Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Gazans threaten Red Cross and UN. World yawns.

From WAFA:

A number of Palestinian activists Sunday demonstrated in front of a number of international organizations’ offices in Gaza to protest their silence regarding the striking Palestinian prisoners.

The activists demonstrated in front of offices of the Red Cross office and United Nations and blocked staff from entering for several hours, as well as lifted banners calling to end the prisoners’ sufferings and denouncing the international silence.

The activists issued a statement in which they threatened to escalate measures against these organizations if they do not take immediate action to support the prisoners.

Ma'an adds:

"Since international organizations remain silent towards Israeli procedures against Palestinian prisoners, they are responsible for their lives, just as the occupying state," youth activist Hani Abu Mustafa said at a press conference near the ICRC offices.

If any of the 2,000 Palestinians on hunger-strike dies, Abu Mustafa warned "the consequences will be disastrous for both the occupying state and the international organizations operating in Gaza Strip."

Here we have a direct threat against not only the UN but also the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Did the ICRC condemn the forced closing of their offices and the threat to their employees' lives? Not quite:

In return, the ICRC said that it understands and supports the demands of the prisoners. "We check the prisoners regularly and ask the Israeli authorities to take all the needed procedures to protect them and improve the circumstances of their detention," said Ayman Shahabi, spokesman for the ICRC.

To Abbas, NGOs aren't for human rights - they're for bashing Israel

In the latest Crisis Group Middle East Report N°122, 7 May 2012, "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process," there is a most interesting footnote number 169:

A U.S. official commented that Abbas had inquired into the activities of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, two organisations Egypt’s military authorities accused of seeking to interfere in domestic politics. According to him, “Abbas asked, ‘What are these NGOs doing here? Are they trying to overthrow me?’” Crisis Group interview, Washington DC, March 2012. A presidential adviser expressed similar concern: “My worry is that NGOs can be easily used against the PA, rather than against Israel. They talk a lot about human rights in the PA, less about occupation”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, April 2012.

According to these two quotes, Abbas sees NGOs as having only a single purpose - to demonize Israel. They have nothing to do with human rights or improving people's lives - they are simply political tools to be used as he wishes.

And for the vast majority of them, he gets his wishes. They spend much more time on Israel than on his own corrupt dictatorship.

So when a couple of NGOs break the formula, Abbas is incensed at how they could dare to actually do anything against his interests!

Another part of the same footnote is also notable, and shows that Abbas is more on the side of the Arab dictators than the protesters of the Arab Spring:

A senior PLO official said that Abbas “believes that the Arab Spring is bad for Palestine and for the region”. Crisis Group interview, Ramallah, November 2011.

Despite how the West pretends to love him, Abbas' words and actions show that he is much more like Mubarak and Assad than those who are fighting against the Arab despots.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv - Israel Research Fellow at NGO Monitor)

Israel Inside: How a Small Nation Makes a Big Difference (video)

From Jerusalem Online U:

You have to type in your email to see this. But you can then be entered into a raffle for a free trip to Israel.

It was screened on some PBS stations last year.

Moroccan Islamists disapproved of her short dress, so they beat and stripped her

From Bikya Masr:

Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called “Salafists,” or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing.

Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was “too revealing.”

Human rights and women’s organizations issued statements denouncing the assault on the Moroccan girl, during which she was stripped of her clothes entirely, reports indicated.

Young Moroccan men and women turned to Facebook and online groups to call for protection of individual freedoms in Morocco, including the group “Débardeur and I am fine.”

“Though this incident appeared in the media and gained wider attention, that does not mean it is not repeated on an almost regular or semi-daily basis in all the alleys and streets of our cities. It may not end in stripping the girl of her clothing, but the verbal and physical harassment that women may experience is sometimes more heinous and horrible,” said Nora Al-Fuari, an activist journalist at the Al-Sabah daily and a member of the Facebook group.

I don't quite get how stripping a girl is more modest than her wearing a dress, nor how beating a girl is less offensive than her wearing a skirt that reveals her shins.

Nasrallah, obeying his Iranian masters, threatens Israel

From Reuters:

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said his group was capable of striking any target in Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they did not are over."

"Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.

"For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv," he said, referring to Hezbollah's stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut.

"The days when we were afraid and they were not are over," he said. "And we say to them: The time has come when we will remain and you will be the ones who disappear."

As usual, the fearless Nasrallah made this speech via video from an undisclosed underground location.

Why aren't hunger strikers demanding an end to torture in Israeli prisons?

Given that the list of demands of the hunger strikers covers everything from increased canteen use to restoration of education in Israeli universities, isn't it strange that they aren't mentioning torture at all?

They are demanding things like more fruits and vegetables and access to more cable channels. But not a word about supposed Israeli torture.

The reason is obvious - there isn't any torture in Israeli prisons, despite the bleatings of the anti-Zionist crowd.

(h/t Margie)

CAIR lawyer: Bugs Bunny part of US-funded anti-Islamic plot

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an April 25, 2012 interview with Palestinian-American lawyer Lamis Deek, which aired on Egyptian ON TV, a station launched in 2009 by Coptic communications tycoon Naguib Sawiris. In the interview, Deek, who according to her website is a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claimed that the world media and press, and even cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, were perpetuating racist anti-Islamic notions. She also accused the U.S. Department of Defense of financing anti-Islamic propaganda films.

Lamis Deek: "People interested in attacking the Arab and Muslim communities, and the people who sympathize with the Arabs... I am not talking only about the U.S., but elsewhere as well. They got an opportunity for coordination. I'm talking about the corporations involved in national security and wars, along with Zionist and Israeli institutions, and people who generally believe... I'm talking about Zionist Christians, who believe in the annihilation and demonization of the Muslims. I also mean the racists in general, who are still afraid of what happened in 9/11.

"So all these things - the industry, along with the Zionists and your run-of-the-mill racists who don't know any better, and who get their information only from the media and the press... I'm not talking only about the news, but also about the cartoons on which we were raised, even before 9/11.

"In Bugs Bunny, which we used to watch, they would sometimes bring a character pretending to be an Arab Muslim Sultan. He has a potbelly, and he spends most of his time sitting around and eating, indulging in women day and night, and killing people.

"This is the general notion, but the use they make of it has become more targeted. The film we just watched... The Department of Defense finances such films in order to increase suspicion towards our community in America and abroad."

Interviewer: "The Department of Defense?!"

Lamis Deek: "Yes, it has happened. The DoD has financed films, showing soldiers in Afghanistan killing some Muslims, and the spectators give them a standing ovation. This happens all the time. This is the goal of the film..."

Here's a classic Bugs Bunny film that has Arab characters.

Israel creating butterfly-sized UAV

From Israel HaYom:

At first, it seems like something “Q" developed for British superspy James Bond. The artificial butterfly is handheld and is capable of a vertical takeoff, just like a helicopter. Returning to the Bond movie, we will replace the two main characters: "Q" now becomes the IAI and "007" now becomes a Golani Brigade officer. True, the movie may not be a blockbuster, but no one will want to be the target of this metallic bug.

This butterfly does more than just fly around in the air. Just like any self-respecting UAV, it can also take color images and relay them back to ground control in real time. If you ever imagined what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at a critical moment, this butterfly can fulfill your dream. To explain how it works, Dubi Binyamini, head of IAI's mini-robotics department, takes out a helmet with a visor that looks like something from a science fiction movie and says, "When you put this on you are actually inside the butterfly's cockpit. You see what the butterfly sees. You can fly at any altitude and distance and see everything in real time."

"The butterfly's advantage is its ability to fly in an enclosed environment. There is no other aerial vehicle that can do that today," Binaymini said. "The enclosed structure may be an airport terminal or an indoor train station. You can follow a suspect around without them aware of the fact that you are observing everything they do."

Binyamini mentions airport terminals, but in fact his butterfly can function just as well in forests and jungles. This is important because in locations like southern Lebanon, there are quite a few forests with which Israeli soldiers have unfortunately had to become familiar over the years. Aerial vehicles in use today can fly over the forests, but they don't have the ability to observe the goings-on within them. Hezbollah ambush forces can elude UAVs easily, because UAV cameras cannot "see" past the tops of the trees. If the butterfly meets its planned specifications, it will be able to fly among the trees and plants of a forest.

They are even talking about weaponizing it.

(h/t Elder of Lobby)

UNRWA changes its statement on hunger strikers

UNRWA posted the following on Thursday, according to Electronic Intifada which has screenshots:

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, expressed his grave concern about the current medical and health conditions of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

The Commissioner-General appealed to the Israeli government to find an acceptable solution, noting that the hunger strikers’ demands are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions.

Filippo Grandi reiterated the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious condition after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death.

Then the statement was taken down, and this replaced it:

The statement on prisoners on hunger strike has been removed because it contained some inaccuracies, which are being checked.

Now it reads:

The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, is following with increasing concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular, those held as administrative detainees. He echoes the calls of the Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, and Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, to reach a solution without delay.

The major difference, besides a softening of the rhetoric ("thousands of Palestinian political prisoners" changed to "Palestinian prisoners," "grave concern" into "increasing concern") is that UNRWA's original statement implies - incorrectly - that Israel's treatment of the prisoners does not adhere to the Geneva Conventions, and the updated statement no longer mentions Geneva. It also took out the part demanding that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or freed. (Of course, Western countries like the US and UK also use administrative detention.)

It is interesting that UNRWA corrected its mistake/slander for once.

(h/t MostlyKosher)

Friday Links (Ian, plus)

Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe

Amnesty International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to displace these values with their own.

A BCF Update on the Canadian Mosque that teaches hate

The real Palestinian refugee problem - Clifford D. May

Al-Qaeda Ladies' Choir Struts Its Stuff in Rebel Syria

Syrian protesters: "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin"

Jihad comes to Egypt – Raymond Ibrahim.

Also, see Challah Hu Akbar on reports that Hamas has a force to stop rocket fire, and Hamas' denial.

Palestinian Arabs are buying mobile homes and setting them up as illegal outposts in Judea and Samaria in Area C, banking on Israel not doing anything about it.

Toameh goes into detail on the hypocrisy of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate outlawinmembers who talk to Israeli journalists.

The Nation has an absurd article implying that Israel targets Palestinian Arab soccer players, teams and stadiums. I don't have time to properly fisk it all, but one of the "soccer players" that the author says Israel targeted was this guy, a member of the Al Qassam Brigades. But he might have also played, so that makes him a soccer martyr. (h/t @YehudaSchlussel)

Latest Latma

I like this one.

Junk science claims birth defects in Gaza from white phosphorus

There is a new study out that claims a high correlation between birth defects in Gaza and exposure to white phosphorus:

According to a new scientific study there is "a strong correlation of birth defects newborns and parent's exposure to attacks with white phosphorus": at the registation at birth 27% of parents with birth defect children declared exposure to white phosphorus while only 1.7% of parents with normal children made the same declaration.

The report entitled "Birth Defects in Gaza: Prevalence, Types, Familiarity and Correlation with Environmental Factors", published today by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, was carried out by a team of Palestinian and Italian researchers at the Al Shifa hospital, where 28% of total births in Gaza Strip occur.

And if you read the study itself, it is filled with all kinds of statistics and verbiage that makes it sounds really, really scientific.

But there is a huge flaw in the methodology that invalidates the entire study: it relies almost completely on a survey of the parents to determine whether they were exposed, or think they were exposed, to WP.

Since the parents were surely aware if their kids were born with defects, they naturally would want to blame external factors for their situation.

While the authors - most of whom are Palestinian Arab - said that they verified exposure to WP by using UN maps of the area, they only verified it for the parents who reported exposure, not for all the parents. And nowhere do they describe their methodology of determining how "close" the parents were to the alleged WP locations - within ten meters or within the same square kilometer? It is basic science that if you don't determine these parameters before you do the research, then you are painting the bulls-eye after shooting the arrow. In other words, it is possible that they fudged the statistics (consciously or not) to make it appear that the parents of BD children had more exposure to WP sites than parents of healthy babies.

Which was, coincidentally, the exact finding they were looking for when they embarked on this entire project.

There are also some likely statistical issues. Out of a study of 2,933 total births, 44 were found to have birth defects; out of those, only 12 were reported to have been exposed to WP. The entire study is based on these 12. Combined with the bias in the questionnaire, this makes the study pretty meaningless.

(While the authors admit that 40% of the parents who had children with BD were first cousins, they said that this was the rate among all parents in Gaza.)

Also, the births in the study were for children conceived over a year after the Gaza war, not for patients who were pregnant during the war. So not only are they trying to say that WP causes birth defects, but that it continues to do so after weeks or months of exposure of the sites to the weather.

According to Medline, white phosphorus is not known to cause birth defects - and evidence that it causes birth defects over a year after parents' exposure is even more suspect.

It seems clear that this study was created and performed to come to a pre-determined conclusion. It is not science; it is anti-Israel advocacy pretending to be science.

For other anti-Israel junk science stories see here, here, here, and here.

2012 terror attacks you never heard about

From the IDF Blog:

Very little of what actually goes on in Israel is reported by mainstream media. A lot of incidents are never published–though they’re very significant. Here’s a brief recap of the incidents which were just short of the next big terror attack, but which you probably never heard of:

January 2: IDF force captured 2 Palestinian men carrying illegal guns. The two were taken in for investigation near Nablus while the M-16 rifle, an Uzi, and matching ammunition they carried were confiscated by security forces.

January 15: IDF force uncovered a hunting rifle and a shotgun in a Palestinian’s house in the village of Dahariya, near Hebron. The man was known to the police on previous charges of criminal violence.

February 21: A powerful explosive device was uncovered along the Israel-Egypt border. Israeli forces saw a man hurling a suspicious bag and immediately fleeing the scene. The explosive was detonated in a controlled manner. No one was hurt.

April 11: IDF forces stopped a would-be bomber over Passover at a checkpoint east of Nablus, northern Samaria. The terrorist was carrying improvised explosive devices, three knives and 50 bullets.

April 21: 2 Palestinian teens carrying bombs and guns were nabbed by Israeli forces. They were apprehended near Tapuach junction with 5 pipe bombs, a gun, and ammo.

April 24: IDF forces uncovered 4 improvised bombs on two Palestinians at a crossing north of Jericho. The bombs were found in the men’s bags and detonated safely.

April 28: IDF forces nabbed 2 terrorists with 4 pipe bombs as they were trying to smuggle explosives through a checkpoint in northern Samaria.

May 7: Israeli forces arrested 17-year-old Palestinian for carrying 3 pipe bombs. The teen was detained near Tapuach junction, a known hotspot for terror attacks.

May 10: Israeli forces arrested 2 Palestinians carrying 2 explosive devices and 3 prepped firebombs near Tapuach Junction, again.

I would add that there are countless incidents of Molotov cocktails and large rocks being hurled at cars and buses, which could have fatal results. Those are barely reported by even the right-wing Israeli press because there are so many of them. (Here's a firebomb attack from just today.)

(h/t Mike)

Palestinian Arabs prefer to buy Blue and White!

Al Watan Voice reports (excerpted and slightly paraphrased):

Imad is a manufacturer of soap and detergents in Bethlehem. His products used to be labeled in Hebrew but in a fit of patriotism he replaced all the labels with Arabic-only labels.

And his sales plummeted.

Imad says: "I get frustrated when a customer comes to me, asking: 'Where's the Israeli soap?' All this time they are thinking the producers and manufacturers of these products they consume in their homes are Israelil this is really frustrating."

Imad says his products are much less expensive than their Israeli counterparts.

"I am surprised of the Palestinian consumer, who deals with the products only by their source, and is ready to buy expensive Israeli products but does not even consider our own national product that is sold at reasonable prices."

Some Palestinians prefer Israeli products, thinking they are the best. People say there are clear distinctions between the Israeli and Palestinian products in terms of quality. Many say that they buy Israeli because Israeli factories are subject to strict quality control by the government, so they trust them more than the Palestinian products.

Economic analyst Khalil Assali says that despite the growing awareness among the Palestinian public of the importance of relying on domestic products during the past few years, some prefer Israeli products mostly because consumers have gotten used to the idea that the Palestinian goods are not as high quality. They also are skeptical of the lower-priced Arab goods, thinking they must be inferior.

The economic ministry has over the past years launched several campaigns to boycott Israeli products and to choose local goods instead.

The estimated proportion of Israeli goods in the Palestinian market, according to the latest survey of the Ministry of the Economy, is about eighty per cent compared to eight to ten percent for local products in Palestinian markets.

Once again we see the huge disconnect between how the Israel-haters claim that Palestinian Arabs support boycotting Israeli goods - and how actual, real Palestinian Arabs act in the exact opposite way.

And it is not because they are forced to, as some anti-Zionist idiots like to pretend. They want to buy Israeli, and it is the BDSers and their Israel-hating supporters who are acting against their wishes - and interests.

Hamas breaks up a literature festival

From PCHR:

[A]t approximately 17:00 on Wednesday, 09 May 2012, the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature was initiated in the ancient al-Bashal Castle in the east of Gaza City, with a number of Arab poets and writers in attendance. The colloquium was opened with a speech by ‘Amru ‘Izzat, an Egyptian blogger, who talked about liberty. Following the opening of the colloquium, a security officer wearing civilian clothes arrived at the place and introduced himself as a member of the Palestinian police investigation department. He cut off the electricity and requested the attendees to leave the place. Shortly after this occurred, a number of security officers were deployed to the place when attendees refused to leave. They confiscated cameras that had filmed the colloquium, chaos spread and the colloquium was broken up.

Ma'an adds:

Security forces cut off electricity and forbade the audience from taking photos on their mobiles [the PJS] said. They also "attacked" Hazem Shahin, a member of an Egyptian band, the syndicate said.

It was not immediately possible to contact visiting members of the festival because they were afraid to discuss the incident until their departure. The event will conclude in Cairo.

The Hamas chief of police apologized saying it was an "individual error." But the fear that even the foreign participants have to speak about what happened says volumes about how the Gaza leadership is pretty much the same as any other Arab dictatorship.

In related news, Hamas also forcibly stopped an Al Quds TV crew from filming a story a couple of days ago.