Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Gaza to run out of free fuel again, expect Israel to be blamed

Ma'an reported yesterday:

The last shipment of Qatar-donated diesel -- used to fuel the Gaza Strip's sole power plant -- is expected to run out within four or five days, a Palestinian official said Sunday.

The announcement comes after only around two months of steady electricity in the besieged coastal enclave, which suffers from a severe lack of fuel due to a seven-year-long economic blockade enforced jointly by Israel and Egypt.

Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairperson of the Gaza power authority, told Ma'an Sunday that the Qatari donation had helped operate two generators and made electricity available on the basis of eight hours on, eight hours off.

As the last of the fuel runs out, power availability will be reduced to six hours on, twelve hours off, as before the fuel was donated, Khalil said.

Yet only two paragraphs after blaming Israel (and Egypt) for Gaza's lack of fuel, the Gaza official freely admits why there really is a shortage:

"We asked the Ramallah government to provide Gaza's power plant with tax-free fuel because the money we collect in electricity bills isn't enough to buy fuel to run two generators," he said.

Nothing to do with Israel at all - it is the Hamas government being unable to pay the agreed-upon prices! If they pay, Israel can sell them all they need.

There is no blockade of fuel to Gaza from Israel. Media and NGOs that make this claim are lying.

I've documented this in detail since last November 1, when Gaza officials first announced that they don't want to pay regular prices for fuel.

Somehow Hamas finds the money to pay for monuments to terror, for weapons smuggling, and for other "essential" functions - but they can't find a way to pay for fuel. Because they have historically used the artificial fuel crises that they engineer to create heartbreaking photos of Gaza children in candlelight to pressure Israel and the PA. They couldn't care less about the welfare of their people.

And Hamas is secure in its knowledge that NGOs and the media will more often blame Israel (and, lately, Egypt) for its own cynical manipulation of their people.

"Jews control the President's breakfast and Supreme Court's music"

I know, it's almost Purim, but (just like the earlier story about Jews being behind triskaidekaphobia) this stuff is really being published in daily Arab newspapers.

JordanZad newspaper wrote up a typical Jewish/Masonic plot article, including quotes from antisemites about how US presidents bow down to Jews, and how the Jews have an entire government that is really running the US from behind the puppet government of the US Congress and executive branch. But as many times as I've seen this theme in Arab newspapers, they always manage to add their own amusing twists.

[The ADL] is headquartered in Chicago , the capital of crime and criminals, as you know, not only of America but of all the other countries of the world. Its main objective is to mute any voice of complaint about the Jews, using silenced pistols, and poison, and strangulation, and other methods that even Satan couldn't discover, and they control spy devices and control all sensitive facilities both official and popular, and they monitor every word uttered, every letter people write, and every image printed, and every film released, and every song written or composed, and they also have specialized equipment for defamation of undesirable celebrities....

You should know for sure that our battle with the Jews is not an ordinary battle; not a battle with creatures of flesh and blood only, but primarily a battle with the spiritual and intellectual powers which pollute our pristine pure waters. Here lies the danger: it is easier to fight your opponent man to man, and a weapon with a weapon!!! But the toughest fight is in the fields of thought and conscience!!! Especially if he is sneaking out to the minds and hearts of your children!!!!...

The American Jewish Committee is only one of several associations that is planning the official policy of the United States of America. They monitor everything that is said or written or published, and monitor churches, and attend religious classes for schools all from day one.

This committee oversees the president's breakfast, in addition to the selection of the clothes worn by members of Congress, and they choose the music heard by members of the Supreme Court and the Executive Office!!!!!

Fatah military leader assassinated in Lebanon

From Naharnet:

Unknown assailants on Monday assassinated a high-ranking Fatah Movement official in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon.

“Fatah Movement official Brig. Gen. Jamil Zeidan died of his wounds after he was shot by unidentified gunmen in the al-Fawqani area,” state-run National News Agency said.

According to LBCI television, two masked gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire at Zeidan.

A Fatah camp official told Agence France Presse that Zeidan was shot in front of his home.

"He was transferred to a health center but was pronounced dead on arrival," the official added, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

A camp medic said Zeidan had been sprayed with at least 15 bullets.

Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said tensions surged and armed men deployed in the streets in the wake of the murder.

On February 2, Wissam Abul Kel, a member of Fatah, died after masked men shot him near the camp's grocery market.

Ain el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbor extremists and fugitives.

Ma'an only refers to him as a "Lebanese national security forces general," nothing about him being a member of Fatah or even Palestinian.

Fatah-leaning media are surprisingly low-key, or are ignoring altogether, this assassination of a Fatah general.

The media rule of "no Jews, no news" seems to be holding up rather well in this case.

Meanwhile, Lebanese ministers are debating a Hezbollah demand to insert language about "resistance" to Israel in their ministerial policy statement. Because it is much better to pretend that Israel is a threat to Lebanon than to worry about the real problems facing Lebanon, such as a large part of it being controlled by Iran.

Hamas unveils a statue of a rocket (video)

Hamas unveiled a rocket-shaped statue Monday showcasing its capacity to strike arch-enemy Israel, as the Jewish state boasted its own haul of captured weapons it claims were bound for Gaza.

"Hamas managed to take the battle to the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel) after developing its rocket system, succeeding where many Arab armies had failed," said a leader of Hamas armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, flanked by masked fighters at the statue's unveiling.

The monument in Gaza City features a life-size model of a large M75 rocket, named in honour of Qassam Brigades founding member Ibrahim al-Maqadma -- who was assassinated by Israel in 2003 -- and alluding to its range of 75 kilometres.

03/10 Links Pt2: Cleric Claims Einstein was a Shiite; Israeli Cruise Passengers Denied Entry to Tunisia

From Ian:

If only there were more people who were really pro-Palestinian. . .

In a way, all of this anti-Israel focus in the “pro-Palestinian” movement is not surprising, because Palestinian leaders have, for years, employed the propaganda tactics of totalitarian regimes during and surrounding World War II. Mussolini blamed Italy’s problems on worldwide communist plots, and Stalin blamed the Soviet Union’s problems on Trotsky, his exiled political enemy. Thus the peoples of Italy and Eastern Europe were convinced that their poor domestic situations were less the fault of their governments than the fault of outside forces. They were given someone convenient to blame for their problems, an “other,” so that they did not turn their criticism on their own governments. Likewise, Palestinian leaders have blamed Israel for the problems that the Palestinian Authority has perpetuated for decades. They have aimed to manufacture a single “Palestinian cause,” one that always opposes Israel and almost never creates space for talk of a two-state solution that would actually end the occupation. The “cause” does not address the corruption of Palestinian politicians, the Palestinian government’s failure to support democracy or freedom of the press, sharp divisions between Palestinian factions, issues of poverty, issues of oppression of Palestinian people throughout the Arab world, and numerous other pressing problems that huge segments of the Palestinian people are forced to face every day. The global community has picked up on this propaganda narrative and, attracted to the simplistic underdog story that it tells, lent enormous support to the “Palestinian cause.”

Israelis Detained on Board Norwegian Jade as Cruise Ship Docked in Port of Tunis

Israeli tourists were denied the right to disembark from the Norwegian Jade, a vessel operated by the Norwegian Cruise Line, when it stopped in the Port of Tunis, Tunisia recently, Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada said on Sunday.
As passengers prepared to get off the ship to visit the North African republic, the Israelis were quietly told that they were not welcomed by the Tunisian Government, the group said in a statement.
The cruise line did not advise the passengers in advance that Israeli tourists would be confined to the ship for the stop. Other Jewish passengers were unaware that their coreligionists were being detained, since no public announcements were made. They were outraged when it became known, B’nai Brith Canada said.

One Week After Russia's Crimean Invasion, US Imposes Travel Sanctions...Against Israelis

At the same time the US State Department is relaxing entry requirements to visa applicants with Islamist terrorist connections, and reassuring President Putin of Russia that any sanctions against travel to the US placed upon those responsible for Russia's invasion Ukraine will be limited to no more than a "few dozen" named individuals, it is dramatically increasing its rejection rate of Israelis seeking visas to visit the US.
While the State Department denies it, Israeli officials now suspect their country is being deliberately sanctioned as part of an unannounced administration policy to punish the Jewish state. This week their fears were publicly shared by none other than administration ally NY Senator Charles Schumer, who, in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, demanded an end to the “State Department policy of categorically denying young Israelis tourist visas that makes it nearly impossible for any young Israeli to visit the U.S.”

Iranian cleric: Albert Einstein was Shiite Muslim

An Iranian cleric claims that the Albert Einstein, the great 20th century scientist who developed the Theory of Relativity, was a Shiitie Muslim, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
The report cites a video by Ayatolla Mahadavi Kani, described as the head of the Assembly of Experts in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who says that there are documents proving the Jewish scientist embraced Shiite Islam and was an avid follower of Ja'far Al-Sadiq, an eighth-century Shi'i imam.
In the video, Kani quotes Einstein as saying that when he heard about the ascension of the prophet Mohammed, "a process which was faster than the speed of light," he realized "this is the very same relativity movement that Einstein had understood." (h/t dabney_c)

Now Jews are being blamed for triskaidekaphobia

An Egyptian secular newspaper tries to figure out why some people are afraid of the number 13.

It can't figure it out (apparently Egyptian reporters are even lazier than their American counterparts who at least rely on Wikipedia) , but it says anyway "It is certain that the Jews are behind the smear of the number 13 and they tied it to bad luck, especially when the 13th of a month is on a Friday.... The Jews believe that there are 12 tribes and their awaited 'Antichrist' will come out of the tribe No. 13 and they will consider that his appearance represents a victory that the Jews who are seeking to achieve and this is the reason for their obsession with the number 13, which symbolizes their power and cosmic dominance, and this is why the Jews were promote the number 13 to be unlucky to Muslims."

It would be wonderful if some social scientists would analyze why so many Arabs - the intelligent ones, who write for major newspapers - are so freaking crazy. But it would be career suicide to do something useful like that.

The Economist reveals the extent of Jordanian apartheid against Palestinians

From The Economist:

...Surely, Western officials say, for the right price, currently estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, the Jordanians will help John Kerry, America’s secretary of state (pictured above with King Abdullah) to fix a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by absorbing the 4.5m Palestinians who live in the kingdom, including the 3.5m who are now Jordanian citizens.

Or will they? Indigenous Bedouin from Jordan’s East Bank, who number about 3m, worry that America’s plans to persuade Palestinian leaders to strip generations of refugees of their claimed “right of return” to what is now Israel would reduce Jordan’s original inhabitants to a permanent minority. Tribal leaders fret that the refugees, barred from Israel, would campaign for full rights in Jordan, over time turning the kingdom into a second Palestinian state. The Bedouin would lose their preferential access to government jobs. They might also be deprived of the skewed electoral system that has hitherto ensured that they control Jordan’s parliament. “Kerry is destroying our home,” says a Jordanian analyst. “He is trying to solve one conflict by creating another.”

Parliamentarians from Jordan’s East Bank (ie, non-Palestinians) intent on scuppering Mr Kerry’s plan say the Palestinians must uphold their right to return to Israel. Campaigners are denounced as American collaborators for calling for more rights for those 1m Palestinians resident in the kingdom who still do not have Jordanian nationality. When Mustafa Hamarneh, a Jordanian MP of Palestinian origin, suggested giving the children of Palestinian refugees access to Jordanian state education, health care and a driving licence, he was labelled a Zionist agent.

Here we see in plain English that the only reason Jordanians say they support the "right or return" is because they want to kick out their Palestinian citizens!

The Economist is wrong when it ways that some 1 million Palestinian Jordanians do not have citizenship - the number I have seen, which makes far more sense, is about 165,000, only comprising those who came from Gaza after the 1967 war. It is clear that the Bedouin want to discriminate not only against the relatively few non-citizens, who have next to no rights already, but against the Jordanians of Palestinian origin who have been full citizens for over six decades!

Notice also how even handed The Economist is in reporting on Jordanian apartheid against Palestinians - a discrimination that the Jordanian political leaders are quite open about and proud of. None of the rancor that accompanies stories about Israel shows up here, even though the alleged victims are the same.

It sure seems like The Economist is only "pro-Palestinian" when that position happens to also be anti-Israel.

03/10 Links Pt1: Iran's Two-faced Regime Exposed; Arab League Against Recognizing Jewish State

From Ian:

Iran's Two-faced Regime Exposed Again, but is Anyone Paying Attention?

The Quds Force, headed by a mastermind named Qassem Suleimani (who answers directly to Khamenei), uses banks and front companies to pay for and manufacture weapons, before attempting to transit them to proxies.
According to UN Security Council Resolution 1747, Iran is banned from trading in, or sending weapons across, international borders. Yet, as the latest arms shipment intercepted by Israel demonstrates, Iran systematically violates this resolution.
When the regime feels the need brutally to suppress internal dissent, it can call the Basij (a volunteer paramilitary force that receives orders from the IRCG) and its two million volunteers to the streets of Iranian cities.
But Ayatollah Khamenei is now trying a new way of keeping the streets free of protesters by allowing Rouhani to pursue talks with the West. This, Khamenei evidently hopes, will put a lid on growing disquiet over the country's economic troubles, many of them caused by international sanctions.
At the same time, he is permitting the IRGC and Quds Force to continue their global terrorism exportation program -- an effort combatted around the clock by Israel's intelligence agencies. The intercepted weapons ship is just one of many arms transfer attempts being blocked by Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas Cannot Make Concessions on Any Core Issue

Today it is clear that the Palestinian Authority is preparing to hold Israel responsible for the failure of the peace talks because of its refusal to comply with all of the Palestinians' demands.
The peace talks are scheduled to end in late April in accordance with Kerry's nine-month deadline. But the Palestinian Authority leadership has no plans to wait until then to declare the failure of the peace process.
Palestinian officials in Ramallah say that the talks with Israel have already failed, but Obama and Kerry continue to live in denial. There are no direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Rather, each side is conducting separate negotiations with Obama and Kerry.
The latest statements from Palestinian Authority officials show that the issue of Israel's Jewishness is only a secondary issue compared with the sensitive issues of Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements.
Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not going to bring the two sides closer to reaching agreement on any of these core issues. This is what Obama needs to take into consideration when he meets with Abbas. He also needs to take into consideration what many Palestinians are saying – that Abbas is not authorized to make concessions on any of these issues.

Our Desire To Destroy Israel As A Jewish State Is Not A Core Issue (satire)

Then there’s the question of refugees. What’s wrong with insisting it’s about justice for the deprived, instead of a flood of millions of Palestinians into the area that will quickly overwhelm the Jewish population? We shall ignore for the moment the fact that the refugees themselves have by and large accepted the fact that they have no hope of returning, at least not en masse, to the homes they left behind. And the fact that the State of Palestine that we’re building right now will explicitly deny citizenship to those refugees and their descendants, for the specific purpose of foisting them on Israel. It’s pretty jarring to shift the focus onto the effect of that scenario, i.e. the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. We have to focus on the other core issues.
Such as borders. Which, I need not remind you, will exclude Jews from the confines of the nascent Palestine. But it’s not about the Jews. It’s about denying the Jews a foothold in this land.
And Jerusalem: what happens if we concede any Jewish control of, or even presence in, our holy city? You know, the one so holy that the Koran never even mentions it. As long as the city is under Muslim control, we do not plan to make an issue of its being under Jewish rule.
Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not a core issue. At least as long as we can fool Europe, Obama, and the Israeli Left into believing that.

Comparison of Amnesty coverage of Syria and Israel

Amnesty just released a report about the Palestinian Arabs who have died since last July in the Yarmouk camp in Syria.

A comparison between that report and its most recent report slamming Israel shows in stark terms how biased Amnesty is against Israel.

For Yarmouk, as with Amnesty reports from Egypt and other Arab countries, victims are just statistics. An appendix lists their names here but the report itself gives no detail as to the heartbreaking circumstances of their deaths.

Only when Israel is being blamed are the victims humanized- sometimes three pages dedicated to the circumstances of the death of a single person, plus photos and interviews with their distraught family members.

Here, in black and white, one can see how hard Amnesty works to demonize Israel while letting real crimes against Palestinian Arabs go relatively lightly.

Amnesty reports	Israel/WB	Syria/Yarmouk
Title of report	Trigger-happy	Squeezing the life out of Yarmouk
Number of pages in the report	87	39
Number of civilians killed according to Amnesty	22	194
Time period covered	12 months	8 months
Circumstances of their deaths	Mostly while participating in or near violent acts	Starvation, sniper fire, bombings
Number of extensive personal stories given for victims	At least 18, some three pages long	Zero
Number of photos of victims (dead and injured)	At least 14	Zero
Number of times it uses the word “impunity”	14	1
Number of times it uses the phrase “International law”	24	9
Video produced to support report?	Yes, 4 minutes	No
Placement on Amnesty webpage	Linked from front page, 2 weeks after report issued	On front page the day it was released

160 kilometers, illustrated

The Iranian arms ship is now confirmed to have held some 40 rockets with a range of up to 160 kilometers.

Here is an illustration of 160 km radii, from the northern tip of Gaza and from the northern part of the Sinai, in case the weapons would have ended up in the hands of Sinai jihadists.

Virtually all of Israel, except for Eilat and the far northern parts, would be in range of terror groups in Gaza. Most of Israel, including Eilat and almost all of Judea and Samaria, would be in range of terror groups in the Sinai.

If you assume a very conservative range of 100 km from Hezbollah rockets, then Israel would be entirely within rocket range of Iran-backed terrorists.

Interestingly, the capitals of Jordan and Egypt would also have been in range of Islamist groups in Gaza and the Sinai had these rockets been smuggled in successfully.

Iran would have had all of Israel and critical parts of Jordan and Egypt under direct rocket threat.

Infographic: Goodwill Gestures (2014)

This is a followup to a 2012 version.

The evidence for "Threats" is here.

Fatah's entire political platform of 2009 in English

This is the official Fatah platform, in English, referred to by Abbas Zaki in this interview posted earlier today.

The main strategic goals are "Liberating the homeland, ending its settler occupation and attaining the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people." Note that these are separate goals - the "homeland" is all of British Mandate Palestine while the "occupation" is the areas Israel gained in 1967 and the "inalienable rights" include the "right to return."

The platform makes it very clear that Fatah still subscribes to "armed resistance" as a "right":" "The Palestinian people’s right to practice armed resistance against the military occupation of their land remains a constant right confirmed by international law and international legality."

Unintentionally proving how tenuous Palestinian peoplehood is, the platform tries to shore it up by saying "The Palestinians are a genuine people with a clear identity and clear affiliation to their homeland. They maintained their attachment to this identity and to their homeland through their national struggle for almost a century."

Two of their tactics include:

Boycotting Israeli products at home and abroad through popular movement, particularly those goods for which there is local substitute. Performing new forms of civil disobedience against the occupation and launching an international campaign to boycott Israel, its products, and its institutions benefiting from the experience of South Africa against Apartheid....

Restoring our direct and strong relations with the Israeli peace camp, and revitalizing our joint action for a just peace, without mingling it with normalization with Israel, which is rejected while occupation continues.

It also calls to strengthen the culture of terror:

Continued commitment to the culture of struggle, and the permanent readiness to engage in resisting the occupation, and sacrifice for the homeland. Continuous education through regular organizational meetings and training courses. The issuing of Fatah circulars, to continue mobilizing the cadres of the movement and masses with the heritage of the Palestinian armed struggle. Celebrating our battles, and commemorating the history of our struggle and the permanent readiness to sacrifice.

Every single thing that is incompatible with true peace is enshrined in this platform. These are not negotiable positions, according to this document.

I am certain that neither John Kerry nor President Obama, nor Thomas Friedman nor any supposed mainstream media "expert" ever read this.

In fact, practically no one in the West has read this platform, although Mahmoud Abbas has been acting entirely consistently with it. I translated some of it when it was released, but this official English translation seems to have been released over a year later. I found it at the Palestinian Press Office of Denmark.

This is essential reading in order to understand the strategy of the PLO and Mahmoud Abbas.

Fatah Political Platform by Eldad Tzioni