Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

PA kids say Jews killed Jesus and poisoned Arafat

Palestinian Media Watch unearths a little garden-variety anti-semitism from official Palestinian Authority TV:

Earlier this summer, in a dramatic performance at a PLO cultural festival, two young Palestinian boys lamented Arafat's death, and compared his death at the hands of the Jews to the death of Jesus:

Boy 1 [addressing Arafat]: "Father, father the Elder [Arafat]. Why did it happen this way? Why did it happen this way? Death chose you, and you did not complete the path."

Boy 2: "Do not ask why it happened this way. Yesterday they crucified Jesus; today they poisoned the father, the Elder [Arafat]."

[PA TV (Fatah), June 4, 2010]

The PA Minister of Culture was present at this performance.

They are calling Arafat "Elder"?

Now, it's personal.

Tip jar is live

OK, I'm placing a tip jar on the right hand sidebar (it is slightly wider than the column, making it a little ugly, but this was the easiest and smallest widget I could find, sorry.)

It uses Google Checkout, which allowed me to be somewhat more anonymous than PayPal or GPal. For existing users of Google Checkout, it is very easy to choose an amount to donate, click and it is done. Otherwise, you would have to sign up for that service (I think.)

I have not tested it thoroughly, but if anyone wants to throw me a buck or two, it would be very much appreciated.

Meanwhile, I got rid of the sidebar ads.

I'll try to keep the begging to a minimum!

Thanks so much for all the compliments in the previous post's comments. I do appreciate it.

UPDATE: I fixed the "out of stock" problem.

Blogoversary/open thread

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of Elder of Ziyon.

Looking back at the first posts in August 2004, they were pretty much just links to articles I found interesting. I don't think that the blog really started getting started until January 2005, when I started posting original pieces like this and this (almost seminal) article.

I now have over 1.7 million page hits, of which some 800,000 came since my last blogoversary.

I am posting at a much faster pace than I was a year ago. Last year I was averaging four posts a day, now I am doing closer to ten; I have published an unreal 2200 posts in the past year. This is sort of crazy, and chances are I will have to cut back to a more manageable pace.

Another astonishing thing (to me at least) is that this blog is really up in the top tier of most-read Zionist blogs. My current Alexa ranking is at around 172,500, which is higher than practically every other blog that is in this space. I don't know how accurate Alexa is, but it is very interesting to see.

Yet, so far today, I have earned exactly six cents from my foray into ads. Sigh.

Also in the past year I added Suzanne as a guest poster, and Zvi as an unofficial guest poster. They are both great and have added a lot to the blog. I would love to have more people posting here; there is a lot of talent out there.

As far as my choices of topics, my main criterion is to be original. If a topic is being covered by other blogs, I have less interest in talking about it as well unless I think I have a different perspective (or I have writers' block.)

I wish I had time to do other projects. Part of me still wants to write a book or two; also I like doing videos because they generally get more attention. (My Gaza Mall video was the biggest hit that I have made - 69,000 views so far. Not Justin Bieber, but not bad.) But it is not easy since I still have a day job, a part-time home business and a family.If any organization wants to hire me to do this sort of thing full time, I would be happy to consider it!

Finally, I have to thank you guys for coming here. The community in the comments section continues to grow (often a hundred comments a day, and about 3000 comment views a day.) The tips that you send make my life much easier, and I remain amazed that people like to come here as much as they do.

Egyptian scientist spends three months in Israel. And he likes it!

From SPME (h/t Israel Matzav):

In 2008, I was invited to spend a summer conducting neuroscience research at both the Hebrew University (Jerusalem) and Al Quds Palestinian University (East Jerusalem /West Bank).

As an Egyptian, I had grown up very cautious about interacting with Israelis; it had never occurred to me to visit Israel. Many other Egyptians and probably many people in other Arab states feel the same way.

Some of my friends in Egypt advised me not to embark on such an “unethical” trip. For many in Egypt, setting foot in Israel is unthinkable, regardless of the purpose of the visit. But the Palestinian professors whom I consulted did not voice such criticism; they encouraged me to visit Israel. My friends in the United States did not make such criticisms either, and I realized that many Americans and Europeans who visit Israel hold different views on Israeli politics, yet they discuss their opinions openly with Israelis.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that regardless of the views my friends and I might have about Israeli politics, the opportunity to gain scientific experience at a good research institution was a separate issue, and nearly at the deadline for making the decision, I decided to accept the invitation to visit Israel.

...My social life in Israel and the West Bank was ...rewarding and educational. I visited many parts of Israel with my Arab neighbors in Jerusalem, many of whom were students at the Hebrew University. I was also repeatedly invited to professors’ homes for shabbat dinner and social gatherings, and I was always warmly welcomed. At many of these occasions, I felt more welcomed than people visiting from European countries, perhaps because of my Egyptian background.

Israeli universities produce scientific research comparable to that seen in Western countries. Israeli science institutions are constantly expanding. For example, the Hebrew University is currently building a new multi-million-dollar brain science research center, and plan to recruit top-notch scientists from around the globe. World-class scientists from Italy, the United States, Germany, Canada, Japan, and many other countries are constantly visiting and lecturing at Israeli universities. Israel holds many annual science meetings that researchers from various countries attend. Students from many European countries conduct their graduate work in Israel. Many Israeli universities have shown advancement in fields ranging from biomedical research to agriculture to engineering.

It is sad that neighboring countries do not participate in these activities. There is no doubt that Israeli science institutions and Israeli researchers would welcome having Arab researchers visit and collaborate with them. It is an overall a win-win game for both sides, if not more beneficial for Arab researchers. Arab countries need more scientific interaction with the outside world, including Israel.

After gaining science and research experience at world-class Israeli universities, Arab researchers could definitely be great assets to their home countries.

It is also beneficial to invite Israeli scientists and researchers to attend conferences and to lecture in Arab countries. Israeli scientists are frequently invited to lecture at large universitıes ın Europe and the United States; and even, in recognition of their scientific achievements, to give keynote lectures at annual conferences. Israeli scientists do, however, face difficulties attending conferences in Arab states. Should not we benefit from these minds as well? The Israeli experiment in science advancement is a good example for neighboring nations to follow, given the geographical and environmental similarities.

For many in the Arab world, the word Israel elicits political thoughts only. However, it is important to appreciate Israel’s advanced science infrastructure and to recognize that, whatever one’s political views, scientific collaboration with Israel is not only possible but also potentially beneficial for Egypt and other Arab countries.

It is funny that this is the first time I have seen an Arab actually use the term "win-win." Usually, the mentality is that if Israel thinks it is good, then by definition it is bad.

The sad part about this article is that it is so anomalous.

White House denies threatening Turkey

So much for this story....

From Politico:

The White House denied a report Monday that the U.S. has threatened Turkey with potentially withholding future arms sales because of its tougher stance towards Israel and vote against U.N. Iran sanctions.

Obama “emphatically denied” a Financial Times story saying the president had told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that future arms sales would be contingent on softening his anti-Israel talk, White House pool reporter Jonathan Weisman of The Wall Street Journal writes.

Earlier today, the Financial Times cited an Obama administration official who said that the U.S. had warned Turkey that its harder posture on Israel and vote against U.N. Iran sanctions would make it harder to get arms sales to Ankara through Congress. The Pentagon notified Congress earlier this month of its intended arms sales.

“The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago, and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told the press aboard Air Force One Monday. “We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them. But no such [arms] ultimatum was issued.”

“There’s no ultimatum,” Burton added.

No Arab university ranked in top 400

From AFP:

Harvard topped a ranking of world universities published Friday by a Shanghai college for the eighth year running -- a list dominated by US institutions and sharply criticised in Europe.

The University of California at Berkeley was second, followed by Stanford, according to the list of 500 institutions compiled by Jiaotong University's Centre for World-Class Universities, available at www.arwu.org.

The ARWU website is down as of this writing, but Ma'an (Arabic) notes that the top two Arab universities, both in Saudi Arabia, were ranked between 400 and 500, while four Israeli universities are ranked in the top 150.

Hezbollah opens "resistance" theme park

From The Independent (UK):

If you have an urge to inspect mangled Israeli tanks, toy with a rocket launcher, or explore a genuine rock-cut guerrilla bunker, Hezbollah's multi-media theme park in south Lebanon is just the place.

The Shia Muslim group, which fought Israel to a stalemate four years ago and has been preparing for the next war ever since, has applied its creative flair to a "resistance tourist landmark" at Mleeta, a strategic hilltop bastion on what was once a front line with an Israeli-occupied "security zone".

Here, on the resort's oak-sheathed slopes, the nitty-gritty reality of life as a Hezbollah guerrilla is on display, replete with themes of patriotism and martyrdom, plus a dose of bombast. More than 500,000 people have flocked to Mleeta, 37 miles south-east of Beirut, since it opened in May.

Ali, 40, a part-time guide whose day job is in an Islamic bank in the nearby town of Nabatiyeh, said the sprawling resort had cost $4m (£3.2m) so far. Future plans envisage a five-star hotel, a camp site, swimming pools, sports clubs and eventually a cable car. The guides generally preach to the converted – the crowds are mainly Lebanese Shias, with a sprinkling of foreigners. "You believe in Hezbollah, you believe in your country, you believe you are strong," chirped Sara Nasser, from the southern village of Haris, saying the exhibit had filled her with pride.

The Mleeta tour starts in a theatre showing a seven-minute video history of Hezbollah, with ear-splitting martial music. Then comes a museum displaying captured Israeli guns and gear. Wall panels offer a detailed anatomy of Israel's military machine and show satellite pictures – and map co-ordinates – of potential Hezbollah targets in the Jewish state.

Outside is a round sunken arena featuring wrecked Israeli tanks and artillery. A Merkava tank's gun has been artfully knotted. Large Hebrew letters spell out "The Abyss" and "The Swamp" in stone at the centre of the circle – taunts meant to be seen and photographed by Israeli spy planes, drones and satellites.

A trail, passing rockets hidden in the forest and life-sized models of Hezbollah fighters, leads to the mouth of an elaborate tunnel with a kitchen, prayer hall, operations room and living space for up to 30 men. The 300ft rocky passage, which emerges near a lookout point high above villages set in rolling hills, took three years to hack out of the limestone, Abu Abdullah, another guide, said.

Children played with an anti-aircraft gun, swivelling it up and down. Their father, Said Issa, a Palestinian from Lebanon's Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, spoke admiringly of Hezbollah. "When we come here and see the resistance, and our brothers in Gaza and Nablus, we see them on the same path," he said.

In Mleeta, the path ends in "Liberation Square", a garden surrounded by Hezbollah guns and missiles. Stone steps climb up to an esplanade dedicated to the organisation's "martyrs".

Notice how the article is neutral about Hezbollah's aims and methods. But since this is The Independent, you know they have to say something to make Israel sound as bad as possible:

It seems a safe bet that the Israeli air force will flatten this place early in the next war, just as in 2006 it destroyed a museum in the village of Khiam where Israel's old allies in the South Lebanon Army had once run a prison and torture chamber.

The museum/park website can be seen here.

Here is an evocative display of IDF soldier boots at the museum. The reporter apparently wasn't stuck by exactly what such a display evokes.

Similarly, the Independent didn't mention one of the potential Hezbollah targets illustrated - the Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev, a fact pointed out in the Reuters version of this same article.

Jeffrey Goldberg looks at Israel and a nuclear Iran

In the September issue of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg looks at all facets of the Iranian nuclear issue. It is worth your while to read the whole thing.

Here are some parts on the danger of Iranian nuclear weapons, even if they are not deployed:

Israeli policy makers do not necessarily believe that Iran, should it acquire a nuclear device, would immediately launch it by missile at Tel Aviv. “On the one hand, they would like to see the Jews wiped out,” one Israeli defense official told me. “On the other hand, they know that Israel has unlimited reprisal capability”—this is an Israeli euphemism for the country’s second-strike nuclear arsenal—“and despite what Rafsanjani and others say, we think they know that they are putting Persian civilization at risk.”

The challenges posed by a nuclear Iran are more subtle than a direct attack, Netanyahu told me. “Several bad results would emanate from this single development. First, Iran’s militant proxies would be able to fire rockets and engage in other terror activities while enjoying a nuclear umbrella. This raises the stakes of any confrontation that they’d force on Israel. Instead of being a local event, however painful, it becomes a global one. Second, this development would embolden Islamic militants far and wide, on many continents, who would believe that this is a providential sign, that this fanaticism is on the ultimate road to triumph.

“You’d create a great sea change in the balance of power in our area,” he went on. An Iran with nuclear weapons would also attempt to persuade Arab countries to avoid making peace with Israel, and it would spark a regional nuclear-arms race. “The Middle East is incendiary enough, but with a nuclear-arms race, it will become a tinderbox,” he said.

Other Israeli leaders believe that the mere threat of a nuclear attack by Iran—combined with the chronic menacing of Israel’s cities by the rocket forces of Hamas and Hezbollah—will progressively undermine the country’s ability to retain its most creative and productive citizens. Ehud Barak, the defense minister, told me that this is his great fear for Israel’s future.

“The real threat to Zionism is the dilution of quality,” he said. “Jews know that they can land on their feet in any corner of the world. The real test for us is to make Israel such an attractive place, such a cutting-edge place in human society, education, culture, science, quality of life, that even American Jewish young people want to come here.” This vision is threatened by Iran and its proxies, Barak said. “Our young people can consciously decide to go other places,” if they dislike living under the threat of nuclear attack. “Our best youngsters could stay out of here by choice.”

Patriotism in Israel runs very high, according to numerous polls, and it seemed unlikely to me that mere fear of Iran could drive Israel’s Jews to seek shelter elsewhere. But one leading proponent of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Ephraim Sneh, a former general and former deputy defense minister, is convinced that if Iran crossed the nuclear threshold, the very idea of Israel would be endangered. “These people are good citizens, and brave citizens, but the dynamics of life are such that if someone has a scholarship for two years at an American university and the university offers him a third year, the parents will say, ‘Go ahead, remain there,’” Sneh told me when I met with him in his office outside of Tel Aviv not long ago. “If someone finishes a Ph.D. and they are offered a job in America, they might stay there. It will not be that people are running to the airport, but slowly, slowly, the decision-making on the family level will be in favor of staying abroad. The bottom line is that we would have an accelerated brain drain. And an Israel that is not based on entrepreneurship, that is not based on excellence, will not be the Israel of today.”

Most critically, Sneh said, if Israel is no longer understood by its 6 million Jewish citizens, and by the roughly 7 million Jews who live outside of Israel, to be a “natural safe haven,” then its raison d’être will have been subverted. He directed my attention to a framed photograph on his wall of three Israeli air force F-15s flying over Auschwitz, in Poland. The Israelis had been invited in 2003 by the Polish air force to make this highly symbolic flight. The photograph was not new to me; I had seen it before on a dozen office walls in the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. “You see those planes?” Sneh asked me. “That’s the picture I look at all the time. When someone says that they will wipe out the Jews, we have to deny him the tools. The problem with the photograph is that we were too late.”

...A few weeks ago, in uncommonly direct remarks, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba, told me—in a public forum at the Aspen Ideas Festival—that his country would support a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also said that if America allowed Iran to cross the nuclear threshold, the small Arab countries of the Gulf would have no choice but to leave the American orbit and ally themselves with Iran, out of self-protection. “There are many countries in the region who, if they lack the assurance the U.S. is willing to confront Iran, they will start running for cover towards Iran,” he said. “Small, rich, vulnerable countries in the region do not want to be the ones who stick their finger in the big bully’s eye, if nobody’s going to come to their support.”

(h/t Joel)

So what happened to the Mariam ship?

Two weeks ago, news outlets were anxious to tell us about the imminent departure of the much-heralded women's only ship, the Mariam, from Lebanon to Gaza. (At least one of them called a single ship a "flotilla." )

Last we heard, they were going to head to Cyprus.

Since then, I have not seen any news about them actually sailing from Lebanon. In fact, I have not seen anything.

The leader of the "Free Palestine Movement" that was behind this ship as well as one other ship, Yasser Kashlak, had a website for the movement - but its domain has just expired. (Anyone want it?)

Kashlek's personal homepage domain likewise recently expired.

A high-profile Lebanese singer who was supposed to be on the ship doesn't mention anything about it on her website.

Was the entire episode a scam meant to grab headlines? There has been very little real reporting about this ship.

Iranian soccer star sacked for not fasting in Ramadan

From Al Arabiya/AFP:

Popular Iranian footballer Ali Karimi, sometimes described as "the Maradona of Asia," has been fired by his club for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the club said on Sunday.

Steel Azin FC said on its website www.steelazin.com that it was "forced to sack one of its players, Ali Karimi, for being disobedient and not fasting during Ramadan," when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

Karimi, who was the Asian Player of 2004, had even "insulted officials of the (Iranian) football federation and the Tehran team's supervisor who confronted him on the issue," Steel Azin said.

AP notices Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon have few rights

It is always notable when reporters who cover a country ignore a huge story for years.

Arabs in Lebanon, who happen to have ancestors who lived in British Mandate Palestine in 1947, have lived under often-horrific conditions. For decades they have been discriminated against.

None of this was a secret.

Yet the media simply ignored them, even when fighting would flare up in "refugee" camps.

Now that the Lebanese parliament has debated the issue, the mainstream media is starting to tiptoe around the topic - an area that they should have been covering since the 1970s.

Here's AP discovering the obvious:

Mohammed al-Amin spends his days doing little more than playing billiards and smoking cigarettes in this sprawling Palestinian refugee camp, where gunmen roam narrow alleyways dotted with tin-roofed, cement-block homes.

The 25-year-old studied dental lab technology but works at a small, grubby coffee shop in the camp, making $100 a month. He dreams of working with a respected doctor in Lebanese society and being welcomed like any other foreigner, without being looked down on.

"Sometimes I feel like a pressurized bottle that's about to explode," said al-Amin, who was born in Ein el-Hilweh years after his family fled what is now Israel. "Why should three quarters of the Palestinian people here be selling coffee on the street?"

The approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many of them born here, are barred by law from any but the most menial professions and are denied many basic rights.

Now parliament is debating a new law that would allow Palestinians to work in any profession and own property, as well as give them social security benefits. The bill, due for a vote on Aug. 17, is the most serious effort yet by Lebanon to transform its policies toward the refugees.

Even so, practically no one is stepping up and saying that these increased human rights should include the right of nationality in the country of one's birth. That, apparently, is way over the line.

BBC looks at Mavi Marmara

The BBC will have a documentary on the Mavi Marmara incident tonight.

Two clips are on its website:

Turk Cevdet Kiliclar, one of nine activists killed on a Gaza-bound aid mission, was prepared to become a martyr for the Palestinian cause, his wife has said.

Mr Kiliclar's widow, Derya, said: "He was crying his eyes out over Gaza. He wanted to be a martyr there."

Israel's elite commando unit which raided a Turkish aid flotilla sailing to Gaza in May has given Panorama exclusive access to its top secret operatives.

Some of the Israeli special forces took off their balaclavas to talk to me and show me the wounds they received the night nine people were killed and 50 were wounded on board the Turkish ship the MV Mavi Marmara.

"I saw a knife in my abdomen and pulled it out," Captain R said.

"The beating was continuous - and the cries of Allah Akbar."

(h/t Islamo-Nazism blog)

US threatens to withhold weapons from Turkey

From Financial Times:

President Barack Obama has personally warned Turkey’s prime minister that unless Ankara shifts its position on Israel and Iran it stands little chance of obtaining the US weapons it wants to buy.

Mr Obama’s warning to Recep Tayyip Erdogan is particularly significant as Ankara wants to buy American drone aircraft – such as the missile-bearing Reaper – to attack the Kurdish separatist PKK after the US military pulls out of Iraq at the end of 2011.

The PKK has traditionally maintained bases in the remote mountains in the north of Iraq, near the Turkish border.

One senior administration official said: “The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill [Congress] . . . about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally. That means that some of the requests Turkey has made of us, for example in providing some of the weaponry that it would like to fight the PKK, will be harder for us to move through Congress.”

Washington was deeply frustrated when Turkey voted against United Nations sanctions on Iran in June.

When the leaders met later that month at the G20 summit in Toronto, Mr Obama told Mr Erdogan that the Turks had failed to act as an ally in the UN vote. He also called on Ankara to cool its rhetoric about an Israeli raid that killed nine Turks on a flotilla bearing aid for Gaza.

While the two men have subsequently sought to co-operate over Iraq’s efforts to patch together a coalition government, the US makes clear its warning still stands.

“They need to show that they take seriously American national security interests,” said the administration official, adding that Washington was looking at Turkish conduct and would then assess if there were “sufficient efforts that we can go forward with their request”.

We will see if these threats pan out.

One gets the impression that US foreign policy is to simply to spread carrots around the world, providing everyone with whatever the US can give them, and then hope that the recipients get so addicted to these carrots that the threat of withdrawing them will be an adequate substitute for a stick.

The problem is that the US also wants everyone to love her, which is incompatible with ever carrying out these threats. But, we'll see.

(h/t Islamo-nazism blog)

Iran pulls out of taekwondo final with Israel

The Daily Telegraph described this best:

Politics and sport don't mix, right? The Olympics are all about fair play, and of course young athletes are in Singapore to learn more about the Olympic ideals.

All of that was blown away by an ugly situation at the taekwondo competition on the opening night of the Youth Olympic Games. The Iranian competitor Mohammad Soleimani withdrew from the gold medal bout against his Israeli opponent Gili Haimovitz ostensibly because of an ankle injury.

Iranian team officials then announced he would not attend the presentation ceremony to collect his silver medal as he was enroute to hospital. Israeli officials, however, believe that Soleimani was forced to withdraw because Iran refuses to recognise the state of Israel.

The International Olympic Committee was suitably perturbed to order an immediate investigation, headed by its medical expert Dr Patrick Schamasch.

What is particularly angering the suited heavwyweights of sport that have gathered in Singapore - and everyone is here, all 204 National Olympic Committees, more than 100 IOC members and the heads of the international sporting federations - is that this competition was centred squarely around the promotion of the lofty, often estoteric values of Olympism to the youth of the world.

''If the injury is not genuine is horrifying enough, but to use a minor in this way is the real crime,'' noted one IOC member as he walked the lobby of the Ritz Carlton.

But of course Soleimani will go home a hero, his sore foot a mere distraction and the Iranian officials safe enough in their jobs for another year.

The forfeit was not covered by any Iranian press, as far as I can tell.

Amira Hass notices Hamas beatings of protesters

Ha'aretz' Amira Hass, Ha'aretz' Arab affairs specialist who usually spends all of her time bashing Israel, actually managed to find a reason to criticize Hamas. She reports about the Hamas attack on the PFLP protest on power cuts that I blogged about last week:

"I wish these pictures reached leftists abroad," my friend said to herself Tuesday as she watched Hamas police use rifle butts and clubs to beat her friends - activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although my friend has never been a fan of the Fatah government in the West Bank, she is outraged by the romanticization of Hamas rule by foreign activists.

Photographs of Tuesday's protest will be hard to come by, as the Hamas police prevented photojournalists from doing their job. At some point, shots were fired into the air to disperse the PFLP protesters in Gaza City, a demonstration Hamas called an illegal gathering. Many protesters were injured and needed medical attention; others were detained for some time.

"We women weren't physically attacked by the police," my friend told me later on the phone. "They only swore at us." The profanity, mostly variations on "whore," was accompanied by words like "Marxist," which the police see as an insult. They don't need to know exactly what it means - it's among dreadful words like atheism, communism and dialectic materialism. In other words, all the terms that don't explain the world as Allah's creation.

Hamas and the PFLP have a lot in common: opposition to the Oslo Accords, glorification of the armed struggle and opposition to direct negotiations with Israel. Many of the PFLP's supporters, especially the younger ones, are also religiously observant. But in terms of social vision and ideological temperament, the gaps seem as wide as they were in the 1980s, when the Muslim Brotherhood aimed most of its attacks at "heretics," especially the Palestinian left, then many times stronger than today.

The article goes on to talk about the power shortages and Hamas' attacks on other protests and gatherings.

From reading the article, it seems that Amira Hass was moved to criticize Hamas not so much because of their brutal rule but because they attacked a Marxist organization that she greatly admires. And the PFLP happens to also be a terror group (their terror wing is the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades.)

So don't call Amira Hass a Hamas supporter. She only supports secular terrorism, and would be very insulted if you imply otherwise.

(h/t EBoZ and T34zakat)