Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 29, 2011

Abbas unclear on the concept of "popular resistance"

President Mahmoud Abbas urged Palestinians Wednesday to step up peaceful protests against Israel, urging "popular resistance" inspired by the Arab Spring to back a diplomatic offensive at the United Nations.

Abbas, addressing a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) meeting, reiterated his decision to seek full U.N. membership for a state of Palestine alongside Israel, a diplomatic move resulting from paralysis in the U.S.-backed peace process.

"In this coming period, we want mass action, organised and coordinated in every place," Abbas said. "This is a chance to raise our voices in front of the world and say that we want our rights."

"I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us. We are now inspired by the protests of the Arab Spring, all of which cry out 'peaceful', 'peaceful'," he said.

The entire point of the Arab Spring is that the protests were conceived, organized and carried out by the people.

If Abbas is telling his people to protest, by definition it is not a "popular protest." It is more like the cynical rallies that Bashir Assad has been organizing to pretend that the Syrians are really behind him.

Then again, Mahmoud Abbas has far more in common with Bashir Assad than with any Western head of state. His term as president expired years ago, he refuses to hold new elections, he ruthlessly acts against media that is not toeing the line, he severely limits anti-PA protests, and his leadership derives not from any election but from his being the head of the PLO to which the PA answers, and he hand-picked his prime minister. Does he sound like a democratic leader?

(h/t Yoel)

US Treasury Department details Iran/Al Qaeda links

From NYT:

The Treasury Department on Thursday accused the Iranian authorities of aiding Al Qaeda and said it was imposing financial sanctions on six people believed to be Qaeda operatives in Iran, Kuwait, Qatar and Pakistan.

Weighing in on the puzzling question of whether Iran’s Shiite regime seeks to help the primarily Sunni Al Qaeda, Treasury officials asserted that the Iranian government had entered into an agreement with operatives of the terrorist group and was allowing the country to be used as a transit point for funneling money and people from the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The officials say they have become convinced that Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, whom they described as a “prominent Iran-based Al Qaeda facilitator,” is operating in Iran under an agreement between Al Qaeda and the government.

“This network serves as the core pipeline through which Al Qaeda moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia, including to Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a key Al Qaeda leader based in Pakistan,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Mr. Rahman, another of the six people named in the Treasury action, is believed to have recently ascended to the No. 2 position in Al Qaeda, reporting directly to the organization’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over after the death of Osama bin Laden.

“By exposing Iran’s secret deal with Al Qaeda allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran’s unmatched support for terrorism,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

[O]ne senior administration said the action sought to expose both “a key funding facilitation network for Al Qaeda and a key aspect for Iranian support for international terrorism.”

“Our sense is this network is operating through Iranian territory with the knowledge and at least the acquiescence of Iranian authorities,” the official said in a conference call with reporters.

In May, a congressional panel released a report detailing military ties between Al Qaeda and the Al Quds force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

A footnote in this MEMRI report on a previously unknown Al Qaeda leader who emerged after Bin Laden's assassination notes that he had lived in Iran for years.

None of this is strong evidence for high-level cooperation between Iran and Al Qaeda, but there is no reason to doubt that they do cooperate when it is convenient for both of them.

(h/t Yoel)

A honor massacre in Pakistan: Father kills six daughters

From the Express Tribune (Pakistan):

A man gunned down six of his daughters on suspicion that two of them were in relationships with boys in the neighbourhood.

On Tuesday morning, Arif Mubashir called his teenage daughters to his room and shot them while the rest of the family, including their mother, watched. His wife Musarrat called the police after the incident.

Mubashir shot the girls after their brother said two of them were in a relationship. He told police officials that he had killed his daughters because they were both “without honour”. The man said his daughters Sameena, 14, and Razia, 16, were in a relationship with college boys from the neighbourhood and the sisters had helped each other. “I should have been told immediately but the girls sided with each other. They were both corrupt,” Mubashir told Tandlianwala Police Inspector Javed Sial.

Police officials have taken Mubashir into custody and filed a case against him. “He does not regret what he did. He boasted that he would do it all over again if he had to,” Sial told reporters.

And if the mother would have objected to the murders, there would be seven victims.

(h/t jzaik)

In Hamas, doesn't take much to reach martyrdom

The headline of the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website laments the death of Nabil Zaig, 41, who was a part of the terror group since its inception in 1987 (which would have made him 17 at the time.)

The article calls him a "military martyr."

But how did he die?

He drowned, after going for a midnight swim.

Becoming a martyr ain't what it used to be.

Are there a "million missing Israelis"?

A few weeks ago, in Foreign Policy, an article by Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin claimed that there are a million Israelis - about one if five - who moved away from Israel and are living abroad. This caused a bit of a hullaboo, and even prompted Tony Karon of Time to use that statistic as a springboard to claim that not only is Israel not the Jewish state, but even Israelis are disillusioned with it.

Well, it turns out that the authors' statistics were misleading, and in some ways incorrect.

Yogev Karasenty and Shmuel Rosner respond to the article, also in FP:

We should start with this simple statement: There are not a "million missing Israelis." A study conducted under the auspices of our think tank, the Jewish People Policy Institute -- one that has not yet been released but will be published in a couple of weeks -- will put the real number of "missing" Israelis at a much lower number. According to Israel's Bureau of Statistics, since the establishment of the state up until the end of 2008, 674,000 Israelis left the country and did not return after more than a year abroad. An unknown number, estimated to be between 102,000 and 131,000, have died since, putting the number of living Israelis abroad at the end of 2008 at 543,000 to 572,000.

It goes on from there, including the fact that many of the "yordim" were Soviet Jews who were in Israel only a short time on their way to the US. And 100,000 others are Arabs.

Which makes the truth a bit less scary than the original story claimed.

Read the whole thing.

A Twitter conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg

There was an interesting Twitter discussion today between Israel's deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon and well-known writer Jeffrey Goldberg.

Ayalon had posted a popular YouTube video about the West Bank, and Goldberg wrote an article belittling it. Ayalon and Goldberg then went to Twitter to continue their argument.

It was so popular that no less than two articles have already been written about the thread, each drawing different conclusions.

I jumped in at something Goldberg wrote to Ayalon:

Keeping the WB will bring about the end of Israel as we know it.

The thread after that:

elderofziyon says:
@Goldberg3000 "Keeping the WB will bring about the end of Israel as we know it" This is an all-or-nothing fallacy. http://j.mp/q4FMIq

Goldberg3000 says:
@elderofziyon why?

elderofziyon says:
@Goldberg3000 Read the link. If Israel keeps Area C (for example) and the Pals declare state in A&B then demographic threat gone.

Goldberg3000 says:
@elderofziyon And endless war ensues. If you were Palestinian, would you accept less than 100 percent of West Bank, including land swaps?

elderofziyon says:
@Goldberg3000 If the point is independence, yes. But that isn't the point, is it? Remember Herzog's famous "size of a tablecloth" quote.
@Goldberg3000 And given the importance given to "right of return," why wouldn't endless war ensue even with 100%?

Goldberg3000 says:
@elderofziyon It very well might. I've never said there are great options on the table

elderofziyon says:
@Goldberg3000 Thanks.. Which is why to my mind the pressure should be on compromise so Israel has security and Pals have a state.

Goldberg3000 says:
@elderofziyon I believe, however, that Israel will become a pariah if the Palestinians aren't granted statehood, or the vote in Israel.

elderofziyon says:
@Goldberg3000 That is an issue, but one that probably can't be discussed effectively here. Goodwill towards Israel usually lasts a month.

I left it at that, for now.

Meanwhile, Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe jumped in:

Jeff_Jacoby:
@Goldberg3000 @elderofziyon And after Pal statehood or voting rights, there'll be 6 new demands Israel must fulfill or "become a pariah."
@Goldberg3000 @elderofziyon Left-wing Zionism would be healthier if it weren't so hungry for the goodwill of Israel's foes & critics.

Goldberg3000:
@Jeff_Jacoby @elderofziyon Why do you instantly assume left-wing Zionists are left-wing because they seek approval from Israel's enemies?

Jeff_Jacoby:
@Goldberg3000 @elderofziyon I assume nothing. But left-wing Zionists do evince a strange need to win their (non-Jewish) enemies' approval.

Goldberg3000:
Examples, please.

That thread is continuing as I write this, but it is not an avenue that I think is too fruitful. The fear of Israel becoming a pariah state is an important topic, though, and one that I would like to treat fairly - which means, not on Twitter.

As soon as I find the time.

Jordanian journalist union upset at "normalization"

Shimon Peres' office released a statement on Tuesday:

President Peres during a Special Press Conference with the Arabic Language media in honor of Ramadan: “Assad Must Go; I Admire the Very Brave Syrian Protesters”

President Shimon Peres held a special press conference today for members of the Arabic language media at Beit HaNassi in Jerusalem in honor of the upcoming month of Ramadan. The President delivered a message of peace and reconciliation during his remarks. More than 30 journalists and television crews participated in the event and represented Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabi, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and the local Arabic language press in Israel.

The President discussed the regional situation, peace process, Iranian
nuclear issue, and Israel’s relations with the Arab world before answering
questions from the journalists.

This has upset the Jordanian Journalists' Union. They are now investigating which reporters from Jordan committed the perceived crime of meeting the president of Israel.

The journalists union is against any contacts with any Israelis, which is a strange position for journalists to take.

They are now in the process of verifying the authenticity of the news, and trying to identify the Jordanian reporter or reporters who attended, so they can expel them from the union. They said that "the committee will not hesitate to take a decisive stand against those wishing to exit the national consensus of rejecting any form of normalization with the Zionist entity."

Great new video on Palestinian refugees

From Free Middle East:

"Ethical" Lush Cosmetics refuses to open Israeli store, but Saudi Arabia is OK

From TheJC:

Skincare company Lush says concerns about the lack of a "mixed" workforce would prevent it opening a store in Israel - but it operates stores in Saudi Arabia.

And this week the company, which has just opened a new store in Brent Cross, north-west London, defended its decision to promote a pro-Palestinian song on its website.

Customers have been challenging staff in the Lush store in Brent Cross, about the company's support for Oneworld's single "Freedom for Palestine". The head office has received 223 emails to date on the issue.

On the Lush website, under "Our Ethical Campaigns" it says: "The catastrophe facing the Palestinian people is one of the defining global justice issues of our time."

Hilary Jones, the company's ethics director, admitted that Lush had been approached by the charity War on Want about putting the single online, but said it had not donated to the cause.

She said: "It was an easy decision. We trade with the region and forge links on both sides of the community. We buy olive oil from a Jewish-Arab project.

"But we don't feel it's a safe environment to have a store. Would we want a shop where we couldn't have a mix? We have a multicultural attitude to everything we do; we want everyone in the country where we are trading to be on an equal footing as far as basic human rights go. Some of the team would have to come through checkpoints and be treated differently on their way to work – that would be our worry."

I hadn't heard about those checkpoints that distinguish between Israeli Arabs and Jews in Israel. You can learn a lot from an ethics director!

Yet, for some inexplicable reason, the fact that Saudi women are not allowed to even drive to the 2 Lush locations in Riyadh does not pose an ethical dilemma for this well-read director of ethics.

I think it might be time to drop a line to the Saudi Arabian Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the infamous religious police known as the Muttawa. After all, can they actually allow this product to be sold in their stores?

It seems to be more offensive than Valentine's Day roses!

Egypt hosts terror convention with Hamas, Hezbollah, more

From the ITIC:

On July 24-25 Egypt hosted a conference called the "Founding Conference of the Arab-Islamic Gathering to Support the Option of Resistance" [i.e., terrorism] to support the so-called "resistance" (i.e., terrorism and violence). It was held at the Egyptian Press Syndicate in Cairo. The Palestinian media reported that the conference was attended by representatives from 14 Islamic countries, among them Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Sudan and Jordan. Also present were representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian political establishment elements. In addition, there were representatives from Hezbollah, and Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations. The Hezbollah representative gave a speech in the name of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Qudspress and Ma'an News Agency, July 24, 2011).

The conference attendees attempted to establish a link between the so-called "resistance" (i.e., the path of terrorism) and the popular protests in the Arab countries in recent months, stressing that the "resistance" was the only option for "liberating" Palestine. Osama Hamdan, responsible for Hamas' international relations, said in a speech that "the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict will never end unless Israel ceased to exist," and that Hamas would never recognize Israel (Al-Quds TV, July 24, 2011).

Syrian stats: 1,634 dead, 12,617 in jail, 2,918 missing

From AFP/NOW Lebanon:

Almost 3,000 people have gone missing in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests more than four months ago, the Avaaz non-governmental organization said in a statement on Thursday.

"Avaaz has today revealed the identities of 2,918 Syrians who have been arrested by Syrian security forces and whose whereabouts are now unknown," the organization said in statement received by AFP in Nicosia.

It said it was launching a campaign Thursday "to call for the release of the nearly 3,000 Syrians who have been forcibly 'disappeared' since the peaceful uprising began on March 15th of this year."

"The in-depth survey conducted by Avaaz estimates that one person is disappearing every hour.”

"In the past week alone there have been more than 1,000 arrests and the number of enforced disappearances has been rapidly rising on a daily basis, as the regime steps up its efforts to repress dissent in the build-up to Ramadan," the statement said.

According to the organization’s executive director, Ricken Patel, "hour by hour, peaceful protesters are plucked from crowds by Syria's infamously brutal security forces, never to be seen again."

Avaaz said 1,634 people have died in the crackdown, 26,000 have been arrested, of whom 12,617 are still in detention.

Others put the death toll at closer to 2,000.

Things might get more heated during Ramadan, which starts next week. From Bloomberg:

Activists, analysts and Syrian refugees say the uprising is set to intensify during the Muslim holy month. Opposition groups plan to shift from weekly rallies to nightly ones, held after the tarawih, an additional nighttime prayer recited during Ramadan, said Bashar Afandi and Mohammed al-Klesse, who fled Assad’s crackdown on northern Syria and are staying in Turkish camps.

“The mosques will play a pivotal role and every night, when people gather to pray, will resemble what we have seen after every Friday prayers,” said Mahmoud Merhi, of the Arab Organization for Human Rights. A surge in arrests in the past two weeks is probably aimed at heading off the momentum that Ramadan may give to protesters, he said by phone from Damascus.

Soccer team complains over Malaysian anti-semitic abuse

From the BBC:

Chelsea have complained to the Malaysian FA about what they believe was racist abuse directed at Yossi Benayoun during last week's friendly.

The 31-year-old Israeli was jeered each time he touched the ball in a match against a Malaysian XI on 21 July.

Chelsea said: "We believe Yossi was subjected to anti-semitic abuse by a number of supporters at the game.

"Such behaviour is offensive, totally unacceptable and has no place in football," added a club statement.

Agency reports from the match in Kuala Lumpur said the abuse directed at Benayoun - one of the few Israelis to have played in Malaysia, a country which does not recognise Israel - was anti-semitic.

Here is a description of the game by a fan:

I WENT to Bukit Jalil to watch football: A classy EPL football team against a spirited Malaysia team.

Although the match lived up to my expectation, I was shocked at the way Malaysian football fans treated Chelsea’s Yossi Benayoun. Not just one or two fans but a vast majority of them!

It’s another black eye for Malaysia. Reports around the world stated “Benayoun Suffers Racial Abuse from Malaysian Fans” (Sky News).

We, in Malaysia, always pride ouselves on racial equality. Then, of all places, a friendly football match, Malaysians reared their ugly side and jeered a class footballer like Benayoun. I am ashamed.

Although I do not support Israel, I support football. I came to watch football.

Benayoun should be applauded for his courageous decision to travel to Malaysia.

EPL and Fifa (and other sporting bodies) would definitely think twice now about sending teams to Malaysia.

Malaysians, we not only lost to Chelsea FC last night, we also lost respect as well.

(h/t aparatchik)

Another "moderate" saying he wants to destroy the Jewish state

MEMRI released this interview with Nabil Sha'ath, a Fatah leader:

Nabil Shaath: The recognition of a [Palestinian] state is basically a bilateral action, which receives the blessing of the UN. This act, however, will make many things possible in the future. Eventually, we will be able to sign bilateral agreements with states, and this will enable us to exert pressure on Israel. At the end of the day, we want to exert pressure on Israel, in order to force it to recognize us and to leave our country. This is our long-term goal.
...

[The French initiative] reshaped the issue of the "Jewish state" into a formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples. They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people. The story of "two states for two peoples" means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this – not as part of the French initiative and not as part of the American initiative. We will not sacrifice the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who live within the 1948 borders, and we will never agree to a clause preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their country. We will not accept this, whether the initiative is French, American, or Czechoslovakian.

Barry Rubin notes:

Supposedly, [Shaath] is the archetypal Palestinian moderate. There was a time when the Western media ridiculed the Israeli declaration that he was a secret Fatah member. When Israel agreed to negotiate with non-PLO Palestinians, the PLO put his name forward although it knew, of course, that he was no such thing. Peace processors ridiculed Israel’s refusal to accept him....It is reasonable to call Shaath as moderate as anyone in the PA’s leadership, more moderate than the Fatah leadership.

...In other words, Shaath, one of the most important and relatively moderate Palestinian Authority leaders, is against a two-state solution. First, there will be a Palestinian state “for one people,” that is an Arab, Muslim state. But there can be no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state because that implies a permanent peace. Shaath and the Palestinian leadership almost unanimously seek a second stage in which the “Palestinians with Israeli citizenship” plus the “returning…to their country” of Palestinian refugees will turn Israel into an Arab Muslim Palestinian part of Palestine.

This is merely a restatement of the “two-stage” solution of the PLO adopted forty years ago.

Also, note that Sha'ath is saying - by his own definition of what "a state for its people" means - that Jews will never be allowed to live in "Palestine!"

He is saying that Israel is racist because he misunderstands what a "state of the Jewish people" means - but he has no problem saying, explicitly, that "Palestine" will be a state of one people, which by his own definition means zero non-Palestinian Arabs living there.

Which sounds suspiciously like he is advocating ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Jordan upset over Israel's opening Christian site on the river

From AP, July 12:

QASR EL-YAHUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel opened the traditional baptism site of Jesus to daily visits Tuesday, a move that required the cooperation of Israel's military and the removal of nearby mines in the West Bank along the border with Jordan.

The location, where many believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River, is one of the most important sites in Christianity.

Until now, it was opened several times a year in coordination with the Israeli military, but because of its sensitive location, it had not been regularly open to the public since Israel captured the site from Jordan, along with the rest of the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast war.

Jordan maintains that its site on the other side of the river is the actual place were Jesus was baptized, competing for Christian tourism.

So Jordan is complaining to the Vatican.

In a statement, Jordanian officials said that Israel's move was meant to provoke Jordan, that Israel has no right to open up the site in an area that is "occupied," and that a Vatican official has already said that the site was on the Jordanian side.

Hamas considering more kidnappings, says "Israel isn't in our dictionary"

Hamas's head of international relations, Osama Hamdan, has restated the official Hamas positions that the Western media loves to downplay.

Hamdan issued a press release where we learn these wonderful things:

Hamas does not rule out kidnapping more Israelis in order to better its bargaining position in a prisoner swap.
"Resistance will continue, God willing, in order to liberate the land of Palestine from the [river to the] sea."
Palestine has entered a fierce battle with Israel on two fronts. The first front is resistance against the occupation [i.e., Israel] continuing until its termination, and the second to preserve the unity of the Palestinian people.
Resistance will humiliate the Zionist enemy and liberate the land.
"We have made clear we will not recognize the occupation, and today I say more than that: There is no Israel in our political dictionary."

As usual, Western pundits will ignore and downplay any statements like these, while trumpeting vague statements by Hamas that could be badly misinterpreted as meaning that it is willing to accept Israel's existence.