduct is not out of character.

First of all, they are among the people most rejecting of Allah. None has attributed falsehoods to Allah more than the Jews. They said that Allah has a child, that He is poor, and that He is miserly. The Jews attributed to Allah all the negative traits that one should not even attribute to the most common of people. Thus, the Jews are among the people most rejecting of Allah.

[...]

In addition, they are the slayers of Prophets. How many prophets they have slayed! They butchered Yahya and Zakariya, and tried to kill the Prophet Muhammad. They are the ones who tried to kill Jesus. They are the slayers of the prophets.

Moreover, they are cowards. Allah said: "They will not fight you all except within fortified cities." What is happening in Palestine proves the cowardice of the Jews, and proves that they are the most cowardly of Allah's creatures. If not for the remote-controlled weapons, which they hide behind... By Allah, they are too cowardly to engage in direct combat.

They are the most miserly of all the peoples. Wickedness, trickery, and deception are engrained within them. The Jews – with only few exceptions – have a natural disposition toward treachery. The Jews think nothing of violating treaties. They have no respect for them. What has happened in Palestine from the beginning and to this day shows us that the Jews have never respected, for a single day, any international agreement or treaty that they signed.

The Islamic nation has suffered from the Jews' violation of treaties ever since the days of the Prophet Muhammad in Al-Madina. These traits are what makes them employ all means of trickery and deception. Therefore, they have ways and means to trick the Islamic nation, first and foremost, through the economy. They have a good understanding of finances, and therefore...

When they were dispersed throughout the world in the days of Hitler... Incidentally, most of what is said about the massacre is exaggeration and lies. If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them. But Hitler was more merciful than they are themselves. They exploited this minor incident in order to extort the world. In short, their dispersal worldwide, their sense of being ostracized, and their feeling that they could not achieve anything without money led them to contemplate the economy.

They managed in the U.S. – and even beforehand, in Britain... The largest companies belonged to the Jews, so that back then, they would even lend money to Britain. They did the same thing in the U.S. Today, in the U.S., many of the largest corporations of all industries – such as the automobile, perfume, and airplane industries – belong to the Jews. They exploit the media. In short, their interest in the economy is clear and undisputed. They used the economy to buy loyalties and to achieve many of their goals.

They use sex against their opponents. The Jews are behind the greatest distributors of sexual products, because they think that this preoccupies the people. Thus, they can achieve their goals. Sex is the best bargaining chip they have. They use it against their opponents. They send them women in order to frame them, using sex. That [Tzipi] Livni, who ran for the premiership of the so-called Jewish state, said: "Yes, I used sex to achieve the goals of the Jewish state."

While these claims are quite popular in the Arab world, with very little pushback, I don't recall seeing such a close juxtaposition between "The Holocaust was a hoax" and "Too bad Hitler didn't murder them all" right next to each other before.

Arab journalists boycotting Qaradawi's visit to Gaza

From AP:

Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi arrived for his first visit to Gaza as a top cleric

Wednesday, making one of the most high-profile visits to the Palestinian territory since the Islamic group Hamas seized control in 2007.

Al-Qaradawi is a prominent scholar and Qatar-based cleric who is widely respected in the Muslim world, and his visit emboldens Hamas.

The rival Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank was angered by the visit, claiming it served to strengthen the Palestinians’ bitter political division.

“Any visit that carries a political significance, that acknowledges the legitimacy of Hamas in Gaza, is considered harmful and against the interest of the Palestinian people,” said Mahmoud Al Habash, minister of religious affairs in the West Bank.

There is a curious lack of coverage of this visit in Arabic, though.

The reason is that most journalists are boycotting coverage in protest of Hamas attacks against them during PFLP anti-Israel demonstrations a couple of days ago. 5 Arab journalists were injured when Hamas broke up the rally.

AFP's reporting on Qaradawi in Gaza came from a photographer, not a journalist!

Muslims are describing the visit as "a deadly blow" on Israel's "siege" of Gaza. One would think that they would have realized by now that Islamist Egypt borders Gaza. Geography must not be taught in Islamist schools.

Qaradawi will give a sermon on Friday as well as do photo-op visits to "scenes of devastation" and Hamas leaders.

Now Israel is accused of stealing - oil?

From UPI:

Palestinians report growing indications of oil in the occupied West Bank, which Israel may be quietly exploiting even as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu resists U.S. pressure to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the territory.

Givot Olam Oil Exploration of Jerusalem disclosed some years ago it had made a commercial find estimated at 980 million barrels at its Meged field in eastern Israel right on the so-called Green Line that demarcates the West Bank.

The geological strata at Meged appear to run eastward into Palestinian territory around the village of Rantis.

Meged-5, part of the 62,500-acre exploratory block the government leased to Givot Olam for 30 years in April 2004, has reserves estimated at 1.5 billion barrels.

That's not a major strike in the general scheme of things but it would have an immense impact on Palestinians' aspiration for statehood and the West Bank's shaky, Israel-dependent economy that's based on agriculture.

"Geology doesn't follow geography," observed petroleum engineer Samer Naboulsi.

"Looking at the site of the flare and the shape of the overall field, it's clear this extends into the West Bank," he said.

"And even when extracting from the Israeli side, it'll be draining Palestinian reserves."

This is pretty thin evidence, but even if it is true, it looks like there is little wrong with what Israel is doing.

Forgetting the border dispute itself, a nation has the right to drill for oil in its own territory even if the oil field straddles borders.

According to this paper, there is nothing in international law that stops one party from drilling on their side of a cross-border oil field. It is preferable to reach a cooperation agreement but if that fails each side can act unilaterally.

If countries share a common hydrocarbon reservoir across an established border, and are unable to agree on a definitive unitization agreement after making reasonable efforts to cooperate, international law does not require them to unitize the reservoir.

Further, there is support among leading international scholars and practitioners for the proposition that a country may, if it is unable to reach a unitization agreement with a neighboring country, unilaterally exploit a cross-border reservoir, though it should be noted there is no international convention or court decisions directly upholding such proposition....

If neighboring countries subject to a “cooperation” standard do not reach a definitive agreement regarding unitization, there is no international convention that requires unitization between them.

Secondary sources of international law, including international court decisions and comments by scholars of international law, have specifically addressed the absence of a cross-border unitization obligation in connection with the “cooperation” standard.

One leading scholar, David M. Ong[8], has stated “it would be a mistake to construe the more stringent requirement of joint development as an inevitable consequence of the procedural rule requiring cooperation. While this rule obliges the parties to negotiate in good faith, it does not necessarily imply a duty to reach a specific type of agreement.”[9] Other scholars have noted that, Other scholars have noted that, despite the increase in international practice in concluding joint petroleum development agreements, “there is no legal obligation for countries to cooperate and agree to jointly develop in a disputed area ... [t]herefore, the concept of joint petroleum development cannot be said to be international customary law.”[10]

The ICJ decision in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases of 1969 is supportive of the view of such scholars. In the case, the tribunal held that the obligation of countries to negotiate international border disputes, including negotiations around development of common hydrocarbon reservoirs, does not require the countries to enter an agreement, but instead to “pursue them as far as possible with a view to concluding agreements.”[11]

(h/t PMB)

Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Jerusalem Day 2013

Jerusalem Syndrome
Day marking anniversary of liberation, unification of J'lem in Six Day War isn't a national holiday; reminds gov't of liability.

Without understanding the significance and importance of the Temple Mount, without understanding why Jerusalem is our capital and the soul of our people, Jerusalem Day is meaningless.
It’s not a simple issue of sovereignty or nationalism. The Temple Mount represents the destiny of the Jewish people to be a light to the nations. It is the prophetic vision of a world united, of Jerusalem’s beauty flowing out to all humanity. It is the secret of what the Jewish people can become, what they can bring to the world.

One Jerusalemite Recalls Dark Years under Jordanian Rule

“It felt like Messiah had come,” says Avigail Shlesinger, 81, about the day Jerusalem was liberated from Jordanian Legion rule, 46 years ago.
Shlesinger, who is a sixth-generation Jerusalemite, recalls what life was like in the Holy City during the time the Jordanians were in control of East Jerusalem, from 1949 to 1967. “It was a dangerous era,” she tells Tazpit News Agency. “There were areas in the city, like King George Street, where barriers had to be built to stop the bullets that Jordanian soldiers would shoot at us.”

One Jerusalem. Undivided. Open to all. Controlled by Israel

Mayor Nir Barkat says he’s repositioning the city to retake the role it fulfilled ‘amazingly well’ for a thousand years — where all peoples were equally accepted, but Jewish sovereignty was unquestioned

Is Jerusalem really negotiable?

In an investigation of international affairs regarding Jerusalem, former top Foreign Ministry lawyer Alan Baker, in a recently published piece, unravels the nuanced history of the legal and negotiating aspects revolving around the city.
In his “Is Jerusalem really negotiable?” article – published in February by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where Baker is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs – Baker analyzed the “challenge, with a view to determining why a resolution of the Jerusalem question has defied all past negotiators, raising serious questions about the possibility of reaching an agreement between the parties.”

Israeli team helps Boston fight back against trauma
It takes a village, say Israel’s top specialists as they reshape individual Bostonians’ suffering and refocus on the community as a source of resilience

The mission started on Monday in Watertown, the Boston suburb where authorities captured alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 19 following an intense manhunt. Meeting separately with parents, school administrators and clinical staff, ITC members discussed communal strategies to recover from the highest profile terror attack in the US since Sept. 11, 2001.

A Real American Hero Gets His Due

Frederick Mayer, 92, a World War II hero and the subject of the History Channel's The Real Inglorious Bastards, finally received ten medals for his service during the war, presented by Senator Jay Rockefeller, on May 3rd. Mayer’s story is emblematic of genuine American heroes.

The Quiet American Hero: Inspiration for 'The Real Inglorious Bastards'

On the outskirts of a sleepy West Virginia town lives 92-year-old Frederick Mayer. His current life is fairly peaceful—he still chops wood nearly every day and volunteers with Meals on Wheels.
But this ninety-something’s life hasn’t always been so simple.
During World War II, he led one of the greatest missions of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Mayer's incredible story provided the basis for my book They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany.

Israel Daily Picture: Perhaps the Weirdest Picture of Jerusalem in the Library of Congress Archives

Why is there a Ferris wheel on the Temple Mount in 1904?
Because this picture is not taken in Jerusalem, but at the St. Louis, Mo. World's Fair in the United States.
The Fair was dedicated to the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (but was delayed until 1904).

Chinese film crew shoots romantic comedy in Israel

A Chinese production company was in Israel to shoot a romantic comedy called “Old Cinderella” using a backdrop of some of the country’s holiest sites and most exotic locations.
Hollywood star Zhang Jingchu was in Jerusalem recently, being filmed in the lead role of a Chinese romantic comedy, “Old Cinderella.”
Millions of Chinese movie-goers decide on vacation destinations based on the places they’ve seen on the silver screen, so the Israel Ministry of Tourism made all the necessary arrangements for the visiting Chinese filmmakers. Jingchu says she wouldn’t be surprised if “amazing” Israel is put on the itinerary of many viewers.

PM Netanyahu promotes Israel-China academic cooperation

Hebrew University of Jerusalem delegation visits leading universities in Beijing.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu — who is currently on a five-day visit to China — has called for further cooperation and the establishment of joint R&D teams for Israeli and Chinese research agencies.
National Economic Council Director Prof. Eugene Kandel will head the Israeli team which will focus on providing Israeli water technology to China. The Israeli technologies specialize in – inter alia – desalination, recycling, preventing water loss and treating wastes. An additional field is renewable energy, especially alternatives to oil for transportation.

Some great analysis of Syria

Michael Weiss of Now (Lebanon) writes:

Michael Ross, an ex-Mossad officer, told me that the key to Israel’s in-and-out operations is its advanced electronic warfare system, which was constructed by Unit 8200 (“Israel’s NSA”) and is an advanced form of the “Suter” network that blinded Syrian radars during the IAF’s 2007 attack on Syria’s nuclear facility at al-Kibar. “The software identifies emitters and entry into enemy communications networks,” Ross said. “Then it shuts down some or all enemy emitters or injects misleading information or even malware. To control the skies, you must first control the electromagnetic spectrum. This is now IAF doctrine.” Ross also said that the Fateh-110 missiles had been delivered by Iran no more than a week before they were destroyed, which indicates that either the Islamic Republic is remarkably lax with its shipping manifests or that Israeli assets come and go in Syria like I do my own living room.

The last few days have seen a grit-teeth conversation among Syrian dissidents about what to make of Israel objectively aiding their cause. They needn’t disturb their consciences overmuch because the IAF looks right past them and doesn’t even see Syria as an independent country anymore, only an emerging Iranian suzerainty in the Levant. Dr. Shimon Shapira, a retired brigadier general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has written a paper unambiguously titled “Iran’s Plans to Take Over Syria,” which emphasizes comments made by Mehdi Taaib, the head of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s think tank, that Syria is “35th district of Iran,” tantamount to Khuzestan, the Arab-populated district of Iran. The architect of this grand strategy is Major General Qasem Suleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp-Quds Force, who, in an ambitious operation named for himself, has begun the training and financing of 150,000-strong sectarian militia in Syria known as Jaysh al Sha’bi, drawn from fighters from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraq, and even the Gulf states. This Basiji-style irregular army, as well as older Syrian formations such as the minorities-staffed Popular Committees and the shabiha (both of which also receive the mullahs’ largesse), stand to inherit the responsibilities of the Syrian Army, and further Iranian interest, in the event of regime collapse.

Lest anyone think that these claims amount to Israel overstating its own security threat, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has put out a new study about the Persian bulwark keeping Assad alive which legitimates and expands on Shapira’s analysis. ISW also suggests that a major imperative for grounding Syrian aircraft or destroying the Air Force’s infrastructure is to halt to the uninterrupted supply-line of personnel and materiel from Tehran.

The report neatly lays out the history of proven Iranian involvement in Syria such as the assassination of IRGC-QF Brigadier General Hassan Shateri in the Damascus countryside in February 2013, and the prisoner swap deal brokered between the regime and the Free Syrian Army in January, which saw the release of high-ranking officials of the IRGC-Ground Forces including the current and former commanders of IRGC Shohada unit; the commander of 14th Imam Sadegh Brigade (Bushehr province); and members of the 33rd al-Mahdi Brigade (Fars province). All of these units have extensive experience in counterinsurgency tactics, as they deal with provinces of Iran used to tribal and ethnic unrest. As the ISW authors observe: “The forward deployment of high-ranking current commanders of IRGC Ground Forces units is unusual, as IRGC-QF is Iran’s traditional foreign military arm while IRGC-GF is responsible for internal security and conventional operations inside of Iran.”

Moreover, the presence in Syria of agents from Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces, a sub unit of the Iranian Interior Ministry answerable to the Supreme National Security Council (and thus Khamenei himself), suggests that Tehran views Syria much the same way that Moscow views Georgia: as a domestic rather than foreign concern.

How are Iranian agents and weapons arriving in Syria? Through Iranian commercial and sometimes even Air Force planes, which ISW considers the “most critical component of Iranian material support to Syria.” In June 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Iran Air for sending military hardware including “missile or rocket components” to Syria, which the IRGC of course dressed this up as medical equipment or innocuous spare parts. Another Iranian airline, Yas Air, was also sanctioned in March 2012 for moving IRGC-GF agents and weapons. In total, the Treasury Department has identified 117 cargo and passenger planes associated with Yas Air, Iran Air, Mahan Air facilitating the regime’s war machine. To quote from the ISW report:

“One Syrian Air Ilyushin-76... has been identified as having travelled between airfields around Moscow, Tehran, and Damascus in 2012. Unauthenticated flight manifest records indicate that this Syrian plane has used Iraqi, Iranian, and Azeri airspace to deliver equipment from Russia. The aircraft reportedly transported over 200 tons of Syrian banknotes printed in Russia over multiple trips in 2012. The aircraft also attempted to transport refurbished Mi-25 Russian attack helicopters in this manner, although Iraqi authorities denied the over-flight request.”

When the U.S. controlled Iraqi’s air space, Iran had to travel via Turkey’s to deliver materiel to Syria. Yet Turkey started interdicting and inspecting Iranian aircraft in March 2011, forcing Iran to revert to Iraqi skyways. Nuri al-Maliki’s assurances to the State Department that he would inspect all flights coming from Iran and headed to Syria would be worthless even if they weren’t mendacious because the Iraqi Air Force in its current state can hardly patrol its own airspace. (Don’t worry, though: the Transport Minster Hadi al-Amiri is a member of the Tehran-supported Badr Organization and widely seen as an accomplice of the IRGC.)

Still another problem is Iran’s enabling of Iraqi Shiite militias in Syria such as Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), Asai’b Ahl al-Haq (AAH) and the newly formed Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade (AFAB), which is diverse outfit of Syrian, Iraqi, and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters. Some of these militants are first flown to Tehran for training before being flown back to Damascus, chiefly to guard the Seyyada Zeinab district of the capital, where the daughter of Imam Ali is entombed.

Moving Iranian personnel and hardware within Syria is also best done through air transport. Yet the regime relies almost exclusively on the IL-76 transport plane, of which it currently has only five left in its inventory. Of its main strafing aircraft, the L-39 trainer jet, the Syrian Air Force is down to between 40 and 70. All other fixed-wing aircraft in its order of battle, particularly the MiG and SU attack jets, are Soviet-era, require heavy maintenance and even heavier training to make them mission capable. An intervention that confined itself to Syria’s air traffic would therefore severely hinder Iran’s ability to prop up Assad or further Suleimani’s “takeover” project.

Perhaps seeking to drive this point home, ISW released a helpful slideshow yesterday examining the three ways that such an intervention can be accomplished. The first is to wage limited air strikes on Syrian infrastructure (runways, fuel depots, command, and control centers) without really going after the planes themselves. This would degrade the regime’s ability to receive Iranian air cargo (or IRGC facilitators or repatriating militiamen) as well as then redistribute them around Syria. It would further reduce the regime’s capability to launch air attacks against the opposition, thus improving, albeit not guaranteeing, conditions for a safe zone in the north. The second option is go after some Syrian aircraft and degrading the regime’s ability to transport anyone or anything incoming from Iran around the country (though this option wouldn’t necessarily stop personnel or materiel from entering Syria). The third option is a no-fly zone, which would eliminate the regime’s ability to conduct bombing runs or receive aerial resupply from Iran. It would protect any safe zone established along the Syrian-Turkish border from aerial attack, though not from any ground incursions (here is where trained and well-equipped rebels would be necessary stand-in forces for foreign boots on the ground).

Here's the ISW slide show:

Updated Syrian Air Force and Air Defense Capabilities from Institute for the Study of War

An ISW author of the report is quoted in Foreign Policy:

"I get why people get so amped up about no-fly zones" said Christopher Harmer, senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. People often tend to think of Iraq, he told the E-Ring, and the 12 year-long complex, high-demand Operation Southern Watch and Operation Northern Watch. Those missions cost an estimated $1 billion per year, combined.

But that was a "full" no-fly zone controlling a large adversarial territory. It would take far less to protect the smaller skies over Syria, which maintains far less air power, defense analysts believe.

"Is the goal to establish a classic no-fly zone, or is the goal to ground the Syrian Air Force?" Harmer said. "Establishing a classic no-fly zone is time consuming and costly; grounding the Syrian Air Force is as simple as sending a few cruisers and destroyers from Norfolk over to the Eastern Med and dropping 250 (Tomahawk) TLAM into Syria."

"That ends the Syrian Air Force in less than an hour."

The actual attack may take a bit longer, like the assault on Libya's air defenses, but still fares better than a sustained no-fly zone.

"Tomahawk TLAM cruise missiles can easily degrade the very limited Syrian Air Force down to almost nonexistence," Harmer contends. "We launch TLAM at the runways, radars, fuel farms, and aircraft themselves, and without U.S. aircraft getting anywhere near the Syrian airspace, we effectively create a no-fly zone -- not by enforcement, but by eliminating the Syrian Air Force."

"Settlers storming Al Aqsa, the height of desecration"

The Al Aqsa Foundation keeps trying to come up with new ways of describing the horror of Jews peacefully touring the Temple Mount.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation reports that anger prevails at the Al Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, since the early morning, where about 180 settlers, in groups ranging from 25-40 settlers, broke into and desecrated the Al-Aqsa Mosque gate, and organized tours of the property.

In a remarkable development the settlers several times led Talmudic and Biblical rites and prayers of especially near the fence to the east of Al Aqsa, at the the door of mercy, and it was the height of the desecration of al-Aqsa mosque, when a group of 20 settlers, standing at the "door of the string" inside and towards the Dome of the Rock then expeditiously performed Biblical rites where they lied down (prostrated themselves?), coupled with loud shouts...A state of alert was declared among the guards, who seemed angry because of settlers violations.

I'm sure they weren't happy with this youth wearing a Yom Yerushalayim shirt, either.

Look how violent they are as they desecrate this place that was all but ignored by Muslims a mere century ago!

Meanwhile, visiting the Har HaBayit is a very appropriate task for Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day.I made a quick Jerusalem poster for Twitter yesterday:

Verification of explosions near Iranian missile facility yesterday

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reported a brief news item:

Residents of Tehran reported hearing three blasts in the Iranian capital on Tuesday according to an unconfirmed message posted on the Twitter network by a BBC Persian correspondent.

The journalist, Kasra Naji, quoted residents of the city as saying that the explosions occurred in an area of west Tehran where Iran “maintains its missile research and depots.”

Later, an Iranian website said the blasts occurred at a privately owned chemical factory.

There appears to be confirmation from the National Council of Resistance of Iran:

The Raja-Shimi Chemical Complex, affiliated to the Ministry of Defense, was struck by several strong explosions on Tuesday, causing extensive damage.

The complex - in Shahriar county in Tehran Province – is a crucial Ministry of Defense site located in a heavily fortified area adjacent to an Air Force garrison and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Centre for Missile Research.

Immediately after the explosions at 2pm, the complex's director ordered the authorities in writing to avoid giving out any information about the blasts and the damage or losses inflicted.

In order to prevent information about the location and details of the explosions from leaking out, fire-fighters were denied entry to the complex and only the complex's internal fire-fighters were mobilised to put out the fires.

The regime's security apparatus also announced through a prepared news release handed to state media that the explosion occurred in the storage area of a chemical factory belonging to a private company in the town of Shahriar.