Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Afternoon links

Human Rights Watch head Ken Roth tweeted "Ban Ki-Moon wrong on #Osama bin Laden: It's not "justice" for him to be killed even if justified; no trial, conviction.

Cluelessness defined: The National Jewish Democratic Council wrote, in response to the Fatah/Hamas unity agreement:

We are hopeful that President Obama will show continuing strong leadership; that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not see this as a reason to be deterred from presenting bold steps towards a lasting peace; and that this reported accord will put pressure on the most extreme elements of Palestinian society to lay down their weapons and end this generation’s old conflict.

YNet must-read op-ed by Manfred Gerstenfeld on the nypocrisy of world leaders praising Bin Laden's execution when they vilified Israel for doing the same to Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004.

Khaled Abu Toameh asks if Hamas will take over the PA.

A good (subscription-only) article by Noah Pollak about B'Tselem.

Ma'an lists the likely candidates for new PA PM.

Israel Matzav notes that the fawning Vogue story about the Assads of Syria has mysteriously disappeared from their website.

A new Israeli technology can help map archaeological treasures in 3D up to 150 meters underground.

(h/t Noah, Gerald)

"CIA, Mossad set up drug labs on Iran's borders"

Today's bit of paranoia out of Iran from FARS News:

CIA and Israeli spy agency, Mossad, have set up a number of drug laboratories along Iran's Eastern borders to produce and smuggle hallucinogenic drugs to Iran, sources reported.

"The CIA-Mossad Joint Staff has started setting up hallucinogenic-drugs production centers at Iran's Eastern borders (with Afghanistan) to produce and smuggle huge drug cargos to Iran through collaboration with the drug mafia operating on the other sides of Iran's Eastern borders (in Afghanistan), " Researcher and investigator Majid Abhari told FNA on Wednesday.

The source said this joint staff has embarked on encouraging drug-traffickers to smuggle these cargos to Iran through odd methods like credit transaction, because drug dealers and traffickers do all their transactions in cash, and credit transaction is meaningless as far as drug deals are concerned.

Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar had warned that the Zionist and CIA agents are seeking to boost drug-trafficking in Iran.

"Zionists and CIA's intelligence and security agents stationed in the region are helping drug-traffickers to cross Iran's shared borders with Afghanistan," Mohammad Najjar said last month.

He added that the so-called human rights advocate (the US) is so furious at Iran that it has made large investments to replace traditional drugs with industrial drugs to change drug addiction habits in Iran.

The destructive effects of industrial drugs, like crack and Morphine, is more than the traditional ones and the enemy has planned to spread drug addiction, specially addiction to these industrial narcotics, in Iran, Mohammad Najjar warned.

I think we have proof positive that some Iranians are on crack, from just this article.

Who oversees US aid to Palestinian Arabs? (Joffe)

A very important article by Alexander Joffe in Hudson-NY:

In Palestinian economics, where all the money goes is unclear -- but where does all the money come from? Which U.S. programs give how much and who has legislative oversight? Now that Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister Salaam Fayyad has announced a plan for September for unilateral Palestinian statehood, which includes a request for $5 billion over three years -- and presumes that the newly announced Fatah-Hamas rapprochement does not scuttle all American aid -- the problem of oversight is all the more pressing.

...Economic Support Funds provided by USAID can not go directly to the Palestinian Authority without a waiver to the Appropriations Committee from the U.S. president saying that it is in the interest of U.S. national security to provide them, and and a certification from the Secretary of State regarding the PA's treasury, payroll and civil service – all according to section 2106 of chapter 2 of title II of Public Law 109-13, a 2005 emergency supplemental defense and relief bill (and Public Law 108-199 of 2004 before it).

Public Law 109-13, for example, requires, among other things, that the President certify that Palestinian security services have purged their ranks of terrorists, that the Palestinian Authority stop incitement against Israel, and that it cooperate with the US. in investigations of Yassir Arafat's finances. These waivers have been provided annually despite the fact that Palestinian incitement continues, Palestinian security forces are still laden with terrorists, and Yassir Arafat's money is still missing.

...In fact, the legislative system of appropriations and oversight matters very little when it comes to U.S. aid to the Palestinians: the system of foreign aid permits the president to independently "certify" or "waive" requirements introduced by Congress. It demonstrates the extent to which U.S. aid to the Palestinians is an instrument of Executive policy rather than an altruistic enterprise authorized by the Legislative branch.

....Legislation proposed in Congress to limit or condition funds to the Palestinian Authority or UNRWA are largely meaningless in this light. The "UNRWA Humanitarian Accountability Act," for example, offered by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 2010, demanded that UNRWA not be used by or support Palestinian terrorists. But like the appropriations bills described above, it offers the Executive branch an out by requiring only "a written determination by the Secretary of State, based on all information available after diligent inquiry, and transmitted to the appropriate congressional committees along with a detailed description of the factual basis therefore." Such a statement is a foregone conclusion. The mechanisms for Congress to review results independently, hearings, reports from Congressional staff, the Congressional Research Service, and the Government Accountability Office, have no weight except in the politics of the next appropriations cycle.

Aid the Palestinians is a microcosm of the larger question of how U.S. foreign aid works. Now that Hamas will evidently join Fatah in a Palestinian Authority poised to declare statehood and request vast additional support, creating genuine Congressional oversight -- with teeth -- should be addressed once again.

Read the whole thing.

Hamas executes "spy," already violating unity agreement

From Ma'an:

Gaza's Ministry of the Interior announced the death Wednesday of a man convicted of collaboration, identified only as A.S., and said to have been found guilty of spying.

It is the sixth execution that has been carried out by the Gaza government, in contradiction to a Palestinian law that necessitates the approval of the president before death sentences are carried out.

The ministry said in a statement that the death sentence was carried out after all means of appeal had been completed, and after obtaining the approval of the Gaza government.

So exactly what kind of "unity" is it when Hamas can brazenly do whatever it wants independent of the official Palestinian Arab leadership?

The answer seems to be that Hamas does not believe that Abbas is the legal president!

Carter's WaPo op-ed proves, again, he is an idiot

A couple of points in Jimmy Carter's op-ed in the Washington Post today calling on the world to embrace an illusory Palestinian Arab "unity" government that is filled with terrorists.

One is that Carter is almost certainly mixing up what he wanted to hear with what he did hear from Khaled Meshal:

In my talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, he said Hamas would accept a two-state agreement that is approved in a Palestinian referendum. Such an agreement could provide mutual recognition — Israel would recognize an independent Palestinian state and Palestine would recognize Israel. In other words, an agreement will include Hamas’s recognition of Israel.

Meshal is not generally a liar, but he is good at stretching the truth to gullible Westerners. He's pretty open about his anti-Israel positions. And what he has said publicly is not that Hamas would accept a two-state solution, but that Hamas would temporarily accept a Palestinian Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza as a first stage towards the destruction of Israel.

There is a world of difference between the two.

In 2006:

[Meshal] promised, "Muslims will take over the world," and he explicitly said his organization's plan is to deceive Israel with semantics.

In his speech, the Hamas leader explained that his people are willing to continue fighting Israel even if it takes 1000 years for victory. Mr. Meshaal also said one aspect of Hamas's current strategy is to rely on such tools as using statements like "we love peace" or "we have given up the option of war," while still planning Israel's destruction.

Mr. Meshaal also promised: "Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. … We will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains."

I have documented plenty of times that Meshal has played these very semantic games to imply recognition of Israel but without actually indicating any desire to do so.

And just today, a Fatah spokesman dismissed any chance of Hamas recognizing Israel:

A Palestinian official close to President Mahmoud Abbas has called the demand that Hamas recognises Israel's right to exist "unfair".

Mr Abbas's government is set officially to sign a reconciliation agreement with Hamas later today in Cairo, despite the terrorist organisation's continued refusal to fulfil US and Middle East Quartet demands to renounce violence and recognise the principle of Israel's legitimacy.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Shaath told Israel Radio that the requirements were "unfair, unworkable and [did] not make sense"."

He said all that was necessary was for Hamas to "refrain from any violence ... and be interested in the peace process".

Nice how Fatah has redefined the Quartet's requirements to allow Hamas to maintain its belligerent, intransigent stance. Just like Jimmy!

One other part of Jimmy's op-ed is noteworthy:

If they [the international community] remain aloof or undermine the agreement, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory may deteriorate with a new round of violence against Israel.

Even Jimmy Carter, who loves peace and loves "Palestine," admits that they will turn to violence if they don't get what they demand.

He's half right. They will turn to violence if they don't get what they want. But they will also turn to violence if they do get what they say they want - because their demands will never end.

Everyone knows what these demands are: releasing all prisoners including the worst terrorists, forcing Israel to allow millions of Arabs to "return", kicking all Jews out of the Old City of Jerusalem and much of the rest of the city as well, and uprooting hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in a massive exercise of ethnically cleansing Jews from their traditional, historic home in Judea and Samaria. These demands have not changed one tiny bit since 1988, over decades of Oslo through years of a terror war.

It is nice to see that Carter admits that Palestinian Arabs are inherently violent. Too bad that this fact is so self-evident that it is not considered a problem anymore for enlightened, peaceful people like Jimmy.

Rifts in "unity" - before the ceremony!

From YNet:

The news agency Maan reported that the signing of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement in Cairo is being delayed because of a seating arrangement issue.

According to the report, an argument has broken out over the spot where Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal will sit. According to another report, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit next to Mashaal, and demanded to be presented as the Palestinian president instead of the head of his political party.

From other Arabic news sources, it seems to me that Hamas is not accepting Abbas as president of the PA even under this agreement (this has long been their official position, since his official term in office ended.)

Which is just one more indication that this agreement is a sham. Hamas will retain its own security in Gaza and it will be part of the government as much as Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's - enough to veto whatever they don't like but not subservient to it or subject to the PA's laws.

(h/t Richie)

Vowing revenge for Bin Laden in Jerusalem, Gaza (videos)

Here is a video of a preacher at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem calling for the death of Obama and Bush for killing Bin Laden:

(original uncut video was uploaded by the preacher himself on Monday. YNet story here.)

Here is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemning the assassination and calling Bin Laden a holy warrior.

He is now part of the Palestinian Arab government.

(h/t Joel)

Text of Hamas/Fatah agreement: Vagueness defined (updated)

I had mentioned that the draft text of the Hamas/Fatah unity agreement was extremely vague so as to ensure that any substantive decisions are pushed off as long as possible, probably until at least September.

Here it is in its entirely, in English, so you can see how Hamas and Fatah studiously avoided agreeing on anything real:

1. Elections

A. Election Committee:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to identify the names of the members of the Central Election Commission in agreement with the Palestinian factions. This list will then be submitted to the Palestinian President who will issue a decree of the reformation of the committee.

B. Electoral Court:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree on the nomination of no more than twelve judges to be members of the Electoral Court. This list will then be submitted to the Palestinian President in order to take the necessary legal actions to form the Electoral Court in agreement with the Palestinian factions.

C. Timing of Elections:

The Legislative, Presidential, and the Palestinian National Council elections will be conducted at the same time exactly one year after the signing of the Palestinian National Reconciliation Agreement.
2. Palestine Liberation Organization

The political parties of both Fatah and Hamas agree that the tasks and decisions of the provisional interim leadership cannot be hindered or obstructed, but in a manner that is not conflicting with the authorities of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

3. Security

It was emphasized that the formation of the Higher Security Committee which will be formed by a decree of the Palestinian President and will consist of professional officers in consensus.

4.Government

A. Formation of the Government:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to form a Palestinian government and to appoint the Prime Minister and Ministers in consensus between them.

B. Functions of the Government:

1. Preparation of necessary condition for the conduction of Presidential, Legislative and the Palestinian National Council elections.
2. Supervising and addressing the prevalent issues regarding the internal Palestinian reconciliation resulting from the state of division.
3. Follow-up of the reconstruction operations in the Gaza Strip and the efforts to end the siege and blockade that is imposed on it.
4. Continuation of the implementation of the provisions of the Palestinian National Accord.
5. To resolve the civil and administrative problems that resulted from the division.
6. Unification of the Palestinian National Authority institutions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
7. To fix the status of the associations, Non-Governmental Organizations and charities.
5. Legislative Council:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to reactivate the Palestinian Legislative Council in accordance to the Basic Law.

It took three years for Egypt to convince Hamas to sign this wishy-washy document.

Not only that, but some of the smaller factions that signed the document did it with reservations on some of its contents.

The entire exercise in "unity" is a scam meant to fool the West long enough to get the issue of statehood in front of the UN.

Paragraph 2 is part of the scam. It is meant to placate the West by saying that the PLO, which runs the PA, is not bound by any Hamas decisions not to recognize Israel. However, as I have pointed out, as soon as "Palestine" is declared, the PLO will disappear and Hamas can fully participate in foreign affairs.

Security is the main sticking point between the parties, as they derive their power from their security forces. Yet only one sentence talks about this topic, and that sentence is pretty much "to be defined later."

As anyone can see, there's no "there" there. This unity government legitimizes terror but keeps its intentions fuzzy so that the US, UN and EU won't notice it.

The Arabs are counting on one basic fact, one that has rarely let them down:

Western leaders tend to be eternally optimistic, they have short memories, and they are mesmerized by such nice sounding words as "unity."

(h/t Zach, source: Rafah Today.)

UPDATE: Here is the list of groups that signed the agreement:

— Fatah
— Hamas
— Islamic Jihad
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Palestinian People’s Party
— Palestinian Popular Struggle Front
— Palestinian Liberation Front
— Arab Liberation Front
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command
— Dzb Baath Arab Socialist Party (Syria)
— Palestinian Arab Front
— Popular Resistance Committees
— Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA)

(h/t George Hale)

The Palestinian Arab terror convention in Cairo

Right now, in Cairo, pretty much every Palestinian Arab terror group is meeting to sign the short unification document between Hamas and Fatah.

There are lots of Hamas leaders from both Gaza and elsewhere, including Khaled Meshaa, Mahmoud Zahar, Khalil al-Hayya, Izzat al-Rishq, Mohamed Nasr, Osama Hamdan, and Abu Marzook.

But also leaders of Islamic Jihad (Ramadan Shallah), the PFLP-GC (Ahmad Jibril), the DFLP (Khaled Atta), the Popular Front (Khaled Atta,) the Palestine People's Party, the Palestine Popular Struggle Front, and several more.

In addition, other political leaders like Mustafa Barghouti and Munib al-Masri are there.

And the Fatah delegation just arrived as well, including Mahmoud Abbas.

Every group listed here has a history of involvement with terror. Some 13 groups signed the reconciliation letter, I cannot find a comprehensive list.

Many people in the room mourned the death of Bin Laden.

Early reports are saying that Catherine Ashton and Ban Ki Moon might attend the ceremony tomorrow.

These observers are apparently celebrating the biggest gathering of Palestinian Arab terrorists in years.

There is one person who is notably absent, however. The only semi-moderate Palestinian Arab leader in history, the only one who has had no involvement in terrorism, Salam Fayyad is in Ramallah.

The terrorist crowd, however, intends to gain recognition for their fake state from France, the UK, the rest of the EU and the entire world. Their refusal to negotiate with Israel and their refusal to compromise is being rewarded in spades.

And the world seems to be buying into the idea that such a state is a good thing.

The state that these people support would have a single purpose: to eliminate the Jewish state. It will not accept millions of "refugees." It will not negotiate with Israel over water or Gilad Shalit. It will throw away every agreement ever made.

How can such a state make the world a better place? What problems will it solve? Who will be better off after it is created? Why, in any universe, is a state run by these people the least bit desirable?

And why is there zero criticism of this insane, hateful, terrorist initiative from any Western countries?

Max Blumenthal trots out a lie (NewsRealBlog)

My latest post at NewsRealBlog, written by request:

Max Blumenthal uses the assassination of Osama Bin Laden as an excuse to push the ridiculous claim, advanced by Israel-haters for years, that Binyamin Netanyahu was overjoyed at the events of 9/11.

Blumenthal says that Netanyahu called the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon “very good.” But what he glosses over is the question he was answering....

The question was specifically about US-Israeli relations, not about what he thought of the terror attacks. Netanyahu answered accurately and then immediately realized that this obvious truth could be twisted by people with an agenda–like Blumenthal–so he clarified what he meant.

Blumenthal, like all Israel-bashers who suffer from terminal intellectual dishonesty, ignored the context of the comment.

Yet the truth is undeniable–9/11 did make Americans wake up and realize what Israel has gone through for decades. It caused previously complacent Americans to realize that there was a global threat from Islamist terror groups. It woke up the government to be less sanguine about what national security means in an era of jihadists deliberately targeting civilians.

Not only that, but the US has used Israel as the model on how to fight terror. We went on the offensive, forcing the enemy to fight trained soldiers rather than have the luxury of planning attacks on innocent civilians on our shores. We used unmanned armed drones, sophisticated electronics intelligence, and beefed up our more traditional human intelligence, just like Israel. We adopted Israel’s methods on how to fight in urban areas while minimizing casualties of civilians. We used Israeli technology and methodology to help treat battlefield injuries and to help defeat threats from IEDs and missiles.

Even at home, city police forces and hospitals took lessons from Israeli experts on how to deal with local threats.

Bibi was correct in that 9/11 helped US-Israeli relations, on many levels.

To say that he therefore is happy about 9/11 is, however, pure slander. It would be similar to saying that CNN was considers 9/11 “very good” because its ratings soared as the only 24-hour news channel at the time, or that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is thrilled that 3,000 Americans died because their deaths gave him a high-profile job and budget. In short, Blumenthal’s charge that Netanyahu–and, by implication, all Zionists–are happy when Americans die is nothing short of obscene. It is a sick, transparent attempt on his part to drive a wedge between America and Israel.

To him and his friends on the far Left, the strong relationship between the US and Israel is the real evil that must be fought, not radical Islamists who want to see Blumenthal dead just as much as they want to kill all Jews and Americans.

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, in Syria... (video)

This video is supposed to show Syrian police shooting at demonstrators in Barza al-Balad, near Damascus:

This one allegedly shows a man who was shot (and said to be killed) in Homs on Saturday:

Iran: "Bin Laden a Zionist stooge"

From Iran's always-entertaining PressTV:

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Osama bin Laden's death clearly shows that the al-Qaeda leader had an expiry date and the US was obliged to kill him.

“Bin Laden, whom all Muslim nations despised, was simply a stooge in the hands of the Zionist regime [of Israel] to show a violent image of Islam following the 9/11 attacks,” Deputy Head of Iran's Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Esmail Kowsari told Mehr News Agency on Monday.

“The death of Osama Bin Laden reflected the removal of a one-time US pawn, and marked the end of an era and the start of another in US' subversive policies in the region,” he added.

I guess, by that logic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also a Zionist stooge because he makes Iranian politicians (like this guy) look like complete idiots, thus helping Israel's image in the international community.

In fact, PressTV might be Israel's best weapon!

Egypt rejects USAID money

Al Masry al Youm reported last month:

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that its annual assitance program in Egypt, sheduled to be implemented in mid 2011, should satisfy the direct needs of Egypt in the fields of employment, economic development and combating poverty.

USAID allocated a significant portion of its assistance over the past years to bolstering democracy in Egypt.

In a statement, USAID said the program will be implemented with the help of NGOs, Egyptian, American or international, and the private sector.

USAID also said it is seeking to respond to the needs specified by the Egyptian community in the field of democratic development.

Indeed, the USAID Egypt site says:

The U.S. Government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has made significant contributions over the past 30 years to help improve the quality of life of all Egyptians. Nationwide programs in health, education, trade facilitation, small and micro-enterprise, tourism, and infrastructure development have benefited Egyptians acrosscountry, especially those in under-served areas. US economic assistance to Egypt through the United States Agency for International Development has totaled more than $28.6 billion since 1975.

The Egyptian government has formally rejected this aid - saying that it included too many conditions.

From Ikhwanweb (there are a number of Egyptian newspapers in Arabic reporting the same thing):

Egypt has officially rejected conditional US aid worth USD 150 million in light of US economic support to Egypt, helping it overcome its economic woes and support the process of democratization in the post-January 25 revolution.

The US embassy in Cairo has received a formal letter from the Egyptian Foreign Minister that the Egyptian government rejects US conditions on aid and unilateral coercive economic measures by the US Agency for International Development.

Egyptian minister of planning and international cooperation Fayza Aboulnaga and Finance Minister Samir Radwan visited Washington last month, asking the US to cancel a debt amounting to about $3.6 billion to help the country's new government restore growth and create jobs for young people, but Washington refused.

The cabinet says the US aid is unnecessary and rejects US unilateral resolutions with regard to the US direct funding assistance mainly to the Egyptian private sector, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and NGOs, arguing social justice is one of the more prominent roles that the country and businessmen should be committed to.

So far, no word from USAID about this.

AFP downplays Muslim Brotherhood statement on Bin Laden

From AFP:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday that Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan, did not represent Islam and said the United States should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Islam is not Bin Laden," Mahmud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's number two, told AFP.

"After September 11, there had been a lot of confusion. Terrorism was mixed up with Islam," he said. "In the coming phase, everyone will be looking to the West for just behaviour."

Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood said this. But AFP left out what else they said.

From the Ikhwanweb website, in Arabic:

While Islam denounces violence and terrorism it believes it was not necessary to resort to assassination stressing a fair trial of any criminal whatever the crime would have sufficed.

It is on this note that the MB calls on the Western world, its people and governments to not link Islam with terrorism, and to correct the erroneous image which has been created in this regard.

The MB however confirms its belief that there is a difference between combat and resistance stressing that combating violence is necessary however each country has its right as stipulated in international conventions guaranteed by divine laws to defend itself against oppression against innocent people as is the case of the Palestinian people and Israel's Zionists.

Ending its statement the group cites that so long as occupation remains resistance is legitimate and it calls on the United States, NATO and the EU to end the occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, and recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Furthermore the MB calls on the US to end its intelligence operations and to cease from interfering in the internal affairs of any Arab or Muslim country.

The Muslim Brotherhood statement, rather than denouncing Al Qaeda as AFP implies, actually condones Al Qaeda actions against allied troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Palestinian Arab terrorism.

Not quite as peaceful as some like to pretend.

(h/t Dan for last link)