Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Israelis taking Gulf airlines via Jordan

Firas Press quotes Mako saying that many Israelis are saving money by taking Arab flights via Jordan, especially to Southeast Asia.

According to the story, Israelis travel to Queen Alia Airport in Amman, and from there take Arab flights to their destination. Gulf airlines will usually stop in their home countries, such as the UAE, Qatar or Bahrain, but while the Israelis must disembark to change planes, they don't need to go through security again.

An Israeli travel agency, "Fly East," specializes in arranging these trips, saying it can save hundreds of dollars per trip. According to Globes, some one third of Israeli backpackers going to the Far East - some 40,000 people this year - are using Arab airlines like Royal Jordanian Airlines or Qatar Airways, mostly to save money.

One reason for the uptick in Arab airline use is because Israelis don't want to use Turkish airlines anymore.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is unhappy with this idea, stressing that the Gulf countries are just as much enemy states as Iran or Syria, and it is equally forbidden for Israelis to enter. Apparently, this advice is being roundly ignored.

(ht Yoel for Mako link)

Gaza fuel crisis continues; factories may shut down, Hamas refuses blame

From Ma'an:

The leader of the business community in the Gaza Strip warned on Sunday that dozens of factories are at risk of closure due to Gaza's fuel crisis.

Ali al-Hayik, the head of Gaza's Federation of Industries and the Palestinian Businessmen Association, called on the Hamas-led government to provide fuel to factories to avert an impending catastrophe for local industry.

The government must take responsibility for the crisis and is tasked with supporting the private sector, al-Hayik said in a press statement.

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday blamed Egypt for not resolving the fuel shortage. The Hamas authorities and Egypt cannot agree on an official channel for fuel deliveries, after Egypt sought to cut off the tunnel network.

As I've been reporting for weeks, this is all because Hamas refuses to accept fuel that goes through Israel.

There is a fuel siege of Gaza, but not from Israel. Hamas is actively promoting it in order to push a political agenda. And Hamas has no qualms about causing every Gazan under its control to suffer in order to "win." The head of Gaza's energy authority confirmed this by saying that Egypt wanted to transfer fuel via Kerem Shalom and he personally refused to allow it to go through the "Zionist entity" and insisting that Egypt transfer the fuel through Rafah, which is not equipped to handle the half-million liters needed a day.

Hamas, trying to deflect anger about the fuel crisis, organized some "youths" to protest - at the (closed) Egyptian consulate in Gaza.

Iran increasing support for Syrian massacres

From the Washington Post:

U.S. officials say they see Iran’s hand in the increasingly brutal crackdown on opposition strongholds in Syria, including evidence of Iranian military and intelligence support for government troops accused of mass executions and other atrocities in the past week.

Three U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports from the region described a spike in Iranian-supplied arms and other aid for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad at a time when the regime is mounting an unprecedented offensive to crush resistance in the key city of Homs

“The aid from Iran is increasing, and is increasingly focused on lethal assistance,” said one of the officials, insisting on anonymity to discuss intelligence reports from the region.

The expanded Iranian role in the conflict has been underscored by reports — supported by U.S. intelligence findings — that an Iranian operative was recently wounded while working with Syrian security forces inside the country.

But Iran will act rationally when it builds a nuclear weapon, right?

Belgian bank decides not to give itself too Jewish a name

The Dexia Bank of Belgium was bought out by the Belgian government last year in a bailout, and since it is no longer part of the Dexia group it needed a new name.

According to DeMorgan.be, one of the names on the shortlist was Symmon or a variant like Symon or Symona, to give the bank a more personalized flavor. A human name like Symmon would push the idea that the bank is simple to use, has good service and is reliable.

But there were two objections to that name.

One is that it was not particularly Belgian, which many desired.

The other was that the name Symmon was too - Jewish!

Although market analysis showed that the resistance of the Muslim community [to the name] is not insurmountable, the Dexia marketers saw the connotation as a major limitation.

In the end, they chose the name Belfius.

Jewish newspaper Joods Actueel tried to contact Belfius and the advertising agency that helped choose the name, but they refused to comment on that aspect of the story.

The paper noted that Simon is a common Flemish name, among the top twenty names given to babies in Belgium.

It is not clear whether the public relations firm pro-actively polled the name and found Muslim objections to it, or if it assumed that there would be objections from Muslims and that this was an obstacle that needed to be overcome.

The story shows that either the Muslim community in Belgium is inherently anti-semitic, or it is assumed to be so by the Belgian public. Or, more likely, both.

(h/t Rudi)

Competing videos on Obama's Israel record

The Democratic National Committee released this commercial last week:

On Saturday, The Emergency Committee for Israel released an entire documentary about Obama's record on Israel:

While it is perhaps unfair to compare the two directly, they show what each side is emphasizing. The Obama team wants to highlight the amount of military cooperation that the US and Israel have shared, the anti-Obama team brings many examples of how this administration has seemed to have thrown Israel under the bus.

Both points of view are biased, of course.

The two major issues that Israel faces are the Iranian nuclear threat and the Palestinian Arab threat - both terrorist and diplomatic.

On the Iranian front, while some may argue that the US should have done more sooner, Obama's initial outreach to Iran has now been forgotten and his current sanctions are indeed far reaching. It is a shame that some time was lost while he seemed to need to convince himself of what the Bush administration already knew about Iran. On the one hand, the US has not done a bad job in corralling international support for sanctions considering the huge opposition from Russia and China; but on the other hand I don't think that Iran perceives a US military threat as credible, which would be the single most important deterrent possible. Meanwhile, Iran is wholeheartedly supporting Syria's massacres and Hezbollah's terrorist army in Lebanon, and the US has failed to publicly push those aspects of the regime.

Most of all, the Obama administration's actions vis a vis Iran have not been to support Israel; they are to defend Western interests. Not that there is anything wrong with this, of course; this is what nations are supposed to do. Nevertheless, in that sense the narrative in the Democratic video is a little deceptive. US actions on Iran have been meant to try to stop Israel from attacking on its own at least as much as they have been to try to stop Iran from getting closer to building a bomb. Sending Patriot missiles to Israel is nice, but in a sense it shows that the US is starting to consider a nuclear Iran a fait accompli.

As far as the Palestinian issue is concerned, the Obama administration has continued previous US policies of vetoing one-sided Security Council resolutions against Israel. But it has been the most consistently pro-Palestinian Arab administration ever, completely adopting the Arab narrative on settlements and the 1967 lines, ignoring (at least in public) previous commitments given by the Bush and Clinton administrations on Israel's security, publicly pressuring only the Israeli side and providing Palestinian Arabs with political cover for their intransigence. Perhaps the peace process was moribund before he entered office, but it completely fell apart under Obama - and this is after Israel implemented a settlement freeze that, according to conventional wisdom, should have brought Abbas to the table.

Abbas himself explained it best when he said that he is simply waiting for Washington to pressure Israel to do everything he wants.

Obama's record on Israel is not as anti-Israel as the ECI video implies. As I wrote at the time, Obama's "1967 lines" speech also included many very good points, and it seems that Obama's original public position that was exactly congruent with J-Street has shifted a little towards realism.

I don't know how much of that is from his learning anew what previous presidents had already learned about Palestinian Arab duplicity, and how much is simply his desire to get re-elected.

UPDATE: Obama's speech at AIPAC.

Edited interview of Asma Assad shows hypocrisy of Arab world

From NYT:

A video blogger has remixed footage of an interview Asma al-Assad gave to CNN in 2009, in which Syria’s British-born first lady decried the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, to make it seem as if she was speaking out against the violent crackdown on dissent currently under way in Syria.

The remix posted on YouTube cuts together outraged comments from Mrs. Assad in 2009 (including, “the barbaric assault on innocent civilians has been horrific,” and, “this is the 21st century, where in the world could this happen?”) and video shot last week of the Syrian government’s bombardment of Homs, the city her family is originally from. (Readers should be aware that the clip includes some extremely graphic video of a dead child with a gaping head wound.)

In a similar vein, the editor-in-chief of Asharq al-Awsat wrote last week:

Let us pause here in front of this state of mad dictatorship, and compare it with what Israel has committed against us in recent times, and I say recent times as we are talking about the last 5 years, particularly the Lebanon and Gaza wars. The entire world rushes to stop Israel’s aggressions against Lebanon in 2006, and this war ended after approximately two months, claiming the lives of 1,200 Lebanese. The same thing applies to the Gaza war, which had approximately the same death toll. In both wars, the public opinion in the Arab world rushed to take action, whilst counterfeit “friends of Israel” lists were issued, masterminded by the al-Assad regime; indeed a number of Arab politicians attempted to exploit this tragedy, most prominently the al-Assad regime. However we did not hear anybody ask – even now – why did these wars happen? Whose interests did these wars, and more, serve? Who was responsible for this?

Today, in the case of al-Assad, we have seen the Syrian forces brutally killing their own people on our television screens over the past year – not two months – whilst the death toll stands at more than 8,000 and the tyrant of Damascus’s troops have destroyed mosques, tortured and assassinated children, as well as women and the elderly, simply in order to allow al-Assad to cling to power. Despite all this, we find some countries, politicians, media organizations and figures, who are procrastinating; it is as if we – as Arabs – are saying that if the killer is also an Arab, then this is something that we can accept, however if he is an Israeli, then we must all move as one to put an end to this! This is a saddening and shameful state of affairs, particularly when somebody like Hassan Nasrallah shamelessly comes out to defend al-Assad!

(h/t Michael G)

"Apartheid" video inspired by my posters

From YouTube user SDAMatt2a:

I gotta say, it is nice to have fans!

(h/t jzaik)

A Jerusalem wall collapses from rain; Arabs blame "Al Aqsa excavations" (updated)

Palestine Today has a headline that there was a "landslide" in Jerusalem as a wall collapsed, and cracks appeared in walls, due to - they claim- Israeli excavations under the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Reading the article a little further you can see that the damage was not very close to Al Aqsa - it was in the Al Bustan neighborhood, hundreds of meters away - and that the damage came about as a result of heavy rains that have fallen on Jerusalem and the entire area over the last couple of weeks.

This is just the latest attempt to incite Arabs against Israel.

UPDATE: Ma'an has the story, where the Al Aqsa Foundation is blaming Israeli digs on the "landslide," - but it doesn't even mention the heavy rains in Jerusalem lately.

Moroccan man jailed for "sacrilege" - flying an Israeli flag

From Al Arabiya:

A Moroccan court on Friday sentenced a man to six months in jail after he raised the Israeli flag over his home to attract the attention of local authorities and protest the disconnection of electricity and water supplies to his home, Moroccan media reported.

Mohammed Jadidi, 42, had drawn the Israeli flag on a white cloth and raised it over his home in the Airport neighborhood of the northern predominantly Amazigh (Berber) town of Nador.

He reportedly did so after the electricity and water were disconnected to his home, which belonged to the Auxiliary Forces and occupied by his family since the death of his father, who was part of the paramilitary forces.

Morocco’s Auxiliary Forces supplement the military, gendarmerie and the police when needed.

Jadidi was arrested last Monday and was charged with “sacrilege” through “undermining the national flag.”

His mother had appeared on a video circulated on Moroccan websites appealing King Mohammad VI to release her son. She said he only raised the Israeli flag to attract the attention of the senior officials to look into the conditions of his family.

The local Rif Association for Human Rights blasted the court’s decision as baseless and said there was nothing in raising a foreign flag that undermines the national flag.

Flying an Israeli flag is "sacrilege"? And it "undermines the national flag" of Morocco?

This is not the first time that the appearance of an Israeli flag in Morocco caused mass angst.

The general psychosis of the Arab world is a most interesting phenomenon.

(h/t Dan)

Weekend links/open thread

If you haven't read it, see Jeffrey Goldberg's interview with President Obama.

Would a post-Assad Syria tilt towards Israel?

Dubai's clown police chief Dani Khalfan says that there is an evil triangle trying to destroy the Gulf: Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood - and the United States.

Nice op-ed in the Harvard Crimson on the occasion of a "one-state" conference at Harvard with the usual suspects.

"Global March to Jerusalem" - exposed.

BDS Secrets - interesting analysis of the Finkelstein interview. (h/t Stan)

Feel free to add any interesting links you have found in the comments.

Hamas accuses Egypt of reneging on fuel deal

Hamas and Egypt are still arguing over the short-term procurement of fuel for Gaza's power plant.

According to Hamas media, Egypt is insisting that Hamas pay $1.00 per liter of diesel for the power plant, and Hamas is balking at paying a half million dollars a day for fuel.

Egypt heavily subsidizes its own fuel prices - the latest numbers I could find were about 50 cents a liter from last autumn - and does not appear to want to charge Hamas any less than it pays itself.

Ismail Haniyeh today said that there were unnamed "parties" who were determined to keep Gaza in the dark.

Egypt's ambassador to Ramallah blamed "technical issues" for the snafu.

It is increasingly clear that the option of Egypt transferring fuel through Kerem Shalom is off the table because of Hamas' refusal.

Meanwhile, Gazans are suffering because of a cold snap and snow that fell last night.

Which side is interested in dialogue? (video)

This video shows how close-minded the anti-Israel crowd is.

Two Israeli soldiers are on a speaking tour of the US, sponsored by StandWithUs. At UCLA they insisted, multiple times, that they would love to engage in dialogue with the protesters in the audience who represented "Students for Justice in Palestine."

But the SJP drones walked out anyway.

There was a bright side, as those who wanted to hear the talk but got there late managed to get seats.

PaArab. aid recipients: "Anti-terror clauses unacceptable"

The Dalia Association is a Palestinian Arab organization that is currently trying to revamp the way that international aid is given to the territories. Many of their objections to the current system are very valid, and we have touched on some of these problems in the past.

Here is their video about their issues with how aid is administered today:

Dalia published a list of things that aid recipients complain about. One of them is most interesting:

Anti-terrorism clauses are unacceptable.

The people giving free money to Palestinian aid organizations, according to the recipients, do not have the right to ensure that their aid will not go towards terrorists. Palestinian "civil society" wants the money to have no strings attached so they can choose to fund, say, Islamic Jihad charities (allowing other funds to be freed up for rockets.)

In Dalia's more comprehensive report on the topic, they write:

While seen as an extremely harmful policy, the anti-terrorism certification, which participants considered racist, was not prioritized as a major objection. Some expressed outrage: “Why do international aid actors treat us like we are terrorists!” but most seemed resigned to sign, regardless of their intention to comply, or they avoid donors that require signing, resigned to miss out on much-needed funds.

At the exact same time that these organizations are complaining that they are being "treated like terrorists," they admit that they might not comply any send the funds to terror groups, or hire known terrorists, anyway!

It is worthwhile to point out that UNRWA originally tried very hard to do exactly that Dalia is suggesting now, to create programs that will ensure self-sufficiency for Palestinian Arabs, and these were mostly dropped because of objections both from host countries and from the Palestinian refugees themselves.

(I once posted about how there are plenty of NGOs in Gaza who are knowingly propping up Hamas, so it is not like there aren't NGOs willing to fund terror anyway.)

(h/t Rudi)

Latest Latma

I liked this one:

PA attacks Hamas journalists

From PCHR:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR and a statement of Mohammed Eshtaiwi, Correspondent of al-Aqsa Satellite Channel which is connected to Hamas, at approximately 13:00 on Tuesday, 28 February 2012, Eshtaiwi and a crew of Media Modern Company, which has a contract with the al-Aqsa Satellite Channel, comprised of Mahmoud Mohammed al-Dumairi and Waleed Ma’moun ‘Othan, concluded coverage of a press conference held by the Islamic Bloc in Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah. While they were traveling towards Ramallah in a car belonging to the Media Modern Company, a taxi intercepted them near Best Eastern Hotel. Six persons stepped out of the car and opened the journalists’ car. They forcibly took the camera from al-Dumairi after a arguing with him. When ‘Othman intervened to defend his college, he was beaten. The six persons introduced themselves as members of the PSS. The confiscated the ID cards of the three journalists and ordered them to travel to the PSS headquarters in Bir Zeit village. When the journalists were approximately 50 meters removed from the said headquarters Eshtayeh stepped down from the car and left the area while the other two journalists proceeded towards the headquarters. Three hours later, following the intervention of a number of figures, Eshtaiwi was informed that he could refer to the PSS headquarter to get back his ID card.

This is actually more about Fatah infighting with Hamas, as al-Aqsa channel is a Hamas media outlet.

Fatah is meanwhile accusing Hamas of arresting more Fatah members in Gaza for political reasons.

Unity!