Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, July 03, 2011

PA facing financial crisis. But insists it is ready for statehood!

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said his government has only enough money to pay half of salaries this month and appealed to “donors and our Arab brothers” to fulfill their pledges for funding.

“Today is a day of crisis,” Fayyad said at a press conference today in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He said the Palestinian Authority had a deficit of $585 million and had reached the limit of its bank borrowing.

Fayyad said the financial crisis “shouldn’t mean anything for the readiness for a Palestinian state.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he plans to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state in September.

The World Bank said in an April report that the Palestinian Authority had increased bank borrowing to fund development projects for which designated aid hadn’t been received and that arrears were accumulating at an unsustainable rate. At the end of 2010 total domestic debt was about $840 million, “which may be close to the PA’s borrowing limits,” the report said.

Donor countries have paid only $330 million of the $971 million pledged this year, Fayyad said. Roughly one-quarter of the authority’s $3.7 billion budget comes from foreign aid.

Oman, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates are the only Arab countries that have so far paid funds that they pledged for this year, Fayyad said, adding that the U.S. and European Union have been making regular contributions.

It's been nearly a year since Fayyad declared that the PA would be "financially independent" by the end of 2013. I'm sure this is all going according to plan.

The World Bank report from earlier this year warned about this crisis, but the report buried this information on page 12 in its overly rosy view of the future of the PA and how ready it was for statehood.

Notice also how it is always the Arabs who don't pay their commitments to the PA. But don't be to hard on them - they are very good at shipping burial shrouds to Gaza.

(h/t NormanF)

Newest Free Gaza publicity stunt

As the flotilla gets shakier by the day, the Free Gaza/ISM and sister movements are planning a new stunt: having activists fly to Israel and protest at Ben Gurion Airport.

Here's a video of Paul Larudee, from Free Gaza, describing the plan:

I particularly like what he says around the 4 minute mark.

While he wants the trip to be taken by the usual D-list celebrities and token self-hating Jews, he particularly wants Palestinian Arabs who can trace their families to within the Green Line, and who now live in the West, to participate in this "return" - but he warns that only people who really don't want to return should join, because Israel is likely to ban them from future trips.

Apparently, the action is planned for this coming Friday.

While a couple of prominent activists say they will go, I'm certain that the number will be much smaller than the hundreds they are pretending will go. And almost certainly the number of Palestinian Arabs who now have citizenship in Western countries that go will be minuscule.

Last year, Free Gaza announced an initiative of flying to Gaza with a private plane. That intended stunt went exactly nowhere. Chances are, so will this one, and a few dozen people will have wasted hundred of dollars apiece on - nothing.

(h/t Israel Matzav, Daled Amos and others)

Bibi answers the first YouTube question

But I thought that Netanyahu was just like Mubarak! Isn't that what Thomas Friedman said?

PINGO!: A Flotidiot Bingo/drinking game

Jake sent me this wonder variation of Bingo he created that can be played by everyone!

It can be played like traditional Bingo. In this case, when you read an anti-Israel argument (for the purposes of this game, let's limit them to those published on the Web since June 15), highlight it here and hyperlink it to the URL. The first to get five in a row wins, as does the first to fill out the entire board.

Or it can be a drinking game - take a shot whenever a Flotidiot makes one of these arguments.

Either way, it looks like a fun summer!

P	I	N	G	O
You're using the anti-Semitism card to silence my legitimate criticism of the devious, Christ-killing Jewish financiers who run all the governments with their Israel lobbies!	The UN doesn't spend enough time criticising Israel... This is because the USA, which is run by Zionists, controls it!	Checkpoints are a violation of human rights! How would you feel if, say, you had to go through a metal detector before boarding a flight? Humiliated!	Hamas want peace. Their charter is just an outdated relic they don't really believe in. All those rockets are just really sophisticated fireworks celebrating the fact that they have such lovely Jewish neighbours.	Ilan Pappe is a serious, credible historian, whereas Benny Morris is just a racist. (Karsh? Who's Karsh?)
Sometimes I can't help but feel that the American Empire is the real threat to the world and Israel is just a distraction. Ahmedinejad talks a lot of sense.	Israel was created on the backs of imperialist settlers and violence. No other state was created through violence!	Jewish settlements are the real threat to peace. Imagine how Palestinians feel having to live next to Jews! If they get their own state, Jews should be forced to leave.	Israel are just like the Nazis. In fact they're worse! Except for the death toll, the lebensraum policy, the systematic genocide and the desire to control the world, Israel is essentially the Fourth Reich.	Boycotting Israel is a great idea! Let me just bin my computer, my camera phone, my Kindle, a great deal of my medicine, my solar panels and my cherry tomatoes, to name a few.
Israel purposefully targets civilians and schools. Totally nothing to do with Hamas using schools as launching pads.	The IDF want to decimate Gaza. It's amazing that an army as powerful and as eeevil as Israel hasn't done it yet...	Calling Israel an apartheid state is an insult to South African apartheid. (If you believe otherwise then the Israeli government must be paying you to say so.)	Secular? How can a secular democracy have a religious symbol on its flag?	Turkey is a secular democracy.
Zionists use outdated Biblical fantasies to justify Israel's existence, but Israel shouldn't exist because according to the Torah we have to wait for the Messiah!!! Nurny nur nur!	Arabs can't buy land in Israel. Forget the fact that most land is government-owned and leased out, and that Jews are also forbidden from buying land... let's just focus on the Arabs.	The Law of Return is racist. No other countries (apart from most European countries and a lot of other ones – most countries, in fact) use the racist jus sanguinis policy.	Jews are a race when we're calling them racial supremacists. They're a nation when we're highlighting how they're different to us. But they're not distinctive at all when they start claiming the right to a country of their own.	Real Jews oppose Israel. Real Jews, like Chomsky, don't think Holocaust denial is wrong at all. In fact, real Jews stand up for Holocaust deniers. Real Jews... real Jews... real Jews... real Jews...
The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust. Not one Palestinian supported Hitler... Nope, still can't think of any. You're just exploiting the Holocaust.	How dare you suggest the Palestinians could go to other Arab countries! They deserve one of their own.	Couldn't the persecuted Jews just have gone to New York/Europe instead of Palestine?	Hamas has legitimacy because they were democratically elected. All Israeli governments, however, have no legitimacy at all. How dare you even compare the Palestinian democracy with Israel's military dictatorship?!	I happen to think that Arabs are incapable of knowing freedom, therefore Israel is just an insult to them and should be destroyed. -or- The Arab Spring will inevitably spread to Israel, destroying it.

Holiday weekend open thread

I am on a mini-vacation so posting will be light for the next couple of days. Comment with the latest from the never ending Flotilla Comedy Cavalcade!

Flotilla follies continue!

Things keep getting funnier in Flotilla Funland.

Greece arrested the captain of the "Audacity of Hope" for endangering the lives of the passengers by going out without permission.

Remember how the flotidiots accused Israel of sabotaging the Irish boat in the harbor in Turkey? This accusation even made it into the Huffington Post as a headline story. Well, it turns out that there was no sabotage, as Turkey's Hurriyet reported.

Here's an unintentionally hilarious video that shows the ridiculous self-righteousness of the flotidiots as they try to convince the world that their Cause is so Righteous that any Laws that stop them are Immoral.

Hamas is exercising all the political muscle that any terror group can muster:

The Hamas movement on Friday denounced Greece after its coastguard intercepted a US vessel which tried to sail to Gaza to break Israel's blockade of the coastal strip.

In a statement issued by its political leadership in Damascus, the group described the action as "inhumane" and said Greece had played into Israeli hands.

"This is inhumane action, is contrary to international regulations and norms," said the statement by Hamas, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

"Barring this aid from reaching the Gaza Strip is done as a result of pressure imposed by the Zionist occupiers," referring to Israel.

Hamas also called on the EU parliament and human rights organizations "to put pressure on the Greek government" to allow a planned flotilla of aid boats to set sail from Greece to Gaza.

Well, both the Israel haters from the West and those from the Islamic world agree that there is nothing more important than having a half dozen ships deliver letters that have already been emailed to Gazans. Who can disagree?

(h/t Israel Muse, Palmer, ehwhy)

Flotilla follies!

Lots of fun happening in Greece today!

HuffPo is reasonably up to date:

Greece on Friday banned ships heading to the Gaza Strip from leaving Greek ports, and a vessel carrying several dozen American protesters which left port without permission was ordered to return.

A flotilla of nine Greek and foreign-flagged vessels and several hundred activists have said they want to break Israel's sea blockade and deliver aid to the Palestinian territory.

Greece's Civil Protection Ministry said coast guard authorities had been ordered to take "all appropriate measures" to implement the ban. It also said the "broader maritime area of the eastern Mediterranean will be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the ships allegedly participating" in the flotilla.

Protest organizers said one of the boats, dubbed the Audacity of Hope and carrying several dozen Americans, had left the port of Perama near Athens Friday afternoon, but had been intercepted by coast guards on inflatable speedboats about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) out at sea.

"We're not moving because they put one of the (boats) in front of us, so we are stationary," vessel spokesperson Jane Hirschmann told reporters in Athens.

The Merchant Marine Ministry refused to give any details of the incident, saying only that the protest boat had not left the "general port area."

Head protest organizer Vangelis Pissias angrily condemned the ban and argued Greece had no legal grounds to block a privately leased ship from leaving one of its ports.

"We condemn the policy of the Greek government and its last actions ... The efforts to sail will continue," Pissias said.

A Greek government official said the boat had set sail without the permission required of all boats to leave port, and that the Coast Guard had asked it to return. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the situation was still evolving.

The tweets from the flotidiots are priceless, as they pretend to be heroic by singing "We Shall Overcome" towards the Greek authorities (who, they never fail to point out, are armed!)

Their righteous indignation at being stopped from breaking maritime law is amusing, to say the least. For people who love to talk about "international law" they sure seem to be enamored of breaking laws themselves.

But, of course, they are pure and good and moral, so they are allowed to.

I tweeted to them a suggestion - perhaps they should sail from Syria next time, so as not to worry about pesky Westerners stopping their party. It would be considered an act of war, but that's a minor point - they want to destroy Israel anyway.

Sky News first Western outlet to film Syrian violence in protests (video)

Sometimes, one can find real reporting among the news sites:

Also they quote opposition claims:

These are more details the organisation have given us about the repression they face in their effort to bring about change in Syria.

They claim to have the names of 1450 dead civilians, among them 91 children, 41 women, and 193 soldiers who they claim were killed for refusing to obey orders to open fire on protestors.

They claim between 5000 and 16000 have been detained and ‘tens were returned dead with torture marks on their bodies to their families, many are missing and we have no idea if they are alive or dead.’

Oppostion groups claim the regime returns the mutilated bodies of dead and tortured teenagers to instil fear in their opponents. A number of chilling videos of the bodies of dead children and youths have been posted on YouTube in recent months corroborating these claims.
And they have shocking claims about the injured.

‘Most of them don't get proper medical care , because they're afraid of being arrested or mishandled by security forces in hospitals, some of the injured who went to public hospitals were killed there.’

Video: Illegal construction of a mosque by ancient Jewish cemetery

This past week I mentioned that Jewish graves at the Mount of Olives were vandalized by Arabs.

JTA also reported in that link, "At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin."

Here is video of that mosque being built as the Arab workers ignoring the court order to stop:

The mainstream Israeli English language media is not reporting on this outrage; only Arutz-7.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

New posters: "Progressive," "Liberal" and "Humanitarian"

Commenter Don gave the idea for the first, thanks to another comment by Challah Hu Akbar, and I ran with it:

Egyptian woman lodges complaint over "virginity test"

From Al Masry al Youm:

Three months after news surfaced that military police conducted virginity tests on female prostesters, Samira Ibrahim, one of the victims, has lodged an official complaint with the military prosecution.

Following her complaint, Ibrahim was brought in on Tuesday by the military prosecution to give a detailed account of her experience. She shared some of her story with Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Seventeen girls were among the 173 protesters arrested on 9 March as the military police forcibly cleared protesters from Tahrir Square. Many detainees reported being tortured, but some women, who were released four days later, announced in the media that they were forced to undergo virginity tests during their incarceration.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt’s de-facto rulers since the president resigned in February, denied the allegations, but a CNN report in May quoted a senior general, speaking on condition of anonymity, as admitting to the practice.

The general said that the tests aimed at protecting the military from rape accusations by the girls later by proving that they were not virgins when they were first brought in. “None of them were virgins,” he added, according to CNN’s report.

Infuriated by the claim, Ibrahim and many of the other girls who shared her ordeal say that they are willing to take another virginity test to prove the general wrong.

After being arrested in Tahrir Square, Ibrahim was taken to the Egyptian museum with other captured protesters.

“As they arrested us, they were saying that we are accused of prostitution, and when I tried to object I was electrocuted,” Ibrahim told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The women say that they were verbally abused by the military as they were held in the Egyptian museum for six hours. Military police insulted them and accused them of sexual activity inside Tahrir Square, the women say, though they say that the men arrested with them were tortured more severely.

The men were also electrocuted in “sensitive areas”, according to Ibrahim.

Mohamed Adel, one of those arrested on 9 March, says that the girls were sexually harassed by officers in the military prosecution.

After hours of abuse, the virginity tests started.

Ibrahim’s story goes like this. The girls were asked to separate into two rows: one for the virgins and one for the non-virgins. The girls who said they were virgins were then taken to a room one by one. All the windows and the doors of the room were open and there were officers watching inside and outside the room as a male, whom they suspect was a non-medical officer, conducted the virginity tests.

“When I asked for a female to conduct the test and for the other males in the room to leave, I was electrocuted,” says Ibrahim.

Many of the girls say that they still haven’t completely recovered from the emotional damage of the experience. They were then transferred to a center for military prosecution and most were released four days later.

“When I came out of prison, I was completely destroyed. I had to go see a psychiatrist,” says Ibrahim.

Since her release, Ibrahim has kept the virginity test a secret from her friends and family, fearing that they might not believe her or that they would stop her engaging in political activity. However, she says that she was not afraid to issue the complaint, and is not afraid that her family will notice if she talks to the media.

“The worst that can happen already has,” she says.

Ibrahim says that she has been receiving threatening phone calls since she made the complaint, telling her that if she goes through with it she will serve her suspended one-year sentence, which she received before her release in March.

The military government will investigate the military police. Sounds real encouraging.But you have to give her props; she's got guts.

After proving it is worthless, UNDOF mandate extended

From YNet:

The Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of the United Nations force monitoring the ceasefire in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria for another six months.

According to a UN press release, the resolution extending UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) mandate was adopted unanimously. The statement said the UN Security Council was "deeply concerned that recent events have put the long-held ceasefire in jeopardy."

UNDOF did nothing to stop Syria from sending their people to the Israeli border on May 15 and June 5, pretending that they were "Palestinians."

To their credit, the US and Germany noted this. From the UN press release:

Speaking in explanation of position after the vote, Council members noted that the renewal deviated from previous practice, with several stressing that the events of 15 May and 5 June were the most serious since UNDOF’s creation and could not go unremarked. Representatives of the United States and Germany, among others, expressed concern that the Syrian Government had played a role in those demonstrations, and suggested that it seemed willing to risk an international conflict to divert attention from its own domestic demonstrations.

The UN being the UN, of course, those concerns were buried by Russia and China:

A number of speakers highlighted the Secretary-General’s recent call for the Council to express itself on Syria, suggesting that such expression was long overdue. Stressing that the situation in Syria was not sustainable, the representative of the United Kingdom said delegation would continue to press for a resolution on the situation in Syria. However, the representative of the Russian Federation pointed out that Syria was not on the Council’s agenda, while China’s delegate said the Syria question was an internal affair and should be left to the parties concerned.

Ron Prosor, the new Israeli ambassador to the UN, spoke:

RON PROSOR ( Israel) stressed that the international community must continue to support UNDOF’s mandate, underlining the need for all parties fully to respect the disengagement line. Indeed, given the regional instability, the need for doing so had never been clearer. As for recent events, he recalled that on 15 May a large organized group of protesters had torn through the defence wall and engaged with the Israel Defence Force near Majal Chams. On 5 June, hundreds had sought to breach the disengagement line with Israel, trying to break through the fence, he said, adding that they had also thrown Molotov cocktails and used other modes of violence.

Noting that the Syrian regime had not prevented demonstrators from reaching the line nor stopped their attempt to breach the defence walls, he said its actions were a blatant attempt to distract attention from its own internal actions. Indeed, the regime’s fingerprints “are all over this process”, he said, adding that one need not be a forensic detective to see them. He said Bashar al-Assad was the only ophthalmologist he knew who was incapable of ensuring the vision of his own people, adding that the Syrian regime should not be allowed to behave in such a way just because it did not want the cries of its own citizens to be heard.

The week in the "world's largest prison"

Gazans enjoyed a weekend at the beach:

Nearly 8000 Gazans traveled between Gaza and Egypt.

342 Gazans (mostly patients and families) went into Israel.

Nearly 30,000 tons of goods were unloaded in Gaza from Israel.

UNRWA continued the "Summer Games" activities for children, which included bouncy castles, pools and trampolines:

(h/t Khaled Abu Toameh for top set of photos, read his article.)

Quick review of previous voyages to Gaza

You know how the flotilla organizers are claiming that they would give their aid directly to the people of Gaza and not go through Hamas?

It is a little hard to believe.

August, 2008: A British citizen who arrived on a Free Gaza boat gets a "Palestinian passport" from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zahar.