Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 13, 2014

A couple of idiotic tweets

As I try to shovel myself out of the current break in Snowmageddon, I received a couple of tweets that show how incredibly stupid (and offensive) the hate Israel crowd is.

First came this piece of brilliance:

@elderofziyon @TimesofIsrael Christians & Muslims have equal claim on #Jerusalem as Jews-Then why racist demand Jewish only capital. #BDS
— Muhammad Safeen (@SafeensS) February 13, 2014

Hmmm...that's a toughie. Why are those evil Jews demanding that Muslims and Christians not be allowed to visit and pray in their holiest places in Jerusalem?

And why wouldn't they be happy with the huge amount of access that Muslims have given Jews throughout history to their own holy places?

These are all very difficult questions, way too difficult for mere mortals to fathom.

His timeline also has a Latuff cartoon, which is what I was tweeted by another moron shortly thereafter:

@jillpoll @elderofziyon @KJTHACKWELL @JohnEdwards33 @elsaidst @PeterMcC66 @Adamitv @FrankMWebb pic.twitter.com/s0h15aZo78
— joanne stowell (@JOYOURPAPARAZZI) February 13, 2014

Latuff is of course proud of his antisemitic cartoons, and he gets praised by the mainstream media for his "edginess."

And they continue on on Twitter in the timelines of the morons.

Lebanese man sentence to prison for insulting president

From Al Arabiya:

A Lebanese web developer has been sentenced to two months in prison for insulting President Michel Sleiman on Twitter, a judicial source told AFP.

"Jean Assy was sentenced to two months in jail for defaming and insulting the president via Twitter," the source said.

"The court decision can be appealed within 10 days."

The case is thought to be the first time a Lebanese citizen has been sentenced for views expressed on a social network, though people have previously been charged for similar insults.

Assy said the case stemmed from tweets he wrote about Sleiman in January and February of last year.

"I wrote that the president is castrated, politically castrated, and I wrote the minister of interior is stupid, and things like this," he told AFP.

He has not yet been arrested and said he plans to appeal the decision.

"I'm not going to spend two months in jail because of a tweet. I'm going to fight it, I'm not going to allow him to punish someone who tweeted against him while he is ignoring all the problems in the country," Assy said of Sleiman.

Assy, 26, has nearly 6,000 followers and regularly tweets harsh and at times vulgar criticism of many of Lebanon's politicians.

He says he is not a political activist, but acknowledges his support for Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his Christian ally Michel Aoun, who are spared his online wrath.

Yes, Lebanon's liberals are just as intolerant as Hezbollah is.

Here is what Human Rights Watch said:

The verdict was immediately criticized by Human Rights Watch, whose deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa called it a "negative development."

"Criminalizing and sending someone to jail for expression that someone deems insulting or inflammatory violates Lebanon's international obligations to protect expression," Nadim Houry told AFP.

"Lebanon has a decision to make," he added.

"Does it want to go down the route of so many other countries in the region... or does it want to preserve and maintain its reputation for a great tolerance for free expression in the Arab world?"

When Lebanon does something outrageously against human rights, HRW still compliments it. Can you imagine them sugarcoating any criticism of Israel, for any reason?

I really should do a comparison between how Lebanon treats Palestinian Arabs and how Israel does - and then compare how many NGO reports are written about each.

02/13 Links Pt1: About that 10,000-year history in Jericho, Mr. Erekat; Abbas’s new red lines

From Ian:

About that 10,000-year history in Jericho, Mr. Erekat

But for [Mordechai] Kedar of Bar-Ilan University, the question is not one of genes but one of cultural and linguistic heritage.
“There is no doubt that Jews lived here in the past, while there’s no proof of Arab connection to this land before the seventh century,” he said. “There is no connection between the Arabian nations and the Canaanites: not ethnic, not cultural, nothing. They produce these myths to justify the fact that they are here.”
Palestinian family names speak more than anything to the foreign origin of their bearers, Kedar added. The Al-Masri family from Nablus obviously originated from Egypt (Al-Masri means Egyptian in Arabic). The Houranis came from the Houran region in southwestern Syria. Saeb Erekat’s clan in Jericho prides itself in originating from Saudi Arabia, Kedar noted.
“Since when did they become Palestinians?” he wondered.

Abbas Shuts Down the Peace Process

Last week, Jonathan Tobin wrote here of how we were on the eve of a fourth Palestinian “no” to a peace agreement. It would appear that has now arrived, albeit slightly sooner than anyone had expected. Many observers assumed that once Secretary of State John Kerry got around to submitting his framework for a negotiated peace, Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas would then set about finding an excuse for rejecting it. What few could have predicted was that Abbas would find a way to reject the proposal before it was even submitted. Yet, this is precisely the impressive feat that Abbas has now accomplished.
Earlier today, Abbas’s spokespeople in Ramallah announced the PA’s new set of red lines in any negotiated peace settlement. Each and every one of these red lines blows to pieces anything Kerry was about to propose, as it does to the prospects for an agreement between the two sides in general. These red lines which Abbas details in a letter being sent to the U.S. and the Quartet seamlessly preempts whatever Kerry was likely to outline in his own peace parameters. In this way Abbas artfully dodges a scenario in which the Israelis would agree to a peace plan and the Palestinians would come under pressure not to derail yet another effort to resolve the conflict. (h/t Norman F)

Palestinian Lecturer: The Palestinians Should Moderate Their Negotiating Positions And Stop Being Rejectionist

In a January 28, 2014 article published by the Palestinian news agency Maan, Professor Muhammad Al-Dajani Al-Daoudi, a lecturer at Al-Quds University, called upon the Palestinians to take more flexible positions rather than reject every Israeli demand or condition, because their nay-saying does not serve their objectives and they might ultimately regret it. He urged them to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, agree that East Jerusalem be awarded special international status, consent to the presence of Israeli forces in the Jordan Valley, and assent to a demilitarized Palestinian state.
It should be noted that a few weeks ago Al-Daoudi published an article urging the study of the Holocaust in PA schools.

UNRWA suspends "human rights" curriculum in Gaza

Yesterday I reported that Hamas was upset at the UNRWA "human rights" curriculum being taught in Gaza schools - because it was alienating students who want to grow up to kill Jews.

Today, Arabic media reports that, after lengthy meetings with Hamas leaders, UNRWA caved and has "frozen" that curriculum in Gaza to placate the Hamas terrorists who prefer to teach children how to murder.

UNRWA's human rights curriculum is far from perfect, however.

In 2011, an expert evaluated the UNRWA human rights curriculum at the time. He found that while it did talk about most of the topics in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its omissions were significant.

The good parts, including parts that Hamas would object to:

The content includes social, behavioral and environmental values such as: good social manners, mutual respect, tolerance, equality between members of the different sexes, races, socio-economic classes etc., personal hygiene, care for personal and public property, non-discrimination against the poor and the handicapped, mutual help, conversation manners, time management, freedom of expression and respect for others' views, cooperation, respect for the law, integrity, protection of the environment, peace and non-violence, love for family members and friends, social responsibility, patriotism, equal opportunities, free elections, peaceful collective expression of views (that is, meeting, assembly, rally, demonstration, etc.), non-smoking, social activity through NGOs, respect for others' feelings, listening, negotiation, peaceful solution to conflicts, the courage to admit mistakes, respect for others' privacy, respect for others' rights, recognition of the right to be different, the importance of education, the importance of order and cleanliness, respect for one's parents, etc. The discussion of these values repeats itself along the grades.

The bad parts:

What is missing from this list - with no justification - is freedom of religion, religious equality and religious tolerance. In fact, the books are totally devoid of any mention of religion.

· The Middle East war is absent from the books. None of the values mentioned: peace, tolerance, peaceful resolution of conflicts, non-violence, etc. is given an interpretation in connection to the conflict. On the other hand, there are few references to aspects of the conflict - all presenting the Palestinians as victims. For example, an exercise includes a picture of two girls sitting next to a tent with a demolished house in the background. The caption reads: "A family whose house was demolished lives in a tent" (Human Rights Curriculum, Grade 3, Part 2 (2010) p. 34). In another example the children of Gaza fly kites "in spite of the [Israeli] siege" (Human Rights Curriculum, Grade 5, Part 2 (2010) p. 66).

· In conclusion, the books - if they are indeed used in school, which I could not ascertain - contribute to the creation of more tolerant atmosphere within Palestinian society (save for Muslim-Christian relations). Their contribution to a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is nil, if not negative.

So even according to UNRWA, human rights are only something that apply to Palestinian Arabs, but Jews do not deserve any.

But even this was too much for Hamas to stomach. And UNRWA, naturally, gave in.

How long will it be before UNRWA adopts Hamas' curriculum of violence and intolerance?

Cash-strapped PA budgets another $46 million for terrorists

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

Most Western countries have laws and regulations prohibiting support for terrorists or former terrorists. The US, the UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden and others have debated, proposed and/or passed laws or motions in parliament against giving the Palestinian Authority money that ends up in the hands of terrorists. In spite of their laws and their opposition, these countries continue to fund the PA's general budget, thereby paying tens of millions of dollars to terrorists as salaries and other payments.

Last week, the PA announced that it will be giving an additional $46 million a year to released prisoners, a category which includes hundreds of murderers of civilians. Since the PA cannot cover its monthly budget payments without Western aid, these additional payments to terrorists will also be facilitated both directly and indirectly by Western donor money to the PA.

The official announcement was made by the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake, who said that the PA government has approved a regulation of the Prisoners' Law that "is concerned with improving conditions for released [prisoners]," a regulation whose "budget... has been estimated at 160 million shekels a year."

This 160 million shekels ($46 million) for terrorists, including mass murderers, is made possible by international donors. This was made clear in the PA Minister's announcement. He explained that the PA was not able to fund this financial support for released prisoners in 2013 because of its "large budget deficit," so it will only start in 2014:

"Karake noted that the government has acknowledged the importance of the regulation and the need to implement it according to the rules. However, due to the large budget deficit and the PA's financial situation, establishing the budget, which has been estimated at 160 million shekels a year, has been postponed until April [2014]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 6, 2014]

Significantly, the PA did not cover its 2013 budget without hundreds of millions of dollars from Western donors, tens of millions of which went directly into the bank accounts of terrorists. Since there have been no reports of massive improvements in the PA economy freeing it of the need to receive Western aid to pay its budget, clearly the PA is counting on Western donor money to facilitate this $46 million to terrorists as well.

The PA has its priorities. The question is, for how long will Western nations tolerate their money being used this way?

This video from November shows this same PA minister Karake mocking Western concerns over giving money to terrorists, as he strongly defended the practice.

The Europeans want their money that comes to us to remain clean - not to go to families of those they claim to be 'terrorists.' [They] need to renounce this occupation (Israeli) mentality. These [prisoners] are heroes, self-sacrificing fighters (fedayyeen), and fighters who fought so that we could live in dignity... These heroes, whom you [the audience] are applauding, must live in dignity, so that we will continue to hold our heads high. We appreciate the people of the revolution and are proud of them.

For some reason it only has a few hundred views on YouTube so far - yet it should be required viewing for every member of every Western parliament that gives money to the PA.

Palestinian Arabs attacking their own doctors

In a culture that praises violence as a "right," this is inevitable:

Doctors from a public hospital in Nablus organized a demonstration on Wednesday to protest the assault of a colleague by the relatives of a patient being treated in the pediatrics ward.

Dr. Hussein al-Sleibi was assaulted in Rafidia hospital on Tuesday by two relatives of a child, doctors told Ma'an. The family members threatened al-Sleibi and two nurses with a knife during the incident after claiming they were neglecting the patient.

Doctors said they organized the demonstration to protest a growing number of assaults against medical teams.

Director of the Nablus office of the Ministry of Health, Amirah al-Hindi, told Ma'an that the last decade has seen a spike in violent incidents against hospital staff.

It is not surprising. Palestinian Arabs have been attacking UNRWA, for example, since the very beginning - an organization funded by the world to specifically coddle them. Their leaders say terrorists are heroes. Violence is an inherent part of Palestinian Arab culture, as is the sense of entitlement.

Attacking those who are trying to help them comes naturally.

Given that, what are the chances of real peace with people they hate?

How the PLO politicizes water as a weapon against Israel

Deutche Welle reports:

European Parliament President Martin Schulz came under fire Wednesday after making remarks in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, about the water usage of Palestinians and Israelis in the occupied West Bank.

In his speech, Schulz said that when he was in Ramallah earlier in the week, a young Palestinian had asked him "why an Israeli can use 70 cubic liters of water daily and a Palestinian only 17?" He then added, "I haven't checked the data. I'm asking you if this is correct."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his own address to the Knesset, accused Schulz of repeating claims without fact-checking. "Check first," he said.
Israeli media quoted Israel's national water authority as saying the figures quoted by Schulz were inaccurate with West Bank settlers consuming 1.7 times more water per person, instead of 4.2 times more.

This reminded me of an incident from 2011.

Ma'an reported at the time:

The head of the Palestinian Water Authority has condemned Israel’s destruction of three water wells near Nablus, calling on the international community to intervene.

Shaddad Attili said the Beit Hassan wells were used to irrigate 2,000 dunums of land on which several families relied. "It is the ability of these families to stay on their land that Israel is targeting,” Attili said.

He added: "My immediate concern is for the welfare of those Palestinian families and communities affected by the destruction of these wells. Getting water to them is my first priority."

Israel destroying wells! What more do you need to know?

Here's a 2012 letter from the head of infrastructure for COGAT at the time, explaining the truth. Of course, it didn't get the same coverage as the initial accusations:

A few days ago Dr Attili sent out a letter denouncing the Israeli destruction of a number of illegal wells located in Beit Hassan, using this as an explanation for his choice to withdraw from the desalination training program.

It is unfortunate that Dr Attili has chosen to take such action, not least as above all, as it is the Palestinian people alone who will suffer as a result of his decision.

In response to his accusation, I think it is essential to inform you of a number of crucial points that Dr. Attili has omitted, which highlight not only the difficulties that we face with regards to cooperation in the water sector, but also expose the customary tiresome Palestinian public relations tactics, which we are forced to deal with on a regular basis.

The decision to shut down the 3 illegal wells in Beit Hassan was agreed upon by both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, at the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee (JWC) meeting held on 2.12.2007, (see attached signed MoM, paragraph 3).

Several reminders of this decision were sent to the Palestinian Water Authority who reiterated their intention to execute the above-mentioned JWC decision and also promised to submit a report on its implementation (see attached signed JWC MoM from 7.7.09, paragraph 28).

On several occasions the Palestinian side emphasized its commitment to combat the phenomenon of illegal drillings, stating that it is in the best interest for both sides (see attached special decision of the JWC from 13.11.07)

In March 2011, four years after the original joint decision to close down the wells, we requested once more that the JWC decision be implemented (see attached letter). We received a most perplexing response to this in April, stating that "...any decision to demolish a well is unacceptable to the PWA...". On July 5th 2011 we reiterated the urgent need for the JWC decision to be implemented, in order to protect our joint asset.

The decision to shut down the wells in Beit Hassan, which was approved by the JWC in 2007, is not a matter of politics - it is a matter of survival - as it works towards protecting our largest and most important collective vital natural resource. A troubling reminder of the risks attached to unmonitored drillings is the destruction of the Gaza Aquifer, which came about as a result of the large amount of unauthorized drillings.

This cannot and this must not be repeated with the joint Mountain Aquifer, and it is a mystery to us why the Palestinian side does not value its own survival.

It is also important to emphasize that unauthorized drillings are in contradiction with article 40 of Annex III of the Interim Agreement, which Israel fully implements, even surpassing its obligations under the agreement, for instance by supplying the Palestinians with quantities of water far beyond its obligation. The steps taken by Israel in this matter were, as l am sure you would agree, the only remaining option after many efforts to find a solution to this issue through dialogue and negotiation - a solution that had already been devised and acknowledged by both sides - but which for some reason the Palestinians turned back upon. It would have been far preferable for the PWA to resolve this issue itself, as originally agreed.

We usually strive to resolve our disagreements within the JWC, as instructed by the Interim Agreement, rather than by dragging in third parties. While we would not normally respond to such public relations tactics, we feel that it is important that the facts be made clear to all, in order to avoid any potential misinterpretation. Israel gladly meets and will continue to meet with the Palestinian side in the framework of the JWC to discuss common issues, as set by article 40 of Annex Ill of the Interim Agreement as it has done before, for the benefit of both sides.

We hope that in time, the Palestinians will join us in thinking about, and acting upon, our collective vital interests rather than compromising them in the hope of raising public support.

Lt.Col Grisha Yakubovich
Head of Infrastructure Branch COGAT,
Ministry of Defense

A dissertation by Lauro Burkart contains this and many other memos that show how much effort Israel put into helping Palestinian Arabs obtain water. Many permits for wells were ignored by the Palestinian Water Authority, for example.

Burkart proves convincingly that the Palestinian side would consistently use the water issue to obtain political advantage at the expense of its people.

Assuming that water negotiations can be de-politicized, cooperation could improve the situation on the ground. A first area for cooperation is the treatment and reuse of wastewater. Out of the 52 mcm/y of wastewater generated by the Palestinian population, 17 mcm/y is flowing untreated into Israel and 33 mcm/y remains in the West Bank where it contaminates the shared groundwater resources. Hence, Israel has an environmental incentive to support and foster the Palestinian wastewater infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Palestinians claim that Israel is blocking their wastewater infrastructure. These claims are invalidated by two memoranda of understanding that were drafted in the framework of the JWC. They were pushed by Israel after the Intifada broke down the cooperation in the field of wastewater.407

The first claim is that Israel is demanding an unreasonable high level of treatment, BOD 10/10.408 The JWC memorandum of understanding from 2003, which was signed by both
parties, agreed on a gradual process to achieve this standard, but starting with the much lower level of BOD 20/30.409 This mutual understanding is reiterated in a second MOU, which has not been signed yet by the Palestinian side.410 Hence, the claim that Israel demands a level of treatment that is unattainable by Palestinian economic standards is false.

The second accusation is that Israel is not allowing the Palestinians to build treatment plants in area C. If the Palestinians want to drill a well in area C, they must obtain a permit of the C.A. in addition to the JWC approval. In the unsigned MOU it is stated that WWTPs will also be built in area C.411 The Palestinians submitted a list of 35 Palestinian wastewater projects. Seven of these projects for the area C are in the approval process. Four of them have an approval of the Sewage JTC,412 two were principally approved by the JWC,413 and one was approved by the ,CA.414 Furthermore, one is already in the process of construction.415 The will to support waste water projects in area C is emphasized also by the Civil Administration.416

Thirdly, it is claimed that Israel demands the wastewater plants to be treating water from the Jewish communities. As the unsigned MOU as well as the aforementioned list demonstrate, no such demands are made by Israel.417 After the Palestinians refused to build joint treatment plants for Jewish communities and nearby Palestinian villages, Israel started to build a network of small collection systems serving only Jewish communities in the West Bank.418 The Palestinian political leadership limited the cooperation in the field of wastewater, although this technology was desired by local municipalities.419 The cooperation clearly stopped with the advent of the second Intifada when the JWC became more politicized. While Israel conditioned other projects on the Palestinian progress in the wastewater sector, the Palestinians presented sovereignty-based objections against the wastewater technology.420

The story of Palestinian swimming pools is here

All the documents mentioned here are reproduced in the paper.

It is clear that the Palestinian Authority decided long ago to stop cooperating with Israel on water issues and instead politicize it at the expense of its people (and the entire region, by overdrilling and refusing to treat wastewater for crops and giving them scarce fresh water instead.)

This politicization is what drives bogus statistics about water, statistics that take a lot of effort to debunk.

But nearly every one has been shown to be a lie.

(h/t Josh K)

02/12 Links Pt2: A special thank you from Scarlett Johansson; Israel a Sanctuary for Migrating Birds

From Ian:

A special thank you from Scarlett Johansson to YOU

Thousands and thousands of you rose to the occasion and CCFP cannot express our thanks deeply enough. And we’re not the only ones. We have been given a note from Mr. Marcel Pariseau, Scarlett Johansson’s publicist, thanking her fans for their support. This note of appreciation is from Scarlett to all of you:

Scarlett would like to extend her most sincere thanks to the many thousands of people who have supported her these past weeks. Your emails, comments, and tweets have been truly overwhelming and inspiring. It has been wonderful to receive messages from people all over the world who firmly believe that peace is possible.
And a big thank you to Creative Community For Peace for building a bridge between Scarlett and her fans.
Marcel Pariseau
TRUE PUBLIC RELATIONS

Scarlett Johansson to receive honorary French Oscar

The American star, who is engaged to French journalist Romain Dauriac, will receive her “Cesar” at French cinema’s annual gala awards ceremony in the capital on February 28.
Johansson, 29, is being recognized for a career in which she has already made nearly 35 films, having first come to the world’s attention as a 14-year-old in Robert Redford’s “The Horse Whisperer.”

Major South American Trading Bloc Accepts Israel as Observer State

The Pacific Alliance is a bloc of five Latin American member states – Costa Rica just joined the initial four members of Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico – designed to promote economic growth specifically by focusing on trade liberalization. Geopolitically, it sits opposite another South American bloc – the “Common Market of the South” (Mercosur) group – which includes Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil, and which has political ambitions that often align poorly with American interests.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that the Jewish state has been accepted as an observer state of the Pacific Alliance. The move has benefits that go beyond the merely economic, and will see Israel strengthening its overall ties in the region: (h/t MtTB)

95% of world's nations refuse to congratulate Iran on anniversary

Here's the best list I could generate of countries that (according to reports) sent their congratulations on the 35th anniversary of Iran's revolution:

Turkey (an official spoke at a celebratory rally, not sure if official congratulations were sent)
Tajikistan
Kyrgyzstan
Azerbaijan (given by their transportation minister on behalf of the president)
Brunei
Armenia
Hungary
Tunisia (new ambassador, may have been shamed into it)
Venezuela
Afghanistan (second vice president)

That's it. Out of 192 nations in the UN, Iran apparently gets congratulated by only ten.

Some Hungarians are upset about being in such company, so they made this poster:

Hezbollah's congratulations are ironic given the weak list of countries that are friendly enough with Iran to send a form letter:

Islamic Revolution Has Made Iran Pivotal Country in Region, World

Top UN officials also congratulated Iran.

Iranian media, trying to make these pathetic numbers look more impressive, are printing messages of congratulations from "analysts" like this one in Pakistan.

(h/t Stanley)

Freedom, Turkish-style

There have been two interesting recent news stories from Turkey.

From Naharnet:

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced a group of protesters to two years in jail for chanting slogans deemed insulting to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, local media reported on Wednesday.

The decision comes as Turkey is being criticized at home and abroad for adopting new Internet restrictions seen as a fresh assault on freedom of expression.

Seventeen people in the city of Eskisehir were sued in 2012 for "insulting a civil servant" after chanting slogans during a small demonstration against the government's health policies, the newspaper Hurriyet said.

"Tayyip Erdogan: the servant of the IMF, the servant of the bosses," the group had chanted.

The court sentenced all 17 to two years in jail for "deliberately insulting the premier and not regretting their actions".

The defendants are not entitled to appeal the decision, Hurriyet said.

And from Hurriyet:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has acknowledged that he called a media executive at the height of the Gezi protests to order the removal of news content, days after an alleged phone transcript of the exchanged was leaked online, sparking anger over political pressure on the media.

“About the phone call from Morocco, yes indeed, I called. I only made some reminders. And those
individuals to whom I conveyed the reminders regarding the news ticker did what was necessary,” Erdoğan said Feb. 11 following a journalist’s question during a joint press conference in Ankara with visiting Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy.

“When such insults are made, I or my friends call to tell [newspaper executives] … I don’t know if it is wrong [telling them] this. But we have to teach such things because the insults that were being made were not ordinary,” Erdoğan said.

In the recording, Erdoğan is heard demanding that private broadcaster Habertürk’s executive remove a news ticker feed referring to a statement by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli at the height of the Gezi Park resistance last June. In the news ticker, Bahçeli called on President Abdullah Gül to “do his duty” and intervene in the Gezi protests, and it was not clear to which “extraordinary insults” the prime minister was referring.

Erdoğan’s statements came after the editor-in-chief of daily Habertürk, owned by the same media group, also acknowledged regular phone calls from government officials, publicly claiming to be under constant political pressure.

Given how corrupt and dictatorial Turkey's leader is, I'm not so sure that a rapprochement from Israel with Turkey makes sense while he remains in office.

02/12 Links Pt1: Why does the EU fund anti-peace NGOs?; 200 Attacks on Rachel's Tomb in 2013

From Ian:

The BDS folly

There is, after all, something decent and intimate in the reciprocal relations imposed by the discipline of the market. The idea that businessmen produce tolerance as a by-product of their self-interested innovations might be an oversimplification of the situation. There are extremists – particularly on the Palestinian side but not only – who are bitterly opposed to any form of normalization between Palestinians and Israelis. And the conditions under which Palestinian businesses must operate are hardly conducive to economic growth.
BDS is not, however, the solution. If anything it is more economic cooperation and mutual development.
Any two-state solution will inevitably entail strong ties between Israel and Palestine. Fostering such ties could even be a means of moving toward a two-state solution organically, gradually and with mutual respect. BDS only hampers this process.

NGO Monitor: Why does the EU continue to fund anti-peace NGOs?

For years, the EU has been providing millions of euros to radical political advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that, as repeatedly demonstrated, promote the images of Palestinian victimization and Israeli oppression. In many cases, the reports and lobbying efforts of these NGO are central to EU policy formation, forming a closed circle in which biased anti-Israel narratives are reinforced.
Although claiming to support moral causes such as human rights, democracy and peace, these EU funding policies actively promote boycott and isolation of Israel.
And as a result, the Palestinians have an easy alternative to the “painful compromises” necessary for peace.

‘Nice country you’ve got there’ (UK FM) Hague gets a soft ride on BBC’s ‘Hardtalk’

Sackur also conveniently refrained from dissecting Hague’s cringingly transparent ‘equality’ chimera of EU or UK censure of the Palestinian Authority (the same body which was recently revealed to be holding explosives and weapons in a diplomatic mission on EU soil) should peace negotiations collapse. After all, as past experience shows, even when the PA actively sabotaged the Oslo Agreements by initiating and financing an unprecedented campaign of terror against Israeli civilians in 2000, the EU continued to fund that body and even raised its contributions to the tune of an annual average of 250 million Euros. Hence, there is little reason to anticipate an about-face this time around and just as little reason to anticipate any letting-up in EU and UK funding of anti-Israel NGOs or an end to the practice of paternalistic, diplomatically illiterate finger-wagging from the hand which still feeds sections of the BBC.

Patient from Gaza going to Israel

This story has been getting lots of play over the past couple of hours:

Israel has denied entry permits to some 50 Palestinian medical patients from the Gaza Strip because the words "State of Palestine" appears on the letterhead of their application, officials said on Wednesday.

Israel does not recognize a Palestinian state, whose creation it says should stem from peace negotiations. It voted against a U.N. General Assembly resolution in 2012 that gave de facto recognition to a sovereign Palestinian state.

"On Sunday (the Palestinians) filed a range of requests ... on a document that said 'State of Palestine'. On the spot, we returned it to them, saying they should refile the request on appropriate paperwork," said Major Guy Inbar, a spokesman for COGAT, the military-run authority that handles entry permits.

He said 10 Palestinians whose cases were urgent were allowed to enter Israel while about 50 others were not.

Israeli treatment for patients from the Gaza Strip - an enclave run by Hamas Islamists hostile to Israel - is arranged by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank.

Omar al-Naser of the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the ministry had been using the "State of Palestine" letterhead for a year without any move by Israel to deny patients entry.

Gulf News adds:

The ban affects ill people using the Erez Crossing and has been labelled by Palestinians as “rude, barbaric, illegal” and “aimed at killing patients” for whom treatment, as the Israelis know, is not available in Gaza.

I spoke to the COGAT spokesperson for Gaza, and found out the real story.

For several months, the Palestnian Authority has been sending requests on the new letterhead. Every single time, COGAT rejected it, and each time they were resubmitted with the Palestinian Authority letterhead - and approved. This was not new, and the PA knows very well that this was the case.

As recently as Sunday, several patients whose requests were on the new stationery were rejected, and then the PA re-faxed the request the old way and they were approved.

Today's story is a propaganda ambush. Some 50-70 patients (apparently non-life threatening) were submitted on the new stationery at once, an unusually high number. As has been the case for months, they were rejected. But this time the story was leaked to the media. (There was a Haaretz story about this in January with only one patient, but it didn't get much coverage. Much better to use 50 or 70 if you want Reuters and AFP to take notice.)

Existing agreements are between Israel and the PA, not the fictitious "State of Palestine." It is obvious that the PA is trying to embarrass Israel and will happily use Gaza patients as a means to do so. It is equally obvious that the "State of Palestine" is a final status issue, and that Israel cannot act otherwise without jeopardizing its negotiating position.

As usual, instead of dealing with Israel directly, the PLO is passive aggressively using the media to demonize (and weaken) Israel on its behalf. And, as usual, the media is happy to play its part in this charade.