Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Jailed Iranian journalist claims Israel, Iran like the status quo

Jailed Iranian Nader Karimi uncovered an “intimate” relationship between Iran and Israel and vowed to release a book about the information he has when he is set free.

Nader Karimi, an inmate of the Evin Prison in Tehran over charges of destabilizing the regime, said that the animosity between Iran and Israel does not exceed a verbal war that is meant to give the Muslim world the impression that Iran is Israel’s staunch enemy and the protector of Palestinians.

“Observers, journalists, and political analysts got caught in this verbal war and were not capable of delving into the depths of the relationship between the two countries,” Karimi wrote in an article he sent to AlArabiya.net.

Karimi added that the Iranian and Israeli governments have been using journalists to make their “charade” credible and to deceive the world into thinking that they are enemies.

Before writing about the nature of Iranian-Israeli relationships, Karimi decided to hold meetings with representatives of intelligence agencies in both countries.

“I went to Turkey and approached Israeli agents of Iranian origins,” he wrote. “I told them I am an opposition journalist who wants to oust the current regime and that was enough to gain their trust.”

According to what Karimi heard from Mossad agents, the fall of the current regime is not in Israel’s benefit for the time being.

“Israel prefers a weak and isolated regime in Iran because this makes it easier for them to wage those verbal wars that spread terror in the region.”

Karimi said that Iran’s preoccupation with huge armament projects is in fact an Israeli and American plan to which the regime has fallen prey.

Through his meetings with Mossad agents, Karimi found it unlikely that Israel will launch a military attack against Iran.

As for Iranian intelligence agents, Karimi pretended that he made a grave mistake by contacting Mossad agents and he wanted to confess in an attempt to gain an insight of the Iranian intelligence perspective.

After spending 20 hours throughout two weeks with Mossad agents, Karimi spent more than 200 hours interrogated and tortured at Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security until he was finally forced to write confessions of crimes he had not committed.

“However, I have to admit that it was much easier to extract information from Iranian intelligence agents during interrogations than to get similar information from Israeli agents.”

One of the most important conclusions Karimi reached during his long interaction with Iranian intelligence agents is that it was in Iran’s interest to have Israel launch a war of words against it every now and then or even embark on violent actions in the Occupied Territories.

“Israeli actions make it easier for the Iranian government to flex its muscles and to incite Arab public opinion.”

In his article, Karimi pointed out that despite the declared war between Iran and Israel, there are trade relations between the two countries.

“Several goods, like fruits, are brought from Israel, and many Israeli companies have businesses in Iran. They are dealing with the economy of the country they call ‘the enemy’.”

Karimi added that the Iranian government has never made a list of Israeli commodities or companies that should be banned and that it is not expected to do so.

According to Karimi, since the Iran-Iraq war, Iran brokers have been buying expensive weapons and equipment with the help of Israeli brokers.

Some of what he says has a ring of truth to it, but he doesn't address the elephant in the room: the Iranian nuclear program. If that didn't exist, then the stuff he says might make sense, but in fact Iran is hellbent on becoming a regional superpower - and acquiring nuclear weapons is only one way to accomplish that.

The existence of the program skews his entire analysis, if he is telling thew truth to begin with.

Ahmadiyya adherents persecuted by PalArab court

Last year there were a couple of articles about persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims by Palestinian Sunnis:

Palestinian Arabs belonging to the little-known Ahmadiyya sect of Islam have come under increased persecution, while being denied basic protections by the Palestinian Authority.

Ahmadi Muslims follow the teachings of Mirzam Ghulam Ahmad, whom they believe to have been the Muslim messiah. They reject the use of violence in all cases, and believe that mainstream Islam has been distorted into a blood-thirsty religion.

For their beliefs, top Palestinian clerics have ruled that the Ahmadi Muslims among them are apostates, a label that puts them in danger of regular acts of intimidation, violence and other mistreatment. As apostates, Palestinian Ahmadis are also stripped of their rights in court, meaning they have no legal recourse against their more violent Sunni neighbors.

The Palestinian Authority is “encouraging the cold-blooded murder of Ahmadis” by failing to take concrete action to protect the community, Mohammed Sharif Ouda, head of the Ahmadi community in Israel, told Arutz Sheva radio.

Palestine Today has an article giving an example of this persecution.

An Ahmadiyyah couple's marriage was annulled last year by a Palestinian Arab court because their beliefs were considered "apostasy." They are now appealing the decision to the Palestinian Supreme Court, saying that it "constituted interference in their personal lives and in contravention of Islamic and Palestinian laws in force in the Palestinian territories...[they] consider what was done to be a conspiracy against them aimed at destroying their lives."

The hearing was postponed to the end of this month.

Jeffrey Goldberg's mistake

Here is the crux of a column by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic:

Peace will not come without the birth of a Palestinian state on the West Bank which has its capital in East Jerusalem. I'm as sure of that as I am of anything in the Middle East. Of course, peace may not come even with the birth of this state -- I'm no longer quite so sure in the possiblity, or at least in the availability, of peace -- but it will surely never happen without it.

What is peace?

If peace means the settlement of all conflict with everyone living happily side by side and the lion lying down with the lamb, then perhaps Goldberg has a point - Palestinian Arabs will not be happy or satisfied without Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian Arab state, and, by definition, there will never be peace.

From a purely logical perspective, there is no reason Jerusalem must be the capital of "Palestine." Ramallah is fulfilling the role nicely. The only reason it supposedly must be their capital is because they assert it, repeatedly. Together with that demand is their implicit threat that peace will never happen without dividing Jerusalem. Goldberg, for good reason, believes them.

There is a major flaw with this thought process, though.

There are a number of other demands that the Palestinian Arabs have that are equally critical if you believe their statements. First and foremost is the "right to return" - to destroy Israel demographically by forcing Israel to accept millions of so-called "refugees" within its borders. They have been just as adamant and intransigent concerning that demand as they have been towards Jerusalem. If you take their statements at face value, the two are equally important.

And if you are taking their demands at face value, there will never be peace without the "right to return" just as there will never be peace without their control over what Goldberg mistakenly capitalizes as "East Jerusalem."

So why is the demand for Israel to capitulate on Jerusalem considered by Goldberg a pre-requisite for peace, while their demand for the right to return is not?

The reason is obvious. Goldberg doesn't believe that Israel would ever accept the right to return, and therefore it is, to his mind, off the table. He is making an assumption that in any final peace agreement, the Palestinian Arabs will drop their demand for "return."

(The correlary to this is that if Israel had been adamant about a united Jerusalem, and if Barak had never put it on the table, Goldberg would not be writing this column today. It is Israel's lack of fortitude on the Jerusalem issue that makes Goldberg believe that Jerusalem is negotiable while "return" is not.)

So we have seen that the only reason to believe that Jerusalem is a non-negotiable demand is because Palestinian Arabs say it is. But they say that the "right to return" is just as non-negotiable. Goldberg's assumption that the latter demand will somehow not be an impediment to peace while the former would be is based on nothing more than wishful thinking and a belief system wedded to the idea of "everyone knows what a final agreement will look like."

But has Goldberg heard a single word from any Palestinian Arab leader, ever, that they would be more flexible on "return" than on Jerusalem? If they are equally important to the Palestinian Arab mind - and they are, undoubtedly - then Goldberg must admit that his vision of "peace" is impossible. While he uneasily admits that peace may not be possible even with splitting Jerusalem, the fact is that his own logic shows that it is impossible without "return" - which means that a real permanent peace is, literally, impossible.

This is not the only unstated assumption that Goldberg makes about what Palestinian Arabs will compromise on. It was only a couple of months ago that the Palestinian Ministry of Information posted a paper on their website asserting that there was no Jewish connection to the Western Wall. Even though that paper was removed under pressure from the US, it has been repeated in the official Palestinian Arabic media since then. This was Arafat's position and it is, today, the position of the "moderate" PA. Goldberg assumes what "everyone knows" - that the PLO would allow Jewish holy places would remain under Israeli rule. But that assumption is also belied by the facts, facts that Goldberg is unwilling to consider.

It is very distasteful for most people to contemplate that "peace is impossible." Americans especially are brought up to believe that all problems are solvable, and we have a blind spot to accepting that some problems cannot be solved. It is this blind spot that Goldberg is falling victim to. He believes, passionately, that peace is required, and that the only way to peace is with Israel compromising on the spiritual soul of its nation. And while he admits that it may not be enough, the very chance for peace is worth the sacrifice in his mind.

What is that sacrifice? At the very least, it means the forcible removal of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. As Yaacov Lozowick points out (follow the links as well,) it also means some very bizarre choices must be made in dividing Jerusalem. We are in a strange world where dividing a city that has always been unified with the exception of 19 anomalous years is considered a sine qua non for peace.

But what if peace, in the sense that Goldberg uses the term, is impossible? What if the "right to return" is non-negotiable as well? What if significant swaths of Palestinian Arab society do not accept any negotiated agreement? What if the Kotel once again becomes a battleground as it was in 1929?

Now, let's consider what kind of peace Jerusalemites would have under a divided city. It would be dangerous for Jews to visit their holy places. It is easily conceivable that instead of rocks, the Arabs who are a bit more extreme would be able to bring in RPGs and small rockets into their areas. (Only last week was the plot to shoot a missile to an Israeli sports stadium foiled - what would stop that from having been successful if Jerusalem was divided?) Today's sense of security would be instantly replaced with fear and uncertainty for all of Jerusalem's residents, and the city would suffer greatly as people are forced to leave.

The new "peace" would be worse than what we have today.

If we change our definition of "peace" from the fantasy idea of everyone in the Middle East living happily together to a more pragmatic "absence of conflict"," then we are suddenly given far more options than what "everyone knows."

Even with the tensions in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood now referred to as Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem today is largely peaceful. It is certainly far more peaceful than it was seven years ago during the height of the intifada - a war that was the result of a "peace process" failing, it will be recalled. It is certainly more peaceful than it was in 1948 or 1936 or 1929. Only since Israel reunified the city has it been possible for Jews to walk to their holiest places without fear of being beaten or killed.

If this sort of peace is the goal - if we accept that the comprehensive peace that would make everyone happy is literally impossible, and we decide we want to manage conflict rather than eliminate it - then Jerusalem must remain undivided. It must remain under Jewish control. Only under Jewish rule has there been truly free access to the holy places (with the ironic exception of Jews being able to visit their own holiest spot on the Temple Mount.) Only under Jewish rule has Jerusalem grown and thrived.

It is not a huge surprise to find that under Jewish rule there is a museum of Islamic art in a unified Jerusalem. Can one imagine a similar museum of Jewish art under an Arab-controlled portion of Jerusalem?

Only under Jewish rule can there be a reasonable peace for the residents of Jerusalem, Arab and Jew alike.

Too many people are ready to sacrifice the lives and safety of thousands of people for the tiny chance for a "peace" that will never be. Set your sights a little lower and try for a realistic alternative, and peace is not only possible - it is here, today.

It would be the height of folly to create a city that would inevitably be at war with itself in the name of "peace."

Egyptian academic blames US, Israel for church attack

From Al Masry al-Youm:

An Alexandria University professor has accused Israel and the US of being behind the New Year's church bombing in Alexandria that killed 23 and injured around 100.

Ismail Saad, professor of political sociology at Alexandria University, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Israel, the US and Europe all seek to provoke unrest in Egypt so that its attention will be focused on internal issues.

Saad pointed to attempts to limit Egypt's political role in the region and said that his country was besieged by several powers. "First, they bombed a church, but then they will do it to a mosque," he said.

The professor said he believed that restoring ties with Turkey and Iran is the best way to confront external pressures.

Saad maintained that the Alexandria blast demonstrates plots against Egypt, ruling out the possibility of the culprit being Egyptian.

So I guess this guy was really a Mossad agent:

CAIRO (AFP) - A policeman shot dead a Christian on a train in Egypt Tuesday and wounded five other people, including the man's wife, as tensions remain high after a New Year's church bombing killed 21 people, the interior ministry said.

The shooter's motives were not immediately clear, but the ministry said at least four of the five people hurt were Coptic Christians.

And a Coptic bishop told AFP that the gunman, named by the ministry as Amer Ashur Abdel Zaher, had sought out Christians on board the train and shouted a Muslim slogan -- Allahu Akbar -- as he opened fire.

The policeman, who was said to be on his way to work, boarded a stationary Cairo-bound train at Samalut, in the southern Minya province, and began shooting with his service weapon, the ministry said.

He killed Fathi Said Ebeid, aged 71, and wounded his 61-year-old wife.

Two of the others wounded were said to be in critical condition.

And a detail:

Sources said the assailant had checked passengers for the green cross traditionally tattooed on the wrists of Coptic Christians in Egypt. After identifying several Copts, the culprit killed one of them and injured five others.

When is "offensive Jihad" Islamically approved?

Translating Jihad notices a recent fatwa on IslamOnline.net, one of the most influential Muslim websites worldwide:

Fighting Against Non-Muslims -- Legitimacy and Rulings

islamonline.net, 8 Jan 2011

Q: When is it permissible to fight against non-Muslims, and when is it not permissible? Please elaborate.

Mufti: Dr. 'Imad Mustafa, Professor of Fiqh and Its Origins, at the Universities of al-Azhar and Umm al-Qary

In the name of God, praise be to God, and prayers and peace be upon the prophet of God, etc.:

Fighting against non-Muslims is what is known in Islamic jurisprudence as Jihad in the path of God. Jihad is a prescribed duty in cases of aggression from the infidels against Muslims, for we must resist them, make jihad against them, and defend against them. This is according to the text of the Qur'an, for Almighty God has said: "Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors" (Qur'an 2:190). This type of jihad is known as defensive jihad, and it is a duty agreed to by all Islamic scholars and all who are wise, and is endorsed in our day by recognized international charters. However, the occupier and his associates have come to label this "terrorism."

Then there is another type of fighting against the non-Muslims known as offensive jihad. Islamic scholars have differed on the issue of offensive jihad, which is to pursue the infidels into their own land without any aggression or assistance to him. Some scholars have gone as far to say that this jihad is illegitimate, while others have gone as far as to say that it is legitimate and even required.

However there can be no disagreement that offensive jihad is not totally prohibited, for two schools [of Islamic jurisprudence] have ruled that offensive jihad is permissible in order to secure Islam's border, to extend God's religion to people in cases where the governments do not allow it, such as the Pharaoh did with the children of Israel, and to remove every religion but Islam from the Arabian peninsula, and to save the captive and weak. [...]

Ny the way, Translating Jihad is a very worthwhile site to follow. Here is another good post from today.

Arabs saying that Jerusalem is not...Jerusalem

MEMRI reports:

At a conference convened in Damascus by the Palestinian Culture Institute and the Palestinian Center for Documents and Manuscripts, participants claimed that the Zionists have forged archeological artifacts and inscriptions to back up their claims about Jerusalem. The general coordinator of the Arab Archeologists Union, Muhammad Bahjat Qubaisi, said that there are historical proofs that Al-Quds is not Biblical Jerusalem, adding that none of the Zionist claims are supported by ancient texts from the region.

Well, except for the ones are are.

The original article is here.

Meanwhile, Palestine Today quotes Secretary-General of the Arab League for Palestine Affairs Mohamed Sabih as warning against Israel's "Judaizing" of Jerusalem.

Sabih charged that the Jews were falsifying history by saying that Jerusalem is Jewish - and then he stated that "Egyptians built 90% of the city of Jerusalem."

BBC just can't resist taking a dig at Israel

The BBC has a welcome story about the plight of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon. But it cannot even consider writing a story about Palestinian Arab suffering without taking a shot at Israel. The story starts with:

It is sometimes controversially said that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in worse conditions than those during the Israeli occupation in Gaza.

Is that idea "controversial"? Let's see.

	Gaza	Lebanon
Are there restrictions on the jobs they can have?	No	Yes
Are there any restrictions on where they can live?	No	Yes
Are they systematically discriminated against by their government?	No	Yes
Are they forced to live in camps?	No	Yes
So where exactly is the "controversy"? More from Just Journalism.

Time magazine cements its anti-Israel reputation

Time's Karl Vick does another hatchet job on Israel. He spends most of his time saying that Israel's government is racist and paranoid, but even his asides drip with bias:

Last week, after a Palestinian woman died after inhaling tear gas that was fired by Israeli troops, army spokesmen mounted a whisper campaign suggesting that she had died of natural causes. The unlikely, anonymous explanation was played prominently by Israeli newspapers. Those who said otherwise stood accused of trying to delegitimize the Israel Defense Forces.

I commented:

While the entire article is laughably biased, let's just look at one small part:

"The unlikely, anonymous explanation..."

I have been poring over scientific journals for the past week, and I have yet to find a single case of a healthy person who was killed outdoors by CS tear gas, let alone from over a hundred meters away. By assuming a one-in-a-billion chance that the woman was the single exception to that rule, we see that Karl Vick's interest in the truth is far lower than his interest in demonizing Israel.

If you want to see much more substantive criticisms of Vick's screed, check out Jennifer Rubin, Alana Goodman and CAMERA.

Arafat poison story hits English-language media

The supposedly new evidence about Arafat's death that I posted on Sunday has hit the English-language Arab media. From Al Arabiya:

Bassam Abu Sharif, former senior advisor to Yasser Arafat announced Monday the results of the tests conducted to identify the kind of poison that killed the late Palestinian president.

According to Abu Sharif, the tests were conducted by “the most prominent forensic toxicology expert in the UK” yet he neither revealed his identity nor mentioned the name of the institution that carried out the research.

The tests, Abu Sharif explained, revealed that the poison used to kill Arafat is called “thallium,” a rare chemical substance whose effects are very hard to detect.

“This fatal substance is extracted from sea weed and comes in the form of a liquid that is colorless, tasteless, and odorless,” Abu Sharif said Monday in a statement of which Quds Press obtained a copy.

One of the characteristics of that chemical compound, Abu Sharif added, is that when it is added to any food or drink, it doesn't make any difference in taste, color, or smell. It can also be injected into the veins.

“Yet the report explained that the most effective way is when the poison reaches the body through the tongue, so it could be added to water, tea, and coffee or to fruits and vegetables and even medicine.”

Abu Sharif said that British and European toxicology experts are not familiar with this poison and that only the forensic toxicology expert was able to identify it.

“According to the expert, this poison is highly effective and no antidote can stop its effect if five hours pass after injection or addition to food or drink.”

Amazing that in five minutes on Wikipedia I am a bigger expert on thallium than the "the most prominent forensic toxicology expert in the UK." And I even found a cure!

He also added that he had warned current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the possibility of facing the same fate.

“I told Abbas he has to be very cautious because there might be similar Israeli plans to get rid of him and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Israel wants Palestinian leadership positions vacant.”

Abu Sharif said that he also warned Arafat a few months before he was poisoned.

“I specifically told him that poison is Israel’s main weapon.”

What a hero he is!

I cannot resist repeating a comment made when I first broke the story. When one commenter asked, as a perfect straight man, if "thallium poisoning" is another name for AIDS, Empress Trudy answered, "No, that would be called Phallium poisoning."

Zionist Attack Dogs return!

The Zionist Attack Zoo has added a number of new members recently, like vultures, sharks and jellyfish. But the old standbys are still out there too, prepared to harass and terrorize Arabs where ever they find them.

The Attack Dogs of Zion have returned!

We last saw them in 2009, when Palestinian Arabs in Jericho said that retired IDF dogs were being re-trained to attack Arabs and then come back home to their Jewish hosts.

Now, according to Palestine Today, they are near Bethlehem, attacking shepherds and livestock, deliberately being released by the surrounding Jewish towns.

Smarter than an F-15! More deadly than tear gas! Able to easily distinguish between Arab and Jew! The Attack Dogs of Zion are Israel's newest, most secret weapon yet!

Now you can be a subscriber to EoZ! And other administrivia.

A few weeks ago, I quietly added an option to subscribe to Elder of Ziyon via email on the left-hand sidebar. Subscribers get a daily digest of all my posts. About 30 people have done it so far, which isn't bad considering I never mentioned it.

I also added a widget to keep track of how many people read the blog via RSS - in other words, readers that do not read it through the website, but using tools like Google Reader or My Yahoo. That number is over 1300 at the moment, which means that close to half of my daily readers are using RSS.

Speaking of subscriptions, for those who want to support the blog financially (and help justify my many hours of work on the blog to Mrs. Elder), I added a PayPal method where you can be automatically be charged a dollar or two (or five or ten) a month. If you think that this blog is worth that much to you, please consider donating or subscribing via the PayPal buttons on the upper right side. I thank those who already did!

So far today I have either posted or queued 16 articles, which is high even for me. Some of them are what would be considered scoops by any newspaper.

The blog does take a lot of time and effort, but I hope that I provide you with information - and entertainment -that is worthwhile and valuable.

If your life has been enriched by the articles you've read here, please donate what you think it is worth or set up an automatic monthly payment.

Thanks again!

Taglit Birthright holds mega event with thousands of visiting Jews

From the IDF website:

It's hard to describe Taglit-Birthright Israel's Mega Event to those who haven’t been there. It’s almost a phenomenon. People-sized balloons and balloon-sized excitement. Music blaring, disco balls and night club lighting. Most remarkable are the 3,000 bodies jumping in ecstatic thrill, full of motivation and bursting with joy. And most surprising is that even in the midst of this, the words said don’t get lost.

"My friend Yossi Beilin had an idea," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the opening of his speech. "We have to bring young Jews from all over the world to Israel. It's not simple, you know, because someone has to pay for it. And then the crazy idea met Michael and Judy Steinhardt, crazy, yet very good Jews from the United States, who shared the same feelings."

"The outcome of all this is you," he continued. "From Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Poland, Russia, Great Britain, the US (“and Canada!” shouted the audience). Nowadays, you need not know each other's languages. You all speak Facebook. You all speak Youtube. You are all able to say what you want to say in 140 characters or less. Use these tools. Tell the world the truth."

There ‘s really nothing else to say. It is contagious. Even people wearing suits and people in their seventies danced here this evening. Where does all this happiness come from? "It's just too big to explain in words," answers Rosa from Venezuela. "This idea is too great to express. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over the world, different but exactly the same, who meet each other in the homeland that belongs to all of us."

Behind the scenes, Taglit-Birthright Israel CEO, Gidi Mark, wanders around, finalizing last details yet still grinning from ear to ear. He says to IDF Website, "There is a reason why we are here in these first days of January. It's an event opening the new year, announcing what is to follow. This event opens the door to the 50,000 people who will come to Israel by next January." When asked how exciting it has been to take part in the Mega Event for 11 years, he answers, "It’s as exciting as the first time every time. This place, here, is the strongest young Jewish energy in the world."

The 300,000 people from 54 countries, who visited Israel since the establishment of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program, got to meet, among others, many Israeli soldiers. Eight join every delegation that comes. One of the thousands who did so is Corp. Sivan Peleg, a military writer. Sivan does not lack stories in her bevy military experiences. Despite this, she says, "It’s unbelievable. You see things here that Israelis never get to see. Like that they discover that there are others Jews in the world, that they are not alone – ‘they are just like me’. There are people here who’ve never met another Jew, and suddenly they are in a bus full of Jews in the State of the Jews. You are told about Taglit-Birthright, but nothing can really prepare you for the experience. As a soldier, it's an opportunity to take days off from the army and still be Israeli."

"For many years, the State of Israel has received money from the Jewish community," recalls Netanyahu. "Today, we are giving back. In the near future, the State of Israel will invest over 100 million dollars in the Taglit-Birthright program. If it's up to me, it will not stop. Every Jew wishing to come to Israel can come to Israel. I believe that a strong international Jewish identity is essential for ensuring our future. We must remember that Israel is not only a 63-year miracle. It is a miracle at the top of a history of 4,000 years."

Do you think that the so-called "pro-Israel, pro-peace" crowd reads this and feels happiness, or dread?

Abbas consolidates his power even more

While Mahmoud Abbas likes to give the impression to the West that he is politically weak and does not have the power to make concessions to Israel, in fact he has been quietly building his political power base within the PLO and Fatah.

Today, he appointed one of his own, Sa'id Abu Amara, to be head of a new PLO political department headquartered in Ramallah.

The reason this is significant? Because his last major critic from within the PLO, Farouk Kaddoumi, who has been the official head of the PLO's political department in Tunisia, was not even consulted. Observers believe that whatever vestiges of power that remained in Tunisia under Kaddoumi will now be effectively transferred to Ramallah, under Abbas' watchful eye.

Almost exactly a year ago, Abbas had begun to marginalize Kaddoumi.

In August 2009, Abbas managed to strengthen his hold of Fatah, meaning that he is now the unquestioned leader of Fatah, the PLO and the PA.

So when Abbas says he cannot negotiate, or he is unwilling to compromise, it is his decision alone.

Spanish government sponsors ad to boycott all Israeli goods (updated)

From Palestinian Media Watch:

A boy enters a store and overhears a conversation.
Customer to shopkeeper: “Do you see them? They’re plastering the city with advertisements about boycotting Israeli goods.”
Shopkeeper: “I can’t not bring in [Israeli products], because people ask for them.”
Customer: “Israeli products are better than the local products.”
Shopkeeper to the boy: “What do you want?”
Boy, after looking at Israeli products: “I want Israeli chips.”
He takes the chips, walks to the door, and hears gunfire. He looks around, drops the chips on the floor, returns to the shopkeeper and says: “I don’t want the Israeli product, I want the Palestinian product.”

The advertisement ends by displaying the text: “Don’t prolong the occupation’s life upon our land,” with the logo of the Palestinian NGO Health Work Committees, followed by the logos of the ad’s sponsors:
The Spanish government,
the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
AECID (Spanish governmental humanitarian aid development),
ACSUR (a Spanish non-profit organization),
Canaan Joint Development Project for Jerusalem (Palestinian).

UPDATE: The Spanish government denies being behind the ads.