Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Consistent Use Of Correct Hebrew Proves Man Is Foreign Spy (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Tel Aviv, July 13 - Investigators in Israeli counterintelligence have caught a foreign agent when the man unwittingly exposed himself by being the only person who used grammatically correct Hebrew, Shin Bet sources reported today.

The man, an employee at a government-owned enterprise in the defense industry, was exposed during a twice-yearly review by Shin Bet officers who determined he could not be the native Israeli and Hebrew speaker he claimed to be, since no Israelis are particular about using the correct grammatical forms in everyday conversation, and most even disregard it in more formal contexts.

A source within the agency, known by its formal acronym Shabak, told reporters on condition of anonymity that reports of a mole within the enterprise had surfaced last year, but that clear evidence of the spy's activities and identity did not begin to emerge until several months ago. Investigators gradually narrowed the field until it was clear materials were being leaked to foreign interests from a specific unit in the company.

In the guise of conducting an efficiency examination for quality purposes, the Shabak agents posed as consultants and interviewed several dozen staff and supervisors in the suspected unit. "It became pretty clear that the guy we were looking for was sitting in front of us when he started using the right verb form for the third-person plural future," recalled the agent, rolling his eyes. "I mean, even the radio announcers, who are required to speak a certain way, don't say 'telekhna' when everyone just says 'yelkhu'."

Investigators' ears further perked up when the interviewee actually used the first-person singular future prefix instead of just using the third-person form that everyone has adopted out of sheer laziness and mishearing. "He actually made sure we heard him pause between 'Ani' and 'eshmor' so we would hear that he wasn't saying 'yishmor' as everyone else would," said the agent. "That basically clinched it for us. Afterwards we conducted a more thorough background check and found a relative who works for a courier service used by one of the embassies here, and put it all together." The relative has already confessed to involvement.

"Also, the guy made sure to use masculine numbers with masculine nouns and feminine numbers with feminine nouns," added the agent, contrasting it with the general practice of using the simpler feminine form for all purposes. "It was just further proof that he didn't have genuine roots in the country and society. What idiot does that?"

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07/13 Links Pt1: PA: to Students 'Dying As A Martyr Is The Path Of Excellence And Superiority'

From Ian:

MEMRI: With Publication Of High School Finals Results, Palestinian Authority Press Notes Deaths Of Students Who Carried Out Stabbing Attacks, Stresses: 'Dying As A Martyr Is The Path Of Excellence And Superiority'

The July 11, 2016 release of high school seniors' final exam results by the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education is being widely covered in the Palestinian media. As part of this coverage, on July 12, PA dailies published articles on high school seniors who had been killed during the school year carrying out, or attempting to carry out, stabbing attacks against Israelis, and who thus would never graduate. The articles praised the teenagers' martyrdom, playing with the Arabic word shahada, which means both "diploma" and "martyrdom." The lead article in the PA official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida listed 16 Palestinian students whom, it stated, had not been able to take their final exams, but had "passed the difficult [test] of dying as martyrs for the sake of the homeland" with flying colors. It added, "Dying as a martyr is the path of excellence and superiority."
The list included 16-year-old Ahmad Abu Al-Rab, who participated in the February 3 shooting and stabbing attack at Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem in which a female Israeli Border Guard was killed, and Labib 'Aazem and Muhammad Zaghlawan, both 17, who carried out the March 2 stabbing attack at Har Bracha, wounding two Israeli soldiers.

PMW: PA Monument for Murder

Next week, the Palestinian Authority and the PLO will be dedicating a monument to Abu Sukkar, a terrorist who murdered 15 by filling a refrigerator with explosives and detonating it on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem in 1975.
The PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs posted an invitation to the event on Facebook, which stated that it is being held “under the auspices of the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, the Ramallah and El-Bireh district, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the Turmus Ayya municipality, and the Supreme Council for Monitoring Prisoners’ Affairs.” It also encouraged people to attend, stating that their presence would be “a sign of loyalty to the Martyrs and the prisoners”:
“We are honored to invite you to participate in the dedication of the monument to the Martyr (Shahid) fighter Ahmad Jabarah ‘Abu Sukkar’
On Sunday, July 17, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. at the village of Turmus Ayya
Your presence is a sign of loyalty to the Martyrs and the prisoners” [Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, July 13, 2016]
The Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake and District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam have honored this murderer before. Last year, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the two officials called the murderer of 15 “a great fighter,” promised to “follow his path,” and praised him as “setting an example.”

Israel and European allies working to stop UNESCO from ignoring Jewish ties to Temple Mount

Israel has enlisted the help of three European countries — the United Kingdom, France and Germany — to sway UNESCO against passing a resolution that ignores Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
“There is an intense diplomatic effort on behalf of Israel to counter this text,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon.
He spoke in response to a push by Jordan and Palestine to sway the 21-members of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to approve a resolution that speaks of the Temple Mount solely as how it is referred to in Islam, al-Haram al-Sharif.
The Committee is meeting in Istanbul from July 10 to 20 to vote on new sites for its World Heritage List. On Tuesday and Wednesday it will also be affirming and adding new sites to its endangered list.
Jerusalem and its Old City Walls, which were first inscribed on the World Heritage List by Jordan in 1981, is also on the endangered list. Palestine, which is accepted as a UNESCO member state, placed the Church of the Nativity on that list in 2012, and the ancient terraces of Battir in 2014.
On Tuesday the committee reaffirmed their placements on the endangered list. A Jerusalem resolution was not discussed at that point or even mentioned.

Video: EoZ speech in Jerusalem on Arab antisemitism

This is the speech I gave in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

I wasn't mic'ed up this time so my voice is echo-y. And because my laptop is slower than I thought and my bandwidth is limited, I had to create the video at a pretty low resolution; otherwise I would have had to wait until I return to the US to make it and upload it. And this time I just zoomed in to the live presentation instead of showing the original, pristine slides, like I normally do, again because of technical limitations here. (I may re-do it when I get back but for the most part the slides are readable.)

I did not include the Q&A in this video. I might do that later if people want.

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Alan Baker, former Israeli ambassador to Canada who was involved in the peace negotiations with the Palestinians, has called chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat "an accomplished liar."

At his office at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs yesterday, we had a wide-ranging conversation on international law and diplomacy. I asked him what he could tell me about Erekat, whom I have documented many times as a liar.

Baker responded with a story. He saw Erekat on CNN, "literally in tears," saying what can only be described as baldfaced lies about how Israeli forces are attacking Palestinians and violating agreements.

"I phoned him up," Baker said. "I said 'Saeb, how can you say that? You know that I know that you know that this is not right! We both sat and negotiated the truth!...' And he said to me, 'Alan, you do your job and I do my job.' And that more or less sums it up."

Baker then implied that Erekat's habitual lies may have hurt the negotiations in general. He added, "When you have someone who really sells lies, it's very difficult afterwards to trust them when you get back to the negotiating table. This breakdown of mutual trust is very significant."

In this video excerpt, Baker also describes the bizarre scene of enemies working together during the arduous peace talks, with him sharing a Jacuzzi with former terrorist Jibril Rajoub at a hotel, both of them complaining about their wives and mothers-in-law.

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PBS suspends worker for calling a terrorist a "martyr" - but Palestinians who do that are fine people

In 2003, PBS aired a TV series called "Avoiding Armageddon" where they quoted a Palestinian expert who considered Palestinian suicide terrorism "sad" but could certainly understand it and blamed it on Israel's actions:

Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj is the founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP). He is also the Commissioner-General of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights. He currently lives in Gaza and is an expert on the mental impact that the violence in the area has on children growing up in Gaza. He has also written extensively on the subject, in English as well as in Arabic.

"A 17-year-old boy in Gaza today is somebody who thinks of life as in a prison. He's not allowed to leave Gaza. He's not allowed sometimes even to cross between cities within the Gaza strip, because the Israelis most of the time now block the way for people to move within [the] Gaza strip itself.

"He's somebody who has seen so much of bombing, of killing, of murder, of blood, of humiliation. And he doesn't think that he has a future as a scientist, as a doctor, as an engineer. Sadly and tragically, many of them think that the best thing to do is to be a martyr - which tells you about the psychology of these people - that this has become an equivalent to life.

"You see, I look at this as a product of the environment. People are not born to become martyrs. People are not born to become heroes. People are the product of the environment. You bring an environment of hopelessness and despair, you have a martyr, somebody who thinks death is the beginning of life."

El-Sarraj is justifying terrorism against Jews even though, as a "moderate", he doesn't support it. In no way does PBS condemn his statement or even imply that his analysis is a justification for the more heinous crimes. There is no moral judgment of Dr. El Sarraj, indeed, he is a respected expert.

This attitude of coddling Palestinian terrorism is so widespread in the media that it is barely noticeable any more.

But compare that with how this PBS station responded to an prominent on-air personality doing the exact same thing in a different context:

Kalyn Chapman James, the first black Miss Alabama, has been placed on administrative leave by South Florida PBS station WPBT2 after calling Dallas sniper Micah Xavier Johnson a "martyr" for killing five cops. The comments were made Sunday on Facebook Live.

"I'm dealing with a bit of guilt, because I don't feel sad for the officers that lost their lives -- and I know that that's really not my heart," James began. "I value human life and I want to feel sad for them, but I can't help but feeling like the shooter was a martyr -- and I know it's not the right way to feel because nobody deserves to lose their lives, and I know that those police officers had families and people who loved them."

"I'm so torn up in my heart about seeing these ... black men being gunned down in my community that I can't help but feel like I wasn't surprised what the shooter did to those cops," she added. "And I think a lot of us feel the same way."

She appeared to have deleted the video on Tuesday. James is an independent contractor for the local TV station.

Here's WPBT2's official statement, in which they do not mention her by name:

(Emphasis added by EoZ)

Arabs who justify terror and refer to terrorists as "martyrs"are no different than some Americans who do the exact same thing.

There is one difference between the two examples. Kalyn James, speaking live and in a moment of passion, felt guilty for justifying the Dallas terrorist and calling him a martyr. Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, on the other hand, had time to craft the exact words that he wanted to say to an American audience when he justified terror. His use of the word "martyr" is matter-of-fact with no regret whatsoever.

This is the everyday hypocrisy between how Palestinian terrorism is condoned and justified while the same type of actions are considered horrendous when done by others.

(h/t EBoZ)

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07/12 Links Pt2: US funds aided 2015 bid to oust Netanyahu; How Democrats Destroyed the Pro-Israel Consensus

From Ian:

US funds aided 2015 bid to oust Netanyahu, Senate probe finds

The US government supported a group that tried to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year to the tune of nearly $350,000, or NIS 1.3 million, a Senate inquiry published Tuesday found, though it cleared the State Department of any wrongdoing.
The bipartisan probe found no illegal activity in funding the OneVoice group, which became the V15 campaign to oust Netanyahu, though its report chided the State Department for having failed to prevent state funds being used, albeit legally and indirectly, to influence an allied country’s internal political process.
According to the report, authored by the permanent subcommittee on investigations of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the State Department gave grants totaling $349,276 to One Voice’s Israeli and Palestinian branches “to support peace negotiations” over a 14-month grant period that ended in November 2014.
After that period, the organizational infrastructure created with these funds were used by V15, a group that actively called on Israel’s to vote for “anyone but Bibi [Netanyahu]” during last year’s national election.
Netanyahu urged the Knesset to vote to dissolve itself on December 2, 2014, leading to new elections in March of 2015. V15 spent considerable efforts trying to convince Israeli voters that Netanyahu had to be replaced by a candidate for the center-left. Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing groups derided the group for using “foreign funding” to try to unseat him. (h/t YOSEF22ADAR)

State Department Purged Emails About Secret Anti-Netanyahu Campaign

A State Department official deleted emails that included information about a secret campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the country’s last election, according to a Senate investigatory committee that determined the Obama administration transferred tax funds to anti-Netanyahu groups.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations disclosed in a massive report on Tuesday that the Obama administration provided U.S. taxpayer dollars to the OneVoice Movement, a liberal group that waged a clandestine campaign to smear and oust Netanyahu from office.
OneVoice, which was awarded $465,000 in U.S. grants through 2014, has been under congressional investigation since 2015, when it was first accused of funneling money to partisan political groups looking to unseat Netanyahu. This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
The investigation determined that OneVoice redirected State Department funds to anti-Netanyahu efforts and that U.S. officials subsequently erased emails containing information about the administration’s relationship with the non-profit group.
The disclosure comes amid a massive effort by Congress to reform the State Department’s email practices in light of former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential frontrunner’s Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified materials.

NGO transparency bill passes final vote

The Knesset voted to pass a controversial law requiring organizations mostly funded by foreign governments to prominently label themselves as such, in a vote that took place late Monday.
The debate was expected to take six hours and be followed by votes on 50 proposed changes, before the third and final reading.
The bill states that any nonprofit organization that receives more than half of its funding from a foreign political entity would have to indicate as much in any publication or letter to elected officials or civil servants.
In addition, a list of the NGOs falling under the bill’s purview, as well as the countries from which they received donations, would have to be posted on the Non-Profit Registrar’s website.
NGOs already must report all contributions from foreign governments to the registrar.
The initiative has been controversial since its inception, because the vast majority of organizations that would fall under its purview - 25 of 27 NGOs listed by the Justice Ministry - are left-wing.
Its supporters say that the public has a right to know when foreign governments are trying to influence Israeli policy.

The hookah bars in Ramallah must be doing some gangbusters business. From the official PA Wafa "news" agency:

Statistics revealed that the number of demolitions and confiscations by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2016 have increased by 450% in comparison to 2015, signaling a covert attempt to establish a state for Israeli settlers in the Palestinian state.
Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the number of Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has multiplied by 600%.
...Ghassan Daghlas who is in charge of monitoring and documenting Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank told WAFA after the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli government and the Zionist Lobby all agreed and began work in the direction of establishing a state for the settlers in what they choose to refer to as “Judea and Samaria”.
...Jad Issac from the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem told WAFA that Israel plans to establish two states in the West Bank. “Israel plans to give Israeli settlers around 75% of Area C, which is a total of 60% of the West Bank, eventually turning the Palestinian state into isolated cantons on less than 50% of the original area.”

Meaning, according to the official PA news agency, Israel supports a three (or four) state solution: a Palestinian state, Jewish state, a settler state, and maybe Hamastan.

These guys really get some good scoops by interviewing their supposed "experts." Ghassan Daghlas in particular has a reputation of simply making things up - and he is on the PA payroll.

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Why do I love Israel? (Forest Rain)

Daphne Anson has regretfully told me that she no longer has time to write her Tuesday column for EoZ, as she has other projects. We are sorry to see her go and wish her luck.

I am pleased to say that we have another new columnist, Forest Rain, a talented young woman whose writing I have admired for several months. - EoZ

Why do I love Israel?
By Forest Rain | Inspiration from Zion: www.forestrain.wordpress.com

On the rare occasions this question is asked, it's often answered with facts and figures.

The problem is that caring does not grow from characteristics. Israel has excellent qualities such as tolerance or being the only democracy in the Middle East however, these are not reasons that lead anyone to love Israel. Love is a result of a feeling, of connection and belonging.

As the brilliant Chloé Simone Valdary put it, we do not love our parents as a result of their “cool features” but because they are family.

This is something everyone in the pro-Israel community should consider. When was the last time you tried to explain to yourself why you love Israel? If you can't articulate your reasons, how can you possibly convince someone else to think differently about Israel?

This is why I love Israel.

I love Israel because I belong to her and she belongs to me. She is my home and my family, her people are my people.

Through Israel my existence expands outward and encompasses much more than my individual self. I am more than just me – I am my family, my friends and the strangers that live beside me. I am not limited to my individual space or time. I am the Nation of Israel living in Israel, around the world and spanning centuries. I am me and at the same time I am also my ancestors stretching out behind me and future generations stretching out before me. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mosses, Solomon and David. Yael, Devorah, Rivkah, Sarah and Rachel. My fellowship is the strength, wisdom and belief of all these people as reflected in me. I am the bones in the ground in Jerusalem, the ashes in the concentration camps, the soldiers and the children of Israel. I am the blood soaked into each grain of dirt in this country. I am all the tears ever shed by my people. I am the centuries old longing to be free in our own land.

I love Israel because she is more than just a place; she is also an idea and I don’t know of any idea that is more beautiful. She is the origin of the morals and values the free world is founded on and in her existence, she proves that anything is possible.

I love Israel for the same reason I love “The Lord of the Rings” or “Harry Potter.” She is inspiring. Epic, sweeping stories of adventure, heroes, glory, honor, the battle between good and evil where, although tragedies occur, love always wins are not a fantasy – they are our reality.

In Israel I don’t need faith I just need to LIVE. God is in the earth I walk on, the air I breathe and the water I drink. God is the flowers, the birds and the stars. I don’t need a synagogue to commune with God. I meet with God every time I go to the supermarket or walk my dog.

And like in any family, the people of Israel often annoy each other. We fight and we bicker. Sometimes we sincerely dislike each other. And yet it is love that holds us together. No external enemy can ever bring us down (the only real danger to Israel is from within). Woe on to the enemy that rises up against Israel. Many a Nation has risen and fallen and Israel still remains…

While other nations belong to each other because they have similar traits, likes or dislikes, Israel is a nation because she is a family. The children of Israel belong to everyone in Israel. One of the more stunning examples of this was when the people of Israel collectively held their breath, waiting for Gilad Shalit on the day he was returned from the bondage of his Hamas kidnappers. An entire nation stopped for a single person. It happens over and over – every person matters, every life must be accounted for… Israelis take this for granted, it is only the reaction of foreigners that shows us how unusual this mindset is.

I love Israel because her heart is bigger than her tiny self. This nation believes in the sanctity of life and strives to protect all life: our own, that of our friends and even our enemies… Israel reaches across the world to help people in need, no matter who they are or what they believe in. All Lives Matter is not a slogan, it is a law of nature. This is why there are so many vegetarians and vegans in Israel. This is why there are so many conservationists. Animals matter, the earth matters too.

I love Israel because she is passionate. Our reality can be harsh but it is also invigorating. The contrasts here are sharper: the topography is high or low, there are hills with rivers and then there is the desert. You drive through a city, turn the corner and there is no one in sight for miles. Even the sun seems closer and larger in Israel. There are people here from everywhere in the world, all with different languages, cultures and religions. Tradition and modern life are intertwined. Everyone is passionate about something. People care, no one is apathetic. Life has meaning. You are either loved or hated. However someone feels about you they will let you know. Strangers will die for you so that you may live. Israelis don’t wait for the government or the “authorities” to save them. We save ourselves. And each other. And anyone else we can help on the way. There are so many heroes in this country people stopped counting a long time ago.

Like any home, in some places Israel is run down, dirty, broken and needs to be fixed. I love Israel for her stubbornness. No matter how big the challenge, she always tries and often succeeds beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Israel knows she isn’t perfect but she tries damn hard to get there. Our standards are high and our stubbornness keeps them steady. We aim for the stars and beat ourselves up for “only” reaching the moon. We fall, dust ourselves off and try again the next day.
Israel is inspiration. She is spirit made tangible. She is home for the Jewish people but welcoming to all friends who, through love can also become family. She exists not just for her people but for all people, proof that they too can be bigger than themselves.

Israel is my home and my family. I belong to her and she belongs to me. She has shown me what love is and that anything is possible. She makes me better than I would be without her and for that I am grateful.

Israel is more than just a place. She is an idea, a promise and proof. All anyone has to do is look.

“An age is called dark, not because the light refuses to shine but because people refuse to see.”

That is why I love Israel.

What about you?

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07/12 Links Pt1: Palestinian Prof. Who Led Auschwitz Trip Caught Justifying Terror; Glick: The first Iran war

From Ian:

PMW: “In defiance” of PMW, PA TV again honors stabber of Kay Wilson and killer of Kristine Luken

Last week, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that a Palestinian Authority TV program named Giants of Endurance had honored the terrorist who brutally stabbed Kay Wilson and murdered Kristine Luken in a forest near Jerusalem. PMW’s story was reported in the international media, including Fox News and the Daily Mail in Britain.
This week, PA TV decided to honor four additional terrorists, four brothers who in total are serving 18 life sentences in Israeli prisons. But before interviewing the mother of the four terrorists, the PA TV host condemned last week’s PMW report - which exposed their terror glorification - as “incitement,” and then sent “greetings” and “all our respect” to the terrorist murderer “in defiance of the occupation.” In this case, the term “occupation” seems to be PA TV’s euphemism for PMW who exposed the story:
Official PA TV host: "A few days ago there was a campaign of incitement by several of the occupation’s websites (i.e., reference to PMW report) against our program because we visit the prisoners’ mothers. The latest was the mother of prisoner Kifah Ghneimat from Hebron (i.e., stabbed Kristine Luken to death and critically wounded Kay Wilson) to whom we send our greetings and all our respect, in defiance of the occupation..." [Official PA TV, Giants of Endurance, July 7, 2016]
Following its condemnation of PMW, PA TV then interviewed the mother of four brothers, all terrorists, who between them are serving 18 life sentences in prison. After interviewing the mother, PA TV honored these terrorist murderers as well, saying:
“...each one in his own right. We are proud of them, and we are proud of every Palestinian fighter.”

PA TV “in defiance” of PMW honors stabber of Kay Wilson and Kristine Luken’s murderer again

Caroline Glick: The first Iran war

The war Israel fought in the summer of 2006 against Hezbollah was not the same as the war Israel fought against the PLO in 1982. The war of 2006 was not a Lebanese war. It was an Iranian war.
After the war, reservists who served under the incompetent leadership of Halutz and his colleagues began marching on Jerusalem demanding that he resign, along with then prime minister Ehud Olmert and then defense minister Amir Peretz.
Rather than reconcile with its own incompetence, the General Staff, the political leadership and the media insisted the reason the war was not a success was because line units were not properly trained or outfitted for battle. There was something to that. So people went along with it.
In no time flat, the deficits were filled.
But the larger problem went deliberately unaddressed.
And today we still suffer from it. Today as then, our military leadership refuses to acknowledge the nature of the enemy, and is more concerned about images than victory.
Today, IDF forces are told to ignore the enemy and fight for the images.
Sgt. Elor Azaria is on trial for manslaughter for killing a terrorist not because what he did was necessarily wrong.
Indeed, the prosecution’s entire case has fallen apart in the past week.
Azaria is standing trial because B’tselem videoed the event.
He brought the wrong image.
Iran won the war in 2006, as Israel agreed to treat its Hezbollah proxy as a legitimate fighting force and failed to dislodge its Hamas proxy from Gaza. A year later, Hamas threw Fatah out of Gaza. And in 2008, Hezbollah took over the Lebanese government.
For Israel to emerge victorious from the present fight against the Palestinians, we need a military leadership that is willing to fight to win, and recognize that images of victories are only important when they document actual victories.

IDF Blog: Weapons, drugs, and global terror: Hezbollah as an international threat

For an organization established in 1985, Hezbollah has had quite the storied history. In their three decades, they’ve not only undermined the government and military of their native Lebanon, they’ve destabilized the entire Middle East – and that’s not all. With the help of their patron, Iran, and their ally, Syria, it has amassed an arsenal larger than that of most nation-states. Hezbollah has gained footholds all over the world. This Shiite militia from Southern Lebanon has grown into a sizable international threat.
Destabilizing the Middle East
As Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah trains, funds, and fights alongside armies and militias that promote Iran’s interests and ideologies. This means exacerbating conflicts throughout the Middle East and exporting chaos far beyond their borders. Alongside Iran’s Quds Force, Hezbollah has been gaining experience and weapons in Syria’s ongoing, bloody civil war.
Kata’ib Hezbollah, or “Hezbollah Brigades,” is Hezbollah’s Iraq-based counterpart. With funding, weapons, and training from Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Force, they began fighting for Iranian interests in Iraq in 2003. They rose to prominence – or infamy – in 2007, with attacks on American forces, and are designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US. Like Hezbollah proper, they’re also fighting alongside the regime in Syria.

My discussion with the famous Israeli writer continues with discussions about Mahmoud Abbas' potential successors, Peter Beinart and others actively hurting the chances for peace by encouraging PA intransigence, and how holding Israel to "higher standards" is really racist against Arabs.

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The World Bank is keeping track of how the nations that have pledged to rebuild Gaza after Operation Protective Edge have been keeping their promises.

It finds that only 40% of the pledges - $1.4 billion out of pledges of $3.5 billion - have been paid so far, two years after the war.

However, if you break down the numbers by Muslim-majority countries and all others, an interesting pattern emerges.

Non-Muslim countries and NGOs pledged about $1.4 billion and so far paid about $1 billion, about 71% of their pledges.

Muslim nations pledged the bulk of the money meant to rebuild Gaza - $2.1 billion - but have paid only $360 million, which is only about 16.5% of what they pledged.

Qatar pledged a whopping billion dollars to rebuild Gaza - and has paid only $150 million of it.

Saudi Arabia paid only about 10% of its $500 million pledge.

Kuwait, which pledged $200 million, has not paid a dime.

Even Turkey, supposedly Gaza's best friend, has only paid 32% of its $200 million pledge.

We've seen this pattern many times before when Arab and Muslim nations pledged huge amounts of money to Palestinians and simply didn't pay up.

Arab nations paid only 21% of what they pledged at the Paris Donors Conference in December 2007.

In 2010, an Arab conference to help make Jerusalem an Arab city resulted in $500 million of pledges - of which only 7% was paid.

The Arab League committed to providing 7.7% of UNRWA's annual budget. As of 2010, they were only paying 1.5%.

Then PA prime minister Salam Fayyad complained bitterly about Arab nations failing to pay their pledges to his government.

If you follow the money, you can see that the Arab world has far less interest in helping Palestinians than their rhetoric would indicate. I believe that this is in a large part due to the intransigence and feelings of entitlement from Palestinian leadership.

The Arab and Muslim worlds are sick and tired of the Palestinian issue and they have been for many years now. The Palestinians are panicking over how the priorities of the Arab world have moved away from them. But a lot of it is their own fault for refusing to negotiate with Israel in good faith and accepting a state that is a little bit less than their demands. Arab leaders are wondering whether it was worth it for Palestinians to refuse Israeli offers of peace which should have ended the conflict long ago.

Palestinian leaders whining for attention from their villas in Ramallah while there are real crises in the region are making them look more and more foolish, but decades of basking in the glow of Arab pro-Palestinian propaganda have made Abbas and his people blind to what is really going on.

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Muslim media fall for Photoshopped news story of Saudi commercial flights to Israel

From Daily Pakistan, also reported in AWDNews and elsewhere:

RIYADH – Saudi Airlines, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s national carrier, announced over the weekend that it had started direct flights between the Kingdom’s capital of Riyadh and the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv since Friday, strengthening suspicions of a secret alliance forming between both Middle Eastern countries, formerly considered enemies, against the growing regional influence of Iran.

“The matter of direct flights between the two countries was meticulously examined in the several cabinet meetings, and the result of the negotiations has been indeed satisfactory. I am glad to inform you that two of our Boeing-787s landed in Ben Gurion International Airport yesterday, 7 am GMT,” Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdullah Mutheeb told AFP.

Tel Aviv and port city of Haifa are the probable destinations for flights originating in Riyadh. Eastern Jerusalem also has many Arab residents who have relatives from Gulf countries.

The deal has come on the back of Saudi King Salman’s explicit instructions to his Transport Minister to coordinate with Israeli counterparts to facilitate the historic initiation of direct flights between both nations’ capitals.

The hopeful move is also being backed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the hope that it will help the reviled country to come out of its regional isolation and begin a new, more peaceful chapter of diplomacy with its former Arab adversaries.

Previously, thousands of Arab businessmen had to travel through European or Turkish airports before transferring to flights destined for Tel Aviv.

Aside from increasing hopes of lasting peace in the region, the move is also expected to facilitate increased investment in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange by affluent Arab entrepreneurs.

There's even a photo!

However, that photo is Photoshopped. Here is the original:

The story is just as fake as the photo.

Interestingly, the one talkback for the story at Daily Pakistan is positive.

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