Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 11, 2010

Egyptian delegation upset Hamas served Israeli food

Palestine Press Agency reports on an argument that broke out between an Egyptian delegation to Gaza and their Hamas hosts.

Ismail Haniyeh hosted a fancy luncheon for the Egyptians, members of a parliamentary delegation to help reconcile Hamas with Fatah.

When the Egyptians saw that some of the food on the table was labeled "Made in Israel," they became upset. One exclaimed, "By Allah, shame on you."

The Council has Spoken

Once again, I am honored to have had a post nominated for the weekly Watcher of Weasel awards. (And once again, I lost.)

I had posted so much in the past week, I had to click on the link to remember what the nominated post was about. It just goes to show that sometimes, the posts that one doesn't think are very important end up making waves, and vice versa - posts that I think would go viral instead go nowhere.

Thanks to Snapped Shot for nominating me!

Newest videos shed more light on Mavi Marmara raid (part 2)

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center showed once again how closely aligned it is with the IDF, as it has posted two videos and one transcript of interrogations with the captain and the chief officer of the Mavi Marmara.

Here is their synopsis:

1. The videotaped statements of two Mavi Marmara crew members show that preparations for a violent confrontation with IDF forces were put in motion about two hours before the boarding began, when the Israeli Navy hailed the ship and told it to halt.

2. According to the statements, the atmosphere aboard the Mavi Marmara was tense and the crew noticed a gathering on the main deck. When they checked the upper deck they discovered that IHH operatives were cutting the ship’s railings with metal disks they had brought with them into lengths suitable to be used as clubs. The crew members said the activities worried them and that they tried to stop the operatives but were unsuccessful.

I put the two videos together; the captain is speaking English and the chief officer is subtitled:

Here's the transcript from the chief officer:

Statement: I was on the bridge after dark, before anything happened, the third captain and I were sent in the direction of the life boats, where there were a lot of people and a lot of noise. The captain told me something was happening down there, there are noises, go see what’s going on. There were a lot of people. I told the third captain, you are more senior than I, come with me.”

Q: When did that happen?

A: Around eight o’clock, I don’t know exactly when, but around eight. I went down the stairs with the third captain. We saw a senior person [from IHH]

Q: Who?

A: That guy.

Q: What guy?

A: That guy. Maybe the third captain knows his name.

Q: The guy from IHH?

A: Yes, from IHH.

Q: Whose name does he know? The name of the guy from IHH who cut the railings?

A: No, the third captain knows him from IHH. We [the third captain and I] went together, we saw a lot of people milling around and we asked what was going on.

Q: Did you see them cutting [the railings]?

A: They [the iron rods] were already cut. It was all over.

Q: Who did the cutting?

A: I didn’t see.

Q: Who was holding the disk?

A: The disks were lying in a corner of the stairs and the senior guy [apparently a reference to Bülent Yildirim] was next to them.

Q: The senior guy from IHH?

A: Yes.

Q: Who did the disks belong to?

A: I don’t know, they didn’t belong to the ship. We don’t have equipment like that on board. On deck there were metal poles with clips for cables, when I got there they had been cut.

Q: When did this happen?

A: When it was getting dark. I asked one of them who cut the poles, and he said he didn’t know.

Q: Was the man you asked a crew member?

A: No.

Q: Did he belong to IHH?

A: Of course.

Q: You seem to be saying that the people from IHH were in control of the ship. Did the crew need their permission to move around the ship?

A: Definitely, they [i.e. IHH operatives] didn’t let people they didn’t know move around.

Q: Did they prevent anyone they didn’t know from moving freely around the ship?

A: Yes, definitely.

Q: And was that from the first moment they went up on deck?

A: Yes, definitely.

Q: How did the IHH operatives communicate with one another?

A: When they [the IHH operatives] got on board in Istanbul they brought walkie-talkies with them. They were handed out to the IHH operatives and the crew.

Q: Did you [the crew] get them as well?

A: Yes, each one worked on a different frequency.

Q: I don’t understand, they didn’t let the passengers and crew go from one deck to another?

A: They could go anywhere except to the control center they set up on the bridge.

Q: How many IHH operatives were there on the upper deck.

A: Forty.

Q: The same forty all the time or did they change?

A: More of less the same forty.

Q: You’re referring to the group that joined the ship in Istanbul?

A: yes.

So it seems more and more clear that most of the passengers of the Marmara didn't know what the IHH plans were and possibly wouldn't have approved; yet they must have known that the IHH had taken control of the ship and was calling the shots - co-opting the European and American flotilla organizers.

It also appears that the passenger/witnesses have closed ranks around IHH, not willing to say anything bad about a group that had violent intent. Keep in mind that the crew here is saying that the IHH was already cutting iron bars and chains at nightfall; they say two hours before the IDF was visible but probably some 6-8 hours before the helicopters arrived (at around 4 AM.)

This brings up the question of, if the boats already saw the passengers with the chains and iron bars from the boat, why the first wave of soldiers still came only armed with paintball guns.

(h/t OR)

Newest videos shed more light on Mavi Marmara raid (part 1)

One of the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara managed to get a 15-minute video out showing the passengers before and during the IDF raid.

It can be seen at the "Cultures of Resistance" site.

Some interesting parts:

Starting at around the 3:00 mark, we see an IDF helicopter hovering, and then at least 7 soldiers are seen rappelling down to the deck, much more quickly than those that came from the first helicopter. It appears that the IDF figured out very quickly what was going on and ensured that the mistakes from the first drop, where the soldiers were beaten, would not be repeated.

That section of the video was taken from the deck below the main deck. Even though it appears from other evidence that the IHH had a core of some 40 members who were planning to do the heavy fighting and who effectively took over the top deck (see next posting and video), there were people on the second deck who were also supplied with slingshots (3:40)

They mention having two soldiers "bleeding and wounded" but I'm not sure I see them (6:00) They might have been edited out.

Some of the IHH fighters are seen, wounded and dying.

Most interesting to me was the sequence at about 12:30, where an Israeli boat is speeding alongside the ship. Even though it is now morning, and clearly at least an hour since the first soldiers dropped onto the ship, the activists are still throwing debris towards the Israeli navy - which runs very much counter to the flotilla members' accounts of a white flag being immediately raised and a PA announcement of immediate surrender and stopping resistance. In this video we hear the captain telling people to go to their rooms and remain calm after daybreak, but we never hear the audio saying that the ship has surrendered.

More in the next post.

Toameh: what about Hamas' Siege of Gaza?

Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh asks What about Hamas' Siege of Gaza?

As Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla ship convoy that was on its way to the Gaza Strip, Hamas security officers stormed the offices of five non-governmental organizations, confiscated equipment and documents, and ordered them closed indefinitely.

...

The raid on the NGOs in the Gaza Strip, which received little coverage in the media, is seen by many Palestinians as part of Hamas's ongoing crackdown on political opponents and human rights organizations.

Further, Hamas's recent decision to ban municipal elections in the Gaza Strip is yet another violation of one of the basic rights of its constituents.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested by Hamas's security forces for daring to speak out against the state of tyranny and intimidation in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, dozens of Fatah officials and members have either been thrown into prison or killed.

Under Hamas, the Gaza Strip is being transformed into a fundamentalist Islamic entity resembling the regimes of the Ayatollahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

...

Instead of searching for ways to improve the living conditions of the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is busy enforcing strict Islamic rules on the population, such as Hamas policemen, for example, often stopping men and women who are seen together in public to inquire about the nature of their relationship.

...

Hamas, however, is more interested in clinging to power than in serving its people; and in light of increased calls for lifting the blockade following the flotilla incident at sea, the movement's leaders in Syria and the Gaza Strip are now convinced that they are marching in the right direction.

It is one thing to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but it is another thing to help Hamas. Those who wish to deliver aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can always find better and safer ways to do so - either through Israel or Egypt. But those who only seek confrontation with Israel in the sea are only emboldening Hamas and helping it tighten its grip on the people of Gaza Strip.

The Forgotten Rachels

Rachel Corrie's death was a tragic accident, but the death of these Rachels could have been avoided. In light of the Rachel Corrie recently embarking for Gaza, the Jewish Virtual Library created this video as a tribute to "The Forgotten Rachels" who all died as a result of Palestinian terrorism:

(h/t sshender)

Hamas strengthens siege on Gaza

You remember, so many days ago, that humanitarians were up in arms because Gazans were not able to get coriander from Israel?

Israel has been derided for its seemingly arbitrary policies that seemed to allow certain items into Gaza while disallowing others.

Well, Israel just tried to ship a bunch of new items into Gaza, like snacks, spices (maybe even the dreaded coriander!) and sodas.

And Hamas rejected them.

As Al Arabiya reports:

Hamas said they will not let newly approved food items into the Gaza Strip as long as Israel maintains its blockade of the territory, as Arab League Chief Amr Moussa plans to visit the Strip on Sunday.

Israel slightly eased the much-criticized blockade on Wednesday by permitting snacks, spices and some other previously banned food items into Gaza.

Hamas' economy minister, Ziad al-Zaza, said on Thursday that Gaza doesn't need soda and soft drinks.

So are we going to be hearing about Hamas' siege on Gaza in the media?

Well, they didn't notice last year, so I don't think they'll notice it now.

By the way: there is no Israeli blacklist of items allowed in Gaza that includes coriander or jams. Gisha made up a list that they "deduced" from speaking to Gazans; that list was publicized by reporters and activists who thought it was too good to check. In fact, the IDF works on a day-to-day basis with various NGOs and others in Gaza to see what can make it in the upcoming shipments. Israel does have a list of allowed items that will always be allowed in; everything else is done on a case by case basis. If UNRWA made a special request for coriander or chocolate, there is no doubt that it would be allowed in. Right now, the problem is bureaucratic and practical, not policy.

U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright, on a speaking tour of the United States on behalf of radical pacifist women's group Code Pink, bills herself as an eyewitness to the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara and the "murder" of "nine innocent civilians." However, in an interview with Aaron Lerner of IMRA, she admits she did not actually see the clash between the IDF soldiers and the armed passengers on board the Mavi Marmara.
In a promotional e-mail on behalf of "Code Pink: Women for Peace," Wright says: "I just returned from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and started my speaking tour last night in NYC to share what I witnessed aboard the flotilla, and what people can do to end the siege."
"I witnessed the Israeli attack that killed 9 persons and wounded 50 on the Gaza Flotilla... the murder of nine persons... Tragically, it took another example of disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military that resulted in the deaths of nine innocent civilians to force many governments of the world to call for the Israelis to end the siege of Gaza."
In the interview with Lerner she admitted that she was not aboard the Mavi Marmara but on a different ship, the Challenger, which was about 150 yards distant from the Marmara.
The confrontation took place between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., in the dark of night (IDF footage of the raid was carried out with night vision equipment).

She admits:

My witness will be specifically what happened on our ship, the
Challenger. And then I can comment on what happened in the very first three
or four minutes as the Israeli commandos were trying to board the ship. We
saw that from the stern of the ship. But after that that's when my
witnessing from my own eyes of what happened on that ship would end.

Read the whole article...

Video: IHH member admits hostage-taking (updated)

Middle East News Watch brings us a video of a reporter who found this guy, Murat Akinan:

The reporter first notes that while the soldier is bloody, Akina doesn't have a scratch on him. Akina simply answers that the soldiers were firing and he was merely defending himself.

He answers the question of whether he intended to kidnap the soldier with a strange denial:

"No, [he] was given to me to protect, save him and trade him."

Seizing a person with the intent to bargain him to compel a state or group of people to do an act is the definition of hostage taking. And it is illegal under international conventions.

Yet I have yet to hear a "humanitarian" denounce this violation of humanitarian law. In fact, I have yet to hear a member of Free Gaza disassociating themselves from the actions of the IHH assaulters and kidnappers.

Makes you think that maybe they have a non-humanitarian agenda, doesn't it?

UPDATE: It is possible that the woman said "treat," not "trade." Which would make this post moot.

Now Gazans are whining about Egypt opening Rafah!

Palestine Today has an article about how Egypt's decision to open the Rafah crossings indefinitely has caused many Gazans, involved in the tunnel smuggling trade, to lose their jobs.

If whining were an Olympic event, there would be gold medals all over Gaza.

Radical Arabs really hate moderate Arabs

We have discussed radical, pro-Hamas pseudo-journalist Khaled Amayreh before. We have seen this ESP expert him try to start a new intifada, go beyond the "anti-zionist" meme to coin the word "Judo-Nazis, " and hurl bile at Elie Wiesel.

Today, he sets his sights upon relatively moderate Arab journalist Abdul Rahman al Rashed, who writes for Asharq Al-Awsat among other places. You can almost feel the spittle that must have been spraying all over his keyboard as he wrote this:

Just as Israel’s barbarianism was being exposed to hundreds of millions of viewers around the world, following the criminal state’s bloody raid on the Gaza Freedom flotilla on 31 May, Abdul Rahman al Rashed was barking from London, blaming Hamas for the persistence of the Israeli or more correctly Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the coastal territory.

Thus, in just one sound-bite he exonerated the world’s premier terrorists from any wrong doing, effectively granting a certificate of innocence to murderous Ashkenazi vandals who stole Palestine from its rightful owners and also to Nazi-like America which had just occupied and destroyed two sovereign Muslim nations based on lies and baseless allegations.

Abdul Rahman al Rashed is literally translated into “the Servant of the Compassionate (Allah), the rightly-guided.” However, a more fitting name for this intellectual midget should connote or denote the fact that he is a willing slave for Zionist propaganda and decadent Arab tyrannies.

His unscrupulous espousal and advocacy of Zionist narratives are beyond disgraceful. He should be called Abdul al Shaytan, [servant of Satan] rather than Abdul Rahman, and al Dhal ["The lost one" - h/t Ali] instead of al Rashed.

Yasser Arafat gave the Israelis everything they asked for, in the hope that they would relent and come to terms with Palestinian rights and dignity. He even went as far as tormenting and torturing his own people in order to obtain a certificate of good conduct from Isaac Rabin, the pseudo-peace dove who had ordered his troops to break the bones of Palestinian children. And what was the result of all this blindness of the mind? They killed him in his own headquarters in Ramallah.

And now the Commander of the Faithful in Ramallah, Abu Mazen, al-Rashed’s apparent darling, is even outmatching Arafat by indulging in all these stupid sycophantic theatrics that only serve to further degrade and dishonor the Palestinian people, while emboldening the Zio-Nazi leadership in Tel Aviv including the wild Jewish animals, known as the settlers in the West Bank.

The London-based quisling journalist is strikingly naïve. He is audacious enough to think that all the suffering in Gaza would come to an abrupt end if only Hamas and other Palestinian factions ignored the fate of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners and freedom fighters languishing in Zionist concentration camps by unconditionally releasing an Israeli prisoner of war and succumbing to “Chosen People” or “Master Race.”

Amayreh is still quoted all over the place as if he is a legitimate journalist rather than a hatemonger and bigot. He seems to spend his entire life in a permanent state of anger and denial - and blame.

Does Daniel Kurtzer think that Israel could do anything to reduce his psychotic hate, and that a serious percentage of Arabs do not share his insane venom?

Which Gazans get first choice on aid? One guess.

The JC publishes an article by a Gazan journalist about what life is like for him in Gaza, with sporadic electricity and unsafe tap water, among other problems.

Of course, no one is arguing that Gaza is a paradise, just that the inability for journalists to to surf the web more than eight hours a day is hardly a humanitarian crisis.

Most interesting was this one section:

I drive to work in my used car. I have a Fiat from 1984, which cost me $5,000, and not a day goes by without a visit to the mechanic. But although my car is so old, every day people stop me to ask whether I am selling. For the past three years, importing cars has been forbidden. The only exception is the cars brought into Gaza by George Galloway, which are used by members of the Hamas government.

Did Galloway's Viva Palestina organization tell their volunteers that the hundreds of vehicles they were bringing to Gaza were going straight to Hamas?

Of course not:

What are we taking with us into Gaza?

VEHICLES:
Vehicles are in great demand in Gaza after the devastating attack that destroyed machinery, ambulances, fire engines and other such civil service vehicles. The crippling siege does not allow for the entry of materials and equipment that could potentially repair these vehicles. In addition, the staggering number of casualties created an overwhelming need for vehicles to transport injured and maimed civilians to and from medical treatment.

So while Viva Palestina said that these vehicles would be used for medical and other critical needs, it appears from the JC article that Hamas members are enjoying the privileges of these cars for their own personal use.

IDF briefing before the raid (video)

Somehow, I had missed this pretty important video, made and uploaded to YouTube on May 27th - days before the raid on the flotilla.

It shows clearly that the IDF had no intent whatsoever to hurt any of the activists, and that they only expected the usual kind of non-violent resistance - spitting, cursing, throwing cigarettes at the soldiers. The soldiers are exhorted to act professionally and humanely.

The difference between what happened on the Mavi Marmara and the other ships shows this was indeed the case.

Israel provides World Cup broadcasts in Arabic. Arabs complain.

Daniel Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Israel and Egypt, wrote in a recent op-ed:

In the aftermath of the flotilla fiasco, it is not just Israel’s military tactics and its blockade of Gaza that need a thorough reexamination. Its narrative does, too. A dose of empathy might be a place to start. Israel will not break by military force and tough rhetoric alone the political and moral double standards by which the world judges its actions. But it can make its case better by tempering force with diplomacy, by caring as much about the humanitarian distress among Palestinians as it does about humanitarian causes elsewhere in the world, and by developing a storyline infused with the moral and ethical standards by which Israelis judge their own behavior.

Kurtzer thinks that if Israel would just act nicer towards Arabs, they will naturally reciprocate that goodwill and this could be a first step towards peace, love and cute little puppies.

An article in Palestine Today indicates that this is not necessarily the case.

Gazans are scrambling to find ways that they can watch the World Cup. Al Jazeera is scrambling its World Cup signal and requires that viewers pay for the right to watch it. It is unclear from the article whether Gazans are unable or unwilling to pay, so they are trying alternative means to receive the games.

Some are building TV antennas to pick up signals from pirate TV stations in the West Bank who are trying to get around AL Jazeera's monopoly. Others are trying to descramble the Al Jazeera signal to watch for free. (Al Jazeera announced that some of the games would be broadcast for free.)

The article then mentions that "the occupying power" is providing World Cup coverage in Arabic for free, alongside its Hebrew coverage. It is hiring senior Arab sports analysts for these broadcasts.

But rather than showing appreciation for this move, the article says that this is being done to steal Arab viewers away from the Al Jazeera coverage!

Kurtzer is way too optimistic. Arabs might privately appreciate and respect what Israel does, but the culture is set up so that it is inconceivable that this private appreciation will ever translate into the public sphere.

Perhaps the reason that Kurtzer is not writing op-eds about that aspect of the problem is because he knows, deep down, how useless it is.

Did Reuters do it again?

Here's another photo of a "peace activist" aboard the Mavi Marmara and its Reuters caption:

A pro-Palestinian activist holds a bottle on board the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea early May 31, 2010. Israeli marines stormed the Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza on Monday and nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed, triggering a diplomatic crisis and an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council. Picture taken May 31, 2010. REUTERS/Adem Ozkose/Gercek Hayat Magazine via IHH/Handout

He's just holding a bottle? What could the possible purpose of the bottle be? When you are drinking your soda, do you hold a bottle upside down? And doesn't it look suspiciously empty?

Now, we know from the very first day that the "peace activists" attacked the IDF soldiers with, among other things, broken bottles.

Here is a screengrab from a Mavi Marmara video as the so-called humanitarians were preparing their weapons, showing a broken green bottle being held at a very similar angle - as a weapon:

I cannot find the original IHH handout picture from which Reuters took this, but isn't it interesting that this photo's edge just happens to be at the exact spot necessary to turn a picture of a man holding a weapon into a mere picture of a man holding a bottle?

At the very least, Reuters' caption is highly misleading - and, it appears, knowingly so.

(pointed out via email tip)

UPDATE: LGF noticed it a couple of days ago.